2-19-2015 by Falls Church News-Press

February 19 - 25, 2015

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This year’s assessments of the land and building values of all real estate parcels in the City of Falls Church is due to be mailed out from the Assessor’s Office at City Hall next Tuesday. SEE NEWS BRIEFS, PAGE 9

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The George Mason High School boys basketball team topped Strasburg, 54-41, last Thursday to take home the Bull Run District crown.

F.C. School Board Closes in on 5% Boost in Revenue Request Increase Going to Teacher Salary Competitiveness BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

version to the Council Tuesday night. The new policy also distinguishes between “light” and “heavy” solutions to concerns that have been established as valid, such as at the intersection of Parker and Kent Streets, where two pedestrians were injured in recent years, including one who was a student walking to school. The “light” solution, according to Stoddard, has already been implemented there and involves painting crosswalks and adding

At its work session Tuesday night, the Falls Church School Board appeared to narrow its options for its budget request of transfer from the City to near a five percent increase, setting up what could be another major clash with the City Council, which has the final say on the budget numbers and has called for a zero growth school board budget in order to avoid having to impose a real estate tax rate increase. School Board member Susan Kearney summed it up Tuesday when she said, “It appears to be the School Board philosophy for this budget to ask for what we need…The City Council wants a flat budget (from us), but salaries are below our neighbors for so many of our teachers that we have to address that.” She noted the study showing that City general government employees are being paid comparably to their Fairfax and Arlington County counterparts, “but our teachers are not.” She said if the School Board decides to narrow its requested increase to maintaining competitiveness on teacher salaries, “there’s sympathy for this,” she said. The School Board will vote on its budget next week which will be forwarded to City Manager Wyatt Shields, who will fold it into his budget recommendations to the City Council on March 8, and the City Council will determine the final numbers for the new fiscal year beginning July 1 at the end of April.

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SEE SPORTS, PAGE 20

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David J. Morris returned from Iraq with a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. The former Marine turned war correspondent was plagued by nightmares. SEE PAGE 12

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The Legwarmers have been operating as Northern Virginia’s version of Spinal Tap – the fictional group from the classic rock mockumentary – for nearly 14 years, long enough for a whole new generation of concertgoers to catch the band’s fever for the 1980s.

MEMBERS OF THE Falls Church School board met Tuesday night to mull their budget and the transfer request they will vote next week to request from the City Council. Among the board members are, left to right, Michael Ankuma, Margaret Ward, Lawrence Webb, Zack Witzel (student member) and Kieran Sharpe. (P��: N��-P��)

Revised Neighborhood Traffic Plan Goes for City Council Vote

SEE PAGE 21

BY NICHOLAS F. BENTON

Editorial.................6 Letters...................6 News & Notes 10-11 Comment .......12-15 Calendar ........16-17 Food & Dining ......18

An updated and revised “Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program” will come for approval before the Falls Church City Council this Monday. The program, developed by the City’s Planning Division in conjunction with the Citizens Advisory Committee on Transportation introduces more flexibility and capacity for a more rapid response to citizen petitions to address traffic problems in residential neighborhoods in the City.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

INDEX Sports ................20 Press Pass .........21 Classified Ads ....24 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword ..........25 Critter Corner......26

The new document, which was reviewed by the City Council this Tuesday, updates and revises the version currently operative as City policy which was adopted in November 2011. “This revised version gives better guidance to the City staff on how to handle citizens coming to City Hall to seek a remedy, and it also allows for the City staff to more quickly respond to concerns,” said Senior City Planner Paul Stoddard. Stoddard and Paul Baldino, chair of the committee, made the presentation on the new revised

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F.C. School Board Zeroes in On 5% Budget Request Hike Continued from Page 1

But at a public event held in the cafetorium of the Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School last week hosted by local school system PTAs, not a single member of the City Council was present to hear Superintendent Dr. Toni Jones spell out why the schools need a significant increase in the City’s fund transfer to the schools to maintain quality and competitiveness. The School Board this Tuesday narrowed its options from the three presented by Dr. Jones last month that included options for smaller increases and one at 5.9 percent, which was Dr. Jones’ recommendation for optimal funding of school system “needs,” not counting $1.8 million in “wants.” (When Dr. Jones added a fourth scenario at a work session earlier this month, the zero growth option that some on the City Council have said they want, the impact was so draconian, calling for the elimination of 20.5 “full time equivalent”

teacher positions, that the School Board swiftly dismissed it). Jones indicated this Tuesday that, in the uphill effort to remain competitive with Arlington on teacher salaries, limits to the size of the schools’ budget will need to be met with teacher layoffs, rather than salary setbacks. The challenge for competitiveness with Arlington has been illustrated by graphs that compare teacher salaries based on years of experience and levels of education, and nothing else. They show that except for entry level salaries, the City’s systems lags behind in almost every category, with variances running as high as $17,743 for senior bachelor’s degree teachers and at many levels is more than $10,000. The board Tuesday also discussed options to the $90,000 needed to buy a new bus, suggesting that the establishment of a so-called “sinking fund” that saves up for the lease-purchases of buses and other vehicles could be easier on a tight budget even if slightly

more costly over time. While the School Board’s Kieran Sharpe noted that the City government has also expressed interest in such a fund, there has been no progress on that end, and he now thinks the School Board ought to go for it alone. This is the third year that it has been discussed with the City, he said, without results. Concerning a lease-purchase of new buses, compared to outright purchases, the School’s chief financial officer Hunter Kimble said, “We’ve done it before, we can do it again.” “The return on investment of keeping good teachers is immeasurable,” Jones told the PTAsponsored community forum last week. She noted that 85.5 percent of the schools’ budget goes to teacher salaries and benefits. When the School Board began its plan to restore the competitiveness of its teacher salaries, it began “dead last” in the region, she siad.. At the same PTA forum last week, F.C. City Manager Wyatt Shields indicated that minus any

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM He blamed the effects of federal government sequestration on the economy of the larger region, saying it has caused the area to face “serious headwinds.” He noted data showing that among U.S. states’ annual economic growth rates, Virginia now rates 48th, Maryland 49th and the District of Columbia 51st. According to his calculations, the City’s revenues for the coming year amount to about $411,000, while the School Board is closing in on a request for transfer of funds from the City that will be around $1.8 million.

real estate tax rate increase, the projection now is that the City will have only a 1.1 percent “allowable growth” in its revenue stream for the coming year. He said the City’s current real estate tax rate, at $1.305 per $100 of assessed valuation, is in the middle of the pack of other jurisdictions in the region, with the highest being Manassas Park’s $1.65 rate. This is all despite significant commercial real estate development underway in the City and the net $20 million cash windfall from the sale of the City’s water system last year.

Kids don’t get enough art these days. For Ten Simple Ways to get more art in kids’ lives, visit AmericansForTheArts.org.

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What questions do you have? Bring them!

Community Issues Forum Topic: FY16 FCCPS Budget & CIP TONIGHT - 7:30 p.m.

American Legion Hall, 400 North Oak Street, Falls Church, VA Sponsored by: American Legion, Catholic War Veterans, Citzens for a Better City, Citizens for a Sustainable City, Falls Church Republicans, and Falls Church Democrats

- Moderator: Carol Loftur-Thun - Meeting Chair: Harry Shovlin - Invited Guest: Superintendent Toni Jones

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

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FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 5

New Neighborhood Calming Policy Readied for Vote Continued from Page 1

signage. The painting has created for the average motorist the idea that the road narrows so they will slow down to drive more carefully. “Our policy will be to try ‘light’ solutions first because they involve lower costs, can be implemented more quickly and are easier to change,” Stoddard said. Soon, he added, a data collection and evaluation of the “light” steps at the Parker and Kent intersection will be reviewed before moving ahead with a “heavy” solution that will involve concrete curb extensions and speed humps. On Pennsylvania Avenue between Park and Great Falls another area of concern has been identified that will be subjected to a similar review and implementation. There, Stoddard said, a raised pedestrian crossing at Fulton Street might be the solution, and it will involve an allocation of $25,000 to $50,000 to complete. Stoddard said the completion of the new revised policy, which will go into effect the

minute the Council votes on it Monday, involved an exhausting nine work sessions of the transportation committee to hammer out. “Among other things that have to be taken into account are potential collateral consequences, such as flooding and storm water impacts.” The new “Neighborhood Traffic Calming Program” is

designed to be responsive and not pro-active. That is, it kicks in when a citizen or group of citizens come to City Hall to seek a solution to a perceived problem. The new document also reconfigures an area around a problem, depending on whether the problem is in a mid-block or at an intersection. It is from such an

area that gets identified that 51 percent of residents must sign a petition agreeing to the need for corrective action to be taken. The new version also includes quasi-residential streets like West and Hillwood as candidates for action. They were excluded in the earlier version because they were not designated as primarily residential.

Longtime F.C. Business Leader Cindy Elkin Dies Longtime Falls Church business leader Cynthia Murphy Elkin died last Friday, Feb. 13, surrounded by family and close friends. Elkin and her late husband, Jim Elkin, were important leaders of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce since coming to Falls Church in the mid-1990s and operating the Point of View

Eyewear business on W. Broad St., a business that she sold to close friend Bill Mueller a few years back. Cindy Elkin was preceded in her death by her husband of over 30 years, Jim Elkin, who served three terms from 2001 to 2003 as chairman of the F.C. Chamber before dying in 2005. Jim died Feb. 15, 2005, almost 10 years to the day of Cindy’s passing on Feb. 13, 2015. Upon Jim’s passing, Cindy helped initiate an annual Chamber award, the James S. Elkin Award for Humanitarianism, and served on

the Chamber board of directors. Cindy Elkin also served on the Falls Church City Public Schools Business in Education Partnership Council, being its chair for several years, thinking of creative ways that the business and school community could work together. “She was always a kind and generous partner to the schools and our families, helping children who needed eye exams and glasses, volunteering to read at Mt. Daniel School for Read Across America Day. She truly understood the importance of all facets of the com-

The calming guidelines are not to be confused with the City’s proactive Pedestrian and Bike Plan that was shelved after being rolled out to major opposition from neighborhoods. That plan has been replaced by the “Mobility for All Modes” plan that has been folded into the City’s Comprehensive Plan and speaks only to general policy, without specific proposals. munity coming together for the greater good,” wrote Marybeth Connelly, school staffer for the BIE Partnership and member of the Falls Church City Council. Cindy Elkin leaves behind four children – Haley, Valerie, James and Clyde – as well as 11 grandchildren and one great grandchild, daughter Kathy and her special friend, Lou Miller. A viewing was scheduled for last Tuesday at the Murphy Funeral Home and a funeral service was set for yesterday at the St. Francis Church in Great Falls. The family has asked that in lieu of flowers donations be made to the Virginia Hospital Center Medical Brigade.

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Teacher, Don’t Leave Our Kids Alone

Although we’ve never presumed that the weekly poll question in the News-Press resembles anything like a scientific measurement of anything, with the only constraint being that only one vote can be recorded per computer, we hope the questions are thought-provoking and worthy of stimulating conversation. This week’s question goes to the public’s perception of how important, or not, is it for Falls Church teachers to have salaries and benefits that are comparable to a neighboring jurisdiction, in Falls Church’s case, being Arlington. Of course, it can be argued that a much more scientific answer to that question was provided last November, when ostensibly tax-strapped citizens in the Little City voted an overwhelming “yes” to approve bonds for a major renovation and expansion of the Mt. Daniel Elementary School. In that “poll” at the ballot box, voters approved by a landslide the spending of their own money to ensure that students in Falls Church had sufficient resources to pursue a quality education. We can’t imagine how citizens of this city would be willing to spend their own money on such improved contexts for learning and would not also be willing to help ensure that students also have the best teachers possible in the classroom. It is a problem far too common in this town that leaders at City Hall cannot see over or beyond the very noisy cacophony of citizen activists who do their best to bloat the Council’s perception of their importance in order to get their way. That’s why things like a general referendum, held in an election cycle where the highest sampling of voters are likely to turn out, can be like a breath of fresh air. Such was the case for the referendum last November, which provided a wide margin of support for the quality of education of the City’s school children beyond what almost anyone at City Hall would have dared to predict. Now we have another scenario unfolding in the City government pitting those who want little or no tax rate increases against those who want the City’s teachers to be compensated competitively as an essential means of attracting and retaining the best. It not an uncommon situation. Many high level government officials in all walks get salaries that may appear bloated, by contrast to their jobs, but it is usually justified because they represent the competitive rate. Often it has less to do with an accurate measure of whether someone is worth what they’re being paid, than it has to do with the need to offer that person a competitive compensation. In the case of teachers, they are among the most notoriously under-compensated for the social value they provide than any other profession in our society. It is a shame that in the well-heeled City of Falls Church, with such a tradition of well-deserved pride in its schools, there needs to be a fight over something as basic as teacher salaries.

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We Absolutely Need a New High School in F.C.

