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Editorial: So Hard to Imagine?

Poor families face challenges that officials and many of the rest of us have trouble envisioning.

The Commonwealth of Virginia and even Northern Virginia includes many poor families and individuals. But officials seem to have trouble wrapping their brains around some of the difficulties this can cause.

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Stakes Are High in Virginia Budget Standoff

Lawmakers flee Capitol, where partisan gridlock reigns.

The budget standoff in Richmond could have drastic consequences in Northern Virginia, where every service from education to transportation is on the line.

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Fairfax Supervisors to Consider Even More Cuts to Library System

In the last four years, more than $5 million has been slashed from the library budget.

Walk into the Centreville Library and one is confronted with an institution in crisis.


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A Voice for Children

"Promise-keepers" advocate for Fairfax County’s abused, neglected children.

Each child who comes before Judge Thomas Mann’s Fairfax courtroom is loveable and vulnerable. There is the precocious three-year-old whose parents are drug-addicted. A seven-year-old boy whose mentally-ill mother left him home alone to care for his infant sibling.

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Chantilly Library: The Renewal Project

“A wonderful place for our community."

Just as the writing of a book begins with an idea, so did the renovations of the Chantilly Regional Library. It started around 2004, when then Branch Manager Bonnie Worcester and her staff first discussed how to improve customer service there.

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Chantilly Library Turns a Page

Ribbon-cutting signals start of new chapter.

When the ribbon was cut last week to celebrate the changes at the Chantilly Regional Library, it marked the beginning of a new era there. It was also the culmination of years of planning and work.


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Trophy Time For Westfield

Thespians win VHSL One-Act Play State Championship.

There’s rejoicing at Westfield High. The school’s thespians captured a state championship Saturday, March 3, at the VHSL One-Act Play competition in Charlottesville.

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Gov. George Allen Goes Home Again on Super Tuesday

Former Virginia Governor George Allen spoke Tuesday morning to an American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) Conference, then headed to Loudoun County to meet with Republican primary voters and election workers at polling places on Super Tuesday in Loudoun, Fairfax and Prince William Counties.

Column: Look What She Saw—Sort Of

Well there’s five seconds that fellow super-market-shopper won’t have back anytime soon. The question, the curiosity is: will she have nightmares and/or live to regret staring at me so intently that I think I may have seen the whites of her eyes – and it wasn’t even remotely dark?


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A Place for Artists

The Art Guild of Clifton is forming.

The members of the Art Guild of Clifton don’t yet have a permanent space or funding, but both are in the works. They’ve got participating artists, talent and enthusiasm and, on Saturday, March 17, they’re having a grand opening in the Town of Clifton.

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Clifton Children’s Academy Observes Dr. Seuss' Birthday

In celebration of Dr. Seuss' birthday, the children and staff at Clifton Children's Academy spent the day reading their favorite Dr. Seuss books, making wonderful Dr. Seuss inspired art and practiced creative rhyming words.

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Nonprofits Awarded United Way Grants

23 local organizations receive MORE THAN $280K to continue work.

The United Way of the National Capital Area (United Way NCA) awarded 27 grants totaling $288,013 to 23 local nonprofits during the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors meeting Tuesday, March 6.


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Girl Scouts Celebrate 100th Anniversary at Springfield Mall

Event draws more than 2,000 participants.

To mark the 100th anniversary of Girls Scouts of the USA, the South Central Fairfax Association of the Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital (GSCNC) hosted a celebration that drew more than 2,000 participants to Springfield Mall on Saturday, Feb. 18.

Dancers Demand Right to ‘Move Like Jagger’

Fairfax Supervisors table dance hall regulations after dance fans kick up a fuss.

After dance fans protested by blog, email, Facebook and local radio, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors sidestepped discussion Tuesday of a law regulating dancing in restaurants, tossing the measure back to the planning commission for revisions.

Richmond Report: Why We Voted Against the Budgets

There has been much written this past week about Democrats voting down the Senate and House budgets. The Washington Post and other writers seem to think that this is the end of the world as we know it.


Area Roundups

Things happening in the Burke, Fairfax, Lorton and Springfield area.

Fairfax Supervisors Vote to Increase Advertised Tax Rate by 1 cent

Each 1 cent increase raises taxpayer bill by $45.

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted 6-3 Tuesday, March 6, to advertise the real estate tax rate for FY 2013 as $1.08 per $100 of assessed value. The current FY 2012 rate is $1.07.

Dulles Rail, Phase Two; Silver Line Station Names

The Fairfax County Department of Transportation will hold a public meeting and an Ask Fairfax online discussion to inform the public about Phase Two of the Dulles Corridor Metrorail Project.


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Not-So-Super Tuesday

Turnout for Virginia's presidential preference primary was lowest in recent memory.

With two of the major candidates in the Republican presidential contest failing to qualify for the ballot in Virginia, Super Tuesday was anything but super.

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Local Governments Enjoy Record Spending

Bucking national trend, local governments here expand while others are contracting.

As local governments across America are laying off firefighters and teachers, governments in Northern Virginia are experiencing record levels of spending and an all-time-high number of employees.