Editorial: For Nonpartisan Redistricting
Virginia is a purple state, gerrymandered to bleed red.
Consider that in statewide elections, Virginia voters have chosen Democrats in the last two presidential elections, for U.S. Senate, for Governor, Lieutenant Governor and Attorney General. Almost none of these elections was by a wide margin, but it’s clear that Virginia is a purple state leaning blue.
Editorial: Few Thoughts on General Assembly Action
Yes, allow homeschoolers access to programs in public school.
It’s possible that this is not the right bill exactly, and in general, we favor local control. But it is wrongheaded of public schools to force families into a take-it-or-leave-it position.
Pet Photos, Stories for Pet Connection
The Pet Connection, a bi-annual themed edition, will publish Feb. 26. We invite you to send us stories about your pets, photos of you and/or your family with your cats, dogs, hamsters, snakes, lizards, frogs, rabbits, or whatever other creatures share your home or yard with you.
Editorial: Extend Health Coverage in Virginia
Standing on what is essentially scorched earth, Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly have condemned hundreds of thousands of poor Virginians to living without health coverage even though it would be fully funded by Federal money for the next three years, and with Virginia paying 10 percent after five years.
Editorial: Looking to Hear from Readers in New Year
As local, weekly newspapers, the Connection’s mission is to deliver news readers need close to home, to help readers enjoy great local places and events, to advocate for community good, to call attention to unmet needs, to provide a forum for dialogue on local concerns, and to celebrate and record milestones and events in community and people’s lives. To succeed at any of that, we need your help.
Editorial: Happy Holidays, Safely
SoberRide safety net, 1-800-200-TAXI.
Holiday party season is well under way, along with winter weather advisories. It’s up to individuals to make good decisions about celebrations that involve alcohol and how to handle transportation.
Editorial: Who Will Be Hurt?
Innovations, changes and cuts designed to help the budget should be subject to analysis of how they will affect those on the short end of the economic and digital divide.
As Fairfax County faces a tight budget year and Fairfax County Public Schools consider significant cuts, clearly some changes are going to affect services on the ground. As various proposals emerge, there should be some specific analysis of how changes, innovations and cuts would affect the poorest one-third or so of the county’s residents specifically.
Editorial: Holidays Are About Giving in Potomac
So many needs, so many great organizations, give locally where your heart leads you.
The holidays are about giving. They are about children. The holidays are about sharing, about joy, about alleviating suffering for others. The holidays are about being thankful and about faith and appreciation.
Editorial: Holidays Are About Giving
So many needs, so many great organizations, give locally where your heart leads you.
The holidays are about giving. They are about children. The holidays are about sharing, about joy, about alleviating suffering for others. The holidays are about being thankful and about faith and appreciation.
Editorial: Shop Locally, Shop in McLean
Small business Saturday isn’t enough; don’t wait until then, and don’t stop after that.
An effort to support locally owned businesses has resulted in the recognition of Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year that is Nov. 30. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is known as a dedicated day of national zeal for shopping. Presumably the next day shoppers can focus on local shopping.
Editorial: Proof Every Vote Matters
Elections have consequences, including very close races.
Tuesday morning, a full week after an Election Day that included races that were more suspenseful than anticipated (and also many races that were foregone conclusions), we are probably more than a month away from certifying the winner of the Virginia Attorney General race.
Editorial: Be Part of Children’s Connection
Call for student artwork and writing; deadline Dec. 6.
During the last week of each year, The Connection devotes its entire issue to the creativity of local students and children.
Editorial: Halloween Party Safety Net
Make plans for a safe celebration; SoberRide safety net for those over 21.
Halloween is now a major holiday for adults, especially young adults, and also one of the major holidays each year that involve partying with alcohol and the risks of drinking and driving.
Editorial: About the Connection
As your local, weekly newspaper, the Great Falls Connection’s mission is to bring the local news you need, to gather information about the best things in and near your community, to advocate for community good, to provide a forum for dialogue on local concerns, and to celebrate and record milestones and events in the community and people’s lives.
