Now that this year’s film festival is in the books, the Crystal City Business Improvement District has announced next summer’s theme.
“Crystal Screen: By The Numbers” will kick off on June 6, 2011. It will feature a diverse selection of movies with numbers in the title, like Apollo 13 and Oceans 11. The new theme was voted on by audiences at this year’s movies.
A fast-moving fire engulfed a home on the 2100 block of North Edison Street, near the Langston-Brown Community Center, early this morning. Initial reports suggest the home was abandoned, utilities were turned off, and nobody was inside at the time.
The blaze started on the porch around 3:30 a.m. and spread to the second floor. It took firefighters nearly an hour to extinguish the flames.
Hit-and-Run Bus Driver Facing Discipline — The Metrobus driver accused of rear-ending a car in Ballston and then driving off “will be disciplined,” a WMATA spokesperson tells TBD. Metro says the accident was “preventable” but is refusing to release the results of drug and alcohol tests performed on the driver after the accident.
Local Technology Firm Sold — Arlington-based ICx Technologies has agreed to be purchased by Oregon-based Flir Systems for $274 million. ICx manufactures high-tech sensors that can detect radiation, chemicals, explosives, and biological agents. Some of ICx’s largest clients include the U.S. military and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. More from the Oregonian.
Dancing in the street sounds like a fun, whimsical way to work off some extra energy on a beautiful, non-stormy summer evening. But it can also be a traffic hazard! Just ask the citizen who alerted police to the two juvenile males breakdancing in the middle of the 1900 block of North George Mason Drive, near Virginia Hospital Center.
Martha and the Vandellas would approve of letting loose in the public right-of-way, but Johnny Law dutifully responded to the area to tell the b-boy punks to move on.
Update at 6:45 p.m. — For once this summer, the initial storm prediction did not pan out. There’s still a chance that storms will develop later, but that’s looking increasingly unlikely.
The National Weather Service has issued a severe thunderstorm watch for Arlington and the greater Washington area.
A review of health violations by the Washington Examiner revealed that every food court vendor in each mall has been cited for one or more “critical health violations.”
Signs of roach or rodent infestation were found in sixteen food court vendors, the Examiner reports. Subway and Texas BBQ Factory get the dubious distinction of being cited for infestation in both Ballston and Pentagon City.
AHC Inc. (formerly Arlington Housing Corporation) has been running its teen tutoring program for more than 15 years. Tutors act as a teacher, mentor and role model for ask-risk middle school and high school students who live in AHC communities. They work one-on-one with the teens, devoting at least an hour and a half per week.
The program has been a great success so far. Last year, all of the program’s seniors graduated high school and 80 percent went on to college. Many of the students who went to college were the first in their family to do, according to AHC spokesperson Celia Slater.
Patrick will take the stage with three friends: comedians Lafayette Wright, Mike Eltringham and Courtney Fearrington.
Eric promises to have some fun at the expense of his fellow Real World cast members. Even occasional viewers of the MTV show can attest that Jemmye, Knight and Ryan seem like ripe subjects for comedy.
Fairlington’s Timeless Qualities — The Washington Post profiles Fairlington, which was recently battered by severe thunderstorms (though mention of the storms is conspicuously absent from the article). If it weren’t for the modern cars parked around the neighborhood, the Post says, one could easily mistake Fairlington for a scene out of the 1950s.
Boutiques to Check Out — Support local business and discover new places to shop. Connection Newspapers has a list of a number of great local boutiques around Arlington.
You might have noticed them around town: brick sidewalks torn up by utility work or some other sort of construction project. You’ll see a small pile of bricks (or “pavers”) by a street lamp and patches of asphalt where the bricks were removed.
We were recently asked whose repsonsibility it is to put the bricks back by a reader who was unhappy with the fact that the brick sidewalk in front of the Hyde Park Harris Teeter had been torn up more more than a month (it has since been fixed).
ACE is calling it their “Solar Raisers Program” — a take-off on Amish barn raisings. They’ve started recruiting members to volunteer on weekends for the day-long installations. They’re also looking for homeowners who are interested in the solar systems.
Homeowners who participate in the program will save $3,500 in labor costs, ACE says. They will still have to purchase the water heating system itself — which should cost about $2,300 after tax rebates. And they will have to provide food and drink to the volunteers.
At a community chat hosted by the African American Leadership Council of Arlington Wednesday night, Arlington Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Pat Murphy was asked about the changing demographics of the school population.
According to Dr. Murphy, school administrators have observed the following trends:
