Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 26: We're Feeling Lucky!

And no, we're not talking about the previous post, and thank God for that. Turns out one of the shiny new clients in the shiny new buildings in Reston's Fake Downtown is none other than Google -- or as one of the two presidential candidates might call it, "the Google."

The tall buildings in Reston bear the familiar names of big government contractors: Northrop Grumman, CACI, Raytheon and Accenture. Last month another name appeared, but not one that's typically associated with the federal market.

Google has come to town, though you'd hardly know it from its nondescript, newly constructed building in Reston Town Center. The only clue to the company's presence is a small listing on the building's tenant directory.

The company's 18-person federal sales team is still unpacking boxes, arranging bean bag chairs and testing the new massage chair. Over the past couple of years, Google has been trying to educate federal agencies -- as well as the companies that work with them -- on how its search, e-mail and mapping tools can be applied to government business.

It may be one of the best-known consumer Internet brands, but Google staffers still get some blank stares when they explain their mission.

"Sometimes they'll look at us and say, 'But what do you actually sell?' " said Mike Bradshaw, Google's head of federal sales, who has sold technology to the government for IBM and Microsoft.

Their answer is nothing.

Sounds like the heady dot-com days all over again! But does the Reston Google office, besides being in one of them newfangled "tall buildings" they speak of in such awed tones in the Post, have all the amenities of the mother ship corporate campus in the Bay Area? Well, sort of.

Take its new space, a departure from the typical cubicle-filled offices of Northern Virginia. The conference rooms are named after famous Virginia natives, such as Patsy Cline and Lewis and Clark. The room named after Ella Fitzgerald contains a floor-to-ceiling photo of the singer. Nearby are big-screen TVs, supposedly reserved for videoconferencing. Meals are catered daily in the cafeteria. Vint Cerf, referred to as the "Father of the Internet" for his role in developing the network, has an office next to a cluster of Adirondack lawn chairs intended to promote discussion among employees.

Sweet! They may have foosball tables and personal valets back in Mountain View, but can they sit in a lawn chair out in front of the Patsy Cline conference room? Advantage: Reston!

What Passes for Paparazzi Pics in Reston: Love Coaches Spotted in Most Romantic, Out-of-the-Way Spot in Town

Spotted out and about on the town: Reston "love coaches" Jae Ellis and/or Allen Bickoff of AskRomeo. com, undoubtedly holding one of their awesome $397 training sessions on meeting babes potential soulmates at the most romantic of Reston locales -- the tree-lined Target, home to many an unforgettable moonlit stroll through the automotive supply aisle.

Big, unbelievably cheesy cleanup on aisle 4!

Flashback Friday Monday: What’s New, Pussycat?

Little did you know that an episode of The Mod Squad was filmed on location at Reston’s Lake Anne Village Center. Here, a brilliantly disguised Huggy Bear attempts to determine if the moniker “Tub Toys” is actually street code for some illicit substance.

Actually, just what kind of tub toys are these? They look like they’d absorb a bathtub full of water and grow to the size of small import sedans. Meanwhile, the little boy about to take a gainer off the whimsical statue in the background is by now probably about to retire after 35 years with the Federal Office of Accounting Ledger Oversight. But he remembers that statue. Not to mention the giant floral tub toy that haunts his nightmares to this day.

Meanwhile, in the Anti-Reston: Maybe They'll Advertise in Soldier of Fortune

Ah, Herndon. Your attempts to singlehandedly solve the nation's immigration problems just keep on giving. First, there was all that unpleasantness with the day labor center. Then came the plan to create a "pedestrian safety zone" by banning pedestrians, and then they started fining businesses that let slightly tanned people day laborers on their property.

Now, they're looking to hire mercenaries private security guards to protect Herndonians' access to the precious bodily fluids found in the Elden Street 7-11's 48-ounce Super Big Gulps.

In their latest set of proposals to crack down on day laborers, Town of Herndon officials are considering hiring security guards to keep the laborers from congregating on private commercial properties.

According to Town Manager Art Anselene, to have an effective security guard program the Town would need to have between 2-4 security guards to "manage the various commercial sites." According to the memo, the estimated taxpayer cost to fund the security force could be up to $156,000 per year.

Sounds like money well spent! Though the total price tag will likely be higher, as Soldier of Fortune doesn't run those "Confidential Opportunities for Mercenaries" ads in the back of the magazine for free.

