Falls Church News-Press 12-8-2022

by Nicholas F. Benton Falls Church News-Press

While revenue growth is pro jected to be a solid 4.3 percent in the coming year, expenses are rising at a far faster rate, Falls Church’s City Manager Wyatt Shields reported to a joint work session of the F.C. City Council and School Board Monday night at City Hall.

Greater expenses will be coming mainly in the areas of salaries and benefits need ed to retain and develop the City’s workforce and that of its schools, Shields and F.C. Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan reported.

Overall, pressures that are causing the higher rates of expenditures are all coming from outside the jurisdiction, associated with global economic phenomena such as rising infla tion and interest rates and the impact of those on supply chain issues, as well as the post-pan demic competitive pressures to

by Kylee Toland Falls Church News-Press

The Arlington-Falls Church Commonwealth Attorney’s Office and Circuit Court Clerk hosted their first ever Expungement Clinic designed to help eligible individuals

clear their arrest records if found innocent or their charges were dropped or dismissed.

The clinic, held at the Arlington Presbyterian Church, was aimed at helping Virginians eligible for an expungement of their arrest records if they were acquitted, if the

Commonwealth’s Attorney dropped their case, or if the case was other wise dismissed without a finding of guilt. Many do not know this, or anything about it, and thus are saddled with an arrest record that can prevent them from securing jobs, housing or other benefits.

Parisa Tafti, the Commonwealth’s attorney for Arlington-Falls Church, spearheaded the idea of the clinic based on her stated platform of offering “second chances” and reha bilitation. Having created various

2022 Holiday Dining Issue

Looking for a restaurant to dine at during the holiday season, or the perfect eatery for a festive take out order? This holiday dining issue will give locals a taste of what’s around F.C. during the holidays, as well as food-related gifts to give others.

See PageS 10 - 13

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In recent years, holiday markets and craft shows have become popular among locals to find gifts for themselves and others. In F.C. and neighboring communities, these markets and shows are perfect ways to celebrate the holidays.

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meet critical wage hike demands of employees at all levels.

In summary, Shields told the meeting, an annual gathering to set the tone for the next annual budget cycle, at this point the City and its schools can expect new revenues in the ballpark of $3.7 million, a 4.2 percent increase, but new expenditures of $9.4 million for a net gap of $5.7 million.

In a jurisdiction with an annual budget of just over $100 million in total, the gap is hardly an insignificant number.

It will be the task of the City Council at its last business meeting of 2022 this coming Monday to issue its “guidance” to all the City departments and schools on how much they can request to balance the coming year’s budget without a tax rate increase.

Once that “guidance” is given, then it will be up to the schools’ superintendent, Dr. Peter Noonan, to present a draft budget to his school board by January 10 for the

board to consider and to adopt a proposed budget by the end of February, for the City Planning Commission to recommend a budget for capital improvements by March 1, and for the City Manager to fold both City and school board recommendations into a proposed Fiscal Year 2024 budget by March 27.

The City Council will then use all that to fashion its budget for the fiscal year beginning next July 1 with whatever programs, cuts and/or tax increases it will deem appropriate to come up with a balanced budget plan for final adoption by May 8, 2023.

Closing the projected $5,7 million gap will be no easy task minus a tax rate increase. Pressure to avoid a rate increase (if not to propose a cut) will be exacerbated by another expected healthy jump in residential real estate values, which the City Assessor will provide to every citizen by mid February.

Shields told the News-Press this week that the squeeze in the coming fiscal year is a temporary one, as revenues from

the City’s two major new development projects now under construction, the 10-acre West End project and the Broad and Washington project, will begin weighing in with heavy revenue contributions to the City in about 12 to 18 months, not in time to impact the coming year’s fiscal picture, but those following it.

In addition, other big projects already approved and in the pipeline, including the Founders Row 2 at W. Broad and S. West St., and the One City Center project that will rise over the existing Ireland’s Four Provinces at Broad and Washington, are due to follow shortly.

An affable gathering of all members of the Falls Church School Board and City Council, albeit with one checking in remotely from Paris, France (David Snyder), ate together with food provided by a few local eateries in the long hallway of the new F.C. City Hall and its adjacent Dogwood meeting space Monday night.

The mood of conviviality was not deterred by the reports pre-

sented as the evening wore on of some significant fiscal uncertainty forecast for the two bodies who share the deployment of the jurisdiction’s tax revenues.

The net result will be the makeup of and funding levels for all the City’s programs, on the one hand, and the size of the tax bills to pay for them that will arrive in the mailboxes of all City residents and businesses over the next year. (The current second half billings for the current fiscal year were due last week).

In his report, Shields told the assembly that the main cost driver is employee compensation, to “maintain a highly competitive compensation system to reward and retain a high performing government workforce.”

Talk is, for example, that adjacent Fairfax County will be kicking in a 7.4 percent increase in that area and Arlington County a 4.5 percent increase including 10 percent for police.

In this context, core budget objectives, he said, are to “invest in our workforce” by imple-

menting 2022 Compensation Study recommendations, sustaining workforce training and professional development, and conducting a staffing level study. Also required, he said, are fleet and IT equipment replacements, while maintaining the City’s core infrastructure.

“Ensuring building safety, enhancing roadway safety, expanding affordable housing, promoting social equity, reducing carbon emissions, improving stormwater infrastructure to reduce flooding and promoting a ‘small town character in an urban setting’ constitute the City’s strategic initiatives, he said.

Noonan told the gathering that rather than thinking of the City and its schools as separate components, “We are the City together. We all represent the City,” noting that for the last four years, despite all the growth and development that has occurred, “we have stayed within the budget guidance we have been provided.”

diversion programs as an attorney and seeing that the public defender’s office in D.C. held a clinic “on a regular basis,” she said it was time for Arlington and neighboring communities to help the public in this way.

“Virginia is very limited in what you can expunge,” Tafti told the meeting last weekend. “[An arrest record] is like an albatross, a scarlet letter or a weight on one’s chest.”

With the help of Paul Ferguson, the clerk of the circuit court for Arlington-Falls Church, Tafiti said the goal of Saturday’s clinic is for people to have a “better understanding of whether or not and if so, how they can expunge their record.”

She stated the navigation, process and procedure of an expungement can be challenging for both filers and attorneys, along with paying the fines or fees for filing an expungement.

Originally set to happen a few years back before the pandemic hit, Ferguson said another big factor of the creation of the clinic was to host it at a place close to where locals live and where people don’t have to go through the formal security, unlike

what it takes to get into the courthouse to apply for an expungement.

Normally, one has to go to a circuit court clerk’s office and then have their case reviewed and handled by the Commonwealth attorney, who recommends whether or not the expungement should be granted, before a judge ultimately decides.

Although the event began at 11:00 a.m last weekend, a line of people seeking to get their records expunged formed outside the clinic starting around 9:30 a.m. By the end of the event, Tafti said the clinic saw 39 people come in, with 19 petitions being filed on behalf of 12 people.

This came as a surprise to Ferguson, he told the News-Press, saying he was unsure if anybody would use the clinic, even though the event was publicized.

“There’s clearly an interest and this is the first year,” Ferguson said. “Hopefully we’ll do this, if not every year, [but] maybe twice a year and try to get more people to take advantage of what is their right to apply for an expungement.”

On hand at the event were a number of local nonprofit organizations, prominently Arlington For Justice

which provided the upfront funding for the event. Other nonprofits present were Restorative Arlington, Bridges to Independence, Arm & Arm, the League of Women Voters of Arlington and Alexandria, Spread the Vote, Project ID, MidAtlantic Innocence Project and OAR. The organizations were there to support the clinic and offer services in restorative justice diversion, housing, voter registration, wrongful convictions and to “empower and amplify the voices of marginalized communities.”

The Arlington Presbyterian Church hosted the event after pastor Ashley Goff had a conversation with Tafti about what they wanted to do together to positively impact the community, Tafti told the News-Press She suggested the idea of an expungement clinic, and Goff quickly offered the church as a host for the event.

“This is an expression of our core values as a religious community,” Goff told the News-Press. “To be a part of the community and to create freedom and expansiveness for people is part of our work.”

church’s parish associates and a volunteer for the clinic, said she talked to a person at the

event who had been trying to receive an expungement for over

Tafti said the application involves people having to get their fingerprints taken at the sheriff’s office for their cases to be considered filed ,and the court will docket the motions and have further hearings on the filing.

PARISA TAFTI (pictured above) partnered with ArlingtonFalls Church circuit court clerk Paul Ferguson and Arlington Presbyterian Church pastor Ashley Goff to hold Arlington’s very first expungement clinic. (P����: K���� T�����)

Wonking Out: When Should We Declare Victory Over Inflation?

But wage growth is probably a pretty good indicator of how hot or cold the overall economy is running (and you can’t have a wage-price spiral without spi raling wages).

Put on your statistical noisecanceling headphones, and the sound you hear is that of fall ing underlying inflation. Even Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, said in effect as much in his speech Wednesday.

It’s not happening yet, but in the not-too-distant future, we’ll probably see inflation fall enough that we’ll have to make some hard decisions about when to declare victory.

About Powell’s speech: I was especially gratified to see him noting that market rents have been moderating fast, a development that will predict ably lead to a falloff in official shelter inflation — which in turn plays a huge role in stan dard measures of underlying in flation — some time next year. Unfortunately, the chart he pre sented showed changes over the past year, which is too long a stretch: The big falloff in rents has taken place just over the past few months.

Rents normally decline in the fall, but the recent decline was much bigger than seasonal fac tors alone can explain. So, one main component of inflation is set to come way down.

And already, if we use mar ket rents instead of the official shelter measure, which lags rents by many months, we get “core” inflation of less than 3 percent recently. But I wouldn’t go to the wall for that estimate on its own.

I was less happy with Pow ell’s suggestion that we should focus on the rate of inflation in services other than housing and his further assertion that this category largely reflects wages. For one thing, this index is nar row enough that it’s affected a lot by quirky items such as the price of “portfolio management and investment advice services” that aren’t well measured. And it’s not clear that it’s really driv en by wages, either.

On the other hand, I have in creasingly been turning to wag es as a measure of underlying inflation. That’s not because I think greedy workers are driving inflation — they clearly aren’t.

Unfortunately, Friday morn ing’s employment report was bad news on that front. Until Friday morning, it looked as if wages were slowing, but some of the old data has been revised up, and the latest number was high. So, a big decline in infla tion may be a way off.

Still, underlying inflation will probably come down rea sonably soon, although it will be above the Fed’s target of 2 percent inflation. But is that the right target? How much pain should we be willing to suffer to squeeze inflation down to that point?

As it happens, a number of economists, myself included, have long argued that the 2 per cent target is too low. This isn’t a radical position; many of the advocates of a 3 percent or even 4 percent target are as main stream as they get. Recently, Olivier Blanchard, former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, made the case for 3 percent in The Financial Times

To understand the argument, you need to know why the con ventional inflation target is 2 percent rather than zero. The answer is that many economists believe that a little bit of infla tion helps to “lubricate” the economy in at least two ways.

For one thing, an economy with 2 percent inflation will normally have somewhat higher interest rates than an economy with zero inflation. This gives the Fed more room to cut rates in the face of a slump, making recession-fighting more effec tive.

For another, an ever-chang ing economy often requires that prices of some goods (and wag es for some workers) fall rela tive to prices and wages else where. But price and wage cuts are hard to achieve. If the price of widgets needs to fall relative to the price of gizmos, it’s eas ier to do this with rising gizmo prices rather than falling widget prices, so adjustment is easier if overall inflation is somewhat

Our Man in Arlington

By Charlie Clark

A rare streak of good news for historic preservationists.

The county board appears poised to grant local historic district sta tus to the handsome, 1912-vintage “Anderson House” home near Virginia Square. Owner Marie Schum-Brady worked with the Historical Affairs and Landmark Review Board and a rich county preservation staff history to lay the groundwork, which will enforce future design review and — perhaps— lessen risk of a tear-down at 3500 N. 14th Street.

Secondly, the 1897-vintage “Birchland-Weaver” home at N. Glebe Rd. and Williamsburg Blvd., owned from 1961 to 2021 by the Page family, is undergoing a histo ry-minded expansion/renovation by John Rosenbaum of Bedrock Development. “It’s not a recognized historic district, but I’m working dili gently to restore it and keep a lot of the historic character,” he said of the home built by the Weaver hardware store family. That includes reusing the cupola and adding a New Orleansstyle porch up front.

