News

Election Day is just around the corner in Alexandria. Here’s what to know about Tuesday’s special elections for State Senate and the House of Delegates.

Ballots tomorrow will include races for Virginia’s 39th District in the State Senate and 5th District in the House of Delegates. The following candidates are running.


News

Mayor Alyia Gaksins endorsed Alexandria City Council candidate Roberto Gomez at his campaign kickoff in Landmark yesterday (Sunday).

About 50 people attended the event, which was the third Democratic campaign kickoff so far in the Feb. 21 firehouse primary. Five Democratic candidates are competing for the seat left by outgoing City Councilman R. Kirk McPike, whose resignation goes into effect today as he runs for Virginia’s 5th House District in tomorrow’s special election.


Around Town

A new dive bar concept is coming to Del Ray’s pop-up bar at the end of this month.

Fresh from its Christmas-themed concept Joy on the Avenue, owner Bill Blackburn and the Homegrown Restaurant Group are in the midst of outfitting the company’s seasonal pop-up bar. An exact date for the opening hasn’t been set, but Blackburn told ALXnow the plan is to open by the end of February.


News

Around 250 to 300 students walked out of both campuses of Alexandria City High School today (Friday) to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The student-led walkout lasted from around 2:15 to 2:45 p.m., according to ACPS. The event happened less than a month after hundreds of people gathered at Four Mile Run Park Plaza to protest ICE, after an officer fatally shot Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis.


News

Cries of “shame” rang out this afternoon (Friday) outside Citizens Bank near the King Street-Old Town Metro Station, as dozens of protestors rebuked the bank’s ties to U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.

The group made speeches, sang songs and held signs condemning the bank for extending a $500 million line of credit to The GEO Group, a Florida-based international private prison operator that has more than $700 million in contract obligations with ICE.


News

New fitness equipment, trees and shrubs are coming to a half-mile segment of the Ben Brenman Park walking trail.

The improvements at 4800 Brenman Park Drive, which are expected to arrive by early spring, are being coordinated through a partnership between Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks and Cultural Activities and a professor at George Mason University.


News

Alexandria City Councilman Canek Aguirre has asked state lawmakers to oppose a bill that would legalize skill games in Virginia, citing harmful impacts of the games on local business owners.

The bill, sponsored by State Sen. Aaron Rouse (D-22), calls for the regulation and taxation of skill game machines. It would cap the number of machines in Virginia at 35,000, impose an $800 gaming tax per machine and limit wagers from users to $5 per play. It was rereferred last week to the Finance and Appropriations Committee.


News

There’s a little more than two weeks left before the Alexandria Democratic Committee conducts a firehouse primary for an open seat on City Council.

Candidates are expected to appear at an upcoming ADC meeting as well as forum hosted by the Del Ray Business Association later this month. So far, five people are running for the seat to replace outgoing City Councilman R. Kirk McPike.


News

Charles Sumpter is entering the special election race for Alexandria City Council after participating in last month’s Democratic firehouse primary, where he lost competing for a State Senate seat in the 39th District.

Sumpter, 40, is a senior executive at World Wildlife Fund and helped found Safe Space NOVA, where he served as a member of the board. He has updated his campaign website, though his platform of issues has stayed the same: affordable housing, community-based mental health care and expanding workforce pathways for students.


News

A former groomer at Your Dog’s Best Friends was found guilty today of felony animal cruelty resulting in the death of a two-year-old golden retriever named Abigail, and four misdemeanor counts of animal abuse.

Kevin Malik Sanders, 30, pleaded guilty to the felony animal cruelty charge, a Class 6 felony punishable by up to five years in prison and/or a $2,500 fine. Each misdemeanor count also carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail.


Around Town

A new children’s book from an Alexandria author is rekindling the stories she told local students during virtual storytimes amid the Covid-19 pandemic.

Seven Days of Sophie” by Southerlyn Marino captures a week in the life of Sophie, a lovable black-and-white French bulldog. Though Marino released the book at the Made In ALX store just last month, the stories are from five years ago, when she was asked to be a virtual mystery reader for her nephews’ class at Charles Barrett Elementary School.


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