Editorial: Share Wisdom With Newcomers and Others
Almanac’s Newcomers and Community Guide publishes in late August.
Our Newcomers and Community Guides, Insider's Editions, will publish the last week of August. What tips do you have for someone getting to know your community? We're hoping to share the places, activities, events, organizations and volunteer opportunities your neighbors might not know about.
Whitman Music Celebrates 50 Years
180 alumni plus more than 400 in attendance to celebrate.
Only three. Walt Whitman High School, in 50 years, has had just three principals, just three instrumental music directors and just three choral directors.
Editorial: Connection Guide to Parks Wins ‘Best in Show’
Investigative reporting, in depth coverage, education writing, photography, art, design, sports, garner Virginia Press Association honors.
The Connection Newspapers won dozens of awards from the Virginia Press Association, with winners announced on Saturday, April 20, in Norfolk.
Editorial: More Obstacles to Transparency
General Assembly puts more information out of public reach, but other factors also limit access.
The first paragraph of the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, passed by the General Assembly in 1968, states that all public records "shall be presumed open." It doesn’t add, “except when we don’t want to,” although that provision does seem to be available in many cases. Individual government entities have a variety of ways of making it hard for the public to access public information.
Editorial: Say Yes to Health Coverage
Governor, state panel must accept coverage for 400,000 Virginians without health insurance.
More than 140,000 residents of Fairfax County have no health insurance. That’s more than 13 percent of the slightly more than 1 million people who live in the wealthiest county in the nation. Arlington and Alexandria have similar percentages of uninsured.
WMCCA Salutes Brickyard Coalition’s Success
Future of Brickyard site still unclear.
After two years of civic activism, legal action on multiple fronts, political outreach, public education and fundraising through bake sales and barn dances, members of the Brickyard Coalition came to last week’s West Montgomery County Citizens Association to talk about their success.
Editorial: Hybrid Hijinks
Discouraging innovation in high-tech Virginia.
Consider this as a possible scenario (although perhaps we should have saved this for April 1): Fewer people are smoking, and many of those who do are smoking less. Virginia’s cigarette tax, the lowest of any state at 30 cents a pack, is a declining revenue source. Higher cigarette taxes are proven to reduce smoking. Under current logic in the commonwealth, there would be two courses of action to raise revenue: a) cut the cigarette tax, and b) charge non-smokers a fee to make up the difference and to compensate for the fact that they don’t pay cigarette taxes.
Editorial: On Transportation
Compromise, in the works, should include indexing the gas tax to inflation.
Virginia needs more options, not fewer, in developing revenue to pay for roads and transportation. Compromise on a plan to increase transportation revenue should not include making Virginia the only state in the nation without a gas tax. The current, ridiculously low gas tax should be indexed to inflation. The last thing the commonwealth needs is to do away with an existing, major source of money for roads.
Editorial: Extreme, But Brief, Volunteering
More than 150 volunteers needed to survey chronic homeless for three days in February.
The real solution to homelessness is housing. This week in Northern Virginia, a point-in-time survey will record all of the “literally homeless” individuals and families in the region. Last year, on Jan. 25, 2012, there were 1,534 people who were literally homeless in the Fairfax-Falls Church Community; 697 of them were single individuals and 837 were people in families. A third of the total number of homeless were children. Nearly 60 percent of the adult members of the homeless families were employed.
Editorial: Expanding Medicaid Good for Virginia
Real health coverage for an additional 400,000 people is in reach.
Virginia has an opportunity to expand Medicaid in a way that could extend health coverage to more than 400,000 residents who currently have no health insurance while the Federal government picks up the tab; Virginia would pay 10 percent of the additional cost after 2020.
Editorial: Transportation Money
Eliminating the gas tax makes no sense.
Virginia, and especially Northern Virginia, is woefully short on funds for transportation. One reason is that its gas tax, a logical way to fund transportation infrastructure, is one of the lowest in the nation, and has remained flat since the ’80s, since it is not indexed for inflation. So the buying power of the gas tax has been dwindling.