Thirdly, credit the current own ers of the Greenberg/Dehart house at 2002 N. Roosevelt St., where Andrew and Megan Szwez completed a his torically conscious renovation of an 1899 home with an already remark able past. Ironically, their East Falls Church home is across Washington Blvd. from what until recently was the Fellows-McGrath “Memory House—equally old—but which was demolished last December. (Builders of an expected two new homes on that

lot are just begin ning work.) The two gabled, tall-col umned homes have a common history.

The Szwez family—he a technol ogy consultant and she an Arlington teacher—this fall allowed me a tour of the handsome yellow Victorian with its wrap-around porch. They bought it in 2007 for $1.1 million after “falling in love” with it on Craigslist. They learned the colorful back story. Back in 2002, the Sarris family (also pres ervationists) sold the historic home for $400,000 to Lewis and Erica Beardsley, he a structural engineer and she an attorney. With the goal of “preventing its acquisition by build ers,” they told The Washington Post, they came up with a plan to transport the house and rotate it 90 degrees. Working with Fredericksburg-based Ayers Home Movers, they moved the 95-ton house (all but the dirt base ment) over two days using trucks with special double transmissions. The amazing feat preserved the 19th century home while creating lots for two new ones.

With 11 rooms, five baths, 10-foot ceilings and a widow’s walk, the house—its onetime dirt basement now a modern rec room — is among the best of Arlington’s Victorian-era past. It boasts polished wood stairs and door frames, decorations like an antique sofa, desks and chairs along with rockers on the porch.

The next renovation came in 2012, when the Szwezes sunk $400,000 with Falls Churchbased Moore Architects to mod ernize the kitchen (an island, industrial-scale stove), reposi tion stairs, add a bathroom and

make the attic the master bed room. Some wood had rotted, and plumbing and electrical work was modernized. Architect Charles Moore used old pine roof beams for a breakfast table and selected 19th-century-style light fixtures.

Then in 2021, the owners built out into the still-sizable yard, installing an outdoor kitchen and patio with a chim ney. Some floorboards from the demolished companion home across the street were redeployed. What Andrew Szwez especially likes is that the roof top “widow’s walk is accessible from the master bedroom.”

The home is now assessed on Zillow at $1.6 million. But not for sale.

***

Marymount University brass summoned the public on Nov. 29 to showcase the latest on its pro posal for new athletic facilities on valuable Arlington property. The plan for a soccer and lacrosse field and running track would involve reconfiguring the county’s nearby salt storage dome and mulch pile. But it would come with public access, enhanced green space and refurbishments of the WashingtonLiberty baseball and softball dia monds.

Objections were raised from the audience by former school board member Noah Simon, representing neighbors, who said the proposal, well-vetted three years ago, was rejected by neighbors 12-1. There’s disagreement over the signals being sent by county officials. More to come.

Language is The Message

“A newspaper’s value is not just that information is disseminated by it. Most fundamentally, as in the case of all good newspapers, it is because they set a means of, and a standard for, reasoned discourse that becomes the grounding by which all members of a community share in a common lot. It is not because any article or editorial is a be-all or end-all of truth. But they are, to the extent they are couched in reason and careful discourse, the basis by which readers evaluate their own thoughts and come to decisions in interaction with others.”

The quote cited above was the concluding comment in last week’s News-Press editorial that was entitled, “Democracy Depends on Newspapers.” We’ve deemed that it bears repeating here because of its importance to the social discourse on the state of our culture, not solely to newspapers, per se.

Where do we find in our culture today the kind of “reasoned discourse that becomes the grounding by which all members of a community share a common lot?” The Internet, with its incredibly positive attributes for disseminating information and ideas to such a wide array of humanity, has been the particular target of enemies of democracy for good reason. The goal of the Russians, Chinese and other proponents of tyranny is to chop up the virtuous features of this amazing advance for humanity with elements that assail reasoned discourse, topping the list with a relentless onslaught of moral filth, including the ugliest of racial and ethnic slurs. It should come as no surprise that Trump and Trumpism are fully engaged in this same moral degradation, which apparently Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk, fully endorses, quite falsely in the name of freedom of speech.

When the News-Press began going online with our product, we quickly found that the most filthy of such interventions, many surely the product of Russian “bots,” were spewing their ugliness all over the comment sections of our pages in the form of wild and angry comments, including outrageous lies and character assassinations. But we were counseled not to stop them because allowing them encouraged readership participation, and of course, the whole name of the game for ostensible success online, so we were told, is “hits,” is the number of eyeballs that will see what you have. It’s supposedly the measure of “success.”

But we decided quickly, in the terms of this filth onslaught, to “f*** that!” Our solution was simple: to require anyone who wants to post a comment on our site to sign up using their real name and email address as the only precondition. Isn’t it fair to ask someone to be minimally accountable for their views in this way? When we initiated this, the filth disappeared literally overnight. Clearly, filth, moral and otherwise, and cowardice are intimate partners.

So it is not just misinformation that challenges us, but it is the mode, the language by which it is disseminated, as well.

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Edna Frady Obituary Update

Editor,

Edna Frady was, indeed, a remarkable role model and we were impressed with all she had come to mean to the city of Falls Church. We lived two blocks outside the city limits but we considered it “our town” and took advantage of its many benefits.

Unfortunately, two glaring errors in the fine article about Edna distracted our attention from her many accomplishments. She lived at the same wonderful retirement home we’ve called home for eleven years, Goodwin House Bailey’s Crossroads, but it’s in Fairfax, not Arlington as written.

The location of her interment is National Memorial Park in Falls Church on Lee Highway, not Leesburg Pike.

Betsy Bailey City of Falls Church Editor,

As an Arlington resident, I always appreciate the columns by Charlie Clark. I want to give a special shout-out for his November 24 “Our Man In Arlington” column, describing the recent VOICE event held at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington, supporting the Missing Middle policy being proposed by the County Board. I am in favor of the goals of VOICE in this effort, which were clearly established in their literature for the event, and expounded upon at the meeting: to increase the supply of housing, and to diversify housing types.

So it was with dismay that I read the quote from the Arlingtonians for Our Sustainable Future, where Peter Rousselot noted his concern about “the degree to which the participants in the event may be supporting the government’s proposal because they believe

it will add racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic diversity, or add affordable housing.” This is the classic case of the “straw man argument,” selecting one tangential theme, puffing it up as if it is the main driver, and then attempting to knock down that straw man. Well, I don’t think he even left the straw man swaying in the wind (much less knocked him over), as (i) those cited factors are not the main goals of the proponents, and (ii) his research (at least in my eyes) is not convincing.

We can debate research and predictions, but what upsets me in much of the public dialogue is the tone of condescension being tossed at the proponents (not to mention the fear-mongering in the opponents’ literature, which could be the subject of a separate letter). Hopefully we can all move on to making sure the amended ordinance is wellcrafted, which is not an easy task. Meanwhile, I note that VOICE has an interesting ally in this push for an increase in housing supply. At the Virginia Governor’s Housing Conference on November 18, Governor

Youngkin talked about the need for an increase in housing supply, and for localities to loosen their zoning restrictions. Youngkin is clearly a Missing Middle supporter! Politics certainly can make for strange bedfellows.

Bill Fogarty Arlington, VA

Falls Church NEWS BRIEFS LOCAL

Penny Gross Says She Won’t Seek Re-Election

Long-serving Fairfax County Supervisor Penelope Ann “Penny” Gross, representing the Mason District adjacent the City of Falls Church, announced at this Tuesday’s county board meeting that she will not seek re-election in 2023 and will retire when her current term expires on Dec. 31, 2023. She will be complet ing a remarkable 28 years in her position, being first elected in 1996. She has been the board’s vice chair since 2009.

For 27 of those years, starting in the summer of 1997, she has written a week ly column in the Falls Church NewsPress , “A Penny for Your Thoughts,” and over that period has never missed a deadline. She comments on her years of service and her News-Press column in her column in this week’s edition (see Page 23). Her column will continue for as long as she wants to write it.

Current county board chair Jeff McKay wrote this week that “Penny has skillfully handled some of the most diffi cult issues of the county during her time on the board, and has done so with grace, compassion, and an unwavering dedica tion to public service and to the people of Fairfax County.”

Planning Commission’s Final Vote on T-Zones Dec. 21

Following another hearing slated for last night, the Falls Church Planning Commission will vote its recommenda tion to the City Council on a proposed modification to the City code on “transi tional zones” at its Dec. 21 meeting. The Council will take final action sometime in early 2023.

The proposed change would allow for some multi-family development in the so-called “t-zones” that are ostensibly to be buffers between residential and more commercial areas of the City.

Proponents of the change say it will

practically apply to a very small number of parcels and opponents argue it will bring dense development up against resi dential areas where the expectation has been that wouldn’t happen.

West Falls Project Awaits Major Hotel Building Permit

At last week‘s meeting of the Falls Church City Council’s Economic Development Committee it was reported that a major hotel is awaiting approval of a building permit before commencing construction on the 10-acre West Falls project where other structures, such as a parking garage, are currently rising out of the ground,

The City’s and its schools’ leaders continue to navigate difficulties arising from that construction as it impacts the new Mustang Alley and the “safe routes to the schools” challenges in that area located directly adjacent to the Meridian High and Henderson Middle Schools.

Stratford Motel Owners Seeking Land Assemblage

Owners of the now-closed Stratford Motel on West Broad in Falls Church have retained the McLean-based Rappaport group, experts in the operation and mar keting of commercial real estate, to work on prospects for assembling that land with some adjacent properties to craft a plan to develop the site, it was reported at the Economic Development group meeting last week.

Prominent local attorney Bill Baskin is reported also in on the effort.

The group also received updates on efforts to develop a senior housing project on S. Washington and the sale of the oneacre lot adjacent to the Bowl America site. Supply chain-impacting arrival of win dows as a key component of the Smoothie King building development on W. Broad will speed the completion of that renova tion, the group was also told.

Senator Dick Saslaw’s

Richmond Report

Our Commonwealth lost a val iant Virginian with the passing of Congressman Donald McEachin. During his time in the State Senate, Don served as Caucus Chair, and we worked closely together. He was a true compassion ate public servant as well as a beloved husband, father, and friend. May he rest in peace, having fought the good fight and making our world better with his leadership.

The most prevalent November head lines covered all too familiar tragedies – mass shootings. Virginia took center stage with two senseless massacres in less than two weeks. The first act of violence rocked the serenity of the University of Virginia. Three unsuspect ing young men full of promise lost their lives when returning to campus after a class field trip. Two others are recover ing from gunshot wounds, but will no doubt bear lifelong scars.

Several days later, gunshots rang out in a work break room meeting at Walmart in Chesapeake. Again, the vic tims knew their assailant and the trage dy’s impact will be felt exponentially as friends and families of the deceased are left wondering why their loved ones fell victim to a madman who easily accessed guns on the morning of their murders.

Sandwiched between these two sense less events, another assailant opened fire in a Colorado Springs nightclub. Hate, likely mental illness, and easy access to weapons are the universal threads woven into these stories of human carnage. When we return to Richmond in January, we will focus on gun violence, the biggest domestic issue facing our country today.

As the death toll mounts from gun violence and pervasive mental illness intensifies, root causes for gun violence remain divergent depending on which side of the aisle one sits on. Let me be clear: There is not a unilateral solution to stemming senseless bloodshed in this nation or the Commonwealth. I will continue to lead the fight for a safer Commonwealth and make the invest ments we need to address the underlying causes.

The midterm elections occurred without any noticeable voter fraud, thus sending a clear message to election deniers that our nation’s democracy supersedes “the great lie.” Despite the Republican rhetoric of a red wave, the narrow majorities in both the Senate and House reflect similarities in Virginia’s General Assembly. Congresswoman Elaine Luria has a long record of service to this country including her work on the

January 6 Commission. Her loss comes at the expense of our Commonwealth and the nation.