In the meantime, Herndon's real police officers are making traffic stops. Lots and lots of traffic stops.

There has been a 700 percent increase in the number of unlicensed driver tickets issued in the Town of Herndon in the last five years, even though the number of licensed drivers in the town has stayed about the same.

"The majority of these people are people who are not eligible or able to get a license in the state of Virginia, or probably any other state," Police Lt. Jeff Coulter said.

Hmmm. We wonder who "these people" that they're talking about are... Presbyterians maybe?

Meanwhile, another bit of legalized harassment cunning plan to confiscate bicycles parked in public rights-of-way ran into a minor snag: It turns out that sometimes affluent, documented U.S. citizens ride bikes, too! For fun, even, if you can believe that!

But even in the Town That Tolerance Forgot, occasionally a good idea crops up, only to be squashed.

Another proposal outlined in the Sept. 9 memo is the establishment of an "alternate site for legal workers."

The proposed new site would determine whether or not workers are "lawfully present and authorized to work" by virtue of a licensing program or requiring the use of I-9 forms, which employers use to verify employees' identity and establish that workers are eligible to accept employment in the United States. Employers are required to have their workers fill out the form upon being hired.

Wow. That sounds... reasonable. So what say you, Herndon?

Herndon Councilman Dennis Husch, who last month proposed several of his own controversial ideas for handling the day labor situation in Herndon, said that all measures will be given equal consideration.

"I do not know which of the possible initiatives are viable options to the majority of the Town Council," he told The Times.

We're pretty sure we know which one won't be.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 25: Short Takes on Lame Clothes and Letterboxing, Whatever That Is

So much business "news," so little time.

• Reston Town Center gets three bitchin' new retailers -- J. Crew, Anthopologie and Pitango Gelato. Time to pop up your collars, pour on the Axe body spray and go cruisin' for babes while enjoying a tiny plastic cup of overpriced ice cream! Next month, a couple of restaurants are opening -- PassionFish from the Passion Food LLC Group and Jackson’s Mighty Fine Food & Lucky Lounge from Great American Restaurants. At least some of those words, in some combination, might describe the dining experience. But it's Reston, so no one will get "lucky," except maybe these people.
  
  
• Speaking of looking for love in all the wrong places, somehow this awesome Reston entrepreneur got a mention in a front-page article in the Washington Post. What, they couldn't do another 19-part series on Chandra Levy?
  
  
• Sallie Mae President C.E. Andrews is leaving. No, he's not the guy with the potty mouth.
  
  
• Someone stole a fancy artistic mailbox from Reston's Used Book Shop at Lake Anne a few weeks ago, but then they found it under a pile of books. Somehow some weird fad called "letterboxing" is involved, but it's late and our eyes started glazing over, the end.
  

Reston's Got Sidewalk Fever!

Ha, ha, those hoity-toity Soapstone Drive folks aren't the only people in Reston who are getting fancy sidewalks! Only in North Reston, it's no mere sidewalk -- it's a walkway. Reston being Reston, though, this one's taken for-freaking-ever to be built, too.

After eight years of negotiations, Fairfax County will be able to start the work to complete the Wiehle Avenue walkway, the missing link to connecting points north of Baron Cameron Avenue to the rest of the Wiehle Avenue Trail. On Aug. 15, the Northgate Condominium Unit Owners Association committed to an easement for a 700-foot segment of the trail that will permit the walkway’s completion.

"There has been a long delay and we were fortunate to get cooperation from the Northgate owners," said Supervisor Catherine Hudgins (D-Hunter Mill).

Saying there's been a "long delay" is sorta like saying that Reston has a "few regulations." But you know, if the condo association decided to make it nine years, then Fairfax County would have gotten really rough.

She said that new leadership in the condo association cooperated with the county, making it possible to work through an agreement without the use of eminent domain. "We are pleased to not have to go that way," said Hudgins about the government’s power to acquire private property for public use. She added that Reston Association played an important role in presenting the case to the Northgate Condo owners about how the easement would benefit the entire Reston community.

We can just imagine how the RA "presented the case": Nice condo association you've got there, pal. It sure would be a shame if something happened to the covenants governing placement of garbage cans in common areas.

In any event, now that everyone's had their kumbayah moment, construction will begin and work on the 700-foot sidewalk should be completed by 2035, the end.

Flashback Friday Monday: Reston Town Center, or Tysons Two: Electric Boogaloo?