Editorial: More Fodder for Comedy?
2013 session of the Virginia General Assembly will tackle serious issues.
The 2013 30-day session of the Virginia General Assembly begins on Wednesday, Jan. 9. We can only hope that the various legislative proposals do not provide as much fodder for comedy as last session. The Virginia House of Delegates and the Senate of Virginia will offer live streaming video of the 2013 Legislative Sessions, and it is well worth tuning in once or twice.
Happy New Year, Keep in Touch
Reflecting and reinforcing the sense of community.
As local, weekly newspapers, the Connection’s mission is to bring the news you need about your community, to give you the information you need to enjoy the best things in and near your community, to advocate for community good, to call attention to unmet needs, to provide a forum for dialogue on local concerns, and to celebrate and record milestones and events in community and people’s lives. To succeed at any of that, we need your help.
Editorial: Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas
Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas
We are a nation of immigrants, to invoke the title of John F. Kennedy’s posthumously published book; undeniably a nation descended from immigrants and a nation greatly augmented by immigration. From this perspective, with the first immigrants motivated by the search for religious freedom, even Christmas is a religious holiday of immigrants.
Editorial: Holiday Revels With a Safety Net
A serious backup, but seriously, make a plan ahead of time.
You know the drill, the five-to-seven or six-to-eight drop-in happy hour, you've been invited to five of them, and you could attend an infinite number of these between now and the second day of 2013. And there are many other varieties of holiday festivities, many involving more than a drink or two. So make a plan.
Editorial: Learning in a Global Community
Students in Fairfax County speak 160 languages.
This week our ongoing series about immigration in Fairfax County takes a look at county schools, and some of the joys and challenges of having a diverse student body that speaks as many as 160 different languages at home.
2012 People of the Year Honored
More than 80 people gathered at Normandie Farm restaurant in Potomac on Thursday, Nov. 15 to honor the 2012 People of the Year, as named by the Potomac Chamber of Commerce.
Editorial: Diversity Growing
Tune in to our series on immigration.
This week, the Connection kicks off a series about immigration, diversity and the growing population of foreign-born residents in Fairfax County. County reporter Victoria Ross opens with a story that captures vignettes and statistics of the changing population. It is a topic consistent with the original Thanksgiving story. More than 28 percent of Fairfax County's population is foreign born; that's 317,000 residents.
Editorial: Shop Locally, Give Locally
Small business Saturday isn't enough; don't wait until then, and don't stop after that.
An effort to support locally owned businesses has resulted in the recognition of Small Business Saturday, the Saturday after Thanksgiving. This year that is Nov. 24. Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, is a day of national zeal for shopping. Presumably the next day shoppers can focus on local shopping.
Be Part of the Children's Almanac
Call for student artwork and writing; deadline Dec. 3.
During the last week of each year, The Almanac devotes its entire issue to the creativity of local students and children. The results are always remarkable. It is a keepsake edition for many families.
Editorial: Cancer Awareness
Success with breast cancer awareness should help other cancers.
October is breast cancer awareness month. Anyone connected to media of any variety already knows this. A massive marketing success, we all know that pink shows support for breast cancer prevention, especially in October.
How To Register, Vote and Vote Early
Election Day is Nov. 6, but you can vote as early as Sept. 21.
How important is it for Virginia voters to turn out on or before Nov. 6? As a critical “battleground” state, Virginia will be key in determining who will be the next President of the United States. Who will represent Virginia in the U.S. Senate is also too close to call. Since polling shows that there are very few undecided voters in the Commonwealth, every eligible voter will want to be sure to cast a ballot.
Opinion: Mindless Slashing
Automatic cuts set to kick in January would harm Northern Virginia more than any other region.
While reducing the federal deficit is critical to the nation's economic health in the long run, the knee jerk, slash and burn method based only on cuts that is coming at us like a freight train will do immense damage to the economy nationally. But no place would feel the pain more intensely than Northern Virginia.
