Repair Work Preceded Deadly Metro Crash, Investigators Say
Metro personnel replaced a signalling component in the tracks five days before last Monday’s deadly crash, federal investigators said today. After that work was done, the train control system circuitry that is designed to prevent crashes did not perform properly, investigators said….Read full story via washingtonpost.com
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Inova Health System files formal application for Loudoun County hospital
Inova Health System filed its formal certificate of public need with Virginia to erect an 80-bed hospital on Route 50 in Loudoun County.
The Falls Church-based hospital system had said earlier this year it would seek the CON for the full-service hospital, which would include an emergency department, medical-surgical beds and up to eight operating rooms, among other technologies and services….
Read full story via Washington Business Journal
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Plane Runs Off Runway at Leesburg Airport
The Leesburg Executive Airport was closed Sunday for about an hour after a private plane ran off the runway while attempting to take off. No one was injured and no property was damaged during the incident.
Read full story via Washington Post.
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Route 50 Detours Planned Near Gilbert’s Corner
Beginning on July 1st, Route 50 drivers must take a detour around the intersection at Route 15 Gilbert’s Corner, as the Virginia Department of Transportation continues to build roundabouts along the two corridors. The change will last 10 to 12 weeks and is expected to add five minutes to non-rush-hour trips and up to 15 minutes during rush hour…
Read full story via Washington Post.com
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Authorities Investigate Plane Crash Near Manassas
Police say Robert Vachon began to experience problems after the fixed-wing aircraft took off shortly before 5 p.m. Friday from the Manassas Regional Airport. When he tried to return to the airport, the plane began to lose altitude and crashed into a nearby wooded area…
Read full story via NewsChannel 8
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Ban On Texting While Driving
Drivers used to getting some work done or making plans while in their cars will have to find another way to communicate beginning next week. A law championed by Loudoun representative Del. JoeT. May R-33 now will prohibit drivers from composing or sending electronic messages while in a moving vehicle…
Read full story via Leesburg Today
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Traffic Ticket Revenue Is Up 39%
With traffic congestion clogging Loudoun County’s major arteries, and large planned communities still cropping up, the sheriff’s office has reported a 39 percent increase in revenue from traffic fines and forfeitures over a two-year period. Through most of fiscal 2009, which ends Wednesday, the county had collected a little more than $2.1 million in revenue from fines and forfeitures, according to figures provided this month by the department through an open-records request….
Read full story via Washington Post.
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Loudoun Country Day School opens state-of-the-art campus
Next school year, students at Loudoun Country Day School in Leesburg will start fresh at their brand-new campus outside town off Evergreen Mill Road. The 69-acre campus houses a $30 million, 100,000-square-foot school building that features 32 classrooms, a large library and several science and computer labs…Read full story via Loudoun Times.
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Creditors accuse ex-restaurateur of taking millions
A group of creditors has filed an involuntary petition for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in the name of a former Loudoun restaurant owner they claim owes them more than $41.6 million. The petition was filed in U.S. Bankruptcy Court June 20 in reference to Osama M. El-Atari, of Ashburn…Read full story via Loudoun Times.
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19 Loudoun bridges on state watch list
Although the state has identified 19 bridges in Loudoun as needing care, only two will receive federal stimulus funding. The county will receive about $1.5 million in federal funding for the Sand Branch bridge on Pleasant Valley Road near Round Hill and the Butchers Creek bridge on Airmont Road in southern Loudoun near the Prince William County line…Read full story via Loudoun Times.
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Fees Likely to Double On Dulles Toll Road
The cost of driving on the Dulles Toll Road is likely to double over the next three years to help fund Metrorail’s $5 billion expansion in Northern Virginia, officials with the agency in charge of the road and the rail project announced yesterday. Under the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority proposal, tolls would go up incrementally, starting in January…Read full story via Washington Post
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W&OD Trail Is Still Mostly Safe
As long as precautions are taken, the Washington & Old Dominion Trail remains a relatively safe place, despite two recent cases of men exposing themselves to women and a string of home invasions in nearby residences in the fall, Loudoun County authorities said. Being aware of one’s surroundings is important, authorities said, and wearing headphones can be a distraction…Read full story via Washington Post
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Proposed Facade Grant Program Draws Mixed Reaction
A proposal by the Leesburg Economic Development Commission to create a Facade Grant Improvement Program for downtown commercial properties was met with mixed reviews by the Town Council Monday. The pilot program would allow commercial property owners in the Historic District to apply for town grants to make improvements to their properties…
Read full story via Leesburg Today
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Metrorail accident kills 9 people
The worst accident in 33-year history of Metrorail, Washington’s subway system, is under investigation by authorities trying to determine why a train plowed into the rear of another, killing at least nine people and injuring scores of others. District of Columbia Fire Department Web site said rescue workers located three more bodies in the wreckage late Monday night. All three were declared dead at the scene.
Read dull story via Richmond Times-Dispatch.
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Leesburg Animal Park Welcomes Back Tortoise Pair
The Leesburg Animal Park has welcomed back Giant Aldabra Tortoises Jade and Jethro for a summer-long stay. The two have recently arrived from their winter home in Florida and will be on hand to meet visitors to the park.
Read full story via Leesburg Today
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Kincora To Get First Board Review June 22
The Board of Supervisors’ Transportation/Land Use Committee will discuss the proposal to bring a minor league baseball stadium to Rt. 28 for the first time tonight. While many baseball supporters came out to a public hearing earlier this month to express a positive stance on the idea of a sports stadium in Loudoun, some supervisors have expressed concern over the project…Read full story via Leesburg Today
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The Future of This Old House Is in Supervisors’ Hands
The last vestige of Lunette, which was a 40-person town in eastern Loudoun County at the turn of the 20th century, is a dilapidated farmhouse stuck in a modern housing development in Aldie. More than a century later, the issue of whether the house should be demolished or salvaged has landed in the laps of the Loudoun supervisors…Read full story via Washington Post.
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Jobless rate doubles in Loudoun county
The number of Loudoun workers being served a pink slip has doubled in one year.
The slumping economy, company bankruptcies and waves of layoffs have helped increase the number of unemployed workers in the county from 2.3 percent in April 2008 to 4.6 percent in the same month this year.
Read full story via Loudoun Times.
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Family remembers slaying victim
On June 13, police found what is believed to be Kayleigh Plamondon’s slain body in a vacant home in Lost River, W.Va. For several days, family, friends and concerned community members had searched for the 2005 Loudoun Valley High School graduate after she disappeared June 9 from a Clarke County home where she had been house sitting…Read full story via Loudoun Times.
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Greenlea Tax District Established To Replace Bridge
The Board of Supervisors has given its final approval for the creation of a tax assessment district that will allow for residents of the Greenlea subdivision south of Leesburg to help pay for replacement of a bridge that was deemed impassable after being damaged by flood waters last year. The assessment totals $660,575, with all 19 property owners to have a $34,767 assessed on each of their properties, to be paid over the course of 15 years…
Read full story via Leesburg Today
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Tax Revenue Drops 9.3 Percent, Kaine Says
Virginia budget numbers continue to erode as tax revenue falls in the down economy. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D) announced yesterday that state revenue collections have dropped 9.3 percent this year, eclipsing an estimated drop of 7.3 percent….
Read story via Washington Post
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Cigarette Ban Being Implemented in Va. State Prisons
Virginia corrections officials have quietly begun banning cigarettes in some state prisons and plan to make the entire system tobacco-free by February 2010. The health measure follows a national trend but has left public-safety advocates worried that inmate control could become more difficult…
Read full story via Washington Post
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