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by ARLnow.com August 16, 2011 at 8:33 am 3,365 26 Comments

Police Searching For Serial Groper — Arlington Police are on the lookout for a man who has been assaulting women and girls by grabbing their breasts as they walk down the street. Among the victims are Eastern European women working as lifeguards and a 13-year-old girl. The attacks started in June. [WUSA9]

Virginia NOW Endorsements — The Virginia National Organization for Women PAC has endorsed four Arlington candidates for state office. Virginia NOW endorsed both Adam Ebbin and Libby Garvey in the three-way race for the 30th state Senate District (skipping over Rob Krupicka). The group also endorsed both Stephanie Clifford and Alfonso Lopez in the two-way race for the 49th House of Delegates District. [Virginia NOW]

Arlington Helps Battle Arlandria Fire — Arlington County firefighters helped Alexandria firefighters extinguish a two-alarm blaze at an apartment complex in the Arlandria section of Alexandria yesterday. The fire, across from St. Rita’s Catholic Church, forced the closure of Russell Road between Mt. Vernon Avenue and W. Glebe Road for much of the morning. [Patch]

Areizaga-Soto Funnels More Money into Campaign — State Senate candidate Jaime Areizaga-Soto has lent his campaign another $70,000, in addition to the $145,000 he already loaned to the campaign. [Sun Gazette]

Flickr pool photo by Chris Rief

BerryBerryCold

That story from WUSA9 is pretty useless. Where are these crimes happening?
Mr. Brown

SEXUAL BATTERY, 07/31/11, 1300 block of N. Utah Street. On July 31 at 9:50 pm, a 16 year-old female was walking when an unknown man approached her from behind. He hugged her from behind and touched her breasts. When she screamed, he ran from the area. The suspect is described as a 5’7” male wearing a t-shirt
SEXUAL BATTERY, 08/04/11, 1300 block of S. Highland Street. On August 4 at 4:20 pm, a 16 year-old female was walking when an unknown male passed her. He turned around to walk the other way and grabbed her breasts. The suspect is described as a white male in his late 30’s, 5’7” and 180s lbs. with black hair. He was wearing a black polo shirt, dark khaki shorts, white and gray sneakers and black reflective sunglasses.
SEXUAL BATTERY, 08/09/11, 4300 block of Columbia Pike. On August 9 at noon, an unknown subject grabbed a 19-year-old female lifeguard from behind. He grabbed her breasts and then fled. The suspect is described as a white male in his 20’s, 5’2” and 120s lbs. with black hair and an olive complexion.
- bob
  
  And can we get a story on the russian lifeguards?
charlie

so does NOW not take a position on the Senate 31st?
charlie

I have to question loaning a campaign $215,000 for a job that pays only $18,000/year.
Seriously. It sounds like a drunken late night poker game. If I just put more money in I know I’ll win the next hand.
- normal
  
  You probably think you should get paid to vote too.
  - charlie
    
    um no.
    but let’s talk about fiscal constraint. i don’t want my state senator spending like a drunken sailor.
    - normal
      
      It’s his money.
      - charlie
        
        true, but if elected it is YOUR money he gets to spend.
      - normal
        
        Yes, but most people understand the difference, and I’m sure he does too.
      - Aaron
        
        I hate to say this, but I understand charlie’s point. Isn’t the fact that a candidate is seemingly profligate with his own funds a valid point to raise with respect to his prospective handling of public funds. Newt Gingrich’s revolving line of credit at Tiffany’s would be an extreme example.
G Clifford Prout

Awe. Choo Choo
- E-Ross
  
  Bless you, you.
CW

Anybody got a quick link or explanation of the rules concerning how a candidate can “loan” himself/herself money? I’m not an election expert by any means. I know Hillary got herself in a pretty deep hole in ’08 doing this. What are the rules? Are those in VA more or less strict than for national campaigns? I realize Google could probably be my friend here, but there seem to be some experts on the topic around here.
- normal
  
  Basically, you can do whatever you want with your own money.
- charlie
  
  and there are no limits on what one person could give to a campaign. the only real restriction is you can’t give money when they legislature is actually “in session”.
  - CW
    
    Ok, thanks. Seems to fit pretty well with what we see people doing.
    - JamesE
      
      I donate 100% of my salary to myself and write it off.
      - Greg
        
        Jerry: How is it a write-off?
        Kramer: They just write it off.
        Jerry: Write it off what?
        Kramer: Jerry all these big companies they write off everything.
        Jerry: You don’t even know what a write-off is.
        Kramer: Do you?
        Jerry: No, I don’t.
        Kramer: But they do – and they are the ones writing it off.
      - Chouse
        
        +1
- Arlwhenever
  
  When a candidate loans money to a campaign he (or she) keeps open the possibility of raising money to pay off the loan, whereas if a candidate gives money to his PAC outright he can never recover the funds. With the relative large size of Areizaga-Soto’s loans the only way he’ll be able to raise enough money to pay himself back is if he beats Favola. Hillary Clinton wrote off $13.1 million of personal loans to her failed presidential campaign.
Arlwhenever

I think the more interesting loan here is the $25,000 from Mary Margaret Whipple to Favola. Earlier Whipple had outright contributed to the Favola campaign. Now Whipple is hedging her bets, knowing that Favola can use her pay-to-play leverage as an Arlington County Board member to raise money to pay Whipple back in the event Favola loses the primary. Whipple won’t be writing off the $25K.
- normal
  
  Or maybe she’s just not willing to give above a certain amount, regardless of whether she thinks Favola will win or not.
Kevin Beekman

Arlington County Fire Department are often the first responders to emergencies in Arlandria. This comes about from the mutual assistance pact among the jurisdictions. We’ve even seen the National Airport fire department and Fort Myers fire department at times.
Tabby

Any reason why Rob K was left off the NOW endorsements?

Have to say I’m still undecided. Had a nice visit from Adam Ebbin’s dad on Sunday.
Lacey Forest

Nothing about the 32nd District? I just got a new voter registration card in the mail and found I had been moved from 31 to 32.

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