James Sylvester Caroline Charged With Murder
The suspect in the death of Columbia Pike jewelry store owner Tommy Wong has been formally charged with murder.
Washington D.C. resident James Sylvester Caroline, 53, is being held without bond at the Arlington County jail on the murder charge and on a separate probation violation charge. He was arrested on the Arlington/Alexandria line during a traffic stop on Wednesday afternoon. Police say the arrest was the result of dogged police work and inter-agency cooperation.
“Through round the clock police work, this individual was located and taken into custody in a timely manner,” said Arlington County Police spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, who was unable to reveal any other details about the crime or the investigation.
Wong was killed during an armed robbery at his store — Capital Jewelers at 3219 Columbia Pike — on the afternoon of Friday, July 27. At a candlelight vigil on Wednesday, friends and family members described Wong as a kind and gentle man who worked hard to serve customers and provide for his family.
Weezer Concert Won’t Be Taking Place at Mall, After All
It turns out we were wrong to assume that a Weezer concert that was said to be taking place “near The Fashion Centre at Pentagon City Microsoft Store” next weekend, in honor of the store’s grand opening, will be taking place at the mall. Or in Virginia, for that matter.
A PR rep emailed us today to let us know the concert — scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 11 — is actually taking place at the Warner Theater in D.C. The original media advisory (which omitted the Warner Theater detail) said the concert will be taking place at 2:00 p.m., though the band’s website says it’s scheduled from 12:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Weezer fans can get tickets to the event by visiting the Microsoft Store’s Pentagon City mall grand opening on Thursday, Aug. 9. Starting at 10:00 a.m., the store will distribute free wristbands for admission to the event, in pairs of two, according to the Microsoft Store website. The first 200 people in line will also reportedly get a wristband for a meet and greet with the band.
A few lucky people who get in line early on the 9th will also have the chance to play Microsoft Kinect with Washington Wizards star John Wall later that day.
ARLnow.com apologies for the error in our previous article.
Photo by “James” via Wikipedia
Rosslyn ‘Coyote’ Likely Not A Coyote At All
(Updated at 4:05 p.m.) Area wildlife experts are warning area homeowners to keep their pets inside at night after a couple of recent coyote attacks — including an attack at Daniels Run Park in the City of Fairfax on Monday.
Arlington is no stranger to the predatory canines, which have easily adapted to surburban and urban environments across the country. After years of reports of sightings, county naturalists in April confirmed their existence with video from Potomac Overlook Regional Park.
But naturalists are discounting the threat from a coyote-like animal that some residents have caught on camera around the Rosslyn area.
Last week reader Katherine Doty emailed us with a photo of the canine (above), which shows it with a bird in its mouth near the Iwo Jima memorial. Another reader sent in the photos below of what appear to be the same animal around 9:00 a.m. today (Friday) on Route 50 near Rosslyn.
“Some other pedestrians and I think it was a coyote,” the tipster wrote.
The animal, however, is very likely a dog (or a fox) and not a coyote, according to county naturalist Christina Yacobi.
“That is not a coyote,” Yacobi said last week after taking a look at Doty’s photo. “That’s a really long tail for a coyote and coyotes have tails that are really bushy. They looked like they are dipped in ink. And they don’t have that long, pointy snout and those big, giant ears.”
Yacobi said it reminded her of a dog resembling an Ibizan hound or Pharaoh hound that went missing four years ago from a family traveling at Dulles Airport. Yacobi volunteered in the search effort.
Naturalists also say that spotting a coyote out in a populated area in the middle of the day is quite unlikely.
“Coyotes are very good at avoiding people, so residents shouldn’t be overly concerned,” Long Branch Nature Center naturalist Cliff Fairweather said in April. “The key is for residents not to feed them or encourage them not to be afraid of people. The longer they are afraid of people, the better it will be for coyotes and people.”
For a comparison, another shot from this morning near Route 50 and a file photo of a coyote (via Wikipedia) can be found below.
Video: Library Receives Sustainability Award
Earlier this summer the Urban Libraries Council honored Arlington Public Library as its 2012 Top Innovator for Sustainability.
