Around Town

Police Weekend, an annual law enforcement event that kicks off tomorrow, is bringing sirens and motorcycle escorts to Arlington today.

Organized by the National Law Enforcement Memorial and Museum, this year’s event is being held from Oct. 13-17. A candlelight vigil in the District is scheduled for Thursday evening, after being rescheduled from May due to the pandemic.


Sponsored

This sponsored column is by Law Office of James Montana PLLC. All questions about it should be directed to James Montana, Esq., Janice Chen, Esq., and Victoria Khaydar, Esq., practicing attorneys at The Law Office of James Montana PLLC, an immigration-focused law firm located in Falls Church, Virginia. The legal information given here is general in nature. If you want legal advice, contact us for an appointment.

Kremlin political intrigues are comparable to a bulldog fight under a rug. An outsider only hears the growling, and when he sees the bones fly out from beneath it is obvious who won.” – Winston Churchill.

The Trump Administration, in both its first and second iterations, has not lived up to that Churchill quotation, not least because its principals are so paranoid and unprofessional that they usually air their grievances in public. Sometimes, when facing unfriendly questioning before Congress, a leading Administration official bangs the table about how the Dow Jones Industrial Average has broken 50,000; sometimes, when a bottle of bourbon goes missing, a leading Administration official threatens to polygraph and prosecute FBI agents. This is not, as a general rule, a thin-lipped bunch of Silent Cals.

The Department of Homeland Security has been an honorable exception to that general rule; its personnel have been, at least by Trump Administration standards, fairly disciplined about airing their grievances in public. That’s where the Kremlinology comes in. The latest intel suggests that a real behind-the-curtain fight is happening between two factions at DHS – one, personified by policy majordomo Stephen Miller, and the other, by bureaucratic knife-fighter (and Cava enjoyer) Tom Homan. The Homanites appear to be winning. The purpose of this advertorial is tell you why we think that is true, and provide a bit of speculation about why.

First, why do we think it is true? Not every resignation means a change in policy; sometimes, when the chief of the Border Patrol resigns after widespread accusations that he flew to Thailand, Colombia, and Mexico to avail himself of the services of prostitutes, it’s just an HR thing. But some reshuffles are more significant, and we think the following four suggest a new policy direction.

(1) Kristi Noem is out, and Markwayne Mullin is in. Secretary Noem performed her duties in vapid, vigorous, indecent, indecorous style, and she consistently personified the most outré and bizarre actions by the immigration enforcement bureaucracy, from calling protesters ‘domestic terrorists’ to LARPing as a HSI agent during raids. Former Sen. Mullin has taken a different public tack. Secretary Mullin – echoing public comments from Tom Homan – has repeated in interviews that DHS is targeting “the worst of the worst” rather than engaging in broad sweeps, and has said that the Minnesota operation, which led to the deaths of several American citizens, will not occur again. ” Secretary Mullin recently remarked, “[m]y goal in six months is that we’re not in the lead story every single day.” We don’t think you’ll see him posing at CECOT in a Rolex. (more…)


Around Town

After a year-and-a-half delay, The Salt Line in Ballston is finally set to open a week from today.

The seafood spot was originally supposed to start serving in spring 2020. The pandemic pushed it to 2021 while construction delays shifted the opening from the summer to the fall.


Schools

Arlington Public Schools is preparing to redraw boundaries for a half-dozen schools to relieve high enrollment and over-capacity at three of them.

The boundary process, which will go into effect next fall, is “limited in scope” and will target Abingdon Elementary School, Gunston Middle School and Wakefield High School.


Traffic

(Updated at 9:50 a.m.) All lanes of N. Glebe Road were closed at 24th Road N., between Langston Blvd and Marymount University, due to a reported crash this morning.

Arlington Alert reported the crash and closure shortly after 7 a.m. Since then, the northbound lanes have reopened while the southbound lanes remain closed.


News

Running Store Coming to Pentagon City — “Federal Realty Investment Trust has leased the last bit of vacant retail space at Westpost, the 14-acre mixed-use development a short walk from where Amazon.com Inc.’s new headquarters buildings will stand. The leases put the roughly 297,000-square-foot retail center on course to be fully occupied in the first half of 2022 after a handful of notable vacancies, including the nearly 34,000-square-foot former Bed, Bath & Beyond to be replaced by a Target store, and the roughly 4,500-square-foot space where Road Runner Sports will replace a shuttered Unleashed by Petco.” [Washington Business Journal]

Library Seeking Latino History Donations — “Over the last three decades, Arlington’s Latino community has rapidly grown and stockpiled a wealth of history. And this week, librarians and historians at the Center for Local History at Arlington Public Library are asking for donations of documents to archive the county’s Hispanic history. The project is called Re-Encuentro de Arlington Latinos.” [WTOP]


News

(Updated at 9:35 p.m.) Arlington County is looking to lower speed limits near schools as part of its ambitious Vision Zero initiative to eliminate serious traffic-related injuries and deaths by 2030.

This Saturday, the County Board is set to decide whether to authorize a public hearing next month to discuss and potentially approve creating “slow zones” on residential streets near 13 schools.


Events

Oyster and beer festival Shucktoberfest is returning to Shirlington later this month.

More than 40 food vendors will be selling craft beer, oysters and food at the Village at Shirlington (2700 S. Quincy Street). The event will be held Saturday, Oct. 23 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.