Author: Scott McCaffrey

Eleven local high-school students have received scholarships for their success in the 2023 James C. Macdonald Performing Arts Scholarship Competition, sponsored by the McLean Community Center.

The competition began with a preliminary audition in February and culminated with final competitions on stage at the Alden Theatre at the community center on April 19.

Fairfax County’s jobless rate stayed steady in March, according to new data, mirroring a trend across most of the region.

With 645,382 in the civilian workforce and 16,012 looking for jobs, Fairfax’s March unemployment rate of 2.4 percent was unchanged from February while being up from 2.3 percent in a year before.

A slightly larger percentage, among those Virginians who could vote, participated in the 2022 mid-term elections than their counterparts across the nation, according to new Census Bureau data.

The federal government compares states using the percentage of the “CVAP” (citizen voting-age population): those who are eligible to register and vote.

Fairfax County election officials are seeking officers of election for the June 20 Democratic primary as well as four additional elections running through November 2024.

“We are looking for officers who live in Fairfax County and can serve for a full day, 5 a.m. to approximately 9 p.m., for which you are paid $250,” election officials said.

The Virginia Association of Counties (VACo) is advising its member localities across the commonwealth to hunker down and take a very close look and see if any measures they enacted during the first 15 months of COVID might be in peril following a Virginia Supreme Court ruling.

At issue is the March 23 court opinion invalidating Fairfax County’s zoning rewrite – known as zMOD – because its adoption in early 2021 did not follow public-comment rules still in place at the time and not changed by the General Assembly later that year.

Fairfax County Public Schools officials have claimed vindication from the most serious concerns raised by a failure to notify, in a timely way, students who had been selected for honors by the National Merit Scholarship Corp.

But at the same time, Superintendent Michelle Reid said new safeguards have been put in place to ensure that delays in notification at the school level will not be repeated.

Fairfax County’s jobless rate showed a decline from January to February, mirroring a trend across most of Northern Virginia.

With 636,138 holding jobs in the civilian workforce and 15,527 looking for them, Fairfax’s unemployment rate of 2.4 percent in February was down from 2.7 percent in January and off from the 2.5-percent rate reported in February 2022.

He isn’t departing the Fairfax County Planning Commission any time soon, but an era did come to an end when Peter Murphy recently turned over the chairman’s gavel to Phillip Niedzielski-Eichner.

It was a gavel Murphy, who has represented the Springfield District on the Planning Commission since the early days of the Reagan administration, had controlled since 1989.

The 20 million or more passengers traveling through Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport in any given year have James Wilding to thank for the doors still being open.

It was Wilding, among others, who pushed back against efforts by the U.S. Secret Service to shutter the airport permanently in the aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. That draconian security proposal came close to success – too close for local business and political leaders – before then-President George W. Bush stepped in and halted it.

It came as no surprise, but Fairfax County’s jobless rate joined the rest of Northern Virginia in ticking upward to start the year.

With 627,732 county residents counted in the civilian workforce and 17,591 looking for jobs, Fairfax’s unemployment rate of 2.7 percent in January was up from 2.5 a month before.