As Alexandria City Public Schools plans a systemwide reopening to full-time in-person instruction on August 24, staff will not be required to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.

ACPS told ALXnow that there is not a vaccine requirement at this time.


An Alexandria man was arrested on July 29 after shooting and killing his cat during an argument with his girlfriend in their Landmark area apartment.

Alexandria Police responded to a call for shots fired at an apartment in the 6000 block of Edsall Road at around 1:15 a.m. The suspect’s girlfriend said she and her boyfriend got into an argument while watching television. The woman said that she recently bought a handgun after a destruction of property incident, and that her boyfriend took the gun and shot a round at their bed in anger.


Mayor urges use of resources to halt evictions — “Today, Mayor Justin Wilson issued a letter to Alexandria landlords requesting that they work with the City and its partners to access the many available sources of rental assistance for households unable to pay rent due to the pandemic.” [Patch]

NOVA Parks partners with Alexandria Treatment Court, donates rewards for participants — “NOVA Parks has given passes to Great Waves Water Park and the Cameron Run Mini-Golf Park… These passes will be a reward for select ATC participants as they make successful progress in the program.” [Zebra]


Melissa Graves calls CrossFit her medicine.

Last year, though, she was forced to shut down her brick and mortar gym, CrossFit MVA at 1712 Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray. Graves and her team of a half dozen coaches kept the ship afloat with Zoom workouts, as members who stuck it out took home weight sets and medicine balls from the gym.


Alexandria will likely be getting an influx of funding from a statewide opioids settlement, but how much and where exactly that funding will be going remains to be determined.

The City Council met last night for a special session — interrupting the brief summer break due to the need to have a decision the city should join the Virginia Opioid Abatement Fund and Settlement Allocation Memorandum.


Amy DuVall still can’t believe she’s baking Italian cookies for a living in Alexandria. The owner of From Politics To Pastry says its surreal to be her own boss, especially after nearly 20 years of rubbing elbows on Capitol Hill as an environmental lawyer and lobbyist.

“So far, everything is working out well,” DuVall told ALXnow. “I will say that I am definitely more relaxed. It’s very surreal to not have a boss. I mean, other than taxes and laws, but to not have somebody to report to is very surreal.”


Alexandria ranks ninth in Virginia for small businesses — “Alexandria ranked ninth overall among Virginia localities with a small business index score of 39.17. The city was seventh for percentage of small business income — 10.11 percent.” [Patch]

Alexandria ranked by CDC as third best city in U.S. for surviving zombie apocalypse — “It seems the CDC-yes, the Centers for Disease Control were kind of bored a while back and actually posted a Zombie Apocalypse Preparedness Guide which recently inspired a company called Lawn Love to dig into a bunch of data and develop 2021’s Best Cities for Surviving a Zombie Apocalypse and Alexandria, Virginia turns out to be a good spot to be in such an event.” [Zebra]


View More Stories