News

More details have been released about a fired Alexandria sheriff’s deputy going to court next month after allegedly attempting to smuggle drugs to an inmate in the city jail.

During the first week in April, an inmate at the detention center informed the Alexandria Sheriff’s Office that at least one sworn officer had given an inmate food items and narcotics. A widespread investigation found then-Deputy Sheriff Amarachukwu W. Igwe had an “overly familiar relationship with a male inmate,” according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.


News

If parts of Alexandria are feeling the heat more than others, heat islands may be to blame.

The temperature is forecast to be 100 degrees on Thursday (July 16), when more than 30 teams will fan out to identify the hottest areas across Alexandria, Arlington and Fairfax County. The teams from George Mason University’s Virginia Climate Center and  Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions will monitor temperature and humidity variations at 30 locations as part of their “Urban Heat Island Mapping Project.”


Around Town

Alexandria’s 277th birthday ended with a bang and a fizzle on Saturday (July 11), as the evening of entertainment at Oronoco Bay Park was capped with a dazzling fireworks show and a brief rainstorm.

Raindrops started to fall just before 9:30 p.m. as the Alexandria Symphony Orchestra started to play Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, sending hundreds of people under cover of tents and umbrellas at the very start of the fireworks. The evening was otherwise overcast and cool, and city leaders, the town crier and poet laureate rang in the annual celebration onstage and handed out birthday cupcakes from Wegmans.


News

A kitchen fire may have been accidentally set off by a dog this morning (Monday) at a West End home, according to the owner.

The Alexandria Fire Department responded around 9:31 a.m. after a resident reported the smell of smoke from a neighbor’s home in the 600 block of N. Ripley Street. Units encountered a fire on the stovetop and confirmed it was out as of 9:50 a.m., according to scanner traffic.


News

After climbing through Alexandria’s political spheres, it’s almost as if R. Kirk McPike is starting over.

The new 5th House District delegate to Virginia’s General Assembly resigned his seat on the Alexandria City Council just before winning a special election in February to fill the seat vacated by now-state Sen. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-39). In order to comply with state law, the Democrat also had to quit his full-time job as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA).


News

The Northern Virginia Transportation Authority, on Thursday (July 9) unanimously approved a $15 million allocation toward the Duke Street Transitway Project.

With the allocation, NVTA has funded $102 million for the $102.5 million project, which will add more than four miles of bus rapid transit lanes along Duke Street between the King Street-Old Town Metro station and the city’s border with Fairfax County near the former Landmark Mall site. The project has been in the works for years and is in the design phase. The estimated completion date for the new lanes is Dec. 31, 2029.


News

The Alexandria City School Board on Thursday (July 9) unanimously elected new leadership for the next year.

Without opposition, School Board Member Christopher Harris was elected as chair, and Alexander Crider Scioscia was elected vice chair. Both are graduates of Alexandria City High School (when it was T.C. Williams High School), and the one-year appointments went into effect in the beginning of Thursday night’s meeting.


News

ACT for Alexandria’s Fund for Racial Equity has awarded more than $200,000 in grants to 29 local organizations and individuals, the organization announced in a new report.

The nonprofit created the fund in 2020 and established a resident community advisory board to lead grantmaking in 2024. The advisory board led three rounds of grantmaking over the next two years, awarding flexible, unrestricted grants to the organizations and individuals, according to ACT for Alexandria’s A Journey in Hope report.


News

Expect work crews at six intersections near Alexandria’s waterfront starting next week.

The city will conduct utility investigations from Monday, July 13 to Friday, July 24 as part of the Waterfront Flood Mitigation Project.


News

Along with new school boundaries, newly drawn school walk zones went into effect in Alexandria on July 1.

The new walk zone maps show where students walking to school will find hazardous road crossings, bridge crossings and areas without sidewalks. Outside Alexandria City High School’s King Street and Minnie Howard campuses, for instance, there are dozens of hazardous crossing points identified by the school system.


Around Town

Alex Vans wants guys to have more friends.

With American men in the midst of a nationwide friendship recession, the Alexandria resident recently launched the newest version of Choros, an application dedicated to helping men in the D.C. area make real connections. The app sifts through more than 100 events for groups of three to six guys based on their preferences, from ax throwing to playing pool and watching the World Cup,


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