Moldgate at Lake Anne: A sordid tale of recriminations, coverups... and Bingo nights

Who knew so much was festering behind the seemingly placid mauve facades of Lake Anne Fellowship Square? Lawsuits, allegations and counter-allegations, stolen newspapers, Bingo nights and... mold. Icky black mold. So says a former employee of the center, who's suing to get his job back.

A lawsuit filed by Oliver Thomas against the Fellowship Square Foundation for reinstatement of employment alleges a deteriorating heating and cooling system in the two Lake Anne Fellowship buildings.

Thomas was hired by the Fellowship Square Foundation as the chief of maintenance for both buildings on April 1, 2003. He was fired in August 2007 in what he believes was retaliation for his vocal concerns about mold and bacteria growing in the building's infrastructure.

Fellowship Square management has since come forward and said that they've tested the air, and it's as fresh and clean as a mauve-colored whistle. In the meantime, local residents are organizing.

Muenzer said the tenants lack any sort of association.

“We have nothing here. We have bingo on Tuesdays,” she said.

Or at least trying to organize:

Thomas and his lawyer, Henry Fitzgerald, have organized an informational meeting for invited residents in the meantime at the Lake Anne Reston Community Center on Friday. In addition to those invitations, Thomas slipped an informational packet on mold that included the article in last week's Times under the door of most of the residents, he said.

That article may not have been read by most of the residents, as The Times received several complaints from Fellowship House residents that the paper was not delivered last week.

Garrett said he was unaware of staff removing the papers, which are normally delivered in a stack to the lobby.

Mary Muenzer, a resident of the Lake Anne Fellowship House, said there have been no copies of The Times in the lobby rack since Wednesday, the day the article was published.

“We have a right to those newspapers,” she said.

As a former president once learned the hard way, it's not about the crime; it's the coverup. And this goes all the way to the top! Or to the county board of supervisors, anyway.

On Sept. 24, Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill) entered a board matter titled “Regulating Mold” that asked the Board of Supervisors to ask staff to research existing statutes to determine what legal or oversight options exist to “protect our most vulnerable citizens.”

Hudgins cites a notification about “mold concerns in residential dwellings, notably a senior facility,” for her interest in the matter.

The county investigated, and it turns out there was mold after all. But it's apparently nothing a bottle of Clorox can't take care of!

Fairfax County zoning enforcement inspector Bruce Miller inspected the building after Thomas' complaint shortly after his termination in August.

Though mold and dust were found, it is not a criminal matter, nor is it regulated by the county, said county spokeswoman Merni Fitzgerald. The only action the county will take is in the form of a recommendation.

“In cases like this we make recommendations that it be cleaned with a mild bleach solution,” she said.

Great idea! We'll grab the squeegie.

Well hello, Mr. Positive!

Congressman Jim Moran has weighed in on the delicate political calculus holding the fate of Metro's awesome Silver Line in the balance.

"We're not going to get the $900 million in federal funding from this administration," Moran tells WTOP.

Moran blasted the current group at the Federal Transit Administration and the U.S. Department of Transportation Tuesday, saying they are in "no mood" to say yes to the proposed 23-mile Metrorail extension.

"No matter how valiant Gov. (Tim) Kaine's efforts are, I think they are going to bounce off tin ears. I think (the administration) has made a decision probably for both political as well as budgetary reasons to reject this," says Moran.

Thanks, Mr. Sunshine! We can't see any political gain that would come from killing public funding for the Metro, so we'll just keep clapping. And besides, if the feds don't pony up the $900 million to scatter approximately 323,000 orange cones topped with flashing yellow lights throughout the Tysons Tegucigalpa area, Kaine has, as they say in the movies, a plan. Just hike tolls on the Toll Road!

Kaine continued his drumbeat that federal partnership is crucial to the success of the proposed rail line. But he appeared to be trying something new: getting commuters to put pressure on the Federal Transit Administration.

"What the federal share enables us to do is to build this and keep the tolls at a manageable level, which is appropriate for the hundreds of thousands who use this as a commuter route," Kaine said on WTOP's "Ask the Governor" program. "If you take the federal money out, my worry is that the tolls would be exorbitant."

Charges on the Dulles Toll Road have risen to 75 cents at the main plaza and 50 cents at the exits, and they are scheduled to rise further under a plan to finance the rail line. The toll road is operated by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is also managing the rail project. Part of the authority's agreement with Virginia is to pay for much of the rail line with toll increases.

Kaine said that tolls could go still higher if the federal government declines to grant $900 million for the $5 billion project.

Sounds like a lot of quarters.

This week on a very, very, very special 'Reston Heights': No Metro, No Problem!

The awesome Reston Heights subdivision and its 2,800 Loudoun SUV-attracting parking spaces have been approved by the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, who apparently are no longer worried about the fact that it's sited on the opposite side of the highway from the planned Metro station that probably will no longer ever exist again. Unless, of course, it will.

Hudgins said JBG has pledged 12 percent of the residential development to be affordable housing units, a proffer that the company was not compelled to make since the site is not being rezoned.

Art Hill, a nearby resident and vice chairman of the Reston Association's Planning and Zoning Committee, said a chief concern regarding the development remains the sheer size.

“It should be proportional to what's already up there east of the Sheraton, and it's not. It exceeds it by about 300,000 square feet, which is a lot,” he said.

Hill said he anticipates from conversations at P&Z meetings that JBG's plan may change in the coming months now that it has been approved, primarily to include more retail.

More importantly, Hill said JBG will be affected by what several other Reston developments will have to face if the rail project falls through.

“I think a lot of these people are going to have to rethink what they're going to do,” he said.

Yep! For starters, they won't need to build that awesome Metro access across the highway:

This Week in Crime: Internal Affairs

Fairfax County Police's resource officer at Herndon Middle School was arrested for embezzlement. Lest that sound like someone was taking a few extra tater tots while patrolling the cafeteria lunch line, Fairfax County wants you to know that Mark Ours was actually allegedly tweaking his timesheet.

A press release said the arrest came after an investigation into alleged false reporting of hours on attendance records. Ours, who has been assigned to the Reston District Station, was charged at police headquarters and transported to the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center.

Public Information Officer Eddy Azcarate said the charges mean a likely falsification of time cards that are submitted to the county for payment.

“This has been a fairly long investigation,” he said. “Any person at any business, any job or any place may take five minutes here and there, this obviously was more,” he said, though the department will not release the amount of embezzlement as it is an ongoing investigation.

The last time a Fairfax County police officer was arrested was in December 2006, for a DWI.

Awkward!

From black T-shirts to CAPS

Ahead of the first of several planned meetings about redistricting involving South Lakes High School and Fairfax County Public Schools' controversial plan to add students from such transitional neighborhoods as Oakton Woods, with its ghetto-like $758,000 homes and shocking paucity of Bratz dolls, a new group has come forward to oppose the plan. Called FairfaxCAPS, it's made up of many of the original groups that came up with such ideas as wearing black T-shirts to public hearings to protest redistricting. Given that their earlier efforts didn't always come across as the world's most enlightened or selfless, they're taking a new, proactive, kid-friendly tack. South Lakes isn't bad -- it just has IB! And they're all for diversity -- just look at this picture!

