Northern Virginia lost 8,200 jobs as the commonwealth shed tens of thousands of federal workers between November 2024 and November 2025, new data shows.
Non-farm employment in Northern Virginia was down 0.5% as of November, according to data that the Virginia Department of Workforce Development and Advancement reported yesterday (Wednesday). The commonwealth as a whole, meanwhile, had lost 22,400 federal jobs year-over-year — an 11.5% decrease.
A jewelry store billed as “a real-life Etsy shop by women entrepreneurs” is relocating from Maryland to Ballston.
Dov & Company is targeting a February opening on the first floor in Ballston Quarter (4238 Wilson Blvd), across from Drybar, according to signage posted in the mall.
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.
If you filed an asylum application with USCIS more than a year ago, and that application is still pending, you may recently have received a notice from USCIS directing you to pay something called the Annual Asylum Fee. Or you may not have. That, as we will explain, is part of the problem.
The Annual Asylum Fee was created by H.R. 1 – the reconciliation bill enacted in July 2025, sometimes known as the One Big Beautiful Bill Act – which requires asylum applicants to pay a fee for every year that their asylum application remains pending. The length of time an application remains pending is, of course, determined almost entirely by the government, not by the applicant. This feature of the law has not escaped the notice of asylum seekers or their lawyers.
The rollout has been, to put it charitably, iterative. USCIS launched a payment page in October 2025 and began sending notices. A federal court in Maryland paused the notices a few weeks later. That pause was lifted in February 2026. In April 2026, the Department of Homeland Security published an Interim Final Rule, effective May 29, 2026, which spelled out the consequences of failing to pay on time: rejection of the asylum application, termination of the applicant’s work permit, and potential referral to removal proceedings. Meanwhile, the notices themselves have proven unreliable. Many applicants report never receiving one, and some only learned that they had owed the fee when the USCIS website informed them that their payment period had expired.
In July 2026, a coalition of organizations representing asylum seekers and TPS holders sued USCIS in federal court in Massachusetts in Venezuelan Association of Massachusetts v. USCIS. On July 21, 2026, the court issued an administrative stay, and on August 5, 2026, it extended that relief while the case proceeds. Under the court’s orders, USCIS may not:
The stakes were not small. According to the plaintiffs, USCIS had been prepared to reject 227,186 pending asylum applications for nonpayment. In August, USCIS also reopened expired payment windows, so applicants who were previously told their deadline had passed may now be able to pay.
But note what the court did not do. The order expressly allows USCIS to keep collecting the fee, and USCIS’s position is that anyone who receives a notice must pay it according to its instructions.
A news organization with coverage focused on the region’s senior population is starting 2026 under new ownership.
The Beacon Newspapers Inc. reported Jan. 7 that the print and online publications have been purchased from owners Stuart and Judy Rosenthal by the company’s longtime executive vice president, Gordon Hasenei.
Police are looking for a man who ransacked a home in broad daylight in the Leeway-Overlee neighborhood.
The burglary happened around noon Tuesday on N. McKinley Street, just north of Langston Blvd. Arlington County police say a resident returned home and discovered the burglar, who ran off with stolen jewelry.
Join us for a 5k (~3 mile) fun run/walk around the neighborhood followed by an outdoor yoga session next to Reclining Liberty!
The artist behind Reclining Liberty made a shirt for this day only. It comes with every run and yoga ticket — or take one on its own for $25.
The race is on to succeed State Sen. Adam Ebbin, who announced Wednesday afternoon (Jan. 7) he would resign in February to take a post in the Spanberger administration.
In the hours after his announcement, one current and one former member of the House of Delegates launched bids for the seat.