Under Democratic leadership, we passed legislation to provide easier access to voting. Data indicates that increased voter participation in 2022 in what is usually a lower voter turn out cycle. Absentee voting without an excuse, early in-person voting, and same day registration helped produce what is now seen as record turnout in this off-year election. Removing hurdles and due diligence keep our democ racy healthy and working. This is worth fighting for, and the Senate Democrats will continue to ensure this hard fought right prevails.

The Governor and his Administration have gone to great lengths to put their imprimatur on public education. Their latest misstep attempts to rewrite history through a very white lens. Absent in SOL recommendations were major gaps in the hard-fought Civil Rights move ment along with recognized leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. For the record, Native Americans were NOT the first immi grants. Learning loss should not be mistaken for learning less.

This is not acceptable leadership and it’s time to halt the rewind. I remain committed to the public education system serving most stu dents in our localities. The Senate Democrats will continue to make sure all children have a fighting chance at success especially as we continue to emerge from the pandemic.

Traditionally, fall sees time reserved for analysis of the current budget year. Thus far, Virginia has proven to be flush with its revenue stream while keeping its expenses in check. In a few short weeks, the governor (now approaching a year on the job), will pro pose amendments for the current fiscal year. Economic indicators are suggesting Virginia is not yet out of the woods and mirrors much of the national economic recovery. This will be the guiding compass we use when making amendments to our recently adopted biennial budget.

It doesn’t require a degree in economics to know reducing a revenue stream will limit future investments in academia, healthcare, state employee compensation, and community wellbeing. The stage is set for a most conten tious 2023 legislative session as Republicans try to regroup and prepare for the next round of elections in November 2023.

Best wishes to you and yours for a joyous holiday season and a happy New Year.

 Senator Saslaw represents the 35th District in the Virginia State Senate. He may be emailed at district35@senate.virginia.gov.

OUTLOOK

is This Hand Basket Taking Us?

nate the estate tax on billionaires?

CBS just reported the news from Berlin that “police have arrested at least 25 people tied to an alleged right-wing extremist plot to overthrow Germany’s government. The group targeted in about 130 raids across Germany was described by prosecutors as being influenced by QAnon conspiracy theories and espousing a doctrine similar to that of far-right groups in the U.S. and across Europe.”

According to the report, they were planning an attack on the German Parliament to overthrow the government and attacks on the country’s power grid to create chaos. The group included at least one far-right judge and former lawmaker, as well as members of the armed forces.

The report came just as Time magazine, in a remarkable counterpoint, was breaking the news of its “Person of the Year,” being “Volodymyr Zelensky and the Spirit of Ukraine.”

Such contrasts cannot be lost on us any more. On the one hand we rightly celebrate the re-election victory in Georgia of Sen. Raphael Warnock in the special election this week (giving Democrats in Congress a margin to withstand efforts like those exhibited by Sen. Joe Manchin last year to hold Congress hostage to his whim).

On the other hand, in reality the vote was still very close, and we can rightly question why anyone would soil their self-esteem and reputation with the fact they voted for a man fully unqualified by any standard of holding any public office, much less a seat for six years in the august body of the U.S. Senate.

As commentator Andy Tobias wrote this week, despite the good news of Sen. Warnock’s victory, “The fact that nearly half the voters voted for Walker is scary and disheartening.”

He noted that one African-American voter said she voted for Walker “because of inflation.” But he commented, “What on earth would a Senator Walker have been able to do to lower prices? Vote to elimi-

Vote to withhold aid from Ukraine? What would he have done to help average Georgians like her? Vote to trim Social Security benefits? Fight Medicaid expansion? Vote against capping the price of insulin? Fight to repeal Obamacare? Fight hikes to the minimum wage? Oppose the Violence Against Women Act?

Fight for the right of 18-year-olds, too young to buy a beer, to buy assault weapons? Cop-killing bullets?

Fight to force poor women to have unwanted babies (non-poor women can travel) whose cost to the taxpayers he, with his fellow Republicans, could then decry?”

And on top of all this comes the reports from Berlin of the coup plot there, of the sabotage of the power grids in North Carolina, the massacre of LGBTQ patrons and friends in Colorado Springs, Putin’s continued massive crime against humanity in Ukraine and of Trump’s ongoing treachery. True, the law is clearly closing in on Trump now, but it can’t happen fast enough to decapitate the fully-blown fascist movement that has been crawling out of his rear end. Just the jailing of Trump at this point won’t remove the growing pressure of the enemies of democracy on all of us.

Perhaps the most insidious development in the wake of all this has been the assault on the news media in the U.S., all being done under the guise of unavoidable market forces.

The same market forces haven’t shut down Fox News, but they’re wreaking havoc at CNN, the Washington Post, New York Times and other kinds of news outlets like the Gannett newspaper chain, as already denuded as it is, upon which our fragile democracy depends.

Meanwhile, humanity’s enemies are enjoying the kinds of escalating cultural decay like we’ve seldom seen before. There’s the mass expansion of gun violence, of legalized online gambling for sporting events, expanded legalized drug use (especially of deadly opioids but not limited to that) and an escalating tolerance for violence at sporting events. The use of bare fists in so-called “Mixed Martial Arts” (MMA) the way it is now was unheard of even a decade ago.

They all tear away at any positive concepts of being a human being and having a brain.

Is there no way to get a handle on countering all this?

Krugman: Declaring Victory Over In�lation?

positive.

On the other hand, there’s a lot to be said for more or less stable prices and, in particular, for an inflation rate low enough that people don’t have to think about it much.

So, how did 2 percent emerge as the norm? I wrote about this a few years back. Basically, 2 percent seemed to be a happy compromise: It was low enough that advocates of price stability could argue that it was “really” zero given quality improvements, but models suggested that it would be high enough to provide most of the lubricating benefits of modest inflation. And as more and more central banks adopted the 2 percent target, it came to have the force of tradition.

But the economic events of the past 15 years, from the 2008

financial crisis to the Covid-19 pandemic, have shown us that the economy is subject to more shocks than we thought — and that it requires more lubrication as a result. Situations in which even a zero interest rate isn’t enough to generate full employment, which were supposed to be very rare with 2 percent inflation, have turned out to be all too common: The financial crisis would have been easier to deal with if we’d come into it with 4 percent inflation, the rate during Ronald Reagan’s second term.

And the huge changes the pandemic has wrought in how we work and what we buy have shown that the problems of adjustment are even bigger than we thought, and these problems might be easier to deal with if we accepted 3 percent or even 4 percent inflation rather than insisting that we get it down to 2

percent.

Now, Federal Reserve officials really, really don’t want to talk about this. They believe that any explicit statement to the effect that 2 percent is no longer the target would damage their credibility. I understand that. But the rest of us don’t have that problem. And in the months ahead, we may well face a choice between imposing a recession to get inflation back down to a largely arbitrary target, which we wouldn’t have chosen 20 years ago if we had known then what we know now, and declaring victory with inflation fairly low but not quite that low.

I’m with Blanchard and others in believing that it’s OK to stop at 3 percent, maybe without admitting that we’re doing it. But the question remains: What will policymakers do?

By PAUL KRUGMAN © 2022 The New

Noonan: Goal For Students Is to be ‘Empowered’

While property values have risen faster than tax rate reductions have been able to fully offset household tax bills, still prudent governing has enabled the City’s ability to lower its tax rate from $1.355 to $1.23 per $100 of assessed valuation in the last two years.

Noonan said that it is the

goal of the public school system here, now offering International Baccalaureate level instruction at all grade levels, to be “a premier school division in the entire world, with a hallmark of being internationally minded.”

Here, Noonan said, the goal is that all students be empowered to reach their full potential.

“Our guiding North Star is to be a student-centered community, to be responsible to the com-

munity, to focus on academic success, to promote inclusion and diversity among all our students, and to be connected to the wider community as partners in our success,” he said.

The schools have rebounded from the pandemic in its student performance and enrollment metrics, with an net increase of 32 students in the last two years, leading to a total current enrollment of 2,552.

HOLIDAY SHOPPING

Local Holiday Shopping

Action Music

Foxes Music Company

111 Park Avenue, Falls Church, VA 22046 actionmusicltd.com 703-534-4801

City of Falls Church fallschurchva.gov

416 S Washington St, Falls Church, VA 22046 foxesmusic.com 703-533-7393

New to You

108 W Broad St, Falls Church, VA 22046 newtoyou.net 703-533-1251

Local Holiday Dining

Steamboat Wharf Oyster Company

steamboatwharfoyster.com 804-761-1673

Anthony’s Restaurant

3000 Annandale Rd, Falls Church, VA 22042 anthonysrestaurantva.com 703-532-0100

Washington Revels revelsdc.org 301-587-3835 See

Disturbingly Delicious Foods

455 H South Maple Ave., Falls Church VA 22046 disturbinglydeliciousfoods.com 703-596-9169

Yayla Bistro

2201 N Westmoreland St, Arlington, VA 22213 yaylabistro.com 703-533-5600

Harvey’s

513 W Broad St, Falls Church, VA 22046 harveysva.com 540-268-6100

8 - 14, 2022

HOLIDAY DINING

Local Restaurants Offer Meals, Drinks and Treats Perfect for the Holidays

BY KYLEE TOLAND FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

Unsure where to go get a holiday meal this season? Want to stay home for the holidays with a delicious dinner, cocktail or sweet treat? Looking to give the perfect present for a foodie friend or family member?

Luckily, the city of Falls Church offers an array of local eateries and businesses to satisfy one’s

sweet, spicy, salty and savory tooth.

Dining Out Dining out during the holidays can be a great way to spend time with family or friends while enjoying a fulfilling meal.

Anthony’s Restaurant provides various “signature” dinners perfect for holidays. Greek souvlaki platters, broiled salmon and

New York steak are just a few of the many options one can hungrily decide on at Anthony’s.

Harvey’s is offering a special menu on Christmas Eve that is filled with various appetizers, pastas and entrees. One can start with beef tartare or porcini and chestnut soup, pick between spaghetti carbonara or fusilli bolognese and finish their dining experience with a fire roasted duo of duck, cedar plank salmon, seven hills farm ribeye and more.

Glory Days offers a large selection of holiday specialties, such as a winter salad with spinach, pears, apples, candied pecans and dried cranberries, a citrus salmon meal that is lightly cured with kosher salt, sugar and spices, and a bourbon butter cake served with caramel and ice cream.

On Christmas Eve, one local restaurant is offering a traditional holiday dish still popular among diners. Sfizi Cafe cooks up their famous seven fish dinner, which includes fresh steamed fish, cured cod, stuffed baked clams, grilled salmon

and jumbo shrimp. Assorted desserts and wine will also be served along with the dinner.

Moussaka — an eggplant or potato-based dish — and filet mignon are special holiday meals offered at The Great

Greek Mediterranean Grill. For people who prefer a non-meat plate, the Great Greek Rice Bowl has rice pilaf as its foundation and can be topped with feta

YAYLA BISTRO is serving a unique dish during the holiday season. The Mezze platter includes various ingredients, including cacick, htipiti and hummus (pictured above) (P����: Y���� B�����)

SFIZI CAFE will cook their traditional seven fish dinner which includes fresh steamed fish, cured cod, stuffed baked clams, grilled salmon (pictured above) and jumbo shrimp. (P����: S���� C���)

cheese and one’s choice of vegetables.

Take-Out

For those who prefer to enjoy a meal in the comfort of their home, many F.C. restaurants offer eats and treats for take-out. Yayla Bistro offers many Turkish delicacies, one unique, but pop-

ular option is the Mezze platter, which includes cacik (Turkish tzatziki), htipiti (red pepper and feta dip), hummus, chef’s cigars and dolomas falafel.

Seafood lovers will be excited to learn that Steamboat Wharf Oyster Co., based in Morattica, VA, offers $25 Christmas preorders for their delicious oysters. For Falls Church residents or neighboring communities

ordering from the company, the pick up date will be December 22nd (location still being determined). For more information, please visit https://steamboatwharfoyster.com/.

With the popularity of platters and boards still prominent, charcuterie and cheese boards can be the perfect meal for those who want to snack on cheese, grapes, bread and more while enjoying the warmth of their home. Dominion Wine and Beer provides hummus platters, and charcuterie and cheese boards that can be paired with their selection of sparkling wines.

Mostly known for their sugary baked goods, Happy Tart also serves to-go entrees, such as deep dish quiche and familysized spinach lasagnas perfect for at-home Christmas dinners and parties. Cookie platters and stollen — German Christmas bread — are also offered by the bakery to satisfy one’s sweet tooth after a filling meal.