Okay, so maybe they're not so keen on boys. In case you're keeping score at home, here are the groups involved:

FairfaxCAPS includes concerned citizens from the following organizations:

* Friends of Madison
* KeepOakton.org
* Stay with Westfield
* StopRD.org
* United We Stand
* Western Fairfax HOA Concerned Citizens
* Fox Mill Estates Home Owners Association

Additionally we represent numerous families, PTAmembers and homeowners* in the many subdivisions, including:

* Bradley Farms
* Meadow Hall (approx. 123 homes)
* Middleton Farms (207 Homes)
* Monroe Chase
* Monroe Manor (184 homes)
* Oak Mill
* Smith Farm (21 homes)
* Sycamore Lakes(168 homes)
* Sycamore Ridge

*Please note: PTAs and HOAs typically have bylaws which prevent them from taking public positions on political matters.

Duly noted.

CAPS will debut in a community meeting January 29, 2008, at 7:00pm, at Fox Mill Elementary School. The meeting will highlight key community concerns in advance of the School Board public hearings scheduled for January 30, 31 and February 9.

Metro Silver Line: Time out!

After last week's wacky, sitcom-like misunderstanding about federal funding for Metro's Silver Line, for which construction has already sort of begun even though no green light was given but that was okay since Gov. Kaine's best friend's sister's cousin's girlfriend had told him it was going to get the green light or whatever but in reality they secretly planned to reject it so Bush administration cronies the Carlyle Group could totally privatize it and build the rails out of depleted uranium exported from Iraq or whatever.... everyone's taking a time out.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Mary Peters has agreed to a brief "cooling-off" period before making a final decision on whether to fund a rail line to Dulles International Airport, prompting a renewed effort by Virginia political leaders to keep the troubled project alive.

Yay! That's good, especially since the real construction was supposed to start... uh... Friday. Luckily, the contractors are buying into the whole "time-out" concept as well.

The contract to build the rail line has an escalation clause that was set to kick in Friday. The clause would drive up the price, and keep the project from meeting federal standards for cost-effectiveness. But the contractor has agreed to push back that deadline for 30 days.

And the completion date by about, oh, 30 years.

Meanwhile, Post columnist Marc Fisher has come up with, as they say in the movies, a plan, which basically comes down to ditching Big Dig contractor Bechtel, reconsidering buses and light rail, and--oh yeah--actually giving Metro a new dedicated funding source, so it can actually afford to have some really awesome track fires on the new line. That's so crazy, it just might work!

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 14: Kick off those Sunday shoes

Awesome student loan company Sallie Mae, which lost a mere $1.6 billion in the last quarter, announced that it's secured more than $30 billion in financing to keep it afloat. All it had to do was drop its awesome lawsuit with the people who wanted to buy it until they realized it was, you know, hemorrhaging billions of dollars the way most people lose their remotes in the sofa seatcushions. Or was it... personal?

For Sallie Mae's Albert L. Lord, then chairman and now chief executive, the slow unraveling of the buyout became personal. He contrasted his "land-grant" education as "a Penn State guy" to billionaire investor J. Christopher Flowers's Harvard background and said at one point that he would not accept a reduced price. Later, he urged Flowers to reopen negotiations, but Flowers refused.

Now that's just silly. Had Lord been a Yalie, then it might have been personal. And if he'd gone to Princeton... well, let's just say he'd be polishing Flowers' shoes at the moment.

Anyhoo. Meanwhile Sprint/Nextel/Whatever announced it has canned three top execs.

Sprint announced the immediate departures of three top executives, including Chief Financial Officer Paul Saleh.

The troubled wireless carrier said that in addition to Saleh, Tim Kelly, chief marketing officer, and Mark Angelino, president of sales and distribution, had left.

Last week, Sprint announced it would lay off 4,000 employees and close 125 retail stores -- changes it said would save between $700 million and $800 million a year. The company did not say how many of the layoffs will come from its headquarters in Reston.

Hesse also said he would consider consolidating Sprint's two corporate campuses and moving the headquarters back to Overland Park, Kan., a suburb of Kansas City, where it was before the merger.

Though the company hasn't said where its 4,000 job cuts will fall, analyst Patrick Comack of Zachary Investment Research said he expects the job losses to be at the Reston campus, which would fold soon after.

"The low-hanging fruit for Hesse is to straighten out the campus situation, which Forsee should have done years ago and was part of his incompetence," Comack said.

Better kick off those Sunday shoes!

Keep Clapping! (And pay $9.60)

Now that the federal gubmint has all but pulled the plug on Metro's awesome Silver Line because it's inefficient or not sufficiently underground to meet ADA requirements for golems or too likely to catch on fire like the rest of Metro's underfunded, underserviced transit system or whatever, the market has spoken.

Private equity investors are drawing up proposals to partner with Virginia for a rail line to Dulles International Airport as hope fades that the federal government will help fund the 23-mile Metrorail extension.

Robert W. Dove, co-head of the Carlyle Infrastructure Fund, said yesterday that his company is looking at the possibility of investing in a Dulles rail. Carlyle has not contacted Virginia officials but is reviewing the idea internally, Dove said.

Giving tolling power to a private company is of deep concern to some politicians, who worry that rates would rise unacceptably in private hands.

Why think that? It's not like another big infrastructure company with ties to the Bush administration and happens to own the Dulles Greenway recently announced plans to raise tolls to as high as $9.80. And with money to be made for cronies savvy investors, we don't see any reason why the Bush-appointed FTA heads would try to kill public funding for this project.

No, nothing to see here. Move on, please. But now, the really good news about the private Carlyle-branded Silver Line, straight from Dove:

"Metro would run it, but someone would make a payment to us for making it available every day," he said.

Great. The best of both worlds.

Reston Road Rules 2: Watch where you park!

Now that there won't be an awesome Metro station whisking Reston residents to the Bed-Bath-N-Beyond in Tysons Tegucigalpa, we should be thankful for the myriad park-and-ride lots and garages in the area, allowing us to live large on those awesome shiny orange-and-yellow buses. Just don't do anything stupid, like park your car in one.

Signs of trouble with the Herndon-Monroe park-and-ride garage surfaced long before the first commuter's car rolled into the $20 million facility off the Dulles Toll Road that Fairfax County opened in 1999.

Fresh cracks appeared last spring and chunks of concrete began falling away, creating safety concerns that prompted officials to fence off about 100 spaces.

A new study found "significant deterioration" in the garage roof because of the poor quality of the concrete. Drains were misplaced and inadequate for dealing with storm runoff. In some spots, water and salt had eaten through the concrete and exposed the reinforcing steel bars to corrosion. The engineering firm, Walker Parking Consultants, also questioned whether the garage had adequate supporting steel to withstand high winds or earthquakes.

The county says the building is safe but needs considerable work.

