Falls Church News-Press Oct 23

ogies, the emphasis is going to have to be on something other than defense,” he said.

Between 2002 and 2006, government defense contracts grew at a 10 percent annual rate in Northern Virginia, and although that growth rate slowed to three percent in the last two years, McClain said, it is still the primary driver of the regional economy.

He said that there is no indication from either major presidential candidate yet about their “outsourcing philosophy,” not-

This Monday, the Falls Church City Council is expected to approve a preliminary “memorandum of understanding” that will lead to the location of a new BJ’s Wholesale Club warehouse store in the City, construction of which could begin by next summer.

The project involves an innovative deal, including a tax revenue-sharing agreement with the new owners of the 8.4-acre site on Wilson Boulevard, until recently a Noland Oil property adjacent the small Wilson Shopping Center.

The prospective deal, tentatively struck last Friday, is being hailed as a bonanza that could add up to $1 million in annual tax revenue from an 87,800square foot store, and is the result of a dogged effort by City of Falls Church officials to find a “highest and best use” for the light industrial-zoned location.

Led by Rick Goff in the City’s Economic Development Office, the City jumped when it learned the property, the largest remaining single non-residential lot in the City’s 2.2 square miles, had been acquired by the JBG Rosenfeld Retail Company last February.

City officials became particularly alarmed when they learned JBG intended to lease the property for 20 years to Car Max, a car dealership. The revenue yield from such retail uses is among the lowest per acre at $49,000 annually, compared to the $1 million that the new BJ’s could bring.

Goff and other City officials entered into intense discussions with JBG officials, who are rep-

Continued on Page 4

Continued on Page 5

George C. Marshall High School hosted a “Buddy Boogie” last Friday as part of the school’s Best Buddies program, a club that meets every Wednesday to foster friendships between general education students and those with intellectual disabilities. Big names in attendance were Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, and Miss Teen USA, Stevi Perry, along with celebrity trainers Kristina Bakardjiev and Scott “Silk” Manning, who led the students in aerobic-style dances. For the full story and more photos, see page 8. (Photo: News-Press)

See page 26

Index

One of the region’s foremost economic forecasters warned Tuesday that Northern Virginia may be “behind the curve” in planning its next economic driver, once the defense contracts buoyed by the war in Iraq expire and the war winds down.

John McClain, senior fellow at George Mason University’s Center for Regional Analysis, said that “tunnel vision” by some of the area’s leading defense contractors may be preventing them from innovating

at a pace rivaling other areas of the country. He made his comments to the monthly luncheon of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce.

McClain said that leaders of government, industry and academia need to “put their heads together” to plan for what will sustain growth in Northern Virginia once the war in Iraq ends, or in the event that a new administration in Washington, D.C. might deemphasize the role of outsourcing government functions.

“Whether it be energy, or biomedical, or green technol-

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October 23 - 29, 2008

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The shadowy outlines of a two-ton gorilla sitting in the corner began to become visible for an instant to some attending the monthly luncheon of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce Tuesday. John McClain, senior fellow at George Mason University’s renowned Center for Regional Analysis, suggested with some prodding from the audience that Northern Virginia leaders might be “behind the curve” in planning for the region’s future, because they’ve not yet lined up the next driver of its economy once the war in Iraq winds down, and the billions in outsourced defense contracts here dry up.

As if it is not bad enough already that the global economic crisis and expected protracted slowdown will bring tough times to this region, though not as acutely compared to other areas, because of the stabilizing role of government employment here. But the advantage of Northern Virginia is also dependent on a continuation of the high level of government contracts being awarded to defenserelated businesses here, which has fueled a boom from 2002 to the present.

Two things threaten this advantage, as McClain put it. First, there is the end of the Iraq war. Second, there is the prospect of a new “philosophy,” as he put it, of government that could eschew the last 28 years’ trend toward outsourcing of government functions, altogether.

What will be the region’s next economic driver? Will it be green technology? Will it be biomedicine? McClain asked some rhetorical questions, and said that regional leaders, including political, business and academic types, will have to put their heads together and come up with a plan. But then it was asked, “What is the likelihood that Northern Virginia is already behind the curve in this, given the competition for these kinds of drivers coming from other parts of the country?” McClain conceded that the region, indeed, might already be at a relative disadvantage on this score.

If true, so much for all the plans of the Tysons Corner Task Force for all that commercial and residential density in the coming decades.

New realities, including a new administration in Washington, may change the economic climate here in a big hurry.

The region will continue to be attractive because of its proximity to the center of the federal government, and because of the distinctively pro-business posture of Virginia. But these factors alone do not suffice to fill the office space and residences already here, much less planned, without an economic driver. Presuming they’re all elected next month, Mark Warner, Gerry Connolly and Jim Moran are going to have their hands full not only getting funding for rail to Dulles, but for keeping the economic engine stoked with federal dollars in this region. It’s work that should have begun yesterday.

The Falls Church News-Press is published weekly on Thursdays and is distributed free of charge throughout the City of Falls Church and the Greater Falls Church area. Offices are at 450 W. Broad Street #321, Falls Church, VA 22046. Reproduction of this publication in whole or part is prohibited except with the written permission of the publisher. ©2008 Benton Communications Inc. The News-Press is printed on recycled paper.

Editor, The recent front-page article on the City Manager’s citywide staff meeting in the face of the economic crisis reminded me that we are truly blessed to have Wyatt Shields at the helm. He has quickly built a reputation as a straight-forward, unassuming guy that sees the larger picture and the need to keep City Hall open and running smoothly. I have an anecdote to share that proves this point.

But first, I met Wyatt years ago during a neighborhood tree planting party.

It wasn’t until we had finished the job that I learned from

someone else that he was the newly named assistant manager! If memory serves, in typical Wyatt style he shared with me that at one time he was a landscaper, but neglected to tell me his current position. But back to the current day.

During the week that Wyatt assembled City staff in the Community Center, my wife reminded me that although I had sent out the invitations for our annual Laura Drive block party, I had not yet asked the City permission to block the street. With the party less than a week away I e-mailed the City Manager’s office in a panic ask-

ing for an expedited approval.

In the press of a very full agenda was my e-mail overlooked? Of course not.

That very same morning I received both a phone call and an e-mail from city employee Matt Bodenschatz telling me that the application was already in the works and would probably be approved on time. It was.

Later that week I received a letter signed by Wyatt approving the street closure (with his usual hand-written personal note to me) and the City crews delivered the street blockades.

Over the years, these block parties have produced a tight knit community that looks out for each other and comes together in a time of crisis (9/11 and Hurricane Izzie provide examples). As a result, we know every single occupant of every house which has countless benefits to our neighborhood and the City as a whole.

It is evident that our City is in good hands.

Karl Ensign Falls Church

Editor, As the weekly edition of the Falls Church News-Press is delivered to our driveways or sidewalks I and others have been thoroughly amused with its front page headlines. Have any of these bold headlines ever been correct? The proof is in the writing and its informational gathering.

Let’s do an analysis of some of these headlines that we the citizens have seen in this year’s More Letters on Page 6

October 23 - 29, 2008

Page 3

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ing that if the next president “does a 180 degree change” from the last 28 years’ of emphasis on outsourcing, it could have the biggest impact of all on the region, as well as the nation.

That would compound the problems associated with what he said will be negative growth in the economy through 2009, with conditions not returning to “closer to normal” until 2010.

But he added that “parameters of the equation” for growth projections are changing, as people decide they don’t want to live far from their jobs, and are willing to accept higher densities and smaller houses.

That could make the Tysons Corner Task Force plans for doubling the office and residential space in the next 50 years work, he said, although the Center for Regional Analysis’ initial evaluation of the plan was that it couldn’t sustain its residential growth goals. McClain’s colleague at the Center is Dr.

October 23 - 29, 2008

Steven Fuller, who has spearheaded studies of the regional economy commissioned by the Falls Church Economic Development Authority and the Chamber of Commerce.

He said that the regional office market is “softening” as a follow-on to the housing downturn, with vacancy rates climbing from nine to 12 percent.

The housing downturn will not bottom until the last of the sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages reset to higher rates, a process that will not end before the end of the year. The problem began manifesting itself, and sub-prime mortgage lending was not curtailed until almost two years ago, he said. Since resets normally don’t kick in for two years, there are still more in the pipeline that will lead to considerable foreclosures.

Rising unemployment linked to the credit crunch and global economic slowdown will exacerbate the foreclosure problem, as well, he added.

While housing values in

the District of Columbia and inside the Beltway in Northern Virginia and Maryland have remained relatively stable, they’ve dropped dramatically in areas like Prince William County, McClain noted, making the D.C. Metropolitan Region the victim of the sixth-highest rate of housing foreclosures nationally, behind only Los Angeles, Phoenix, Miami, Las Vegas and San Francisco. This was after the region had the lowest rate of foreclosures in the entire U.S. only two years ago.

Average housing prices have declined 31 percent in Northern Virginia, and the number of homes on sale for less than $400,000 has tripled. In Prince William County, which he called “the eye of the storm” in the region, the average housing price has dipped from $415,000 to $285,000.

In the last four months in Northern Virginia, he said, 4,500 construction jobs have been lost, mostly due to the housing slowdown, along with

another 1,500 in the retail trade and 2,000 in financial services.

While the area’s unemployment rate remains the lowest in the U.S., at 4.1 percent, it is still up from 3.3 percent a year ago.

Only Houston and Dallas outperform the D.C. region, overall, in job creation, with 40,000 new jobs between September 2007 and September 2008.

Nationally, McClain said,

“2009 will be worse than 2008,” noting that (Former Federal Reserve Chairman) Alan Greenspan’s “irrational exuberance” between 2002 and 2006 created the current crisis. Job growth turned from two million annually to a net loss of 600,000 jobs in 2008. “In this national environment, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere by the D.C. region,” he said.

October 23 - 29, 2008

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Continued from Page 1

Wilson Blvd.

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Exchange. It has 170 “membership clubs” in 16 states, including locations in Fairfax, Alexandria, Woodbridge and Fredericksburg, and 6,000 employees. It offers brand name groceries and merchandise, and some stores offer optical services, gas and heating oil, vacations and car rentals. The outlets accept all manufacturer coupons.

Falls Church City Manager Wyatt Shields, in comments to the News-Press Tuesday, praised Goff and the City staff for aggressively pursuing a “highest and best use” on the site, noting that it took from February until last week to nail down the deal.

A breath of fresh air in an otherwise stagnant economic environment, the deal could begin to deliver tax revenues to the City by the next fiscal year, he said, taking some considerable pressure off what was looming as the most difficult budget year in the City’s

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resented by Falls Church City resident and former City Manager David Lasso. They urged JBG to pursue a “big box” retailer, and JBG did.

BJ’s was responsive.

But the cost of considerable site preparation, including massive soil in-fill and leveling challenges, made the prospect cost prohibitive for JBG. That realization led to the crafting of a novel financial incentive offered by the City of Falls Church in the form of a tax revenue sharing plan that will boost revenues to JBG enabling it to afford the necessary infill, retaining wall, landscaping and traffic signalization upgrades needed to make it happen.

The tentative tax sharing deal provides the first $450,000 in annual tax revenues from the store will accrue to the City.

For the next $500,000, half will go to the City and half to

the developer. All revenues over $950,000 will come to the City. The deal is proposed to be in place for a 12 year maximum.

Terms of the deal were hammered out between the City’s Economic Development Council and JBG last Friday.

It was presented to the City Council at its work session Monday night, and given the green light for a swift placement on this Monday’s business meeting agenda.

The potential tax yield from the developed site contrasts to the $250,000 per year currently coming from the location to the City, and is considered an extraordinary opportunity given the slumping economy.

BJ’s was the only “big box” retailer who expressed an interest in locating there, among a large list of stores originally contacted.

BJ’s is a Natick, Massachusetts-based company listed on the New York Stock

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history.

With an overall budget of $76 million, Falls Church will receive a very significant boost from a project that could contribute up to $1 million a year, when completed and operational.

The City of Falls Church came close to landing a Price Club (now Costco) on the land now developed as the Pearson Square project on S. Maple St., in 1993, but lost it when one of 20 adjacent small property owners refused to sell.

Proposed BJ's Wholesale Club Site Wilson Shopping Center

That Price Club wound up in Pentagon City. But the City has not had another offer for such a formidable “big box” retailer since, until now.

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Continued from Page 2

addition of FCNP. “Mayor Gardner to Run Again, Promises Free Citywide WiFi.” Robin Gardner did run again and won one of three seats that were up for re-election and held her position as Mayor of our city; however, her “Promise for Free Citywide WiFi” has turned out to be an untruthful promise, but it made her sound like a true politician.

Our next headline “Pent Up Demand Signals Housing Rebound in F.C.” Many of the developers say that many are intending to buy here. Robert Young of the Young Group and Jefferson One LLC expressed in an exclusive interview “that he identified a “surprising trend” in Falls Church this summer.”

We are not sure what he meant by this but he must have been thinking how much lower the prices on condos (can we say “how low can they go”) would bottom out at.

Last but not least “With Fiscal Crisis Looming, All F.C. Employees Gather.” Now if we remember several weeks before this declaration headline we were told that Falls Church

October 23 - 29, 2008

has weathered the first storm of the Wall Street Financial Crisis.

City Manager Wyatt Shields called our city employees to this special meeting to let them know that their jobs were safe for now. I commend him on this. However in his own context of this informational meeting Wyatt Shields states that “the City began spending less in the last three years” and that “the City saw the economic downturn coming and prepared for it.” An analysis of the 2002 - 2006 City budgets showed expenditures that were much greater than the revenues that were brought in for these years.

We have read and have heard a lot of variations for our city’s financial and economic outlook.

We feel the people of Falls Church City need to see what the estimated forecast in dollar terms (tax increase) is in store for the next five years in budget terms.

Ed Hillegass Falls Church

Editor, I would like to write in response to the Letter to

the Editor about the person who had their Obama signs destroyed.

That letter implied that it was some conservative McCain supporter who may have ripped them up. That would be impossible since we know that conservatives are pro-law and order and to mess up the signs like that would be against the law. That is unless for some reason it benefits them, then they are for breaking the rules.

Jay Rubin Via the Internet

Editor, I write this as a concerned citizen. The other week someone wrote a letter to your newspaper indicating that his Obama signs kept disappearing.

The same is now happening to McCain lawn signs in Falls Church City.

Whatever the reason (prank or malicious) the unauthorized removal of such signs from private property is un-democratic and un-American.

We should respect the politi-

cal views of all citizens. I ask all to protest this senseless vandalism.

Mark Kaye Falls Church

Editor, My family’s been in the City of Falls Church for almost a decade and I’ve lived in Virginia for 25 years. I’m on the City’s Planning Commission and the Library Board of Trustees, so I am here to stay and I’m very involved in the community.

I’m also a lifelong Republican campaigning for Barack Obama.

Let me be blunt, this was not a simple decision. I’ve never campaigned for anyone in my life.

Why now? In a nutshell, I’ve just had enough and things have to change, and I think Obama can bring change for the better.

I believe Obama has what it takes to move the country forward rather than just doing things the same old ways. Does he have all the answers? No one does, but I think McCain’s idea of “experience” is that he’s seen it all before and that nothing’s really new. If only it were that

easy.

I’m a foreign policy specialist and I also believe Obama will help improve the U.S. image and status in the world. Our “go it alone and the hell with the rest of the world” policy isn’t working. We need our allies. We need their advice and counsel as well as their support around the world. We can’t go it alone and we shouldn’t go broke trying.

As I’ve gone out and knocked on hundreds and hundreds of doors for Obama, people are surprised to find that I’m a Republican. One Republican grilled me and asked if I agreed with everything Obama had said or done. I talked through things with him, but finally said that if I would only vote for someone who agreed with me on every issue, then I would only vote for myself. Period.

Frankly, if I hadn’t already decided to vote for Obama, the selection of Sarah Palin would have done it. You make a choice like that to pander to internal party politics. Good for the party? Maybe. Good for the country? No. Am I still a Republican?

Yes. I don’t plan on changing my party affiliation. If the Democrats had nominated anyone other than Obama, frankly, I wouldn’t be out campaigning.

John D. Lawrence Falls Church

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October 23 - 29, 2008

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tudents from George C. Marshall and Oakton High Schools shook up Marshall’s Statesmen gym-turneddance floor last Friday, sweating it out alongside Miss Universe, Dayana Mendoza, and Miss Teen USA, Stevi Perry (left) for Marshall’s Best Buddies program. The club encourages one-on-one friendships between general education students and those with intellectual disabilities “We were fortunate enough that they chose Best Buddies [as their charity to work with],” said Kevin Wallace, a special education teacher at Marshall High School.

Four years ago, Marshall parent Tana Leasure and a handful of students presented the idea for the Best Buddies Club to Principal Jay Pearson and the special education department chair at the time. Wallace said that he’s seen drastic effects of the club ever since, which meets every Wednesday. “It’s brought my students out of the social shadows.”

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In turn, Wallace noted that the interactions have increased his students’ ability to interpret facial cues, also vouching that it’s not just his students who benefit from the clubsponsored events. Their parents, who he said previous felt disconnected from after-school or mainstream social events, now feel a sense of inclusion. Moms and dads have also witnessed the social results among their children.

“One Marshall parent told me her son used to walk into school with his head down and that she’s since seen him in the middle of the cafeteria with friends from all social circles, no longer eating alone,” said Best Buddies Virginia State Director Allison Coles.

“The response [of my students] can be seen in their smiles as their buddy walks into the room,” said Wallace.

“It is a look of true happiness.”

October 23 - 29, 2008

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October 23 - 29, 2008

NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE

Patio Man is surprised at how much the bankruptcy of Sharper Image has upset him. In the vast expanse of teenage clothing stores at the mall, Sharper Image at least offered him a moment of interest and delight. The store allowed him to indulge his curiosity in noise-canceling headphones, indoor putting greens and overly expensive toy cars. Now it seems that might all come to an end, and he will have to adjust to life without.

