News

Glee Star to Visit W-L TodayGlee star Lauren Potter and Best Buddies founder Anthony Shriver will be visiting Washington-Lee High School’s Best Buddies chapter at 3:00 p.m. today (Friday). “The Washington-Lee chapter of Best Buddies was ranked number one among DC-MD-VA chapters based on the quality of friendships, student leadership and dedication to the Best Buddies mission,” according to Arlington Public Schools. Potter, who has Down syndrome, is best known for her role as Becky Jackson on the hit Fox TV series.

Chef Beats Out ‘Chief’ in Culinary Competition — Eventide Chef Adam Barnett emerged as the big winner in the Arlington Food Assistance Center’s “Chiefs vs. Chefs” cooking competition between professional restaurant chefs and amateur firehouse cooks. AFAC hopes to turn the fundraiser into an annual event. [Sun Gazette]


News

A woman had her purse forcefully stolen from her while walking home from the Ballston Metro station around 10:00 Tuesday night. From this week’s Arlington County crime report:

ROBBERY, 10/16/12, 1100 block of N. Utah Street. On October 16 at 9:56 pm, a female victim was walking home from the Ballston Metro station when she was attacked by a male subject and had her purse stolen. The victim chased the man briefly on foot until she lost sight of him behind a row of townhouses. The suspect is described as a black or Hispanic male, approximately 5’8″ tall and very heavy set, with a bald head. He was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt, grey sweatpants and white sneakers at the time of the incident.


News

Career Fair Coming Next Week — Registration is now open for the second annual Arlington Employment Center Fall Career Fair. The career fair will allow job hunters to “meet with over 50 area top employers with jobs in IT, administration, education, construction, banking, retail, healthcare, transportation and more.” It will be held on Tuesday, Oct. 23, from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at George Mason University’s Founders Hall (3351 Fairfax Drive). Registration is free. [Arlington County]

Liberty Tavern Makes Fall Dining Guide — Clarendon’s Liberty Tavern is the sole Arlington entrant on food critic Tom Sietsema’s 2012 Fall Dining Guide. The guide lists 40 of Sietsema’s favorite restaurants around the region. [Washington Post]


Traffic

Starting this week, the police department has assigned extra traffic patrols to the area during the morning rush hour, when gridlock gets especially bad on Lynn Street. (Although traffic is often heavy during the evening rush hour, as well.)

The officers will remind drivers that it’s illegal to block the box — to enter into an intersection during a green light when there is no room to clear the intersection. For now, the officers will not be issuing citations, according to ACPD spokesman Dustin Sternbeck, who called morning congestion on Lynn Street a “disaster.”


News

A small fire broke out underneath an escalator at the Ballston Metro station this afternoon as a result of welding work.

“An escalator contractor was welding at the time on the unit, and that a spark from the welding work was the likely cause” of the fire, WMATA spokesman Dan Stessel told ARLnow.com. There were no injuries, smoke has been fully ventilated from the station, and “all protective systems worked as intended,” Stessel said.


Traffic

A private ambulance and another vehicle collided this afternoon in the Waycroft-Woodlawn neighborhood, near Ballston.

The accident happened at the intersection of Washington Blvd and N. Buchanan Street, approximately five blocks from Virginia Hospital Center. No word on the cause of the crash nor on whether there were any injuries.


Around Town

Pepe, a new-for-2012 food truck that has been making the rounds in D.C. for the past six months and Montgomery County for the past week, made its Virginia debut in Crystal City today outside Jaleo restaurant on Crystal Drive.

The truck, from Jaleo proprietor José Andrés, primarily serves flautas, a type of elongated sandwich that Andrés remembered fondly from growing up in Spain, where flautas are a popular street food.


News

The base will be participating in the Great SouthEast ShakeOut, a regional earthquake drill that’s to take place at 10:18 a.m. In addition to asking those on the base to “drop, cover and hold on,” JBM-HH will be testing its “Big Voice” public address system, which may be heard outside the base.

From a press release:


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