Author: Mary Stachyra Lopez

Mary Stachyra Lopez is a staff reporter covering business, public safety, education, and other community issues for Local News Now. She has previously worked at Patch.com, the Arlington Catholic Herald, and The Atlantic.

Countywide

Fairfax County Public Schools sued over response to Muslim students’ ‘kidnapping’ skit

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
Ahmad Kaki, a staff attorney with CAIR, plays the video made by Thomas Jefferson High School students during a press conference June 4. (Screenshot via CAIR's Facebook page)

A Muslim civil rights group is suing Fairfax County Public Schools for suspending several students after they created a “kidnapping” video for social media to promote their chapter of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) last fall.

The video was intended to depict a “playful overreaction” in response to a “specific, viral comedy skit circulating nationwide,” according to a filing submitted by the CAIR Legal Defense Fund today (June 4) in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia in Alexandria.

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Around Town

Fairfax area to celebrate Pride Month with festivals, art, and color run

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
A heart decorated with rainbow colors for Pride Month in 2024 (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

Pride Month has arrived, and with it comes a range of celebrations throughout the D.C. region, from festivals to bike rides.

While RestonPride announced earlier this year that it will not hold its annual festival this year due to “critical” capacity and organizational challenges, Fairfax County will still have quite a few other events to uplift the LGBTQ community.

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News

Great horned owlets rescued after falling from nest in Huntley Meadows Park

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
Great horned owlets rescued at Huntley Meadows Park are placed in a basket (courtesy Ralph Fielder)

A pair of great horned owlets were recently re-nested and reunited with their parents after falling out of their nests in Hybla Valley’s Huntley Meadows Park.

The owlets’ troubles began after one of the pair — who were likely only a few weeks old — fell out of the nest earlier this spring. After park visitors reported the issue, the bird was quickly taken to a rehabber in Boyce, Virginia.

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News

Warning issued after rabid kitten captured near Centreville park

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
The entrance to Poplar Ford Park in Centreville (Staff photo by Mary Stachyra Lopez)

The Fairfax County Health Department has issued a rabies alert for the area near Poplar Ford Park in Centreville after a rabid kitten was found near the park entrance on Bull Run Post Office Road.

Anyone who was touched, bitten, or scratched by a domestic shorthair orange tabby male, which was about 5 weeks old, between May 12 to May 15 is asked to call the Fairfax County Health Department Rabies Program at 703-246-2433, TTY 711.

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Around Town

Mahjong social club, The Bamboo Room, coming to Vienna

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
The Bamboo Room, a mahjong venue, is coming to the space above Sushi Yoshi at 101 Church Street NW in Vienna (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

A Vienna resident is planning to open a new venue in the town this summer where beginner and experienced mahjong players alike can learn how to play, form leagues, and socialize.

Jennifer Groves, who’s been teaching mahjong locally for the past year, expects to open The Bamboo Room above the Japanese restaurant Sushi Yoshi at 101 Church Street NW, Unit D, in August. An exact date has not been set yet.

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Countywide

At Chantilly ICE office, protestors keep a spotlight on the agency’s treatment of immigrants

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
A group of people gathers outside the ICE facility in Chantilly on May 31, 2026 (staff photo by Mary Stachyra Lopez)

About 30 people gathered at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) facility in Chantilly on Sunday (May 31) to protest the expansion of immigration detentions in the U.S. and to show support for those detained inside the building.

Holding American flags and homemade signs, the group outside ICE’s Washington Field Office at 14797 Murdock Street read aloud a list of people who had died in ICE custody, then sang “No están solos” (Spanish for “they are not alone”), followed by refrains of “none of us are free until all of us are free,” and “together we will abolish ICE.”

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Around Town

After 40 years in Centreville, Tippy’s Taco House will close this month

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
Tippy's Taco House in Centreville (Staff photo by Mary Stachyra Lopez)

When a customer walks into Tippy’s Taco House, Lilibeth “Lily” Panlaqui often doesn’t even need to wait for them to order: She simply turns around and tells her husband, Rizal, who’s cooking in the kitchen, to get their regular order started. After nearly 30 years of working at the Centreville restaurant, Paniaqui not only knows her returning customers, she knows their grown-up children.

However, the couple will soon be in need of a new place of employment. After 40 years of serving budget meals in Centrewood Plaza, the local franchise will close its doors at 14119 St. Germain Drive permanently on June 14.

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News

Fairfax City may tweak planned pathway impacted by cancellation of George Snyder Trail

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
Existing Wilcoxon Trail head at Fairfax Blvd in Fairfax City (via Google Maps)

Fairfax City is eyeing a potential solution to fix a trail project that was approved and fully funded while minimizing financial penalties as a result of the city council canceling a different planned extension earlier this year.

During a council work session on Tuesday (May 26), staff proposed that the project — previously called the George Snyder Trail Extension — be renamed the Wilcoxon Trail Extension, and add on-street paths along Draper Drive, instead of connecting to existing trails by cutting through parkland.

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News

Historic Reston distillery added to statewide ‘Most Endangered Places List’

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
The historic Bowman distillery building, also known as Wiehle Town Hall, in Reston (staff photo by Angela Woolsey

A historic Reston building that was created as the center of a utopian community, and later used as a distillery, has been added to a statewide preservation group’s “Most Endangered Places” list, lending momentum to local efforts to try to save it.

Preservation Virginia added the Wiehle Town Hall, also known as the A. Smith Bowman Distillery, to its list of endangered historic places earlier this month, citing “significant development pressures in this region of Virginia” as well as the fact that last year, the land was listed for sale.

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News

Graduating Mount Vernon student heads to West Point, inspired by father’s military service

By Mary Stachyra Lopez
Audrey Ortiz-Peterson, a Mount Vernon High School senior, will head to West Point this fall (Staff photo by Mary Stachyra Lopez)

When Audrey Ortiz-Peterson was in middle school, she wanted to follow in her father’s footsteps by joining the military someday. His suggestion to start running for fun, though, was a lot less appealing.

“I was not a fan,” Ortiz-Peterson, a senior at Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria, recalled. “It was not very fun to me.”

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