Today marks the halfway point of a five-day September heat wave.
A high temperature of 98 is forecast today, with “feels like” temperatures reaching into the 100s. Relief is expected Friday, as high temperatures dip into the upper 80s.
Opinion
As noted in our Morning Poll last week, pumpkin spice season slipped even earlier this year.
About 62% of you said it was “way too early.” And yet! People are clearly buying it, talking about it, and even making videos about its inexplicable cultural allure.
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It’s that time of year again: the Pumpkin Spice Lattes have arrived at local Starbucks stores.
Local chain Compass beat the Seattle-based coffee giant to market this time, rolling out a fall menu featuring pumpkin- and maple-flavored pick-me-ups a few days ago. Dunkin and others started slinging the spice even earlier, part of a broader trend of fall flavors creeping into the summer season.
After big storms, many of the same questions are asked: namely, why don’t we just bury power lines?
Surely the expense of constantly fixing power lines downed by falling trees, branches and the occasional crash — both in terms of the repairs themselves, lost productivity, etc. — cannot be far off from the cost of just moving them underground?
You might have noticed that it’s a bit quieter around Arlington in recent days.
Based on traffic volumes and out-of-office email responses it’s pretty clear that a lot of people are on vacation (including, at least in theory, the person writing this poll).
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Arlington didn’t start the ‘Missing Middle’ fire — localities across the country and around the world have been trying to figure out how to deal with rapidly rising housing costs.
While Arlington’s approval of new zoning regulations allowing small-scale multifamily housing in previously single-family-detached only neighborhoods was not the first time a major jurisdiction made such a move, the underlying debate is still raging in certain pockets of cyberspace.
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“Karen” has been making the rounds again in Arlington.
The slang term, popularized after a 2020 incident in New York City that got national attention, refers to “a middle-class white woman perceived as entitled or demanding beyond the scope of what is normal,” according to Wikipedia.
The Democratic primary has come and gone and, while the County Board results have yet to be tabulated, Tuesday was largely a victory for incumbent and incumbent-endorsed candidates.
The implication is that a majority of voters — at least Democratic primary voters — are largely satisfied with the way things are going in Arlington.
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Our latest morning poll is, admittedly, a bit niche.
Only 16% or so of Arlington registered voters cast a ballot in yesterday’s Democratic primary. Beyond the closely watched Commonwealth’s Attorney race, the primary was notable for being the first locally to utilize ranked choice voting, for the six-way County Board race.
One inevitability of running a local news outlet is that you’ll get plenty of people contacting you with complaints about stuff, some more newsworthy than others.
In general, we’re disinclined to use our limited reporting resources as a cudgel against pet peeves that lack greater significance or safety concerns to the community at large. More often, the better stories tend to be those that come from tips sent because something seems interesting, not because it bothers the tipster personally.
Last week, we invited the candidates running in competitive races in the June 20 Democratic primary to write a post about why Arlington residents should vote for them. Find information on how and where to vote here.
Below is the unedited response from Barbara Favola, incumbent for Virginia State Senate – 40th District. Challenger James DeVita did not submit a response prior to publication time.