The Fairfax County Police Department has charged a Fair Oaks man in connection with his wife’s death after she died from gunshot wounds last night (July 12).
Leland Jameson, 64, has been charged with second-degree murder and use of a firearm in commission of a felony. He is being held at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center without bond.
A Woodbridge man could spend as many as 15 years in prison after pleading guilty last week to possessing a gun despite having a felony conviction on his record, the U.S. Justice Department says.
Khari Wheeler, 27, was arrested on Feb. 18 of this year after a loaded gun “fell from his person” while he was allegedly attempting to flee Fairfax County police officers at an apartment community in Herndon, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.
Nearly four in five parents say their child brings home mostly B’s or better. We built a K-8 math program, and when we assess children, about 8 in 10 turn out to be at least a full grade behind in some area of math.
In our first study, about 6 in 10 of the children we assessed were two or more grades behind somewhere, usually in one or two areas.
Is our test simply hard? No. Our results are close to those of the federal NAEP test, which finds only about 1 in 4 US eighth graders proficient in math.
A child who has learned this week’s steps can get the worksheet right without knowing why they work. That is often enough for an A or a B, until a test asks for more.
Homework looks fine too, since it practices the topic just taught. Neither shows the missing earlier skill, so extra practice goes to this week’s topic, not the gap underneath.
Even Virginia’s state test can reassure too easily: a 2026 federal study put its 2022 fourth-grade “proficient” bar in math among the nation’s lowest.
Math builds on itself, so a missing skill does not stay small. Kindergartners we assess are almost never behind, but from third grade on, more than 9 in 10 have a gap somewhere. Research agrees: children who start behind tend to fall further behind, and fifth graders’ grasp of fractions predicts their high-school algebra results.
Our second study looked at more than 10,000 answers from more than 250 children who recently signed up for Level Up, including questions from earlier grades.
The misses were not math in general: basic multiplication and division facts mostly held up. What tripped them up was a few topics from a grade or two earlier, the ones this year’s math is built on: second-grade subtraction at the end of fourth grade, fourth-grade fraction word problems at the end of fifth, and fifth-grade decimal ordering at the end of sixth.
Fractions kept coming back: among children finishing seventh grade, about 8 in 10 of those asked missed fifth-grade fraction word problems.
One child in our study, just out of fifth grade, missed a fourth-grade fraction question and its fifth-grade version. Practice started with the fourth-grade topic. Within two weeks, the child had mastered all nine of its skills, then four from the fifth-grade version.
That is the approach: find the real gaps, start at the deepest one, and practice each skill from three sides:
Identify: recognize the idea, like picking which picture shows three quarters.
Construct: build the answer yourself, like marking three quarters on a number line.
Update: Man Shot by Police Identified — Fairfax City police have publicly released the identity of a man who was shot by an officer outside the local Wawa early Saturday morning (July 11). The man, who was allegedly holding a knife at the time of the shooting, remains in the hospital in critical condition, as of noon yesterday (Sunday). [FFXnow]
Family Displaced by Lorton Fire — “A family is displaced after a fire broke out at a Lorton home Friday afternoon. Just after 1 p.m., firefighters with the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department responded to a reported house fire in the 9200 block of Blu Steel Way.” The family of six had evacuated by the time firefighters arrived, and no injuries were reported. [DC News Now]
Child Seen Dangling From Six-Story Window — “A toddler was rescued after firefighters said he was found dangling from a sixth-floor window in Seven Corners. According to Fairfax County Fire, crews were called to the 3100 block of South Manchester Street around 3:15 p.m. The firefighters used a drone to find the apartment, before they broke down the door and pulled the child to safety.” [WUSA9]
Confusion Over Cannabis Retail Sales — “Virginia’s decision to revive legal cannabis sales through the state budget instead of standalone legislation has triggered several days of confusion over the commonwealth’s marijuana laws, with lawmakers, local prosecutors, Virginia State Police and legislative officials offering differing interpretations of when key provisions take effect.” [Virginia Mercury]