Here is an exciting scale model of the Reston Town Center, back when the Fake Downtown was still but a gleam in developers’ eyes. Man, this is a piece of crap. The building designs are clearly lifted from that well-known mecca of architectural restraint, Tysons Corner -- you can see several ripoffs of the attractive Shopping Bag Building design, plus a bunch of buildings that look like what might happen if the Tysons Ritz-Carlton mated with an East German apartment block, ca. 1973.

We especially like the cupola-topped “skywalk” over some massive traffic artery, presumably meant as an homage to the Capitol building -- or maybe just a really big 7-11. Also, is that a shiny domed stadium hiding near the back of the picture, in a furtive attempt to entice the then-Baltimore Colts to a new city? Come to think of it, "Reston Ravens" kind of has a nice ring to it.

To sum up: Wow. We never thought we’d say this, but this makes the current Fake Downtown look pretty good by comparison.

This Week in Crime: In Winterthur, Apartment Life Not At All Like TV Show 'Friends'

Here's a wacky apartment altercation you won't see on syndicated reruns of Friends:

A 29-year-old Reston-area man was stabbed at about 4 p.m. Sept. 10 while he and a 37-year-old Reston man were arguing in an apartment in the 11000 block of Winterthur Lane. The 37-year-old reportedly grabbed a knife, stabbed the other man and fled the scene on foot. The 29-year-old was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital and treated for non life-threatening injuries to his upper body. Police apprehended the man who allegedly stabbed him nearby in the woods. He was taken to the Fairfax County jail and charged with malicious wounding.

Whenever someone gets into real trouble in Reston, they always run off into the woods. Hint to all ne'er-do-wells: The police know this!

That is all.

Run Out The Clock in Reston

U.S. News & World Report named Reston as one of its 10 best places to retire, vaulting it into the ranks of such great metropoli as Eden Prairie, Minnesota, Punta Gorda, Florida, and Bella Vista, Arkansas. So if you don't like arctic winters, 3:30pm early bird dinner buffets, or the Deep South, Reston's pretty much your only shot at running out the clock in peace.

By way of proof, U.S. News produced a video of old elderly people doing martial arts, plus Robert E. Simon sitting next to his statue, talking about how his town is, in the words of the magazine, "designed to encourage human interaction and whimsy." Sweet! We like whimsy. But then they have to harsh our buzz by including this poignant quote, a painful reminder to us all of our fleeting mortality and the ultimate, unavoidable loss of everyone we hold dear.

"I don't have any family to speak of, but I've accumulated a lot of friends here. It's important for old people to see old familiar faces," says Robert Webb, 76, a retired newspaper editor.

Ouch. But hey -- happy Friday, and please to enjoy this video of elderly people beating on each other.

Reston's Bucolic, Natural Setting: Filled With Slithering, Venomous Critters (and not just Nano-toting lawyers out for a jog)

As if we didn't have enough to worry about, there's something slithering in the grass... that could kill you.

With some reported snake bites in the Reston area, the Reston Association is providing information about Northern Copperheads and other local snakes to assist with identification and to offer precautions, when needed.

The reported bites occurred in neighborhoods off Aldenham Lane, Thanlet Lane and Woodbrook Lane. Unusually high numbers of encounters can occur in September when snakes search for under-rock dens when they can spend the winter.

The copperhead is the only venomous snake in Reston.

Yikes. Where's a bow hunter when you need one?

A "new" "Reston" "blog": What a Country!

We've long known Livejournal as a bitchin' place for people to emote about the time their kitten Mr. Grumpyclaws accidentally scratched them and whatnot, but looky what we found -- a blog livejournal about Reston! Check this out:

Близнецы

10 ПРИНЦИПОВ МОЕГО ЗНАКА ЗОДИАКА:
1. Я сегодня не такой как вчера.
2. Кто владеет ситуацией, тот владеет информацией.
3. Один ум хорошо, а два лучше, особенно если оба принадлежат одному и тому же человеку.
4. Фигаро тут, Фигаро там.
5. Идея как и прочие продукты, не должны залежатся.
6. Один телевизор, телефон в доме - хорошо, а три лучше.
7. Кто не успел, тот опоздал.
8. Двигаюсь по жизни, как скутер по воде - не угубляюсь, зато быстро.
9. На базаре «за базар» не отвечаю.
10. Люблю количество, потому что на качество не хватает времени.

