While driving home from covering a groundbreaking ceremony for the new American Wartime Museum in Dale City on Thursday morning, I decided to take a detour.
I drove through Prince William Forest Park to do a little “leaf peeping.” It was a scenic drive as the leaves of our area begin to reach their fall peak.
As we go about our daily routines it is hard to imagine how close the world came to the brink of nuclear war 49 years ago this week. Now known to history as the Cuban Missile Crisis, the events of October 1962 tested every element of national power, especially our nation’s intelligence community.
On Oct. 14, 1962 a U.S. Air Force U-2 reconnaissance aircraft overflew Cuba. The U-2’s mission was to help the US find out if the Soviet Union had deployed nuclear missiles to the island that were capable of targeting the U.S. The photographs the
*This story has been corrected.
Justin Wilk makes former students aware of local campaigns, and parents then have the option of taking their children out to participate in the political process. While Wilk does not participate with them, he’s glad to know students are their parents are getting involved.
Stafford, Va. — Again this year, residents in the Potomac Communities who want to safely dispose of old prescription medications can take them to one of at least two drop off points in the region.
Between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday, residents can clean out their cabinets of old, unused and potentially dangerous prescription medication and bring them to Stafford Hospital Center off U.S. 1 in Stafford and drop them with the county’s sheriff’s department. There, sheriff’s deputies will partner with the DEA for this annual collection and will have a disposal box set up so residents can simply drive up and drop the medication into a box, never having to get out of their cars, according to a Stafford sheriff’s spokesman Bill Kennedy.
The Stafford Sheriff’s Office has been presented a trophy as a finalist in the international Webber Seavey Award. Law enforcement agencies worldwide compete for this award which recognizes agencies for promoting a standard of excellence that exemplifies law enforcement’s contribution and dedication to the quality of life in a community.
The Stafford Sheriff’s Office was in competition with agencies such as the Toronto Police Department, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the Vancouver Police Department.
By Stephanie Tipple
For PotomacLocal.com
It was all good cheer: excitement and poker chips at the first annual “Chips 4 Charity Fundraiser” held Friday night at the Harbour View events center in Woodbridge by the Lake Ridge and Woodbridge Rotary clubs, and the Greater Prince William County Health Center.
This week marks the 230th anniversary of America’s independence from Great Britain. Really? I can picture readers scurrying to consult some long-forgotten history text or the internet to find proof that I am wrong in making this assertion. Surely, I must be mistaken.
Most sources will cite July 4, 1776 as the actual date of our independence. After all, that was when it was declared, a little over 235 years ago. But, it is one thing for a nation to declare its independence and quite another for it to actually achieve it. Five long and brutal years of war would plague our new nation from that July day in 1776 until it could truly declare itself to be sovereign and independent.
The pantry announced earlier this week that, for the first time since the onset of the national recession, they would be forced to close until Nov. 1. The closure means that more than 2,000 area residents who depend on the ACTS pantry will go without.
Quinn’s Goldsmith in Occoquan and Woodbridge is offering an Ultrasonic Ring Cleaning free when you come in and drop off a donation of food.
Because the East Coast earthquake that occurred in August could have damaged your chimney it’s more important than ever to have it inspected before you start a fire in the fireplace, woodstove or turn on your furnace this fall and winter. Chimney damage could be hard to see and it may have affected the lining of the chimney preventing proper ventilation of harmful gases. It’s important to understand that just looking at the outside of the chimney is not enough. It needs to be inspected by a professional inside and out and is not limited to masonry chimneys. Prefabricated metal chimneys should also be inspected. If cracks in the chimney lining or lose joints in metal chimney go undetected carbon monoxide will escape into the living area or burning embers could pass through, which could ignite combustible material and spark a house fire.
Some damage is obvious, and some is hidden:
The iPhone 4s was delivered this past Friday, posing a problem for Apple fanatics who work during the day. If there was no one home to sign for the newest Apple toy, then depending on the store the phone was shipped through on the delivery side, customers would have to either go to the UPS store their phone was routed through or wait until Monday, an unacceptable outcome for some 200 people who opted to drive to the Springfield UPS store Friday evening and wait in line for their phones.
At 7:45 p.m. the line was some 140 people long, and while they grumbled about the wait, and the cold, none of them seemed willing to leave. Rodney Saunders from Woodbridge became angry only after the line was divided into “Fairfax and north” and “South of Lorton” lines. “The Fairfax line sucked right into the door and they’re all coming out and they came before me! What ever happened to going in the order people arrived?” After a few minutes, though, even Saunders was chuckling that “It’s just one more example of Northern Virgina not thinking we Prince William [County] folks count.”