He is adjusting to a lot of changes these days.

For all the talk of plumbers and investment bankers, populists and elitists, Patio Man is still at the epicenter of national politics. He is the quintessential suburban American, the service economy worker, the guy who wears khakis to work each day, with the security badge on the belt-clip around his waist. He lives in northern Virginia, along the I-4 corridor near Orlando, Fla., in or near Columbus, Ohio, along the Front Range of Colorado, in the converging megalopolis between Albuquerque and Santa Fe and in many other places. He has a house – worth less and less – in a relatively new development. He’s holding off on the new car. He’s trying not to look at his retirement account balance. But he’s happy with the new streetscape shopping area where he and his family can stroll before a movie.

If you wanted to pick words to capture Patio Man’s political ideals, they would be responsibility, respectability and order. Patio Man moved to his home because he wanted an orderly place where he could raise his kids. His ideal neighborhood is Mayberry with BlackBerries.

He doesn’t expect much of government. He believes that he is responsible for his own economic destiny. But he does expect government to provide him with a background level of order.

In times of turmoil, he has gravitated toward the party that could restore his sense of order. In the 1970s, crime and social breakdown seemed like the biggest threats to order, and he gravitated to the GOP. In the late 1990s, Republican revolutionaries seemed to bring instability, and he softened on Clinton. Then terrorism threatened his equilibrium and he helped reelect Bush. Then, post-Iraq and post-Katrina, administrative incompetence led him a bit the other way.

Now disorder has come from an unexpected direc-

tion, not from foreign enemies or domestic zealotry but from a society-wide contagion of financial risktaking. Government programs like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seduced people into homes they could not afford. Private bankers took on too much risk with too little capital. Consumers, including Patio Man himself, racked up an enormous personal debt.

The effects threaten everything he has achieved.

There are foreclosures in his neighborhood. Like all taxpayers, he’s been asked to backstop Wall Street’s losses. He braces for recession.

How is Patio Man responding?

On one level, the changes are surprisingly modest.

There have been no big changes in how Americans describe their political philosophies. Somewhere between 40 percent and 49 percent still call themselves conservative, and about half as many call themselves liberal. Distrust of government is still high.

Ronald Brownstein of the National Journal compared today’s poll results, group by group, with past election results. Especially for those over 30, the stability of the preferences is more striking than the changes. But deeper down, there are some shifts in values. Americans, including suburban Americans, are less socially conservative. They are more aware of the gap between rich and poor. They are more open to government action to reduce poverty. But, most of all, there is a tropism toward order and stability.

Some liberals think they are headed for an age of liberal dominance and government expansion.

“If Obama offers a big, budget-busting program next year, it will more likely be seen as fair than irresponsible,” Jonathan Alter writes in Newsweek.

But the shift in public opinion is not from right to left, or from anti-government to pro-government, it’s from risk to caution, from disorder to consolidation.

There is a deep current of bourgeois culture running through American suburbia. It is not right wing, but it is conservative: a distrust of those far away; a belief in convention and respectability; and a strong reaction against anything that threatens to undermine the stability of the established order.

Democrats have done well in suburbia recently because they have run the kind of candidates who seem like the safer choice – socially moderate, pragmatic and fiscally hawkish. They, or any party, will run astray if they threaten the mood of chastened sobriety that has swept over the subdivisions. Patio Man wants change. But this is no time for more risk or more debt. Debt in the future is no solution to the debt racked up in the past. This is a back-to-basics moment, a return to safety and the fundamentals.

WASHINGTON – Is there anything more that the administration can do to ignore the spirit of the U.S. Constitution before President Bush leaves office?

The New York Times has revealed that a 2007 memorandum by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel claims that even federal programs subject to nondiscrimination laws can hand out taxpayer money to groups that discriminate in hiring staffers. The memo says the administration can bypass laws that bar giving taxpayer money to religious groups that hire only staff members who share their faith.

It specifically applies to a $1.5 million grant to World Vision for salaries for staff members on a program that helps at-risk youths avoid joining gangs.

The organization limits its hires to Christians, but the DOJ memo said that’s not a problem because exceptions to the non-discrimination

rule are permissible when obeying the law would impose a “substantial burden” on people’s ability to freely follow their religion.

Requiring World Vision to hire non-Christians as a condition of the grant would create such a burden, according to the DOJ memo.

It seems no president has done so much to break down the wall of separation between church and state than Bush has.

A couple of weeks after he took office in 2001, Bush dropped into the White House press room to hold an impromptu news conference – his first as president. Every question but one was focused on his campaign’s proposed tax cut. But I asked the president why he did not respect the historic wall of separation of church and state.

“I do,” he replied.

“No, sir,” I said. “If you did, you would not create a religious office in the White House.”

I was later called by Ari Fleischer, the White House Press Secretary, who asked me why I had “blindsided” the president with my church-state question. I told him I thought it was a “legitimate” question for the new president.

I grant you that there have been other presiContinued on Page 38

Forty years ago, Richard Nixon made a remarkable marketing discovery. By exploiting America’s divisions – divisions over Vietnam, divisions over cultural change and, above all, racial divisions – he was able to reinvent the Republican brand.

The party of plutocrats was repackaged as the party of the “silent majority,” the regular guys – white guys, it went without saying – who didn’t like the social changes taking place.

It was a winning formula. And the great thing was that the new packaging didn’t require any change in the product’s actual contents – in fact, the GOP was able to keep winning elections even as its actual policies became more pro-plutocrat, and less favorable to working Americans, than ever. John McCain’s strategy, in this final stretch, is based on the belief that the old formula still has life in it.

Thus we have Sarah Palin expressing her joy at visiting the “pro-America” parts of the country – yep, we’re all traitors here in central New Jersey. Meanwhile we’ve got McCain making Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber – who had confronted Barack Obama on the campaign trail, alleging that the Democratic candidate would raise his taxes – the centerpiece of his attack on Obama’s economic proposals.

And when it turned out that the right’s new icon has a few issues, like not being licensed and comparing Obama to Sammy Davis Jr., conservatives played victim: See how much those snooty elitists hate the common man? But what’s really happening to the plumbers of Ohio, and to working Americans in general?

First of all, they aren’t making a lot of money. You may recall that in one of the early Democratic debates Charles Gibson of ABC suggested that $200,000 a year was a middleclass income. Tell that to Ohio plumbers: according to the May 2007 occupational earnings report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual income of “plumbers, pipefitters and steamfitters” in Ohio was $47,930.

Second, their real incomes have stagnated or fallen, even in supposedly good years. The Bush administration assured us that the economy was booming in 2007 – but the average Ohio plumber’s income in that 2007 report was only 15.5 percent higher than in the 2000 report, not enough to keep up with the 17.7 percent rise in consumer prices in the Midwest. As Ohio plumbers went, so went the nation: Median household income, adjusted for inflation, was lower in 2007 than it had been in 2000.

Third, Ohio plumbers have been having growing trouble getting health insurance, especially if, like many craftsmen, they work for small firms. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, in 2007 only 45 percent of companies with fewer than 10 employees offered health benefits, down from 57 percent in 2000.

And bear in mind that all these data pertain to 2007 – which was as good as it got in recent years. Now that the “Bush boom,” such as it was, is over, we can see that it achieved a dismal distinction: for the first time on record, an economic expansion failed to raise most Americans’ incomes above their previous peak.

Since then, of course, things have gone rapidly downhill, as millions of working Americans have lost their jobs and their homes. And all indicators suggest that things will get much worse in the months and years ahead. So what does all this say about the candidates? Who’s really standing up for Ohio’s plumbers?

McCain claims that Obama’s policies would lead to economic disaster. But President Bush’s policies have already led to disaster – and whatever he may say, McCain proposes continuing Bush’s policies in all essential respects, and he shares Bush’s anti-government, anti-regulation philosophy.

What about the claim, based on Joe the Plumber’s complaint, that ordinary working Americans would face higher taxes under Obama? Well, Obama proposes raising rates on only the top two income tax brackets – and the second-highest bracket for a head of household starts at an income, after deductions, of $182,400 a year.

Maybe there are plumbers out there who earn that much, or who would end up suffering from Obama’s proposed modest increases in taxes on dividends and capital gains – America is a big country, and there’s probably a high-income plumber with a huge stock market portfolio out there somewhere. But the typical plumber would pay lower, not higher taxes under an Obama administration, and would have a much better chance of getting health insurance.

I don’t want to suggest that everyone would be better off under the Obama tax plan. Joe the plumber would almost certainly be better off, but Richie the hedge fund manager would take a serious hit.

But that’s the point. Whatever today’s GOP is, it isn’t the party of working Americans.

October 23 - 29, 2008

The McCain campaign descended in the last week from nastiness toward an almost cartoon-like caricature of reality, in the face of massive social and economic dissembling caused by its political and Wall Street friends simply too big for it to handle.

Yesterday, the latest glimpse into the real horror show of Wall Street occurred in a Congressional hearing, finding credit ratings agencies as culpable as the greed-obsessed investment bankers and their Republican cronies for bringing the global economy to its knees, and the nation to the brink of another great depression.

With no transparency or accountability, these insatiable ghouls of Lower Manhattan fed on the very flesh and bones of the U.S.’s working economy in an orgy of leveraging that reached levels that, well, that’s the problem. No one really knows.

Securities and Exchange Commission Chief Christopher Cox alluded to $55 trillion in credit default swaps recently, at least a tip off that the problem is far greater than any $700 billion bank bailout can begin to fix.

There remains no transparency regarding how the nine banks that were partially nationalized by the U.S. Treasury last week are using those hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars. Are they using the money to ease credit and get capital-starved American businesses going again, or are they using it to cover their insolvent leveraged obligations, instead. Who knows?

One thing is for sure, Sen. McCain has nothing to say. He’s degenerated into a Deputy Dawg-style cartoon character, ignoring the crisis altogether and instead spending his time accusing Sen. Obama of being a “socialist!”

First of all, the term, “socialist” is hardly lethal. It’s an old person’s bugaboo, at best. Most under 45 have no opinion of its merits or otherwise, since it’s had nothing to do with their lives.

But for McCain to try to characterize Obama’s tax policy as “socialist” because it proposes a different tax treatment for the rich than for the poor is truly laughable, were it not so pathetic. Of course, as everyone knows, our existing tax system is based on just that same distinction.

McCain is really complaining that Obama will not coddle the GOP’s rich cronies the way that Bush has for eight years, and he intends to.

McCain’s deafening silence on the true magnitude and consequences of the current meltdown, in favor of nasty and lame attacks on his opponent, is defining with ever greater clarity to the American public his mean-spirited irrelevance, at best, and that of his and his party’s Johnny-one-note mantra on taxes. No wonder he and his GOP colleagues continue to sink in the polls.

To deflect culpability from themselves, some Republicans are trying to pin the current mess on Democrats, but it can’t stick.

This all was set up on the watch of the current White House and a Republican-controlled Congress, mostly from 2000 to 2006, working with the radical free-market Fed Chief Allen Greenspan and the investment banking czars of Wall Street, including the present Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who was chief of Goldman Sachs most of that time.

In fact, Paulson, appointed by the Bush administration to his current post, was himself a big part of the very mess he’s now supposedly working to clean up.

Dylan Ratigan of CNBC-TV pulled up the testimony of Paulson from a Feb. 29, 2000 Congressional hearing, when the then-Goldman chief urged Congress to enact legislation permitting greater speculative leveraging to occur, including in opaque credit default markets and off-balance-sheet transactions. Leverage limits were eventually raised from 12-to-1 to as high as 40-to-1 in response to his and others’ wishes.

Then, on the subprime mortgage side of the problem, Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com, in his new book, Financial Shock: A 360 Degree Look at the Subprime Mortgage Implosion, and How to Avoid the Next Financial Crisis, writes that it was the Bush administration, and its “ownership society” obsession, and not Democrats, that “put substantial pressure on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to increase their funding of mortgage loans to lower-income groups.”

He documents Democrats’ worries about increased evidence of predatory lending at the same time, and how Bush and most Republicans in Congress opposed legislative efforts to curtail it.

With McCain having been in bed with all this Republican chicanery, himself, is it any wonder that he simply has nothing to say now?  Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.

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Colin Powell had been bugged by many things in his party’s campaign this fall: the insidious merging of rumors that Barack Obama was Muslim with intimations that he was a terrorist sympathizer; the assertion that Sarah Palin was ready to be president; the uniformed sheriff who introduced Palin by sneering about Barack Hussein Obama; the scorn with which Republicans spit out the words “community organizer”; the Republicans’ argument that using taxes to “spread the wealth” was socialist when the purpose of taxes is to spread the wealth; Palin’s insidious notion that small towns in states that went for W. were “the real America.”

But what sent him over the edge and made him realize he had to speak out was when he opened his New Yorker three weeks ago and saw a picture of a mother pressing her head against the gravestone of her son, a 20-year-old soldier who had been killed in Iraq. On the headstone were engraved his name, Kareem Rashad Sultan Khan, his awards -- the Purple Heart, the Bronze Star -- and a crescent and a star to denote his Islamic faith.

“I stared at it for an hour,” he told me. “Who could debate that this kid laying in Arlington with Christian and Jewish and nondenominational buddies was not a fine American?”

Khan was an all-American kid. A 2005 graduate of Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., Khan loved the Dallas Cowboys and playing video games with his 12year-old stepsister, Aliya.

His obituary in The Star-Ledger of Newark said that he had sent his family back pictures of himself playing soccer with Iraqi children and hugging a smiling young Iraqi boy.

His father said Kareem had been eager to enlist since he was 14 and was outraged by the 9/11 attacks. “His Muslim faith did not make him not want to go,” Feroze Khan, told The Gannett News Service after his son died. “He looked at it that he’s American and he has a job to do.”

In a gratifying “have you no sense of decency, Sir and Madam?” moment, Colin Powell went on “Meet the Press” on Sunday and talked about Khan, and the unseemly ways John McCain and Palin have been polarizing the country to try to get elected. It was a tonic to hear someone push back so clearly on ugly innuendo.

Even the Obama campaign has shied away from Muslims. The candidate has gone to synagogues but no mosques, and the campaign was

embarrassed when it turned out that two young women in headscarves had not been allowed to stand behind Obama during a speech in Detroit because aides did not want them in the TV shot.

The former secretary of state has dealt with prejudice in his life, in and out of the Army, and he is keenly aware how many millions of Muslims around the world are being offended by the slimy tenor of the race against Obama.

He told Tom Brokaw that he was troubled by what other Republicans, not McCain, had said: “’Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’

Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian.

But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no. That’s not America. Is something wrong with some 7-yearold Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Powell got a note from Feroze Khan this week thanking him for telling the world that MuslimAmericans are as good as any others. But he also received more e-mails insisting that Obama is a Muslim and one calling him “unconstitutional and unbiblical” for daring to support a socialist. He got a mass e-mail from a man wanting to spread the word that Obama was reading a book about the end of America written by a fellow Muslim.

“Holy cow!” Powell thought. Upon checking Amazon.com, he saw that it was a reference to Fareed Zakaria, a Muslim who writes a Newsweek column and hosts a CNN foreign affairs show. His latest book is “The PostAmerican World.”

Powell is dismissive of those, like Rush Limbaugh, who say he made his endorsement based on race. And he’s offended by those who suggest that his appearance Sunday was an expiation for Iraq, speaking up strongly now about what he thinks the world needs because he failed to do so then.

Even though he watched W. in 2000 make the argument that his lack of foreign policy experience would be offset by the fact that he was surrounded by pros – Powell himself was one of the regents brought in to guide the bumptious Texas dauphin – Powell makes that same argument now for Obama.

“Experience is helpful,” he says, “but it is judgment that matters.”

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I once had a revealing conversation with an A-list news reporter, when I was trying to convince him to cover the scientific distortions of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson. He declined to do so because he felt that Dobson lies so frequently that it wasn’t news.

With the media inured to Dobson’s Fib Factory and its assembly line of lies, it is difficult for the truth to gain traction. I believe, however, that the press has it backwards. Each nugget of nonsense peddled by ideologues, such as Dobson, should be on the front page of every newspaper and lead daily newscasts. Allowing falsehoods to fester has created a cynical political climate where truth is whatever a press release says it is.

This lack of accountability has allowed Dobson, and others of his ilk, to portray themselves as spokespersons for morality, even though they are regularly engaged in glaring examples of moral turpitude.

Occasionally, they are even honored for their sinister “success.”

For example, on Nov. 8, the Museum of Broadcast Communications (MBC) is scheduled to induct Dobson into its Radio Hall of Fame in celebration of his unquestionable broadcasting achievements. He regularly appears on 3,000 radio stations across the world and has built a $150 million anti-gay empire in Colorado Springs.

The MBC says that Dobson’s longevity and success qualify him for honors, even though they will essentially be bronzing his bigotry. In my view, the Radio Hall of Fame devalues its worth when it blithely honors a broadcaster with an amoral indifference to content and good character. Dobson’s self-righteous ranting about gay people overrides his ratings and the prejudice he perpetuates overshadows his popularity.

The MBC takes the antiseptic, hands-off view that Dobson’s red meat is meaningless blather that affects no one. They seem to believe that gay people are not harmed when the millions of devout listeners hear Dobson bellow that gay marriage will, “destroy the earth.” Or, that no one will seek revenge on gay people after Dobson shrieks, “For more than 40 years, the homosexual activist movement has sought to implement a master plan that has had as its centerpiece the utter destruction of the family.”

Thanks to such inflammatory rhetoric, hate crimes against gay people still occur daily. According to 2006 FBI statistics, hate crimes based on sexual orientation constituted the third highest category reported and made up 15.5 percent of all reported hate crimes. Only race-based and religion-based prejudice crimes were more prevalent than hate crimes based on sexual orientation.

