July 24 - 30, 2025
Falls Church, Virginia • w w w . fc n p . c o m • Free
Founded 1991 • Vol. XXXV N o . 24
The City of Falls Church’s Independent, Locally-Owned Newspaper of Record, Serving N. Virginia
New Head Of SUMMERTIME, SUMMERTIME F.C. Schools Is Filling Big Shoes Superintendent Dade Hit Ground Running on July 1 by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The Falls Church City Public Schools’ new superintendent as of July 1, Terry J. Dade commands an office on the fourth floor of a building near the heart of Falls Church that has big windows overlooking one of the newly-completed large scale mixed use development projects, the accumulation of which in the last two dozen years have generated the revenues that have enabled the The Little City to pay for a brand new state of the art high school, provide competitive pay for school employees and generally enhance what is universally recognized as one of the finest school systems in America. Mr. Dade fills, as he readily acknowledged in his exclusive interview with the News-Press last week, big shoes. His immediate predecessor, Dr. Peter Noonan, made a bigger than life impact on Falls Church in his eight years here; more than just its schools, the entire community. Noonan continues to live in the Little City with a daughter still in the school system. He’s not done with his career in public life, he confided in another
Continued on Page 3
This Year’s Finalists NEWS-PRESS
2025
BESTOFFC.COM F I N A L I ST
Page 10
THE WINTER HILL POOL in downtown Falls Church was even busier than usual last weekend, thanks to a condo association pool party sponsored by the Rock Star realtor group of Tori McKinney. It happened close enough to the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, to be associated with that holiday. (Photo: News-Press)
2 From F.C. Feted With LGBTQ+ Business Honors
by Nicholas F. Benton
Falls Church News-Press
The venerable Washington Business Journal, affiliated with a chain of similar business newspapers in major cities across the U.S., last week honored 14 LGBTQ+ business leaders in the D.C. region with a classy roof top reception in Arlington and major in-depth page one coverage in its weekly edition. Among the honored are two from Falls Church, Falls Church News-Press founder, owner and editor Nicholas F. Benton and Dr. Jorge Ramallo, medical director of the Inova Pride Clinic located in Falls Church. At the reception, Journal organiz-
ers praised co-sponsors led by Kaiser Permanente for joining them in defying the current pressures from the White House to back away from support for diversity, equity and inclusion, and the major play these awards received in their coverage last week was a loud affirmation of the same resolute stand. With the coverage, Journal editors published the following comment; “This program comes amid efforts by the Trump administration to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, and just weeks after a three-week World Pride celebration in D.C. that attracted visitors from around the country and the world. We asked our honorees
about both topics, and a theme that emerged from their answers: resolve and defiance.” Benton was identified by the Journal in its edition last week, and at the reception, as “no stranger to the news business. The founder of the Falls Church News-Press started the general-interest weekly newspaper 36 years ago and has proudly advertised its LGBTQ+ ownership on the editorial page since 1991. “The longstanding champion of both the LGBTQ+ and local business communities has also served as president of the Falls Church Chamber of Commerce twice. During his tenure he has hosted public events that included LGBTQ+ activists Frank
Kameny and Lilli Vincenz and a forum on the precursor to the modern day LGBTQ+ equality movement, the Stonewall Riots, in 2019. Benton has also published seven books, including ‘Gay Men in the Feminist Revolution’ in 2018 and ‘Education of a Gay Soul’ in 2021.” In the article, Benton iIdentifies three major achievements as follows: “1. That I’ve run the Falls Church News-Press for 36 years and counting. 2. That my paper has played a major role in bringing together a community that was divided between residential and business interests, to appreciate the role that
Continued on Page 4