News

Police Investigate BB Gun Bike-By Shooting — Arlington Police searched for a pair of young men on bikes last night after one of them allegedly shot a woman in the arm with a BB gun near the intersection of N. Pershing Drive and N. Thomas Street, in the Buckingham neighborhood. The suspects made a clean getaway, although one may have been briefly spotted near Ballston. The woman required medical treatment for the wound.

Pentagon Memorial Called ‘Contemplative,’ ‘Noisy’ — Visitors to the Pentagon Memorial are reportedly weirded out by the sound of low-flying planes at the Pentagon Memorial — which was built in honor of the 184 people who died when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon’s west wall on 9/11/01. The Pentagon is along the flight path of Reagan National Airport. [Associated Press]


Events

The annual race will be held on Sept. 10 this year. Registration is $25 today, $30 from Aug. 5 to Sept. 9 and $35 on race day. Teams (including firefighter, law enforcement and military teams) need to be registered by Sept. 1.

The race will kick off at 6:00 p.m. from the DoubleTree Hotel in Pentagon City (300 Army Navy Drive). Runners will follow a course that will take them past parts of the Pentagon. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the 9-11 terrorist attack on the World Trader Center and the Pentagon.


Around Town

A bike and pedestrian pathway between the Mt. Vernon Trail and Columbia Island Marina/Lyndon B. Johnson Memorial Grove is now open.

The pathway opened less than two weeks ago. It runs under the new Boundary Channel Humpback Bridge, which carries traffic from the GW Parkway and the Mt. Vernon Trail.


News

President Obama will be among the dignitaries in attendance at the ceremony, which is expected to get underway at the Pentagon around 9:45 a.m. A military spokesman was unable to release any other details about the event.

Route 110 will be closed tomorrow from 9:30 to 11:00 a.m. Northbound traffic will be diverted to I-395 and southbound traffic will be diverted to Washington Boulevard, according to Arlington’s Office of Emergency Management.


News

School’s Out for Summer — Today is the last day of school for elementary students in Arlington. High school students had their last day on Wednesday and middle school students had their last day on Thursday. [YouTube]

Man Charged With Pentagon Shootings — Alexandria resident Yonathan Melaku, 22, has been charged with destruction of property and firearm violations in five separate shootings at Northern Virginia military installations last year. Melaku was arrested in Arlington National Cemetery last Friday, authorities say, with a backpack containing a ammonium nitrate, a key component in certain explosives, and a notebook containing referencing Al Qaeda and jihad. Sources tell Fox News that Melaku was “self-radicalized through the internet,” but there’s “no indication he was planning to harm individuals.” [FBI, Fox News]


News

Pentagon Suspect Suspected in Shootings — The man whose arrest prompted authorities to shut down Washington Boulevard during the Friday morning rush hour is now being investigated for a possible connection to a mysterious series of incidents of shots fired at the Pentagon and various Northern Virginia sites linked to the Marine Corps. Yonathan Melaku, a 22-year-old Marine reservist, is currently being held at a Loudoun County jail. [Inside Nova]

Arlington Cabbies Stage Sit-In — Arlington taxi drivers surprised county officials by packing into a Arlington County office yesterday in protest of regulations that they say give the owners of taxi companies too much control over drivers. [Washington Examiner]


News

The Army — which will be celebrating its 236th birthday tomorrow — has just announced an impending policy change for personnel who work at the Pentagon. Starting as early as October, soldiers assigned to the Pentagon will be asked to wear the more formal Army service uniform instead of the camouflaged Army combat uniform (ACU).

“Our perspective is that this is the corporate part of the Army,” Sergeant Major of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III told the Army News Service. “The business-part of the Army is done in the Pentagon, and as a professional there are certain standards of attire associated with certain activities. For the business aspect of the Army, it is the Army service uniform.”


Events

The noisy annual Memorial Day weekend tradition will kick off on Friday, when motorcyclists from around the country will start flocking to the D.C. area to boost awareness of American prisoners of war and service members who went missing in action.

The Rolling Thunder headquarters hotel is the Hyatt Regency Crystal City, so South Arlington residents who live near Route 1, Route 110 and I-395 should expect to hear a lot of revving engines over the weekend.


News

The Pentagon Force Protection Agency protects DoD workers at the Pentagon and at other leased and owned installations in the Washington area. An article published today by the American Forces Press Service details the work of the PFPA officers who work the night shift at the Pentagon.

The article discusses how officers monitor the various sensors and cameras around the 280-acre Pentagon reservation. Among the sensors present inside and outside the complex are sensors that monitor for potential chemical, biological and radiological threat.


News

In contrast to the noisy, jubilant celebration at the White House, the scene at the Pentagon Memorial last night was one of quiet remembrance.

About two dozen visitors trickled in to the memorial following the announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed by American forces in Pakistan. As visitors strolled the dimly-lit grounds, only the peaceful sound of bubbling water could be heard. The sound came from small pools below each of the memorial’s 184 benches, which represent the 184 people killed during the bin Laden-orchestrated attack on the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001.


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