While Dobson does not outright call for violence, he does use his “ex-gay” ministry, Love Won Out, to portray GLBT people, as immoral reprobates who could choose to change if they weren’t too stubborn to accept God. By positioning homosexuality as a behavior that can be prayed away, he is offering people a way to justify discriminatory and even violent behavior – all in the guise of loving the sinner.

What Dobson fails to tell his listeners is that efforts to alter sexual orientation are considered damaging by the American Psychiatric Association, The American Medical Association, The American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics.

One also wonders why the MBC would honor Dobson until it had fully investigated serious allegations that he distorted scientific research. In the past two years, seven prominent scientists have demanded that he stop citing their work because he misrepresented their conclusions on homosexuality. New York University educational psychologist, Carol Gilligan, PhD., appeared in a video saying that Dobson “was not truthful” and that he should “refrain from ever quoting me again.” Dr. Kyle Pruett, a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine claimed Dobson “cherry picked” his conclusions. University of Minnesota’s Gary Remafedi, M.D., M.P.H. wrote a letter to Dobson that clamed he engaged in “a gross misrepresentation of our research.”

Finally, Andrew Colvin, 16, contacted me a week ago. He had recently come out to his mother who he says listens to James Dobson’s radio show. Instead of accepting her son, she gave Andrew Focus on the Family’s anti-gay books. Thanks to Dobson, things became so tense that Andrew moved out of his mother’s home in Colorado to live with his father in Arizona.

The MBC should stop pandering to the right wing and do the right thing by dumping Dobson from its Radio Hall of Fame. And, the media should start doing its job by holding Dobson accountable.

Let’s focus on the facts and stop peddling the fiction that James Dobson’s actions are worthy of anything but condemnation.

October 23 - 29, 2008

Today, America owes over $10 trillion in debt, mostly to foreign countries. Experts also predict this year will be the largest federal budget deficit in our nation’s history. The interest on the national debt stands at $237 billion. We have to send $61 million a day to China just to service the debt we owe them. It’s like paying the minimum payment on your credit card; it doesn’t matter how long you live, you’ll never be debtfree. Clearly, our federal spending programs and tax policies need to be thoroughly examined in order to keep our nation solvent and economy from being crippled.

Instead of having that debate, the discussion has been dominated in recent years by critics of congressional earmarks, turning congressionally-directed spending requests into a political piñata. Despite what these politicians may say, congressional earmarks are neither the source of the problem nor, because they comprise less than one-half of one percent of the budget, do they offer any significant contribution to the solution. Instead, they have become a straw man used to mislead the public, avoiding a more honest and thorough debate on the federal budget.

Eliminating congressional earmarks doesn’t even mean there would be no more earmarks. Whether Congress directs spending or the White House, at some point all discretionary federal funds are direct-

Rep. James P. Moran Virginia’s 8th Congressional District Representative in the U.S. House of Representatives

ed towards a particular entity, whether it be a local government or non-profit. If it is not done by Members of Congress, it will be done by Presidents and their political appointees.

At least with congressional earmarks, the process today is transparent. Under new rules put in place by this Congress, Members must affirm that they have no financial interest in the earmark and their names are listed in the bill beside the project so there is no doubt who requested the funding.

Locally, without the congressional earmark process, some important regional projects such as the replacement of the Woodrow Wilson Memorial Bridge, initial funding for

the Dulles Rail project and Metro’s new capital improvement program would not exist.

As a Member of the House Appropriations Committee, I’ve made no secret of my support for these and other projects for Northern Virginia funded by earmarks.

The congressional earmark process is imperfect but, like democracy, it’s the worst system except for all the others.

We can continue talking about earmarks, though it is disingenuous to claim eliminating them will offer any substantive contribution toward lowering federal spending or reducing the size of the federal budget deficit. If that is truly our goal, and it should be, we need to focus on trimming big ticket discretionary and nondiscretionary spending items like defense and our entitlement programs, or raising revenues, or both, rather than politically posturing over earmarks, which makes up less than one-half of one percent of the federal budget.

October 23 - 29, 2008

Page 13

“Nature deficit disorder” is the term used by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, to describe what he sees as a failure for today’s children: too much time in front of computer screens and not enough time in free play outdoors. The National Wildlife Federation adds that children are “unplugged from the fundamental and formative experience of nature in their own neighborhoods.”

Fortunately, at Hidden Oaks Nature Center in Annandale, children can activate their sense of wonder and all their other senses at “Nature Playce,” an outdoor wooded area where they can listen to birds and the breeze in the trees, examine dirt and twigs and roly-polys, see woodpecker holes in the old snag, and romp down a hillside into piles of leaves.

Nature Playce was constructed as an Eagle Scout project. The split rail fences were recycled from the Bull Run Battlefield, and a tiny waterfall and pond were installed; but most of Nature Playce is just that – an area that presents nature just as she is, with bugs to peer at, dirt to trample in, and tree stumps (just a few inches high) to jump on. Today, Nature Playce is garbed in golds and browns of autumn. I can hardly wait to see it in frosty winter, or in the first green nudge of spring.

Nature Playce at Hidden Oaks Nature Center is located at 7701 Royce Street in Annandale (just off Hummer Road), and is open during business hours. Admission is free. For more information about Nature Playce and other children’s programs, please call 703/941-1065.

Hidden Oaks Nature Center will observe its 40th Anniversary in 2009. To celebrate, the Friends of Hidden Oaks Nature Center (FOHONC) volunteers

I have been rooting through huge amounts of memorabilia for the past several days; four old suitcases and four large boxes to be exact.

This activity was generated by a notice I ichard received from Barton my condominium’s manager that I could, at last, have a large storage bin in a storage closet on my floor. It has taken six years and two moves of my stored stuff to achieve this much sought-after goal.

Since I had to move the boxes anyway, I decided to move the memorabilia into my office to see if I could sift through it and throw out unwanted, inconsequential, and duplicate materials. It was not as easy as it sounds – and it took much longer than I expected since every item brought back memories that I had to ponder over at some length.

First there were huge scrapbooks from my mother’s and father’s youth – birth through college. There were my parent’s baby pictures with numerous relatives at the turn of the century – the 19th to the 20th, that is. My mother’s thick high school scrapbook with dance cards (anyone remember those), party invitations, dried flowers,

R

are sponsoring the Great Wall of Nature Art Tiles.

This is your family’s opportunity to have your own artwork enshrined permanently at the center, and help support FOHONC activities at the same time.

Your 8 ½ by 8 ½ inch artwork will be made into a permanent 6-inch square tile for display on the Great Wall near the entrance to the center. The cost is only $20, and all proceeds help support Nature Center programs. Call the number listed above for details about participation and preparation of artwork.

The ever-popular Annandale Parade will step off from the Annandale United Methodist Church at Columbia Pike and Gallows Road at 10 a.m. this Saturday, rain or shine. Some of the best places to watch the parade are along Columbia Pike at the Annandale Shopping Center, and near Fire Station 8 a little farther west. Maple Place, near the American Legion Bicentennial Post 1976, is a good spot too, with lots of space for lawn chairs. The parade will wind up at the Little River Shopping Center, where the Annandale Fall Festival will begin immediately following the parade.

Absentee in-person voting for Fairfax County residents is on-going at the Mason District Governmental Center, 6507 Columbia Pike in Annandale, Monday through Friday from 1 p.m. until 8 p.m., and Saturdays from 9 a.m. until 5 p.m. Last day to vote absentee in-person is Saturday, November 1. Bring your needlework, a book, or other material to help pass the time while you wait your turn to vote.

Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be emailed at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov 

club pins, pictures and newspaper clippings largely describing elegant social events. My father’s was filled with the pictures and stories of a very active athletic career at Wilmington High School and the University of Delaware. Of course these were all keepers.

Then I came across similar materials from my childhood and school days, though they were centered not on an athletic life, which was virtually nonexistent for me, but academics, student activities, debate, dramatics, and music. More stuff I just couldn’t part with.

On a darker note, there were several hundred sympathy cards and notes offering comfort in the death of my first wife and my mother, two months to the day apart.

Then there were two boxes of political stuff reflecting the active political lives of both myself and Jean almost from birth. Hundreds of brochures, buttons, newspaper clippings, pictures that we would never part with. The most dramatic stuff was the meticulous documentation of my run for the County Board in 1975. I was running in tandem with Steve Krum for one of two open seats on the board. Endorsed

by both the Democratic Party and Arlingtonians for a Better County, we couldn’t lose. But we did. I remember every painful moment, and looking at all the stuff did not help! Let that be a lesson to those benighted souls who say a Democrat can’t lose in Arlington!

Of course, there was a lot of stuff about our children, though we have already transferred much of that to their own boxes of memorabilia. And hundreds of personal letters and photographs dating back to the mid 1920’s.

Remember the good old days when we actually communicated with our family and friends with hand written letters!

It was a great few days, but I did not succeed greatly in reducing the volume until I came across a large box of financial data dating back at least twentyfive years. Into the shredder!

Actually, into the shredder which will be available on Saturday in the parking lot of Mt. Olivet church on Glebe Road, sponsored by Civitan.

Maybe I’ll see you there with some of your old boxes of memorabilia.

Richard Barton may be emailed at rbarton@towervillas.com 

Tough Budget choices coming On Monday, the House Appropriations Committee met in one of its regular update meetings. There will be two more this year, ending with the Governor’s Budget Amendment recommendations in mid-December.

It is clear that severe cuts will be necessary after the Assembly re-convenes on January, 14. The Governor sent his new Secretary of Finance, Ric Brown to brief the Committee on actions he has taken and some he suggests should be taken.

The Governor’s fall revenue forecast each year is the starting point for the Budget proposals. This year the Governor accelerated the process so that the General Assembly would have the benefit of the input from a wide spectrum of economists, business leaders and industry, particularly housing industry, Leaders.

Beginning with a meeting of housing industry representatives on August 1, followed by a meeting of consumer spending and auto industry experts on Sept. 5, the Governor convened a meeting of the Governor’s Advisory Board of Economists (GABE) on Sept. 10.

On September 23, the Governor’s Advisory Council on Revenue Estimates (GACRE) met.

From these discussions, the Governor offered two possible economic outlooks for the remainder of fiscal 2009 and fiscal 2010, which begins on July 1, 2009. Both scenarios differed from the official forecast used in the

Budget passed early this year.

They both anticipated a mild downtown in fiscal 2009, but no recession. A sluggish rebound in fiscal year 2010 was predicted.

Because the members of GACRE were split, the Governor used a combination of standard and slower growth projections in making his October revenue forecast. It is anticipated that the Commonwealth’s revenues may very well fall below revenue collections in FY2008.

As a result of his revenue projection, the Governor proposed spending cuts of $323 million, including cuts to state services and programs.

He also proposed converting capital projects worth approximately $250 million to bonded indebtedness, thereby reducing the funding needed in FY 09 and FY2010 to debt service. He recommended no cuts to the state share of public education funding, but did reduce funds for operating several outdated correctional facilities, and he suggested adding some more prisoners to local jails. In addition, he did recommended reducing funds to Virginia public colleges and universities, including community colleges.

As in the past, the Governor will present his formal Budget amendments in mid-December. Public hearings will be held throughout the Commonwealth and in Richmond in late December and early January.  Delegate Scott represents the 53rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. He may be emailed at deljscott@ aol.com

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October 23 - 29, 2008

Falls Church Episcopal Supports Food Bank The congregation of The Falls Church Episcopal presented a check for $2,000 to the Falls Church Community Service Council (FCS), a food bank that serves Falls Church area residents by providing short term needs to struggling families with the goal of selfsufficiency, on Oct. 17. In Falls Church City, the FCS food pantry helped a total of 29 households between July 1 and Sept. 30 this year. The donation by Falls Church Episcopal will help residents with groceries, rent and utilities, car repair and assistance in purchasing medicines.

‘Rotary Cup Challenge’ at McLean Rotary Meeting At noon on Oct. 28, McLean Rotary meeting will focus on

a presentation given by Mike Holleran, on the “Rotary Cup Challenge,” a football game pitting the varsity football teams of McLean and Langley High Schools against each other for the Rotary Cup prize. Holleran will moderate the game. The meeting will be held at noon in the Fellowship Hall of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer (1545 Chain Bridge Rd., McLean).

For more information, visit www.mcleanrotary.org.

Armchair Travel Explores World Sitting in Comfort The public is welcome to travel around the world without lifting a foot through the “Armchair Travel” series, available from 10:30 – 11:30 a.m. on Oct. 24 at the Falls Church Senior Center, located in the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls Street, Falls Church). A librarian from

FOR THE THIRD straight year, Eileen Levy and Robert S. “Hap” Day celebrated their October birthdays together at a festive “Hapeileen” Party at Anthony’s Restaurant. The event, hosted as always by the News-Press’ Nicholas Benton, was held Friday night to commemorate the (ahem!) 39th birthdays of each … again.

Levy is a renowned local artist and art instructor and Day is the former long-time executive director of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. (PHOTO: NEWS-PRESS)

Mary Styles Public Library will lead participants through videos, books and other printed materials. For more information, call 703-248-5001.

Puppeteers Tell the Story Of ‘Galapagos George’ The story of “Galapagos George,” the last giant tortoise on Pinta Island in the Galapagos Islands, will be performed by the Barefoot Puppets company at 2 p.m. on Oct. 25 at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

This show is based on the discovery of “Lonesome George,” a lone tortoise discovered in 1971 on a Galapagos island where his species was thought to be extinct. The show features music from composer Eric Weinberg, Kids Make Puppets at Community Center Following the Barefoot Puppets’ show, “Galapagos George,” children ages 5 and up and their parents are invited to attend a workshop, led by puppeteer Heidi Rugg, in which children will build and take home their own tortoise rod puppets. The workshop will be held at 3:30 p.m. at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

Admission is $8 per child, accompanied by a parent.

RYLA Report at Upcoming F.C. Rotary Meeting Peggy Lane, Margaret Benton and Interact Club officers will present information on the Rotary Youth

BOY SCOUTS TROOP 681 purchased AT&T Global Prepaid Phone cards for U.S. military in Iraq. The cards totaled 7,500 minutes at a cost of $450, which the troop had collected during its annual Christmas tree sale. Displaying cards above are, left to right: Duncan Coltharp, Scoutmaster Kevin Coleman, Senior Patrol Leader Bruce Ayliff and Michael Conrad. (PHOTO:

COURTESY RICHARD LOBB)

Leadership Awards (RYLA) to the Falls Church Rotary Club at 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at Harvest Moon Restaurant (7260 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church).

RYLA is a program sponsored

by Rotary International for youth ages 14-30 that encourages leadership of youth by youth and publicly commends young people who are serving their communities. Dinner is $11 per person, and visitors are welcome. For more information, call 202-268-5089.

Experience ‘Concerts at the Alden’ Theatre Series The Young Soloists Recital will be held at 3 p.m. on Oct. 26 at the Alden Theatre, located in the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean), as part of the “Concerts at the Alden” series. Admission to

this chamber concert and all of the series’ performances is free, and different shows are scheduled until late June 2009.

For more information, visit www.mcleancenter.org/alden/.

‘Mid-Atlantic Plants’ Lecture at Senior Center Learn about the numerous plants native to the MidAtlantic region, and how to make them thrive through specific growing techniques, in a free lecture from 7:30 – 9 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the Falls Church Senior Center, located in the Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls Street, Falls Church).

The lecture is part of the “Growing Green” program, a series of free events and lectures designed to educate the public about horticulture, con-

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October 23 - 29, 2008

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servation and the environment with the hope that participants will become more “green.” For more information, call 703-2485001.

from 7 – 10 p.m. on Oct. 24 at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

For more information, call 703790-0123.

‘Forbidden Broadway’ Takes Alden Theatre

‘The Piano Tuner’ Book Discussion at M.R.S.

“Forbidden Broadway,” a comedic parody of past and present Broadway musicals, will be presented at 8 p.m. on Oct. 29 at the Alden Theatre in the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean).

In celebration of the production’s 25th Anniversary Tour, its New York cast will perform the show. Tickets are $30 for McLean Community Center members and $37 for the general public. For more information, call 703-790-0123.

Join speaker Daniel Mason on a journey through the Burmese jungle, following fictional British pianist Edgar Drake on his quest to repair a rare piano in 1886.

Edgar’s journey, told in the novel “The Piano Tuner,” will be discussed as part of the Senior Book Discussion Series at 10:30 a.m. on Oct. 28 at Mary Riley Styles Public Library (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church).

For more information, call 703248-5031.

Club Inferno Hosts Middle School Dance Party Banish boredom in a flash!

Seventh and eighth grade student looking for something to do this weekend are encouraged to grab some friends and head to Club Inferno, a middle-school only dance party sponsored by the Old Firehouse Teen Center. The dance will be held

Howl-O-Ween Pet Contest Comes to Bailey’s PETCO Head to Bailey’s Crossroads PETCO (5825 Leesburg Pike, Bailey’s Crossroads) at 2 p.m. on Oct. 25 for the Howl-OWeen Pet Costume Contest.

Registration and pet photography will begin at 1 p.m., and prizes will be awarded. For more information, call 703-8452780.

THE ANNUAL JUNIOR VARIETY SHOW at George Mason High School was held last week with a rousing and impressive display of talent. Among the acts, (left) MG Rivas with Alexa Peyton on the vocals and Elyse Krachman playing the guitar for “Chiquitita” by ABBA, and (right) Daniel Fletcher on guitar and Sam Waters on vocals with Sarah Rodock (not shown) for “Falling Slowly” by Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova. (Photo: News-Press)

Fall Festival at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School

Halloween Festival Sets Spooky Mood for Season

Bring friends and family to the Fall Festival from 10 a.m.