Drinks

Sometimes, a cocktail can get someone into the holiday spirit, especially if the drink is themed.

Vintage “spiked” holiday eggnog is available now at Dogwood Tavern, which has been prepared and aged the same way by the restaurant for a decade. This holiday delicacy can be enjoyed at the restaurant, as well as at

home as one can buy eggnog in bottles.

Liberty Barbecue serves a drink that will certainly spice up one’s holidays. The restaurant’s

STEAMBOAT WHARF OYSTER CO. offers $25 Christmas preorders for their delicious oysters. F.C. residents can pick up their orders on December 22nd. (P����: S�������� W���� O����� C�.)

8 - 14, 2022

HOLIDAY DINING

Cocktails and Mocktails Will Warm Up Locals During the Holiday Season

Apple Cider with whiskey can be paired with their duck confit, which is served with pan-roast ed fall vegetables and cranberry reduction.

Want a warm drink to ring in the holiday season? Preservation Biscuit Company provides hot cocoa to diners paired with a sweet and savory peach biscuit; perfect for a cold, winter break fast.

One local event for tea lov ers and the occasional cock tail consumer will get people warm and ready for the holi days. Northside Social will be hosting their Holiday Tea event on December 10th — December 11th, which offers a selection of teas, housemade fours and one glass of sparkling wine.

Tasty Gifts

Gift shopping can be diffi cult, but for those who want to surprise their family member or friend with a food-centered present, local businesses have just the right products to put a smile on one’s face and stomach. Disturbingly Delicious can help ring in the holidays for a gift giver and receiver with their array of traditional condiments, sauces, dips and toppings. These can “pack a little heat into those stockings” this holiday season, including Harvey’s restaurant’s very own “Harvey’s Sauce.”

For those who have a “spicy” tooth instead of a sweet one, Penzeys offers themed gift boxes filled with an assortment of spices. Salad-friendly season

ings, grill and broil spices, bak er-friendly flavoring and more are great gifts to someone who calls the kitchen their second home.

Coffee lovers will be delight ed at being given a coffee box from Cafe Kindred, while beer enjoyers can finish out the holi

D ISTURBINGLY DELICIOUS KIMCHI is especially popular. (Photo: Sue Johnson)

ANTHONY’S

the holidays, including broiled salmon (Photo: Anthony’s Restaurant)

Tasty Gifts & Sweet Treats Perfect to Give Those for the Holidays

day with Casual Pint’s advent craft beer box.

Sweet Treats

Desserts and treats will make one’s holiday season quite “sweet” with various cookies, cakes and even baklava. Only during the holi days, the Italian Store will be sell ing linder tarts — pastries filled

with apricot jam or chocolate — and cookies. One popular holiday treat the store offers is Panettone — filled with candied fruits and raisins — and Pandoro cakes — not filled with candied fruits and raisins.

Known for their “Turkish Mom’s Cooking,” Borek-G offers holiday deals for half trays or full trays of their famous baklava, as well as loaves of their chocolate

babka — yeast risen coffee cake— and Turkish-jam cupcakes. For those who prefer a savory taste over a sweet one, Borek-G also serves mushroom and spinach and cheese quiches.

German Gourmet has an array of holiday treats popular in Germany. Gingerbread cook ies and iced gingerbread cookies will add a little sweet and spice to one’s holiday season.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

PENZEYS offers themed gift boxes filled with an assortment of spices. Salad-friendly seasonings, grill and broil spices and more are great gifts to give others (Photo: Kylee Toland)

HAPPY TART offers

spinach lasagna and

(pictured above) (Photo: Happy Tart)

8 - 14, 2022

by Kylee Toland Falls Church News-Press

In recent years, craft shows and holiday markets have grown in popularity among people looking for gifts to give their families, friends or themselves. Whether it be a festival, fair or bazaar, these shows and mar kets offer a wide range of items, manufactured or homemade, for anyone’s delight. Of the many

around here, some, such as the one in Falls Church, have already come and gone. But not all,

Last weekend, the City of Falls Church featured its Holiday Gift and Craft Show.

Scarlett Williams, the City of Falls Church Special Events Program Supervisor, was in charge of running the City’s Holiday Gift and Craft Show,

HOLIDAYS

which began 30 years ago in 1992. The two-day show, which was held December 3 and 4, featured nearly 40 crafters and merchants who sold “unique, handmade items, baked goods and more.”

Some of the many products sold at this year’s show were handmade pottery, beaded jewelry, crocheted wearables, pressed flower art and more.

Williams said the goal of the gift and craft show was to “make holiday shopping easy,” since there’s “something for every one.” She also stated the City’s gift and craft show is unique because a large number of the vendors have participated in it for over 20 years.

In D.C., the Friends Of The National Arboretum (FONA) is about to host their Winter Festival, which features a holi day market, tree sale and family activities to be held on Dec. 10 in the U.S. National Arboretum.

Executive Director of FONA Craven Rand said this is the second year the Arboretum has hosted a holiday market.

“To me, this [festival] is

not necessarily a competition,” Rand said. “We like to find ven dors that have supported the Arboretum in the past and that we’ve worked with to give them an opportunity to reach some visitors over the holiday.”

The Winter Festival will “hopefully” see about 15 — 20 vendors participating, with dif

ferent products being offered and sold. Rand said while most items will be focused on plants, mainly plant-centric or gar dening products, there will be “plenty” of other vendors selling “craft gifts and children items.” He followed up by stating he

FONA’S WINTER FESTIVAL is preparing for around 15 to 20 vendors at the U.S. National Arboretum for their second annual holiday market (Photo: Anne McGarvey)

THE HOLIDAY GIFT AND CRAFT SHOW held by the City of Falls Church celebrated its 30th year

show

crafters and

visitors (Photo: The City of Falls Church)

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

HOLIDAYS

F.C. and Neighboring Cities Host a Variety of Markets & Shows For the Season

hopes this year’s festival will bring people out to view the Arboretum at “a time they might not normally come” as well as offer people “an option for unique gifts and programming.”

This past weekend, McLean hosted its Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival, which has been

a juried show since 1982. The arts and craft festival saw 78 vendors selling their products at the event, which include “fine artists, woodworkers, textile artists, food artists, jewelers, multimedia artists and and glass artists.”

Catherine Nesbitt, the special events manager at the McLean Community Center that hosts

the festival, said the goal of the festival is to provide a service to our public. She said the McLean Holiday Arts and Crafts Festival has a reputation for being a “higher end” craft show juried carefully by highly qualified art ists selling high-end, good qual ity products.”

In Alexandria, that city is hosting its second annual Old Town Alexandria Christmas Fair and Holiday Craft Show on Dec. 10. Corina Serbanescu is a part of Royal Events Group, which through its festival division puts together festivals and fairs, such as the Christmas Fair and Holiday Craft Show.

This year, the holiday fair and craft show will see about 100 to 120 vendors participating in the event, along with a tent where children can write letters to Santa and create Christmas decorations. With prices ranging from $5 to $400, Serbanescu said people “can find whatever they would like” from a wide range of vendors.

Upscale jewelry “at any type of budget,” home decor, Christmas ornaments and wreaths, candles,

clothing and pet accessories, and take-home treats are just some of the many items one can gift themselves or others at the event.

Serbanescu further stated the vendors at the Old Town Alexandria Christmas Fair and Holiday Craft Show are “diverse”

due to coming from local areas as well as other states.

“We’ve been trying to literally help and support the small, local artisan crafters, small businesses, independent consultants to get back on their feet [since 2020],” Serbanescu said.

THE OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA CHRISTMAS FAIR and holiday craft show sees about 100 to 120 vendors participating in the event . (Photo: Corina Serbanescu)

MCLEAN’S HOLIDAY ARTS AND CRAFTS FESTIVAL has been jur ied since 1982 and offers products sold by vendors with exper tise in jewelry, woodworking and more (Photo: Sabrina Anwah)

Community News & Notes

McLean Project for the Arts to Open Winter Exhibitions

McLean Project for the Arts will open its winter exhibitions— In the Round: Dimensional Fiber Works (Emerson Gallery) and Trees on the Edge: Artwork in Layered Paper by Ronni Jolles (Atrium Gallery) — on December 9th, 2022. Both shows will run through February 18th, 2023, with an Opening Exhibition Reception presented by The Mather on Friday, December 9th, 2022 from 7 — 9 p.m. RSVP here (www.tinyurl.com/mpawin terexhibits).

The Atrium Gallery exhibit (Trees on the Edge) will be avail

able for viewing during McLean Community Center operating hours. In the Round: Dimensional Fiber Works will be open for visitors Tuesdays through Fridays from 1:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. and Saturdays from 10:00 a.m. — 3:00 p.m.

Nominations Open for Small Business Awards

The Washington Metropolitan Area District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) has opened nomina tions for the 2023 National Small Business Week (NSBW) awards program. The National Small Business Week awards

issued through the Washington Metropolitan Area District Office include the following catego ries: Small Business Person of the Year, Northern Virginia (as well as one each, in Suburban Maryland and Washington, DC); Graduate of the Year, Small Business Exporter of the Year; Small Business Prime Contractor of the Year; Small Business Subcontractor of the Year; Small Business Development Center (SBDC) Excellence and Innovation Center Award; and Woman’s Business Center (WBC) of the Year. To access forms, cri teria, and instructions for sub mitting a nomination package, please visit https://www.sba.gov/ national-small-business-week/ awards. All nominations must be submitted online by December 8, 2022.

Winter Lantern Festival Debuts for Holiday Season

Winter Lantern Festival will debut a spectacular holiday light adventure at the Lerner Town Square in Tysons starting December 16 through February 12th. Created by Kaleido Arts & Entertainment Group, Winter Lantern Festival will feature a total of over 10,000 of LED Chinese-inspired artisan lanterns, along with live performances and on-site food vendors.

Winter Lantern Festival comes

to the Washington DC, Maryland, and Virginia area for its first immersive DMV Winter Lantern Festival. From New York with 150,000 annual guests, 3 years in a row, this is an experience for the whole family. Running until 2/12/23, the Lerner Town Square at Tysons will be trans formed into a dazzling world of light with over 1000 Chinese lanterns; all handmade by arti sans with decades of experi ence. The lanterns and bright displays will light the night and bring warmth this holiday sea son.

Winter Lantern Festival will feature over ten thousand hand made Chinese lanterns created by over one hundred artists, illuminated by LED lights, that can reach up to 30 feet high across 60 acres. Located in the Lerner Town Square at 8025 Galleria Drive, Tysons.

Grace Christian Academy Offers Free Showing of Film

Grace Christian Academy will offer a community screening of “Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER: Uncovering Skills for Stress Resilience”—a film that exam ines the science behind teens emotional challenges, the inter play of social media, and most importantly, what can be done in our schools and homes to help them build crucial skills to navi

gate stress, anxiety, and depres sion in the digital age.

In “Screenagers NEXT CHAPTER,” the film follows Delaney as she finds herself at a loss on how to help her own teens as they struggle with their emotional wellbeing. She sets out to understand these challenges in our current screen-filled soci ety, and how we, as parents and educators, can empower teens to overcome mental health challeng es and build emotional agility, communication savvy, and stress resilience.

Immediately following the film, Grace Christian Academy’s school counselor, Renae Smith, will lead a discussion with par ents, kids, teens, and educators about the impacts of screen time. She will offer real-life solutions for families.

Arlington Chorale to Host Festive Celebration

Celebrate the holiday season with the Arlington Chorale! Featuring John Rutter’s Magnificat and Kirke Mechem’s Seven Joys of Christmas, one will hear some familiar Christmas carols, as well as beautiful music with hints of tango, musical theatre, and jazz. Accompanied by a chamber orchestra of local profes sional players, the Chorale’s concert will also feature the talents of sopra no Helena Colindres. After the per formance, guests are invited to

join

WINTER LANTERN FESTIVAL will debut a holiday light adventure at the Lerner Town Square in Tysons starting December 16 through February 12th. Winter Lantern Festival will feature a total of over 10,000 of LED Chinese-inspired artisan lanterns, along with live performances and on-site food vendors. (Photo: Dianne Murphy)

DAVE TAX & REBECCA, owners of Claire & Dons Beach Shack; Thomas Harvey, owner of Harvey’s; Emer O’Rourke chef at Northside Social; Colm Dillon, the owner of Ireland’s Four Provinces presented Dave Cahill, the general manager of Ireland’s 4 Courts with a check from the proceeds of the recent pub crawl (Photo: Tom Clinton)

“LITTLE CHRISTMAS” is a family friendly event held at Christ Crossman Church with a live petting zoo, holiday craft stations and cups of cocoa. Children can participate in assembling backpack meals for local food insecure students (Photo: Monti Board)

LOCAL

downstairs for a reception with light refreshments. It’s a special commu nity event one won’t want to miss.

