Pet Photos, Stories for Pet Connection
The Pet Connection, a bi-annual themed edition, will publish Feb. 26. We invite you to send us stories about your pets, photos of you and/or your family with your cats, dogs, hamsters, snakes, lizards, frogs, rabbits, or whatever other creatures share your home or yard with you.
Consistent Bedtimes Linked to Improved Wellbeing in Children
Local experts offer suggestions for helping youngsters get a good night’s sleep.
When the clock strikes 9 on any given evening, 13-year-old twins Timothy and Danny Gulyn and their 11-year-old twin brothers, Christopher and Jonathan, know that it’s time for bed. Whether they are on vacation during the summer or at their Arlington home on a school night, the siblings follow a consistent routine that has them tucked-in at the same time every day.
Piece of Mind
Today I was eating a Tootsie Roll, and while chewing it, felt something sharp against my gum. Knowing my candy, sharp I should not feel, so immediately I stopped chewing in hopes of locating the sensation; which I did. It turns out that I broke off the top half of a previously (years ago) installed dental crown. Fortunately, the crown was still in my mouth, so I was able to retrieve it. Upon closer examination of it and the now crown-less tooth, it appears that the crown and the tooth are completely intact (undamaged) and perhaps a simple re-cementing at the dentist’s office awaits, a repair achieved much less expensively than replacing the entire crown. (I can hope, can’t I? After all, I am a cancer patient; hope is what I do.)
Helping Area Residents Sign Up for Health Insurance
More than 50 volunteers who are helping local residents sign up for health care insurance were recognized by state and local leadership last Saturday. To date, these Certified Application Counselors (CACs) have helped more than 500 individuals with the new Marketplace system, overcoming barriers of language, technology and understanding the new health care law. The volunteers were thanked for the commitment and service:
How to Fix I-66?
More lanes, bus rapid transit, rail, spot improvements proposed.
It’s said that nothing’s certain but death and taxes – but most of the time, traffic congestion on I-66 can be added to that list. So VDOT’s seeking input from the public on how best to alleviate it.
Confused and then Infused
Since March 6, 2009, nearly five years now, save for nine months when I was taking an oral chemotherapy medication at home, every three weeks I have been infused with some sort of chemotherapy drug. In that time, I have certainly become familiar and fairly well-known to the various staff at The Infusion Center. What follows is the most recent exchange with the receptionist in Oncology, as best as I can recall it.
Debate Over School Budget Continues
Later start times, class size among topics at School Board public hearing.
Later start times, class size, and cuts to needs-based staffing were major themes of the testimony given at the Jan. 27 public hearing on Superintendent Karen Garza’s proposed budget.
Board Cites Lack of Funds for School Renovations
Aging schools collide with increasing student enrollments.
While the 2015 to 2019 Capital Improvement Program (CIP) passed at the Fairfax County Public School Board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 3, many board members expressed concerns with the program.
Jim Moran: The $15 Million Congressman
During his years in Congress, Moran raised and spent about $1 million each campaign cycle.
One of the first things that happened after U.S. Rep. Jim Moran (D-8) announced he would not be running for reelection this year was that he cancelled a fundraising event.
Fun Winter Activities for the Family
Keep your family busy with winter fun events in Great Falls during the colder months.
It’s easy to stay in during these cold months thanks to snowy weather and the holidays, but every once in a while families need to get out of the house to enjoy themselves. Great Falls has plenty to offer for everyone, from live music and dancing to workshops about chocolate and making one’s own maple syrup.
Senior Center’s Newly Elected Board
The Great Falls Senior Center membership elected a new board of directors in December. The new board, half of whom are serving for the first time, named its officers at its Jan. 16 meeting. The new officers are David Kondner, Sr., president; Joyce Trickett, vice president; George Newman, treasurer, and Carol Blackwell, secretary. Other members of the new board are Mary Davis, Diane Drewry, Margaret Johnson, Robert Lundegard, Marietna (Mimi) Mascolo, Jackie Taylor, Sondra Taylor and Carol Wright. The board members and officers will serve for two years. Terms of the current officials run through Dec. 31, 2015.
