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Falls Church News-Press 6-13-2024

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June 13 - 19, 2024

Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free

Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXIV N o . 18

The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia

2 Meridian Students Win Cappie Awards

Music Festival Fever

Abby Berg, Carlos Ortiz Win For ‘Frankenstein’ Roles by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Abby Berg and Carlos Ortiz of Falls Church’s Meridian High School won prestigious Cappie awards for theater arts in a gala that filled the Kennedy Center concert hall to capacity. They were both chosen for their roles in the spectacular spring production of “Frankenstein,” which was also nominated for Best Play among the over 50 schools in the wider National Capital Region. Berg, now a rising senior, was selected as Best Lead Actor in a Female Role for the two parts she played in “Frankenstein,” and Ortiz was selected in the category of “Creativity” for his role in composing the musical score for the same play. Commenting on the awards at Tuesday’s meeting of the Falls Church School Board, FCCPS Superintendent Dr. Peter Noonan said that “In all my 32 years as an educator, this was the best high school performance I’ve ever seen.” It was designed and directed by drama instructor Shawn Northrip, who actually commissioned the play, which was written by Danielle Mohlman, and recruited Ortiz to compose the score. It topped his previous year’s production of “The Love

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This Week! See Pages 8-9

THE ANNUAL TINNER HILL Music Festival was an enormous success last weekend at Cherry Hill Park, drawing a huge crowd on a warm and friendly day for some of the best live music around. Headliners kept the audience wrapped and tons of food, drink and souvenirs were also part of the experience. (Photo: Josh Brick)

Warner Talks Russians, Beyer Talks Fusion by Nicholas F. Benton

Falls Church News-Press

Virginia U.S. Senator Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, again last week leveled a stark warning about foreign interference in the 2024 U.S. Presidential election, saying that “in some ways, we are more vulnerable now than four years ago.” He made his remarks in a telephone press briefing. There are more nations now than then using these tools of disinformation, he said, because

they are far cheaper than building up military capabilities for one thing. Moreover, there are more Americans who are believing “crazy conspiracy theories” that hostile foreign governments merely need to amplify rather than create from scratch. An inability to come to an agreement with 21 major Internet companies set the effort to constrain this back six months, he added, and now, advanced artificial intelligence tools are introducing “deep fakes” that can emulate the voices and images of persons.

The gravity of the situation is underscored by the fact that European parliamentary elections have begun and elections in Great Britain begin July 4. He noted the case of Slovakia, which had been a pro-Ukrainian country, where as a result of such efforts a pro-Russian president has been elected, and now a majority of citizens there believe that it was the U.S. that started the war in Ukraine. He said there will be a public hearing of the Intelligence Committee with updates on all these efforts this summer.

In another telephone briefing, this one with constituents, this Tuesday, U.S. Rep. Donald S. Beyer Jr. said he was gravely concerned for Ukraine, given the six month delay in sending severely-needed U.S. military aid due to objections from Republicans in the Congress. He also said that “there are far too many civilian casualties and displaced lives in Gaza. “The toll is too high, too many children,” he said, blaming Hamas for intentionally using

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