– 2 p.m. on Oct. 25 at Potomac Crescent Waldorf School (923 S. 23rd St., Arlington). Enjoy games, crafts and children’s activities along with lunch and a Puppet Play. Admission is $8 per person or $15 per family. For more information, visit www. potomaccrescentschool.org.

The Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls Street, Falls Church) will host the Falls Church Halloween Festival from 6 – 8:30 p.m. on Oct. 25.

Carnival games, face painting, a moon bounce, crafts, movies and candy will all be included, along with a Creepy Creature Show at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Spooky Storytelling at 6:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Admission to the carnival is free. For more information, call 703-248-5001.

‘Art Appetizers’ Brings Community Together Attend “Art Appetizers” from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 at the McLean Community Center (1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean) for great food, wine, conversation and community.

This evening will be held amidst fascinating, intricate artwork in the McLean Project for the Arts galleries. Admission is $15 per person. For more information, call 703-790-0123.

A GROUP OF CHILDREN led the crowd in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance during the Veterans for Obama rally held last Saturday near Fairfax City Hall. The outdoor rally included speeches from military veterans and several prominent politicians, including Fairfax Board of Supervisors Chair Gerry Connolly, who is running for the 11th Congresional District in Virginia. (Photo: News-Press)

Habitat Restoration Event At Isaac Crossman Park As part of the “Growing Green” program, the Falls Church Habitat Restoration

Team will visit and revamp Isaac Crossman Park (1900 N. Westmoreland St., Arlington) by removing invasive plants from 10 a.m. – noon on Oct. 25. Those who would like to join are urged to meet at the Van Buren Street entrance to the park at 10 a.m. For further information, call 703-248-5001.

F.C. Victorian Society to Host Ghoulish Evening The Victorian Society of Falls Church will host a night of spooky stories and historically hair-raising tales at 8 p.m. on Oct. 24 at The Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave., Falls Church).

Refreshments and fortune readings by Madame Penny will be provided. Admission is free for those dressed in their best Victorian garb, but if not, the fee is $4. For more information, call Diane Morse at 703-248-5171..

Sea Chanty Sing Along at Stacy’s Coffee Parlor The Chantymen, a group of musical performers that “interpret many aspects of marine life between 1775 and 1865,” will perform at 7 p.m. on Oct. 28 at Stacy’s Coffee Parlor (709 W. Broad St., Falls Church). For more information, call 703-5386266.

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October 23 - 29, 2008

Curves of Falls Church is hosting a clothing drive to benefit Dress For Success, an organization whose mission is to promote the economic independence of disadvantaged women by providing professional attire, a network of support and career development tools to help women thrive in work and life. Clean, seasonally appropriate clothing can be dropped off Monday through Friday during business hours at Curves, located at 240 West Broad St. In appreciation for clothing donations, owner Kathy Hamor and the Falls Church Curves is offering 50 percent off the service fee for any new member who brings in clothing. The clothing drive and offer will take place through November 1.

For more information, please call Curves at 703-536-0140.

Red, White and Bleu Wine and Gourmet Shop is hosting “In Suspense: A Blind Wine Tasting” throughout the weekend of Fri, Oct. 24 – Sun, Oct. 26. The independent, locally owned wine and cheese store, which also carries often hard to find micro-brewed beers and a variety of gourmet items, provides wine tastings with a different theme every weekend. For more information, stop by 127 S. Washington St. in Falls Church or visit www.redwhiteandbleu.com.

Dozens of businesses near the corner of Broad and Washington Streets will be “Bootified” by local artists on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 8 a.m. – noon. Halloween themed artwork will be painted by volunteers on windows and doors and remain on display until Saturday, Nov. 1. The effort is being organized by Falls Church Arts, the Falls Church City Schools Business in Education Partnerships, the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce, Creative Cauldron and Falls Church Recreation and Parks. For information, contact the creator of this program, Marty Behr at behr_marty@yahoo.com or the program’s lead organizer, Barbara Cram at greenscap@aol.com.

Stacy’s Coffee Parlor is hosting a breakfast in the Pavilion for participants in Shelter House’s walk to benefit homeless families in Falls Church on Saturday, Oct. 25 from 8 – 11 a.m. The walk will start at St. James Catholic School and continue along Spring Street to Cherry Hill Park. To register or for more information, contact sarah.schultz@shelterhouse.org.

Dogfish Head Alehouse is hosting Octoberfest Beer Dinner Monday, Oct. 27 starting at 7 p.m. For $50 (which includes tax and tip), guests can enjoy perogies paired with Shelter Pale Ale, Spinach Salad paired with Midas Tough, German Sauerkraut Soup paired with Theobroma, sauerbraten with spaetzle paired with Indian Brown Ale, and Apple Strudel and ice cream paired with Punkin Ale. Dogfish Head Alehouse is located in Seven Corners at 6363 Leesburg Pike.

Todd Hughes of Strategic College Funding Solutions will be hosting a free college funding workshop at the Falls Church Community Center on Oct. 28 from 7 – 8:30 p.m. The workshop, for parents of high school students, will address the financial aid process and how to save on out of pocket expenses. Registration is required – go to www.scfsinc.com or call 877-778-5481.

The Northern Virginia Business Alliance is hosting the first-ever “Breakfast With A Millionaire” event on Wed, Oct. 29 from 7:30 – 9 a.m. at Rosemary’s Thyme, 5762 Union Mill Road in Clifton. The featured speaker, Dr. Hany Malik, Founder and President of Suntiva Executive Consulting, will share how Suntiva Executive Consulting began, what steps he took to make it one of America’s fastest growing companies, how his company qualified for the Inc 500 Fastest Growing Private Company list, and the future opportunities that lie ahead for Suntiva. To register, please e-mail Sheila Thompson at benefitshoppe@ msn.com. For more information about the Northern Virginia Business Alliance, contact Josh Fertel at River City Marketing, 703-218-1750, josh@rivercitymarketing.com.

PRS in Falls Church is sponsoring a garage sale on Saturday, Nov. 8 from 9 a.m. – 1 p.m. in the parking lot of PRS offices at 500/510 W. Annandale Road. PRS (formerly Psychiatric Rehabilitation Services) provides community-based support services and training to help men and women recover from mental illness. Businesses or individuals interested in donating items for the garage sale can contact Tammy De Martino at tdemartino@prsinc.org or at 703-536-9000 x6321.

Falls Church-based Homestretch has been selected as one of 68 nonprofits to be featured in the 08-09 Catalogue for Philanthropy: Greater Washington. More than 200 nonprofits applied for the honor. Homestretch provides transitional housing, budget counseling, job skills training and placement assistance, ESL and life skills classes, pro bono legal advice and substance and domestic violence counseling for homeless women and their families. The Catalogue connects smaller, communitybased organizations with individuals who want to contribute to, and make a difference in, their communities. For more information, visit www.homestretch-inc.org.  The Business News & Notes section is compiled by Sally Cole, Executive Director of Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at sally@ fallschurchchamber.org.

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While waiting to find out how many million barrels of daily oil production OPEC says it will cut, it’s a good time to review the financial-energy situation as the two are now inextricably linked.

As is well known, the most prominent features of the landscape for the last few months have been plummeting oil prices and a deepening economic crisis. So far oil prices have been falling faster than the economy seems to be coming apart, thereby giving many the impression that cheaper gasoline will soon heal our economic woes and all will be well.

We may never understand how to properly weigh the factors that went into this year’s collapse of oil prices. The collective perception that the world is headed towards a time of very serious economic difficulties obviously heads the list. The rise of the dollar or the falling euro, margin calls on speculators, the collapse of the U.S. housing industry, the start of the Olympics which ended the great Chinese oil buying binge, and more recently the lack of credit to finance oil transactions all have contributed to the plunge.

Currently the world’s attention is focused mostly on the credit squeeze that was precipitated by insolvent banks’ reluctance to admit their condition.

Considering that the world’s governments have spent, lent, pledged, guaranteed, promised, or what-haveyou, four trillion dollars in an effort to get banks loaning money again, it’s no wonder the markets leap or plunge on every twitch of the London lnterbank Offered Rate. Few commentators as yet seem to really grasp that behind the credit squeeze lies a universe of troubles: unaffordable mortgages, falling housing prices, dropping consumer sales, rising unemployment, defaulting home equity, car and credit card loans. This recession, or whatever it ends up to be, is still in the first inning.

So where does all this leave the world’s oil supply – the life blood of our civilization?

Recent reports say world production dropped rapidly in September. As stockpiles

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seem to be rising, we can presume OPEC will cut production again or be faced with much lower oil prices. Given that nearly all the world’s oil exporters have let their economies become accustomed to six years of steadily climbing oil revenues, they, as well as their customers, are in for some hard times.

The scariest factor at the minute are reports that smaller traders, that have been an essential part of moving oil across the globe, can no longer

get financing for oil shipments – though Exxon, Shell, BP and WalMart don’t have to worry about such things. This lack of loans is forcing many traders to the sidelines leaving the market to only the largest participants.

Since no one really can foretell how all the myriad of forces at play are going to work out, it might be useful to look at a scenario or two to gain some insight into what the future could have in store for our oil supplies and prices.

First we must remember that world oil production assuredly has peaked due to the financial crisis, so that by the end of this year production is likely to be substantially lower due to lack of demand and cuts. A corollary to this drop is that investment in new oil production projects is already slowing due to “insufficient oil prices” and lack of financing.

While well-financed major oil companies are likely to finish work on projects already underway some of these too could be put on hold.

Let’s take a bad, if not the worst, imaginable scenario.

Suppose the world economy really goes sour in the next year or two; unemployment soars into double digits; consumer sales, agriculture and industrial production drop markedly across the developed world and international trade melts.

What happens to oil production, demand, and prices? For starters, there are numerous countries in the world that are already in an economic death spiral. For those unable to earn

foreign exchange, demand for oil will drop precipitously and large parts of their economies will soon be back into the 19th century.

China, however, with a large population and expanding economy maintains that it will be disconnected from the rest of the world so that it can keep right on growing and importing more oil each year. Europe, which has been through hard times in living memory, uses only half the oil per capita as the U.S., and has excellent bus and rail transport and can probably make do with still less oil and natural gas.

U.S. oil consumption in the midst of a great economic slump is probably the major unknown. Currently our consumption is down by about 8.5 percent, (4.3 percent for gasoline) due to the high prices of last summer and the stagnating economy.

As gasoline is likely to be down to $2.50 a gallon or so shortly, the $4 prices of last summer will not be inhibiting consumption for a while. For the next few years we likely will be left with high unemployment, lower economic activity and scared or impoverished consumers as the main reasons for less oil consumption. Whether this cuts U.S. demand by 10, 20 or 30 percent, we as yet just can’t tell.

Serious conservation efforts – lower speed limits, car pools, buses, more insulation – could have a role in determining how far demand drops.

The final question is what effect does a severe economic recession have on world oil production? Will it drop rapidly, or stay on the current plateau? Will demand for oil drop so fast that, at least for awhile, it keeps ahead of the declining capacity of the world’s oil fields to produce?

Can we forget about alternatives to oil for a while as lower worldwide demand means we can get all the oil anybody still wants relatively cheaply? Can we afford to transition to alternative sources of energy?

For now these are only questions, but the next year or so should start to bring answers into focus. One way or another, it will not be an easy time.  Tom Whipple is a retired government analyst and has been following the peak oil issue for several years.

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On Friday, Oct. 17, the McLean High School girls volleyball team record slipped to 9-4 with a loss on Tuesday to perennial powerhouse Langley (9-25, 25-21, 23-25, 14-25) and a loss on Thursday to the Stone Bridge Bulldogs (18-25, 16-25, 25-18, 19-25). Both Langley and Stone Bridge were ranked in the Top 10 coaches’ poll and have amassed impressive records. Though disappointed with the losses, Coach Steve Stotler felt McLean was competitive in both matches remarking, “I was impressed with the girl’s ability to bounce back after slow starts in both matches.” McLean travels to Woodson on Monday, Oct. 20 and faces Thomas Jefferson at home for the final game of the regular season on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

McLean Volleyball Team Raises Funds for Cancer The McLean High School volleyball team raised $2,318 for the Side-Out Foundation for breast cancer awareness and research at their Dig Pink match on Tuesday, Oct. 14. Although McLean lost the match to Langley, the team was proud of not only raising such a substantial sum but of hosting such a successful event. Virtually everyone in the stands was wearing pink including the 205 pink t-shirts which were sold by the team as part of the fundraiser. Katie Phelan decided that she wanted to try to organize a Dig Pink event after learning about the foundation which was started by a volleyball coach she knows. In addition to the t-shirt sale which raised over $1,000, the team sold baked goods and water at the “Back to School” night for McLean High School parents.

George Mason J.V. Volleyball Loses Match At their Thursday night match-up against Strasburg High School on Oct. 16, the George Mason High School girls Junior Varsity volleyball team won their first game in over four years. The Mason Mustangs, however still lost the match, winning only the second game. The score for the night was 25-9, 17-25 and 15-10.

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Strong plays came from eighth grade players Maddie Johnson and Yasmin Duarte as well as from freshman Rachel Bell.

Next Tuesday, the Mustangs head to Madison County, with their last season game at home against Clarke County on Thursday, Oct. 23.

Falls Church, McLean H.S. All-District Field Hockey Last week, several members of the Falls Church High School Field Hockey team received All-District Honors. The honorees included Ana Moschopolous and Kiara Odorn for the first team, Michelle Engquist and Bethany Boveri for the second team, with honorable mentions for Hannah Wilkerson, Erin Stansel and Kim Sackie.

McLean High School Field Hockey nominations included Olivia Applewhite, Caitlin Baker and Elisa Enriquez for first team, Johanna Morrison and Jamie Bell for second team, with honorable mentions to Casey Alexander and Sarah Park. Enriquez was also nominated for the second All-Region team.

Marshall Football Loses In Tight Game In a close game, the Marshall High School Varsity football team lost its match-up 35-21 on Friday, Oct. 17 against the undefeated district powerhouse W.T. Woodson High School.

Tying the score several times throughout the game, a series of touchdowns by the Woodson Cavaliers brought the tight game to an end.

JEB Stuart Falls to Washington-Lee In a home game Friday night, the JEB Stuart Varsity football team lost 40-22 against Washington-Lee High School, which now aims to earn its first playoff berth since 1975. With strong plays from WashingtonLee seniors Charles Fuller and Keith Johnson, the Washington-Lee Generals kept JEB Stuart at bay until the third quarter, when Stuart junior Chris Ventura made a 4-yard run to bring Stuart within seven points of the Generals’ lead. Senior tailback Anthony Champ added two touchdowns for Stuart. Despite efforts, JEB

Stuart lost the game, bringing its season to a 1-7 record.

George Mason Football Loses to Eastern View

Narrow Defeat for McLean at Homecoming

George Mason High School suffered a 47-28 loss Friday night to Eastern View High School,

The McLean High School Highlanders Varsity football team remain winless this season, despite a close Friday night at McLean’s Homecoming against the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Colonials. The game ended with a Colonial 28-23 victory against the Highlanders. During the second half, the Highlanders advanced to 23-14 until the last three minutes of game play, when the Colonials, led by Evan Burch and quarterback Ben Daly, charged the Highlanders, maintained a strong defense and carried their third victory of the season. Next Friday, the Colonials face the Stone Bridge High School Bulldogs for their final home game of the season.

giving Eastern View a 5-2 record for its season. Mason has not won a game since defeating JEB Stuart in August. On Oct. 24, Mason faces Madison County, in a home game at 7:30 p.m.

Successful Week for TJHSST Field Hockey On Oct. 13, 14 and 16, the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJHSST) Field Hockey team captured three consecutive games, ending their regular season with their 4-1 victory against Langley High School on Oct. 14, and winning the first round of the District playoffs with a 1-0 win over Marshall High School. Scorers for TJHSST were Toby Lowenstein during the Oct. 13 match against Chantilly High School; Emma Fuller, Bobbie Pelham-Webb, Lauren Wendlberger and Katy Williamson against Langley; and Pelham-Webb on Oct. 16.

In both matches this week, McLean High School Varsity Volleyball outside hitters Cat Davis, above, and Alex Yensen led the attack amassing 44 kills supported by some key blocks and great hitting by senior middle hitter Lea Williams. (Photo: Courtesy Kent Arnold/Heromoment.com)

October 23 - 29, 2008

Unity has become the theme of the 2008 George Mason High School Fall girls Varsity Cross Country team’s season. Head Coach Julie Bravin has been thoroughly impressed with the girls’ work ethic and ability to push each other in practice, calling them the closest team she’s ever coached.

“They’ve worked hard for each other and for the team,” said the coach.

The self-imposed sisterhood has had a very successful season, faring well in every meet, even those against some of the largest schools in the area.

On Saturday, Oct. 11, the girls continued their success against larger schools with a seventhplace finish out of the 26 that were able to finish during the Glory Days Invitational Meet.

Freshman Natalie Young was once again the top finisher for the Mustangs, placing fifth overall out of over 150 runners.

She completed the more than three-mile race in 18:46, averaging just over six-minute miles throughout. “[Natalie] has always worked hard; her off-season work has paid off a lot,” said Coach Bravin of the freshman sensation. “She’s a great athlete and a great competitor.”

Fellow Freshman Eva Estrada had a career day at the Glory Days Invitational, shaving a full

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minute off of her previous clips.

The astounding improvement propelled her to a 16th overall finish, second best for Mason behind only Young.

Two other freshman – Michele De Mars and Leah Roth – accompanied Estrada and Young in Bravin’s top seven at the invitational, finishing 80th and 88th respectively.

