Editor's Notebook

The Town of Potomac Still Exists!

Proving a long-extinct municipality is still honored by the U.S. Postal Service—with a little help from my friends.

For reasons I cannot fully articulate, the U.S. Postal Service still manages to carry some intrigue. The sending and receiving of letters with the help of a carrying service remains a bit mystical, even if I see postal workers nearly every day. It’s also nice to see your name written in someone else’s handwriting arrive at your doorstep every now and again—if only for the accompanying tug of nostalgia for a time when email didn’t exist and long-distance calls could run a decent charge from Ma Bell. While researching the Town of Potomac, Va., for a recent story, I stumbled upon a suggestion that the postal service still honors the municipality as an alternate address for Del Ray’s 22301 ZIP code. Potomac was an incorporated town from 1908 …

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PHOTOS: The 2013 Virginia General Assembly Convenes in Richmond

Lawmakers gather at Capitol.

The Virginia General Assembly convened Wednesday for its 2013 session at the state Capitol in Richmond with lots of hot-button issues before them such as transportation, school security, gun laws and uranium mining. As they arrived, lawmakers likely saw several hundred protesting demonstrators on both sides of the abortion debate demonstrating outside of the Capitol. According to Richmond Sunlight, the 100 members of the House of Delegates have filed 1,153 bills and the 40 members of the Senate have filed 597. The 140 elected representatives are from an equal number of constituent districts across the commonwealth. The House of Delegates is presided over by the Speaker of the House. The Senate is presided over by the Lieutenant Governor of…

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Del. Krupicka Heads to Richmond with Eye on Education

Krupicka plans to address a diverse portfolio of issues, but says the bulk of his bills will focus on education.

Newly elected state Del. Rob Krupicka is headed to Richmond next week with a focus on education. “The bulk of my bills deal with education issues and a lot of my education concepts are informed by my work on the Board of Education and the relationships I built from that,” Krupicka told Patch editors last month in an interview at Del Ray’s St. Elmo’s Coffee Pub. Krupicka served on the state Board of Education since 2009 where he has been a strong advocate of early childhood education and increasing math and science opportunities in the commonwealth. He stepped down from that role when elected to the General Assembly. The board work “also informs how I think about drafting bills in the sense that I’m not trying to draft education policy that…

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Alexandria's Richmond Delegation to Hold Public Hearing

Alexandria's representatives are seeking suggestions from constituents ahead of the 2013 General Assembly session.

Members of Alexandria’s Richmond delegation will assemble for a public hearing to listen to suggestions and priorities from constituents ahead of the General Assembly’s 2013 legislative session.   The hearing will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. Dec. 6 in the council chambers at City Hall. State Sens. George Barker (D-39th), Adam Ebbin (D-30th) and Dick Saslaw (D-35th) and Dels. Charniele Herring (D-46th) and Rob Krupicka (D-45th) are all scheduled to attend the hearing, which is being sponsored by the Alexandria chapter of the League of Women Voters. The 2013 General Assembly session begins on Jan. 9 and runs for 45 days. Richmond Sunlight has a detailed list of the proposed bills for the session.

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Mimi Stratton

2:35 pm on Thursday, December 6, 2012

"Now, as for abortion clinics, shouldn't abortion clinics be held to a cleanliness standard?" Don't make me laugh. This bill was not about cleanliness. It was about destroying a woman's right to have an abortion by making it impossible to operate a clinic.   more ›

Virginia Supreme Court to Hear Wales Alley Case Wednesday

Oral arguments scheduled to be heard Wednesday morning.

The Virginia Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Wednesday for the City of Alexandria's appeal to a Circuit Court decision regarding the use of Wales Alley. The court granted the city in November its petition for appeal in the litigation with the Old Dominion Boat Club. An order last April from Circuit Court Judge John McGrath said the boat club, which is located at the foot of King Street, has an easement on the city alley connecting Union Street to The Strand. The judge ruled that no obstructions could be built in the alley, but the city appealed. The city is allowing restaurateurs Meshelle and Cathal Armstrong to offer outdoor dining in the alley for its restaurant that opened last year, Virtue Feed and Grain. The city's case will…

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