We think we'll just hitchhike.

Meanwhile, the proposed awesome improvements to Rt. 7, which include a new 29-lane elevated ramp and blinking directional signs ordering half-awake Sterling soccer moms to divert through Great Falls without stopping for coffee at the 7-11 on their way to their soul-numbing clerical jobs in McLean or wherever, have been funded. Well, actually, it's just a turn lane, but you wouldn't know that from what Great Falls residents are saying.

Some residents who live on or near Georgetown Pike appealed to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority not to add funding to the project, arguing that adding a turn lane and lengthening the existing turn lane will channel more traffic onto the scenic two-lane road that cuts through the center of their community and is already slowed by existing bottlenecks.

"Georgetown Pike is truly an historic road, having under its surface in a number of places the oldest engineered roadbed in this country -- roadbed engineered by George Washington," Eleanor Anderson, a member of the Great Falls Citizens Association's transportation committee, wrote to the authority.

Maybe they should just put up a sign: George Washington Sat in Traffic Here.

Hats off

The Reston Citizen, pretty much the only other blog covering the New Town, is calling it quits. It's a shame, because Reston has a definite need for a snark-free forum that doesn't use the words "awesome" and "mauve" in every post, especially since the oh-so-earnest Backfence folks have also closed up shop. Plus, the photography showcased on RC was.... well, awesome.

In any event, thanks, Citizen.

So you're saying we still have a chance!

The headline in today's Washington Post pretty much says it all:

Dulles Rail Project All but Dead
"The FTA made it very clear today to the delegation that they are going to say no to this project," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he did not want to anger the transit agency.

Now that doesn't sound good. What happened to all that awesome paperwork Virginia officials were going to spend the weekend on?

Simpson said the FTA would not make a final decision on Dulles rail funding until Kaine and the congressional delegation have had a chance to respond to his concerns. The agency's initial promise to render a decision by the end of January is on hold, he said.

Kaine said Virginia officials and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, which is managing the project, would address the concerns of Simpson and Peters by Monday. But several project supporters, including state and congressional officials, said privately that it would not be possible to meet all of the federal government's demands.

Well, not with that attitude! Guess it's time to start finding folks to blame for the fact that the next time we want to take a monorail ride through a futuristic urban wonderland like Tysons Corner, we'll have to go to Disneyworld. So where should the pitchfork-wielding crowds go first?

Simpson emphasized his concerns about Metro, likening the Dulles expansion to putting a two-room addition onto a house that is falling down. "First, you have to fix the house," he said later at a news conference. "Metro's operational issues have become really serious over the last several months," he said. "I spent several hours with senior staff at Metro talking about their unfunded needs. They're holding up some of their subway stations with jacks. They're holding other subway stations up with two-by-fours and plywood. I could go on."

So could we. But of course, for some folks, it's time to party like it's... 1989!

One group not disappointed with yesterday's news is the coalition of community activists who have been pushing for a tunnel through the Tysons Corner segment of the project. Project planners instead decided on an elevated track, saying that a tunnel would cost too much and jeopardize federal funds. Tunnel supporters have been pushing for a timeout on the project to give a tunnel more study.

"This is an opportunity for us to make the best of this and see if we can't get the project corrected," said Scott Monett of TysonsTunnel.org. "We can still move Dulles rail forward -- with a tunnel."

Great idea! We'll go grab a spoon and start digging a hole near the Bed Bath N Beyond(tm).

In the meantime, the DC area joins the ranks of some awesome cities.

THE INTERNATIONAL airports in Chicago, London, Hong Kong, Tokyo and Sydney are served by passenger rail lines. Those in Kampala, Ulan Bator and Tegucigalpa are not. The Bush administration has now, for all intents and purposes, decided that Washington, D.C., belongs forever in the second category and not in the first.

In honor of the selfless developers "community activists" who helped derail this project, we'll heretofore refer to Tysons as Tegucigalpa -- if only Tegucigalpa had an Olive Garden (tm).

Guess we didn't clap loud enough

Federal officials tell Virginia that Metro's shiny new Silver Line wouldn't be prudent!

The head of the Federal Transit Administration, James S. Simpson, outlined his concerns in a letter sent Thursday to Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine. He said the project doesn't appear to be a "prudent investment."

The FTA evaluated the project under the New Starts criteria and considered the risks associated with the project.

According to Simpson's letter, "The sheer number and magnitude of the current project's technical, financial and institutional risks and uncertainties are unprecedented for a candidate New Starts project."

According to New Starts criteria, a project must receive a rating of medium or higher for project justification and local financial commitment. The FTA rated the Dulles Metro project medium-low for both.

That doesn't sound good. But all we need to do is to pull up our bootstraps and get clapping again. Right?

"If this project is not approved, it's dead. There are contracts that expire on Feb. 1. You can't just snap your fingers and start it back up," said Jim Dinegar, of the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

Looks like Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine's got a busy weekend ahead of him:

After meeting for several hours with Simpson, Kaine indicated they need to answer the federal concerns by Monday.

"We have a great sense of confidence in this project and the partners of the project and the fact that we have done what we have been asked to do and met the criteria. But we will see what their written documentation is."

Failing that, the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce has come up with, as they say in the movies, a plan. They're urging people to call the White House and ask Bush to overrule his own Transportation Secretary.

We'll stick to clapping.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 13: Sorry for the Salty Language (and the $1.6 billion)

Sallie Mae chief executive Albert L. Lord is very, very sorry about the salty language he used during a conference call last month. And also that $1.64 billion the company lost in the fourth quarter.

On Wednesday, Lord apologized for his conduct: "I can't say it's the first time I've used bad language. It's the first time I did it in front of 500 people," he said.

Then again, if we couldn't find that $1.64 billion we had lying around after looking under the couch cushions, we might use the F-word, too.

Into the Woodshed

A host of state officials are meeting with the Feds today to find out if Metro's awesome Silver Line to Reston, Dulles and the wastelands beyond can be saved.

The $5 billion project needs $900 million in federal money to move forward, but backers say they are alarmed that reservations among Federal Transit Administration officials could scuttle the plan. The FTA is to decide in the next week whether to approve money for the rail line.

The FTA has expressed concerns about everything from the cost of the project to the contractor -- the same folks that brought us the leaky, only occasionally collapsing Big Dig in Boston. But apparently there are other concerns as well:

In phone conversations with the congressional delegation in recent days, Simpson and other FTA officials said a main concern is whether the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority has the experience and technical staff to manage the complexities of a 23-mile extension to one of the nation's largest and busiest transit systems, according to the lawmakers' letter.

FTA officials also questioned whether Metro is financially positioned to operate the new line in addition to its existing system. The officials said they wondered whether the Dulles Toll Road, which is operated by the airports authority, can generate enough money to pay for the rail project's second phase from Reston to the airport, which is the current financing plan.

Hmm. Well. Other than the occasional track fire and wardrobe malfunction, we'd say that Metro is right as rain. Fortunately, all that grassroots developer-backed under-not-over nonsense has been squared away, right?

