News and notes from Reston (tm).

Friday, October 29, 2010

Terror, Tolls, and Politics As (Un)usual: A Random Sprint Through Reston News

  • Farooque Ahmed, the Ashburn man accused of plotting to bomb a number of Virginia Metro stations, worked as a contractor at Ericsson in Reston. What's more, he was taken into custody in Herndon. That's what those of us (not) in the news business would call a "local angle two-fer."

  • Here's what those of us (not) in the news business would call a "real shocker:" Dulles Toll Road tolls are going up by a quarter at the main toll booth outside of Tysons on Jan. 1. The "good" news is that ramp tolls will remain the same through 2012. Feeling ripped off? Apparently, it's still a bargain, at least to hear the airports authority explain it:
    According to the MWAA, the Dulles Toll Road still has one of the cheapest toll-per-mile rates, currently at 13 cents per mile, and it will go up to 15 and 17 cents per mile in 2011 and 2012, respectively. To compare, the Dulles Greenway is 32 cents per mile during off-peak hours, and the Beltway HOT lanes will be 43 cents per mile, according to estimates from project sponsors.
    Maybe it's just us, but comparing anything to the Greenway strikes us as an odd way to make the case that we're not getting shafted.

  • Hunter Mill Road's Toll Road underpass will be closed again overnight from Nov. 1-5 as construction crews do something involving "bridge decking," or maybe just preparing to have a money fight with all those shiny new quarters they'll be getting. The same helpful detour is in place as last time.

  • After reading those last two items, you're probably getting excited about someday forgetting about the whole Toll Road experience and just stone cold hopping on the Silver Line. Well, the good news is that the fancy tunnel taking the Metro under one of Tysons' most prestigious hillocks is now completed, though trains will return to the surface just in time to see the endless sea of car lots along Rt. 7. The bad news? The project is behind schedule. Blame "utility lines," whatever that means.

  • So maybe riding your bike is a good idea then, right? Remember that time that Reston was in line for federal funds to build a vaguely socialist bike sharing system? Well, not so much anymore.

  • Yay Reston's Fake Downtown, which just turned 20! The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors recently honored the real estate development "world-class urban model," along with James Cleveland, Hunter Richardson, and Jeffrey Kovach, who all played key roles in its development. Robert E. Simon and Cathy Hudgins were among the people who planted a fancy time capsule to be opened on Oct. 18, 2030. We're guessing the future denizens of the RestonWiehleTargetvilleMetroplex will be quite impressed by the cupcakes, cryogenically frozen yogurt and, whaazitcalled, "iPods."

  • Nineteen-year-old Lee Wiggins was sentenced to 40 years in prison for the Easter 2009 murder of Siobhan Russell in Fox Mill.

  • Following the traditional "preference poll," Beverly Cosham, William Keefe and Roger Lowen were named the selected appointees to the Reston Community Center Board of Governors. In Small Tax District #5, polls prefer you!

  • Reston resident Richard Allen Beyer, currently a corporate vice president and member of the executive committee at Trimble Navigation Ltd., was named the first non-Jesuit president of Wheeling Jesuit University.

  • Rockwell Collins, which is involved in, we don't know, strapping aviation electronics to dolphins, is consolidating operations in Sterling, including Reston employees who joined the company when it bought Information Technology and Applications Corp.

  • TerreStar, which is involved in, we don't know, strapping dolphins to satellites, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

  • We've said it before, and we'll say it again: People love puppies.

  • With the elections on Tuesday, we've been remiss in covering much in terms of politics. But here, through the magic of the Twitters, are two exciting photos that capture the zeitgeist of Campaign 2010: Reston Style.

    murray.JPG
    Thanks to a Confidential Restonian Operative, here is an exciting cellular telephone photo of Republican Congressional candidate Patrick Murray's bus at North Point Shopping Center. We're not sure if he was there campaigning, just stopping by for ice cream, or if the bus had plowed into the red car in the foreground.

    And then there's the Rally to Restore Sanity And/Or Fear, which seems like something that would be up many Restonians' alley. Is anyone going?

    rally.jpg
    Apparently so.

16 comments:

  1. So glad to hear that russet brown will be represented at the rally. Any word yet on mauve?

    Yay Reston!

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  2. Well while we can look forward to more of the same at RCC in terms of a elite cadre of citizens and staff deciding what is best for us. They recently spent $50,000 (I'm guessing) decorating a little used walkway tunnel entrance with a mosaic while the actual sidewalk above it was virtually overgrown and largely unusable. One year I think they got 200 voting in the preferance poll.

    Expect to pay more and more and more for the toll road. There was a guy with the large pig statue on the trailer who was trying to warn everyone but he was largely ignored.

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  3. Yeah, tolls on 267 are getting so ridiculously high that I've switched back to using Route 7. Boo to you, WMAA.

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  4. RE: the RCC preference poll. Let's see, there were 3 positions available. There were 3 candidates presented. All of the propaganda clearly labeled it a preference poll, not an election, giving one the impression that it really didn't matter what we wanted or thought. Me, I was just irked that they wasted the money to bother doing it. What a joke. As if there was any choice? Geez, the only thing missing is the guard with the weapon standing by to make sure the "hotly contested" event stays calm?

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  5. About that first bit, Farooque Ahmed, I hope the mosques are reaching out to the people who are so disaffected that they feel they have to kill people. It's not that different from bullying or school shootings -- when people feel marginalized, they have a higher propensity to strike out at others. Their peer groups and folks they association with need to be more alert about how much anger and hurt they're bottling up.

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  6. His arrest, however, touched off a conversation about whether Ahmed might have initiated a plot or whether law enforcement officials had floated the idea to him, as has been suggested in other FBI sting operations.

    It's a conversation that's definitely going on in the community," said Imam Johari Abdul-Malik, spokesman for Dar Al-Hijrah mosque in Falls Church. "At the same time, though, if you're dumb enough and sick enough to think you're working for al-Qaeda, then maybe your behind should be put in jail. If what the authorities accuse him of turns out to be true, I have very little sympathy for someone who plans something like that."

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  7. The Murray bus was at Plaza America on Saturday.

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  8. One would think if any Muslim cleric anywhere publicly repudiated terror the liberal press would clasp him to their bosom. I wonder where that cleric could be?

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  9. Oh please, Anon 12:59. What a pathetic argument.

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  10. Anon 4:11 is going to name DOZENS of such Muslims clerics just to shut down Anon 12:59 once and for all!

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  11. "Once and for all?" What, is there an ongoing battle between Anon 4:11 and Anon 12:59 that the rest of us don't know about? Do they always make sure to post exactly at 4:11 and 12:59 so we all know it's them?

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  12. I Am Anonymous 12:59. No, I am Anonymous 12:59!November 4, 2010 at 9:01 PM

    Anon 8:18, that comment killed me! ROTFLMAO, as the "kids" would put it.

    It gave me the idea that we can all do a virtual flash mob event worthy of Reston - hey kids, everybody who's reading this, post whatever you like in this thread tomorrow under the rubric of "Anonymous" at exactly 12:59 and/or 4:11, just like that immortal scene from the sandals-and-swords epic film "Spartacus" (when all the uppity peons are asked which one is Spartacus, dozens shout out "I am Spartacus!")

    "I am Anonymous 12:59!"
    "No, I am Anonymous 12:59!"
    "I AM ANONYMOUS 12:59!"

    Only a 60-second window to pull it off!

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  13. I am Anonymous 12:59.

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  14. No, I am Anonymous 12:59

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  15. I am annoying mouse 12:59.

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  16. No, I am anonymous 12:5--

    Oh, wait. Too late.

    ReplyDelete

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