The council singled out the library’s “Bikes, Buildings and Broccoli” approach to transportation, energy and food sustainability as one of the factors that helped it win the award. Urban Libraries Council CEO Susan Benton spoke about the award at the July 24 County Board meeting, as seen in the video below from the county’s Arlington TV channel.
Your Beermonger: Celebrating IPA Day
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Nick Anderson, beermonger at Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway)
By the time you read this, the second annual IPA Day will have already come and gone. Started last year, the idea of IPA Day is that every August 2nd, craft beer lovers everywhere get together and celebrate the humble hop flower and all the joy it brings us through its use in the venerable India Pale Ale style. Since this column runs the day after IPA Day and because it’s a relatively new event, I’m going to go ahead and say take the weekend to enjoy your favorite hophead treats. If you need a few suggestions, I’ve got some right here:
Bell’s Two Hearted Ale: Besides being one of the most popular craft beers around, Two Hearted is a finely balanced IPA that even appeals to those who think they don’t like ‘really hoppy’ beers. Bell’s fruity yeast strain plays exceptionally well with highly-hopped Ales, and helps give Two Hearted a combination of hop character and balance that isn’t seen as often as I’d like.
Dogfish Head 60, 90, 120 Minute: Pick one, pick them all—just make sure someone’s around to take care of you, ‘cause you’re going to need some help if you’re throwing back some of these bruisers. I’ve always been a 90 Minute fan myself, but I do occasionally enjoy a well-aged 120 (at 15-20% ABV, it takes a few years for the sugars in 120 to mellow out). All three have distinct characteristics and their own fan bases: 60 in some ways is the most assertive of the bunch, with 90 having a heavy malt element and 120 being so sweet in its youth due to its high alcohol level. These are the beers that put Dogfish Head on the map nationally, and they hold up all these years later.
Heavy Seas Loose Cannon: Straight out of Baltimore, Loose Cannon is one of the most versatile beers on the market. It also happens to be a heavily-hopped take on IPA. There’s an element of crispness to Loose Cannon that at once accentuates and gives focus to the hops used, and the careful consideration taken in making it pays off with a hoppy Ale that can sit with you at nearly any dinner table.
Uinta Hop Notch: Hop Notch has had a big year in our area. Where only a few months ago I’d see but a case or two at a time, now I’m regularly displaying case-stacks at Arrowine and selling through them quickly. Hop Notch plays on the citrusier, grapefruity aspects of the hop which serves to make it feel less strong than its 7.5% would have you think. Compared to, say, Two Hearted Ale, Hop Notch has less of a malty streak, which dials down the earthiness and punches up the ‘juicy’ notes. This is a very cool beer that many are just discovering.
Bronx Pizza, A-Town Bar & Grill to Open Next Week
Update at 2:25 p.m. on 8/17/12 — Bronx Pizza is now expected to open on Wednesday, Aug. 22.
Local restaurateur Mike Cordero is planning a culinary one-two punch next week, with official openings scheduled for two Arlington restaurants in successive days.
First up is A-Town Bar & Grill, the renovated successor to Caribbean Breeze in Ballston (4100 Fairfax Drive). Cordero says the restaurant will likely start serving customers this coming Wednesday as part of a quiet “soft opening,” but will hold its official opening on Friday, Aug. 10.
A-Town will feature an expanded beer list; an “eclectic” menu including sushi, sandwich creations, flatbread pizzas and steaks; a redone outdoor patio; a birchwood bar; historic photos of Arlington on the walls; and lots of flat screen TVs.
Cordero says former Caribbean Breeze patrons “are not going to recognize the restaurant” when they walk in. He acknowledged that he’s taking a risk by replacing the successful Caribbean Breeze, but insists “the odds are in our favor to succeed here and increase our sales.”
“One of the reasons we switched from Caribbean Breeze to A-Town is that Caribbean Breeze was more of a specialty operation,” he told ARLnow.com. “I figured we could support the locals and cater to Arlington, not just to Miami… It will be a place you could eat at every day.”
Bronx Pizza (3100 Clarendon Blvd), which has been “coming soon” to Clarendon since February 2011, will open the doors to its first customers on Saturday, Aug. 11, according to Cordero.
Cordero, who grew up in the South Bronx and started working in a mom-and-pop pizza place at the age of 13, says the opening will feature something unique to Arlington: actual Bronx pizza makers.