Editor, Lou Mauro and I have disagreed (respectfully) about many things over the years, and it seems like that trend is going to continue. Despite what Lou said in his letter to the editor last week, we very much need to replace George Mason High School and put in place a modern facility that provides that full educational environment that we want for our kids, and turning the auxiliary gym into classrooms

won’t do that. The Falls Church school system has always been absolutely always been focused on educational “wants” more than just “needs.” Why stop now? As to how to pay for it, we need to develop the property around the school to the maximum possible commercial density, which is much more than we have ever done in the past. We also need to understand that, per the headline in last week’s FCNP, we are

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not going to determine traffic or urbanization in the area, Tyson’s will. We need to find a way to benefit from that increased urbanization in our commercial corridors, while doing everything possible to protect against density in our residential areas. David Chavern Falls Church

Surprised Saslaw’s Original Campus Rape Bill Not Passed Editor, I am a student at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School, and a

member of Boy Scout troop 895. When I first read last week’s article on Sen. Saslaw’s campus rape bill, I was surprised that his original bill wasn’t passed. Why would the victims not want to press charges for an assault, and why would the colleges cover up for these heinous crimes!? Although this new bill suggested by State senator Barbara Favola is a excellent start, I still don’t see a reason why these idiots running the college don’t get dragged away in chains! They cover up for crimes that deserve to be punished, horrible crimes, yet no one stops them? Why is that? Jacob Nelson Falls Church

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FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 7

G � � � � C � � � � � �� After 13 Years, Creative Cauldron Has Built Solid Roots B� L�� C�� H��

“It is idle having planted an acorn in the morning to expect that afternoon to sit by the shade of the oak.” That has remained one of my favorite quotes from Antoine de Saint-Exupery, the author of the children’s story, “The Little Prince.” I’ve remembered it often over the last 13 years since launching Creative Cauldron. It has helped me weather the many twists and turns and tribulations of leading a small non-profit arts organization struggling for a place to take root, grow and flourish. That growth finally began to happen when the Little City of Falls Church took a leap of faith and invested in the development of a modest little venue for the arts on Maple Avenue (ArtSpace Falls Church) It provided an artistic home for Creative Cauldron and another blossoming non-profit, Falls Church Arts. It wasn’t a complete hand out, but it was a hand up, giving us the opportunity to have a roof over our heads (with a somewhat modest rent) as we grew and developed our programs and performances. And grow we did. Despite the fact that we opened in 2009, during the worst recession since the great depression (that rent didn’t seem so modest), we managed to expand educational programs, including our now exploding Learning Theater program that gives budding young actors an opportunity to learn the craft of acting.

We presented concerts by talented guest musical groups and we produced theatrical productions of an increasingly high caliber. Over the previous five seasons we have had five of those productions achieve Helen Hayes Awards recommended status. This year, we received our first Helen Hayes

“While that little acorn has not quite grown into a sturdy oak, we now have solid roots and support in our Falls Church community and beyond.” nominations: Outstanding Ensemble in a Musical and Outstanding Lead Actor in a Musical for our production of “Jaques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris” which opened the 2014-15 season. And now we are experiencing the most thrilling part of our journey so far with our world premiere musical, “The Turn of The Screw.” Adapted from the gothic novella by Henry James, it’s the first installment in our “Bold New Works for Intimate Stages,”

five year commissioning initiative. With haunting music written by Matt Conner and a skillful book by Stephen Gregory Smith, it has critics and audiences raving. Nelson Pressley of The Washington Post praised: “Conner creates lovely melodies and bends them into suspenseful, mysterious shapes.” Andy White of Broadway World began his review “move over Eric Schaeffer there’s a new musical venue in town!” He goes on to say: “for fans of Broadway musicals, this version of ‘The Turn of the Screw’ is not to be missed.” While I would never dream of telling the artistic director of Signature Theatre to “move over,” I do share the reviewer’s sentiment. This is a must see work of art with an amazing professional cast that can hold its own against any production on any stage in the world. Our space is small, but the talent is big, and the story and music are riveting. If you haven’t seen “The Turn of the Screw” already I urge you to get your tickets now. We just extended the run through March 1! “The absence of limitations is the absence of creativity.” That’s a quote from Orson Welles when he was directing and performing in the height of Hollywood excess. At Creative Cauldron, in the confines of our intimate 85 seat venue, with no wing space and an almost non-existent backstage, we have learned to embrace our limitations and to focus on what’s essential – a good story.

Because of the creativity of our amazing artists and the support of a wonderful board of directors, donors and patrons, we have been able to deliver an exceptional theater experience at an affordable price. We’ve introduced thousands of young people to the joy of performing and learning in the arts, breaking down barriers for many who might not have had the opportunity. While that little acorn has not quite grown into a sturdy oak, we now have solid roots and support in our Falls Church community and beyond. For that I am extremely grateful. During our annual fundraising campaigns I often receive little notes along with generous donations. They mean so much. I keep them in a file for those dark days when the business of making art seems especially challenging. This year I saved a special one: “I’m a neighbor – and have been attending at least one event at the Cauldron every year since the beginning. I want to thank you for this wonderful creative theatre and congratulate you on your constant improvement in quality and quantity of the shows you have produced! Please accept this small token of my esteem for productions at the Cauldron. I’m looking forward to season after season of marvelous shows.”  Laura Connors Hull is the founder and producing director of Creative Cauldron .

Q�� W�� Is it important for Falls Church teacher salaries to be competitive with nearby jurisdictions? • Yes • No

Last Week’s Question:

Does the final campus sexual assault bill in Richmond go far enough?

• Don’t know

Log on to www.FCNP.com to cast your vote

FCNP On-Line polls are surveys, not scientiﬁc polls.

[WRITE FOR THE PRESS] The News-Press welcomes readers to send in submissions in the form of Letters to the Editor

& Guest Commentaries. Letters to the Editor should be no more than 350 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four weeks. Guest Commentaries should be no more than 800 words and writers are limited to one appearance every four months. Because of space constraints, not all submissions will be published. All submissions to the News-Press should be original, unpublished content. We reserve the right to edit submissions for length, grammar and accuracy. All submissions should include writer’s name, address, phone and e-mail address if available.

Email: letters@fcnp.com | Mail: Letters to the Editor, Falls Church News-Press, 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church 22046 | Fax: 703.340.0347

PAGE 8 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

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Federal Credit Unions Offer Membership, Benefits

by Patricia Leslie

Falls Church News-Press

The number of people switching from banks to credit unions has increased since the 2008 economic downturn, as evidenced by a 2011 survey by the National Association of Federal Credit Unions, which revealed that 54 percent growth in shares during Bank Transfer Day. There are several credit unions in the region, some of which cater to specific sectors of the workforce. The News-Press visited two credit unions in town, and researched several more in the region, to find out what they have to offer. Membership in some credit unions is restricted to certain groups, however. But membership has its benefits. “Once a member, always a member” is a slogan often heard and seen around credit unions, so if a member joins another employee group or moves out of the area, that member still “belongs,” said Dawn S. Davis, director of business development at Apple Federal Credit Union in Falls Church. To join Apple, one must be a resident, student, worshipper, employee, or a volunteer in Fairfax or Prince William counties or in some other nearby cities. Educators in the surrounding area are eligible, too. Democracy Federal Credit Union’s

membership requirements match those at Apple, but it has a broader scope and serves all who live in the region. To join NASA, an applicant must be an employee or retiree of NASA or a related science or space society, or be related to someone who is, said Cynthia Everhart, the Falls Church NASA branch manager. The Navy Federal Credit Union requires an applicant or a family member to be a member of the Armed Forces, Coast Guard, Department of Defense or National Guard, says its website. The Arlington Community Federal Credit Union has a Falls Church address, but its membership is limited to those “who live, work, worship, go to school, volunteer or consistently do business in Arlington County,” according to its website. Northrop Grumman’s credit union is generally limited to employees, including retirees, and family members. Healthcare Systems Federal Credit Union is limited to those in the healthcare industry, including volunteers, and family members. Many credit unions, like NASA and Apple, participate in a credit union network which enables members to access their accounts without charge and withdraw or deposit money at any of 53,000 partnering credit unions found in the U.S. “One of the things that make us stand

NASA FEDERAL CREDIT UNION is one of several credit unions in the region that service specific sectors of the workforce. (Photo: Patricia Leslie/News-Press) out is our remote service and accessibility, available at no charge,” Everhart said, calling it NASA’s “share branching.” NASA has had a branch in Falls Church since 2009, and Everhart echoed many of the advantages of joining a credit union cited by Davis. Apple and NASA only charge a $5 fee to open an account which goes into a savings account. “Apple does not discriminate,” said Davis when asked if a person who looked homeless could open an account. Apple has a healthy partnership with educators in the area and invites students to open accounts independently at age 16. (Before 16, it must be a joint account with mom or dad.) Grandparents may open accounts for grandchildren living in other states. What does it mean to be a “federal” credit union? Money deposited at a federal credit union is backed by the National Credit Union Administration, an independent agency of the U.S. government whose insurance protects members from the risk of credit union failure caused by insolvency or bankruptcy, much like the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), also an independent federal government agency, which works to insure deposits in commercial banks and thrifts.

Differences Between Banks and Credit Unions • Credit unions generally charge lower interest rates on loans and offer higher interest on investment accounts than banks do. • Banks answer to stockholders whose goals are to increase wealth while non-profit credit unions answer to members who receive the profits in lower interest rates. • Credit unions partner with thousands of other credit unions across the U.S. allowing members to use out-ofarea ATMs for free. • Credit unions generally do not charge monthly fees. For some accounts, nominal fees are charged. • Credit unions offer credit cards frequently at lower rates than credit cards issued by banks. • Credit union members are treated well by credit union employees since members are “in charge” and they are not customers in a bank.

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NEWS BRIEFS F.C. Real Estate Assessments Mailed Next Week This year’s assessments of the land and building values of all real estate parcels in the City of Falls Church is due to be mailed out from the Assessor’s Office at City Hall next Tuesday, to be received in the mail by individual land owners beginning Wednesday of next week. According to City Hall, City Manager Wyatt Shields will report on the overall parameters of the assessments at Monday’s City Council meeting. The numbers will be critical as the City Council mulls the crafting of a budget for the next fiscal year that will begin on July 1.

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 9

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Tarter, Shields Meet McAuliffe in Richmond Mayor David Tarter, City Manager Wyatt Shields, and Economic Development Director Rick Goff met with Governor Terry McAuliffe at the Executive Mansion in Richmond last week. They were invited to participate in discussions focused on economic development along with representatives from other Northern Virginia cities and counties Topics discussed with the Governor included the impact of federal budget sequestration, regional transportation issues, Inova Health System’s acquisition of the Exxon Mobil Corp. headquarters in Merrifield, and ways to work together to expand our region’s tax base and create new jobs. City of Falls Church officials shared information about Virginia Governor Terry McAullife (holding development opportunities in the City with the shirt) with (left to right) Falls Church Mayor governor and other state officials, including the David Tarter, F.C. Economic Director Rich Goff and City Manager Wyatt Shields. (Photo: City CEO of the Virginia Economic Development of Falls Church) Partnership, Martin Briley.”The City Council and staff are working every day to strengthen the City’s business climate and economy,” Mayor Tarter said, according to a City press release. “The Governor has made economic development a top priority for his administration, and this meeting will provide new opportunities for the City to cooperate with our state and regional partners.”

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W. Broad St. ‘Area Plan’ Unveiled Saturday The City’s Planning Commission and staff will host a public meeting this Saturday, Feb. 21, to present the draft West Broad Street Planning Opportunity Area “Small Area Plan” to the community and to request feedback about the plan. The meeting will take place at Columbia Baptist Church (Fellowship Hall, 103 W. Columbia St., Falls Church) with an Open House at 9 a.m., presentation of the draft plan at 9:20 a.m., breakout discussions at about 10 a.m. and ending with a report and wrap-up. Information about the plan is now available at www.fallschurchva.gov/WestBroadSAP. The breakout discussion groups will discuss particular topics of the plan, including culture and community, open space, land use and height and density, and transportation. The West Broad Street Planning Opportunity Area is located along a linear corridor surrounding West Broad Street between Little Falls Street and the W&OD Trail. West Broad Street is part of a major regional roadway (Rt. 7) that extends from Leesburg to Alexandria and also connects the City to Tysons Corner, Seven Corners, and Bailey’s Crossroads. The purpose of the West Broad Street POA Small Area Plan is to provide a framework for higher density, pedestrian oriented redevelopment that takes advantage of the area’s location along a major transportation and commercial corridor, and that provides a unique business and shopping destination that enhances the character of the City. A “Small Area Plan” defines a vision for redevelopment in a relatively small area of the City, approximately 10 blocks in size. The vision for redevelopment is sensitive to the area’s history and responds to the current and future needs of the City’s residents, workers, and visitors.

F.C. School Board Issues Community Survey Beginning this week, the Falls Church School Board is circulating through various means a survey in which it hopes citizens of the City will take time to participate. The survey’s key questions go to classroom sizes, the importance of the construction of a new high school, and what citizens value most about the Falls Church City Public Schools. Among other locations, copies of the survey are available of the School Board’s website.

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Community News & Notes Local Resident Medals at Nat’l Racquetball Tournament

FCA Opens Green Show, Offers New Classes

Thao Le of Falls Church and one of her partners, Melody Gorno, won gold medals last Saturday in the women’s 45 and up division in the USA Racquetball National Doubles Championship Tournament in Tempe, Az. Le and Gorno scored a total of 50 points throughout their matches in the tournament. Le and another racquetball partner of hers, Robert Kull, won silver medals in the mixed doubles 40 and up division of the tournament on Saturday night, losing their championship match by margins of 15-4 and 15-2. Another area resident, Mark Baron of Herndon, and his partner Dave Azuma won gold medals in the men’s 60 and up division of the tournament on Saturday, defeating their opponents by 15-4 margins in both games. For more information, visit usra.org.