We don't speak Russian, but clearly someone else is a bit peeved about having to paint the back of their fence taupe or something.

Of course, this isn't the first time we've had experience with wiley Russian bloggers (insert wacky reverse-situation joke here, e.g. "In Russia, blogs click on you!")

Meanwhile, in the Anti-Reston: With Nation's Immigration Problems Solved Forever, City Turns to Real Enemy: Businesses

Hey, remember that time Herndon was on Fox News 24/7 because of a little problem they had with day laborers and a city-funded center that provided them with a place to wait for work and learn how to speak English and maybe hold the occasional gay wedding, but then they got rid of it and that solved the nation's immigration problems forever? Yeah, that was awesome. Only, after unsuccessfully trying to rid the town of the continued scourge of day laborers blocking God-fearing Herndonians' access to the Super Big Gulps at the Elden Street 7-11 with a fleet of fearsome police officers on bicycles, the City That Tolerance Forgot has come up with a new solution: Fine any business which allows a slightly tanned person day laborer to set foot on its property.

It has become the responsibility of Elden Street business owners to ensure that day laborers are not hired on their property and now some local business are paying the price.

The Fairfax County General District Court recently ordered the owner of the Elden Street Shell station to pay the Town of Herndon $1,200 in outstanding fines resulting from three zoning violations related to day laborers being hired on the gas station property. The McDonald's on Elden Street has received three fines for allowing day laborers to be hired on its property and the case has now been forwarded to Town Attorney Richard Kaufman, according to town spokesman Anne Curtis. The Exxon station and Wachovia Bank, both on Elden Street, also have received notices of violations, Curtis said in an e-mail.

Council member Dennis Husch said the current enforcement method is "not a perfect solution, but the folks involved are doing the best they can." He said he "lacks sympathy" for business owners who have received violation notices or fines because if they own property in the town, they "need to follow the rules."

And smile when you say that, boy! Fortunately, everyone realizes the importance of making sacrifices to keep Herndon free of the scourge of day laborers, right?

Both gas station managers said the people need an organized place to gather and look for work. "They need to re-open" the day labor hiring site, Truong said, in order to get people off the streets. "Why they don't make a place for them?" asked Safdari.

Why do they hate Super Big Gulps America?

Coming Soon in 3-6 Years to South Reston: Those New-Fangled Sidewalks!

Some 40-plus years after Reston was formed as a New Town(tm), a place that would drastically alter the pattern of suburban development across the country, folks who live on Soapstone Drive in South Reston will soon see the Next Big Thing, the latest manifestation of the next wave of radically new suburban land-use theory.

Yes, we're talking sidewalks.

Fairfax County recently started to review the need for a sidewalk along Soapstone Drive between South Lakes and Glade drives in Reston. Though construction of the sidewalk could be several years away, the county is currently seeking the public's input on the project.

Once they have finished collecting input, planners will formulate a few design options that will be presented to the public at community meetings later this year or early next year, she said.

"Most of Reston doesn't have sidewalks—it has trails in the woods, but not a lot of sidewalks," said Chris Wells, pedestrian program manager for the county department of transportation. "Today looking at it, I could see the need for a sidewalk."

We're glad they're giving people time to really wrap their minds around this. It's not like anyone has ever seen a continuous strip of pavement intended for pedestrian use before, after all. Never fear, though, because something this innovative can't be built overnight, except in tract housing developments, where they're often built in one freaking day.

If a sidewalk is requested, it could take from three to six years for the construction to be completed, Wells said. He said the length of time varies based on how complicated the project is, and he and Adams said there are concerns about parking along the road.

Ah. There's the rub.

Reston's Vibrant Economy, Part 25: Office Cleaners of the World, Unite!

A company that provides cleaning services to Reston office buildings is being investigated for unfair labor practices.

Service Employees International Union Local 32BJ has accused Golden Gate Services Inc. of unfair labor practices at the Fairfax County Government office complex.

Local 32BJ filed a complaint Sept. 11 with the National Labor Relations Board on behalf of 40 workers, claiming the Fairfax-based cleaning contractor has been threatening employees with discharge and retaliation for their lawful union activities.

New York-based Local 32BJ will be setting up times for the employees working at 12011 and 12055 Government Center Parkway in Fairfax and 12011 Sunset Hill Road in Reston to give affidavits.