“Old friends of mine who have been in the pizzeria business for 20 years, they’re going to come down and help [with the opening],” he said. “The reason we call it Bronx Pizza is I am from the Bronx, two blocks from Yankee stadium.”
In addition to bona fide Bronx natives, the shop will feature plenty of other touches from the northernmost New York City borough, including photos of the Mickey Mantle, Babe Ruth, Michael Corleone (from the filming of The Godfather), and the George Washington Bridge.
Cordero is expecting late night food to be a big component of the shop’s business.
“It will be a big bang,” he said of the planned Saturday opening, “considering all those bars and clubs are going to get out at 2:00 a.m. and we’ll be open until 4:00 a.m.”
Interior construction on both restaurants is expected to wrap up by Monday.
Flickr pool photo (top) by Maryva2
Kaine Tours GridPoint in Clarendon
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate and former Virginia governor Tim Kaine spoke about his economic development record during a Thursday afternoon campaign stop at Clarendon-based clean energy company GridPoint, Inc.
The company sells efficiency-monitoring software to electrical utilities, government agencies and private corporations. According to CEO John Spirtos, it employs about 100 people between its corporate headquarters (2801 Clarendon Boulevard) and its manufacturing facility in Roanoke.
In a statement, Kaine touted GridPoint as an industry leader in energy efficiency solutions.
“GridPoint’s innovative energy management systems are saving companies up to a fifth of their total energy costs per month,” Kaine said. “These are dollars that can be invested back into the business to expand and hire new workers. Their advancements in energy efficiency and conservation technology are absolutely essential to ensuring our businesses can compete in an increasingly competitive global economy.”
Kaine also touted his own record of helping to bring GridPoint to Arlington. In 2007, Kaine approved a $500,000-incentive package from the Governor’s Opportunity Fund to entice GridPoint to move its headquarters to Arlington from Washington, D.C.
“My economic development team played a big part in bringing GridPoint’s headquarters here. We considered it a big victory because of the kind of business that it has and the kind of talent that it has,” Kaine told a roomful of GridPoint employees on Thursday. “Where we really have thrived is we just try to bring the best talent here. If you win the talent race, you win the economic race.”
Kaine toured part of the company’s 30,000-square-foot space at the corner of Clarendon Boulevard and N. Edgewood Street with Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Spirtos to highlight his “Strengthening Our Economy Through Energy Innovation” plan.
“Oregon and Virginia are really kind of innovation economies and we know that today we aren’t just competing
against people sort of 20 miles down the road, or in my case, California or Seattle. But we are competing against the Chinese. We are competing against the Indians,” Wyden said. “The governor is proven in terms of some of the energy investments he’s been able to invest in and make.”
Professional and technical services accounted for a fifth of Arlington County’s jobs, according to the county’s annual profile. Spirtos said that local base of highly-trained workers is one reason why GridPoint fits among Clarendon’s high-end retail shops and restaurants.
“D.C. is a great place to be but it’s a tough place to get [computer] developers to go to work. We needed access to the talent. There’s a lot of folks who won’t cross the river to go into D.C. There’s a lot of folks who won’t cross the river to go into Maryland,” Spirtos said. “And in this location, we have the Apple Store and the Whole Foods and the whole thing and that’s great. This is a great neighborhood. It’s an ideal neighborhood.”
It was revealed this week that Gridpoint has received another $23 million in venture capital funding, bringing its total funding to $263 million, according to GigaOm. In addition to its Virginia locations, Gridpoint has offices in Austin, Texas; Ottawa, Ontario; and Seattle, Washington.
Morning Notes
Bluemont McDonald’s Demolition — Crews have been working to tear down the McDonald’s restaurant at 5009 Wilson Blvd in the Bluemont area. (See photo, above.) The building will be replaced with a new, more modern McDonald’s restaurant.
McGhee Gets GOP Nod for Special Election — Tim McGhee is the Republican nominee in the special election for the 45th District House of Delegates seat, which is being vacated by Del. David Englin. McGhee, who lost to Adam Ebbin in a state Senate race last year, will face either Democrat Karen Gautney or Rob Krupicka, depending on the outcome of a party caucus that got underway last night. [Patch, Sun Gazette]
Courtesy photo