Project backers also say they are worried about continued efforts to put the rail line underground through the Tysons Corner portion of the project and whether that is slowing the approval process. Kaine decided in 2006 to forgo a tunnel despite broad public support because of the risk of adding costs and delays.

But last week, two Northern Virginia officials, state Sen. J. Chapman "Chap" Petersen (D-Fairfax) and Fairfax Supervisor John W. Foust (D-Dranesville), sent letters to the FTA urging a "time-out" so the tunnel idea could be studied.

Great idea! Just keep clapping, kids, or that "time-out" will be spent in perpetual Toll Road gridlock.

Reston Real Estate: The High-Low Game, pt. 4

It's time once again to play everyone's favorite declining real estate market game: High-Low!

We start with a townhouse on White Cornus Lane. Priced at $199,900, it's the cheapest non-condo currently available in Reston. But don't think it's your typical dated Reston townhouse... it's actually brand new! Well, sort of.

This 2 level townhouse needs just a little TLC... Update the kitchen, new paint, and carpet means new house. Priced to sell.

But aren't they all? Aren't they all...


Meanwhile, we decided to skip the usual faux-rock-faced McMansion piles around Rt. 7 and looked for the priciest house within Reston proper. At $1.475 million, this house on Lake Audobon is this week's winner.

"CAPTAIN'S ROW" ON LAKE AUDUBON! THIS INCREDIBLE WATERFRONT CONTEMPORARY HOME ENJOYS SPECTACULAR "BIG WATER" VIEWS YEAR 'ROUND! RECENT RENOVATIONS INCLUDE NEWER ROOF, SIDING, WOOD FLOORS, STONE WALLS, STONE WALKWAYS, UPGRADED LANDSCAPING, NEW WINDOWS & SGDS! 2 GAS FPS! STONE PATIO & DECK WITH AWESOME VIEWS! 3-CAR GARAGE & HEATED DRIVEWAY! PRIVATE DOCK! YOUR PRIVATE RETREAT!

On the plus side, you'd be able to make all your friends call you "Captain." But what the hell is a heated driveway? Can you flip a switch and instantly melt any door-to-door solicitors or illegal parkers? And we've said it before and we'll say it again: For an estimated $44,000+ commission, you'd think the selling agent could afford a keyboard with a CAPS LOCK key.

Don't tell the black T-shirt crowd where their phone books are

... but this bit of YouTube inspired lunacy is hilarious. We're guessing Mssr. Tistadt's gotten an unlisted number by now.

This Week in Crime: And that was before she saw how much martinis cost at McCormicks & Schmicks

An Ashburn woman was robbed in the Hyatt hotel parking garage Thursday night.

The robbery took place shortly after midnight on the second level of the Hyatt Hotel parking garage located at 1800 Presidents Street, police said.

Investigators said the victim was at her car when she was approached from behind by a man who pointed a gun at her and demanded money.

The woman handed over an undisclosed amount of cash and was not injured, police said.

The robber fled on foot and was seen leaving the garage a short time later with two other men, investigators said. The three men are described as black, in their late 20s, about 5 feet 9 inches tall and weighing about 185 pounds. They all wore dark clothing.

That same night, the Exxon on Sunrise Valley Drive was robbed.

A 36-year-old employee of the Exxon gas station located at 11854 Sunrise Valley Drive was robbed on Thursday, Jan. 17, shortly before 1 a.m. Two men went immediately behind the counter where the employee was standing, implied a weapon and took an undisclosed amount of cash from the register. The victim was not injured and the suspects fled out the front door.

One suspect was white, in his 20s, about 6 feet tall and approximately 165 pounds. He wore all black clothing. The second suspect was black, also in his 20s, about 5 feet 7 inches, weighing approximately 150 pounds. He also wore dark clothing and a black mask covering his face.

Thursday nights: For Reston criminals, they must be the new Saturday.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 12: Pink slips and Little Pink Houses (For You And Me)

Sallie Mae is laying off 14 folks in Reston as part of a 3 percent cut of its workforce of 11,000. No word on whether the pink slips included liberal uses of the F-word.

It's now official: Sprint Nextel is slashing 4,000 jobs and closing 125 stores.

There was no word in its statement about the fate of its headquarters in Reston.

We know what that means!

Reston homebuilder Comstock may get booted from the Nasdaq because its stock price has fallen faster than property values in an exurban subdivision. (Oh wait--we used that lame analogy yesterday, too.) This, after reporting 110 sales of those little pink houses in the fourth quarter -- and 71 cancellations.

On the bright side, Reston's Used Book Shop at Lake Anne Village is celebrating its 30th birthday. Yay! Here's what people are saying:

"People comment over the years, 'I don't know how you stay in business, but please don't ever close,'" said Bud Burwell, who now owns the business with his wife, Susan.

Right now, if we were betting people, we'd give the bookstore better odds than various home builders, student loan companies, and cellphone providers. When the dust settles, it and this august, albeit mustard-yellow institution may very well be the last two awesome Reston businesses standing.

Clap much, much, much louder!

Turns out the biggest threat to the awesome, pants-optional Silver Line to Reston, Dulles and the hinterlands beyond isn't grassroot groups developers in Tysons Corner. Nope -- it's the Feds.

Federal officials remain skeptical of the plan to extend Metrorail to Dulles International Airport and might reject it, even though their consultants recently found that the proposal meets requirements for full funding, government and project sources said.

Those meddling, in-your-face, big-government types! Oh, wait.

Officials with the Federal Transit Administration say they are concerned about the price tag and the specter of another Big Dig, the Boston project built by the same contractor in charge of the Dulles rail line, which took years longer and cost millions more than planned, according to the sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the negotiations are sensitive. In addition, the agency has been reluctant to promote large-scale transit projects.

Given the Big Dig's track record, we should probably thank our lucky stars that the Over, Not Under option prevailed. Fortunately, Silver Line supporters are on top of this problem. Right?

News that the rail plan is still at risk has surprised its backers, who said they thought the FTA was satisfied that the project's cost, ridership estimates, contract details and management met agency criteria. A consultant for the FTA, Hill International of Philadelphia, recently submitted two draft reports that sign off on a host of technical details, said sources who have spoken with the consultant.

Numerous sources close to the project -- in congressional offices, the airports authority and state government -- say their optimism soured in recent days as they began hearing from the FTA and Transportation Department officials.

FTA spokesman Wes Irvin declined to comment on the status of the project yesterday, except to note that a decision, expected at the end of the month, has not been made....

Some say the FTA has long been skeptical of expensive rail projects; in recent years, it has more often championed bus rapid transit projects.

Others point to a long-standing desire in the Transportation Department to move away from public investments in infrastructure. Peters, the transportation secretary, for example, refused to endorse a report published Tuesday by a bipartisan national commission on the future of the nation's transportation system. She instead issued a dissent decrying wasteful spending and the federal government's large share of the investment. She said she favored private investment and more tolling to control congestion.

