The CALEA rating is a big deal for any law enforcement agency, and in Fairfax County, it reflects a lot of work undertaken by the department and the community during the past several years.

The Abingdon Plantation house, built around 1746 and once Arlington’s oldest, commanded a spectacular view of the Potomac.

The struggle on our end has been figuring out how to come to terms with the loss of our senior year.

The press of absorbing the moment-to-moment changes can be exhausting without even attending to the troubling subject matter: a lethal pandemic, an economic crash, black lives matter and ‘defund’ the police. How to respond?

“It is hard to put the experiences of this past year into words. In my nearly 30 year career, I have never experienced a school year or graduation like this one.”

It can now be affirmed that the sudden outpouring of public praise for Barbara Cram surrounding the declaration of an official proclamation from the Falls Church City Council, reported and published in full in last week’s edition, came with the awareness that she was in last days of a years-long struggle against a fatal chronic illness.

My co-worker back in the ‘70s was one such “military brat,” high school classmate Dick Bodson. Now a technology contracting executive, he is fortunate that his Army man of a father, whose remarkable career during World War II and the Cold War did so much to mold his upbringing, is still among us at 102.

That we are living in unprecedented times, is an understatement.

The horror of that video, a black man basically being crushed to death by a white police officer over an alleged complaint, has re-ignited emotions and protests that have simmered in this nation for a long time.