News

Hayfield Secondary School has received a temporary injunction that will allow the powerhouse football team to play in the postseason.

The Virginia High School League confirmed that an appeal filed in Fairfax County Circuit [Court] by Hayfield parents regarding the reinstatement of the Hayfield football team to the league’s Class 6 Region C football playoffs has been granted. The VHSL had no additional comment.


Countywide

Inova Fairfax Hospital plans to open the region’s first EmPATH (Emergency Psychiatric Assessment, Treatment, and Healing) unit for those experiencing a mental health crisis.

The unit, which opens to patients Nov. 19, was created in response to community need for enhanced behavioral health services, Inova said in a news release.


News

Hayfield Secondary School has lost its final appeal to overturn a two-year postseason ban in football.

The final decision was made by a three-person Virginia High School League subcommittee, which heard from both Hayfield and the league Thursday via Zoom before rendering its decision.


Countywide

The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for high fire danger Friday across much of Northern Virginia.

The warning is in effect from noon to 6 p.m. for Arlington, Alexandria, Fairfax, eastern Loudoun, northeast Prince William and northern Fauquier.


News

An appeals committee for the Virginia High School League is reviewing and will soon make its decision regarding whether Hayfield High School is eligible for the postseason in 2024 and 2025.

The committee met Monday to hear from the Virginia High School League and Hayfield officials.


Around Town

In his 15th year, and as the Fairfax Symphony Orchestra begins its 67th season, Music Director and Conductor Christopher Zimmerman knows what’s made the symphony flourish, and he says playing new music by living composers has been one of the leading tickets.

“The FSO and I have expanded the repertoire that we present quite considerably, particularly in the area of new music by living composers,” Zimmerman said. “From the beginning of my tenure, we have performed brand new pieces and pieces by the great, well-known composers that are perhaps a little off the beaten track, as well as those on the beaten track, of course.”


News

For Ebony Belt, the founder of Maryland-based nonprofit Divine by Design, success is serving disadvantaged youth by being the person she needed when she was growing up – especially when it comes to the mental health of young women.

Now, with intentions to partner with the nonprofit United Community by the end of this year, Belt hopes to bring Divine by Design’s mentoring, counseling and community service to Fairfax County.


News

The FBI on Tuesday raided the Reston office of Carahsoft, an IT services and software government contractor with about 2,000 employees.

The FBI confirmed “court-authorized law enforcement activity on Sunset Hills Road this morning.” The bureau declined further comment.


Countywide

Fairfax County Public Schools Adult and Community Education is launching more than 250 new courses for the trades, construction, IT and health care.

The new courses include in-person, hybrid and asynchronous offerings in line with the program’s focus on “new collar” workforce development, according to a school system news release. New collar defines high-paying professions that combine technical skills with specialized education rather than a four-year degree. Those roles are found in industries with high demand for workers in Northern Virginia — especially the trades, health care and technology — according to Paul Steiner, head administrator of FCPS Adult and Community Education, also known as ACE.


News

It’s not every day Spiderman gets a request to draw Sonic the Hedgehog on the outside of a hospital window 10 or 12 stories off the ground.

It turns out that Spiderman, as portrayed by Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue Technician II Kelly VanWingerden, is not much of an artist, Prince William County fire and rescue officials said in a news release.


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