Great. We've seen the effects of more tolling. And so far, the only private investment involving the Silver Line has been the $3 million ponied up to try and stop it -- and even that proved a pretty crappy investment, given that support for a lawsuit collapsed faster than property values in an exurban subdivision.

Just keep clapping, kids! We'll see you in bumper-to-bumper traffic.

Guess they'll have to do fundraising door-to-door

Let's give the Oakcrest school, a small Catholic girls school that's moving to Reston from McLean, a big Reston welcome!

The Oakcrest School may have gotten more challenges than it bargained for with its recent land purchase in the Reston-Vienna area, where it hopes to expand.

Hmm. That doesn't sound good. Schools are nice. Uniforms are always cute. What could possibly be wrong?

Seeking to expand, the school purchased 23 acres of land on Hunter Mill Road between Reston and Vienna in November for about $15 million.

The school's possible problem can be traced back to to the man from whom it bought the property – aspiring developer John Thoburn.

Oh, right. That John Thoburn, the chap whose battle with Fairfax County over the parcel of land bordering Hunter Mill Road and the Toll Road ultimately cost him more than $125,000 and 30 days in jail.

Although Oakcrest has met with the Defense League and enjoys a good relationship with its McLean neighbors, Hunter Mill Defense League Board member Steve Hull says he and other Hunter Mill residents see Oakcrest's plans as another strategy by Thoburn.

"The school represents a more intense use, and he can use that to say he should be allowed a more intense use on his own property," Hull said.

Although Hull can point to worries about increased traffic and safety as coming simply from the school's own plans, he admits the greater attention of Hunter Mill Road residents will be on what those plans could mean for Thoburn's remaining property.

"John's motives have been clear from the beginning; everything John does is to set precedent and drive up the zoning and density on his property," Hull said.

Those of you who weren't here during the go-go, IPO-and-Boxter crazed ought-one era (Careerbuilder rocked!) might be wondering what Thoburn did to land himself in the klink:

County officials acknowledged it was rare to jail someone over a zoning matter, but they said Thoburn, 43, had failed to plant the required number of trees and shrubs on the driving range.

That, and the fact that he kept threatening to build a massive housing development, basically out of spite, on the empty parcel of land if he didn't get his way. But there's more!

Another zoning regulation allows a "snack food concession." Yet Fairfax County issued a zoning violation for selling hot dogs and Cokes. They say we can sell pre-wrapped roast beef deli sandwiches, but not microwave hot dogs. We can sell Coca-Cola in a bottle or can, but not in a cup.

Wow. Those students better not sell pre-wrapped snacks at football games, or they'll be trading one set of uniforms for another.

Spineless and Pantless: Your Metro Detractors

Work on moving utilities in Tysons Corner has begun in anticipation of Metro's much-ballyhooed Silver Line to Dulles. Which may or may not happen, of course, because of issues with lawsuits, as-of-yet undelivered federal funding, and concerns about marring the awesome aesthetics of Tysons' exquisite combination of endless traffic, low-rise, big-box Bed-Bath-N-Beyond dreck, and mid-rise office buildings that were the architectural answer to the mirrored sunglasses craze of the mid-1980s.

But to hear folks in Tysons tell it, people are already getting out of "Fairfax County's downtown"(tm) faster than boxes of overpriced Crate-N-Barrel(tm) cutlery during a half-off sale.

It is very likely that the Dulles Metrorail extension, the high-occupancy toll lanes on I-495 and the first phase of the massive new Tysons Corner Center will all be under construction at the same time. With so much happening in a small area already renowned for its congestion, it seems likely that business in Tysons Corner will be affected to some extent.

"If I was a business person, I'd be wondering where are my workers living, how tough is it going to be for them to get here?" said Rob Jackson, president of the McLean Citizens Association, a local civic group.

Jackson and sources active in the Reston and Dulles corridor real estate markets say they believe many Tysons companies will choose to move closer to Washington Dulles International Airport, so as not to lose employees to the heightened congestion.

TysonsTunnel.org President Scott Monett cited numbers from a regional real estate database firm that show commercial real estate absorption down by about 60,000 square feet in 2007, and a vacancy rate that has risen to over 9 percent.

Well, we've certainly got the space for them 'round these here parts. But we still don't get why these Tysons folks are whining. They put up with a little dust for a year or 7, and then they'll be able to leave their cars behind and just hop on the Metro whenever they want to go to the Pizzeria Uno at Reston Town Center or other, lesser destinations like downtown DC. Right? Well, maybe not.

Tysons Land Use Task Force Chairman Clark Tyler concedes that a sufficient number of commuters won’t use Dulles Rail unless a “circulator” delivers them to four stations at the base of its monstrous elevated tracks. “Metro by itself won’t do it,” Tyler said. But this “circulator” is nothing more than a bus rapid-transit system, which Dulles Rail opponents have been pushing for years as a better, cheaper alternative to heavy rail.

Fairfax Chamber president and Dulles Rail cheerleader Willam Lecos acknowledges that wealthy landowners who plan to cash in on their proximity to the new Metro stations are balking at paying for the circulator, too. He says “a new funding strategy” (i.e. higher taxes) must be found to pay for a secondary transportation system whose main purpose is to entice Tysons workers to use the first.

We'd better keep clapping. On the bright side, if Metro's detractors are successful in derailing the Silver Line, we won't have to worry about things like this.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 11: At least you won't have to run to Blockbuster to pick up Footloose

Turns out Sprint Nextel's newest awesome plan to solve its cratering customer base and worthless, static-filled phones is fairly simple: they're going to lay scads of people off.

Sprint Nextel is planning to lay off several thousand employees and considering consolidating its headquarters at the Overland Park campus, The Wall Street Journal reported today.

The Journal quoted unnamed sources and said the cuts were meant to show investors the company was serious about holding down costs. The company has had its “operational headquarters” at the local Sprint campus and its “executive headquarters” in Reston, Va., the former Nextel home city.

On the bright side, getting laid off means you don't have to move to Kansas.

Also, Sprint's awesome Wimax service, which will allow cellphone users to download the above YouTube video in amazing real time, is set for an April launch. How exciting is that, Sprint CTO Barry West?

"People will be excited about our rates. They won't be ecstatic about them because we're not going to give it away," said West.

Now there's some good PR.

Could be worse, though. Things at cross-town neighbor Sallie Mae are going so swimmingly they're basically having to bribe people to come work there. At least if you're a C-level employee, that is:

The Reston-based student loan company agreed to pay John F. "Jack" Remondi an annual salary of $1 million. Remondi also was given a form of stock award that would deliver $2 million for every $1 increase in the company's share price, subject to certain conditions.

Remondi, 45, could earn an annual cash bonus of up to $3 million. His perks include up to two years of housing in Reston and $100,000 a year for personal use of corporate aircraft. If he is fired without cause within a year, he would receive at least $1.5 million in severance pay, according to a company filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Remondi's $1 million salary was higher than any other chief financial officer's in a survey by the research firm SNL Financial of 2006 compensation at banks, thrifts and specialty lending companies with stock market valuations of more than $5 billion. It was more than double the $465,000 median base salary for the 23 CFOs in that group -- and 150 percent more than the $400,000 salary Remondi's predecessor at Sallie Mae received in 2006.