Tickets are $20 for adults and free for children under 12. Please join on Saturday, December 10 at 5:00 p.m. at Westover Baptist Church.

Creative Cauldron Receives ArtsFairfax Project Grant

Creative Cauldron was award ed an FY2003 ArtsFairfax Project Support Grant to support “Artes Para Todos,” an initiative that provides young people attending Fairfax County Title One schools yearround after school drama and arts workshops. The project specifically reaches English learners and young people from homes where Spanish is the first language spoken. In addi tion to the after-school workshops, participating students and their fami lies receive complimentary tickets to Creative Cauldron’s family-friendly productions throughout the year, and students are offered free or reduced tuition for spring break and summer camps.

Creative Cauldron’s project

partners for “Artes Para Todos” are Second Story, a local non-profit serv ing at-risk youth in Fairfax County, and Westlawn Elementary School, a Title One School where 75 percent of the students are from households where English is spoken as a second language.

The “Artes Para Todos” proj ect is part of Creative Cauldron’s JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) goals to reach a wider, more diverse sector of its commu nity. Creative Cauldron also received a Community Fund for Northern Virginia Ross Roberts Fund for the Arts grant to support these goals over the next few years.

Jingle in the Season with the Alexandria Symphony

The Alexandria Symphony Orchestra (ASO) will present a holi day program, “Jingle!” Saturday, December 17, 2022 (7:30 p.m.) at the Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center and Sunday, December 18, 2022 (3:00 p.m.) at the George Washington Masonic Memorial.

Adult prices for single tick ets start at $20, and all tickets for youth are priced at $5, making ASO concerts affordable for families. Military, senior and group discounts are also available in select sections. Seating is very limited at the George Washington Masonic Memorial and is almost sold out, so book tickets early. Visit www.alexsym.org or call (703) 548-0885 for more informa tion.

“A Little Christmas in the Little City” Coming Soon

“Little Christmas” is a fam ily friendly event with a live petting zoo, holiday craft stations for kids, munchies from a food truck, and cups of cocoa around a warm fire. Children can participate in a service project assembling weekend back pack meals for local food insecure students (which will be donated to the Food for Others Power Pack Program). This event is free and open to all, and will be held at Christ Crossman Church on Saturday, December 10th from 2:00 p.m. — 5:00 p.m. So stop by, warm up, and

share some cheer and joy! For more information contact the church office at 703-532-4026 or email office@ christcrossman.org.

1st Stage Performs “The Rainmaker” until December 11

1st Stage is performing “The Rainmaker,” written by N. Richard Nash and directed by Deidra LaWan Starnes through December 11, 2022.

“The Rainmaker” stars Tamieka Chavis, Jonathan Del Palmer, Vince Eisenson, Joe Palka, Scott Sedar, Matthew Sparacino, and Jacob Yeh. The show features scenic design by Nadir Bey, lighting design by Min Joo Kim, sound design by Navi, prop design by Rooster Skylar Sultan, and costume design by Luqman Salim.

“The Rainmaker” will run at 1st Stage through December 11 with show times as follows: Thursdays at 7:30 p.m., Fridays at 8 pm, Saturdays at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 2 p.m.

General admission tickets are $50. Senior (65+) tickets are $47. Student, educator, and military tick ets are $15. The first 20 tickets sold

for every performance will cost only $20. Thursday evening tickets are $35. Tickets can be purchased online at www.1ststage.org or by calling the 1st Stage box office at 703-8541856.

KW Coat Drive Extended Until December 14th

The KW Coat Drive has been extended on Wednesday, December 14th. People can drop off coats at their office, 105 West Broad Street #200 above Ireland’s Four Provinces, or con tact KW United’s Alison Miller via call or text at 703-298-9495 or by email at at alisonmiller@ kw.com.

Moe’s Southwest Grill Hosts Toy Drive

Moe’s Southwest Grill will be hosting a toy drive. People can donate new, unwrapped toys at their local Moe’s through December 7th. Upon donation, one

can enjoy a special thank you offer.

THE ALEXANDRIA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA (ASO) will present a holiday program, “Jingle!” Saturday, December 17th and Sunday, December 18th at 7:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ASO welcomes back dancers from BalletNOVA to the Schlesinger stage where they will perform “The Nutcracker.” (Photo Courtesy: Mindy Kernc)

COLM DILLON, owner of Ireland’s Four Provinces in downtown Falls Church, is the big kid in the middle of this iconic setting at his restaurant last Sunday, being the annual Santa Brunch there that was filled to capacity with families in the holiday spirit. (News-Press Photo)

AREA EVENTS

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8

INFORMAL NETWORKING BREAKFAST

Stop by for an informal gathering to meet fellow Chamber members. No agenda and no cost other than the cost of one’s break

fast. Held at the Original Pancake House (7395 Lee Highway, Falls Church). 8:30 a.m. — 9:30 a.m.

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9

SANTA'S MOTORCADE

Santa has confirmed he will be traveling through District Avenue again. The Fairfax County Police Motor Squad will be joining Santa as

CALENDAR

he spreads holiday cheer. Hosted at Mosaic (District Avenue, Fairfax). 5:00 p.m. — 5:30 p.m.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10

OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA CHRISTMAS FAIR

Start holiday shopping and find the perfect gift for your loved ones at Old Town Alexandria Christmas Market and Holiday Craft Show at John Carlyle Square from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Over 110 arti sans, crafters, independent consultants and other local small businesses are look ing forward to showcasing their products, just in time for the holidays.

FONA WINTER FESTIVAL

Shop from local vendors, buy Christmas trees and holiday greenery, and enjoy free holiday-themed family activities. While there, enjoy the National Arboretum's winter splendor and explore gardens and collections. Located in the U.S. National Arboretum — New York

Avenue Parking Lot (3501 New York Avenue Northeast Washington, DC). 10:00 a.m. — 4:00 p.m.

WINTER WONDERLAND

All aboard for a train ride on the Holiday Express, take a spin on the Carolers Carousel, play Gingerbread Man Golf or get warm by the fire and cook s'mores to usher in the holidays. Visit with Santa, enjoy hot chocolate and candy canes. Held at Burke Lake Park (7315 Ox Road, Fairfax Station). 11:00 a.m.

HANDEL'S MESSIAH

New Dominion Chorale and Orchestra is perform ing Handel's Messiah at Schlesinger Hall and Arts Center at 4:00 p.m. Thomas Beveridge conducting. Rachel M. Schlesinger Concert Hall and Arts Center (4915 E Campus Dr, Alexandria).

MILK & COOKIES WITH SANTA

Meet and Greet Santa and other holiday characters

and enjoy cookie deco rating and snowy crafts.All children must be accompa nied by an adult. Held at the Mclean Community Center from 10:00 a.m. — 12:00 p.m

TRIPMAS AT SETTLE DOWN EASY

Be there at Settle Down Easy Brewing for psychedelic jam, psychedelics, Santadelics, and a special appearance by Sasquatch. Free show posters to the first 50 people in atten dance. 8:00 p.m. — 11:00 p.m.

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11

COOKIES & COCKTAILS

Make it a day at the Mosaic District. Start the day with lunch at Rasa and then head over to Kendra Scott, Lather and Madewell to pick up some gifts for others. Enjoy a sweet and spirited after noon with old friends and new faces as Mosaic raises funds to support their com munity partners. Moderna Mosaic (2910 District Ave, Fairfax). 4:00 p.m.

THE OLD TOWN ALEXANDRIA CHRISTMAS FAIR & HOLIDAY CRAFT SHOW on Saturday, December 10th at John Carlyle Square will have over 110 artisans, crafters, indepedent con sultants and other local small businesses that are looking forward to showcasing their products. (Photo: Corina Serbanescu)

WINTER WONDERLAND will be held at Burke Lake Park on Saturday, December 10th at 11:00 a.m. Families can enjoy a day of train rides, riding the carousel, playing Gingerbread Man Golf and cooking s'mores by the fire. (Photo: Cindy Fortuno)

on Saturday, December 10th at the U.S. National Arboretum allows people to shop from local vendors and buy Christmas trees as well as holiday dens and collections. One can enjoy a hassle-free holiday and get their shopping done all

LIVE MUSIC

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8

TOMMY LEPSON & THE BIG DAWGS

JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church).

8:00 p.m. (703) 241-9504

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9

NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH

Clare & Don’s Beach Shack (130 N Washington St. Falls Church) 6:00 p.m. (703) 532-9283

DANGER BIRD TRIBUTE TO NEIL YOUNG

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10

WASHINGTON REVELS

Lisner Auditorium (730 21st St NW, Washington DC) 7:30 p.m. (301) 587-3835

ROBERT HORNFECK

Dogwood Tavern (132 W. Broad Street, Falls Church).

9:30 p.m. (703) 237-8333

SUNDAY, DECEMBER 11

SMYLIN JACK

JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8:00 p.m. (703) 241-9504

WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 14

THEATER & ARTS

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 9

Cabaret Takes A Holiday

Come join the Providence Players as a group of talented singers interpret Broadway and jazz standards, classic cabaret music and holiday favorites. This special holiday show will be presented as a PopUp production at The Italian Café. Showing on December 9th and 10th.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 10

Joy of Christmas

Trumpets, drums, and voices herald the coming of the Christmas season. As the cold of winter sets in, music of the holidays past and present will warm spirits. Washington National Cathedral’s “Joy of Christmas” will be performed at

MONDAY, DECEMBER 12

Christmas Cabaret Series

Creative Cauldron tops off their holiday celebration every

year with this special Holiday Cabaret Series. Enjoy some of Creative Cauldron’s favorite performers, as well as some talented newcomers. Alan Naylor begins the series on Monday, December 12th with his “It’s My Party, and I’ll Sing If I Want To!” at 7:30 p.m.

CHRIS PUREKA is an internationally acclaimed singer-songwriter based in Portland, Oregon. Her career as a vocalist and lyricist has garnered her favorable comparisons to Bruce Springsteen, Patty Griffin and more. Pureka will be performing at Jammin Java on Wednesday, December 14th at 7:30 p.m. (P����: C���� P�����)

CREATIVE CAULDRON'S Christmas Cabaret Series kicks off with a performance by Alan Naylor on December 12th at 7:30 p.m. called "It's My Party, and I'll Sing If I Want To!" (P����: E���� S����)

SCHOOLS

Falls Church School News & Notes

MHS Wrestling Starts Season Strong

Wrestling Superfan Lindy Hockenberry was in attendance for Mustangs Wrestling’s first varsity event of the 2022-2023 season, the Mustang Duals. Park View, Harrisonburg, Madison County, St. Stephen’s St. Agnes, Jackson-Reed HS (DC), & Sidwell Friends (DC). The Mustangs had a solid start to the season, winning four duals and losing one. Senya Urbom, Jack Mossberg, Jeremy McInerney, and Nick Vinetea, along with other Mustangs, had a strong performance, recording three pins each. Student Athletic Trainer and wrestling manager, Rachel Brantley, was on-site to support the event.

Support All Night Grad Celebration

The second annual Hot Cocoa Fundraiser event is on Saturday, December 10, from 2:00 p.m. — 4:00 p.m. at Cherry

Hill Park. Parents, this social event raises money and aware ness about Meridian’s All Night Grad Celebration. All parents are welcome, not just senior parents. The $20 ticket will get one hot cocoa and s’mores. Warm up with a tasty treat and the opportunity to support this important event to keep stu dents safe on graduation night. Purchase tickets at: https:// www.meridianhsptsa.org/store/ c10/ANGC_Hot_Cocoa_Kick_ Off_Ticket.html

MHS Artists Selected For Auditions

Congratulations to the MHS visual and performing arts students selected to attend the final round of challeng ing auditions for the Summer Residential Governor’s School for the visual and performing arts. The final audition will take place at Briar Woods High School in January. The Summer Residential Governor’s School for VPA offers classes, work shops, individual/small group

activities, lectures, and inde pendent study for one month in summer at Radford College. Students have interdisciplinary classes focusing on integrating the arts with other disciplines. They will study the techniques, materials, media, language, and conventions of the art form related to the program’s theme. The focus of the study will be the symbiotic relationship between art and society and the thinking artist’s societal and individual opportunities and responsibilities.