The article doesn't say it, but that address is actually Northrup Grumman's Reston office. To be fair, they don't hire these workers, Golden Gate does.

The company, which maintains commercial office buildings in Fairfax, Herndon, McLean, Vienna and Reston, pays some cleaners $7 per hour.

Last year, in a move that primarily affects custodial, maintenance and administrative workers, the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved a living wage of $12.75 an hour for regular county employees. It also created a policy to encourage county vendors to adopt a similar living wage for their employees.

You don't hear much about labor activities in Virginia, given that it's a "right to work" state, meaning that pretty much the only thing unions are allowed to do is put up fliers in the breakroom. What are these people allegedly being threatened with their jobs for -- costly and time-consuming paper cuts?

Flashback Friday Monday: The Bitchin' Reston Expressway

Wow, a brand-new superhighway called the Reston Expressway is coming! It probably has extra lanes for turbo-powered rocket cars, allowing commuters to hit Mach 2 before reaching Wolf Trap.

Oh, wait -- it's just the stupid, overcrowded Dulles Toll Road many millions of furtively tossed quarters ago, as it was marketed by breathless Reston developers when it got here around 1985. We won't ask why an occult shadow of the Washington Monument is pointing directly at the future home of Michael's and Whole Foods, except to say that the designers of this marketing campaign had impeccable prescience about where we'd be able to find organic soy milk and fuzzy pipecleaners for craft projects.

This Week in Crime: Lake Fairfax Park: Come for the Water Mine, Stay for the Fistfights and Smashed-Up Cars

Low-grade embezzlement isn't the only thing keeping the folks at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston busy these days. First, there was a fun, low-key family reunion that left them in stitches -- literally:

Two women were cut with a knife and two women were arrested after a fight broke out at a family reunion at Lake Fairfax Park in Reston on Aug. 30. Officers were called to the scene at 6:30 p.m. and they learned that a group of people were attending a family reunion when an argument broke out between several women. A 28-year-old Alexandria woman was transported to Inova Fairfax Hospital and treated for non life-threatening injuries. A 23-year-old Reston woman had minor injuries and refused medical attention at the scene. A 25-year-old Washington, D.C., woman was taken to the Fairfax County jail and charged with drunk in public. A 19-year-old Dale City woman was taken into custody on an outstanding warrant from a neighboring jurisdiction. Police are still investigating the incident.

But other than that, did you enjoy the potato salad? Just the day a month before, someone used the park as a place to dispose of a joyridden vehicle.

On July 29 at 6:38 a.m., police were called to Lake Fairfax Park, located at 1400 Lake Fairfax Drive in Reston, for a hit and run vehicle. An investigation determined the vehicle, a 2002 Lexus ES300, was stolen from the 1600 block of Dunterry Place in McLean during the night. The suspect or suspects drove the car over a hillside and through a metal fence at the Water Mine Family Swimmin' Hole. He or she intentionally keyed the car, smashed the windows, and crushed the hood and roof by jumping on top. Damage to the fence was estimated at about $6,500.

Police ask anyone with information about the latter crime to contact Crime Solvers. Anyone involved in the former crime is welcome to contact the Jerry Springer Show.

RIP, Reston Times: Our Driveways Aren't Going To Litter Themselves

The Reston Times is no more. Never fear -- everyone's favorite weekly lawn decoration will still be tossed indifferently in the general direction of your driveway every week, but it will now have a county-wide focus, after its parent company laid off five editorial staffers and consolidated its various and sundry local editions.

As befits the current sad state of the newspaper industry, the Times is trying to paint this as a Good Thing for its readers.

“The resident of Reston wants to see how Reston connects to neighboring jurisdictions, such as Herndon, Tysons, the county and state,” said Peter Arundel, head of the Herndon-based Times. “Our company is uniquely positioned to do this.”

Quite right -- there's no other source for news like that.

There's One Born Every Minute

Looks like some lucky Restonian found a sucker interested party for their old rustbucket wondercar.

This coming weekend, I'm headed to Reston, Va., to pick up a silver 1992 Corolla. From what I hear, the paint is still shiny, the interior is without peer, and the air conditioning blows positively Antarctic.

For most, it would just be a car. A daily driver. A commuter's reliable appliance. A means to an end.

Not for me.

This car, this 16-year-old base model Corolla, with crank windows, a factory tape deck, and 97,000 miles on the odometer, is a monument.

