(Updated at 12:30 p.m.) A road was closed in Crystal City this morning due to a suspicious package investigation.
Police blocked off 26th Street S. between Crystal Drive and S. Clark Street, and are also working to block Crystal Drive.
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Arlington County firefighters are on scene of a large, outdoor gas leak near Ballston.
A 2-inch gas line was ruptured on the 500 block of N. Pollard Street, ACFD says. Washington Gas is working to shut off the leaking gas line.
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(Updated at 1:55 p.m.) A man has died after a serious rollover crash in the Barcroft neighborhood last night.
The crash happened around 9 p.m. on the 4800 block of 8th Street S., a residential street that dead ends near the W&OD trail.
Deadline Set for Back to School Choice — “APS will provide two instructional delivery methods for families to choose from – hybrid in-person with physical distancing or full-time distance learning – when school resumes. Families will have until July 20 at 5 p.m. to select one of the two instructional delivery methods. If families do not select one of the two options by the deadline, their selection will automatically default to the hybrid instructional delivery model.” [Arlington Public Schools]
HS Athletes Understanding of Cancellations — “Senior track and field stars Isaiah Mefford of Wakefield High and Rebecca Stewart of Washington-Liberty could have won state crowns during the outdoor spring season. ‘It was disappointing for all of us, but people were getting sick. So something had to be done,’ Mefford said. Said Stewart: ‘With all that was happening with that virus, we couldn’t think about ourselves.'” [InsideNova]
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(Updated at 10:45 p.m.) Democrat Takis Karantonis will fill the late Erik Gutshall’s former Arlington County Board seat.
Karantonis, an economist and the former director of the Columbia Pike Revitalization Organization, captured 62.4% of the vote. He overperformed among absentee ballots, with 71% of the more than 10,000 absentee ballots cast amid the pandemic.
With everything else that’s going on, Arlingtonians won’t have to worry about racking up late fees at the Arlington Public Library.
“On July 1, Arlington Public Library eliminated overdue library fines to make the library‘s collections more accessible to all Arlingtonians,” Arlington County said in a news release. “The goal is to increase access and minimize barriers for marginalized populations to use the
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Most people arrested in Arlington are Black and most do not reside in Arlington.
That’s according to 2019 arrest data shared by the Arlington County Police Department, at the request of ARLnow and a local community group. Its release follows calls for police reform and nationwide protests over the deaths of Black men and women at the hands of law enforcement.
Special Election Voting Today — Voting is underway in the three-way special election to fill the late Erik Gutshall’s County Board seat. Polls are open from 6 a.m.-7 p.m. The candidates are Takis Karantonis, Susan Cunningham and Bob Cambridge. “Don’t forget your photo ID, ballpoint pen, and face mask,” Arlington’s election office said this morning in a tweet. [Twitter]
No Incentive Payments for Amazon This Year — “Amazon.com Inc. won’t receive any direct cash payments from Arlington County, this year at least, for its HQ2 office leases… because Amazon’s incentive payments are tied to Arlington’s tourism industry. And many rooms remain empty to this day.” [Washington Business Journal]
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(Updated at 10:55 a.m.) Last night’s intense thunderstorms knocked out power to hundreds of homes across Arlington and darkened traffic signals at some key intersections.
The early morning storms packed torrential rain and strong winds that brought down tree branches, and frequent lightning and thunder that woke many up from their slumbers.
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(Updated at 11:45 p.m.) More than 500 people have signed a petition calling for the S. Abingdon Street bridge over I-395 to be renamed “Black Lives Matter Bridge.”
The petition was created amid dueling efforts to place and remove the letters “BLM” on the bridge’s chain link fence, a thus far nonviolent dispute that has resulted in multiple calls to Arlington County police.
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(Updated at 4:55 p.m.) A large group of demonstrators blocked the outbound 14th Street Bridge between D.C. and Arlington during the evening rush hour.
Protesters were sitting down across the main southbound bridge span, according to D.C. police, but then started marching towards Arlington. The group — said to number in the hundreds — previously marched from the area around the Jefferson Memorial, according to scanner traffic.
A North Carolina man wound up in jail after allegedly declaring independence from his trousers Saturday night.
Just before midnight on July 4, police were called to the 1200 block of S. Eads Street in Pentagon City for a report of a man exposing himself.