Students Focus on U.N. Sustainability Goals

At Henderson Middle School, students engaged with the U.N. Sustainability Goals during Flex, a time built into the day for enrichment and inter vention. Each quarter, students can engage with different topics related to the goals.

McLean High School Hosts Annual Bazaar

McLean High School will open its doors to the entire community for their 20th Annual Holiday Bazaar. Come one, come all for a day of indulgence. Enjoy an array of food, including chili from the Bayou Bakery, drinks and live entertainment from the MHS Orchestra group while shopping for friends, family, cowork ers, teachers and anyone else on one’s holiday shopping list. They will have over 100 vendors selling everything from original wood carved tables, an array of original paintings and wall art, scented soap, jewelry, candles, beauty accessories, scarves, ornaments, home decor and lots lots more. Tons of unique gifts.

FCCPS Students Electrify The Chorus

Students from Mount Daniel 2nd grade joined forces with the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th-grade choirs from Oak Street and Mary Ellen Henderson for a rock-n-roll choir concert on the Meridian High School stage.

After a three-day workshop with two professionals in the music industry, Laura Kaye and Nathan Blake, as part of their “Electrify Your Choir” Workshop, students performed on the big stage in front of a big audience! Teachers Ms. Nicole Guimaraes, Ms. Kayondra Reid, Ms. Lauren Carpel, and Ms. Jamie Sample were integral in this district-wide music col laboration funded by the Falls Church Education Foundation.

MHS Robotics Team

Looking for Sponsors

Ever want to build a robot? Or help pay for one? The Meridian High School Vae Victis 1418 Robotics Team is looking for sponsors and mentors for their 2023 build season (January-April).Visit https://1418.team/ for more information.

Support GIVE Day for FCCPS

GIVE Day (Get Involved, Value Everyone) will take place on MLK Day Of Service — Monday, January 16, 2023. All students across the division (Pre-K through 12th grade) are invited to the Secondary Campus to help with the com munity service projects set up by the GIVE Day Clubs. Please contact Erika Toman: erikadewald@gmail.com.

Nominate Employees for Awards

The 2023 FCCPS Employee Awards program is open for nomina tions. Everyone is invited to recog nize a teacher, specialist, or support staff employee for their dedication to students and schools. There are three awards: Falls Church Education Foundation Teacher of the Year Award, Professional Specialist of the Year Award, Support Staff Employee of the Year Award. For more information, visit https://www.fccps.org/o/fccps/ page/employee-recognition-awards.

School/City Council Budget Work Begins

On Monday night, Superintendent Peter Noonan presented a first look at the Fiscal Year 2024 FCCPS pro jected budget revenues, expendi tures, and staff requests before the annual joint Budget Work Session. Dr. Noonan says staff compensation will remain the key priority for the coming year. City Manager Wyatt Shields announced the General Government is projecting organic revenue growth for the coming year of 4.2 percent, one-half of last year’s original 8.4 percent projected increase. Monday night’s meeting was the kick-off to the Falls Church budget-building season, with many updates and adjustments to be made.

Next Up: City Council will vote on this year’s Budget Guidance on December 12th, and Superintendent Noonan will present his annual Proposed Budget to the School Board on January 10th.

FALLS CHURCH

MHS WRESTLING had a solid start to their season, winning four duals and only losing one. (Photo: Jason Perkins)

STUDENTS FROM MT. DANIEL joined older choirs for a rock-n-roll concert at the MHS stage. (Photo: Jessica Hayden & Molly Barba)

A Penny for Your Thoughts News of Greater Falls Church

By Supervisor Penny Gross

When I first moved to the Washington, D.C. area, The Byrds had a hit record ing that emulated Ecclesiastes – “To Everything There Is a Season” (popu larly known as “Turn, Turn, Turn”). As a young Hill staffer, the song was more a peace anthem than a life plan but, over time, I have come to learn, and accept that, indeed, there is a season and a “time for every purpose under heaven.” Some of the times noted in the song are espe cially appropriate for those of us who are privileged to be elected officials – a time to plant and a time to reap, a time to build up, a time to speak and, sometimes, a time to keep silent.

Elected officials have additional sea sons that require our attention and par ticipation – snow season, budget season, campaign season, for example. Mindful that Virginia’s 2023 campaign season is nearly upon us, I announced at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting that I will not seek re-election in 2023, and will retire when the current term is completed on December 31, 2023.

Of course, there is lots more to do, but there always will be lots more to do. I love my job, appreciate and respect my colleagues, and treasure all of Mason District, and the residents who have placed their trust and confidence in me for the past 27 years. In many ways, my constituents are family – many have shared their deepest dreams, as well as fears, with me, and sought advice and assistance from my office. We’ve shared successes and disappointments, proving once again that, at the local level, at least, politics is all about helping people resolve problems, not partisanship or

power.

During the next year, my staff and I will endeavor to provide the same robust constituent services as we have done for nearly three decades. I will continue to serve on local, regional, and national bodies, work on policies that will help restore our local streams and the Chesapeake Bay, advocate for safer streets and attainable housing, and a myriad of other issues that affect our communities. Also, with Nick Benton’s approval, I plan to continue doing the most disciplined thing I do each week – submit my FCN-P column by the deadline! Writing a weekly newspaper column never was on my “bucket” list, but I deeply appreciate Nick’s encour agement and generosity since I wrote my first column in 1997. A constituent, who was both a columnist and book author, suggested that I should engage a ghost writer because he thought I wouldn’t have the time to devote to a regular col umn. I did not follow his advice, writing nearly every word myself, without an edit from Nick!

We are so fortunate to be in Northern Virginia and, especially, Fairfax County, an outstanding place to live, work, play, worship, and learn. I am proud and grateful to have had a role in ensuring these opportunities for our diverse com munity, and I look forward to the con tinuing success of Fairfax County and the region.

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

City of Falls Church CRIME REPORT

7:42 PM, a male, 35, of Falls Church, VA, was arrested for Drunk in Public.

Delegate Kaye Korys

Richmond Report

I have been hearing from many con stituents with grave concerns about the current state-mandated assessments/tests for elementary and middle school stu dents. The concerns boil down to two major items: the time required of teach ers and counselors to prepare, oversee and recover from what is now a series of tests at the beginning of the school year, in the middle of the school year and at the end of the school year; and the financial cost of devoting so much professional time to testing and thereby stopping all curriculum-based instruction for weeks as well as the professional time needed to catch up to the required curriculum pacing through the academic year. The professional involvement in administer ing these tests, as well as tests required by local school boards layered on top of and in between the state tests is sur prisingly intense. The security protocols alone require many hands to strip each testing classroom of ALL materials that might distract or inform children as they are taking these tests. This means that literally each bulletin board and each student desk must be completely cleared; and of course, restored after testing.

Teachers and counselors must admin ister the tests and monitor the testing pro cedure and the students while taking the tests. Naturally, testing must be secure — no cheating, no sharing, no talking — and we all want our children to be responsible and trustworthy while taking a test.

But the time and effort alone involved in this mandated security protocol is somewhat staggering and stressful.

Now let’s talk about the tests them selves. What is the purpose of such frequent testing?

those students feel like failures and if the parents of those students blame the teach ers for shortcomings that have nothing to do with classroom instruction, but simply the order in which information is pre sented to students as the academic year unfolds? The current testing mechanism for measuring student learning progress is to test on the entire academic-year-long curriculum at the middle of the academic year. Logically, this means that students will not have heard or had the opportunity to learn this information.

We are now seeing what happens. Teachers burn out and leave the profes sion. Remember, these same teachers are working double-time to overcome the students’ learning gaps created by the Covid shutdowns. We already have a shortage of teachers in Virginia and should not be consciously exacerbating that shortage. Students easily lose con fidence in their ability to learn and abil ity to take tests. Students’ anxiety level goes up. We already are experiencing what some call “a student mental health crisis” that schools are not equipped, as now staffed, to handle. I haven’t even gotten to the ‘what happens if’ for students who are special needs and/or English-language learners.

Finally, what happens when, not if, parents learn about the damage to their children’s self-confidence and willing ness to learn? How many children are going to willingly take a test asking for answers that they not only don’t know, but haven’t been taught? How many parents are going to willingly allow their children to be placed into these circumstances?

I think the answer is: Not many.

Larceny from Building, Wilson Blvd, November 28, 1:23 AM, unknown suspect(s) took an item of value from an unsecured locker. Drunk in Public, Wilson Blvd, November 29,

Destruction of Property, Park Ave, December 3, 1:35 PM, a white female, 62, of McLean, VA, was arrested for Destruction of Property.

The purpose is to measure student progress to inform the curriculum con tent and pacing for teachers and to give parents an evaluation of their student’s academic progress or lack thereof com pared across a spectrum locally, statewide and nationally. Another purpose is to measure a school’s success in teaching the required grade-appropriate curricu lum. We all know that the most important aspect of academic testing is the feedback harvested from the results and the abil ity to implement appropriate changes in response to that feedback.

What happens if the state Department of Education does not provide feed back swiftly, comprehensively and most importantly, feedback data that is under standable and actionable?

Understandable and actionable for teachers and parents. What happens if students are tested on items they have not received instruction on? What happens if

Finally, if the testing result data does not come back to the school and teach ers in a digestible, usable form that can help build a curriculum appropriate to the results to be followed for the rest of the year, what is the point? If the information provided to parents is only in English and only in check-box yes or no form, how does that help? How does that allow parents to be supportive, contributing partners to our schools?

Our appointed directors of our state Department of Education, our appoint ed Board of Education, our elected Legislature and our elected Governor must confront these concerns and implement corrective measures now. Our children are our future. Let’s build a future we can be proud of, starting now!



Delegate Kory represents the 38th District in the Virginia House of Delegates. She may be emailed at DelKKory@house.virginia.gov.

For Wesley Diener, Good Singing is For the Multitudes

by Nicholas F. Benton Falls Church News-Press

You can bless folks with your talent for a night, or you can draw forth the talents lurking within themselves that will bless them and many around them for a lifetime. And, moreover, such a cultivated talent can be the cornerstone of a sense of community bringing people together.

It goes with the old saying of the Chinese philosopher and founder of Taoism Lao Tzu that “You can give a man a fish and feed him for a day, or teach him how to fish and feed him for a lifetime.”

Wesley Diener grew up in this area discovering and then hon ing his skills as a baritone singer through his participation in high school musicals and then as a music major at the University of Virginia.

But even as this Northern Virginia native continues to culti vate his own talent through edu cational and performance-based efforts here and in Europe, at his young age (being only in his mid20s by now) he’s discovered and initiated a way to build aggres sively on the Lao Tzu principle. Not that many do at such a young age when often their obsession is to make it as a performer, and fewer have figured out how to use the best of modern resources to fashion a truly innovative approach with the help of a handful of similarly gifted young friends.

So, Diener is now the founder and voice instructor for his own undertaking that goes by the name of the WD Studio for virtual voice training.

Through the miracle of the Internet, he and his team of “pas sionate, professional and innova tive artists in the fields of vocal performance and pedagogy” have been able to guide many scores of aspirational singers from places all around the world, and he’s just get ting started.

Diener has been a frequent per former at Falls Church’s innovative Creative Cauldron theater, delight ing audiences with solo shows featuring both traditional operatic favorites and some of the best of Broadway, as well. A native of this area, and youngest son of Michael Diener, a prominent Falls Church businessman, even though he now lives in Chicago, he is a frequent visitor here and promises his fans here that is going to continue.

His new undertaking, provid ing the gift of song far and wide, is grounded in a philosophy, he says, that “individuality fuels col laboration.”