Sophomore Mollie Breen, with juniors Courtney Ready and Brandy Arredondo, rounded out the top seven for Mason. Their times alone reveal perhaps just how tight the girls are as a bunch. Ready and De Mars finished with the same times on the dot, with Roth just ten seconds ahead of them. “[Michele and I] were working together throughout the race, and pushing each other to run faster,” said Ready on their simultaneous finish.

As the season is winding down, Coach Bravin is still yet to find a consistent group of runners who make it in the top seven to use for official scoring. While the uncertainty has been frustrating at times due to fluctuating performances across the board, with the exception of Young and Estrada, Coach Bravin looks at the tough decision with a positive outlook.

She has enjoyed the task of picking groups that run well together regardless of age or experience.

“It’s really hard to pick a top seven,” said the coach. “We

have 14 runners that I could easily pick, but I have to decide on seven to go with.”

The top seven has been shuffled meet to meet, and more girls have gotten a chance to contribute than most years as their training has landed many of them in the same tier of times. Breen and freshman Claire Constance have also been in the mix with some consistent contributions, along with juniors Kelley Frank and Karen Hamill.

Senior Captains Taylor Moot and Maggie Fortenberry have provided the team with a steady leadership presence as well.

The team participated in the Bull Run district finals in Rappahannock County on Wednesday, but results were too late for press time. Mason fared very well in previous district meets this year, and hoped for more of the same as they entered the final meeting of the season against Bull Run opponents. However, while there is reason for optimism, Coach Bravin acknowledged that she and her team would not be taking anything for granted, admitting anything can happen in the race.

After the district final comes the regional final, in which Mason is almost guaranteed a spot barring a catastrophe at districts. Coach Bravin said that she will continue to mix and match lineups that she feels will be the most successful on a given day.

Once upon a time the Tampa Bay Rays were terrible. Beyond terrible. Losing was a routine and the rebuilding project was interminable.

And then they went to the World Series.

There have been many remarkable points to this storybook season for the American League pennant winners, but nothing has been quite as notable as their worst-to-first turnaround.

Prior to the start of the season, the pundits that picked the Rays to represent the American League in the Fall Classic were heavily outnumbered by the T-Rexes strolling around the planet these days. The team didn’t have the look of a club that was one piece away from a World Series appearance.

Fourth place in the East, yeah, that seemed about right. Even that improvement was attributed more to a step back by the Orioles rather than any surge

by Tampa.

And even if Tampa did improve, there was no way they’d surpass the Yankees or the Red Sox to earn a playoff berth. The Rays featured just one batter with more than 100 RBI in 2007. The Yankees had three and bottom of the order second baseman Robison Cano added 97.

The Yankees and the Sox had the experience, and the payrolls, that are supposed playoff prerequisites.

On Opening Day, the best thing the Rays had going for them, it seemed, was their self-administered exorcism, banishing the “Devil” from their inaugural nickname [Devil Rays]. Yet 162 games later, the Rays hoisted the American League East pennant. The Yankees hoisted their golf bags.

The Rays humbled the Red Sox in three of the first four games of the American League Championship and then battled back from a blown seven-run lead in Game 5 to capture the eventual Game 7 and the World Series berth.

The scenario was unexpected, but if you were paying attention – unlikely, given the Rays’ average attendance in 2007 was 17,148 – you’d know that Tampa had some pieces in place.

There was ace Scott Kazmir (239 strikeouts) and emerging hurler James Shields (184 Ks and a 3.85 ERA). There was speedy slugger B.J. Upton (24 home runs, 22 stolen bases) and the even quicker Carl Crawford (50 steals). At first base was former top-prospect, turned

reclamation project Carlos Pena. Last year, Pena regained the clout that came with his former first-round draft status, crushing 46 home runs and driving in 121 runs.

Add in another up-and-coming starting pitcher – eventual ALCS MVP Matt Garza – and a veteran closer – Troy Percival – who convinced the kids that they no longer had to accept losing and the ingredient list was complete.

And let’s get one thing clear, this is not some fluky run to the season’s final series. In battling through the American League East, baseball’s toughest division, these Rays are battle tested … and there’s no reason to think that this team can’t match this impressive feat next year.

After finishing dead last in the division in every year but one – prior to this season – it’s hard to call the Tampa team a model franchise. But it is one that other young teams (cough, cough, Washington, cough, Nationals, cough) could look to. Not for the way it was put together, but in the way it performed throughout the year.

The Rays could have packed it in at any point over the course of 162 games. They could have let slumps get the better of them and relent back into their expectation and pressure-free position in the bottom of the division. Its stars could have played selfishly, waiting only until free agency could bring them to a pennant contender.

Instead, they played like champions. They fought through the bad spells. They stuck up for one another – brawling with both Boston and New York – and brought the pennant to its least likely home in Tampa.

In terms of making this script a timeless one, it is probably enough that the Rays simply made it to the World Series, defying the “destined” Boston ALCS comeback along the way.

It will be memorable for Tampa’s achievement, but also because of what it means to other teams that have languished in last place for too long (see also, Washington, Pittsburgh, Kansas City).

It’s doubtful that any of those teams has the parts to achieve what the Rays did this year, but after the miraculous run we continue to witness, does anyone really want to bet 100percent against it?

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Regime Change Starts At Home – Shepard Fairey, Al Farrow and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), at the Irvine Contemporary (1412 14th St. NW, Washington, DC.). The exhibit runs through Dec. 6, and the gallery is open Tuesday – Saturday, 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.

Call 202-332-8767, or visit irvinecontemporary.com for more information.

Shepard Fairey, loosely referred to as the “obey giant” guy, has over the past 8 or 9 months become the “Obama poster” guy. Just as that work became the center piece of Fairey’s career, it hangs here as the literal center piece for this show.

A native of Charleston, S.C. and a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), Fairey now resides in Los Angeles. With esthetic roots steeped in skateboard culture and punk rock, it’s fairly predicable that he would have been involved with graffiti style street art early on. Far less predictable is how it’s all turned out.

A newspaper image of wrestler Andre the Giant caught Fairey’s eye while teaching a friend how to silkscreen stickers. Thinking it was a stupid idea, the friend passed on Shepard’s suggestion to use the image. However, the image struck Fairey as goofy and funny, so he used it himself. His cohorts referring to themselves in the vernacular language of the day as a “posse,” led him to include the text “Andre the Giant has a Posse” on the stickers. As a mischievous lark, he pasted the stickers around RISD’s environs in Providence, R.I. Much to Fairey’s amazement, people began to notice the enigmatic stickers and wonder what was up. Light bulb moment circa 1989, and just like that, an art career was born.

The original Andre the Giant stickers were quickly refined down to a menacing gaze with the word “Obey.” Aware of the sociological and semiotic aspects of this mini-phenomenon he had created, Fairey posted stickers further and further afield. Nearly 20 years later, he still posts images on the street every single day, conceived as a play on reverse psychology and as a ploy to get people to think and question the forces at work in their lives. However, like a magician’s trick, the effect only lasts as long as you don’t know what’s up with it all. “Obey Giant” in its various forms has since become an iconographic agitprop logo, in effect reversing the reverse psychology for those in the know.

While still seeming the down to earth jeans and T-shirt artist, Shepard Fairey at 38 is now more CEO than street

October 23 - 29, 2008

punk. Husband and father of two young daughters, Fairey runs a small graphic arts empire that includes an art gallery and clothing line. While he does corporate advertising, his art making revolves around posters. Releasing a new silk screened poster online with a limited edition of around three to four hundred prints, the printing will often sell out in a day or two. Fairey is clearly no longer an enigmatic unknown street artist.

With a couple of decades of negative agitprop art behind him, he decided to try a new twist and made a positive message poster promoting his choice in the Democratic Presidential primary race.

Receiving an under the table green light in late January of this year, the Obama “Progress” poster was designed and posted online the next day – 15 minutes later the print run of 350 had sold out.

An additional quantity of posters was printed to post on the street. Roughly two weeks later the Obama campaign was receiving feedback and officially wanted Fairey to do a poster for them to sell.

Working off a photo of their selection, and using the campaign’s slogan word “Hope,” poster number two came into being. Three weeks later, a third design was born with 5,000 “Change” posters printed for sale.

Normally, artists make an image, and then posters are made from that image to sell as cheaper ersatz art. Shepard Fairey puts the cart before the horse in that his posters are done first, and then works them up into handmade fine art images, typically laying the final image on top of a torn paper collage not unlike the way spray painted graffiti would look on top of layers of torn and weathered wheat-pasted posters on the street. It’s a style that gives the image depth and texture not found in the flat color fields of the silk screened posters. The Obama “Hope” image now on display at Irvine Contemporary was done in this fashion, as were all of the other Fairey images from his Duality of Humanity series also on view.

While the dark blue of the Obama image is opaque, the light blue, red, and off-white colors are transparent layers that reveal the “Obey Giant” logo and trademark Fairey patterning underneath.

At 60 by 44 inches, it’s a sizable piece.

There is a visual trade-off here. The graphic punch of the original posters is muted, while a depth of texture is gained. The images work at distance and remain entertaining at close range, while a straight printing of this size would not.

“Hope” is the third of three handmade Obama-themed images. While listed as

SINCE RELEASING “HOPE” and other Obama-themed pieces last year, Fairey has raised around $675,000 for the Obama campaign. Copies of “Hope,” pictured above, and Fairey’s other art work can be found at his company’s website, obeygiant.com.

POR (price on request), it’s worth noting that this piece was sold at auction in July for $108,000. Who knows what the scoop is here, but you get the feeling like it’s on loan, waiting to see how the election turns out. Should Obama become the 44th President of the United States, overnight this piece moves up from political curiosity to presidential artifact.

In that event, it would seem destined for a museum.

As political campaigns go, the whole Obama poster phenomenon came out of nowhere. While iconic political portraiture plays a role in many places around the globe, here in the U.S. political posters are a somnambulant display of red, white and blue text stating the candidate’s name and the position sought.

Printed and displayed in such mass quantities, the typical political poster is little more than public littering. Rarely do we see such objects rise to the level of even middling art.

In fact, the only other Political “art” that comes to mind from the past half century would be the Johnson television spot from 1964 when he ran against the maverick Senator from Arizona Barry

Goldwater. The “Daisy-Bomb countdown” ad from 1964 remains as one of the most incisive TV spots of all time.

For something made 44 years ago, it has an eerie sense of current validity. Check it out ... www.youtube.com/ watch?v=zyVn9k6d1og.

Fairey’s “Duality of Humanity” images use Vietnam era imagery to deal with man’s desire for peace even while waging war – construction and destruction coexisting in our complex make up. Also be sure to check out the alleyway behind the gallery, and the space above.

The sculpture of Al Farrow on view here is first rate. Farrow welds together gun parts, and ammo into models of religious temples. The Christian reliquaries with human trigger finger bones in central glass vials are simply not to be missed.  The Northern Virginia Art Beat is compiled by Kevin Mellema. See www. fcnp.com for photos and more. To email submissions, send them to kevinmellema@gmail.com.

October 23 - 29, 2008

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October 23 - 29, 2008

McLean High School Hosts Fall Orchestra Concert The McLean High School Orchestra will perform its Fall Concert at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 23 in the school auditorium (1633 Davidson Rd., McLean). Director Gretta Sandberg received the 2007 Orchestra Director of the Year Award from the Virginia Chapter of the American String Teachers Association, and the orchestra has won awards in competitions in New York City, Atlanta, Boston, Florida, South Carolina and the Washington, D.C. area.

For more information, call 703-714-5700.

Fairfax County Marching Bands to Attend Festival at Millbrook H.S. J.E.B. Stuart High School and Fairfax High School will participate in the 28th Annual Virginia Band and Orchestra Director’s Marching Band Festival at 9 a.m. on Oct. 25 at Millbrook High School (251 First Woods Dr., Winchester). J.E.B. Stuart will perform at 12:45 p.m., and Fairfax will take the stage at 2:45 p.m.

Symphonic Band Concert Performance at McLean H.S. The Symphonic Band and Concert Band of McLean High School will host a concert at 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 30 at the school (1633 Davidson Rd., McLean). For more information, call 703-714-5700.

Stuart H.S. Band Appearance in Halloween Parade The Stuart High School Band will travel to Lake Barcroft to take part in the annual Halloween Parade. This year’s parade will kick off at 2 p.m. on Oct. 26.

For more information, call 703-824-3900.

Thomas Jefferson Elementary to Hold Chorus Concert

SUNDAY SCHOOL OPEN HOUSE October 26 – 10:15-11:15

The school chorus of Thomas Jefferson Elementary (601 S. Oak St., Falls Church) will give a concert from 3:30 – 4:15 p.m. on Oct. 27 at the school. For more information, call 703-248-5660.

MEH Grandparent Club to Visit Sunrise The 6th and 7th grade members of the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School Grandparent Club, led by teacher

Maryel Barry, will visit the residents of Sunrise Senior Living of Falls Church at 1:45 p.m. on Oct. 28. Students will be dressed in their Halloween costumes. For more information on the Grandparent Club, call 703-720-5700.

‘Principal’s Coffee’ Event at Mount Daniel Elementary The topic for Principal’s Coffee at Mount Daniel Elementary School (2328 N. Oak St., Falls Church) will be “Volunteering at Mount Daniel.” For more information on this event, call 703248-5640.

Falls Church Jaguars Host Haunted House Theatre students of Falls Church High School (7521 Jaguar Trail, Falls Church) will build and run a Haunted House for all ages from 7 – 11 p.m. on Oct. 24 and 1 – 4 p.m. and 7 – 11 p.m. on Oct. 25 in room 181 of Falls Church High School. Admission is $5, and all proceeds will go to benefit future productions at the school.

Appleebee’s Breakfast For George Mason H.S. Students Eat breakfast at the Applebees in Falls Church (127 E. Broad St., Falls Church) on Oct. 25 to help George Mason High School music department students raise money for their New York City trip.

Cost is $10 per person, and tickets can be bought from any band or chorus member.

For more information, call 703-248-5533.

National Red Ribbon Week Focuses On Anti-Drug Message October 23 – 31 is National Red Ribbon Week, in which communities recognize the need to be substance-free. Started in 1985 and sponsored by the National Family Partnership, this movement has the ultimate goal of achieving a drug-free America.

Supporters may purchase Red Ribbons at www.drugpreventionresources.com.

Mason H.S. Mustangs Set to Host Model U.N. Event George Mason High School will host a Model U.N. event from 4:30 – 9:30 p.m. on Oct. 24. For more information, call 703-248-5500.

Tie-Dye a T-shirt while you explore the Genesis story of Joseph and his Coat of Many Colors Please RSVP to attend our Art Workshop (We need your size!)

We are currently worshipping at: Falls Church Presbyterian 225 E. Broad St. -- Memorial Hall Rev. Cathy Tibbetts 703-785-8911 cathytibbetts@gmail.com

The McLEAn High school Symphonic Orchestra performs their Fall Concert today, Thursday, Oct. 23. (Photo: Courtesy Eileen nelson)

October 23 - 29, 2008

It wasn’t long into her 12 year tenure at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School that teacher Maryel Barry conceived the idea for a club that would unite old and young alike in the bonds of friendship and respect.

“The bottom line: It is fun,” Barry says of the Grandparent Club, which she founded between 10 and 11 years ago.

Barry teaches sixth grade history and English at Mary Ellen Henderson. During her time at the school, Barry considered the Grandparent Club to be one of her lasting achievements.

Barry began the Grandparents Club on the idea that kids and seniors can learn from one another, have fun and grow as people through joint activities and social interaction. It is open to fifth, sixth and seventh grade students.

While school is in session, Grandparent Club members meet twice monthly – once at the school in the middle of each month and once at the end of the month, when they visit the residents of Sunrise Senior Living of Falls Church.

Page 25

During school meetings, students meet in Barry’s classroom to chat and make general notes to pass out to seniors.

“We say, ‘What are we going to do next time’ and things you can talk about for next time,” says sixth grader Evelyn Leggett.

The students also make cards for holidays like Halloween and Christmas. Members make personalized cards for residents with whom they have formed friendships. Students also tell each other stories about what they did during their last visit with residents, whom they met, what they learned and what plans they have for the next visit.

Barry said that both the children and the seniors need attention, and thought the monthly visits to Sunrise are fun for the kids and enlivening for residents. Normally, kids distribute their handmade cards and talk with residents, but on Halloween, students dress in costumes, and in December, the club performs a holiday concert.

“When they speak to me, they share their problems,” says Barry, referring to how she interacts with Sunrise residents.

She said, however, that residents come alive when they encounter the children. The students make the residents feel young again by allowing the seniors to participate with students in lively activities.

The seniors open up to the kids, Barry said. She also said that students and residents simply have fun together, which brings the older residents out of their routines and helps them to forget their daily struggles.

Students will ask simple questions, Barry said, like, “What did you do for Halloween when you were little?”

“The kids are innately skilled at knowing how to communicate with the elderly,” Barry said. The kids are “tactful and gracious,” mingling with the seniors and making new friends.

Club members, like sixth grader Katherine Goodwin, enjoy finding things they have in common with residents. On one of the visits, Katherine found that she and a resident shared a love of photography.

Leggett enjoys learning new games from helpful seniors, such as a resident she knows as Mr. Wren. “He was really patient when people

didn’t know things,” Leggett said about Mr.Wren when he assisted the children in learning Dominoes.

Leggett said she joined the Grandparent Club “to meet interesting people from other places that have done things I would never get to do and I can learn from their experiences.”

Fifth grader Killian Moore said she likes the history seniors share with anecdotes about their lives. “I thought it would just be cool to go and meet people who’ve been around for such a long time and learn about history,” said Moore.

Besides their compassion, Barry said that students exhibit confidence as they mingle with and talk to residents. She is amazed that students who

might not excel or be assertive in the classroom are at ease when they interact with residents.

These natural talents for communication and ability to empathize with diverse groups of people are traits that more timid students use to build self-confidence and self-worth.