The Falls Church Arts Green show had its opening reception last Thursday, Feb. 12, at ArtSpace Falls Church and was filled throughout the evening with over 25 artists’ artworks represented and more than 150 guests in attendance. The Green show had several interpretations of the word green woven through the variety of styles and interpretations by the many artists. The show, which is open through March 8, was juried by Matt Somma, Jeff Duka and Brian Legan. Falls Church Arts also announced a new slate of winter session classes that begin next week. The Watercolor for Beginners class with artist/instructor Deborah Conn will begin next Monday, Feb. 23, from noon – 3 p.m. Deborah, like

the rest of Falls Church Arts’ artist/instructors has won several awards and has just returned from a Masters Watercolor week and is anxious to begin the 2015 watercolor classes. Building upon the basic instruction, Deborah aims to help her students successfully achieve mastery of basic skills in the six Monday afternoon classes. Elizabeth Benforado, who has a Master in Fine Arts degree from University of Wisconsin, will be teaching a Drawing class. This third set of Drawing classes are offered on Thursday afternoons in March from 1 p.m. – 4 p.m. The classes offer a series of special exercises that focus the student on producing improved awareness of what they actually see and students can build considerable expertise to improve their drawings and develop their style. Classes begin on March 5 and will be held at the Falls Church

REALTOR TORI MCKINNEY hosted a Mardi Gras in-home concert on Jan. 29 that raised more than $5,000 for the Falls Church Education Foundation and Tipitina’s Foundation. The event featured live music by local favorite Devin Divecha and New Orleans’s great John Gros (of Papa Grows Funk). Included in photo are Divecha, McKinney, Gros, and Debbie Hiscott, Executive Director of the Falls Church Education Foundation. (Courtesy Photo)

Community Center at 223 Little Falls Street. Richard Levine will be teaching another Pastels class on Tuesdays in March beginning March 17 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. The Pastels class is for all skill levels, but is especially for beginner to intermediate students. In three classes students learn the basics of pastels: application, mixing, how to use water, various papers, grades of pastels, and finishing and framing techniques particular to pastels. The Pastel classes are scheduled for March 17, 24, and 31. For more information or to register for classes, visit fallschurcharts.org or call 703679-7881.

F.C. Community Center Hosts Composting Workshop Staff from the Northern Virginia Soils and Water Conservation District and the

City of Falls Church are teaching a workshop on how to build a compost tumbler this Saturday, Feb. 21, from 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. at the Falls Church Community Center at 223 Little Falls Street. Workshop participants will also receive composting tips during the session. The class costs $85, advance registration is required and a maximum of 15 people can participate. For more information, e-mail dan.schwartz@fairfaxcounty.gov or call 703-324-1422.

Doodlehopper 4 Kids Hosts ‘Mad Science’ Session Feb. 22 Doodhopper 4 Kids is hosting a Mad Science session this Sunday, Feb. 22, at 2 p.m. at its Falls Church location at 228 West Broad Street. Though the class is built for children, all are welcome to learn about and experience science live with a real scientist. For more information, visit doodlehopper.com/events.php.

FALLS CHURCH ARTS’ Green show opened last week at ArtSpace Falls Church with an artists’ reception. In the show artists working in a variety of media display their interpretation of the color green. The show is open through March 8. Falls Church Arts also announced a new slate of winter classes, which begin next Monday, Feb. 23. Check page 11 for another photo from the Green show artists’ reception. (Photo: Courtesy of Barb Cram)

Send Us Your News & Notes!

The News-Press is always on the lookout for photos & items for Community News & Notes, School News & Notes and other sections of the paper. If you graduate, get married, get engaged, get an award, start a club, eat a club, tie your shoes, have a birthday, have a party, host an event or anything else you think is worth being mentioned in the News-Press, write it up and send it to us! If you have a photo, even better! Because of the amount of submissions we receive, we cannot guarantee all submissions will be published, but we’ll try our best!

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FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 11

Arlington Church Presents ‘A Rock and a Hard Place’

St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is presenting a concert this Sunday, Feb. 22, at 4 p.m. featuring the music of Verdi, Strauss, Joni Mitchell and Jerome Kern, to name a few. The concert, titled “A Rock & A Hard Place: Songs of Obsessive, Wonderful, Terrible Love,” will feature award-winning soprano Tracy Cox and Kim Pensinger Witman on piano. Cox is a recipient of the 2014 George London-Kristen Flagstad Prize, the Birgit Nilsson Prize at the 2013 Operalia Competition, and has recently performed with The Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolf Trap Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Los Angeles Opera. Admission to the concert is free, though the church encourages concertgoers to donate non-perishable food items to its food bank. St. Peter’s Episcopal Church is located at 4250 N. Glebe Road, Arlington. For more information, visit stpetersmusic.org.

Barnes & Noble Starts ‘My Favorite Teacher Contest’ Barnes & Noble Tysons is giving middle and high school students the opportunity to tell the community how much they appreciate their favorite teacher during its “My Favorite Teacher Contest,” which runs through March 1. Students can nominate their teacher by writing essays, poems or thank-you letters that share how their teacher has influenced their life and why they appreciate and admire them. According to a press release from the bookstore, schools that want to participate in the contest should collect their students’ entries and submit them to Barnes & Noble Tysons for consideration. Entries will be judged on the compelling nature of the teacher’s qualities, the sincerity of the student’s appreciation and the quality of the entries. The winning teacher will be recognized at an event at Barnes & Noble Tysons this spring, where they will receive an award acknowledging their achievement. The student who wrote the winning essay or poem will receive a certificate of recognition and also be honored at the ceremony. All of the teachers who win the local contest will be eligible to also win a regional contest. Regional winners receive a $500 Barnes & Noble gift card and a Nook. Each regional winner will move on to a national contest, where they will have the chance to be named “Barnes & Noble National Teacher of the Year.” The winner of the national contest will

703-533-9013

ARTISTS DEE ELLISON AND CINDY GILMER were happy to see the many arts patrons turn out at ArtSpace Falls Church for the opening night of Falls Church Arts Green show. (Photo: Courtesy of Barb Cram)

win $5,000, will be recognized at their local Barnes & Noble store and their school will also win $5,000. For more information, visit bn.com/myfavoriteteacher or e-mail Marta Seenstra Davis at crm2238@bn.com.

WAC Unveils Military and the Arts Initiative The Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton is starting a new initiative aimed at providing military veterans and service members more opportunities to be creative. A public event launching the program, which Workhouse is starting in collaboration with Fort Belvoir, the United States Organization of Metropolitan-WashingtonBaltimore and the Northern Virginia Regional Commission, will be held at the center on March 13 from 7 – 9 p.m. As part of the initiative, Workhouse will include public art events and exhibits, a new artist residency at the center and discounted visual art classes for those who have served in the military. For example, on March 13 there will be an opening reception for “The Places We Have Been: Exploring the Internal and External Travels of Veterans and Service Members,” an exhibition where artists who have served in the military display their interpretations of their relationships to the internal and external landscape of their lives. Colonel Gregory Gadson also has a solo photography exhibition, titled “Gregory Gadson: Life in the Infrared,” opening that night in the Workhouse’s McGuire Woods Gallery. For more information about the event and the initiative, visit workhousearts.org.

MCC Offers Advance Care Planning Seminars The McLean Community Center’s Lifetime Learning Program for residents age 50 and older is hosting two programs, one in early March and the other in late May, on advance care planning. Advance care planning allows people to make arrangements for their healthcare – in case they become incapacitated – by making their desires known and legally binding. Each session, which will be held at McLean Community Center, located at 1234 Ingleside Ave., McLean, is $5 for McLean tax district residents and $7 for everyone else. The first session, “Advance Directives and the Healthcare Proxy,” will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, March 4. The session will offer an overview of what goes into the development of safe, legal and complete advance care planning documents. The second session, “Why Are Health Wishes / Conversations Critical?” will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, May 20 and will address the importance of discussing advance care planning with friends, family and legal representatives in order to develop a plan that is understood and meaningful to all. The speaker scheduled to present at both sessions, M. Jane Markley, is a retired Navy nurse and international educator with more than 35 years of healthcare experience including clinical care, administration, ethics, education and quality assurance. She works with individuals, families and groups to help them understand the importance of advance care planning for themselves and their loved ones. For more information, visit mcleancenter.org or call 703-790-0123, TTY: 711.

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The Moral Injury

David J. Morris returned from Iraq with a case of post-traumatic stress disorder. The former Marine turned war correspondent was plagued by nightmares. His imagination careened out of control; he envisioned fireballs erupting while on trips to the mall. His emotions could go numb, but his awareness was hypervigilant. Images and smells from the war were tattooed eternally fresh on his brain, and he circled back to them remorselessly. “Trauma destroys the fabric of time,” Morris writes in his book, The Evil Hours. “In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE exhaust can be mustard gas.” Morris’ book is so good because it relies on literature, history and psychology to communicate the reality of PTSD, both to those who live with it and those who never have. But this book is also important because it’s part of a broader re-evaluation of trauma. Most discussion about PTSD thus far has been about fear and the conquering of fear. But, over the past few years, more people have come to understand PTSD is also about exile – moral exile. We don’t think about it much, but in civilian life we live enmeshed in a fabric of moral practices and evaluations. We try to practice kindness and to cause no pain. People who have been to war have left this universe behind. That’s because war – no matter how justified or unjustified, noble or ignoble – is always a crime. It involves accidental killings, capricious death for one but not another, tainted situations where every choice is murderously wrong. Many veterans feel guilty because they lived while others died. Some feel ashamed because they didn’t bring all their men home and wonder what they could have done differently to save them. When they get home they wonder if there’s something wrong with them because they find war repugnant but also thrilling. They hate it and miss it. Many of their self-judgments go to extremes. A comrade died because he stepped on an improvised explosive device and his commander feels unrelenting guilt because he didn’t go down a different street. Insurgents used women and children as shields, and soldiers and Marines feel a totalistic black stain on themselves because of an innocent child’s face, killed in the firefight. The self-condemnation can be crippling. The victims of PTSD often feel morally tainted by their experiences, unable to recover confidence in their own goodness, trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement, looking back at the rest of the world from beyond the barrier of what happened. They find themselves unable to communicate their condition to those who remained at home, resenting civilians for their blind innocence. People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive cataclysm of the soul. We now have a growing number of books and institutions grappling with this reality, including Phil Klay’s novel Redeployment, which won the National Book Award; Nancy Sherman’s forthcoming Afterwar: Healing the Moral Wounds of Our Soldiers; and therapy programs like the one on moral injury found at the San Diego Naval Medical Center. These writers and therapists suggest that there has to be a moral reckoning, a discernment process that doesn’t whitewash what happened but does lead to merciful judgments about how much guilt should be borne; settled and measured conclusions about how responsibility for terrible things should be apportioned. Sherman, who is a philosopher at Georgetown University, emphasizes that most of the work will have to be done at the micro level – through individual conversations between veterans and civilians that go beyond the cheap grace of “thank you for your service.” The conversations have to deal with the individual facts of each case. The goal is to get veterans to adopt the stance of a friendly observer, to make clear how limited choices are when one is caught in a random, tragic situation, to arrive at catharsis and self-forgiveness about what was actually blameworthy and what wasn’t. The civilian enters into the world the veteran actually inhabited during those awful crowded hours and expands his own moral awareness. The veteran feels trusted, respected and understood – re-integrated into the fabric of his or her homeland. We live in a culture that emphasizes therapy, but trauma often has to be overcome morally, through rigorous philosophical autobiography, nuanced judgment, case by case.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

David Brooks

Weimar on the Aegean Try to talk about the policies we need in a depressed world economy, and someone is sure to counter with the specter of Weimar Germany, supposedly an object lesson in the dangers of budget deficits and monetary expansion. But the history of Germany after World War I is almost always cited in a curiously selective way. We hear endlessly about the hyperinflation of 1923, when people carted around wheelbarrows full of cash, but we never hear about the much more relevant deflation of the early 1930s, as the government of Chancellor Brüning – having learned the wrong lessons – tried to defend Germany’s peg to gold with tight money and harsh austerity. And what about NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE what happened before the hyperinflation, when the victorious Allies tried to force Germany to pay huge reparations? That’s also a tale with a lot of modern relevance, because it has a direct bearing on the crisis now brewing over Greece. The point is that now, more than ever, it is crucial that Europe’s leaders remember the right history. If they don’t, the European project of peace and democracy through prosperity will not survive. About those reparations: The basic story here is that Britain and France, instead of viewing the newly established German democracy as a potential partner, treated it as a conquered enemy, demanding that it make up their own wartime losses. This was deeply unwise – and the demands placed on Germany were impossible to meet, for two reasons. First, Germany’s economy had already been devastated by the war. Second, the true burden on that shrunken economy would – as John Maynard Keynes explained in his angry, powerful book The Economic Consequences of the Peace – be far greater than the direct payments to the vengeful Allies. In the end, and inevitably, the actual sums collected from Germany fell far short of Allied demands. But the attempt to levy tribute on a ruined nation – incredibly, France actually invaded and occupied the Ruhr, Germany’s industrial heartland, in an effort to extract payment – crippled German democracy and poisoned relations with its neighbors. Which brings us to the confrontation between Greece and its creditors. You can argue that Greece brought its problems on itself, although it had a lot of help from irresponsible lenders. At this point, however, the simple fact is that Greece cannot pay its

Paul Krugman

debts in full. Austerity has devastated its economy as thoroughly as military defeat devastated Germany – real Greek gross domestic product per capita fell 26 percent from 2007 to 2013, compared with a German decline of 29 percent from 1913 to 1919. Despite this catastrophe, Greece is making payments to its creditors, running a primary surplus – an excess of revenue over spending other than interest – of around 1.5 percent of GDP. And the new Greek government is willing to keep running that surplus. What it is not willing to do is meet creditor demands that it triple the surplus, and keep running huge surpluses for many years to come. What would happen if Greece were to try to generate those huge surpluses? It would have to further slash government spending – but that wouldn’t be the end of the story. Spending cuts have already driven Greece into a deep depression, and further cuts would make that depression deeper. Falling incomes would, however, mean falling tax receipts, so that the deficit would decline by much less than the initial reduction in spending – probably less than half as much. To meet its target, then, Greece would have to do another round of cuts, and then another. Furthermore, a shrinking economy would lead to falling private spending too – another, indirect cost of the austerity. Put it all together, and attempting to cough up the extra 3 percent of GDP the creditors are demanding would cost Greece not 3 percent, but something like 8 percent of GDP. And remember, this would come on top of one of the worst economic slumps in history. What would happen if Greece were simply to refuse to pay? Well, 21st-century European nations don’t use their armies as bill collectors. But there are other forms of coercion. We now know that in 2010 the European Central Bank threatened, in effect, to collapse the Irish banking system unless Dublin agreed to an International Monetary Fund program. The threat of something similar hangs implicitly over Greece, although my hope is that the central bank, which is under different and more open-minded management these days, wouldn’t go along. In any case, European creditors should realize that flexibility – giving Greece a chance to recover – is in their own interests. They may not like the new leftist government, but it’s a duly elected government whose leaders are, from everything I’ve heard, sincerely committed to democratic ideals. Europe could do a lot worse – and if the creditors are vengeful, it will.

