Author: Dan Egitto

Dan Egitto is an editor and reporter at ARLnow. Originally from Central Florida, he graduated from Duke University and previously reported at the Palatka Daily News in Florida and the Vallejo Times-Herald in California. Dan joined ARLnow in January 2024.

News

Woman rescued from early-morning house fire in Alcova Heights

By Dan Egitto
A house fire on the 3700 block of 8th Street S. (courtesy of Pat Kehs)

Firefighters rescued a woman from a second-floor window while responding to a house fire in Alcova Heights early this morning (Tuesday).

The Arlington County Fire Department responded to the blaze on the 3700 block of 8th Street S. around 5:45 a.m. First responders described a fire in the attic and smoke coming from the roof.

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News

Beyer and DHS trade blows after congressman visits immigration detention center

By Dan Egitto
Protesters call for the release of an ICE detainee in May (staff photo by Dan Egitto)

Arlington’s congressman is quarreling with the Department of Homeland Security following a visit to one of Virginia’s immigration detention centers.

The federal department publicly criticized U.S. Rep. Don Beyer (D) in a press release after he visited Farmville Detention Center on Friday. It accused him of prioritizing detainees with criminal convictions over crime victims.

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News

Record demand for food and shaky economy leave $891K budget gap at AFAC

By Dan Egitto
Volunteers place food in crates for distribution at the Arlington Food Assistance Center (Staff Photo by Jay Westcott)

Record demand has left Arlington’s largest food pantry with an $891,000 hole in its budget this fiscal year — and it may only get worse.

Almost one out of every 10 Arlington residents, 23,190 people, had an active referral to the Arlington Food Assistance Center (AFAC) in fiscal year 2025.

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News

Columbia Pike water main break causes fish kill in Four Mile Run

By Dan Egitto
Dead fish in Four Mile Run, just upstream from S. George Mason Drive (courtesy of Arlington County)

A water main break on Columbia Pike resulted in a mass fish kill in Four Mile Run this weekend.

The infrastructure failure took place on Saturday at Columbia Pike and S. Dinwiddie Street, county spokesperson Peter Golkin told ARLnow.

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News

New food disposal bins installed at Metro stations and in Pentagon City

By Dan Egitto
A food scraps bin in Rosslyn (staff photo by Dan Egitto)

Ten new food disposal bins have been installed around Arlington, further expanding composting options for people in apartments and condos.

The new bins were installed last week in Pentagon City and Colonial Village, on Columbia Pike and at the Court House and Clarendon Metro stations. They bring county’s total number of collection machines up to 24.

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Schools

New home for Arlington Career Center targets opening in 2026-27 school year

By Dan Egitto
Mid-2025 construction at the forthcoming Grace Hopper Center, located next to the current Arlington Career Center (staff photo by Dan Egitto)

Construction is continuing at full tilt at Arlington Career Center’s new home, with a planned opening date at the start of the 2026-27 school year.

The forthcoming Grace Hopper Center, located adjacent to the existing Career Center building at 816 S. Walter Reed Drive, has been rapidly taking shape since the project broke ground in May 2024.

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News

Residents complain of late trash pickups after Arlington hires new contractor

By Dan Egitto
Trash awaits pickup on an Arlington curb following a change in solid waste contractors (courtesy anonymous)

Complaints of incomplete and missed trash collections have hounded Arlington’s new solid waste contractor in its first few days of service.

Bates Trucking and Trash Removal, which replaces longtime county contractor American Disposal Services, began collecting trash, recycling and organics from Arlington single-family homes this month.

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News

Justice Department no longer calls Arlington a ‘sanctuary jurisdiction’

By Dan Egitto and The Associated Press
Anti-ICE protesters outside of county government headquarters in 2022 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

The Department of Justice has a new list of “sanctuary jurisdictions” that it accuses of impeding federal immigration enforcement — and Arlington isn’t on it.

The Justice Department previously included Arlington on a much longer list of “sanctuary jurisdictions,” which included 19 Virginia counties and 13 cities in the commonwealth and hundreds of others nationwide.

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News

Mounting costs of ‘stop fascism’ graffiti drive police to seek public’s help

By Dan Egitto
Graffiti on Arlington signs (courtesy anonymous)

The Arlington County Police Department is asking for the public’s help in investigating dozens of traffic signs vandalized with anti-fascist graffiti.

The wave of vandalism incidents, many of which involve the word “fascism” written under the word “stop,” has been going on for months — at a significant cost to taxpayers, according to local officials.

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News

Palestine activists target North Arlington home with protests and graffiti

By Dan Egitto
Pro-Palestinian protest targeting a North Arlington home (courtesy of Palestine Youth Movement DMV)

Activists bearing Palestinian flags, pots and pans and flyers calling a resident a “war criminal” descended on a North Arlington home last week.

The Friday protest was the second time in recent days that activists have targeted the Williamsburg residence of Loik Henderson, a member of the board of directors at the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF).

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News

AIM’s website and radio station go dark, though leaders aren’t sure why

By Dan Egitto
WERA control room in 2015 (Courtesy of Paul LeValley/AIM)

Arlington Independent Media’s website and flagship radio station are down, but the bedraggled nonprofit’s leadership has few answers about what happened.

Multiple tipsters informed ARLnow that WERA, AIM’s low-power FM radio station, stopped broadcasting its lo-fi beats earlier this month. Additionally, AIM’s website now directs to a page reading “bandwidth limit exceeded.”

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News

LGBTQ+ advocates urge APS to defy federal challenges to transgender policies

By Dan Egitto
LBGTQ+ advocates at an Arlington County Board meeting on Jan. 27, 2025 (courtesy of Kellen MacBeth)

Two LGBTQ+ advocacy groups are calling for Arlington Public Schools to defy federal attempts to dismantle the school system’s anti-discrimination policy for transgender students.

Both Equality Arlington and the Arlington Gender Identity Alliance (AGIA) issued statements this week on the results of a U.S. Department of Education investigation into five Northern Virginia school districts.

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