After years of planning and construction, Alexandria’s Virginia Tech Innovation Campus in Potomac Yard celebrated a grand opening today (Friday).
The Virginia Tech campus broke ground in 2021 and opened to students in January. A three-building campus is planned, with the first building coming online being an 11-story, 300,000-square-foot academic building that visitors toured today as part of the grand opening.
Public school students across Virginia would soon be getting free breakfasts under a newly proposed bill by Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5) and Sen. Danica Roem (D-30).
Bennett-Parker and Roem unsuccessfully tried to get free breakfast and lunch approved for students in the General Assembly’s 2024 session. With a $172 million pricetag, Bennett-Parker’s bill never made it out of the House Appropriations Committee.
Three prominent Alexandria Democratic politicians threw their hats in the ring for reelection on Tuesday night (Jan. 7).
Delegate Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-5th), Sheriff Sean Casey and Commonwealth’s Attorney Bryan Porter announced their intentions to run for reelection at a virtual meeting of the Alexandria Democratic Committee. The meeting was supposed to be held at Alexandria City High School, but went virtual because of this week’s snowstorm.
Virginia House Majority Leader Del. Charniele Herring (D-46) said that the $2 billion Potomac Yard arena deal is in no man’s land and that she doesn’t see a path forward for it.
Herring, who voted yes in the House of Delegates version of the arena bill last month, criticized Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s handling of the issue. She was joined this morning by members of Northern Virginia’s delegation to the General Assembly at the Chamber ALX’s legislative breakfast.
(Updated at 9 p.m.) Virginia’s House of Delegates voted to pass the arena bill 59-40, sending the proposal to an uncertain future in the Senate.
Earlier this week, the Democrat-controlled Virginia Senate voted not to table the bill on the arena’s stadium authority for a hearing.
Before heading back down to Richmond in January, Alexandria’s state-level elected officials are hosting a townhall to hear from locals.
State Sen. Adam Ebbin, Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker, Del. Charniele Herring and Del. Alfonso Lopez are hosting a pre-legislative town hall on Wednesday, Nov. 29, at 6:30 p.m. in Alexandria City Hall.
Alexandria Democratic members of the Virginia’s General Assembly were swept back into office on election night.
There were no surprises from the unofficial election returns Tuesday night. Facing no opposition, Democratic incumbents Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (5th) was reelected to a second term with 21,622 votes, and Del. Charniele Herring (4th) was reelected to her eighth two-year term with 10,368 votes. Del. Alfonso Lopez (D-3rd) was also reelected with 81% (16,837 votes) and defeated independent candidate Major Mike Webb.
About 30% of Alexandria voters are expected to turn out at the polls on election day today, Nov. 7.
As of 10 a.m. — four hours after polls opened — 21,661 voters cast their ballots, which is about 23% of the city’s 96,232 active registered voters. A vast majority of those ballots, 13,927 votes (64%), are from absentee voters. Also as of 10 a.m., 7,734 voters cast their ballots in person, according to the city’s Office of Voter Registration and Elections.
Thousands turned out in costumes for the 27th annual Del Ray Halloween Parade on Sunday.
This year, the parade was named one of the top 10 Halloween Parades in the country by USA Today.
Thousands attended Alexandria’s birthday celebration on the waterfront on Saturday.
For a minute it seemed that rain on Saturday would result in a washout, like last year when the event was postponed. But skies cleared and grass dried enough for the event to continue as planned.
Fresh off a busy legislative session, Del. Elizabeth Bennett-Parker (D-45) and her husband Stephen welcomed a new constituent to their district last week: their new daughter.
Bennett-Parker announced on social media that their daughter was born on Monday, May 8.