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On Deprogramming ISIS Recruits

The claim by some in the U.S. intelligence community that the key to stopping the recruitment of young radicals to ISIS is to show that ISIS “is losing, militarily, on the ground,” is foolish and counterproductive. It only enhances a martyr complex for a prospective recruit. The Atlantic magazine’s Graeme Wood, in his cover story, “What ISIS Really Wants,” comes close to the root of the problem in a way that can help isolate and begin shutting the cult down. It can’t be done militarily, as much as the U.S. “military industrial complex” is pressuring the Obama administration to dive into another Middle Eastern “endless war” quagmire. Wood identifies the moving impetus behind ISIS to be a form of passionate FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS religious fundamentalism, based on an apocalyptic vision of a final Armageddon-like impending end of the world. In this way, ISIS’s core identity is identical to the cookie-cutter formula for the creation and maintenance of self-destructive apocalyptic cults, generally. Such cults are never formed with an objective of self-or-wider social betterment. Since a new formula for creating them evolved as sinister western intelligence operations in the wake of World War II, these cults have always been formed to be utilized for some wider purpose that even the cult leaders often have no clue about. A right-wing faction of the U.S. covert intelligence capabilities in the CIA and FBI designed the cult model to achieve their objective of causing otherwise ordinary people, especially the idealistic young, to act according to an agenda against their own will. In the U.S., such cults have been deployed for a variety of reasons, mainly to undermine serious organized civil rights and labor movements. The covert agencies found in the late 1940s that methods of individual brainwashing were unreliable. They learned that brainwashing works best when victims are put into, and maintained in, very intense closed environments. These environments became the model for cults. Their key elements are veritable 24-7 control over the lives of cult victims, including through sensory deprivation and ego-stripping, cutting off of the victims from the outside world – including most importantly, their own family and friends – the victim’s loss of a sense of self, the abandonment of any independent means for survival outside the cult, and a relentless insistence that “ultimate things,” such as the impending end of the world, constitute what is real, contrary to anything else. The cult victim loses a sense of “I,” replacing the term with “we” or “us.” Everything except the outcome of impending “final days” is not only irrelevant, but is a dangerous distraction. Countless cults were encouraged to grow and expand in the U.S. under the cover of the so-called “counterculture” of the 1960s and 1970s. Many were religious in nature, but others were political. Any particular ideology or belief system was not so important, except that they were all outlandishly false. The role of a cult’s charismatic leader served to reinforce authoritarian control and childish dependence. In the U.S., cults were capable of recruiting from all walks of society, and from all manner of personal psychological strengths. A significant common denominator in the profile of likely cult recruits is found in an individual’s perceived sense of an unjust society with no visible capacity for redress. Such individuals can be victims of abuse, themselves, or highly empathetic to the plight of others. So, keys to dismantling a cult, any cult, lies in aggressive measures to show the fraud of a belief system, on the one hand, and offering evidence that there is a way, a “better way,” to address the ills of society. Both components are demanding, and anyone who knew a loved one trapped in a cult in the U.S. in the last 40 years, and tried to wrest them free, knows how hard it can be. But the key is to counter a cult’s sinister tissue of lies and psychological grip with a shared dedication to meaningful alternatives that can be shown to produce tangible results. The goal is to replace a posture of anger with one of compassion in the mind of the cult victim.

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 13

Nicholas F. Benton

 Nicholas Benton may be emailed at nfbenton@fcnp.com.

Call Off the Dogs WASHINGTON – I’ll pay for this column. The Rottweilers will be unleashed. Once the Clintons had a War Room. Now they have a Slime Room. Once they had the sly James Carville, fondly known as “serpenthead.” Now they have the slippery David Brock, accurately known as a snake. Brock fits into the Clinton tradition of opportunistic knife-fighters like Dick Morris and Mark Penn. The silver-haired 52-year-old, who sports colorful designer suits and once wore a monocle, brawled his way into a Times article about the uneasy marriage between Hillary Clinton’s veteran attack dogs and the group of advisers who are moving over from Obamaland. Hillary hasn’t announced a 2016 campaign yet. Yet her shadow campaign is already in a déjà-vu-all-over-again shark fight over control of the candidate and her money. It’s the same old story: The killer organization that, even with all its ruthless hired guns, can’t quite shoot straight. Squabbling competing factions helped Hillary squander a quarter-of-a-billion dollars in 2008. As Nicholas NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE Confessore and Amy Chozick chronicled, the nasty dispute spilled into public and Brock resigned last week from the board of a pro-Clinton super PAC called Priorities USA Action – whose co-chairman is Jim Messina, Obama’s 2012 campaign manager – accusing the political action committee of “an orchestrated political hit job” and “the kind of dirty trick I’ve witnessed in the right-wing and would not tolerate then.” He should know. The former “right-wing hit man,” and impresario of “dirty tricks,” as Brock has said of himself, made his living in the ‘90s sliming Anita Hill as “a little bit nutty and a little bit slutty” and breaking the Troopergate story, which accused Arkansas state troopers of setting up liaisons for Bill Clinton and spurred Paula Jones’ 1994 sexual harassment lawsuit. He has tried to discredit anyone who disagreed with his ideological hits. And that’s still the business he’s in, simply on the other side as a Hillary zealot. Just as Bill Clinton was able to forgive another architect of the vast right-wing conspiracy, Richard Mellon Scaife, once Scaife was charmed by Hillary in person and began giving money to the Clinton foundation, so, too, was Bill won over by Brock’s book, Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative, and Brock’s Media Matters and Correct the Record websites, which fero-

Maureen Dowd

ciously push back against any Hillary coverage that isn’t fawning. With the understood blessing of the Clintons, Brock runs a $28 million cluster of media monitoring groups and oppo research organizations that are vehicles to rebut and at times discredit and threaten anyone who casts a gimlet eye at Clinton Inc. As Confessore and Chozick wrote, he uses a fundraiser named Mary Pat Bonner, whose firm has collected millions of dollars in commissions – a practice many fundraising experts consider unethical. Everyone wants to be at the trough for this one because Hillary is likely to raise, and more important, spend more than $1 billion on her campaign. The Clinton crowd is trying to woo Brock back into the fold because he’s good at getting money and knows how their enemies think. The Clintons appreciate the fact that Brock, like Morris, is a take-no-prisoners type with the ethical compass of a jackal. Baked in the tactics of the right, Brock will never believe that negative coverage results from legitimate shortcomings. Instead, it’s all personal, all false, and all a war. This is a bad harbinger for those who had hoped that Hillary would “kill off the wild dogs,” as one Obama loyalist put it, and Bill would leave behind the sketchy hangers-on in the mold of Ron Burkle and Jeffrey Epstein. Hillary’s inability to dispense with brass-knuckle, fanatical acolytes like Brock shows that she still has an insecure streak that requires Borgia-like blind loyalty, and can’t distinguish between the real vast right-wing conspiracy and the voices of legitimate concern. Money-grubbing is always the ugly place with the Clintons, who have devoured $2.1 billion in contributions since 1992 to their political campaigns, family foundation and philanthropies, according to The New Republic. David Axelrod, the author of a new memoir, Believer, wrote that Hillary’s past gurus, Morris and Penn, were nonbelievers – mercenary, manipulative and avaricious. He told Politico’s Glenn Thrush that he would have advised Hillary not to cash in with her book and six-figure speeches. Axelrod reiterated to me that Hillary’s designated campaign chairman, John Podesta, Bill Clinton’s last chief of staff who left his post as an Obama counselor Friday, “has the strength and standing to enforce a kind of campaign discipline that hasn’t existed before.” But, for now, what Republicans say about government is true of the Clintons: They really do believe that your money belongs to them. Someday, they should give their tin cup to the Smithsonian. It’s one of the wonders of the world.

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A Penny for Your Thoughts

News of Greater Falls Church By Supervisor Penny Gross

T. S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest contributing non-perishable foods for ACCA (the month…,” but February might place second for that Annandale Christian Community for Action) in the designation, especially this February. Although not bin outside my office door at the Mason District as snowy as February of 2010, which we remember Governmental Center. Suggested items include small as “snowmageddon,” the sustained Arctic blasts of bags of dried red and black beans, brown and white the past several days reminds us that Mother Nature rice, cereal, canned meats, crackers, cookies, soups, still is in charge. Please be extra careful about the sugar, flour, and masa flour. ACCA also encourages safe use of space heaters in your home; bundle up money donations that will purchase milk and fresh in layers when going outside. It’s frigid even when fruits and vegetables to augment the staples. The just going out to the driveway to collect the morning “Stuff the Bus” event at the Annandale Giant last Saturday garnered a lot of support (the bus truly paper! February also can be the cruelest month because was stuffed with bags of donated groceries), but the the County Executive’s proposed budget for the next need is great, and constant. You can drop off your fiscal year is released to the Board of Supervisors food donation at my office until April 6. Bring some and the public then. County agencies learn which canned goods to the Budget Town Meeting on March programs are proposed for cuts or expansion, the 19, too. Longtime Mason District resident Connie Lawn, annual school transfer is recommended, and county residents find out their real estate assessments and senior White House correspondent, has written a possible tax rates, too. Due to press deadlines, this memorable, sometimes funny, and always intercolumn is written before the budget release, so I will esting account of her many years in Washington discuss the highlights in next week’s column. The as a radio reporter through nine Administrations. Board will review intensely the proposed budget, Connie’s accounts of Resurrection City, Watergate, hold public hearings about the budget on April 7, 8, juggling motherhood and radio broadcasts, the White and 9, and adopt a revised budget in late April. The House press room, and many other events, will Mason District Budget Town Meeting, with County intrigue longtime Washington watchers as well as Executive Ed Long, will be held on Thursday, March newcomers. The book is called You Wake Me Each 19, at 7 p.m., at the Mason District Governmental Morning, alluding to what listeners around the world Center, 6507 Columbia Pike in Annandale. The pro- told Connie during her broadcasting career. Contact posed Fairfax County budget can be viewed on-line Connie at connielawn@aol.com to purchase a copy, which she will autograph for you. Way to go, Connie! at www.fairfaxcounty.gov/dmb/budget. Food pantries operated by non-profit organizations provide needed basics to families in need, but  Penny Gross is the Mason District Supervisor, in the demand has grown significantly in our area, and the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors. She may be 5.6875emailed in at mason@fairfaxcounty.gov. food pantry shelves are sparse. You can help T:by

want better health care? start asking more questions. to your doctor. to your pharmacist. to your nurse. what are the test results? what about side effects? don’t fully understand your prescriptions? don’t leave confused. because the most important question is the one you should have asked. go to www.ahrq.gov/questionsaretheanswer or call 1-800-931-AHRQ (2477) for the 10 questions every patient should ask. questions are the answer.

Delegate Marcus Simon’s

Richmond Report The always quick pace in Virginia’s part time legislature went into serious overdrive last week as the General Assembly reached the “Crossover” deadline for each house to wrap up action on its own bills. On Monday, Feb. 9, the House of Delegates considered 270 pieces of legislation in one floor session. Fortunately, the final few weeks of the 2015 Session should be a bit more relaxed, as we only have to consider legislation that survived its house of origin – which is a much lower number of bills than were introduced. Status of My Legislation Unfortunately, but not unexpectedly, my bill to require domestic abusers and stalkers to surrender their firearms for the duration of any protective order failed to get out of Subcommittee #1 of Militia, Police and Public Safety last week. My bill to require applicants for concealed handgun permits to demonstrate actual competence with a handgun was defeated at the same hearing. My bills to prohibit housing discrimination based on sexual orientation, repeal Virginia’s same sex marriage ban, raise the minimum wage, and make it a crime to convert campaign contributions to personal use all failed on party-line votes in committee. Two of my bills proved to be non-controversial. My bill to update the regulations that govern radon remediation companies passed the full House unanimously last week. My bill to provide General District Courts with the authority to pay for guardians adlitem and attorneys in protective order hearings (so that the victims seeking the protective order don’t have to) passed the House of Delegates 100-0. Black History Month During February, in honor of Black History Month, a different member of the House of Delegates gives a speech during the morning hour to share a moment in black history from their district. Last week I shared the story of the events commemorated at the new Tinner Hill Memorial Park – a significant episode in the history of Falls Church that happened almost exactly 100 years ago. On January 8, 1915, a delegation of African-American citizens called the Colored Citizens Protective League led by Joseph Tinner and Dr. E.B. Henderson held their first meeting at the

T: 5.25 in

the doctor will hear you now

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

home of Joseph B. Tinner. The League formed to determine a course of action to protest a segregation ordinance by the Town Council. Because of the League’s diligence, the ordinance was never enacted. The NAACP recognized the landmark efforts by this Group of Nine (as they were also known), proving they could succeed and survive – even in a rural area like Falls Church. They were granted their charter and became the first rural branch of the NAACP. The State Budget The House Budget was released on Sunday. Working with the Governor and my House colleagues, we have protected funding for K-12. Our children deserve a quality education and not preserving this funding is detrimental to their future and that of the Commonwealth. Going forward, the General Assembly will also need to increase per pupil funding. It is encouraging that the House budget currently includes funding care for the seriously mentally ill, funding the First Lady’s school breakfast initiative, and using increased revenues to offer teachers, police officers, and other state employees a much-needed raise. INOVA Center for Personalized Health Finally, I was pleased to be able to share some good news with the House of Delegates on the morning of our crossover session. As you’ve probably read, INOVA Health Systems has, with the help of the Governor, struck a deal to acquire the Exxon Mobil campus, which will be the future home of the INOVA Center for Personalized Health. The Center will provide a unique, internationally prominent center for genomic research, personalized healthcare, and associated life science commercial development. The Center, located in the heart of my legislative district, will be comprised of the INOVA Comprehensive Cancer and Research Institute, the Virginia Center for Genomic Science and Bioinformatics Research, and the INOVA Clinic. This is a great step forward in the Governor’s efforts to attract not just new businesses but entirely new industries to Virginia.  Delegate Simon represents the 53rd District in the Virginia House of Delegates. He may be emailed at DelMSimon@house.virginia.gov.

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

A nyt hing

b ut

S traigh t

Blame the NRA

Isn’t it pathetic the way some on the extreme right are trying to exploit the tragic murder of three young Muslims in Chapel Hill, North Carolina? It turns out that the man who murdered these three innocent people, Craig Stephen Hicks, is an atheist or humanist and isn’t a fan of religion. So a few conservatives and some religious extremists are ecstatic, because now they can point to atheists and say: “See, not all violence is committed in the name of religion.” Yeah, and so what? No one ever claimed that only religious extremists commit violence. There just seems to be a much higher percentage of international violence committed in the name of God than there is in the name of no God. We also have a bloodthirsty history of religiously motivated murder that includes pogroms, Crusades, the Inquisition, and ISIS’ special brand of horrors. Contrary to initial speculation, this murder spree doesn’t appear to be in the name of atheism. It may not even be a hate crime. It seems that Craig Stephen Hicks believed in equal rights for all people. He was pro-gay. He believed in equality for women. He had expressed such opinions over a long period of time on the Internet. The real moral of this story is how the conservative love affair with guns and cowboy justice is a disaster for this nation. The only God Craig Stephen Hicks had, it seems, was his beloved gun collection. He had an entire cache of armaments that would have made Rambo blush. Yet, this is what passes for mainstream behavior in our gun-obsessed nation. We keep hearing from the NRA crowd that “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.” Yes, this trite slogan is true. But who can deny that guns make the gruesome act a lot easier and more lethal? Craig Stephen Hicks appears to be an unstable man who harassed and intimidated those who lived in or visited his apartment complex. He would angrily knock on the doors of neighbors to complain about noise or alleged parking transgressions. When he’d confront his neighbors, he’d often be holding a shotgun or have a menacing gun in his holster. In a normal society this nut would have been arrested on the spot. He would have been rightly seen as a threat to society. But thanks to America’s romance with the NRA – we now live in a dangerous, permissive, anything-goes society where anyone with pistol and a chip on his shoulder gets to play John Wayne. He gets to be Charles Bronson or Dirty Harry, while the rest of us mortals get to run for cover. In this case, the murderer was fixated on the movie “Falling Down.” He’d watch Michael Douglas exact vigilante justice over and over – presumably fantasizing about himself in this anti-hero role. Craig Stephen Hicks fancied himself the protector of his neighborhood. He was George Zimmermann 2.0. He’d stalk the subdivision looking for violators. Instead of trying to keep the peace, he seemed to hope that he’d be challenged, which would allow Hicks the justification to reach for his firearm. What occurred in North Carolina is an indictment of our society. It is penetrating commentary on the pathology of modern conservative politics. It is a reflection of the deadly anarchy the NRA has brought to America’s cities and towns. It is outrageous that this whack job and so many like him are running around exercising their so-called freedom with the barrel of a gun pointed at normal citizens. Craig Stephen Hicks should have been locked up and placed in a padded cell a long time ago. Yet, he was free to roam and exercise his gun toting “liberty” at the expense of innocent life. (Speaking of which, why aren’t pro-life organizations in favor of reasonable gun control?) This is the sick society we have built. Where violent, gun-swinging bullies and boneheads are lauded instead of locked up. So, the moral of this story is not that atheists or left-wingers are capable of killing. It’s that psychopaths on all sides of the political spectrum have easy access to guns. Sadly, we could stack dead and mangled bodies on a hill a mile high and people would remain in denial. If the terror that took place at Sandy Hook didn’t persuade Americans that our gun culture is out of control and in need of serious reform – I don’t know what will. In any case, it is grotesque that the right wing is trying to exploit this tragedy for political gain. I’m fine with people having guns in their houses, but carrying them outside the home to intimidate neighbors or taking them into bars? I’m not okay with that, and if you are a sane individual, you shouldn’t be either.

Wayne Besen

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Our Man in Arlington By Charlie Clark

A sharp-eyed exercise to decode the 2014 elections in Arlington unfolded Feb. 11 at the nonpartisan Committee of 100 – delivering insights on everything from the streetcar to the talent pool to our county’s peculiarities. Most thrilled with the voters’ verdict was Matt Wavro, chair of the Arlington Republican Committee. He hailed “great change in the political landscape that puts Arlington at a fork in the road.” Quite a contrast from 2012 when he went door-to-door and asked, “Do any Republicans live in this building?” Only to be told “Yes, but don’t tell the neighbors.” Before this November’s victory by Republican-turned-independent John Vihstadt, Republicans “who wanted an internal county auditor didn’t say it out loud,” Wavro said. “They didn’t want to be the lone speaker against a stage-managed planning process,” that brought us the moribund Artisphere, the cancelled streetcar, the suspended aquatic center, the million-dollar bus stop and parkland traded for subsidized housing. “The zeitgeist is no longer for a one-party government that considers only progressive values with a specific ideology determining the process.” he said. It’s time to switch to a core agenda such as crowded schools. A more complicated reading came from Kip Malinosky, chair of the Arlington Democratic Committee. When he began in 2013, he expected 2014 to be “a normal year” involving reelection of Sen. Mark Warner, Rep.

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 15

Jim Moran, County Board member Chris Zimmerman, Del. Bob Brink, School Board members Sally Baird and Noah Simon and Treasurer Frank O’Leary. All but Warner declined to run. “We lost 99 years of elected office experience,” he said. (Those retirees were joined recently by County Board members Walter Tejada and Mary Hynes.) Malinosky linked the Dems’ annus horribilis to “change not linked to hope but to anxiety” – declining incomes and anger toward politicians in general. “Arlington is more than a streetcar,” he said. “We used to be insulated from national trends with our best school system, triple-A bond rating, awardwinning housing projects,” he said. Then came the sequester and shutdown that hit federal employees, and rising property assessments. “The County Board was slow to respond, consensus began to fray” and voter participation withered. “Into this anxiety stepped a different kind of candidate offering a path forward,” the Democrat acknowledged. “Vihstadt had been active in the community and was a good candidate.” This year, however, Dems expect “a whole slew of candidates. We need to forge a new consensus based on shared values,” Malinosky said. The county’s new facilities planning process “is a good place to start.” The Republican, when pressed, acknowledged he didn’t see his party as free of ideology. “National issues tend to cloud issues like sidewalks.” The streetcar, he said,

C i t y o f Fa l l s C h u r c h

CRIME REPORT Week of February 9 - 15, 2015 Driving Under the Influence, 100 block Hillwood Ave. On Feb. 10, a traffic stop was conducted for a motor vehicle violation. The driver, a male, 27, of Falls Church, was arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Larceny from Building, 444 W. Broad St. Suite L (Corepower Yoga) On Feb. 12, three victims reported several personal items were stolen from the location. Driving Under the Influence,

1000 block W. Broad St. On Feb. 12, an officer conducted a traffic stop for a motor vehicle violation. The driver, a male, 37, of Centreville, was arrested for Driving Under the Influence. Larceny from Building, 935 block W. Broad St. (Taco Bell) On Feb. 11, a customer’s laptop computer was reported stolen. Panhandling, 1230 W. Broad St. (Giant Foods) On Feb. 13, a male, 35, no fixed address, was arrested and released on summons for Panhandling. Narcotics Violation, 109 W. Broad

“was not ideological but a common-sense issue.” The Democrat said the nonpartisan nature of past local politics has “given way to ideology, which makes for a contentious atmosphere.” Frank Shafroth, director of the Center for State and Local Leadership at George Mason University, said a more important vote last year was the jury of twelve’s decision to convict ex-Gov. Robert McDonnell of corruption. “That changed how voters looked at the future,” he said. “They’re fed up and looking to go back to government that does something constructive.” The professor warned Arlington strategists that our electorate changes rapidly from election to election, adding, “Arlington is different from any other community I’ve lived in.” *** That century-old pale green house in Ballston at 4210 Washington Blvd. will soon meet the wrecking ball. The onetime farmhouse still displaying the George Allen for Senate poster is now deserted—save for some reported homeless squatters. It is slated for demolition in April, I’m told by American Signature Properties LLC, which purchased the property and county permits from another developer to construct a four-story duplex with two-car garages. Partner Mark Benas says his team ran the tear-down plans by the Arlington Historical Society and Habitat for Humanity, to which he will donate some salvaged appliances. Photos of the old house – clearly past its prime – will go to the Arlington County Public Library.

St. (Cue Recording Studios) On Feb. 13, a male, 38, of Washington, was arrested and released on summons. Counterfeiting, 1150 W. Broad St. (CVS Pharmacy) On Feb. 14, a 15 year-old male, of Falls Church, was arrested and released on summons for Counterfeiting. Driving Under the Influence and Driving as a Habitual Offender, 400 block W. Broad St. On Feb. 15, a male, 52, no fixed address, was arrested for Driving Under the Influence, and for Driving While Being Declared a Habitual Offender. Smoking Violations, 6757 Wilson Blvd. #16 (Le Mirage Café) On Feb. 15, a male, 43, of Springfield; and a male, 45, of Lorton, were cited for Smoking In a Non-Designated Area.

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PAGE 16 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

Community Events

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19

Preschool Storytime. Stories, ﬁnger plays and songs for children ages 2 – 5 on Monday and Thursday every week. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10:30 – 11 a.m. & 3 – 3:30 p.m. 703-248-5034. Early Literacy Center. Explore educational and manipulative items to teach early literacy through play on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday every week. This program is for ages birth to 5 years. No registration required. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 11 a.m. – noon. & 3:30 – 4:30 p.m. 703-248-5034. Gardening Talk. Popular garden writer David Ross will give tips and tricks for garden maintenance at a program sponsored by the Rock Spring Garden Club. Little Falls Presbyterian Church (6025 Little Falls Road, Arlington). $5. 11 a.m. rockspringgardenclub.com. 703-532-1959. Author Talk. Speaker, consulting executive and author Margery Leveen Sher will discuss The Noticer’s Guide to Living and Laughing: Change Your Life Without Changing Your

Routine. One More Page Books (2200 N. Westmoreland St., Arlington). Free. 6:30 p.m. onemorepagebooks.com. High School Book Club. Teens ages 14 – 18 will be discussing The DUFF by Kody Keplinger. Registration required. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 7:30 – 8:30 p.m. 703-248-5034.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20

Home Depot at Lee. Home Depot specialists from the franchise’s Falls Church location will be on hand to teach an easy, hands-on home maintenance workshops. Lee Community & Senior Center and Park (5722 Lee Hwy., Arlington). 10 – 11:30 a.m. 703-228-0555. Investigating Owl Pellets. Children ages 8 – 12 can dissect sterilized owl pellets and see what they can learn from them. Registration required. Gulf Branch Nature Center & Park (3608 Military Road, Arlington). $5. 4 – 5 p.m. 703-228-3403.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21

F.C. Farmers’ Market. Vendors oﬀer fresh locally grown fruits and vegetables, cheeses, meats, baked goods, plants, and wine. City Hall Parking Lot (300 Park Ave., Falls

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Send community event submissions to the News-Press by e-mail at calendar@fcnp. com; fax 703-342-0347; or by regular mail to 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for each week’s edition.

