“The improvements … are pretty dramatic,” Occoquan Mayor Earnie Porta Jr. said at a recent ribbon-cutting ceremony. “This has a lot of advantages for us both in terms of the way it directs traffic as well as the safety for pedestrians.”

Prince William County, the town, and the Virginia Department of Transportation, or VDOT, collaborated on the project along Mill Street between Washington and Ellicott streets. Updates to the area will improve pedestrian safety, accessibility and connectivity. The project included five crosswalks and nine ramps with detectable warning domes that comply with the American with Disabilities Act.


About 90,000 students will return to classes across the county. Except for the youngest children in the county’s Head Start program, who must continue to wear face masks, the start of the school year will feel more like pre-pandemic times.

No facemask or social distancing requirements are in place, and the school division won’t conduct contract tracing to identify who’s contracted the coronavirus.


Dr. Babur Lateef posted to Twitter today a message asking residents to “never forget” the school closures that led to students across Virginia falling behind in math, science, reading, and writing, according to the latest Virginia Standards of Learning scores released Thursday, August 18.

“NEVER FORGET what misinformed and misled public health officials, politicians, constituencies, and media did to stop the busses and close schools,” Lateef stated.


Occoquan officials will gather at Town Hall today to remember the 50th anniversary of Hurricane Agnes.

A new piece of art will be unveiled. The creation uses a part of The Route 123 bridge that fell during the storm, Mayor Earnie Porta said. The commemoration begins at 11 a.m. at 458 Mill Street.


Updated 9:45 a.m. — A 25-year-old man was shot and killed near Manassas on Friday, August 19.

At 8:28 p.m., officers went to the area of Sudley Manor Drive and Williamson Boulevard in Manassas to investigate a shooting. Police said the victim and another 25-year-old man were in the area when a third man approached them.


A man who trespassed outside a McDonald’s hit a Prince William police officer, police said.

Police observed a man at the restaurant at 10730 Balls Ford Road near Manassas at 10:56 a.m. Wednesday, August 17. Officers approached him, determined he was trespassing at the business and tried to arrest him.


The Virginia Department of Education released new Standards of Learning data today.

The SOL tests measure student math, science, reading, and writing performance.


The state’s second-largest public school division, Prince William County, rolled back most of its coronavirus mitigation strategies.

When school starts Monday, August 22, schools will look and feel like the pandemic never happened, with a lack of masking, social distancing, and contract tracing requirements that were common last year.


View More Stories