Sports

Points were abundant in blowout victories by Arlington’s three public-school teams in their second games of the 2025 high-school football season.

Two of the Sept. 5 wins were home, non-district blowouts for the Yorktown Patriots and Wakefield Warriors, now both 1-1, in public-school contests.


Around Town

Good Friday evening, Arlington. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.

🕗 News recap

The following articles were published earlier today — Sep 5, 2025.

Since it’s Friday, we’ve also compiled a list of the most-read articles of the week, below.

  1. Arlington apartment costs decrease for the first time in months (16732 views)
  2. ‘Entangled’ yarn shop and makerspace opens this weekend in Falls Church (15041 views)
  3. ACFD rescues TikTok-famous toucan from behind Pentagon City dishwasher (7685 views)
  4. ACPD arrests 15 suspects in Pentagon City shoplifting enforcement effort (7509 views)
  5. Arlington’s former trash contractor writes to County Board about recent pickup issues (7000 views)
  6. Additional Langston Blvd turning lane could ease congestion in East Falls Church (5697 views)
  7. Morning Notes for September 3, 2025 (4354 views)
  8. Rosslyn Jazz Fest returns this weekend, showcasing Grammy-nominated blues group (3791 views)
  9. Audit raises red flags about oversight and security of tech equipment at APS (3331 views)
  10. 42 years after their last meeting, W-L defeats O’Connell in football (3088 views)
  11. Gwenie’s Pastries and Lapu Lapu bring Filipino delicacies to Pentagon City (3083 views)
  12. Burger Billy’s Joint brings smash burger success to Cherrydale one year in (2940 views)

📅 Upcoming events

Here is what’s going on Saturday in Arlington, from our event calendar.

Here are the events planned for Sunday:

⛈️ Saturday’s forecast

Expect showers and potential thunderstorms with a high near 89°F and southwest winds of 5-8 mph; there’s an 80% chance of precipitation. Rainfall may measure between a tenth and a quarter of an inch, with higher amounts possible during storms. On Saturday night, anticipate showers and thunderstorms before 11pm, followed by likely showers and a low around 62°F. A north wind of around 7 mph will accompany an 80% chance of precipitation, with rainfall mirroring daytime figures. See more from Weather.gov.

💡 Quote of the Day

“When something is important enough, you do it even if the odds are not in your favor.”
– Elon Musk

🌅 Tonight’s sunset

The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.

We hope you have a great weekend, Arlington! If you have something to say about an issue of local note not covered today, feel free to post it as a letter to the editor on our new forum. 👋


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Around Town

The weekend is here and so is a new episode of the ARLnow podcast.

In the latest episode, Vernon, Dan and Lene — and two special guests, Simon Rathle and David Guas from Bayou Bakery — discuss a few notable local news stories in Arlington from the past week, including:


Schools

Arlington Public Schools leaders are seeking to help more students earn college degrees in tandem with high school diplomas.

In the spring, 19 students at Arlington Tech — the Governor’s STEM Academy at the Arlington Career Center — received associate’s degrees from Northern Virginia Community College through the program’s dual-enrollment effort.


Event

Tree Steward Fall Training Applications Open

Residents worried about our urban forest, their neighbor’s tree, or the declining oak in their own yard can apply now for a seven-week course to learn about trees and become a volunteer Tree Steward with Tree Stewards of Arlington and Alexandria.


News

Arlington native Major Jeff “Simmer” Downie and his F-16C are making the trip back to the D.C. area next week to fly in a show he grew up watching.

Downie is the lead solo pilot with the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. When the air demonstration squadron comes to Joint Base Andrews in Prince George’s County on Sept. 13 and 14, it’ll be a rare opportunity for Downie to fly near his hometown.


Opinion

Several years ago, ARLnow stopped publishing letters to the editor and opinion columns.

Whereas opinion content in print newspapers was largely confined to its own section, clearly separate from the news, the internet flattens content and makes every post “headline news” somewhere, from social feeds to search results to email newsletters. We heard from many readers who voiced concerns less at the ideas expressed in opinion articles and more so in ARLnow’s decision to “highlight” them.

Given that our primary focus is reporting the news, it wasn’t too hard of a decision to pull back on publishing opinion content. After all, those who want to voice their thoughts on local issues can always do so in our comment section.

But the comment section itself has not been immune to the broader deterioration of online engagement, which has over time resulted it in becoming more of a battleground for political takes than the forum for purely local insights and discourse that many would prefer.

So in an attempt to bring back more longer-form local opinion and analysis, we’re bringing back letters to the editor. But with a twist.

We’ve created our own Letter to the Editor forum, where anyone can submit letters for all to read, upvote and comment on, and for ARLnow to consider for publication. We’ve yet to decide if and how we will publish letters to the editor on the site — that will depend on the volume and quality of the submissions we receive.

We’d appreciate any feedback on this new offering, including bug reports (this is a beta version, after all). Please email us with your thoughts.

Happy posting!


Sports

Strong performances by quarterbacks proved a major highlight for Arlington’s four high-school football teams during opening games of the 2025 fall season.

On the night of Aug. 28, the foursome combined to complete 53 passes for 772 yards and eight touchdowns, throwing just three interceptions. Their strong play could continue to be a big positive point for the remainder of the campaign.


Schools

Start-of-school enrollment in Arlington is down from a year before and below springtime projections, but could move higher by the time a final tally is compiled at the end of the month.

Arlington Public Schools counted 27,603 students in pre-kindergarten to 12th-grade classes on Sept. 4, Superintendent Francisco Durán reported to School Board members that evening.


Opinion

Dozens of new restaurants have landed in Arlington over the past few months, adding to the county’s diverse dining scene. New offerings this year range from French-American and Nepalese cuisine to sushi and Italian subs.

Here are the nominees for “Best New Restaurant in Arlington” as part of our ARLnow Readers’ Choice awards.

Did we miss your favorite new restaurant? Write them in!

Voting will close in two weeks.

Voting for the Best HVAC Company in Arlington is still taking place. Be sure to cast your vote before voting closes next Friday at 8:30 a.m.

Two weeks ago, we voted on the Best Preschool in Arlington. The results are now official:

  1. Ballston Children’s Center
  2. Trinity Presbyterian Preschool
  3. Little Beginnings Child Development