Author: Scott McCaffrey

A Northern Virginia native, Scott McCaffrey has four decades of reporting, editing and newsroom experience in the local area plus Florida, South Carolina and the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. He spent 26 years as editor of the Sun Gazette newspaper chain. For Local News Now, he covers government and civic issues in Arlington, Fairfax County and Falls Church.

Countywide

FCPD plans countywide expansion of efforts to combat shoplifting, retail theft

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax Assistant Police Chief Bob Blakley (screenshot via Fairfax County)

Fairfax County police aim to export successes they’ve had fighting retail theft in Tysons to other corridors across the county.

Despite targeted efforts, “shoplifting remains our Achilles’ heel,” Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis told the Board of Supervisors during a Safety and Security Committee meeting last week.

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Countywide

Fairfax County to rewrite 25-year-old massage therapy regulations

By Scott McCaffrey
A massage-therapy establishment on Route 7 (staff photo by Scott McCaffrey)

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors signaled initial support on Tuesday (May 20) for moving forward with the first rewrite of the county’s massage therapy regulations in a quarter-century.

Staff have proposed shifting regulatory oversight from the county’s Department of Cable & Consumer Services to the Health Department. Individual massage therapists would no longer need to obtain a county license or pay the associated fee, as they’re already licensed by the Virginia Department of Health Professions.

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Countywide

Dulles Airport sees spring travel surge, setting stage for busy summer

By Scott McCaffrey
Travelers in a security line at Dulles International Airport in April 2025 (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

An especially strong March and a record-setting day in April seem to foreshadow a positive summer for Dulles International Airport.

The airport recorded 1,103,722 passenger enplanements this past March — its second-best passenger total ever for that month, according to Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority (MWAA) Executive Vice President and Chief Revenue Officer Chryssa Westerlund.

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News

New data may help Fairfax with flood mitigation, lower insurance rates

By Scott McCaffrey
A flooded neighborhood road (courtesy DPWES)

Fairfax County leaders now have a new tool in addressing the flood-prone properties in the county.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously accepted a new report last Tuesday (May 13) updating and detailing the county’s list of “repetitive-loss areas” — properties that have seen two or more claims of over $1,000 in losses through the National Flood Insurance Program, or NFIP.

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Countywide

Fairfax County police say they’re on track to meet staffing goals by 2030

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax County Police Chief Kevin Davis (screenshot via Fairfax County)

The Fairfax County Police Department is on track to meet staffing goals by the end of the decade, if it can maintain recent hiring momentum.

“We feel really comfortable about where we are,” Police Chief Kevin Davis said in a briefing for the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors’ Safety and Security Committee on Tuesday (May 20).

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Countywide

Fairfax County reports progress on achieving ‘Zero Waste’ goals, with caveats

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax County government trash and recycling efforts (via Fairfax County staff)

Fairfax County is seeing mixed results in its efforts to eliminate solid waste.

“We’ve made progress,” Braddock District Supervisor James Walkinshaw, chair of supervisors’ environment committee, said after the Board of Supervisors received an update on the county’s Zero Waste program on Tuesday (May 20).

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Around Town

Restaurant, retail options at Dulles Airport expanding again to meet growth

By Scott McCaffrey
Conceptual design of 2 Silos Brewing at Washington Dulles International Airport (courtesy Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority)

Some restaurants whose names may be familiar to Fairfax County residents will be cropping up at Dulles International Airport in the coming months.

The airport, which sits just west of the border in Loudoun County, plans to revitalize and expand its shopping and dining experience with eight new venues over the coming year. Another three retail tenants will be added at Reagan National Airport.

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Countywide

D.C.-area leaders support more bus-system collaboration, but remain uneasy over specifics

By Scott McCaffrey
A Metrobus at the Tysons Metro station (staff photo by Angela Woolsey)

D.C.-area leaders continue to find common ground elusive when it comes to increased collaboration between the region’s bus systems.

While the possibility of merging all local bus systems has already been taken off the table, the DMV Moves task force is still searching for the sweet spot where systems could work better among themselves and with Metrobus.

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News

Proposal could allow mixed-use development in ‘triangle’ near Falls Church border

By Scott McCaffrey
Beyer site concept plan (via Fairfax County)

Plans to redevelop a key parcel straddling the boundary between Fairfax County and Falls Church City are about to get a boost.

The Fairfax County Planning Commission signaled last week that it plans to recommend that the Board of Supervisors authorize staff to study amending the comprehensive plan to allow mixed-use development on a 2.4-acre parcel fronting Route 7 located on the Fairfax side of the border.

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Countywide

Fairfax leaders desire local autonomy, not regional sales tax, for boosting Metro funding

By Scott McCaffrey
Fairfax's Jeff McKay and Maryland member Joe McAndrew at the May 16, 2025, DMV Moves meeting (screenshot via WMATA)

In part due to opposition from Fairfax County leaders, the regional DMV Moves task force appears to have abandoned a proposal for a regional sales tax to provide additional Metro funding.

A collaborative effort between the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG), the DMV Moves task force has been working for a year on developing funding alternatives.

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