Va. Allows Crossing and Stop Sign Cameras — “As Virginia communities gain the authority to use automated cameras to enforce stop-sign and pedestrian-crossing violations, privacy advocates and law enforcement officials are offering sharply different views on what the technology means for public safety and civil liberties.” Fairfax County police says they have no plans to deploy Flock Safety-affiliated cameras at crossings or stop signs, noting that the existing speed camera and license plate reader programs are separate. [Fairfax County Times]
What El Nino Could Mean for Fairfax — “A major shift is taking shape in the Pacific Ocean, and it could shape the weather Fairfax County sees through the rest of 2026 and into next winter … El Niño does not affect every region the same way, and its effect on Virginia weather is real but not as strong as in other parts of the country. Still, there are some patterns worth watching.” [Fairfax County Emergency Information]
AI Company Signs Reston Station Lease — “Virtualitics, headquartered in Pasadena since its founding in 2016, has signed a 3,000-square-foot office lease at Reston Station … according to a joint press release from the company and the development’s owner, Comstock Holding Companies. The new office places Virtualitics among the defense contractors and federal agencies concentrated in Northern Virginia — a region central to the company’s growing government business.” [Pasadena Now]
More Route 29 Lane Closures — Weather permitting, daytime and nighttime lane closures are planned on stretches of Route 29 between Union Mill Road and Fairfax County Parkway through Friday, July 24 to allow work on the years-long project to widen the road from Union Mill to Buckley’s Gate Drive. “Both daytime and nighttime drivers should expect delays and are advised to use alternate routes.” [VDOT]
It’s Monday — Expect mostly sunny skies with temperatures reaching a high of around 84°F. During the night, the weather will be mostly clear with temperatures dropping to about 65°F and a light southeast wind. [NWS]
A Fairfax City police officer shot a man who was allegedly armed with a knife at Wawa shortly after midnight today (Saturday).
City of Fairfax Police officers were dispatched to the convenience store at 9700 Fairfax Blvd at around 12:07 a.m. after 911 received a call about a man wielding a knife inside the business.
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Good Friday evening, Fairfax County. Let’s take a look back at today’s stories and a look forward to tomorrow’s event calendar.
The following articles were published earlier today — Jul 10, 2026.
Since it’s Friday, we’ve also compiled a list of the most-read articles of the week, below.
Here is what’s going on Saturday throughout the county, from our event calendar.
Here are the events planned for Sunday:
There is a 40% chance of showers and thunderstorms mainly in the afternoon, with mostly cloudy skies and a high near 85°F. Winds will be from the north at 5 to 7 mph. On Saturday night, expect a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms before 11 PM, then a slight chance of showers until midnight. The night will be mostly cloudy with a low near 68°F and a light north wind. See more from Weather.gov.
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
We hope you have a great weekend! Feel free to discuss the most-read stories of the week, the upcoming weekend events or anything else of local interest in the comments. 👋
Virginia is creating a new office focused on studying the impacts of climate change, and it will be housed at George Mason University.
Mason was authorized to host the Virginia State Climate Office by a provision in the state budget that took effect on July 1 after last-minute negotiations between Gov. Abigail Spanberger and the General Assembly. The governor ultimately signed the two-year spending plan into law on June 29 — just before the end of the fiscal year.
A Utah-based indoor golf simulator company plans to open a second location in Fairfax County, its ninth in Virginia.
Back Nine Golf has filed a permit to modify the 3,647-square-foot space at 11215 Route 29, Suite L, in the back area of the Fairfax Centre shopping plaza, near the Walmart just outside Fairfax City.
Fairfax County leaders have begun working to determine what local steps are needed to implement changes in state cannabis laws, and what regulatory powers they will have.
“We want to make sure we put in place what we need to put in place,” Board Chair Jeff McKay said at the July 7 meeting of the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use Policy Committee.
From charity 5Ks to half marathons, Fairfax County hosts a variety of races throughout each year that will get the legs and hearts pumping.
Here are the nominees for “Best Races for Runners in Fairfax” as part of our FFXnow Readers’ Choice Awards. Did we miss your favorite event below? Write them in!
Voting will close in two weeks. Be sure to cast your vote before 8:30 a.m. Friday, July 24.
A few weeks ago, we voted on the Best Golf Course in Fairfax County. The results are now official:
