By KEVIN FREKING and STEPHEN GROVES Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pressure to end the second-longest federal government shutdown is gaining new urgency this week as millions of Americans face the prospect of losing food assistance, more federal workers miss their first full paycheck and recurring delays at airports snarl travel plans.
Hundreds of volunteers congregated at sites across Northern Virginia on Saturday (Oct. 25) to collect, sort and distribute donations to local school food pantries.
Timed to coincide with National Make a Difference Day, the sorting events were organized by the nonprofit Food for Neighbors to help the many students in the region who struggle with getting consistent access to food — a challenge expected to worsen as the federal government shutdown approaches a month in length.
A quarterly survey of Northern Virginia business leaders shows an increasing level of concern about the near-term future of the region’s economy.
Just under half the 120 business leaders surveyed — 49% — foresee the economy declining either “slowly” or “significantly” over the next six months, according to results released yesterday (Thursday) by the Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and Pinkston for the fourth quarter of 2025.
Affording groceries, already a challenge for many households in the D.C. region, could become an even greater obstacle next month for thousands of Fairfax County residents with the suspension of federal food benefits.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as SNAP, is expected to pause payments at the end of next week unless Congress and President Donald Trump resolve the budget standoff that has closed the federal government since Oct. 1.
An employee of the U.S. State Department has been accused of unlawfully storing more than 1,000 classified documents at his Vienna home.
Federal prosecutors arrested and charged Ashley J. Tellis earlier this month with one felony count of unlawfully retaining national defense information.
Hundreds of Fairfax County residents are expected to hit the streets tomorrow (Saturday) as part of a nationwide protest movement opposing the Trump administration.
Though the main event will take place at noon near the National Mall in D.C., a dozen rallies are also planned across the county for this year’s second “No Kings Day of Action,” many of them organized by local chapters of the grassroots, liberal activist network Indivisible.
By FATIMA HUSSEIN, JOEY CAPPELLETTI, JESSE BEDAYN and SAFIYAH RIDDLE Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — With every passing day of the government shutdown, hundreds of thousands of federal employees furloughed or working without pay face mounting financial strain. And now they are confronting new uncertainty with the Trump administration’s promised layoffs.
Fairfax County leaders are voicing concern that proposed Trump administration’s cuts in homeland security grants could have a major local impact.
“It is a significant hit to our public safety agencies,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff McKay said at the board’s meeting on Tuesday (Oct. 14). “We will be very loud and outspoken about it.”
A Reston-based information technology company may lay off nearly 100 people by the end of this year.
Citing “uncertainty around the future of some contracts with federal agencies,” the contractor Peraton issued layoff notices to 92 employees earlier this month, the Washington Business Journal reported last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House budget office said Friday that mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
Russ Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said on the social media site X that the “RIFs have begun,” referring to reduction-in-force plans aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
