By Emma Goodacre
Since 2010, hundreds of thousands of Virginians have gained access to health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Virginia’s uninsured rate is now down to 8.7 percent — a 33 percent drop since enactment of the ACA.
Opinion
In September, I explained why county government should temporarily defer until the following spring allocating any annual close-out surplus.
Here’s that column’s most up-voted comment (24 up votes):
Not a big problem, but one that’s been fairly persistent over the past half dozen years we’ve operated our Arlington event calendar. It’s a two-fold issue that no amount of boldface type on our event submission page seems to solve.
First, even though the event calendar is clearly labeled as being for events in Arlington, we get loads of submissions for events in D.C., Alexandria, Falls Church and elsewhere. We do our best to screen those out and reject any events not in Arlington.
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The following letter was written by Daniel Lopez, board member of the Arlington Soccer Association, regarding the proposed arts district in the Four Mile Run valley.
A few years back, using tax dollars and bond money earmarked for recreational parks, Arlington County purchased five properties adjacent to Jennie Dean Park to add to the overall park space inventory. The County Board recently charged the Four Mile Run Valley working group (4MRV) with developing “a vision for the comprehensive replacement and realignment of existing park features (exclusively for park purposes) and the addition of new park amenities to meet the growing demand for active and passive recreation, cultural resources and natural resource preservation.”
The following letter was written by Jane Green, who recently moved to Pentagon City.
As a new resident of Arlington, am I a burden or an opportunity?
Some in the region may have spent today in mourning, after the Washington Nationals’ World Series dream died last night.
Closer to home, a man got stuck in the bathroom at a Starbucks in Ballston, while the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City will add a food delivery service starting Monday.
Arlington is hosting community discussions around the county through the end of the month where up to 25 county residents can offer input into the budget process each time.
If you cannot make a forum, the county is seeking input online. (As of the time I submitted this piece, there had been no ideas submitted on the website, so you could be one of the first.)
By Nicole Merlene
Outside of voting, most Arlingtonians do not participate in local civic life. Even fewer study key planning documents such as the Arlington Community Energy Plan or the Rosslyn Sector Plan.
The Arlington County Board must act now to enable the Joint Facilities Advisory Commission to perform its primary long-term planning role with respect to two large parcels of land on Carlin Springs Road: the Kenmore Middle School site and the Urgent Care site.
JFAC recently has been asked to dedicate some of its attention to helping Arlington Public Schools and the county with a phased facility and site development plan for the Career Center site.
But inevitably, breaking news does happen in Arlington. We are a county with some 230,000 residents, a major airport, rail lines, Metro tunnels, highways, bridges, a river, government offices and one of the world’s largest office buildings — things happen here.
We know that one thing readers like about us is that we are often the first to report breaking news. But our email subscribers are often slow to see that breaking news, since by design they only get an update once a day.
Not everyone gets the day off work, of course. There are essential workers — cops, nurses, bus drivers, etc. — who work no matter what the holiday. Then there are organizations like ours, which swap Columbus Day with the day after Thanksgiving, thus trading today for a four-day Thanksgiving weekend, which many employees prefer. There also might be some who do not treat Columbus Day as a holiday out of principle.
But just how large a portion is off today? Who is enjoying a three day weekend, compared to those who are working?
The first full weekend of October starts with excitement for Washington Nationals fans, as the team begins its playoff series against last year’s World Series winners, the Chicago Cubs.
Another big event taking place this weekend is the 33rd annual Army Ten-Miler on Sunday. A number of roads will be closed in Arlington to accommodate the race.