Some students even consider using their communication skills in a future career. “It is easy to do, and everyone has fun,” Barry says.

The mutual kindness and care given and received by the kids and the older people touches Barry every time she returns to Sunrise. “It’s humanity at its best,” says Barry with a smile. “It doesn’t get better than that.”

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October 23 - 29, 2008

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“Pride and Glory” is the kind of film where you feel like you know the words and ought to be singing along. It follows the well-worn pathways of countless police dramas before it.

We find a drug deal gone bad, corruption on the force, brother against brother, alcoholic dad who is both their father and their superior officer, family friend as a traitor, plus one dying wife and another one who is fed up. There’s a stroke of originality: A baby seems about to be branded by a hot steam iron.

If you set this in New York, provide all the characters with strong ethnic identities, film under glowering skies, add a

Ray Tierney ....... Edward Norton Jimmy Egan ...........Colin Farrell Francis Tierney Sr. ... Jon Voight Francis Tierney Jr. Noah Emmerich Abby Tierney ....... Jennifer Ehle New Line presents a film directed

by Gavin O’Connor. Produced by Gregory O’Connor. Written by Joe

lot of dead bodies right at the start, and have characters shout at each other, all you’d have to do is change the names and hire different actors, and you could do this all again and again.

The setup: Four cops are killed in a drug bust gone wrong.

They are under the command of Francis Tierney Jr. (Noah Emmerich). The moment you

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bring a Junior onstage, the formula requires a Senior, in this case played by Jon Voight as a high-maintenance boozer.

Senior confronts his other son, Ray Tierney (Edward Norton), who has fled the streets for a low-risk assignment after Something Very Bad happened a few years ago, and persuades him to rejoin the tough guys: After all, he has to help out Junior.

Also involved is the Tierney brother-in-law, Jimmy Egan (Colin Farrell). Oh, and Junior’s wife, Abby (Jennifer Ehle), is dying of cancer and has lost her hair to chemo. And Ray’s wife, Tasha (Carmen Ejogo), has split with him and, in the tradition of all cop wives, accuses him of neglecting his family and, on Christmas, receiving a visit from a guy who would be the first one you would pick out of a lineup, whether or not you recognized him, because he looks like he has just done Something Very Bad. The plot involves how and why the four cops were killed.

This may not come as a shock to veteran filmgoers: There is a culture of corruption in the department, and one character is guilty, one is innocent, and one is conflicted in his loyalties. Once we know this, we know there will be a series of angry and desperate confrontations among the three, interlaced with violent face-downs with criminals, cops being Think the Real Estate Market Has Gone to the Dogs?

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Page 27

stars.

H Opening in Theaters

T

rupt LAPD running wild. Angelina Jolie stars as the mother, John Malkovich as a crusading reformer, and Jason Butler Harner is riveting as the serial killer. Rating: Three and a half stars.

HE BROTHERS BLOOM (Crime adventure, PG13, 109 minutes). Brothers named Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) are con men from early childhood, until Bloom ILTH AND WISDOM tires of the game at about the time (Comedy, not rated, 81 minthey meet the beautiful millionaire utes). Madonna’s directing Penelope (Rachel Weisz). Lovely Eastern European locations, an debut is a pointless exercise in “shocking” behavior, involving charingenious plot, persuasive actors, acters in London so shallow that but finally a little too smug and the most sympathetic is the lecherpleased with itself. Rating: Two and ous Indian dentist (Inder Manocha) a half stars.

ROLAND (MACAULAY CULKIN) (LEFT), MARY (JENA MALONE), who is supposed beARTISTS a villain, AND CASSANDRA (EVA AMURRI) INto UNITED ' COMEDY "Smaybe.

AVED!" © 2004 - UNITED ARTISTS - ALL RIGHTS RESERVED The hero is A.K. (Eugene HANGELING (Drama, Hutz), a rock singer who moonR, 140 minutes). Clint lights as a male dominator. He is Eastwood’s film made me flatmates with Holly (Holly Weston) feel sympathy, and then anger, and and Juliette (Vicky McClure), and then back around again. It’s the also their unpaid adviser, who factual account of a mother whose steers Holly into stripping at a lapboy disappeared, and of a cor- dance sleaze pit. Ugh. Rating: Two

F

C slammed up against walls in the basement of headquarters, and Senior drinking even more because he is horribly confused about whether he values truth above family loyalty, and either one above loyalty to the department. Jon Voight is a fine actor, but putting him in a role like this is like hanging him out to dry.

My friend McHugh used to be fond of suddenly announcing, “Clear the bar! I want to drink by myself!” Such a moment supplies the sensation-

ally bad ending to “Pride and Glory,” when one brother enters the bar where the other brother is drinking, flashes his badge and tells everyone to scram.

Why? So he and his brother can settle everything with a brutal fistfight. As we know, under the Macho Code, this means that after two people who love each other end up beaten and bloody, they will somehow arrive at a catharsis. How that solves this tangled web of loyalty, deceit and corruption, I can’t be exactly sure.

, y a d i r F s Thi rst To See The. ir . i . r F e e h t h T e g e B To r a e Y t s La

APPY-GO-LUCKY (Comedy/drama, R, 118 minutes). Mike Leigh’s new film is his happiest in years, but it has dark undercurrents and deep penetrations into the secrets of his characters. Sally Hawkins is magnificent as Poppy, a grade school teacher who seems irrepressibly cheerful, and Eddie Marsan is terrifying as a driving instructor with road rage. The film gradually reveals the resources that Poppy possesses beneath her merry exterior. Hawkins was named best actress at Berlin 2008. Rating: Four stars.

New on Video & DVD

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OURNEY TO THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (Adventure, PG, 92 m., 2008). There is a world inside our own, populated by glowing birds, man-eating plants, giant-fanged fish and a T-Rex. Reaching it via a series of dizzying falls, a geologist, his nephew and an Icelandic babe realize Jules Verne must have seen it before writing his novel. With Brendan Fraser, Josh Hutcherson and Anita Briem. Rating: Two stars.

K

IT KITTREDGE: AN AMERICAN GIRL (Adventure, G, 104 m., 2008). Inspired by one of the American Girl dolls, and just about perfect for its target audience, with a great look, engaging performances, real substance and even a few whispers of political ideas, all surrounding the freshness and charm of Abigail Breslin. Director Patricia Rozema’s intelligent treatment doesn’t condescend, and her firstrate cast includes Julia Ormond, Stanley Tucci, Max Thieriot, Chris O’Donnell, Willow Smith, Glenne Headley, Joan Cusack and Wallace Shawn as the snarly local newspaper editor. Rating: Three and a half stars.

T

HE STRANGERS (Horror, R, 90 m., 2008). Liv Tyler and Scott Speedman star as a couple with romantic difficulties who go for the night to their deserted summer cottage and are terrorized by home invaders.

Competently acted and directed, but what a despairing exercise in

“QUITE POSSIBLY THE BEST HORROR FILM THIS YEAR.” Brad Miska, BLOODY-DISGUSTING.COM

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Mini Reviews Continued from Page 27 nihilism. Rating: One and a half stars.

T

HE INCREDIBLE HULK (Action, PG-13, 114 m., 2008). Less psychology and more action than the 2003 Ang Lee version, and not to its advantage: The movie sidesteps the fictional dilemma that when Bruce Banner (Ed Norton) becomes the Hulk, he doesn’t much know who he is, and thus his actions are simply anarchic. Lots and lots of CGI-generated action sequences, but a flimsy story. With Liv Tyler as Banner’s love interest, William Hurt as her father the general, Tim Roth as a Hulk clone, and Tim Blake Nelson as a scientist. Directed by Louis Leterrier. Rating: Two and a half stars.

October 23 - 29, 2008

come together. Still, an honorable attempt. Rating: Two stars.

M

ONGOL (Drama, R, 126 m., 2008). A ferocious film, blood-soaked, pausing occasionally for passionate romance and more frequently for torture. As a visual spectacle, it is all but overwhelming, putting to shame some of the recent historical epics from Hollywood.

If it has a flaw, and it does, it is expressed succinctly by the wife of its hero: “All Mongols do is kill and steal.” At the end of two hours, its hero, not yet known as Genghis Khan, has two more movies to go. Awesome, if you go for nonstop carnage. Rating: Three and a half stars.

Y

OU DON’T MESS WITH THE ZOHAN (Comedy, PG-13, 113 m., 2008).

Adam Sandler’s new comedy is shameless in its eagerness to extract laughs from every possible breach of taste or decorum, and why am I even mentioning taste and decorum in this context? He plays a Mossad counterterrorist who sneaks out of Israel to become a New York hairdresser. His superhuman abilities make him a super-warrior and lover, in a movie that’s a comic hymn to vulgarity. Co-starring John Turturro, Lainie Kazan, Nick Swardson, Emmanuelle Chriqui.

Rating: Three stars.

“AN INTENSE, SUPERBLY ACTED, AND RIVETING POLICE DRAMA.” Jeffrey Lyons, NBC REEL TALK

“SEARING, HEARTFELT AND BRUTALLY HONEST.” Peter Travers,

(c) 2008 The Ebert Co.

I

NDIANA JONES AND THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL (Adventure, PG-13, 124 m., 2008). Nineteen years after the previous Indy adventure, a film in the same tradition, involving maneating ants, sword fights between two people balanced on the backs of speeding jeeps, subterranean caverns of gold, vicious femme fatales, plunges down three waterfalls in a row, and the explanation for flying saucers. Harrison Ford holds up well as Indy, Cate Blanchett is a sublime femme fatale, Karen Allen is back as Indy’s first love, Shia LaBeouf is the boxer with the ducktail. “Same old same old,” Indy says, but that’s why I liked it.

Rating: Three and a half stars.

W

AR, INC. (Comedy, R, 106 m., 2008). Brave and ambitious but chaotic attempt at a political satire. John Cusack stars as a hit man sent to a Middle Eastern country to protect the interests of an American super-corporation. Marisa Tomei is a liberal journalist, Hilary Duff is a Mideast teen idol (!), Ben Kingsley is a shadowy manipulator, Joan Cusack is a P.R. whiz, and Dan Aykroyd seems uncannily like Vice President Cheney. The elements are here, but the parts never

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October 23 - 29, 2008

From pizza and ranch dressing to pickles and milk, cravings are a phenomenon of human nature. Every once in a while, I'll get a hankering for the kind of barbeque I was raised on, which is hard for me to find around the Northern Virginia area.

Rocklands Barbeque & Grilling Company instantly reminded me of home, yet offered a whole new take on the traditional barbeque that my folks introduced me to as a child. To create a unique flavor, Rocklands smolders red oak and hickory wood to cook their barbeque, no gas or electricity – and the taste tells the story.

The BBQ sandwich-turned-platter was the special of the day, scribbled on the chalk board above the registers. The chopped pork sandwich, macaroni and cheese or red beans and rice option ($8.49) called to me, complemented with an thirst quenching sweet tea.

The pulled pork was served on a soft, fresh potato roll. However, it’s up to the customer to add final touches. The original-recipe Rocklands sauce awaits customers in a large communal pot, fresh for the taking. Only a small scooped portion of the signature sauce, rich with cooked onions, was enough to send my taste buds into a frenzy.

The first bite was almost a hybrid of two barbeque types I had grown up with –Tennessee-style barbeque, signature of its primarily dark, sweet tomato-based sauce, and Carolina-style, which is predominately vinegar-based.

Rocklands’ sauce, while tomato-based, had hints of vinegar, along with something I couldn’t quite put my finger on – perhaps an original secret recipe. The sweet sauce was a un-cracked puzzle to my taste buds – smoky, tangy and sweet flavors infused the meat, lingering underneath the oak and hickory hints, throwing my attempts to decipher the Rocklands recipe into oblivion.

My guest ordered the chopped sirloin sandwich, served with mashed potatoes and baked beans. The sirloin was tender and the smoky-sweet hickory, paired with the tangy oak flavors, were found in each piece of the tender meat, adding an extra kick that beckoned me to eat more. However, a playful smack on the hand from my friend, reminded me that this was not my dish, but theirs.

While the sandwiches were quite good, the side dishes were lacking in comparison to the powerhouse performance of the main courses. On the plus side, the macaroni and cheese was made with extra large noodles, but the sauce was unfortunately thin and left the large shells, and myself, needing a bit more of the creamy coating. Although the baked beans were a bit on the spicy side, overall they were very tasty.

Of the four Rocklands locations, Arlington’s atmosphere leaves a nice impression on patrons. It's eccentricity was clearly acquired from the original restaurant location in the District. Re-mixed, reggae-inspired music played in the background.

Each of the worn wooden shelves, full of hundreds of homemade barbeque and hot sauces from around the country, added to the restaurant's home-cellar feel. All over the restaurant utensils hung on the walls. This particular decoration made me feel as if I was eating in an extended part of an old country kitchen.

Rocklands puts a fast-paced twist on the original old, slow southern tradition of barbeque. The next time you’re craving food rich with spices that take it that extra mile, Rocklands is the barbeque pit to visit. After all, if the restaurant satisfies my picky barbeque cravings, I’m sure it won’t leave you anything other than full and fulfilled.

Page 32

October 23- 29, 2008

Bargain-priced wines from Australia may soon become the norm worldwide.

American wines may be an entirely different story.

Recent bumper crops have increased the supply of wine grapes and helped drive down prices Down Under. Now, South Australian vines in particular are showing promise of a good grape crop: i.e., another wine glut.

Paul Clancy, chairman of the Wine Grapes Council of South Australia, told the Aussie broadcaster ABC Rural that last year’s crop was more than 500,000 tons and this can’t be sustained year after year. He says that with overseas and domestic wine markets stagnating, many grape growers soon will have no buyers.

“I think in the next few years, growers will find that the contracts that have been written by some of the companies won’t be renewed,” he said. “And it’s not a big bang catastrophe. It’s death by a thousand cuts.”

Domestically, the story from coast to coast is quite the opposite.

On Long Island, for example, New York grape growers are calling 2008 one of the most challenging in years. Heavy spring frost hit young grape clusters, including a deluge from the former Hurricane Hanna in September. The result: plumped the grapes and diluted sugars.

Depending on the grape varietal and location, growers say the crop yield is off 10 percent to more than 50 percent.

And in California’s Sonoma County, I watched field workers whip through fields of chardonnay grapes in record time because smoke from wildfires, plus early frosts and growing season drought had reduced the overall crop.

Essentially the same story is being repeated across much of the nation.

All of this means that if consumers demand certain types of wines whose supplies have been diminished by a weak harvest, the prices will go up.

Meanwhile, Australia may have found a way to be more specific with its wine production without having to simply dump or plow under grapes as it has done in the past to combat gluts.

Researchers in South Australia claim to have unlocked the genetic code of wine yeast. That would mean scientists now can develop new strains of yeast to create wines for specific tastes and markets.

Sakkie Pretorius, managing director of the Australian Wine Research Institute, says the institution has decoded the 6,000 genes that make up the genome of a wine yeast.

“Our wines will probably be better shaped for what consumers will like,” he said in a statement. “So first of all, it might be that our wines will now out-compete some of the competitors in export markets, and if our wines are improving in terms of quality, it means that maybe the profit margins of some of our producers that are now on the squeeze might . . . become more sustainable.”

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Many poker books make the claim that it’s never correct to raise the minimum amount in no limit Hold’em. I disagree. It’s a mistake to use the words never or always with regards to how to play a poker hand.

At PokerVT.com, I teach my students that sometimes making a min-raise really is the best play available.

Now, don’t get me wrong, min-raising isn’t the preferred approach. It’s usually more effective to make slightly larger raises than the minimum allowed. That being said, there are two specific situations where min-raising can be the best option.

Make a min-raise when playing heads-up.

In heads-up play, the player with the dealer button posts the small blind and the other player posts the big blind. Before the flop, the player with the button acts first, but then acts last on every street to follow. It’s a very powerful position.

Your objective is to play more hands when you’re in this power position and fewer hands when you’re not. The min-raise helps you do just that.

If your opponent makes a typical three times the big blind raise when he’s got the button, tighten up your starting hand requirements and play pots only when you have a decent hand. When you’re on the button, be liberal with your raising requirements and make a min-raise.

You see, reducing your raise to the minimum actually allows you to play more hands in position for slightly bigger pots when your opponent either calls the bet or makes it three times the blind.

It may seem backwards but it’s true. A min-raise can force an opponent to incorrectly fold a hand that he should have called with or make a pre-flop call with a marginal hand that he should have folded.

And there’s more. If your opponent does have a strong hand and reraises, you’ll save money when you eventually lay down your hand.

Say the blinds are $10-$20 and you make a pre-flop min-raise to $40. An opponent then reraises to $150. You can fold your hand right there and save the $20 you would have wasted had you opted to make the standard three times raise to $60.

You can also min-raise whenever a raise represents a significant portion of your chipstack or your opponent’s.

Often, especially in tournament poker, the size of any postflop raise will be so substantial that it’s irrelevant whether you

min-raise or toss in something more. That’s because your opponent will react the same way to either raise if the bet commits him or you to the pot.

Here’s an example.

With the board reading Kh9d-6c-2s and 2,000 in the pot, your opponent bets out 1,500 leaving him with 6,000 chips.

You might consider min-raising to 3,000 or moving all-in; his response, however, will be the same. He’ll only play if he believes he has the best hand.

Calling your min-raise would essentially commit his remaining stack to the pot. If he calls that bet, he’d call any larger bet too.

Here’s another example with the same board. This time you have pocket queens and don’t think your opponent has a king.

Well, you could move all-

in. If you get called, though, you’re probably in big trouble.

Or, you could just min-raise to 3,000 and save yourself the 4,500 chips your opponent has left – which he’ll probably shove in if he does indeed have the king.