Editorial: About the Almanac, a Connection Newspaper
The paper you're reading, the Potomac Almanac is one of 15 papers published by the independent, locally owned Local Media Connection LLC, serving the suburbs of Metropolitan Washington in Northern Virginia and Potomac.
Editorial: Starting School Prepared
First day of school is Sept. 4; local nonprofits provide school supplies and weekend food.
With school beginning in a few weeks, area charitable organizations have been collecting contributions of new backpacks, calculators, other school supplies, money and gift cards and winter coats to help the tens of thousands of truly needy Northern Virginia students.
Editorial: Readers Respond on TJ Admissions
"Stop making smart 8th graders feel inferior because they are not admitted."
Readers responded to last week's editorial, which cited a civil rights complaint about the apparent lack of access to gifted and talented programs and admission to Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology.
Editorial: Leaving Millions on the Table
Virginia should embrace opportunity for more health care coverage for poor residents.
Chances are that if you are reading this, you have employer-provided health insurance. While you might worry about the young adults in your family or the lower wage workers in your organization, you also know that if you are sick, you can go to the doctor.
Editorial: Every Vote in Virginia Will Count
Top presidential donor zip codes in this area show Virginia is purple; Romney or Obama to be decided on Election Day.
If you wonder if presidential politics really matters in this area, consider that Northern Virginia and suburban Maryland hold some of the top zip codes for contributions to the two major party candidates.
Editorial: New Laws, Assault on Freedom?
oting restrictions, abortion restrictions, DUI restrictions, fewer gun restrictions, more go into effect July.
A plethora of new laws will go into effect in the Commonwealth on July 1, including restrictive new procedures for voting, and the loosening of multiple gun regulations.
Editorial: Case Closed. Why the Secrecy?
No reason for police to exercise "blanket" approach, shielding every document in every case.
Connection readers know that we respect and appreciate our public safety professionals.
Spring Horse Trials
Hundreds of horses and riders, including at least one rider headed to London on the shortlist for the Olympics — Allison Springer — converged at Bittersweet Field this weekend, June 16-17, for the Seneca Valley Pony Club Horse Trials.
Editorial: Summer Projects
Reader input needed for community guides, Pet Connection.
The summer is in full swing at the Connection, with many interns and staff members focused on some light and some more serious summer projects.
Editorial: Partnerships That Make a Difference
Strategic partnerships with businesses, community organizations, benefit public good and fill gaps since government cannot do it all.
A few weeks ago, the Connection was lucky enough to be included in a group of Fairfax County organizations honored for their efforts in giving back to the community.
Editorial: Primary Voting
Statewide primary on Tuesday, June 12.
On Tuesday, June 12, Virginia will hold a statewide Republican primary for U.S. Senate, plus numerous more local primaries for U.S. House of Representatives and localities.
Safety Advice
The boat ramp into Seneca Creek at Riley's Lock is the the busiest boat ramp in Montgomery County, and on Memorial Day, a steady stream of people with motor boats, jet skis, canoes and kayaks used the ramp to begin their outings on the Potomac River. Corporal Daniel Yankie of the Maryland Natural Resources Police took the early season opportunity to remind boaters about wearing personal floatation devices (PFDs) and other safety measures. He checked registrations and chatted with boaters coming out of the water on Monday evening, May 28, writing a few citations and warnings. Yankie noted that the stretch of the Potomac River in Montgomery County that runs south of Blockhouse Point is the most dangerous area along the river, with the most drownings. The river northwest of Riley's Lock is calm and flat. The resources police also look for boaters who might be impaired from drinking during their excursions on the river. For more information on water trails, the location of boat ramps and boating regulations in Maryland, see http://www.dnr.state.md.us/boating.
Editorial: Surviving through Summer
Helping teens.
It is that time again, the time from proms to graduation, and all the celebrations that come with it. It's lovely to think, from a distance, that this is a happy and uncomplicated time for teens as the school year winds down, many look forward to college in the fall and a summer of internships or other interesting activities.