To be fair, the person who penned this wondrous ode is a college student. All we can say is we want some of whatever he's smoking.

Reston's Vibrant Economy Part 24: A Grab Bag 'O' Prosperity

As the economy collapses around us, it's reassuring to know that Reston is at the very heart of the sclerotic global marketplace. From West Virginia to North Wales, we're kicking all kinds of hiney (or pattotey, depending on whether you're in the former or latter exotic locale.)

• Reston bank Greater Atlantic Financial Corp. is about to be purchased by a West Virginia bank, Summit Financial Group of Moorefield. We could make a joke about how the West Virginia bank must be seeking to diversify its portfolio of subprime paper on various and sundry mobile homes, but we'll leave that for the elitists at The Wall Street Journal and just point out that many of the conveyances its customers borrow money to buy can't be parked here.
  
  
• A British company, Serco Group PLC, agreed to buy Reston-based SI International Inc., a federal IT contractor, for $423 million -- or, in British currency, "tuppence."
  
  
• The North Wales Police Department opted to outsource its e-mail to the Reston headquarters of Unisys. Terms weren't announced, but we're assuming Unisys will at least get a shiny ha'penny for its efforts, which appear to involve migrating thousands of e-mails all one sentence long: "What's all this then?" Who knows, maybe they thought Unisys was headquartered in this Reston.
  
  
• Doomed homebuilder Comstock reaches some complicated yet intensely boring deal with one of its lenders. Those particleboard tract subdivisions aren't going to build themselves, after all!
  

We'll be burying our gold bullion in the back yard.

Flashback Friday Monday: A Land Before Time (But Not Before Golf Courses)

Imagine a long-ago epoch, years before the first 7/8 scale brick was laid for the Reston Town Center(tm). Before the Macaroni Grill, even, or much of the mauve housing stock we've grown to know and love. This exciting aerial photo, ca. 1968 or 1969, we're guessing (click to enlarge), looks east from a vantage point somewhere over the giant plat of clearcut virgin forest which would eventually become the USGS Headquarters. It definitely shows what was most important to the New Town (tm) -- its two awesome golf courses. Aside from the ominously named N-1 Building in Isaac Newton Square, which was Gulf Reston Headquarters at the time, they were pretty much the only prominent landmarks that were actually completed at this point. (Lake Anne Village, marked on the map, is hardly a speck from this vantage point.)

Note how Sunrise Valley Road appears to be nearing completion, snaking through what promised to become a magnet to attract many of the DC area's many associations (except probably not this one). The future home of the American Newspaper Publishers Association is yet another plat of virgin trees, which presumably were chopped down and ground into pulp to make long sheets of paper on which the news of the day was printed in a portable, disposable format called a "news-paper." People did crazy things like that back then, in the days before the Internets! (Speaking of which, at the time of this photo, a younger Al Gore was probably lurking around the Defense Comm Agency building marked on the map, helping invent them.)

But we digress. On the other side of the Toll Road Dulles Access Road, Sunset Hills Road is finished, meandering through a bunch of low-rise dreck which must have been later demolished to build the first of SallieMae's awesome palaces offices.

The only question: How did people get to Reston? At this point, there was only a promise that the off-ramps from the Toll Road Dulles Access Road at Reston Parkway would be completed by 1970. The white crayon marking Wiehle Avenue's bridge didn't get completed for another 20 years. Besides, who would dare cross the ominous-looking dotted lines at the eastern edge of the photos? Did the earth end there, or just the awesome earth tones?

Today's Box Score: Flame-Tipped Bow Hunters 1, Reston Association 0

The Reston Association has singlehandedly eradicated the scourge of unsightly trailers and boats, prevailed in its attempts to addle goose eggs, and even took on quantum physics as it declared war on darkness. But when it set its sights on bow hunters, it was the RA that wound up in the crosshairs.

Reston Association has been ordered to pay approximately $58,000 to the Archery Trade Association after the Virginia Supreme Court refused to hear the homeowner association’s appeal regarding a bow hunting decision reached at a Fairfax County court last December. The amount will go to recover Archery Trade Association’s court fees.

There literally is a trade association for everything in the DC area. Luckily, they were there to protect the rights of several Restonians.