Church). Free. 9 a.m. – noon. 703248-5077. Community Meeting. The City of Falls Church will be hosting a community meeting on the West Broad Street POA Small Area Plan. There will an open house, presentation and breakout discussions at the meeting. Columbia Baptist Church (103 W. Columbia St., Falls Church). Free. 9 – 11:30 a.m. fallschurchva.gov. Build Your Own Tumbler Composter Workshop. Staﬀ from the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District and the City of Falls Church will give instruction on how to construct a tumbler composter. Registration is required and is capped at 15 participants. Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St., Falls Church). $75. 1:30 – 4:30 p.m. dan.schwartz@ fairfaxcounty.gov. 703-324-1422.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22

Gerrymandering: Can It Be Stopped? The League of Women Voters’ Falls Church chapter will host a forum on gerrymandering. Falls Church Community Center (223 Little Falls St., Falls Church). Free. 3 – 4:30 p.m. lwvfallschurch.org. IBIS Chamber Music Concert. IBIS Chamber Music will present a concert featuring Oliver Messiaen’s Quartet for the

End of Time. Clarendon United Methodist Church (606 N. Ivy St., Arlington). Free. 4 – 6 p.m. ibischambermusic.org.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23

Home Modiﬁcations Workshop. Aging-in-place specialist Mary Lee Byrd will discuss how home improvement can help the elderly support future needs and make it easier for friends and family of the elderly to visit. Langston Brown Community Center & Senior Center (2121 N. Culpepper St., Arlington). 2 – 3 p.m. 703-228-6300.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24

Preschool Storytime. Stories, ﬁnger plays and songs for children ages 18 – 36 months every Tuesday. Mary Riley Styles Public Library’s Youth Services Room (120 N. Virginia Ave., Falls Church). Free. 10:30 – 11 a.m. 703-248-5034.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25

Turf and Alternatives to Turf. The Virginia Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardeners of Arlington/ Alexandria will present a program showing how to have a luxurious lawn with minimal harm to the environment. Registration requested. Fairlington Community Center (3308 S. Staﬀord St., Arlington). Free. 7 – 8:30 p.m. mgnv.org.

Theater Fine Arts THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19

“The Little Mermaid, Jr.” Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School is presenting a musical performance of Disney’s “The Little Mermaid, Jr.” Tickets can be purchased on the day of the show after 6 p.m. or online for a small convenience fee. Through Feb. 21. $8. 7 p.m. Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School (7130 Leesburg Pike, Falls Church).

“Choir Boy.” Tarrell Alvin McCraney wrote and Kent Gash is directing this music-�illed production about masculinity, tradition, coming of age and honesty. The school has a tradition of preparing young black men for leadership roles in society, but times and �inances have changed, and the pressure on the school’s gospel choir is high. So when Pharus, an ambitious and talented student, is told to ignore a gay slur to take his place as the choir’s leader, he has to

decide who he is and what he’s willing to �ight for. Through Feb. 22. Studio Theatre (1501 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C). $20 – $68. 8 p.m. studiotheatre.org.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20

“Kid Victory.” Luke, a seventeen-year-old, returns home after vanishing a year before in the world premiere of this musical from composer John Kander and playwright Greg Pierce. Profoundly altered by his time away from home, Luke and his parents struggle to adjust to life following his dissapearance and homecoming. Through March 22. Signature Theatre (4200 Campbell Ave., Arlington). $36.80 – $80.35. 8 p.m. signature-theatre.org. “Turn of the Screw.” This is the premiere of Matt Conner and Stephen Gregory Smith’s

musical adaptation of Henry James’ gothic novella. Miss Giddens is a sensitive young governess who believes that her young charges are being manipulated by evil forces. The production is the �irst installment of a �ive-year commissioning project called “Bold New Works for Intimate Stages.” Through March 1 ArtSpace Falls Church (410 S. Maple Ave., Falls Church). $22 – $25. 8 p.m. creativecauldron.org.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25

“Much Ado About Nothing.” Benedick, a bachelor, and the equally-spirited and single Beatrice spar, court and conspire in 1950’s Las Vegas in Synetic Theater’s 11th Wordless Shakespeare adaptation, which follows Synetic’s production of “Twelfth Night.” Through March 22. Synetic Theater (1800 S. Bell St., Arlington). $10. 8 p.m. synetictheater.org.

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

live_music&nightlife THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 19 B�� H�� T�� M��. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $35. 6:30 p.m. 202-265-0930. T�� M�� ELM �� D�� O��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $10 – $15 in advance. $13 – $15 day of the show. 7 p.m. 703-255-1566. M�� N�� J�� L��. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $10 in advance. $15 day of the show. 8 p.m. 202-667-4490. K�� W��. Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.). $43. 8 p.m. 202-337-4141. G�� F�� A�� T�� F��. Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. T��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 9 p.m. 703-241-9504.

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 20

G�� J�� M�� C��. Clare and Don’s Beach Shack (130 N. Washington St., Falls Church). 7 p.m. 703-532-9283. ��WAX. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $20 – $45. 7 p.m. 703-255-1566. HAPA. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $25 – $30. 8 p.m. 703-2551900. G�� C��. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $12 in advance. $15 day of the show. 9 p.m. 202-667-4490.

J�� F�� C�� C��. Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $12. 9 p.m. 703-522-8340. J�� S�� CD R�� S��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 9 p.m. 703-241-9504.

SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 21

L�� S��: B�� R�� C�� S��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $15. 1:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. H�� W��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 4:30 p.m. 703-241-9504. W�� K�� T�� K�� C�� A�� J�� C�� W�� T��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $25 – $35. 6:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. C�� A�� - 1995 �� A�� V�� T�� F�� F��, T�� D�� B�� T�� S�� P��, J�� G�� R�� T�� D�� C�� A�� M��. Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $12. 8:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. J�� G��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 9:15 p.m. 703-241-9504.

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 22

S�� R��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 4 p.m. 703-241-9504. F��: O�� H�� W��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E.,

Vienna). $10 – $15 in advance. $13 – $15 day of the show. 5 p.m. 703255-1566. P�� B�� M�� D��. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $38. 7 p.m. 202265-0930. A�� R�� T�� J�� T�� S�� F��. Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $10. 7:30 p.m. 703-522-8340. A�� D�� D�� K��. Galaxy Hut (2711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $5. 9 p.m. C�� S�� T�� S�� G�� H��. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $10. 9 p.m. 202-667-4490.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 23

A�� WASH �� C��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $10 – $15 in advance. $13 – $15 day of the show. 6:30 p.m. 703-255-1566. A�� P�� J�� N��. 9:30 (815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20. 7 p.m. 202-265-0930. T�� N�� P��. Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20. 8 p.m. 202337-4141. B�� B��. Iota Club and Cafe (2832 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). Free. 8 p.m. 703-522-8340. M�� N�� B�� J�� W��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8:30 p.m. 703-241-9504.

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 17

S�� H��. Galaxy Hut (2711 Wilson Blvd., Arlington). $5. 9 p.m.

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 24

J�� T�� S�� B�� B�� J��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $10. 6 p.m. 703-255-1566. B�’L� D��. Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20. 8 p.m. 202-337-4141. B�� L�V��. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $45 – $48. 8 p.m. 703-255-1900. T�� D�� S�� C��. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $15. 8 p.m. 202-667-4490. S�� J�� B�� B�� B�� L��. JV’s Restaurant (6666 Arlington Blvd., Falls Church). 8:30 p.m. 703-241-9504.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25

C�� C�� R�� C�� L��, J�� T��, M�� S�� G�� P�� P��. Jammin’ Java (227 Maple Ave. E., Vienna). $15. 6:30 p.m. 703-2551566. S�� Q�� N�� C�� D�� E�� S��. Blues Alley (1073 Wisconsin Ave. NW, Washington, D.C.). $20. 8 p.m. 202-337-4141. A� E�� H��. Black Cat (1811 14th St. NW, Washington, D.C.). $16. 8 p.m. 202-667-4490. K�� E�� R�� E��. Wolf Trap (1645 Trap Road, Vienna). $25 – $30. 8 p.m. 703-255-1900.

P�� A��... Saturday, March 6 – Employee of the Year Nominations Due. The Falls Church Human

wing dancing? Burlesque? It’s a hipsters paradise at the State Theatre this Saturday with Boogie Down Burlesque and The Judy Chops. Hosted by Mab Just Mab, the night kicks off with performances from burlesque stars Mourna Handful, Valeria Voxx, Eyrie Twilight and Candy Del Rio while The Judy Chops, a seven-piece Americana group playing “original mountain swing,” provides the soundtrack for it all. The band, which formed in 2008 and averages more than 150 shows a year, has an arsenal of tunes including original songs, remixed covers and mashups. After the girls work their magic on stage, it’s open swing dancing time on the dance floor. Tickets are $17 in advance and $20 day of the show.

What: Boogie Down Burlesque with The Judy Chops When: Saturday, February 21, 8 p.m. Where: The State Theatre

220 N. Washington Street, Falls Church See thestatetheatre.com for tickets and more information

Resources Division is accepting nominations for the 2014 “Employee of the Year” award. For more information about the nomination process, visit the City’s website. Falls Church City Hall (300 Park Ave., Falls Church). fallschurchva.gov. 703248-5127.

Saturday, March 14 – Celtic Music Concert. A lively evening of Irish music in the

intimate atmosphere of the farmhouse parlor. Reservations recommended. Cherry Hill Farmhouse (312 Park Ave., Falls Church). $15 in advance. $20 at the door. cherryhillsfallschurch.org. 703-248-5027.

C�� S�� Be sure to include time, location, cost of admission, contact person and any other pertinent information. Event listings will be edited for content and space limitations. Please include any photos or artwork with submissions. Deadline is Monday at noon for the current week’s edition.

Email: calendar@fcnp.com Fax: 703-342-0347; Attn: FCNP Calendar Mail: 200 Little Falls St., #508, Falls Church, VA 22046

FO O D &D I NI NG

PAGE 18 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Restaurant Spotlight

The Locker Room 502 West Broad Street, Falls Church 703-854-1230 • thelockerroomfc.com Sunday – Saturday: 11 a.m. – Midnight

the

presents the 3rd Annual

FALLS CHURCH RESTAURANT WEEK

MARCH 23 -29 Little City. Big Eats. FCRESTAURANTWEEK.COM

What attracted the ownership team to locate its new Locker Room sports bar and restaurant to the site of the former Huong’s in the Broadway building at 502 W. Broad in Falls Church was its central location. Owner Charlie Mooney said they were impressed by an estimated 2,000 people that live in a three-block area of the site. “No other location, and we looked at a dozen others, offered so many people living within walking distance,” he said, although the cold winter has so far kept the level of business somewhat modest. “We’ve been open six weeks,” said Mooney, “and its been OK so far. We hope with better weather we’ll start to do better.” Springtime promises to put two dozen outdoor dining seats into play, and there’s March Madness coming up, and a lot of local enthusiasm for the Nats. He said that bus trips to Nats games will be organized out of the location. A big sign of the success of the pub going forward has been the recent interest by a club of 200 or so active fans of the New York Rangers to center their gamewatching gatherings at the Locker Room. Mooney, Mike Pettit and Paul Stacy (the chef) went in on the business proposition, leaving Katy’s, an Irish pub that they’d founded 17 years ago in Springfield. It was partly motivated by Mooney’s brother, who decided to retire and move out of this area. Before founding Katy’s, they’d been a dozen years at Murphy’s in Alexandria. The Direct TV hook up to many screens in the Locker Room permit almost any professional sporting event to be aired at the wishes of patrons. Every NBA and NHL game can be tuned in now in big screen HD, and of course Major League Baseball and the NFL are included in other parts of the year. Many college sports and minor professional sports, such as golf and tennis, can also be viewed there. All this is not to minimize the food, which is the result of Stacy’s 30 years of experience working with the other owners. The most popular menu items are pizza and french dip sandwiches that are always made of rib eye steaks. The inclusive menu includes daily dine-in happy hour specials, including from 3 – 7 p.m. half price pizza on Monday, appetizers (except wings) on Wednesday, wings on Thursday and sliders on Friday. On Tuesday, half price burgers are offered from 11 a.m. – 6 p.m. and Saturday breaded pork sandwiches and Sunday $3 foot-long hot dogs and half orders of nachos are in play from 1 – 6 p.m. Drink specials also accompany all the food specials, as well. On Sundays, there is a brunch menu from 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. that runs the gamut from Jay’s sausage, gravy and biscuits to ham and eggs, three-egg omelets, french toast, eggs benedict and steak and eggs. The regular menu, that also works for take-out orders, offers “home run wings” in a wide range of options, including orders of six, 12 or 24. The pizzas come in two sizes with up to four toppings, and burger, salad and sandwich options are augmented by a half-dozen dinner entrees and eight dessert choices.

— Nicholas Benton

LO CA L

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 19

Eden Center Celebrates Year of the Goat this Weekend by Patricia Leslie

Falls Church News-Press

Raising the American and Vietnamese flags and singing national anthems at 11:30 a.m. will kick off the Eden Center’s celebration of the Chinese New Year, which will continue with more events commemorating the start of the Year of the Goat this weekend. The Chinese Zodiac revolves around a 12-year mathematical cycle, each year symbolized by an animal. 2015 is the Year of the Goat, and those born in a goat year have personality characteristics like the animal: They are generally gentle, thoughtful, and creative, and since they are serene and calm, they tend to have fewer health problems. Alan B. Frank, the counsel and senior vice president of Capital Commercial Properties, Inc., who has worked for Eden Center 20 years, said that several hundred are expected to attend the flag raising on Thursday morning, despite the weather forecast. The Weather Channel predicts Thursday’s high will be 17 degrees. The forecast for this weekend is more of what the area experienced

earlier this week. Eden Center’s weekend New Year celebrations begin at 11:30 a.m. on Saturday, Feb. 21, and start at 1 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 22. The festivities will include entertainers, face painting, magicians, a fortune teller and a lion dance (“To scare away bad luck and bring in good luck,” Frank said). “If the weather is really bad” for the weekend, activities will be moved to the canopied sidewalks, and “if super bad,” the entertainers may go inside the mall, Frank said. Last weekend Grace Chang of Arlington was shopping at Eden’s Good Fortune supermarket, but she wasn’t getting ready for the New Year. Yet. “I do just one holiday at a time,” she laughed, and looked down at her grocery cart where a lobster sat, a meal for Chang’s family’s Valentine’s Day dinner. For the New Year, her family will have “a big feast,” with a “Chinese hot pot” which is “kind of like fondue: a big pot with hot broth, meats and vegetables, and tofu. “We get together and eat traditional foods: dumplings, fish,”

she said. In the Chinese tradition, “food always symbolizes something!” she exclaimed, and said the Chinese word for “fish” sounds like “happy.” (It also sounds like the Chinese word for “surplus.”) Chang said dumplings are served in shapes which look like purses, to bring wealth and prosperity. Fish is served whole with its head and tail, symbolizing a good beginning and a good ending for the year. Phuc Pham, another shopper at Good Fortune, said that his family also eats “certain” fish on the New Year. He lives in Woodbridge and said he’d be bringing his family to the Thursday ceremony at Eden Center. “We eat traditional Vietnamese food” for New Year’s, Pham said, which includes rice wrapped in a green leaf with a meat filling. Chang said her family does not exchange gifts. “Typically, the older generation gives the younger generation red envelopes filled with money,” she said. Pham’s family practices the same tradition. Chang, who was born in Taiwan but has never visited China, said

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PHUC PHAM of Woodbridge said that he and his family are planning on attending the New Year’s ceremony at Eden Center. He said that he and his family eat traditional Vietnamese food as part of their private celebration. (Photo: Patricia Leslie/News-Press) her family celebrates New Year’s “on a smaller scale” than did her parents who moved here from China. “Last year we were in Germany and shot off fireworks,” she said.

