Fairfax County police believe a driver might’ve been speeding when she fatally crashed on Old Keene Mill Road in Springfield on Tuesday (June 9).
Charity McGhee, a 49-year-old resident of Alexandria, was driving a Toyota Camry east on Old Keene Mill Road when the sedan appears to have veered off the roadway “and struck a guardrail” near Tiverton Drive, the Fairfax County Police Department said in an update yesterday.
Hate Incidents at Thoreau Middle School — “A Northern Virginia father said he’s sad and angry after two classmates at Thoreau Middle School in Vienna allegedly targeted his daughter with drawings of swastikas. He said he decided to come forward after seeing a News4 story last week about another student at that school who said he was called the N-word multiple times and had water dumped on his head.” [NBC4]
No ICE Reforms in Federal Funding Bill – “The Republican-controlled House on Tuesday narrowly passed a roughly $70 billion immigration enforcement funding bill” that will extend through the end of President Donald Trump’s term. Fairfax County’s “Rep. James Walkinshaw … told Morning Edition that Democrats unsuccessfully pushed for changes such as limits on face coverings, body camera requirements and clearer use-of-force standards.” [NPR]
Metrobus Detours for UFC Event — Starting at 10 p.m. tonight “through Monday at 6am, road closures in support of the Freedom250 UFC event will cause bus detours” on several Metrobus routes, including the F19 Mount Vernon Estate Express from southeastern Fairfax into D.C. The bout is scheduled to take place on the White House lawn this Sunday (June 14). [WMATA/Bluesky]
Va. Residents Seek to Halt UFC Fight — “The Justice Department on Tuesday urged a federal judge to reject a lawsuit seeking to stop the White House’s Ultimate Fighting Championship event scheduled for this weekend.” The lawsuit was filed this past weekend by the Public Integrity Project, which is representing “a political activist and Vietnam veteran” from Virginia. [ABC News]
More Damage Found to Potomac Pipe — “DC Water is once again working to repair a damaged section of the Potomac Interceptor. The utility says crews discovered corrosion and broken supports in another area of the pipe in Potomac, Maryland, on Tuesday.” The issue was found in different section from the one that collapsed in January, “triggering a massive sewage spill into the Potomac River.” [WUSA9]
Interactive Art Installed in Annandale — “The ‘Conversation Bench,’ installed by Community Art for Everyone (CAFE) on June 8, is part of the Art in Daily Spaces project.” Located in the Eileen Garnett Civic Space at 7200 Columbia Pike, “it consists of two attached pink-and-blue chairs facing in opposite directions with a glass screen between them.” [Annandale Today]
Fairfax City Redevelopment Proposed — “A proposal to replace four office buildings on Chain Bridge Road with a mixed-use development of apartments, office space, retail and structured parking moved through another review step Monday during a Fairfax City Planning Commission work session.” [Patch]
Public Health Center Closing Tomorrow — “Services offered at the Fairfax County Health Department’s West Springfield Public Health Center (located in the Cary Building at 8136 Old Keene Mill Road in Springfield) are being transitioned to the Franconia-Springfield Public Health Center. The last day for client services at West Springfield is June 12, 2026.” [Fairfax County Health Department]
Students Succeed in Problem-Solving Competition — Seven fourth-grade students from Forestville Elementary School in Great Falls are celebrating after finishing in third place at the Odyssey of the Mind World Finals. Held at Iowa State University from May 27-30, the competition challenged 54 teams from eight different countries “to solve technical problems in creative ways.” [FCPS]
It’s Thursday — Expect mostly sunny weather with a high of 96°F and heat index values reaching 104°F. There’s a 20% chance of showers and thunderstorms after 3 pm. Night will be mostly cloudy, with a low of 73°F and a 30% chance of showers and thunderstorms. [NWS]
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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.
Good Wednesday 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 — Jun 10, 2026.
Here is what’s going on Thursday throughout the county, from our event calendar.
Expect mostly sunny weather with a high near 95 degrees and heat index values reaching up to 103. There will be a west wind blowing at 5 to 8 mph. Thursday night will see a chance of showers and thunderstorms, primarily before midnight, with mostly cloudy skies and a low around 73. The west wind will drop to 3 to 5 mph, and there is a 40% chance of precipitation. See more from Weather.gov.
The MonumentCam screenshot above is used with permission of the Trust for the National Mall and courtesy of EarthCam.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to discuss the day’s happenings in the comments.
The Fairfax City Council has unanimously approved an updated noise ordinance that clarifies the maximum possible sound levels, tweaks the hours the law is applicable, and gives the city more ability to enforce noise violations — including a new criminal penalty intended for rare cases.
Passed at yesterday’s city council meeting, the ordinance expands prohibitions on certain noises that are currently banned from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. Starting July 15, restrictions will change to be in effect from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. daily.
SPEAKERS
Pat Herrity, Springfield District Supervisor
Arthur Purves – FCTA President
Meal: $50, including tip, taxes and salad.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors has approved what amounts to a pilot program that will look at the impacts of reducing some road speeds from 25 to 20 mph.
Board members voted 10-0 yesterday (Tuesday) to take advantage of powers delegated by the General Assembly in 2024, giving localities the power to reduce speed limits on certain roadways under control of the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT).
A Reston company that makes technology for satellites has zeroed in on Merrifield for an expansion.
Scout Space will open a 2,650-square-foot manufacturing facility in the still-industrial area south of the Dunn Loring Metro station, while maintaining its existing headquarters in the Summit office buildings at 2002 Edmund Halley Drive.
Reston residents will have many free ways to get out of the house and enjoy the outdoors as part of Play All Day VA celebrations, which fall on Father’s Day this year.
As a part of a statewide initiative to get residents active in their own communities, Reston Association is offering a number of activities at its facilities that are free or reduced in price on June 21, the longest day of the year.
Fairfax County residents still have plenty of opportunities to commemorate the nation’s 250th birthday with reflection, celebration and an eye toward the future.
“It’s amazing to look at our plans for June, [and] just wait until you see July and the rest of the year,” Elizabeth Maurer, chair of the Fairfax County 250th Commission, said when briefing the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday (Tuesday).
Fairfax County planners want to expedite their review process for public school facilities with several projects on the horizon.
The county Planning Commission’s schools committee held a meeting to discuss Fairfax County Public Schools’ upcoming capital projects on June 4.