High executive compensation at Sallie Mae over the years has helped make federally subsidized student lenders a target for politicians.

Can't imagine why. Though we wonder if that awesome Reston housing allowance is for a swinging C-level bachelor pad like this.

'Reston Heights': Back in Reruns

The awesome Reston Heights development and its 2,800 parking spaces of gridlock-inducing fun will have to wait a bit longer: Fairfax County Supervisors deferred a decision on the project until Jan. 28.

Hunter Mill district Supervisor Cathy Hudgins recommended the deferral because she said there had been a few last-minute changes to the proposal that needed further review.

Ben Tompkins, who represented The JBG Companies at Monday's board meeting, said the project would provide a "much-needed amenity basis for south Reston," and that the developer plans to pursue Leadership in Energy and Environment Design Silver status, which is earned by "green" buildings that meet specific energy efficiency requirements.

"Much-needed amenity basis" must be developer-speak for "another awesome restaurant like Chili's." But what about traffic?

However, three of the four residents who spoke at the public hearing said they had concerns about traffic problems the development would create along Sunrise Valley Drive. Reston resident Marie Huhtala, who ran unsuccessfully for the Hunter Mill district seat on the board last year, said the Reston Heights project would generate thousands of new trips each day on the already-congested Sunrise Valley Drive.

Nancy Murphy, a member of the Hunters Green Cluster Association, which is located near the proposed project, said her neighbors are not against the construction, but they are concerned that the density would overwhelm Sunrise Valley Drive. "The road is not equipped to handle this type of traffic," she said. Murphy suggested a 30 percent reduction in the density of the project would be better for the surrounding area.

Here's the problem: Given its proximity to both the Fake Downtown(tm) and the future Metro station, this project should be dense. It also should have some sort of awesome pedestrian access to both, to keep some of those 2,800 parking spaces free for Loudoun County residents who consider dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, or whatever "upscale" dining options come with this project, a trip into the big, scary city. And speaking of dining, here's one last thing to worry about:

In addition, David Ho, who owns the Popeyes restaurant that is adjacent to the proposed development, shared his concerns about the possible effect the construction could have on his business, and Tompkins said they would work with Ho to alleviate any of his concerns.

Here's an issue we can all get behind: They're already razing the Chili's. We can't afford to lose Popeye's, too.

Don't put that black T-shirt on eBay just yet!

The Fairfax County School Board has scheduled public hearings on the not-at-all-controversial South Lakes High School boundary changes for Jan. 30, Jan. 31, and Feb. 9. You can sign up to speak at one of the meetings, and we're really really hoping someone will read the Bratz speech. We'd pay good money to see that, except, you know, the school board doesn't seem to cotton to the whole videotaping thing.

Meanwhile, talk of lawsuits stemming from the redistricting proposal is starting to percolate in at least two of the affected communities.

A member of the group, who wrote under the name "Manager_staywithwestfield," issued a letter Jan. 1 that discussed the possibility of taking legal action against the county. "We have made an appointment with a well-known lawyer in the coming week to seek legal advices and discuss the legal actions we may start soon," the author wrote in the message. The member, whose identity was not listed on the site, did not return an e-mail request for comment.

If it's on the Internet, it must be true. And if you have a phone, you have a "well-known" lawyer.

This Week, Another Very Special 'Reston Heights'

The awesome Reston Heights development, with its four high-rise buildings and parking spaces and complete and utter lack of access to the proposed Metro station across the highway is apparently ready to go before the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors.

The development from JBG Cos. — dubbed Reston Heights — won approval from the Planning Commission in November and will come before the board at its first meeting of 2008. If approved, the development along Sunrise Valley Drive would bring a 10-acre cluster of dense urban growth to the outlying planned community.

It’s one of numerous projects that developers hope to install along the path of the planned Dulles Rail extension, and the local opposition that has mounted around it could be a warning sign of many land-use fights to come.

“We know we’re dealing with a juggernaut here,” said Fred Rothwarf, who lives in the Hunters Green cluster and is working to mobilize opposition to JBG’s proposal. “And the possibility of having the Board of Supervisors rule in our favor is very small. But we’re making the effort nonetheless, to at least be on record as [to] how bad it is, and how bad it’s going to be.”

What a bunch of whiners! So the development has 2,800 parking spaces and no planned access to Metro? Getting out of Hunters Green will just take a little ingenuity:

Better wear black, not Navy

Ahead of Thursday's awesome school board meeting, at which the Fairfax County School Board will formally begin considering whether to subject kids from South Lakes High School to their counterparts from such economically challenged areas as Oakton Woods, with its ghetto-like $758,000 homes and shocking paucity of Bratz dolls, the school system has tweaked its redistricting proposal one last time:

The proposal, from the staff of Superintendent Jack D. Dale, would reduce demographic disparities among five high schools. South Lakes, which is operating far below capacity and serves more low-income and minority families than the other four, would gain students bound for Westfield Madison and Oakton high schools. In addition, some students in the Chantilly High attendance zone would be rerouted to Oakton.

The staff's recommendation largely mirrors a proposal offered Dec. 19 at a town hall meeting at Oakton. The only tweak affected a neighborhood near Navy Elementary School. Under the staff plan, more students from that neighborhood would move into Oakton's attendance area and out of Chantilly's.

Poor Navy kids. They'll be forced to go to school, against their will, with insufferable Oakton folks like this:

* SL should be grateful they are getting what they wanted, more kids plucked out of communities that do not belong in Reston to help them perform better.

* Will you please get it through your thick skulls that Langley will NEVER be redistricted. We are different from you!!! Get over it!!!

* "Plasma screens can be found along the wall of the main hallway and the career center..." Hope they are bolted to the wall.

* Please do not push for AP at SL. If they have AP classes at SL, short of selling and moving we will be forced to go to south lakes. Be careful of what you ask for.

* I am concerned about this parent-kid stuff because my child is hearing from (a few) other children that South Lakes stinks, that there are murders there, that he will be surrounded by druggies -- and he is very likely going there.

* We can solve this problem the way we solve most others - Let import them from Mexico or any other country where people are willing to come to US... I am sure there will be thousands of applicants, if we offer free visas and settle them in Reston, so that they can fill up the empty seats at SL.

Maybe they can be asked to be pupil-placed into South Lakes.

Meanwhile, State Del. Ken Plum has weighed in on this whole mess, basically comparing this process to the painful integration of Virginia schools in the early 1970s.