“In the past, we’ve had sparklers [at home] for the children.” Her children are 14 and 12. For more information about Eden Center’s New Year celebration, visit edencenter.com.

PAGE 20 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

SPO RTS

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Mustangs Win Bull Run District Championship

by Liz Lizama

Falls Church News-Press

With a 68-44 win against Madison County High School last Wednesday, the George Mason High School varsity boys basketball team advanced to the Bull Run District tournament final the following day where they defeated Strasburg High School 54-41. While Mason head coach Chris Capannola said the team was not all that sharp against Madison’s Mountaineers, the team still delivered. “Every time they scored, it seemed we answered – and that’s a good sign,” he said. Mason’s Mustangs led 22-12 at the end of the first quarter and picked up their defense there forward, leading to 14 steals and forcing 25 turnovers. With 16 assists and only 7 turnovers for the Mustangs, the team secured a double-digit lead to win the game. Also scoring 9-18 from the three-point line, Mason’s shooting proved to hold down their opponents. Junior guard Thomas Beddow scored four of the team’s nine three-pointers. Coupled with four two-point shots, Beddow led the Mustangs with a personal season high of 20 points. Junior forward Robert Tartt followed with 17 points, and junior guard Josh Allen added 15 points, which included three shots from behind the arc.

Following the semifinals win against Madison, top seed Mason faced off #3 seed Strasburg on Thursday for the Bull Run District title. The match started off close in the first quarter with the Strasburg Rams leading 11-10 until the Mustangs managed a 7-0 run to close the quarter in the lead 17-11. Mason then led a 20-0 run in the second quarter to bring up the score with a solid 30-11 lead. The Rams came back in the third quarter and closed the gap to 43-35, trailing behind just 8 points. But Mason’s Beddow responded with a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the third quarter 46-35 with Mason still leading. The Mustangs maintained the lead through the fourth quarter to win the game by 13 points. Tartt led the Mustangs against Strasburg with 18 points and 14 rebounds. Junior guard Elliot Mercado followed with 12 points and Beddow with 7 points. “The challenge against Strasburg always is they don’t panic,” said Capannola. “Most teams we can get to play frantic when we’re pressing, but ‘Burg stays calm and runs their offense and plays solid defense. You really have to keep your focus because they don’t get rattled.” Adding to the Mason history books, Allen, Mercado and Tartt

MASON JUNIOR ROBERT TARTT (left) drives the baseline during the Mustangs 54-41 win over Strasburg High School last Thursday. Tartt, who was named the Bull Run District’s Player of the Year after the game, led the Mustangs with 18 points and 14 rebounds against the Rams. (Photo: Liz Lizama/News-Press) made First Team All-District, and Tartt was named District Player of the Year. This is the second time a Mason player has won that honor.

Noel Obusan earned that distinction in 2011-12. As the top seed in the Virginia High School League’s Conference 35, Mason earned a bye in the

regional tournament and is scheduled to play this Friday against the winner of tonight’s game between Madison County High School and Page County High School.

GMHS Swim Teams Lead Pack at AA Regionals, Take 27 to VHSL Championships George Mason High School’s girls and boys swim teams came in first and second place, respectively, last Saturday at the Virginia High School League’s AA regional tournament at Wakefield High School. Mason, swimming against swimmers from nine Region AA schools, set ten new regional records, eight new school records and many more Mustangs achieved personal bests. The girls team scored 158 points to Maggie Walker Governor’s School’s 133-point second place finish and Mason’s boys earned 140.55 points in their second place finish to Maggie Walker Governor’s School, who scored 155 pts. The Mustangs are taking 27 swimmers and divers to the state championship in Christiansburg this weekend, several of whom qualified throughout the season and some who qualified at the regional meet last Saturday. The state diving championship will take place this Friday afternoon and the swimming competi-

tion will start early Saturday. The Region AA meet got off to a record-breaking start with the Mason boys 200-yard medley relay team, with junior Miller Surette, seniors David Larsen and Jared Britton and sophomore Justin Britton, setting a new regional championship record (1:40.53). The Mustang girls’ 200-yard medley relay team, with freshman Hannah Rollins, senior Beth Cashin and juniors Francesca King and Erin McFall, followed suit with a first place finish and a new region record (1:54.46). In the boys 200-yard freestyle, two swimmers qualified to move on to states, freshman Noah Surette (7th, 2:08.17) and junior Will Earman (9th, 2:11.88). Three Mason girls, McFall (2nd, 2:06.76), junior Sieglinde Thetard (5th, 2:20.63) and junior Celia Gieser (6th, 2:25.66), earned points toward the team total and qualified for states in the 200-yard freestyle. Miller Surette swam to first

place in the 200-yard individual medley, setting a new Region AA and team record (1:56.48). His teammates, freshman Sam Updike (7th, 2:32.27) and sophomore Nik Fickensher (10th, 2:40.67), will also head to compete in that event at states. King took first place by an arm’s length in the girls’ 200-yard individual medley (2:18.65). The Britton brothers, Jared and Justin, finished 1-2 in the 50-yard freestyle. Jared set a new region and team record (22.33). Larsen placed 6th in the same event with a state-qualifying time of 23.95 and sophomore Daniel Reinfurt also qualified to go to states in 50-yard freestyle with his sixth place finish (24.27). The Mason girls team had a 1-5-7 finish in the same event for a total of 14 additional team points – Cashin was first with new Region AA and team record times (24.49), with juniors Julianne Kelly (27.37) and Blaise Sevier (29.21) placing fifth and seventh, respectively.

In the boys 100-yard butterfly Jared Britton was first, notching a new Region AA and team record time of 51.88. After a break in the action on Saturday, Miller Surette coasted to first place, winning by over 15 seconds and setting another new Region AA record in the 500-yard freestyle (4:44.22). His brother Noah earned three more points for Mason with his sixth place finish (5:41.73) and freshman Christian Autor qualified for States by placing ninth (6:06.41). The 200-yard freestyle relays continued to showcase the depth of Mason’s teams with both the boys and girls taking first place. The boys team of Larsen, Reinfurt, Justin Britton and junior Chris Markus set a new Region AA record (1:33.06) and the girls team of McFall, King, Kelly and Cashin did one better by setting a new Region AA and team record (1:44.18). In the 100-yard backstroke, Markus placed third (1:00.33) and in the girls race Rollins placed

first (1:05.86) and Thetard placed fourth (1:10.03). Three boys hit the mark for states in the 100yard breaststroke – Larsen came in second (1:04.76), senior Nabil Osborn came in fourth (1:10.95) and freshman Jack West came in sixth (1:13.82). The girls had three swimmers qualify for states as well. Cashin came in first place and set a new Region AA and team record (1:07.67). Her teammates, Kelly (1:20.02) and freshman Cara McFall, 1:25.86), placed third and eight, respectively, and earned seven more points toward the team’s total. The boys 400-yard freestyle relay team of Miller Surette, Reinfurt, Markus and Jared Britton set a new Region AA record (3:23.45), four seconds off Mason’s state record time in 2014. The Mason girls placed fourth in the 400-yard freestyle relay, with Furleigh, Rollins, Kelly and senior Anna Rice swimming a state-qualifying time (4:09.76). In the 1-meter dive competition Rice placed third (234.65 points).

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

A RTS&E NTE RTA I NME NT

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 21

Feb.

19 y

sda Thur

The Mantras with ELM Jammin’ Java 7 p.m. 227 Maple Ave. E, Vienna

703-255-1566 • jamminjava.com

20 y

Frida

Gypsy Jazz with Matt & Craig Clare and Don’s 7 p.m. 130 N. Washington St., Falls Church

703-532-9283 • clareanddons.com

HAPA Wolf Trap 8 p.m. 1645 Trap Road, Vienna

703-255-1900 • wolftrap.com

22 ay

Sund

BY DREW COSTLEY

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS

The Legwarmers have been operating as Northern Virginia’s version of Spinal Tap – the fictional group from the classic rock mockumentary “This is Spinal Tap” – for nearly 14 years, long enough for a whole new generation of concertgoers to catch the band’s fever for the 1980s. “I think it’s that at our shows we have the people [to whom] it’s very much nostalgic, like they’re were in high school in 1982 and they just going back to that thing,” said Jorge Pezzimenti, who goes by Gordon Gartrell in the group. “Then you have people who were born in the 1990s at this point. And I think that’s cool, too. “I know that sometimes that the people who were [alive in the 1980s] get kind of bitter about that, but I think, if anything, it must be cool that younger people are actually mythologizing your youth, or romanticizing it in a way that they really wish they were there.” Pezzimenti – who said he’s most nostalgic for the 1960s – said he’s not sure why people got nostalgic for the 1980s like they did over the past decade, but thinks that it’s something intrinsic to human behavior. “I think it’s like the human condition. We all pine for the ‘good ole days’ or whatever,” Pezzimenti said. “And when the people who weren’t there hear about it and they say ‘Oh, that kinda cool.’ I guess ever since [human beings have] been documenting that’s probably been the case.” By the time pop culture started harkening back to the 1980s, The Legwarmers were already an established tribute band and fixture at The State Theatre and the nostalgia isn’t the only thing that has increased demand for the band around the nation. “It’s cool that it works in different cities…. it’s cool to see familiar faces in different places

THE LEGWARMERS (C�� P��) and stuff,” Pezzimenti said. “Because people dress up and it’s ‘Oh there’s the guy who dresses like...Cobra Commander in Norfolk’ or whatever.” The Legwarmers’ show consists of the band jamming out tunes ranging from “I Ran” by A Flock of Seagulls to AC/DC’s “Back in Black” to Janet Jackson’s “What Have You Done for Me Lately” while generations of music lovers party down. “They come out to have a good time, for sure,” Pezzimenti said. “The majority of people are dressed up, at least with some accessory. At the very least, a loud-colored headband. And they’re definitely singing along. “I always encourage people to come and check it out because people might have preconceived notions of what it might be like, which I understand. But I think it’s worth checking out

because I think when most people leave they feel like they had a good time and it was worth their while.” Falls Church’s State Theatre has been a home for the group almost as long as they’ve been active. The group played its second show at the former movie theatre that was re-purposed to serve as a venue for musical acts that span the decades. They play monthly shows at State, the next of which are March 6 and 7. “Speaking of nostalgia, I watched movies at the State Theatre, when it was still a movie theatre,” Pezzimenti said. “That’s where I saw “Little Shop of Horrors,” so I’d always drive by it and say they should do something with it and when they did it was cool and it’s cool to play at a place with so much history.” • For more information about The Legwarmers, visit thelegwarmers.com.

Punch Brothers 9:30 7 p.m.

These singles whet the appetites of the FCNP editorial team this week:  Nicholas Benton – Walk On By by Dionne Warwick 

815 V St. NW, Washington, D.C.

202-265-0930 • 930.com



Jody Fellows – Miami by Will Smith

Drew Costley – Mississippi Goddam by Nina Simone

PAGE 22 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

The Official Student Newspaper of George Mason High School The Falls Church News-Press has partnered with George Mason High School’s award-winning newspaper, The Lasso, to bring its readers some of the top articles appearing in the student-run digital paper. This regular feature will appear monthly in the News-Press during the school year. The Lasso can be found online at www.fcpps.org/lasso.