The Archery Trade Association (ATA) supported two Reston Association (RA) members who live on Buckthorn Lane whom the RA denied permission to employ bow hunting services to manage deer populations on their properties in November 2006. "The two landowners who had followed the rules, we felt that they had been wrongly handled," said Jay McAninch, the ATA CEO and president. He added that the individual homeowners were not in position to "challenge the likes of the RA" in the courts, so the ATA stepped in to help.

For its part, the RA says it won, too, even though it had to pay the $58,000, which will buy the ATA a lot of... bow strings, and, um, exploding arrow tips and... well, whatever.

Robin Smyers, RA president, said the courts also found that RA has a right to establish its own regulations on the issue. "We had every right to have guidelines and our rules were upheld," said Smyers.

However, the two landowners had used bow hunting before RA established its regulations regarding the practice. "They were, for lack of a better term, grandfathered in," said Larry Butler, RA’s director of Parks and Recreation, because they were able to prove they had used bow hunting prior to RA’s decision in 2006. The court decision, said Butler, "also validated the [RA] covenants."

Sweet! We're off to Buckthorn Lane, where we'll "grandfather in" a few deer, a squirrel or two, and maybe any fat, slow-moving bugs that happen to get too close!

This Last Week Some Time Ago in Crime: Attempted Dognapping Foiled

Another inopportune evening stroll, another crime committed. Only this one has, as they say in the movies, an odd twist:

At about 9 p.m. Aug. 24, a 24-year-old Reston woman was reportedly robbed while walking her dog in the 12000 block of Greywing Square. She was allegedly approached from behind by a man who wrapped his arms around her, grabbed her dog by its leash and ran away with the dog. Responding officers heard the dispatch for the incident and quickly located the man, who was positively identified. The Reston man was arrested and transported to the Fairfax County jail and charged with robbery and abduction. The woman was not seriously injured and the dog was returned unharmed.

We've said it before, we'll say it again: Everyone loves puppies.

This is something like the 97th time Greywing Square has been mentioned in these postings. After this most recent attempted petnapping, we're tempted say it must be --ahem! -- going to the dogs, but that would be lame, even by the (very) low standards of this blog.

Back to School Part II: No Earth-Toned Real Estate Development Left Behind

A whole slew of Reston-area elementary schools didn't meet federal benchmarks on Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests last school year.

Dogwood Elementary, Forest Edge Elementary, Hunters Woods Elementary and Terraset Elementary were among the 56 Fairfax County schools that didn't meet the benchmarks required by the awesome No Child Left Behind law, despite changes to address the county's ESL population.

In 2007, 37 percent of county schools failed to meet federal benchmarks under No Child Left Behind, a fact that school officials largely blamed on a new requirement during the 2006-07 school year that immigrant students learning English take the same grade-level test as their peers.

Now, schools are allowed to use the Virginia Grade Level Assessment – a portfolio-based assessment method that is also used for some students with disabilities – for certain students who are very new to the English language.

With that change, 134 of the county's 190 schools met the federal benchmarks.

Of course, standardized test results tell you more about the socioeconomic standing of a school's students than the quality of the education -- but these folks already know that.

Meanwhile, even though some students affected by the recent uneventful redistricting at South Lakes High School opted to take advantage of loopholes to attend less Bratz-intensive schools, still others voluntarily transfered there.

The student population on the Reston campus, once 1,440, is now about 1,650. At South Lakes High, the freshman class has 510 students. That's about the target class size for the school. The total enrollment exceeds projections for the first year of the new boundaries.

The school's population spike occurred even though more than 80 students who would have been freshmen at South Lakes High transferred out, most of them to pursue Advanced Placement classes or others not offered at the school. Those transfers were seen as a consequence of the opposition of some parents to the boundary changes.

But South Lakes Principal Bruce Butler said that about 25 freshmen transferred into the school to take advantage of its International Baccalaureate program, and about a dozen others came from private schools.

But was it for IB, or for the fashions?

Three Words You Don't Want to Hear at the Doctor's Office

Ewwww.

"It's part of that new trend that we're starting to hear more and more about: natural orifice surgery," said Reston Hospital Center Surgeon Dr. Karim Trad. "In other words, using natural openings in our body to access the organs that need to be operated on."

Let's just hope they wash their hands first.

Election '08: As Reston Judges a Moose-Huntin', Baby-Rearin' Governor From Alaska, So Does the Nation

Forget how things play in Peoria. For the second time in as many weeks, Reston is Ground Zero for sizing up the mood of the electorate as a whole.