D.C. Area Federal Employment — “It’s worse than we thought. The number of federal jobs Greater Washington has lost since President Donald Trump took office a year ago and began slashing the federal workforce is now said to be around 53,000, according to the Stephen Fuller Institute at George Mason University, or about 12,000 more than the institute had previously estimated. The research institute revised its numbers Wednesday after the Bureau of Labor Statistics released data for November.” [WBJ]
Trump Threatens Arlington Company — “President Trump threatened to kneecap a division of RTX, the world’s second-largest defense contractor, if it did not step up and invest in “plants and equipment.” This was the most specific in a series of warnings Trump sent out to American defense firms on Wednesday, ordering them to cap executive pay, halt all dividends and stock buybacks, and speed up production.” [Axios]
Funding for Local Tech Firm — “Arlington tech unicorn Interos Inc. has raised millions in fresh funding to further refine its technology that can monitor and respond to threats affecting supply chains. In a LinkedIn post, Interos announced it landed a $20 million check from New York alternative investment asset management firm Blue Owl Capital Inc. and Menlo Park, California-based investment firm Structural Capital.” [WBJ]
Phoenix Bikes Profiled — “Reinaldo Fernandez dreams of joining the military and says he’s always been drawn to machines. “I have a passion for anything with wheels and an engine,” he said. “And I did have dreams of having a bike shop and starting a program like this one.” Even if their careers never involve bikes, Phoenix Bikes believes the skills — and confidence — last.” [WUSA 9]
New Drinking Fountains on Trail — “Thirsty? Try one of 14 new freeze-resistant drinking fountains and bottle-filling stations now along the Mount Vernon Trail! The park celebrated with a ribbon cutting yesterday.” [GWMP/X]
Compass May Be Sold — “‘After more than two months of active negotiations with one such suitor, the company has agreed, subject to this Court’s approval, to sell substantially all of its assets to a strategic buyer with a substantial, global presence in the retail coffee business,’ Haft said. ‘Compass expects to file with the Court within days of its bankruptcy filing an asset purchase agreement to document the proposed sale.'” [WBJ]
Gov. Touts Employment Growth — “Governor Glenn Youngkin announced today that Virginia added 8,600 nonfarm jobs in November, according to preliminary estimates from the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Current Employment Statistics survey. Virginia’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate held steady at 3.5 percent, 1.1 percentage points below the national rate. Since January 2022, nonfarm payroll employment in the Commonwealth has increased by 264,000 jobs.” [Governor of Virginia]
Spanberger on Making History — “Less than two weeks before her inauguration, Democrat Abigail Spanberger says she’s still digesting what it means to become the first female governor in Virginia’s nearly 250-year history.” [Associated Press]
New Legal Notice — ABC Internet Wine/Beer Off-Premises license application; objections within 30 days. [Public Notices]
New Legal Notice — Giftshop seeks wine/beer off-premises license; objections due in 30 days. [Public Notices]
It’s Thursday — Expect a mostly sunny day with a high temperature near 53 degrees. Moving into Thursday night, the skies will become mostly cloudy with a low around 40 degrees. [NWS]
Good Wednesday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Jan 7, 2026.
Here is what’s going on Thursday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect a mostly sunny day with a high temperature near 53 degrees and light, variable winds. Moving into Thursday night, the skies will become mostly cloudy with a low around 40 degrees, accompanied by a southeast wind blowing at 3 to 6 mph. See more from Weather.gov.
“It is during our darkest moments that we must focus to see the light.”
– Aristotle
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
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Arlington National Cemetery’s southern expansion project continued to take shape in 2025, preparing the way for 80,000 additional spaces for graves and urns just north of Columbia Pike.
In a video update posted last week, the cemetery spotlighted a new parking garage and other buildings under construction in a forthcoming service complex, along with progress on improved pedestrian access to the Air Force Memorial and the realignment of a portion of Columbia Pike to accommodate the expansion.
Falls Church will be able to hold ranked-choice City Council elections as early as 2027, if current Council members want to make the switch.
The city is on track to acquire new voting equipment that would accommodate the ranked-choice format in time for the 2027 elections, city elections director David Bjerke told the Falls Church Electoral Board on Monday.