Troop 673 Delivers Books to Walter Reed
Six Boy Scouts from Great Falls Troop 673 visited Walter Reed Medical Center on Dec. 4 and delivered 10 bags and boxes of new, donated books and movies. The Friends of the Great Falls Library had contacted the Warrior Family Coordination Cell at Walter Reed who said they would be delighted to receive the donation. The donation consisted of a variety of new books donated to the Friends for its bi-annual book sale which went unsold. The Scouts and their drivers delivered the books to Tranquility Hall, a residence for recovering warriors and families. While waiting to meet with their primary contact, Staff Sgt. Alicia Watkins gave the group a brief tour of the building. The Scouts visited the Warrior Café where Watkins showed them the POW/MIA table which is present in every military cafeteria. She explained the meaning of the various items on the table: the white tablecloth symbolizing the purity of soldiers’ motives in answering the call to duty; the rose representing the life of each missing person and his or her loved ones; a slice of lemon to remind us of the bitter fate of those captured and missing; a pinch of salt to symbolize the tears of the missing and their families; an empty chair and other symbols.
Writers Group Crafts Publishing Workshop
The Writers Group to host a panel of publishing and marketing professionals.
For any writers living near Great Falls who have wondered what it takes to get their short stories or book ideas published, the next meeting of the Great Falls Writers Group may be able to help. On Thursday, Feb. 6, the Writers Group will meet at Great Falls Public Library for a publishing workshop, complete with a panel of published writers and self-marketing experts.
Library, Falls Salon Win
The Celebrate Great Falls Foundation presented both winners with certificates and a cash prize.
There’s nothing that brings a community together like a bit of friendly competition — at least that’s the idea behind the Celebrate Great Falls Foundation’s annual Holiday Decorating Contest. The foundation presented awards to both the Friends of the Great Falls Library and The Falls Salon on Thursday, Jan. 23, for their holiday spirit displayed in their storefronts and buildings. The two winners were chosen by a community vote that found them both equally deserving of the cash prize of $400.
Classified Advertising January 22, 2014
Read the latest ads here!
Into the Budget Fray
Bulova highlights accomplishments, challenges in annual address.
Despite the lingering impact of an anemic economy, and the regional ripple effects of federal sequestration, Fairfax County residents will see some concrete signs of progress this year.
Editorial: Extend Health Coverage in Virginia
Standing on what is essentially scorched earth, Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly have condemned hundreds of thousands of poor Virginians to living without health coverage even though it would be fully funded by Federal money for the next three years, and with Virginia paying 10 percent after five years.
Friends Forever
Since it had been more than a few months, today I summoned up the courage to Google my long-time friend and fellow stage IV lung cancer survivor, Suzanne. Suzanne and I had been years out of touch (for no real reason other than initiative and the geographic consideration that she lived in Barnstable, Ma. and I live in Burtonsville, Md.) and recently back in touch – due to our identical cancer diagnoses. I learned that she had succumbed to her disease back in October, 2013. We last had contact electronically back in the summer. She was extremely weak then, she said, too weak to talk, so e-mailing was best. In that e-mail, ultimately her last, she wrote that the most recent chemotherapy drug with which she was infused was no longer effective and that her oncologist had no other drugs left to recommend. Not that she said it in so many words, but at that point her prognosis was grim. She offered that her two boys were with her and from them she would gain great comfort. The news was very unsettling to me and I was afraid that this e-mail might be our last – and so it was.
Del. Comstock Shares Her Notes on Opening Week
A new beginning, a new chairmanship and a new legislative session.
It is always an honor to be part of the oldest continuous legislative body in the western world. On Jan. 8, we began a new session with a new Administration. The session is always kicked off early in the morning (7 a.m.) with the annual Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast. In keeping with tradition, outgoing Governor McDonnell and incoming Governor McAuliffe and senior government officials attend. This year I had the honor of offering the prayer for State Legislators at the Commonwealth Prayer Breakfast. The breakfast also features guest speakers every year and everyone was moved by the powerful testimony of Thomas Haynesworth, a truly inspirational man, who was exonerated in 2011 after being wrongfully imprisoned for 27 years for crimes he did not commit. Mr. Haynesworth spoke of his faith sustaining him throughout this unjust ordeal.