One of the more memorable moments in recent Virginia history was recorded in a front-page New York Times photograph and story of Governor Lynwood Holton walking his daughter Tayloe into a predominately Black high school in Richmond in 1970 to enroll her for classes. His wife was at the same time enrolling their other daughter Anne and their son Woody in schools in which they were the only white children in their classes. Woody grew up to become a prominent author and historian, and his sister Anne is now First Lady of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Governor Holton took a bold leadership step to show folks that their fears about the integration of public schools were not well founded. He explained later that he felt integration of the schools was the morally right thing to do. After decades of lawsuits, our public schools are for the most part integrated. The worst fears of the consequences of integration were never realized. […]

The recent process the School Board has undertaken in our region to adjust boundaries has brought some of the feelings about our local schools into the open and exposed some biases that we may be surprised to learn continue to exist in our communities. In the process, South Lakes High School has gotten a bum rap.

Hmmm. While we think the black T-shirt wearing crowd have basically shown themselves for the self-serving elitists they are, there's a big difference between socioeconomics and racism. And there's an even bigger difference between integrating schools and sending kids to a school whose biggest issue is that, until recently, it lacked windows.

'Is the Reston dream dying?'

That's the question Tom Grubisich asked in Sunday's Washington Post. According to him, the answer is yes.

* Lake Anne Center -- Simon's crown jewel -- has deteriorated because of weak and fractured local leadership and a county government that moves as fast as a three-legged tortoise.

* The nature center that Simon promised shortly before he was ousted has finally progressed to the drawing board, albeit stripped of its "green" construction features.

* The regional library that was built 25 years ago is insufficient to serve Reston's digital generation.

* Reston's extensive network of stream valleys -- the centerpiece of its thousand acres of open space -- has been ravaged by pollution and runoff.

* Thousands of homes hastily built during the early years of the post-Simon construction boom are headed toward dilapidation.

Living in a ca. 1970 home in which few surfaces still meet at 90-degree angles, we'd say there was plenty of shoddy building during the Simon era as well. But all we need to do is airlift some more hilarious statuary into Lake Anne Center, hook up a couple of computers in the library to those Internet tubes, and fill up a Hefty bag or two of Lake Thoreau trash, and we'll be right as rain. It's not like we need some sort of new system of governance or anything, right?

Last year, the Reston Citizens Association, frustrated by the powerlessness of its own and other community organizations, launched a petition drive to make Reston a town. As a town, Reston would have the power to jump-start the long-stalled revitalization of Lake Anne and undertake other overdue initiatives. Governance would also permit Reston to use its strengths as the pioneer smart-growth community to find community-based answers to issues such as climate change and health care.

Sure, the Res-TOWN initiative hasn't gotten the warmest of receptions to date. But no one's mentioned the climate change/health care angle before! Just think -- the Design Review Board could operate as a HMO, approving medical procedures based on their aesthetic appeal! (Implants and liposuctions would go way up, but artificial limbs would have to be one of only three approved flesh tones.) Each cluster could choose its own way of fighting global warming by reducing their "carbon footprints," from installing solar panels on their swank carports in the summer to ripping the aforementioned carports down and burning them for heat in the winter!

With those kinds of benefits, who wouldn't mind paying extra town taxes for the giant shark-filled moat and mauve city limits signs? Certainly not Mssr. Grubisich, right?

The author... lived in Reston from 1967 to 2003.

Oh. Guess he doesn't have to worry about that.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 10: IPOs, Venture Funds, and a Farewell to the F-Word

Once again, it's time to pull the Boxter out of your carport or your perpetually open garage, because it's time to go back to the crazy, go-go days of the late 1990s!

One of those hip, late 90s venture capital funds, no doubt run by guys with ponytails and black turtlenecks, invested $7 million in Reston's Avail Media Inc., which sounds like it has something to do with video on demand (cough cough hotel room porn cough cough).

Meanwhile, Reston's hottest soon-to-be IPO is NVR Inc.... a home building firm. Good timing, that!

Reston's ICO Communications is at the Consumer Electronics Show, pitching a service that uses a combination of cellular and satellite technology to bring TV to your car. Watching Judge Judy while zipping along the Beltway at 60 miles an hour -- what could possibly go wrong? The service will be up and running as soon as their satellite launches, so watch for a plume of smoke shooting up from Golf Course Island sometime soon.

A company called CRG West bought a 285,000-square-foot data center on Sunrise Valley Drive. It basically sits right on top of the Internet's main pipe or series of tubes or whatever, meaning people inside will be able to pull up this site 0.0345 seconds faster. Yay!

As if moving to Kansas isn't bad enough, Sprint Nextel is facing a lawsuit over reduced retiree benefits. Those $4.99 corn fritter buffets in Overland Park will keep those checks going a lot further, though. But on the bright side, while Sprint Nextel's business is tanking faster than positive comments at a school redistricting meeting, they're doing gangbuster business... south of the border!

The Reston, Va.-based company's clever strategy focuses on building networks in big Latin American cities where the region's business elite congregate. NII rarely bothers to cover wider swathes of the country, beyond transportation corridors, since in rural areas the people tend to be poor.

Another component of its success: traffic jams. The company cites snarled roads as a big reason its customers have so much time to chat on their phone.

Yeah, totally different from the states, isn't it?

Sallie Mae named former bank executive Anthony P. Terracciano its new chairman, replacing trash-talking Albert L. Lord, whose use of the F-word sent the stock tanking in December. Lord is staying on as vice chairman and chief executive, so there's still hope for those boring investor calls! Or at least it'll help keep people's minds off that pesky Ed Department investigation or that lawsuit charging it steered minority students toward more expensive loans. Or that planned $3 billion stock offering. Or... well, you get the drift.

At least they're not moving to Kansas.

Res-TOWN: We're Not Dead Yet!

After being given the smackdown by every legislative, community, and association group, with the possible exception of the National Council of Churches and the Reston Combat Hang Gliding Club, you'd think the Res-TOWN folks would be down for the count, right? Not so much.

Despite some opposition from the county and other Reston-based groups, the plan to incorporate Reston as a town continues to move forward.

Saying the Res-TOWN initiative encountered "some" opposition is a bit like saying the Titanic encountered a spot of cold weather, but let's move on.

On Saturday at a hearing of the Fairfax County legislative delegation, the Fairfax County Federation of Citizens Association plans to request that a task force form to "address the mechanical issues of how the self governance of Reston should be implemented, identify and analyze the options, and make recommendations as to the governance of the proposed town of Reston," according to Jeff Parnes, president of the Fairfax County Federation.

The Fairfax County legislative delegation includes local representatives in the General Assembly, and Parnes said his group plans to ask the delegation to establish the task force to include General Assembly members, Fairfax County government officials and representatives from Reston Citizens Association and other Reston-based organizations.

Sounds like a plan. So how'd that go?

Parnes said RCA, which is pushing the ResTown plan, asked the Federation to endorse its plan, but after discussion, the Federation decided additional review was needed. "We felt that the Reston Citizens Association was not the complete population of Reston and we need a more widespread input," Parnes said.

Additionally, he said, they were concerned that the "proposal by the Reston Citizens Association might not have been vetted sufficiently by the county and by residents," so it could be voted down if it were at a referendum because people did not like the charter, not because they opposed the idea of incorporation.