Let me tell you why My best friend Liz matters. She is 37 years old and Catholic.

She has three children under the age of 9 years old. She lives in Reston, VA (the suburbs of D.C.). She is a registered Independent and has voted both Democratic and Republican. She is a stay at home mother and was a RABID Hillary Clinton supporter. She was considering staying home instead of voting this November. I had been trying to convince her of the FOLLY of this stance. Anyway...

I guess that McCain feels that Liz is just the demographic that he could poach with the selection of Palin. Instead, Liz tells me that there is "no way that those two people (McCain/Palin) should be in charge of her kids' future." Today she decided to vote for Barack.

Might as well call the whole election off then. This fall, we won't have red states and blue states; we'll have mauve states and non-mauve states.

This Week Several Weeks Ago in Crime

Sometime last month, someone broke into a house. And someone else stole some stuff from an acquaintance. Here are all the salacious details:

Police were called to a home in the 1500 block of Chatham Colony Court at 12:56 p.m. Aug. 17 for a reported burglary. Officers learned that two men, 24 and 28 years old, were asleep in different areas of the home. The 28-year-old awoke when an unknown woman opened his bedroom door. The woman fled downstairs and damaged items in the home before fleeing with a laptop computer. No one was injured. The woman was described as black, with braids or dreadlocks. She was wearing an orange shirt and blue jeans.

Hey, guess what? Maybe 12:56am is a better time to commit a crime than 12:56pm. Even these clowns know that:

Police were called to the 2600 block of William Short Drive at 2:53 a.m. Aug. 15 where a woman had been reportedly robbed. At the scene, officers learned that a 21-year-old Bristow, Va., woman ran into two acquaintances at a Chantilly-area restaurant, and she later left with the two men to visit someone else. They were parked in the 2600 block of William Short Drive when one of the men reportedly demanded the woman's purse and cell phone. The man covered the woman's mouth and held her down as he took money and personal items from her purse. He then returned the purse and forced her out of the car. The men fled and the woman called police about 30 minutes later to report the incident. She did not require medical treatment.

The lesson here is clear, folks: Friends don't let friends go to Chantilly.

Bratz Go Back To School

As yet another school year begins in Reston, South Lakes High School welcomes a host of new students following an uneventful boundary study that received little attention, except maybe from those who decided to take advantage of a long-standing loophole or got a doctor's note saying they were allergic to the latex used in recently manufactured Bratz and whatnot. One thing has become clear, though: More students has, as backers of the redistricting argued, resulted in more classes at South Lakes -- even at a time when the district is facing a $95 million shortfall.

Students at South Lakes High School have more academic options this year as the school has added six new classes – International Baccalaureate business management, Advanced Placement government, fashion marketing, two Japanese courses and a culinary arts program.

South Lakes also will see the addition of many new students with the west county boundary changes and general student transfers. To compensate for that, the school has also hired additional staff members, Principal Bruce Butler said. "We have new upperclassmen as well and the bigger student population has allowed us to expand the staff," he said.

Renovations are mostly finished at South Lakes, Butler said, but construction crews still have to finish roofing the school and complete a few small projects. "The better part of the renovation project is done and should really be wrapped up at the beginning of October," he said.

Additionally, the new design and engineering lab also will be finished later this year and new courses will be added next school year, Butler said. Classes in the lab will include computer-aided design, architecture, fabrication, applied sciences and mathematics, he said.

What about that fashion marketing class?

Butler said he has heard a lot of positive feedback from students so far even though the school year has not yet started. For example, he said, a "critical mass" of students were interested in and excited by the fashion marketing class.

We wonder who those students were.

Meanwhile, in the other other Anti-Reston: Horse Sense

We've found yet another parallel universe Reston, along with the one with Loonie-sized hail and the one where they honored the Dark Lord with a street in his name. So what's happening in Reston, Berwickshire -- which we assume is somewhere in England, or Scotland, or maybe one of those more obscure, damp corners of the British Isles where men wear skirts and whatnot?

A HORSE sparked a huge rescue operation after falling into a six-foot deep septic tank.

Nineteen firemen were sent to retrieve 17-year-old Guinness after he plunged into the pit of raw sewage.

Andrew Morton, farmer at Sunnyside Farm, in Reston, Berwickshire, said: "We had to cut concrete and metal to get at him.

"The firemen did well rescuing him and hosing him down - he was stinking."

We're calling our travel agent today.