Morning Notes

Fairfax Man Pleads Guilty to Drug Trafficking — “According to court documents, in March and April 2022, Calvin Ray Brown, 50, and a co-conspirator sold counterfeit pressed pills containing fentanyl to a Fairfax County Police Department confidential source and undercover detective on multiple occasions…Brown is scheduled to be sentenced on June 26.” [DOJ]

Drive-Thru Taco Bell Proposed in Fairfax — “Planning commissioners expressed concerns about a pre-application proposal Monday evening from ABTB Mid-Atlantic, LLC to construct a Taco Bell restaurant with a drive-thru in the Boulevard Marketplace Shopping Center…Some commissioners said the new Taco Bell would likely experience the same traffic and parking issues already observed at similar drive-thru restaurants along Fairfax Boulevard.” [Patch]

Expansion Planned for Annandale Power Substation — Dominion Energy wants to upgrade and expand the Westcott Substation in Holmes Run Stream Valley Park. The project will replace “outdated equipment” with new technology that will help the utility company respond faster to outages and support “distributed energy resources, such as home solar panels, electric vehicle charging, and battery storage.” [Annandale Today]

State Lawmakers Still See Path for Underground Utilities on Route 1 — “State Senator Scott Surovell and his counterpart in the House of Delegates, Paul Krizek, have not given up on the possibility of getting utilities undergrounded along the Route 1 corridor as part of the Richmond Highway widening and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system projects.” [On the MoVe]

Cherry Blossoms Peak Bloom Predicted — “The cherry blossoms surrounding the Tidal Basin will reach peak bloom from March 22 to 25, 2023, the National Park Service announced Wednesday at a National Cherry Blossom Festival press conference…The National Cherry Blossom Festival will take place from March 20 to April 16.” [Washingtonian]

Lake Accotink Maintenance to Begin Mid-March — The Fairfax County Park Authority will remove debris from the dam’s spillway and replace flashboards that “control water flow through the spillway…The replacement of the flashboards, expected to begin in early April following the debris removal, will require FCPA to lower the lake surface elevation by approximately 2 feet” to complete the project by Memorial Day weekend. [FCPA]

State Education Superintendent Steps Down — “Jillian Balow has resigned as Virginia’s superintendent of public instruction, without providing a reason…Balow’s tenure was marked by controversy, especially regarding the ongoing revision of the state’s curriculum standards for history and social studies.” [The Washington Post]

Reston Startup Targets Software Updates — “A local cybersecurity startup wants to take the anxiety out of running updates to computer software. Trackd, a Reston company founded last year by a former National Security Agency network engineer, has emerged…with a software of its own that helps companies identify if an update, or patch, will cause disruptions to their networks.” [DC Inno]

FCPS Job Fair for Teachers Coming This Weekend — “We are searching for educators with strong academic backgrounds and a passion for making a difference. To meet hiring needs in instructional areas, we are hosting an in-person job fair at Oakton High School on Saturday, March 4, 2023 (9 a.m.-1 p.m.).” [FCPS]

It’s Thursday — Light rain in the morning. High of 64 and low of 51. Sunrise at 6:41 am and sunset at 6:03 pm. [Weather.gov]