Students & Teachers Prep for Big Changes With Middle Years Program BY NHARI DJAN THE LASSO

George Mason High School and Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School will soon be bridging the gap between the IB programs in the elementary school and the high school by introducing the Middle Years Program (MYP), which is a pre-IB program for grades six to ten. MYP will not only continue the philosophy of IB throughout FCCPS, but the idea is that it will also prepare students to pursue the IB diploma or take IB courses in grades 11-12. “We were approved as a candidate school [the year before last]. Which meant that we could start exploring MYP officially,” said Kelly Brown, IB coordinator. “We could start seeing how MYP would fit with our curriculum, we could start writing and adjusting our curriculum to match with the

MYP focal points.” To prepare for this change, teachers have to plan ahead to incorporate IB into their curricula. “The teachers are spending part of their professional development time on short Wednesdays putting their current curriculum into the MYP framework. They [teachers] are not planning a new curriculum. MYP is more of a pedagogical focus, which is the teaching style and how you teach it and how you approach the content. MYP has what are called ‘unit planners’. It’s really just a way that teachers organize the content that they’re teaching,” said Brown. MYP won’t only change core classes, but classes like Physical Education and electives will also have to adapt. “P.E. is going to change a lot. It’s going to be more reflections [and] more assignments, with papers rather than [only grading]

participation,” said P.E. teacher Brandon Dye. It is not only teachers, but also students who have to prepare for this new style of teaching and learning. “I think [it’s] unnecessary,” said Caleb Parnell, a seventh grader, in response to hearing about the changes in P.E. “But for core classes, I think it’s important so we’ll be prepared for the IB courses when we take them.” Thinking about the future opportunities the IB program as a whole may offer, eighth grader Harmony Lajeunesse said, “I know that it’s [the IB diploma] good if you want to go to school out of the nation and it’s the only other diploma [we have] than the standard diploma. For me personally, I like it because I want to go to a school in a different country, so I’m definitely doing it.” “I think it will be good for

Flipped for Flipped Classrooms? BY DORIAN CHARPENTIER THE LASSO

A flipped classroom is a class in which the lessons are embedded inside online videos for people to watch at home, so that class time can be devoted to problem sets or labs. Some classes at George Mason High School use the flipped classroom model either partly or entirely. Teachers spell out the benefits, whereas a portion of the students oppose it. They cite, most notably, the lack of opportunity to ask questions during the videos. Sam Stern, a senior who takes IB Physics, said, “Being able to ask questions during lectures is valuable.” Douglas Bossart, a junior and classmate of Stern, said, “I think it is working because we have more time in class, but we should do more review at the beginning of classes.” Meanwhile, teachers enumerate the benefits such as more class

time for problems and labs and more flexibility in class planning. This also avoids teachers having to spew definitions which can just as easily be copied down from videos, and they might be time savers for students as well. Harris pointed to one understated advantage: “We used to get a lot of the kids who used to go home and work on the WebAssigns or practice problems, and they come in and say they spent 45 minutes on one problem,” said GMHS science teacher Mr. Bryan Harris. With flipped classrooms, “[Students] can ask questions as soon as they get stuck.” Flipped classrooms are occasionally used in mathematics but mostly in science classes at higher levels. Courses in the IB sciences ask that students take one year in whichever science the student wants to pursue. “People in IB should have a passing familiarity with the material [...] so there’s less foundation

work that has to be done,” said Mark Sokolowski, who teaches IB Chemistry. Most material in IB sciences

MYP will be implemented into Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School and George Mason High School throughout this year into 2016. The program is meant to help students prepare for IB courses and the IB Diploma when they reach their junior year. (P��: U�� N�� I�� S�� H��)

the students because it will help them to be prepared and transition better to the high school program,” said sophomore Lindsey Stegenga. “I would have liked to experience this program in middle school, but I’m glad my younger brother will get to.” William Stewart, a biology teacher, adds that the program

will not be too much of a change because our schools have already been adapting IB methods. “My expectations are that it’ll fold pretty seamlessly into what happens in the classroom already, because it’s not a radical departure from how we do things normally in my opinion,” said Stewart.

is covered in precursing courses, albeit the content in IB is much more detailed, and it includes additional topics. That is why students in these courses have an easier time absorbing the lessons.

Ultimately, whether one will like flipped classrooms depends on his or her style of learning. Independent learners can come to love it, but those missing the interaction seem to dislike it.

BRYAN HARRIS, who teaches IB Physics, presents the concept of energy in a YouTube video for students to watch at home. This constitutes the �lipped classroom that started three years ago for IB Physics. “The bene�it now is that we can spend pretty much all class doing labs or practice problems,” said Harris. . (P��: D�� C��)

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FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015 | PAGE 23

F� � � � C � � � � �

S�� N�� N��

Unleash your hidden superpowers Become a foster parent

Mason counselor Brad McAdam (far left) and Principal Ty Byrd (back) with the Mason National Merit Scholars (l to r) Jonathan Gilmour, Mary Keenan, Arijeet Sensharma, Benjamin Cohen, Orion Date and Michael Winters. (P��: C�� J�� W�� B��/FCCPS)

Kids in our community need super parents like you.

6 GMHS Seniors Named Nat’l Merit Scholarship Finalists

Call us today! 855-367-8637

All six George Mason High School seniors who were previously named semifinalists in the 60th annual National Merit Scholarship Program have advanced to the next level of the program. The students – Benjamin Cohen, Orion Date, Jonathan Gilmour, Mary Keenan, Arijeet Sensharma and Michael Winters – were chosen for academic accomplishments, now have a chance at getting one of 7,600 scholarships. Together the scholarships total around $33 million. About 90 percent of semifinalists advance to the finalist round and more than half of the finalists will earn a National Merit Scholarship. For more information, visit nationalmerit.org.

www.umfs.org

2 Local Businesses Sign On As All-Night Grad Sponsors The Gaskins Team from Keller Williams Realty and Allstate Agent Gary Gayer have signed on as $1,000 sponsors of the All-Night Graduation Celebration, a safe, all-night celebration for George Mason High School graduates. Gary Gayer is the local Allstate Agent on Washington Street and The Gaskins Team staff live and work in Falls Church City, with their own children in City schools. With such strong ties to Falls Church, both businesses under-

SARAH MILLER (left) AND GUS CONSTANCE were named Ms. and Mr. Mason last Friday. (P��: C�� S��) stand why it is so important to have an alcohol- and drug-free celebration on graduation night. Keeping the students in our community safe this year and for years to come is a top priority.

F.C. Students Earn Academic Honors Across the Nation More students from Falls Church earned academic honors at colleges, universities and other academic institutions across the nation during the fall 2014 semester. Anna Caroline Grishaw was named to the dean’s list at the University of the South, where

students must earn at least a 3.625 grade point average to make the list. Evan John Harvey, an Industrial Engineering major, made the dean’s list at Clemson University, where students must earn between a 3.5 and 3.99 grade point average to make the list. Nathaniel Siciliano Ogle made the dean’s list at Junianta College, where students must earn at least a 3.6 grade point average to make the list. Lansing Veeder, a Risk Management and Insurance major, was named to the dean’s list at St. Joseph’s University, where students must earn at least a 3.5 with at least a B all their classes.

PAGE 24 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

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PLAN AS AN UPDATE AND REPLACEMENT OF THE PARKS, OPEN SPACE, AND RECREATION CHAPTER. (2) (TO15-02) ORDINANCE TO MOVE THE DEADLINE FOR APPEALS TO THE BOARD OF EQUALIZATION FROM THE FIRST FRIDAY OF APRIL TO THE FIRST FRIDAY OF JUNE More information regarding the Parks for People Plan and the public engagement process through which it was developed is available here: www.fallschurchva.gov/ ParksOpenSpaceRecChapter . All public hearings will be held in the Council Chambers, 300 Park Avenue, Falls Church, Virginia. For copies of legislation, contact the City Clerk’s office at (703-248-5014) or cityclerk@fallschurchva.gov or visitwww.fallschurchva.gov . 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

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The Falls Church City Council will hold public hearings at 7:30 p.m., or as soon thereafter as may be heard, on Monday, February 23, 2015 to consider the following: (1) (TR15-05) RESOLUTION APPROVING AN AMENDMENT TO THE 2005 COMPREHENSIVE PLAN TO INCORPORATE THE “PARKS FOR PEOPLE”

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We are pleged to the letter and spirit of Virginia’s policy for achieving equal housing We are pledged to the letter and opportuspirit of Virginia’s polinity throughout the Commoncy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the wealth. We encourage and support advertising and Commonwealth. We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which marketing programs inthere which theretoare no barriers to obtaining are no barriers obtaining housing because of race, color, housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status elderliness, familial status or handicap. Allorreal estate advertised handicap. All real estate adverherein is subject to Virginia’s tised hereinfair is housing subject to law which makes it Virginia’s fair housinglimitation, law which illegal to advertise “any preference, or discrimination makes it illegal to advertise “any because of race, color,preference, religion, national sex, elderliness, limitation, origin, or discrimination because of race, familial status or handicap or intention to make any such prefcolor, religion, national origin, erence, limitation, or discrimination.” This sex, elderliness, familial status or newspaper will not handicap orfor intention make that violates the fair knowingly accept advertising real toestate any such preference, limitation, housing law. Our readers are hereby that all dwellings or discrimination.” Thisinformed newspaper will notare knowingly accepton an equal opportuadvertised in this newspaper available advertising for real estate that nity basis. For more information or tolaw.file violates the fair housing Our a housing complaint readers are herby informed that call the Virginia Fair Housing Office at (804) 367-8530. Toll free all dwellings advertised in this call (888) 551-3247. Fornewspaper the hearing impaired are available on an call (804) 367-9753. equal opportunity basis. For more information or to file a housing complaint call the Virginia Fair Housing Office at (804) 367-8530. Toll free call (888) 551-3247. For the hearing impaired call (804) 367-9753.

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A RTS&E NTE RTA I NME NT

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Crossword

ACROSS

By David Levinson Wilk 1

31 39

46 49

24 28

23 25

54 59

Across

1. Docs prescribe them

1. Docs prescribe them 5. Weather map figures 9. Hall of Fame quarterback Dan 14. Birthright seller in the Bible 15. Birthplace of over two dozen NASA astronauts 16. What an astronaut may be in 17. Org. for mature audiences only? 18. Use UPS 19. Slender 20. Enjoy the plotline of a film starring actress Janet? 23. NBA official 24. What’s up? 25. Pinup’s leg 28. Cry often made with jazz hands 31. Conveyance in an Ellington classic 36. Map parts: Abbr. 38. Surrender 40. “____ bet?” 41. Sources are saying actor Bruce has packed on some pounds? 44. Knightley of “Atonement” 45. Home of the University of Nevada 46. Gaelic word used in the preamble of the Constitution of Ireland 47. Sailor 49. Funeral fire 51. Midpoint: Abbr. 52. First word in many church names 54. “Conan” airer 56. Rumors that actor Jet was smoking dope are unfounded?

FEBRUARY 19 - 25 2015 | PAGE 25

64. Pulitzer-winning poet Marianne 65. Old game show prop 66. Prefix with dynamic 67. Durable fabric 68. “Swedish for ‘argument,’” per Amy Poehler 69. Sea food? 70. “Zorba the Greek” setting 71. “You’re on!” 72. Otherwise

DOWN

1. Brunch, e.g. 2. Morales of “La Bamba” 3. Like some turkey meat 4. Word that becomes its synonym when a “b” is tacked on its end 5. Eat crow 6. “Funny meeting you here!” 7. Kristen of “Bridesmaids” 8. Second-year students, for short 9. Age of Theodore Roosevelt when he became the youngest U.S. president ever 10. “Milk’s Favorite Cookie” 11. Ridesharing service since 2010 12. Uncluttered 13. Hog’s home 21. Allow 22. Music genre that influenced No Doubt 25. Rubbernecks 26. E.M. Forster’s “A Room with ____” 27. Social ____ 29. Animal on XING signs 30. Seller of TV spots

CHUCKLE BROS BRIAN & RON BOYCHUK

5. Weather map figures

32. “Bloody” 33. Shenanigan 34. Like some gases 35. Ralph who quipped “Turn on to politics, or politics will turn on you” 37. Belgrade resident 39. Start of a choosing rhyme 42. Opera on which “Rent” is based 43. European country whose flag depicts seven castles 48. Oscar winner Brynner 50. Recede, as the tide 53. Stiff 55. Vampire vanquisher 56. Part of a landscaping team 57. Skye of “Say Anything ...” 58. Spunk 59. Okey-____ 60. Prime draft status 61. Have a hunch 62. Some bookmarks, for short 63. Easy gait 64. Year in Elizabeth I’s reign

9. Hall of Fame quarterback Dan

Sudoku

Last Thursday’s Solution H A P P I E R

H A M P E R E D

H H A A R I M

H A I L E

H A S B R O

H A I R A L F S N G O V N P E A L S E D Y L S H H A S H A Z H A R E A N D S R S H A P L O T E T S E

D Y E E E N E R S R N E H A D H A R E A V E N Y E D E L H S H A H A W H A L O S T A M P E R E S R E

H A R L E M

A X E L S

H A R K E N T E E D D

H A N K

H A O N L S Y

A S P I R E S

S H Y E S T

By The Mepham Group

Level: 1 2 3 4

14. Birthright seller in the Bible 15. Birthplace of over two dozen NASA astronauts 16. What an astronaut may be in 17. Org. for mature audiences only? 18. Use UPS 19. Slender 20. Enjoy the plotline of a film starring actress Janet? 23. NBA official

24. What's up? 25. Pinup's leg

LOOSE PARTS

28. Cry often made with jazz hands

DAVE BLAZEK

31. Conveyance in an Ellington classic Solution to last Sunday’s puzzle

NICK KNACK

2/22/15

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

LO CA L

PAGE 26 | FEBRUARY 19 - 25, 2015

FALLS CHURCH NEWS-PRESS | FCNP.COM

Critter Corner

BACK IN THE DAY

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

20 s Yearo Ag

e c o mthe to of aid i r t h e re. pastu w N o the is e t i m all for o d g o to cows e c o mthe to

20 & 10 Years Ago in the News-Press Falls Church News-Press Vol IV, No. IV • February 23, 1995

Fairfax Co. Neighborhood Groups Launch Last-Ditch Effort to Nix Grad Center Project While most interested observers are agonizing over design issues related to the Northern Virginia Graduate Center, a new controversy has arisen at the eleventh hour from a neighboring Fairfax County civic association. Within the past week, Falls Church City officials have learned that the Ellison Heights/ Mount Daniel Citizens Association is planning to speak against the amendment to the Fairfax County Comprehensive Plan which will be voted on March 9 by the Fairfax County....

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

Falls Church News-Press Vol XIV, No. XIV • February 17, 2005

10 Year s Ago