There’s good news for Old Town coffee enthusiasts, as a new coffee shop and wine bar is asking the city for expanded hours and extra outdoor seating.
LaPluma Coffee & Wine Bar opened in May at 1000 Cameron Street in Old Town, and now its owners are asking the city to expand their operating hours only on Sundays from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and add 12 more seats and two tables to the outdoor patio, for a total of 40 seats.
The Alexandria Police Department has temporarily shut down the northbound right lane of Richmond Highway at the Monroe Avenue Bridge after a crash between a vehicle and a tractor-trailer.
No emergency crews were on-scene and the vehicles are pulled over on the side of the road. The crash was reported at around 12:30 p.m., and the roadway was still partially shut down as of 1 p.m.
An Alexandria man charged with felony animal abuse was granted bail on July 24 (Thursday), despite objections from the Commonwealth’s Attorney.
Kevin Malik Sanders was granted a $10,000 bail on personal recognizance and goes to court for a three-day jury trial starting Feb. 2, 2026, according to the Alexandria Clerk of Court. The 29-year-old was arrested on July 21, 2025, after the death of a three-year-old Golden Retriever named Abigail at Your Dog’s Best Friends (2000 Richmond Highway) on July 12, 2024. He was charged with four Class 1 misdemeanors and one count of felony animal abuse. The Commonwealth’s Attorney released allegations of abuse in an effort to keep him behind bars (see below).
Sometimes getting all wet can be exactly what you need.
On Friday (Aug. 29), Alexandria’s Department of Recreation, Parks, and Cultural Activities is celebrating the one-year anniversary of the Minnie Howard Aquatics Facility. The family friendly event will be held from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. and includes free activities, live music and giveaways.
No injuries were reported in a commercial building fire in the Alexandria area of Fairfax County on Friday morning (Aug. 1).
The Alexandria Fire Department assisted the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department extinguish the blaze in a small building, which was reported at around 6 a.m.
Good morning, Alexandria! 👋 Today is Monday, Aug. 4, the 216th day of 2025. There are 149 days left in the year.
⛈️ Today’s weather: Sunny, with a high near 86 degrees. Calm wind becoming east around six mph in the afternoon. Increasing clouds tonight, with a low around 66. Light and variable wind.
U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, recalls how over the years, he and colleagues in Congress used to say “we’re gonna get to housing next, we’re gonna get to housing next.” But it never really came, he said, and now “housing shortages are a real crisis.”
Last week, he called himself and his colleagues out for “kicking the can on housing” since before the COVID-19 pandemic. Though he and others had introduced proposals, the proposals haven’t always succeeded. But he’s encouraged this year, as a package of housing bills he helped craft advanced unanimously through the Senate’s Banking Committee.
Good morning, Alexandria! 👋 Today is Sunday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2025. There are 150 days left in the year.
On this day in, 1950, Alexandria residents began complaining about a bad taste in the local drinking water. According to Historic Alexandria, “Alexandria Water Company soon officials determined the cause to be chemicals that had been dumped into a storm sewer by men at Cameron Station, the U.S. Army’s Quartermaster Depot. The affected water had to be drained from the water company’s reservoir and the City’s water supply was impacted for a week”.
Over three days of sometimes contentious hearings this week, the National Transportation Safety Board interrogated Federal Aviation Administration and Army officials about a list of things that went wrong and contributed to a Black Hawk helicopter and a passenger jet colliding over Washington, D.C., killing 67 people.
The biggest revelations: The helicopter’s altimeter gauge was broken, and controllers warned the FAA years earlier about the dangers that helicopters presented.
Good morning, Alexandria! 👋Today is Saturday, Aug. 2, the 214th day of 2025. There are 151 days left in the year.
⛈️ Today’s weather: Increasing clouds, with a high near 82 degrees. East wind 5 to 7 mph.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Federal judge T.S. Ellis III, whose legal scholarship and commanding courtroom presence was evident in numerous high-profile trials, has died after a long illness. He was 85.
Ellis oversaw the trials of former Donald Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort and former U.S. Rep. William “Dollar Bill” Jefferson as well as the plea deal of “American Taliban” John Walker Lindh across a judicial career that lasted more than 35 years.