A min-raise would have revealed that crucial information for a lot fewer chips.

So, the next time an opponent laughs at you for making a min-raise, smile back and let him think you’re a fool. Then take all of his chips, slowly but surely.  Online poker training is now available from Daniel Negreanu.

Visit www.PokerVT.com.

October 23 - 29, 2008

Page 33

Level: 1 3

2 4

SOLUTION TO LAST WEEK’S PUZZLE

10/26/08

© 2008 The Mepham Group. Distributed by Tribune Media Services. All rights reserved.

1. Goes here and there 6. Give ____ on the back 10. It’s nothing at all 14. Sound from a feeder 15. Mozart’s “____ fan tutte” 16. In a chemistry joke, it’s what a female has that a male lacks 17. Brazil’s ____ Alegre 18. Jabba the ____ of “Stars Wars” 19. “Six Feet Under” character 20. With 28-, 38-, 46and 54-Across, Stephen Colbert’s comment on a 2008 presidential candidate 23. In the past 24. Pal 25. Cruise on film 28. See 20-Across 33. ____-cone 34. Pair 35. Paid ____ to society 36. In the blink ____ eye 38. See 20-Across 41. Eye doctor’s concern 42. Instruction for casual dress 44. Old Eur. domain 45. Early hrs.

46. See 20-Across 51. Consumed 52. Chinese “way” 53. Lobbying grp.

54. See 20-Across 60. #1 hit for Van Halen 63. 1997 Peter Fonda title role 64. G with a sax 65. Cookie with a diameter of 1.75 inches 66. Vardalas and Long 67. Best and Ferber 68. Flex 69. Ilk 70. Actress Witherspoon

Down 1. Proof of purchase: Abbr.

2. Eager student’s cry 3. Suffix with billion 4. Character in “The Wind in the Willows” 5. Surgeon’s request 6. In need of a massage

1

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48

27

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54 62

26

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61

25 32

44 47

13

35

38 43

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60

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12

22

23 28

11

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© 2008 David Levinson Wilk

Complete the grid so each row, column and 3-by-3 box (in bold borders) contains every digit, 1 to 9. For strategies on how to solve Sudoku, visit www.sudoku.org.uk

ACROSS

Across

7. Demonstrate displeasure

37. “Henry & June” role 39. Ocean State coll.

6. ____ofonUrbino” the back painter 40. News hr.

9. Give “Venus 10.It's Oomph 43. 911 responders 10. nothing at all 11. Slice of history 47. Certain Louisianans 14. Sound from a feeder 12. Spoil 48. “It Takes a Thief” rap15. Mozart's "____ fan tutte" 13. It’s next to nothing per 16. a chemistry what a female has that a male lacks 21.In“Sing to thejoke, ____it'snew 49. Pillager song”: Isaiah 50. Give in 17.

Brazil's ____ Alegre 22.Jabba Univ.the sports org.

18. ____ of "Stars Wars" 54. MP3 player 25. Morgue ID 55. Get wind of 19. "Six Feet Under" character 26. “I don’t see why not” 56. Place for eggs 20.

28-, 38-, 46- and 54-Across,57.

Stephen Colbert's comment on a 2008 presidenti 27.With Rations (out) Sister of Prince Charles 23. the past it 28.InHoofing 58. Actresses Balin and 29.Pal Detest Claire 24.

30.

Rubber ducky’s spot 59. The Big Board: Abbr.

25. Cruise on film 31. Commotion 60. Position 28. See 20-Across 32. Law degs.

61. Suffix with script 33.

33.____-cone Skater Henie 62. Chess pieces 1. here andwoe there 8. Goes Breathing

34. Pair

Last Thursday’s Puzzle Solved

35. Paid ____ to society

A M A D S O L E K I L L

H A N A R E S O A D R G O O F U P

O N D I S C

S E E N A T

M U I N T R G L O E L E R I L L U S O L O I L L S I L N E T A

A N G I O

I S L E S

A T D O E D H A L T S

I L E F T

S I E I U R E M C E A R D J A E B R I L R A M M S U P L I T T L O N H A L O U T W O N D O A D Q U I P P U L E A E S C R

T A N G L E

S E N S O R

E L O S E E R E D V E A M

© 2008 N. F. Benton

October 23 - 29, 2008

Professional Services

Page 35

Professional Services

Home Improvement

Home Improvement Since 1981

Other Services Make a Joyful Splash!

VA License #2705 023803

with

(571) 330-3705

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TAX ACCOUNTANT – IRS ENROLLED AGENT

Driveways • Steps Sidewalks • Patios Small Jobs Welcome

YASMEEN HASSAN JONES PRINCIPAL ACCOUNTANT

SMALL BUSINESS ACCOUNTING PAYROLL SERVICES INDIVIDUAL AND BUSINESS TAX PREPARATION BUSINESS CONSULTING

Licensed and Insured. Free Estimates.

With Personal Service

703-241-7771 www.hassansacctg.com

MOTTERN MASONRY DESIGN

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PC Attorneys

Specializing in custom firplaces, patios, walkways, walls, driveways.

Small and large repairs.

Free estimates Licensed and insured.

6404-N SEVEN CORNERS PLACE FALLS CHURCH VA 22044

•Injury cases & Death cases •Medical/Legal malpractice •Breach of contract •Commerical/Insurance • Car accidents Free Consultation 703-448-0073 Hablamos Español 703-798-3448

CGA IMMIGRATION ASSOCIATES Family and Employment Based Immigration Petitions Skyline Plaza Falls Church

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Cleaning Services

We’ll help you find the perfect paint color!

Mike’s Carpet Cleaning

Liberty Chem Dry

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Direct Cleaning Services 12 Years Experience • Weekly • Bi Weekly • Monthly • Home • Apartments Great References

See all of the Falls Church listings as soon as they hit the market!

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Fast RE/MAX Allegiance 5100 Leesburg Pike, Suite 200 Alexandria, VA 22302 mobile. 703-868-5999 office. 703-824-4800 ShaunMurphy@remax.net

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Deep Clean Pile Lifting Technology Safe for Children & Pets Pet Odor & Stain Removal Experts Convenient Appointments The power of oxygen is undeniable; Mother Nature has used oxygen to naturally purify the Earth for thousands of years. Now let the power of oxygen clean your carpets!

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Held at 111 Park Avenue Falls Church on Tuesday Evenings from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm Cost: $90 On-going monthly enrollment

703-560-7663

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WILLIAMS REMODELING Carpentry, Painting, Electrical, Plumbing & Tiles Licensed and Insured Free Estimates & Senior Citzens discount Call:

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For All of Your Masonry Needs Custom Design, Installation, Repairs & Restoration

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Spring Cleanup, mulching, mowing, edging, trimming.

Residential & Commercial Tree Service & Snow Removal

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Joseph

Cell 703-507-5005 Tel 703-507-8300

Licensed Work

Serving Falls Church & Northern V.A. •Yard Cleanup •Mulching • Edging • Trimming • Pruning • Planting & Removal • Lawn Care • Power Washing • Deck • Siding • Painting • Hardscapes • Other handyman services

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NOTICED! in the News-Press

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Pizza • Pasta • Wings • Subs • Salads • Desserts

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to advertise!

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Create unique art masterpieces using acrylics, water-based oils, pencils and an innovative variety of tools and brushes.

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to advertise!

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Page 36

October 23 - 29, 2008

Mayor Robin S. Gardner . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Mayor Harold Lippman. . . . . . . . . . .

City Council Nader Baroukh. . . . . . . . . . . .

Daniel Maller . . . . . . . . . . . . .

David F. Snyder. . . . . . . . . . . .

Daniel X. Sze . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Lawrence Webb . . . . . . . . . . .

City Manager Wyatt Shields. . . . . . . . . . . . .

Home Page <www.fallschurchva.gov> * Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

OCTOBER 23 Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

24 Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court in Session (Special Session, Begins at 2 p.m.)

Armchair Travel Group, 10:30 a.m.

25 Farmers Market, 8 a.m.-Noon

Voter Registration Open 9 a.m.-5 p.m. for Absentee Voting

Habitat Restoration Event, 10 a.m.

Halloween Carnival

Food for Fines Week Ends

27 Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

City Council, 7:30 p.m.

Volunteer Fire DepartmentTraining, 7:30 p.m.

28 Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court in Session

Senior Book Discussion Group, 10:30 a.m.

Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

29 General District Court in Session

Story Hour, 7 p.m.

30 Story Hour, 10:30 a.m.

31 Operation Safe Halloween, Sheriff’s Office

provided as a public service by the city of falls church

Questions or Comments? City of Falls Church, Harry E.Wells Building, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church,VA 22046 703-248-5003 (TTY 711) The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act.This document will be made available in alternate format upon request. Call 703-248-5003 (TTY 711).

city calendar

The Week

703-534-8644 703-237-9089 703-992-9433 703-731-8433 703-241-0419 703-538-5986 703-532-1043 703-248-5004*

Halloween

Leaf Collection Schedule City crews are collecting loose leaves through Dec. 12, 2008. Residents who wish to have their loose leaves collected by the City are advised to rake their leaves to the curb, but avoid gutters and sidewalks wherever possible.

Please allow one week (weather permitting) to finish each zone.

• Monday, Oct. 27 through Friday, Nov. 7. Areas north of Broad Street (Thursday and Friday Collection Zones) • Monday, Nov. 10 through Friday, Nov. 21. Areas south of Broad Street (Tuesday and Wednesday Collection Zones) Residents must keep all other collection material at least 5 feet away from leaf piles. Do not mix brush or other items with leaves. These items may injure City crews, damage equipment, damage private property, and cause delays.

For more information and to view the complete collection schedule, visit www.fallschurchva.gov.

Halloween Carnival This Saturday The City of Falls Church Recreation & Parks Division will host a free Halloween Carnival on Saturday, Oct. 25 at the Community Center (223 Little Falls St.).

Infants through fifth graders are invited to enjoy carnival games, a moon bounce, face painting, crafts, and candy! Event festivities are open to infants through second graders from 6 p.m.-7 p.m.; from 7:30 p.m.8:30 p.m. the event is open to third

Classes and Events Special Event

through fifth graders. A live Creepy Creature Show featuring the spookiest reptiles in nature will be held at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. for all ages.

For more information, 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

call

The City of Falls Church is committed to the letter and spirit of the Americans with Disabilities Act. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711).

“Food for Fines” Week Ends Saturday The Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s annual “Food for Fines” initiative provides patrons the opportunity to help those in need by donating nonperishable groceries as payment for fines on overdue items.

“Food for Fines” is a great opportunity for patrons to clear their records of library fines by donating food for local community organizations that work with the City’s Housing and Human Services Division to provide aid to families in the Falls Church City area. This optional program is a one-for-one exchange: a single grocery item (can of fruit, cake mix,

etc.) will cover the fine for a single overdue item, including books, videos, DVDs, audiocassettes, or CDs. There is no limit on the number or amount of fines that can be cleared or the quantity of overdue materials that can be returned. Bills for lost or damaged library materials cannot be paid by this program.

Glass jars, opened containers, bulging cans, items past their expiration date, or sample or trial sized-items cannot be accepted for donation due to safety reasons.

For more information, contact 703-248-5030 (TTY 711).

COMMUNITY SERVICES FUND NOTICE OF FUNDING AVAILABILITY Applications for the City of Falls Church Community Services Fund (CSF) for fiscal year 2010 will be available beginning Oct. 24 and will be accepted through Dec. 9, 2008.

The CSF is an annual competitive program that provides grants to nonprofit organizations seeking City support for human services programs and activities. It is the policy of the City to support nonprofit housing and human services organizations through annual competitive grants.

Organizations requesting grant funds must submit application proposals to the Housing and Human Services Division, 300 Park Ave. Suite 100W, Falls Church, VA. Applications must be delivered/received by NOON on Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2008.

Staff will screen applications for eligibility and forward them to the Human Services Advisory Council (HSAC) for review. Recommendations from HSAC will be forwarded to the City Council as part of the annual budget appropriations process. Grants are discretionary and will be awarded subject to funding availability.

Applications may be downloaded at www.fallschurchva.gov/Content/Government/Departments/ CommunityServices/HHS/HHS.aspx. Orientation information sessions are available by appointment by calling 703-248-5191 (TTY 711).New applicants are strongly encouraged to schedule an information session appointment.

For application packages and/or additional information please contact: Housing and Human Services 300 Park Ave. Suite 100W Falls Church,VA 22046 703-248-5005 (TTY 711)

Save the Date—You May Save Your Life Register for the City’s Online Newsletter at www.fallschurchva.gov

Register to Receive Emergency Alerts

FOR THE WEEK of

Life Line Screening will be at George Mason High School (7124 Leesburg Pike) on Saturday,Nov. 22 to perform non-invasive preventive health screenings.Five screenings will be offered to scan for potential health problems related to: blocked arteries, which is a leading cause of stroke; abdominal aortic aneurysms, which can lead to a ruptured aorta; hardening of the arteries in the legs, which is a strong predictor of heart disease; atrial fibrillation or irregular heart beat, which is closely tied to stroke risk; and a bone density screening, for men and women, used to assess the risk of osteoporosis. Register for a Wellness Package with Heart Rhythm for $149.

Blood testing for lipids, glucose and CRP is available for an additional $70. Screenings take 6090 minutes. Call 1-800-324-1851 to pre-register.

Halloween Carnival Saturday, Oct. 25 Community Center, 223 Little Falls St. Infants through fifth graders are invited to enjoy carnival games, a moon bounce, face painting, crafts, and candy! Event festivities are open to infants through second graders from 6-7 p.m.; and from 7:30-8:30 p.m.the event is open to third through fifth graders.A live Creepy Creature Show featuring the spookiest reptiles in nature will be held at 6:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. for all ages. Call 703248-5077 (TTY 711) for more information.

Classes & Activities Paid registration required. All classes meet at the Community Center (223 Little Falls St.) unless otherwise indicated.Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711) for fees and more information.

Let’s Make a Story (Ages 4-6) We’ll read and make up stories; interact to music connected to the topic of that session.

Thanks for Things Wednesdays, Nov. 12 & 19, 2-4:30 p.m.

Sparkly & Shiny Things Wednesdays, Dec. 3 & 10, 2-4:30 p.m.

Twoosy Doodlers (Ages 20 months-3) Little fingers will experiment with painting, gluing,sticking,printing and creating,while developing fine motor, language and self-help skills. Call 703-248-5077 (TTY 711) for dates and times.

Fear Fest Saturday, Oct. 25, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

Kings Dominion Kings Dominion Fear Fest brings haunts and horrors that include the Maze of Madness and Blood Shed. Cost is $40 and includes admission to park.

City of Falls Church Farmers Market Every Saturday from 8 a.m. - Noon

Growing Green Household Hazardous Waste Collection Event Nov. 1 On Saturday, Nov. 1 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the City of Falls Church will hold a collection event for Household Hazardous Waste at the Property Yard, across from the Recycling Center at 217 Gordon Road. (Gordon Road is located next to Don Beyer Volvo near the intersection of Shreve Road and Route 7.) This event is free of charge and is open to City residents only (no business use). Proof of residency must be provided (utility bill, driver’s license, Falls Church vehicle decal, etc.).

Many types of household, automotive, and lawn care products contain toxic or hazardous chemicals that require proper disposal. Bring the following: acids, antifreeze, bug sprays, button batteries, rechargeable batteries, gasoline, compact or tube fluorescent bulbs, floor care products, fungicides, furniture polish, furniture strippers, herbicides, insecticides, mercury products, motor oil, oil-based paint and stain, oven cleaner, paint thinner, pesticides, poisons, pool chemicals, rug cleaners, solvent-based glue and more. A licensed contractor will collect your items for free, transport them, and properly dispose of them according to local, state and federal regulations.

Bring items in original containers if possible and make sure containers are leak-proof. At the event, please stay inside you vehicle and allow the contractor to remove items.

The following items are not hazardous and can be disposed of with your regular trash:alkaline household batteries,legal fireworks (soaked in water),smoke detectors,syringes (place in rigid containers with tight fitting lids, such as soda bottles and clearly marked as “trash”), fertilizer, shoe polish, and lime. Water-based latex paint and stain is not hazardous waste but should be disposed of properly by adding sand or kitty litter to the paint and allowing it to fully dry before calling 703-534-6509 for a special collection (there is no fee if paint is water-based and properly prepared). Do not bring water-based paint to the event – it increases our cost of disposal significantly! Pharmaceutical waste will not be collected at the event. Most pharmaceutical waste may be disposed of in the trash. Contact your pharmacy to determine if they have a take-back program. Never flush pharmaceutical waste down the toilet.

Never throw hazardous waste in the regular trash,on the ground,down the drain,or into storm drains. Doing so may result in injury to sanitation workers; increased risk of accidental poisoning or injuries to children, pets, and wildlife; and degradation of the water, air, and soil.

Alert Falls Church

Get real-time updates and instructions on what to do and where to go during an emergency in Falls Church City, by registering for Falls Church Alert.You will receive alerts from the City via portable electronic devices and e-mail, only in the event of an emergency. Sign up for this free service at alert.fallschurchva.gov. You can also visit alert.fallschurchva.gov to update your profile, and add or delete devices from the emergency distribution list.

Falls Church Recreation & Parks Division 223 Little Falls Street Falls Church, VA 22046 703-248-5077* Phone Numbers Open Gym/Weather Hotline 703-248-5125* Special Events Hotline 703-248-5178* Fax 703-536-5125 Senior Center 703-248-5020*/21* Community Center Hours Monday-Thursday 8 a.m. - 10:30 p.m.

Friday 8 a.m. - Midnight Saturday 8:30 a.m. - Midnight Sunday Noon - 6 p.m.

