On Saturday morning more than 100,000 wreaths will arrive at Arlington National Cemetery. The wreaths will each be placed next to grave markers at the cemetery by teams of volunteers, and will remain there through the end of January.
It’s the biggest holiday wreath-laying yet, with more than three times more wreaths than last year. The wreaths are all funded by donations and shipped via tractor trailer from the Worcester Wreath Company in eastern Maine.
(Updated at 2:35 p.m.) A bank robbery has been reported in Rosslyn.
Initial reports suggest a man robbed the Presidential Bank branch at 1700 N. Moore Street, near the Rosslyn Metro station. No weapons were displayed or implied during the robbery, according to police radio traffic.
Editor’s Note: This sponsored column is written by Doug Rosen, owner of long-time Arlington wine store Arrowine (4508 Lee Highway).
Okay, there’s no way around it; it takes years of training and experience to taste wine like a pro. However, there are a few things you can learn to be better equipped to analyze and enjoy the wine in your glass.
There’s going to be plenty of Christmas cheer to go around in Arlington this weekend. A sleigh-ful of holiday events are planned around the county. Among them:
(Updated at 9:35 a.m.) During a panel discussion on Wednesday, some local employers expressed concern that Arlington County’s economy might be negatively impacted by the continued rise in rents and housing prices.
“Panelists described a scenario that could leave Arlington with housing options only for those at the top end of the economic spectrum, and those lucky enough to win access to subsidized rental units,” the Sun Gazette reported. That scenario, some say, could make it harder for Arlington employers to fill working class jobs.
Vote Set for Sign Changes — The Arlington County Board is scheduled to vote Saturday on a set of significant changes to the county sign ordinance.
Conte’s Now Freshbikes — Last month the Conte’s bike store in Ballston (3924 Wilson Blvd) quietly changed its name — and outdoor signage — to “Freshbikes.” We’re told the store, along with a Bethesda location, split from the Virginia Beach-based Conte’s franchise in order to free itself of the requirements that come along with the franchise agreement.
We’re hearing that the light is expected to remain out of service overnight.
Police have reportedly set up cones in the intersection’s turn lanes in order to allow traffic to move more smoothly. As a reminder, any non-functioning traffic signal should be treated as a four-way stop.
Residents of the Woodbury Heights building (1301 N. Courthouse Road) have been distributing flyers (pictured), emailing officials and calling media outlets with a litany of concerns over the plan. Chief among them: worries about safety, property values and neighborhood “charm.”
“I work long hours, which often means I am in this area when it is dark,” said one female resident, in a letter to County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman. “I would feel considerably less safe with the shelter’s entrance so close to what is in essence the front door of my home.”
Given this afternoon’s breaking news about a shooting on the Blacksburg campus, our thoughts are with Virginia Tech and the local VT community. As of 1:50 p.m., news outlets were reporting that two people had been shot and killed, with scattered reports of more shots fired and a shooter who may still be at large on campus. Follow the real-time reporting of the Collegiate Times student newspaper or the reporting of local TV station WDBJ for more details.
Today’s shooting no doubt conjures up bad memories of the 2007 shooting spree that claimed 33 lives. Feel free to voice your thoughts in the comments.
Arlington maintained its prime Aaa investment rating from Moody’s, but the firm argued that the county’s close connection with the federal government makes the future of its finances a bit uncertain.
“Today’s actions are based on an expanded evaluation of the exposure each municipality has to the U.S. government, including economic sensitivity to federal spending reductions, dependence on federal transfers and exposure to capital markets disruptions,” Moody’s Managing Director Naomi Richman said in a press release. “Issuers with outlooks that remain negative are viewed as having greater exposure to potential cuts in federal employment and federal spending.”
Yorktown resident Kathleen Summers is one of 10 winners of the 2011 National Punctuation Day paragraph contest. In case you missed it, Sept. 24th marked the annual celebration of National Punctuation Day — a day that has promoted the correct usage of punctuation since its founding in 2004.
For the traditional Punctuation Day contest, punctuation fans around the world were invited to: “Write one paragraph, maximum of three sentences, using these 13 punctuation marks: apostrophe, brackets, colon, comma, dash, ellipsis, exclamation point, hyphen, parentheses, period, question mark, quotation mark, and semicolon. You may use a punctuation mark more than once. Multiple entries are permitted.”
In this week’s Arlington County crime report, a 70-year-old man, identified as a registered sex offender from California, is accused of “peeping into bathroom stalls” in the Ballston area.
PEEPING TOM-ARREST, 12/02/11, 4200 block of Wilson Boulevard. On December 2 at 1 pm, a man was witnessed peeping into bathroom stalls. Clyde Medeiros, 70, of Napa, CA, was charged with Peeping and for Violation of a Registered Sex Offender. He was held without bond.
