October 6 - 12, 2016
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d ed 1991 • Vol. X X V I No. 33
Falls Church • Tysons Corner • Merrifield • McLean • North Arlington • Bailey’s Crossroads
Inside This Week Longtime Community Leader Wells Dies
Dr. John H. Wells, EdD, who had been an active scouting leader in Falls Church for the last 24 years, died in his home on October 1 following a long illness. See page 22
Bulova, Evans Support Meals Tax Measure
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Chair Sharon Bulova and School Board Chair Sandy Evans issued a joint statement this week in support of the measure on the ballot in Fairfax County next month to allow for a meals tax in the county.
Mason Row Team Seeks More Theater Space in 4.3 Acre Plan Taking Learning Personally
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Donald Trump has just had an extraordinarily bad week, and Hillary Clinton an extraordinarily good one; betting markets now put Clinton’s odds of winning almost as high as they were just after the Democratic convention.
After losing to Rappahannock County on the road, the Mustangs beat Clarke County in straight sets to improve to 8-2 on the season. See page 16
STUDENTS, TEACHERS and parents were among those in the audience Tuesday night to hear principals of the City of Falls Church’s five school campuses present to the F.C. School Board the many benefits of “Personalized Learning” with the aid of tablet and laptop computers for all students ranging from pre-school through 12th grade. (Photo: News-Press)
Schools Get Odd & Interesting In Fall Theater Productions by Patricia Leslie
Falls Church News-Press
Index Editorial..................6 Letters....................6 News & Notes.10-11 Comment......... 12-14 Food & Dining......15 Sports..................16
School News.......17 Calendar.........18-19 Classified Ads .....20 Comics, Sudoku & Crossword...........21 Critter Corner.......22
“Guys and Dolls” won’t “Shrek” in “Urinetown” if they “Don’t Drink the Water” served by a “Sea Cook.” Huh? These are the titles of something-for-everyone
fall productions coming up on the stages of five area high schools. Colorful costumes, singing, dancing, contemporary issues, and lots of fun and music are in the play books. At George C. Marshall High School, Liz Carlson, a Marshall graduate and former student of director Jason Tamborini, has rewritten Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure Island”
Falls Church News-Press
and transformed it into “The Sea Cook: A Story for Girls.” Fourteen females will take over the lead roles in Carlson’s remake and also become the pirates, not to be confused with masquerading as boys, since in this show girls will be girls, and the roles are for them, Tamborini said. The time period has not been changed from the mid-17th cen-
Paul Krugman: Trump’s Fellow Travelers
GM Volleyball Bounces Back from Loss
by Nicholas F. Benton
The team readying to develop the 4.3-acre so-called Mason Row large-scale mixed-use project at the northeastern intersection of W. Broad and N. West St. updated some revisions to their plans in front of the F.C Planning Commission Monday night that included a request for a small zoning variance to allow for an expanded space in the project for a motion picture theater complex. “All four theater applicants share the need” for a “theater box expanded by 10 feet,” said attorney David Lasso speaking on behalf of the development group. Plan changes include moving the multi-screen theater complex from underground to above ground and in the center of the project. To accommodate the newly-centralized role of the complex in the project, and for other reasons, the number of residential units is being reduced from 340 to 299, a 5.3 percent reduction, and the removal of a floor in the building on N. West, and another floor off the building at Park and Mason (the project’s new internal street). Parking that was above grade will be moved into the below grade space originally designated for the theater complex. A five-man team representing the project, including Lasso, John Caldwell and Amirali Nasserian of Mill Creek and Peter Batten and Dick Buskell of Spectrum Development, was present to make its case to the commissioners. The session was the second big new development-oriented meet-
See News Briefs, page 9
See page 13
Upbeat Project Also Augments Visioning Session