Around Town

First Watch is ready to make its Idylwood introduction.

The daytime cafe chain, which has been expanding its Northern Virginia presence in recent years, will officially open to the general public at Idylwood Plaza (7501 Leesburg Pike) next Tuesday, Feb. 18.


Countywide

The legislation to make Fairfax County eligible for a casino isn’t officially dead, but it appears to be in active need of resuscitation.

A House of Delegates appropriations subcommittee’s decision to pass by Senate Bill 982 after a 30-minute hearing on Wednesday (Feb. 12) brought celebratory statements from the community groups and local elected officials who had vocally opposed the proposal to allow a casino in Tysons.


News

Another member of the gang MS-13 will serve decades in prison for participating in multiple murders, including ones in Reston.

Henry Leonel Barrera Ayala, 26, was sentenced by a federal judge to 50 years in prison after he pleaded guilty in September to conspiracy to participate in a racketeering enterprise, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia announced yesterday (Thursday).


News

The current school year will be the last official one for King Abdullah Academy.

After close to a decade in the Herndon area, the Islamic private school announced in late January that it will close for good after the 2024-2025 academic year, citing challenges with identifying a “viable financial path to self-sustainability.”


News

Clogged wastewater pipes will once again require a temporary shutdown of Scott’s Run Nature Preserve.

The park at 7400 Georgetown Pike is scheduled to close next Monday, Feb. 17 so a contractor’s crews can address a “critical blockage” stopping up the siphon system that carries wastewater from McLean, under the Potomac River and into Maryland, the Fairfax County Department of Public Works and Environmental Services announced yesterday (Wednesday).


News

A D.C. man will serve almost two decades in prison for allegedly participating in the stalking, robbery and kidnapping of two Fairfax County residents as well as a woman in Maryland.

A U.S. District Court judge in D.C. sentenced Tyree Eugene McCombs, 29, to 228 months, or 19 years, in prison yesterday (Tuesday) after he pleaded guilty last year to robbery and kidnapping charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. announced.


Countywide

Based on initial measurements, yesterday’s snowstorm didn’t quite measure up to the one that passed through in January, but combined, they’ve given the D.C. region its snowiest winter of the 2020s.

In Fairfax County, snowfall amounts ranged from 5.2 inches in the Town of Herndon, as of 7 a.m., to 8.5 inches spotted in Hybla Valley at 2:30 a.m., according to preliminary estimates reported by the National Weather Service at 10:28 a.m. today (Wednesday).


Countywide

The Trump administration’s sweeping efforts to whittle down the federal workforce have found favor with at least one Fairfax County elected official.

Springfield District Supervisor Pat Herrity, the only Republican on the county board, revealed earlier this week that he “fully” agrees that the federal government’s “size and scope” needs to be reduced, claiming that there’s a “broad consensus across America” in support of a downsizing.


Countywide

With winter weather currently blanketing the D.C. region, Fairfax County Public Schools has declared tomorrow (Wednesday) a snow day.

All schools and offices will be closed tomorrow, and activities on school grounds have been canceled. Students were dismissed three hours early today (Tuesday) in anticipation of snow starting to fall this afternoon into the evening.


News

Virginia’s attorney general is apparently seeking to revive a Fairfax indecent exposure case against a person who was subsequently charged with allegedly exposing himself in a girls’ locker room at Washington-Liberty High School in Arlington.

In a Feb. 11 letter to Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Steve Descano, Attorney General Jason Miyares accused the county’s top prosecutor of undermining public safety after a case charging Richard Kenneth Cox with indecent exposure at a Planet Fitness in Fairfax City was dismissed last summer.


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