“At WD Studio,” he asserts, “We believe in providing the best instruction that will empower our students to access their authentic artistry. Unlike other programs, we don’t stop at individual growth. Our studio is designed for collabo ration. Through studio performanc es, group and guest workshops, we aim to build a community that learns, grows and performs togeth er.”

As he states on his website, it is his view that “collaboration is the most essential, most unique and most rewarding aspect of music. The shine of the spotlight can be exhilarating, but what ultimately draws us to performing is the sense of community that arises out of a

shared artistic experience. Here, we foster each student’s individuality and the collaboration it inspires.”

Connecting through the Internet with his students, participation, as he describes in promotional mate rials, involves “meeting regularly with a personal instructor, who will guide you along every step of your vocal journey.”

For example, a year-long Core Program for exceptional young singers aged 12 to 18 was cre ated to “foster artistry, community and musical excellence” offering weekly individual training lessons, collaboration in group workshops, performance in regular recitals, interaction in a virtual classroom, and engagement in custom pro gram content” that is designed to empower and inspire our most committed singers to reach their fullest potential.”

Diener states, “In a field that is highly competitive and rarely collaborative, we strive to create a community that collectively uplifts each singer. Through group train ing, peer feedback, and generous mentorship, the Core Program singers discover their deepest art istry through the support of their fellow singers.”

Established just last year, the Core Program has already acquired a reputation for excellence, placing first in the entire state of Virginia at the All-State Choir Auditions, performed in professional and preprofessional musical theater pro ductions across the country, invited to and attended prestigious per forming art academies, signed an agreement with a leading national talent agent in film, TV and theater, performed leading roles in school

Meridian Basketball Falls to Dominion Despite Trundle’s Big Night

by Ryan McCafferty

The Meridian boys’ basketball team took its 2-1 record back home Monday night, as they hosted the visiting Dominion Titans. Things didn’t get off to a great start as the visitors jumped out to an early 8-2 lead, but the Mustangs quickly stopped the bleeding. They climbed back to a 17-13 deficit at the end of the first quarter and then scored the first four points of the second to tie the game, but then fell back behind after a 5-0 run by Dominion made it 22-17. But they ended the half on a positive note, tying the game

back up at 26 apiece and then tak ing their first lead of the evening on a Wyatt Trundle putback. Meridian took the two point advantage into the break.

The second half got off to a good start by the home team as Trundle tipped in another offen sive rebound for a four point lead, but back-to-back three pointers put Dominion back in front. The teams traded blows throughout the remainder of a tight third quar ter, with Isaac Rosenberger hit ting a shot from deep to give the Mustangs their biggest lead at 44-39 before the Titans cut it to

46-42 headed into the final frame. Meridian scored the first basket of the fourth quarter, but the visi tors weren’t ready to go down yet, as they fought back with an 11-2 run to take a 53-50 lead with two minutes to go. A clutch basket by Trundle cut it back to one, but those would be the final points of the night for the Mustangs. They were unable to get a stop on the other end and then missed a three that would’ve tied things up, and after resorting to intentional foul ing the rest of the way, they fell by a final score to 59-52.

It’s the second loss of the sea

ers, networking tools and confi dence boosters.”

Three recitals over the course of an academic year put a stu dent’s newly developed skills to the test to perform alongside tal ented colleagues, designed to be

artistic friendships in their small groups filled with like-minded formance classes and workshops

tions, trying out new techniques, learning from peers and developing

This year, Sunday Soirees have been implemented to gather the entire Core Program during the evening on the second Sunday of each month for an hour of studentled education and social amuse ment. They are optional and casual but will be recorded for playback.

son for Meridian, as they fall to 2-2 on the year. There is still plenty of hope for this team, though, par ticularly in Trundle, who scored 26 of the Mustangs’ 52 points and has been garnering interest from some DII and DIII colleges. Said

head coach Jim Smith of his team’s senior big man, “He’s gonna be playing somewhere next year.”

The Mustangs will be in action again tomorrow night as they travel to Yorktown, where they’ll look to get back into the winning column.

Wesley Diener. (News-Press Photo)

MERIDIAN DROPS HOME GAME to Dominion. (Photo: Ryan McCafferty)

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2022 NAIOP Design Awards Recipients Named

Several local architects and properties have received accolades for their work. NAIOP Northern Virginia recognized significant contributions at their November gala, including several in the Falls Church community. Robert E. Beach Architects received the award for Community Enrichment for the design of the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. The memorial and contemplative garden in Lorton is now owned by NOVA Parks. Other NAIOP Northern Virginia award winners are as follows: Capital Improvement Non-Institutional Award of Excellence for Birch & Broad, with NAIOP Members on the team Federal Realty Investment Trust; and the Multi-Family Residential Award of Excellence to Modera and Verso, submitted by the Hartman Design Group with NAIOP members on the team, WDG Architecture. The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently awarded Robert E. Beach Architects the Merit Award for Institutional Design Excellence in the 2022 James M. Scott Exceptional Design Awards Program, also for the Turning Point Suffragist Memorial. Familiar to Falls Church, Atlantic Realty Co. and Architecture, Inc. also received a 2022 Merit Award for the 8150 Leesburg Pike Amenities, demonstrating what can be done with a challenging, windowless space.

Fallfax Center Redevelopment Proposal

The property owner of Fallsfax Center, Schupp Companies, has proposed redevelopment of the retail strip on the edge of Idylwood into a residential and retail building. Current tenants include Settle Down Easy Brewing, El Tio Tex-Mex Grill, Victor’s Grill, a Pizza Hut and Huqqa Lounge. The brewery is said to remain under the current proposal. This is one of many proposals for Fairfax County’s site-specific plan amendment program involving land use changes to the comprehensive plan for individual properties.

Creative Cauldron Receives Grant

Creative Cauldron was awarded an FY2023 ArtsFairfax Project Support Grant to support “Artes Para Todos,” an initiative that provides young people attending Fairfax County Title One schools year-round after school drama and arts workshops. The project specifically reaches English learners and young people from homes where Spanish is the first language spoken. In addition to the after-school workshops, participating students and their families receive complimentary tickets to Creative Cauldron’s family-friendly productions throughout the year, and students are offered free or reduced tuition for spring break and summer camps.

Corporate Support for Virginia Tech’s Innovation Campus

Virginia Tech is piloting a project-based curriculum for local engineering students in partnership with Falls Church-based Northrop Grumman as well as Boeing and Deloitte. Faculty members currently based at the University’s Northern Virginia Center in Falls Church will work with companies in the tech, aerospace and defense fields on real-world problems for small groups in the Master of Engineering program to tackle

Northern Virginia Workforce Index

Survey

The Northern Virginia Chamber is looking for your opinion on the region’s workforce trends. As part of the research, it is aimed at gathering intelligence on the current workforce and talent-related issues for businesses as part of the 2022 Northern Virginia Workforce Index. Conducted in partnership with the Northern Virginia Chamber Foundation and the Northern Virginia Community College, the 2022 report will be available in January at the Chamber’s annual Economic Outlook Conference. Please take a moment to complete the survey and share your company’s data. Take the survey.

Notes is compiled by Elise Neil Bengtson, Executive Director of the Greater Falls Church Chamber of Commerce. She may be emailed at elise@fallschcurchchamber.org.

Two Children Died. Thousands Can Be Helped Maureen Dowd

About 10 years ago, Lloyd Carr, the former football coach for the University of Michigan, stopped by my office to bring me a football helmet.

It was maize and blue, and he had written “Go Blue!” on it. I had started as a sports reporter, but I didn’t understand what a legend this slab of a man was. He seemed fun and charming, but I had to call my footballloving sister to learn that Carr was one of the most respected college football coaches of the winningest program in col lege football history. The tough Tennessee native had joined the Michigan Wolverines in 1980 and led them from 1995 to 2007. Many of the guys in the bureau were awe-struck, crowding onto the couch to talk to him.

By the end of the afternoon, I was so impressed with the future College Football Hall of

Famer, now 77, that we agreed to keep in touch. We emailed back and forth, until one day his emails abruptly stopped. “Hey,” I wrote to him. “What’s up? I miss talking to you.” That’s how I found out that this man, so full of verve and life, had gone into a miasma of grief.

His grandson Chad, an angelic-looking blond, had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor on Sept. 23, 2014, three days before his 4th birth day. Fourteen months later he was dead, a victim of diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma.

Carr, his son Jason and his daughter-in-law Tammi started the ChadTough Foundation; so far it has financed over $20 million in research to combat DIPG. The cancer is almost always fatal, and 150 to 300 children get it annually in the United States alone.

Carr made his old mottos from the football field his man tra in fighting cancer: “You can’t do everything but you can do something” and “Blame no one, expect nothing, do some

thing.”

“My entire life, from the time I was a kid, I hated losing,” Carr said when I called him Thursday. “As a player and as a coach, anytime we lost, it was a heartbreaking loss for me, in my eyes. I thought I knew what heartbreaking was, but I didn’t. Chad’s experience has taught me. I know now.”

After Chad’s death, Tammi curled in a ball, thinking of all the things that Chad loved: orange sun sets and garage sales and his older brothers. But then her son Tommy, who was 7 at the time, came into her room and called out, “Get up and make breakfast!” It was a reminder that she owed it to her two other kids to keep fighting. Tommy is now 15 and his brother CJ is a high school junior who will be heading off to Notre Dame to play quarterback.

As they’ve grown, so has the foundation; last year, ChadTough joined forces with the Michael Mosier Defeat DIPG Foundation, becoming the ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation. Michael had also died of DIPG. in 2015, and was just a year older than Chad.

“We just had Chad’s angel-

versary and it’s like seven years has gone by in an instant, but it’s also forever,” Tammi Carr told me. “Grief is a weird thing.”

I also met Ciaran Staunton, like Lloyd Carr, before his life was wrecked. He owned two Irish bars, one in Midtown Manhattan and one in Brooklyn. I also knew his wife, Orlaith; his daughter, Kathleen; and his son, Rory, a strapping 5-foot-9, 169-pound 12-year-old.

“He fell in school,” Staunton said, recalling a Tuesday in March 2012. “Cut his arm. They didn’t send him to the nurse.” He was up that night, throwing up. Their pediatrician and doctors in a hospital emergency room said there was nothing seriously wrong. But bacteria had entered his bloodstream from the cut.

“He was starting to turn blue by Friday night. On Sunday night, our beautiful boy died. He was almost blue from head to toe. The Tuesday night before he died, I bought him a pizza and asked what type he wanted. The fol lowing Tuesday, I was in a funeral home and they asked me what coffin

I wanted.”

Like the Carrs, the Stauntons started a foundation — called End Sepsis, the Legacy of Rory Staunton — to increase awareness of sepsis and improve measures to prevent it.

“We had never heard of the word ‘sepsis’ before Rory died. We didn’t hear it in the hospital,” Staunton said. “We had a hearing in the United States Senate on it. We found out that it was killing a quarter of a million Americans every year. Since Rory died, almost 3 million Americans have died from sepsis.”

With the work of the foundation and extensive coverage of their case by the late New York Times colum nist Jim Dwyer, New York passed regulations that dictate how doctors should treat the preventable disease. The rules have been credited with helping to save thousands of lives.

“It totally destroyed my life, my wife’s life, my daughter’s life,” Staunton said. “Rory would now be 23. Trauma is the world we live in. It’s the world we’re surrounded by until, fortunately, we die.”

By Maureen dowd © 2022 The New York Times

Ukranian Women Fight for Their Own Liberation

Nicholas Kristof

Ukraine is a traditional and sexist society caught in a grueling artillery war with Russia, so the last person you’d expect to see in an army uniform is a grandma.

But Mariia Stalinska, 41, a book keeper whose first grandchild was born a year ago, enlisted in the army after Russia invaded her country in February.

“We need to defend our children,” she told me. “If not us, who?”

While registering for military ser vice is compulsory for men, women can choose to volunteer. After the inva sion, many did so, and almost 60,000 women are now in the Ukrainian armed forces, sometimes filling com bat roles.

“I won’t be in an office some where,” said Liliia Fedorenko, 45, who signed up on the morning of the inva sion. “I’ll be in the trenches, shooting, doing reconnaissance.”

The determination of Ukrainian women to fight Russians, or spy on them from behind enemy lines or raise money for the troops reflects

an unflinching determination of Ukrainians, male and female alike, to sacrifice for their country. At a time when the United States is so divided, Ukraine feels the opposite: There is a passionate, uplifting, leveling unity here, and it’s one reason Vladimir Putin may be in trouble.

