July 20 - 26, 2023
Fa lls Chur c h, V i r g i ni a • ww w. fc np. c om • Fr ee
Fou n d e d 1991 • V ol. XXXIII No. 23
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
F.C. Local MULLING THE ZONING CHANGE Spearheads Anti-Trump Effort Group Opposes Entry of 3rd Party Candidate in ‘24 by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
It may turn out that keeping Donald Trump away from a second term in the White House in 2024 will have more to do not with legal actions against him, or political attacks on him directly, but with keeping a third party candidacy off the ballot in 2024 who would dilute the vote for the re-election of President Biden. Such is the grave concern of a team of anti-Trump political leaders from both parties who have formed a group called “Citizens to Save the Republic” aimed at preventing that from happening, and one of its key leaders is a long-time resident Don Foley of Falls Church. Foley, a resident of the City since 1987 who raised five children through the school system here, has held a plethora of major, behind the scenes positions in the national Democratic Party and is now fully devoted to stopping Trump by launching this anti-third party offensive. In an interview with the News-Press Tuesday, Foley reported that while a survey this June of 5,700 registered voters nationwide, including over samples in seven swing states, showed Biden defeating Trump by the same four-point margin, 52 to 48 percent, that he won by in 2020, the entry of a third party option, such as a “No Labels” candidate, would have
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THE CITY OF FALLS CHURCH’S Planning Department director Paul Stoddard (right) is shown here at the outset of a walking tour last Monday night of spaces along Park Avenue that would be impacted by a proposed transitional zoning change that has generated considerable controversy in the City from nearby residents. City Council is slated to vote on the measure in the coming weeks. (Photo: Gary Mester)
Rep. Beyer: Inflation Reduction Act ‘My Proudest Vote’ by Brian Reach
Falls Church News-Press
Hailing the morning’s news of the higher-than-expected drop in inflation, Falls Church’s own U.S. Congressman Don Beyer (D-Va.), held a Town Hall at McLean Community Center last Wednesday, where a bustling crowd of constituents gathered to hear news from the 118th Congress and ask questions about a variety of issues. Beyer began by noting that Virginia now has among the least gerrymandered districts in the nation, after independent and bipartisan redistricting that corrected 100 years of partisan influence on district lines. “Not sur-
prisingly, this has caused complete chaos in the General Assembly,” acknowledged Beyer of the roughly 50 recent primary races with multiple incumbents, though he ultimately celebrated the result as preserving “the basic ideas of continuity of geography and history and community.” “It’s been so much fun to see the Inflation Reduction Act, the bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, and the CHIPS and Science Act… all kick in the last couple months,” Beyer said, beginning his brief Capitol Hill update with a nod to recent key achievements of the Democratic party, “but the greatest victory of this morning is inflation dropping to 3.0 percent.” He continued to call inflation a “huge
tax on the poor,” saying that rising rents and the prices of gas and food hit them the hardest. Still, he said that the U.S. has done better than any other nation in recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic not only economically and with jobs, but with inflation, which he said is rapidly easing. “We expect [inflation] to be down below two percent by this fall,” he claimed. Beyer also noted the 3.4 percent unemployment rate, the Black unemployment rate — and the gap between the two — are also at historic lows. He called this evidence of a successful “bottom-up, middle-out” strategy to building the economy. “The Inflation Reduction Act is probably my proudest vote” in roughly 18 years of public service,
Beyer said, “because it’s the largest environmental bill in American History.” He added that initial effects of the act, “an unparalleled investment in solar and wind,” are already being seen locally, noting specifically the electric school buses recently deployed by the Falls Church City and Fairfax County Public School systems. Beyer also touted the $35 monthly cap on insulin, while advocating for further interventions against diabetes. “Thirty-one percent of our $851 billion Medicare bill right now every year is just dialysis… end-stage renal disease,” Beyer shared.
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