An adorable Chihuahua, Bodhi, is looking for a new home.
Bodhi — his foster insists he does not answer to Buddy — is a Chihuahua in foster care who was surrendered to Homeward Trails Animal Shelter after years of living with another family. The family moved and was unable to care for Bodhi, who is now in foster care.
Arlington has some popular spots for classic barbecue, offering smoky specialties like pulled pork and brisket with satisfying sides.
Here are the nominees for “Best Barbecue Restaurant in Arlington” as part of our ARLnow Readers’ Choice awards.
Did we miss your favorite place? Write them in!
Voting will close in two weeks.
Voting for the Best Bar in Arlington is still taking place. Be sure to cast your vote before voting closes next Friday at 9 a.m.
Two weeks ago, we voted on the Best Place for Wings in Arlington. The results are now official:
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.
USCIS administers immigration benefits. In the time-honored tradition of government agencies since the days of Ur and Uruk, USCIS uses forms to collect, store, and interpret information. Immigrants complete these forms in order to obtain benefits. Most U.S. citizens have no idea what reams of paperwork these forms require. An ordinary green card application is comprised of ninety-seven pages of bare forms, which typically are supported by several hundred pages of supporting documents.
In better times, forms are a necessary evil. In the times we actually live in, forms are just another weapon with which to thwack your political opponents.
In the second iteration of the Trump Administration, USCIS has discovered a new, extremely petty way to make immigrants’ lives more difficult – by releasing new form versions which make utterly minute changes, and then decrees that yesterday’s official version is obsolete as of today.
The Office of Management and Budget, by the way, requires that all government forms have an ‘edition date’ and an ‘expiration date.’ USCIS evades this neatly by making the expiration date purely notional – the form can be valid after the expiration date, and it can be decreed obsolete at any time before or after the expiration date. (The edition date is notional, too – in the first months of the Trump Administration, USCIS persistently released forms backdated to January 20, 2025, seemingly just for the inaugural vibes.) The forms altered in the last two weeks are highlighted below.
County leaders are promising action after an audit found major deficiencies in the operation and oversight of a transit program serving Arlington residents with disabilities.
Identified issues with the Specialized Transit for Arlington Residents (STAR) program ranged from billing discrepancies to a lack of review of driver manifests by WeDriveU, which operates the paratransit program under contract to the county.
Pentagon MMA has brought a special honor home to Arlington from the birthplace of Muay Thai.
The Arlington Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu Academy is now officially a certified and registered Muay Thai Gym Partner through the Sports Authority of Thailand and the Ministry of Tourism and Sports of Thailand, making Pentagon MMA the only Muay Thai academy on the East Coast to have earned this distinction.
Revamps of parking, towing and tree-canopy requirements could be coming to an increasingly urbanized Falls Church.
A work plan from City Manager Wyatt Shields includes a possible rewrite of existing rules for how much parking new development projects must include, plus possible changes to the city’s tree canopy ordinance and towing ordinance.
We’ve made the reservation. You’re invited.
Spend an evening discovering exceptional wines, live acoustic music, and community at Rosslyn’s newest event: Rosslyn Reserved. Enjoy a tasting experience with a sommelier from Screwtop Wine Bar, savory bites from local Charcuterie business, Graze Craze, and more!
Arlington residents’ commitment to serving others took center stage at the 2025 Arlington Cares event last week.
More than 200 people attended the Tuesday gathering at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association headquarters in Ballston.
Arlington 911 Using AI — “Arlington County’s 911 center is… turning to artificial intelligence to help man non-emergency calls coming into its dispatch center this Fourth of July holiday… Officials say non-emergency calls were down by nearly 16,000 in the first quarter of the year compared to the same time period in 2024.” [Fox 5]
Youngkin Calls Out Arlington — “Youngkin said his Virginia Homeland Security Task Force arrested 2,500 people so far this year, who he says are violent criminals in the U.S. illegally. Youngkin also renewed his call for local law enforcement in Northern Virginia to work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Youngkin has called out Fairfax County and Arlington County for not honoring ICE detainers and working with ICE.” [WJLA]
Families Worry About Title I Change — “Two Arlington schools previously categorized as Title I campuses won’t be eligible for that designation in the fall, a change that some parents are concerned about the consequences of.” [WTOP]
Fairlington Parade on TV — “It was a day for neighbors in Fairlington to break out the red, white, and blue and spend time with each other as they and people across the DMV marked the Fourth of July. The Fairlington Citizens Association (FCA) and Fairlington Villages held the community’s July 4th Parade and Celebration on Friday.” [DC News Now]
Teen Girl Arrested — “The female victim and juvenile female victim were inside a common area of a residential building when the known juvenile female suspect in her teens allegedly approached and pepper sprayed them before fleeing the scene on foot… Petitions for the juvenile suspect were sought for Malicious Wounding by Caustic Agent (x2).” [ACPD]
Blue Line Closure — “A stretch of the Metro Blue Line will be out of service starting Saturday and will remain closed until July 26 for construction. Franconia-Springfield and Van Dorn St. stations will be closed for three weeks, making Reagan National Airport the last stop on the Blue Line.” [WTOP]
It’s Monday — Showers and potential storms are expected throughout the day, with some storms potentially producing heavy rainfall. It will otherwise be partly sunny with a high near 89°F and a southeast wind of 3-6 mph. There is a 70% chance of precipitation. On Monday night there’s a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 7pm, followed by partly cloudy skies and a low around 75°F. [NWS]
Today’s Morning Notes are brought to you by Industrious. ARLnow has been in an Industrious office for years and we love the convenience — you get to focus on your work rather than worrying about brewing coffee or keeping the printer stocked. Industrious has several Metro-accessible coworking locations in Arlington.
Flickr pool photo by Jason Gooljar
Good Thursday 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 — Jul 3, 2025.
Here is what’s going on Friday in Arlington, from our event calendar.
Expect partly cloudy skies throughout the day, with temperatures reaching a high of 75°F and a low of 55°F. A mild breeze will blow at 10 mph, ensuring a comfortable atmosphere. There’s a slight chance of rain around 20%, so you might want to pack an umbrella just in case. Overall, it looks like a pleasant day ahead. See more from Weather.gov.
“Success is not final, failure is not fatal: It is the courage to continue that counts.”
– Winston Churchill
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
Sitting on the reference stacks at the Charlie Clark Center for Local History at Arlington Central Library are five thick, blue, nearly 50-year-old bound editions.
They are the archives of the Arlington County Bicentennial Commission, which, from 1974 through the end of 1976, was tasked with overseeing local efforts to celebrate the nation’s 200th birthday.
A man is fighting for his life after being severely burned in an under-construction office building in Crystal City.
It happened around 2:15 p.m. at 2011 Crystal Drive, which is being renovated. Initial reports suggest that there was a “flash fire” of some kind on a basement level of the building, critically injuring a construction worker in his 20s and setting off the sprinkler system.