The Ukrainian government says that 151 female soldiers have been killed or are missing so far. About 350 have received awards such as “Hero of Ukraine.”

Today in the war in Ukraine, the sexism of Russian troops may have hurt them, because they did not always realize what women are capable of.

“They were not suspecting women,” said a female community leader in the Kharkiv region who defied and misled Russians when her area was occupied. She did not want her name used in case the Russians return.

The involvement of women is a reminder that half the human resourc es in any society are female, even if countries don’t always appreciate that. Harness the unfulfilled potential of half the population, and any nation will gain an edge.

The rush of female soldiers is so new that Ukraine’s military doesn’t even have standard uniforms for

women, so women were stuck with ill-fitting uniforms designed for men. They protested that warriors come in all genders and that uniforms should be able to accommodate female hips and chests.

One of the early female volunteers, Anastasiia Kolesnyk, a 25-year-old marketer who signed up on the first day of the war along with her boy friend, complained to family members, who found better-fitting uniforms for her and her friends.

Other women asked for them as well, and the family effort ballooned into a nonprofit, Zemliachky, that received a torrent of donations to buy uniforms, body armor, thermal under wear and other gear for female sol diers. It has a warehouse in Kyiv with clothing and equipment it is supplying free to women.

Attitudes toward the female sol diers seem to vary with command ers. “I heard, ‘You’re a woman, you need to make babies, go home,’” said Anastasia Blyshchyk, 26, who initially was rebuffed when she vol unteered. Rather than sitting on a long waiting list to serve, like many other Ukrainians, she reached out to com manders and found one who said he could use her.

She now wears a uniform with an

unofficial shoulder patch, right below the Ukrainian flag, reading: “ARM WOMEN NOW.”

While women can also serve in the Russian military and intelligence service, few women appear to be in Russia’s invading force in Ukraine.

Women also seem to have been very effective as spies behind enemy lines, using their phones to report on Russian troop locations and move ments.

“I really wanted this area to be liberated,” said Albina Strelets, 33, explaining why she spied on Russian forces and transmitted information to the Ukrainian side. She was arrested and spoke to me above the jail and tor ture chamber where Russians detained her for 16 days in August.

Other prisoners were tortured, raped and killed, she said. She added that she bluntly told her interroga tor, a Chechen, that she supported the Ukrainian side in the war, winning his grudging respect.

“You have balls of iron, more than most men,” he told her, by her account. She said she was not physi cally harmed.

Female spies aren’t new, of course. A relative of mine, Izabela Krzysztofowicz Jaruzelska, was a sworn member of the Polish resis

tance during World War II. She was involved in a Polish courier network that gathered intelligence on the Nazis, carried it through what is now Ukraine and transmitted it to the Polish govern ment in exile in London, but she was caught, sent to Auschwitz and died there in 1943.

An open question is whether the heroism of so many women in this war will chip away at traditional sex ist attitudes and create a more equal society afterward. Will Ukrainian men be more likely to treat their wives as equals? One indication of possible progress is that almost half of all new small businesses since the invasion were started by women.

“This will change the role of women in society,” said Alla Kuznietsova, who spied on the Russians during the occu pation of Izium and reported regularly to the Ukrainian side.

“Not every woman will take a gun and fight, but we do every thing possible to help the army,” said Kuznietsova, who recounted having survived brutal torture and rape at the hands of Russian interrogators. “I have two good female friends who were doing the same.”

By Nicholas Kristof © 2022 The New York Times

7th

VPIS hosted the 7th Annual Tree Fest this past weekend at The Four Provinces restaurant. It was a wellattended and successful event. There were 19 organizations participating this year and over $3,800 was raised for the organizations. The Meridian High School Chorus, led by Jamie Sample, performed Christmas music on Saturday evening, a tradition we love, and which sets the mood for the entire event. All of the trees were beautiful and three organizations had trees that went for $500 each - Ellie & Evangeline, Comunidad, and Fisher House (donated by GAMC). Other participants included FCCPS Choral Boosters, Arlington Philharmonic, Food for Others, Friends of FC Homeless Shelter, H-A-R-K, AAUW, Grace Christian Academy, Lost Dog & Cat Rescue, VPIS, FCh Arts, Friends of Cherry Hill, Tinner Hill Heritage Foundation, NOVA ScriptsCentral, Capital Caring, FCCTV, & MRSPL Foundation.

(TR22-42) RESOLUTION REQUESTING THAT THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY AMEND SECTION 4.14, “APPOINTMENTS,” OF THE CHARTER OF THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH TO REQUIRE THAT APPOINTED MEMBERS TO CITY BOARDS AND COM MISSIONS BE AT LEAST 18 YEARS OF AGE AND RESIDENTS OF THE CITY, AND REMOVING THE REQUIREMENT THAT THEY BE QUALIFIED VOTERS OF THE CITY

All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. Remote participation information at www.fallschurchva.gov/publiccomment. Com ments may also be sent to cityclerk@fallsch urchva.gov. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov or visit www. fallschurchva.gov/councilmeetings. 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 703-248-5014 (TTY 711).

CELESTE HEATH, CITY CLERK

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Board of Zoning Appeals (BZA) of the City of Falls Church, Virginia will hold a public hearing on December 15, 2022 at 7:30 PM in the Council Chambers, located at 300 Park Av enue, for consideration of the following items:

1.Variance application V1635-22 by Maribel and Edwin Najera, applicants and owners, for a variance to Section 48-263(3) a. to allow side setbacks of 8.3 feet instead of 10 feet for the purpose of constructing a 2nd story addition at premises known as 113 West Cameron Road, RPC #52-402-055 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1B, Medium Density Residential.

2. Variance application V1636-22 by John To kizawa, applicant and owner, for a variance to Section 48-238(3) a. to allow 1) front setback of 24.5 feet instead of 30 feet for the purpose of constructing a two-story front addition, and 2) side setback of 9.8 feet instead of 13 feet for the purpose of constructing a one-story rear addition at premises known as 514 Timber Lane, RPC #52-601-026 of the Falls Church Real Property Records, zoned R-1A, Low Density Residential.

Public comment and questions may be submitted to zoning@fallschurchva.gov until 4:30 pm on December 15, 2022. Agenda and application materials will be available the week prior to the scheduled hearing at: http://www. fallschurchva.gov/BZA

Information on the above application is also available for review upon request to staff at zoning@fallschurchva.gov.

Invitation For Bids (IFB)

IFB 0103-23-HAWKS

Broad Street Pedestrian Crossings Project City of Falls Church

PASSWORD-PROTECTED ELECTRONIC BIDS (SEALED) will be accepted by the City of Falls Church by electronic submission to Purchasing Agent James Wise, jwise@ fallschurchva.gov for the federally-funded Broad Street Pedestrian Crossings Project. Due date for the electronic submission of Bids is Tuesday, January 3, 2023 @ 11:00 AM. A Non-Mandatory Pre-Bid Meeting will be held virtually via Microsoft Teams on December

15, 2022 (see the IFB for details). A copy of the IFB which includes all details and require ments may be downloaded from the City’s website: www.fallschurchva.gov/Bids. Notice of the IFB may also be accessed via eVA, the Commonwealth of Virginia’s electronic procurement portal for registered suppliers, www.eva.virginia.gov.

For more information and/or questions regard ing this IFB contact the City’s Purchasing Agent; (703) 248-5007; jwise@fallschurchva. gov. To request a reasonable accommodation for any type of disability, call 703 248-5007 (TTY 711).

Volunteers who live in the City of Falls Church are needed to serve on the boards and com missions listed below. Contact the City Clerk’s Office (703-248-5014, cityclerk@fallsch urchva.gov, or www.fallschurchva.gov/BC) for an application form or more information. Positions advertised for more than one month may be filled during each subsequent month.

Architectural Advisory Board

Arts & Humanities Council of Falls Church Board of Equalization Board of Zoning Appeals (Alternate)

Citizens’ Advisory Committee on Transpor tation

City Employee Review Board

Economic Development Authority Environmental Sustainability Council Historical Commission

Human Services Advisory Council

Planning Commission Recreation and Parks Advisory Board

Regional Boards/Commissions

Health Systems Agency of Northern Virginia Long Term Care Coordinating Council

Northern Virginia Juvenile Detention Com mission

Virginia Career Works Northern Region

Ad Hoc Committee

Sold Waste Management Plan Advisory Committee: This Committee will advise the City Council in the development of the City’s 20-year Solid Waste Management Plan.

PUBLIC HEARING NOTICE PLANNING COMMISSION

NOTICE: On Wednesday, December 21, 2022, at 7:30 p.m., the City of Falls Church Planning Commission will hold a public hear ing and meeting. Public comments can also be submitted ahead of time to jtrainor@fallsch urchva.gov and pstoddard@fallschurchva. gov. The Planning Commission will consider the following item and recommendation to City Council:

(TO22-09) ORDINANCE TO AMEND CHAP TER 48 “ZONING” TO COMBINE TRANSI TIONAL DISTRICTS; ELIMINATE SINGLE FAMILY AND TWO FAMILY RESIDENTIAL USE THEREIN; ALLOW FOR A TOWN HOUSE, APARTMENT AND CONDO OP TION AND ALLOW FOR EXPANDED LOT COVERAGE.

The Planning Commission is considering proposed changes to the Transition Zone (“T-Zone”) districts. The proposed changes are intended to facilitate development of small residential projects on infill sites too small to support large commercial or mixed-use developments. Notable proposed changes include: (1) allowing townhouses and multi family to increase housing options in the City, (2) allowing more neighborhood-serving retail, and (3) allowing larger buildings to encourage reinvestment, while controlling storm-water and transitioning to single family homes.

Meeting agenda and materials will be available on the following page prior to the public meeting: http://www.fallschurchva.gov/ PC. More information about the proposed changes to the Transition Zones (“T-Zones”) are available on the project webpage: http:// fallschurchva.gov/2167/Proposed-T-Zone-

Updates

This location is fully accessible to persons with physical disabilities and special services

or assistance may be requested in advance. (TTY 711)

HELP WANTED

Portfolio (Investment Fund) Manager (Falls Church, VA), Manage portfolio & new invest ments to generate superior risk adjusted returns, w/a specific focus on SBA 7(a) reltd assets & other Agency MBS, CMBS & esoteric ABS assets. Conduct trades in these assets w/supervision of CIO, ensuring regular compli ance w/best execution policies. Engage w/ex isting clients & prospective investors through the preparation & delivery of presentations, Q&A’s, phone calls, site visits, conferences, & other similar communications. Use advanced statistical software & econometric methods to perform data analysis pertaining to portfolio construction, asset allocation, security selec tion, & portfolio positioning. Provide regular updates to CIO on individual investments, portfolio construction & risk. Plan & execute short-term funding needs & trading activities, & managing existing & growing new funding counterparty relationships. Continuously monitor the portfolio & confirm compliance w/ regulatory reqmnts. Travel up to 5% to meet w/clients & attend industry conferences.

AUCTIONS

ATTN. AUCTIONEERS: Advertise your upcoming auctions statewide and in other states. Affordable Print and Digital Solutions reaching your target audiences. Call this paper or Landon Clark at Virginia Press Services 804-521-7576, landonc@vpa.net

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NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING CITY COUNCIL CITY OF FALLS CHURCH, VIRGINIA

2022

Falls Church News-Press Vol. VII, No. 38 • December 04, 1997

Falls Church News-Press Vol. XXII, No. 40 • December 06, 2012

Rivera: ‘My Goal to

Budget With No Tax Hike’

Looking ahead to February, when he is slated to present his first proposed for the City Council to consider, Falls Church City Manager Hector Rivera told the News-Press in an interview Tuesday that his goal will be to craft a budget free of any real estate tax increase.

Hilton Groundbreaking Signals New Development Wave in Falls Church

The “win-win” deal struck last month between the City of Falls Church and the government and water authority of Fairfax County is only one component of what’s shaping up to be an unprecedented development boom.

HER NAME IS CROOKSHANKS. My brother named her after Hermione’s cat in Harry Potter. She loves playing with her sister Luna and waking everyone up at 4 a.m.!