Hmmm. Sounds familiar. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are saying because of all this, it doesn't make sense to approach the idea this legislative session. But there's always next year, right?

Meanwhile, in the Anti-Reston....

Herndon continues to be a shining example for its less enlightened neighbor to the east.

First, they're doing gangbuster business in bringing in the convention trade, or at least the racist convention trade:

The biannual New Century Foundation convention is organized by Oakton resident Jared Taylor, who calls himself a "race realist" and publishes American Renaissance magazine, which he has done for nearly 20 years.

The 2008 convention will take place Feb. 22-24 in Herndon.

"Taylor is a Nazi pig," Jeff Adler, spokesman for the Jewish Defense Organization, a militant group not affiliated with the Jewish Defense League, said in a phone interview.

Now that doesn't sound very tolerant! Just because such luminaries as David Duke somehow show up to the group's meeting each year doesn't make them bad guys, right?

"Yes, David Duke has attended despite being asked to stay away, but it's like if you have a restaurant and David Duke eats there, does that make you a neo-Nazi?" Taylor said.

That sounds suspiciously like a Jeff Foxworthy joke, so let's move on. The folks at the Herndon Crowne Plaza hotel have heard all the ruckus, but see no reason to cancel the convention:

"I see no reason to breach our agreement with that client," Welliver said in response to the effort. "We do not discriminate or judge clients and that is not how we go about evaluating pieces of business. That's real life, I am not in the position to give an opinion. Business does not have an opinion. I am just trying to pay the rent. I am just a lowly hotel guy trying to get through the day."

Sounds like he's just following orders.

Meanwhile, Help Save Herndon, one of the groups that helped rid the city of the scourge of its day labor center and ensure that its residents would have free and unfettered access to the Elden Street 7-11 and the precious bodily fluids contained therein, is going statewide.

Just two years after its founding, Help Save Herndon has expanded into a regional organization dedicated to helping citizens oppose illegal immigration and has received national attention. Its growth has not been without controversy, but what began as a small group of concerned residents has become Help Save Virginia, an umbrella group of about 2,500 people that also includes chapters in Loudoun, Manassas, Hampton Roads and Fairfax, according to Jones. The Herndon group has about 150 active members, he said.

There is also Help Save Maryland with chapters in six counties and there are people interested in forming Help Save organizations in Alabama and Arizona, Jones said. He said the group is not anti-immigrant, racist or xenophobic. "We are pro-community and pro-family," he said.

"We think this small town will probably be remembered as the forefront for immigration reform," Jones said.

Or something like that. Meanwhile, the effects of the closing have definitely been felt.

Taplin announced in an Oct. 26, 2007, letter that the Minutemen have disbanded. He wrote that the immigration situation has improved and thanked the Minutemen volunteers and the Town Council for their efforts.

Judicial Watch withdrew its lawsuit once the labor site closed, according to organization president Tom Fitton. Fitton said the lawsuit led to the eventual closing of the day labor site and he is "pleased that the citizens of Herndon are no longer forced to subsidize illegal day labor."

Mukit Hossain, founder of Project Hope & Harmony, said day laborers are leaving Herndon, but it is because there is little work in Herndon, not because the site closed. He said day laborers have suffered the effects of the slow construction market and may have to move to places where there is more work and cheaper rent.

"They are leaving not because of some fictitious victory," Hossain said. Workers may be leaving because there is, "just not work in this area, not enough to support a large day worker community," he said.

In other news, there's no truth to the rumor that Elden Street will be renamed the Highway of Tolerance.

This Week in Crime: a mob scene in South Reston

That awesome New Year's stabbing? Just a run of the mill mob attack.

A Reston mob allegedly attacked two 19-year-old Maryland men after they dropped off a friend at her home near the intersection of Glade Drive and Marginella Drive.

On Tuesday, Jan. 1, around 1:30 a.m., the two men attempted to drive away when a group of 10 to 15 men surrounded the victims' vehicle. One of the men reached through a back window and stabbed a passenger in the back. Another member of the group punched the driver. The driver pulled away and called 911. Once help arrived, the stabbing victim was flown to Inova Fairfax Hospital. The driver was not seriously injured.


Police arrested a 17-year-old Reston man in connection with the assault and charged him with assault by mob, destruction of property, and brandishing of a firearm. There were no descriptions of other group members provided to police and there have been no arrests for the stabbing.

Fairfax County police say the mob assault "could" be gang-related. Ya think? Either that, or the Design Review Board gets to be a pretty unruly bunch after a few belts of champagne.

Road Rules, Reston style

Lots of awesome news about roads in and around Reston:

First, Rt. 7 will be widened from somewhere beyond Reston Avenue west to Loudoun County. Of course, no public project even tangentially involving Reston (cough cough schools cough cough Metro) can get underway without some nearby, usually overentitled community crying foul. Oakton's currently otherwise occupied, so who's this week's winner? Survey says.... Great Falls!

What is particularly irritating to Great Falls residents is the perception that most of the users of the new turn lanes on Route 7 will be Loudoun County residents using the Georgetown Pike as a cut-through commuter route.

"You are providing cut-through routes for people from Loudoun County," one Great Falls resident said.

"We are here working with facts. We can't say here are 300 people on the Georgetown Pike; let's build an exclusive left-turn lane for them," said Salahshoor.

Funny, we thought being exclusive is what Great Falls is all about. Of course, we can't blame them. If we wanted to sit in traffic surrounded by minivans driven by Sterling soccer moms, we'd go to Costco.

Meanwhile in Reston proper, they've added a stop sign near Lake Anne. But not just any stop sign -- one of them new-fangled three-way stop signs! All thanks to a rumor that a summer car-vs-pedestrian accident at the intersection of North Shore Drive and Village Road almost took out Reston's founder:

In the hours following the accident, rumors swirled that the victim had been 94-year-old Reston founder Robert Simon, himself a resident of Lake Anne and a frequent walker.

Simon was unharmed and out of town and the victim was treated and released from the hospital, but the accident cemented the need for changes at the intersection.

As a result of the outcry from residents and efforts of Supervisor Cathy Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill), VDOT reviewed the intersection and agreed changes should be made.

Simon said he was involved in requests to VDOT for rumble strips in the area even before the accident, which he said probably contributed to the VDOT response.

“It should have because it created a bit of a stir. Actually I nearly was smacked there once, it's a bad place,” he said.

Speaking of bad places, things could always be worse. Here's a woman who took a new job in Reston because it shaved 30 minutes off a commute so bad that a newspaper in Canada wrote about it. No one tell the folks in Great Falls that she uses Rt. 7!

Happy New Year!

Reston rang in 2008 not with a bang, but with a stabbing off Glade Drive.

In Reston, authorities said that at about 2 a.m. on Tuesday, officers were called to Glade Drive and Mariginella Street on a report of a stabbing.

Once at the scene, police found a man suffering from non-life-threatening stab wounds.

Police did not say whether that victim was taken to a local hospital.

Unfortunately, our longstanding theory is true: Crime has escalated from sticks and stones to something worse.