Open Gym Hours Open Gym hours are updated on a bi-weekly basis and are also posted on the Open Gym Hotline, 703-248-5125*. All hours are subject to change. * Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

October 23 - 29, 2008

Page 37

ly Focus

Chairman: Ronald Peppe II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Vice Chairman: Susan Kearney . . . . . . . . . . .

School Board Rosaura Aguerrebere . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kathryn Chandler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Charlotte Hyland . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Kieran Sharpe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Joan Wodiska . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Superintendent: Dr . Lois Berlin . . . . . . . . . . .

government and the falls church city public schools

october 23-29, 2008

For more news about the Falls Church City Public Schools visit: www.fccps.org

voted last week to transfer $371,208 back to the city government.

“The city government has a history of supporting school initiatives that have required resources beyond the scope of our normal operating budget, such as property purchases and school construction,” School Board Chairman Ron Peppe said. “I’m glad that we find ourselves in the position to help the city through these difficult economic times.”

The school system’s projected surplus stems from a savings in salary and benefit costs.

Mouse in the TJ House Celebrated children’s author-illustrator Cheryl Shaw Barnes wears mouse ears to help explain how books are made, from the initial idea right through to the printing press . Barnes, who is best known for her book “Woodrow, the White House Mouse,” spoke to Thomas Jefferson elementary 3rd and 4th graders last week . Barnes has coauthored a series of American history books with her husband Peter .

Most all tell stories of our country through the eyes of a mouse .

FCC-TV Spotlight: Down Home Virginia Tune in to Falls Church Community Television (FCC-TV) to watch Down Home Virginia . Produced by the Virginia Farm Bureau, this half-hour program is geared toward Virginia consumers and families and focuses on both agriculture news, and family-oriented stories .

You can catch Down Home Virginia on FCC-TV at the following times: • Mondays at 5:30 p .m .

• Fridays at 8:30 a .m .

• Tuesdays at 7:30 a .m .

• Sundays at 11:00 a .m .

FCC-TV airs on Cox Channel 12, Verizon Channel 35 and RCN Channel 2 . For a complete schedule of community programs on FCC-TV, visit www.fcctv.net.

BIE Partner of the Week Joel Block George Mason High School School Involvement: George Mason High School math teacher; chairperson of FCCPS Professional Employees Advisory Committee (PEAC); president of the Falls Church City Education Association (FCCEA); partners with Don Beyer Volvo for the annual Ro Pa Sci student contest and with PNC Bank for lessons in real-world finance .

Why Joel is a BIE partner: “Working with businesses is very worthwhile – especially when partnerships enhance the curriculum . In the partnership with PNC Bank, a banker visits our “Real-World Finance” class and shares real-world realities with students . Don Beyer Volvo always loans us their un-limo as a reward that encourages students to complete all their homework . We’re all part of the same community, and I’m glad we can work together .”

For more information about sharing your expertise through the BIE Partnership, visit www.fccps.org or contact Marybeth Connelly at connellym@fccps .org .

Foundation Footnotes

upcoming Volunteer Projects at FcEF It’s a busy time of the year at the Falls Church Education Foundation! Volunteers of all ages are needed to help with mailings, phone calls, office work, and event planning . If you can help, please contact the foundation at (703) 538-3381 . Your assistance is critical as we work together to provide supplemental support to the Falls Church City Public Schools .

The Falls Church Education Foundation is a registered as a 501(c)3 tax-exempt organization . For more information, visit www.fcedf.org or contact Donna Englander at denglander@fcedf .org .

School content published in The Weekly Focus is written and edited by the Falls Church City Public Schools. For more information, contact the Falls Church City Public Schools Communications Office. Phone: (703) 248-5699 Fax: (703) 248-5613.

“Our enrollment projections were lower than anticipated, which means we didn’t have to hire as many teachers as we expected,” Peppe said.

“We also realized a savings with the retirement of veteran staff members who were at the top of the salary scale and who were replaced by new staff brought in at a lower salary. All of these circumstances happened after this year’s budget was passed.”

The standard practice from year-toyear is for the school system to use its end-of-year surplus as a starting balance for the following fiscal year.

Even with Tuesday’s school board

703-536-8638 703-536-7564 703-237-6993 703-536-3130 703-533-1248 703-248-5601*

* Indicates TTY 711 Accessibility

School Board to Transfer Money to the City As the state of the economy continues to dominate the news, the impact of the crisis on Falls Church City is clear. Because of a decrease in sales and property tax revenues, an increase in fuel prices and other factors tied to the national economy, the city government is projecting a budget shortfall of more than $800,000 for the current budget year.

At the same time, the Falls Church City Public Schools is realizing a higher-than-expected surplus in its budget for the current school year.

So to help offset the city’s shortfall, the Falls Church City School Board

703-534-4951 703-532-0321

SCHOOL CALENDAR vote to return part of the surplus to the city government early, the school system projects a starting balance for FY10 of $890,000, which is consistent with starting balances of previous years.

“We appreciate the stewardship of the school board as we try to find ways to cope with the impact of the national economic crisis on our city,” Mayor Robin Gardner said. “City leaders are still working to find ways to make up the rest of the shortfall, but the revenue from the schools is substantial, and we are grateful for the support.”

FCCPS Names New Day Care Program Coordinator A familiar face will remain at the helm of Falls Church City Public Schools Extended Day Care and After School Activities Programs (ASAP). During its regular meeting last week, the Falls Church City School Board appointed Katie Clinton to serve as the program’s new coordinator. Clinton had been the program’s assistant to coordinator Bobby Kaplow who resigned earlier this year to accept a similar position with the Arlington County school system.

“I’m really looking forward to this new chapter in our school division’s history,” Clinton said. “Falls Church is as important to me as my family is. I grew up here, I attended school here, I married here and I’m thrilled to be in a position to give back to this wonderful community by serving students in the day care program.”

Clinton’s tenure with the FCCPS began years ago as a center supervisor for the day care program at Thomas Jefferson Elementary. In 1998, she was named assistant to the program coordinator, a position she has held until her latest appointment.

Clinton holds a degree in child psychology from George Mason University.

She is also a graduate of George Mason High School.

The Falls Church Elementary Extended Day Care Program, which began in 1975, is open to all school age students (grades K-7) who reside in the City of Falls Church or who are enrolled in a public or private school in the City of Falls Church.

DATES ARE SubjEcT To chAngE Testing now – 10/31 DRA Testing (grades 1-2)

Q/SRI Testing (grades 3-5) now – 11/7 PALS (Kindergarten) October 23 7:15 p.m. Clarke Co. @ Mason (Volleyball) 7:30 p.m. Family Life Advisory Committee (CO) 24

5:30 p.m. Model UN (GM) 7:30 p.m. Madison Co. @ Mason (Football)

25

9:00 a.m. Model UN (GM)

28

7:00 p.m. School Board Work Session 8:30 p.m. School Board Regular Meeting

29

Mason @ Regional Meet (Cross Country)

31

1st Quarter Ends

7:30 p.m. Mason @ Clarke Co. (Football) November 3 Professional Day (Schools Closed/Day Care Open) 4

Professional Day (Schools Closed/Day Care Open) Parent Conferences (MEH)

5

Second Quarter Begins 7:30 p.m. PTSA (GM)

7

7:30 p.m. Mason @ Strasburg (Football)

(MD) Mt. Daniel School (TJ) Thomas Jefferson Elementary (MEH) Mary Ellen Henderson Middle (GM) George Mason High (CO) Central Office Check the FCCPS Web site for more calendar information. www.fccps.org

More information about the program can be found at www.fccps.org/asap.

GMHS “Be the Change” Club Wins Award A George Mason High School student organization, created to further social justice issues on campus, is being recognized regionally for its work.

The “Be the Change” club was awarded the Fairfax Partnership for Youth’s Bridging the Gap Award, for “pursuing efforts to bridge the gap between communities and ethnic groups.”

The award was announced Tuesday, during the partnership’s annual awards breakfast at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Reston.

The award was given to the club and its sponsor, math teacher Joel Block.

The club received a com- The George Mason High School “Be the Change” club gathers outside the school. The group is being memorative plaque and a recognized by the Fairfax Partnership for Youth for efforts to bridge the gap between communities $500 cash award. and ethnic groups.

Page 38

laz y The dog. c k q u i fox sly p e d jum e r o v lazy the g . d o is Now time the all for o d g o to cows

15 s Yearo Ag

to come aid the ir of there. pa stu is Now e the timall for o d g o to cows to come aid the ir of there. pa stu

October 23 - 29, 2008

Falls Church News-Press Vol lll, No. 32 • October 28, 1993

Falls Church News-Press Vol VIII, No. 33 • October 29, 1998

It is no the timw e for g o all o cows d to go to the aid of the ir pa stu re. *** **

10 Year s Ago

Thro w it up.

Pour it up It now is the time for all go od cows to go to the aid

‘Mayor, 2 Councilmen Won’t Run Again’

‘Task Force Approves Two Options For Community Center’

“In a surprise move yesterday, three members of the Falls Church City Council, including the Mayor and Vice Mayor, announced suddenly their intentions not to seek re-election next May. Mayor Brian O’Connor confirmed to the ‘News-Press’ that he, Vice Mayor Phil Thomas and Council member David Minton, all elected to the Council in 1990 as part of the slate of the Citizens for...”

“One of the more extraordinary volunteer civic efforts by unelected citizens culminated Monday night, when the Task Force on the Community Center Renovation presented an executive summary of its final report to the City Council. Twenty-four meetings of group were held since July 2, including two long ones over the weekend to meet the deadline Monday. The task force...”

Continued from Page 10

-dents who have clouded the question, such as President Richard M. Nixon, who held prayer gatherings on Sundays at the White House with invited ministers.

But none of this touched on the intrinsic question of separation of church and state.

The Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives was established by Bush in the White House, paving the way for church groups to win grants for social causes such as antidrug programs and shelters for

the homeless.

The president asked Congress to make it “legal” for religious groups to be given taxpayer money even when they discriminate against hiring people of other faiths. When Congress balked, Bush issued an executive order making the changes he wanted on his own.

Religion and politics seem to intersect frequently these days.

In remarks worthy of the Founding Fathers, retired Gen. Colin Powell broke with his own party to support the presidential candidacy of Barack Obama – and addressed a taunt against the Democratic candidate that he is a Muslim. Obama is a Christian.

But, Powell asked rhetorically on NBC TV’s “Meet the Press” last Sunday, what if Obama were Muslim.

“He’s always been a Christian, Powell said. “But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country?

“The answer’s no, that’s not America,” Powell said. “Is there something wrong with some 7year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

Powell went on to tell the story of a young American of Arab heritage who joined the Army as soon as he came of age and was killed in Iraq.

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Spouse

Cougar loves perching on the fireplace mantle in his home. Although he is only six months old, this little Bengal has already found his favorite spots to peruse the layout of his land.

The Bengal cat is a hybrid. Its coat has markings similar to those of cats in the “wild.” Yet the breed has a gentle, friendly and playful temperament. The Bengal breed originated from the crossing of a domestic and Asian Leopard Cat. Although called Bengal, the cat has no relation to the widely recognized Bengal Tiger species. This is one of Cougar’s first photographs. He likes showing off his spots and white belly. Most of all he’s curious, loving to explore new things. Right now, it’s all new to Cougar.

Open House October 26th, 2008 1-4pm.

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370 West Broad St. Falls Church,VA 703-891-0148

October 23 - 29, 2008

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Accounting

Diener & Associates, CPA. . . . . . . . . 241-8807 Eric C. Johnson, CPA, PC . . . . . . . . 538-2394 Hassans Account & Tax Services . . . 241-7771 Mark Sullivan, CPA . . . . . . . . . . . 571-214-4511 Walsh & Associates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448-0073 Hahn & Associates, PC, CPAs . . . . . 533-3777

ANTIQUES & cOLLECTIBLES

Falls Church Antique Company . . . . 241-7074 Antique Annex . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-9642

ASSisted living

Sunrise of Falls Church . . . . . . . . . . . 534-2700

Attorneys

Bose Law Firm: Former Police . . . . . 926-3900 Mark F. Werblood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9300 Janine S. Benton, Esq. . . . . . . . . . . . .992-9255 Beyer Volvo . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5000 Swedish Motor Cars . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-0988

banking

Burke & Herbert Bank & Trust Co. . . 519-1634 BB&T . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 241-3505 Acacia Federal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 506-8100

book Binding

BCR Binders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-9181

BUSINESS SERVICES

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carpet CLEANING

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catering

Bubba’s Bar-B-Q . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560-8570

chiropractor

Dr. Solano, solanospine.com . . . . . . 536-4366

Direct Cleaning Services . . . . . . . . . 858-4589 Pressure Washing/Deck, Siding . . . . 980-0225 Liberty Chem Dry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-0239 Maid Brigade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 823-1922 Carpets, Ducts, Windows . . . . . . . . . 823-1922

Computer services

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Construction

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NADsys - Computer Sale & Repair . . . . . 534-3800 Systems Management Technology . 891-1491 x14 Alba Construction, Inc . . . . . . . . . . . . 204-0733 Carol S. Miller, LCSW . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-4980 Josette Millman, APRN . . . . . . . . . . . 855-0396

Dentists

Drs. William Dougherty, Julie D. Tran 532-3300 Drs. Mark A. Miller, Melanie R. Love . . 241-2911 Dr. Nimisha V. Patel . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-1993

Equipment REntal/Sale

VA Outdoor Power Equipment . . . . . 207-2000 EZ Tool Rental . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531-4700 Ace Tool & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . 532-5600

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Eyewear

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FLorists

Jon Rizalvo, PAYCHEX . . . . . 698-6910 x27045 Oxi Fresh Carpet Cleaning . . . . . . . . 652-0675 Mike’s Carpet Cleaning . . . . . . . . . . . 978-2270

Cleaning Services

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Automotive

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Framing

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Gifts

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health & FItness

Art and Frame . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-4202

home improvement

Arlington Color Consultants . . . . . . . 241-8548 Masonary Specialist . . . . . . . . . . . . . 443-2308 Williams Remodeling . . . . . . . . . 571-263-6405 Andy Group Construction . . . . . . . . . 503-0350 Joseph Home Improvement . . . . . . . 507-5005 FC Heating & Air Service . . . . . . . . . 534-0630 Shiner Roofing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 560-7663 J & S Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 448-1171 The Vinyl Touch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 793-3111

Since 1968

703.532.3300

We Welcome New Patients!

Call Today to Make An Appointment www.DoughertyDDS.com 200 Little Falls Street, Suite 506 Falls Church, VA

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real estate

Academy of Music . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 938-8054 World Children’s Choir . . . . . . . . . . . 883-0920 Columbia Institute - Fine Arts . . . . . . 534-2508 CARR Piano Services . . . . . . . . . . . . 750-2256 Foxes Music Co . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 533-7393 Dog Trainer - Nicole Kibler . . . . . . . . 593-6340 Merelyn Kaye . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .790-9090x218 www.helpfulmortgage.us . . . . . . . . . . 237-0222 Casey O’Neal - ReMax . . . . . . . . . . . 824-4196 Rosemary Hayes Jones . . . . . . . . . . .790-1990 Leslie Hutchison . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .675-2188 The Young Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .356-8800 Shaun Murphy, Realtor . . . . . . . . . . 868-5999 www.TheJeffersonatBallston.com . . . 741-7562 Susan Fauber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395-8741

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insurance

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interior design

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jewelry

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tailor

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lawn & garden

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Travel

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Tutors

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CGA Immigration Associates, LLC. . . 578-3556 Bob Snyder - Life/Health/Disability . . . 449-0117 State Farm Insurance . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-5105 design2follow llc . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-1610 www.ofallthebeads.com . . . . . . . . . . . 901-3738 Caliber Mower Service & Repair . . . . 691-2995 Dragon Fly Farms . . . . . . . . . . . . 240-353-8404 Weaver Enterprises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323-9251 Lawn Care Programs . . . . . . . . . . . . 691-2351

masonry

Mottern Masonry Design . . . . . . . 571-212-1711 n

massage

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medical

Massage & Hair Removal . . . . . . . 571-282-4522 Healthy by Intention, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 534-1321 Sheraton Premiere Women’s Massage 403-9328

Dr Gordon Theisz, Family Medicine . 533-7555

All numbers have a ‘703’ prefix unless otherwise indicated.

Fall Special: Free Sonicare Flexcare Toothbrush For New Patients (value $170)

The Medicine Shoppe Pharmacy . . . 536-4042 n

immigration services

Stifel & Capra . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 407-0770 Curves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-0140 Sacred Well Yoga and Healing . . . . . 989-8316

Human Touch Home Health . . . . . . . 531-0540

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Point of View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237-6500 Galleria Florist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536-0770 Falls Church Florist, Inc. . . . . . . . . . . . 533-1333

home care

Tailor Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 534-8886 All Travel & Cruises . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 970-4091 Your Computer Tutor . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204-2821 TCY Learning Solutions, LLC . . . . . . 371-9067

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October 23 - 29, 2008

Under Contract - Falls Church City

Under Contract. Absolutely charming stone and brick rambler with “cottage flair” in sought after Virginia Forest. Large Living room -dining room combination opens to wonderful great room with vaulted ceiling, built-in bookcases, door to large deck and wall of windows overlooking private back yard. Kitchen with table space. Hardwood floors and stunning stone floor-to-ceiling fireplace. Lower level has spacious daylight Rec Room, den and full bath. Total of three bedrooms plus den and two and one half baths. Loads of storage including cedar closet. Walk to award-winning elementary school. Priced at $619,950.

Call Merelyn or visit www.kayes.com

Merelyn Kaye Selling Falls Church Since 1970

Life Member, NVAR TopProducer Member 20+ Million Dollar Sales Club Top 1/2% of all Agents Nationwide

Home 241-2577 Office 790-9090 X418 Mobile 362-1112

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1320 Old Chain Bridge Road McLean, Virginia 22101