Free Republic

Thousands of volunteers descended on Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia for the annual Wreaths Across America Day to help honor fallen service members. Parking lots at the burial ground were quickly filled as the volunteers swarmed to pick up wreaths to lay at the cemetery’s tombstones. The event is part of a nationwide effort that takes place at roughly 1,600 cemeteries across the country to honor veterans. “We understand we have Veterans Day in the fall and Memorial Day in the spring, but our service members sacrifice their time and safety every single day of the year to preserve...

Dallas (WBAP/KLIF) – The crowd is already gathering outside the American Airlines Center for the Trump campaign rally tomorrow evening. Among those in the small crowd that is slowly building, this group of women talked to us about why they came out so early. “Mr Trump, President Trump. [What are some of the things that you support that he’s done?] Oooh so much, (the wall), the wall for sure… security … he brought faith back out in the community … all of the above and being able to say God again.” The women, mostly strangers before today are from Des...

In New York City public schools, students can choose their classes, their sports, and their genders! Starting this fall, Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza is making the Big Apple an even bigger news story by radically changing the city's policy on registered names, dress codes, bathrooms, locker rooms, and athletics. He says this is his way of celebrating Pride month. But "proud" is the last word most parents would use to describe the news. In this new Wild West of gender identity, Carranza is giving the green light to everything from unofficial name changes to unisex school uniforms. "Schools are safe...

Almost 100 years after Confederate sympathizers named a major Virginia road after the president of their lost cause, Arlington County won approval from a state transportation board to rename Jefferson Davis Highway. The Commonwealth Transportation Board voted unanimously Wednesday morning to allow Arlington to change the name of the road — commonly known as Route 1 — to Richmond Highway by Oct. 1, after lobbying by the county, legislators, business and residential groups, and Gov. Ralph Northam (D). “What we just heard, through the unanimous vote and the words of the governor, is it’s past time,” said Christian Dorsey (D),...

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Protesters repeatedly shouted "shame" as a northern Virginia county board Saturday unanimously approved a $23 million incentives package for Amazon to build a new headquarters there. The Arlington County Board's 5-0 vote came after hours of heated public testimony, news outlets reported. Supporters said Amazon's plan to build a massive facility in Crystal City will lead to tens of thousands of good jobs and bring in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue. Opponents, however, said the tech giant neither needs nor deserves public subsidies. They also said lower-income residents would be driven out by...

Morgan Woodward, an actor born in Fort Worth who took on guest roles in Gunsmoke, Star Trek and Dallas, died Friday in Paso Robles, Calif. The actor, who grew up in Arlington, was 93. He played the role of Punk Anderson, a trusted adviser to the Ewing family, in 55 episodes of Dallas, which ran from 1978 to 1991. He earned praise for his role as Boss Godfrey alongside Paul Newman in the 1967 prison drama Cool-Hand Luke.

ARLINGTON NATIONAL CEMETERY, Va. – R. Lee Ermey, the actor and former U.S. Marine drill instructor who achieved iconic status after appearing in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, was buried with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday.

R. Lee Ermey will be laid to rest with full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery at 10:00 a.m. January 18, 2019. Ronald Lee Ermey (Gunnery Sgt. Hartman from Full Metal Jacket and reality TV) was born in Kansas but moved to the Yakima Valley in his early teens going to schools in Granger while the rest of his family attended classes in Zillah. A feisty kid with a penchant for getting into trouble, when he was 17, a judge offered him juvenile detention or the military. Ermey chose the Marines. You may recall he died back in April but his Arlington Cemetery...

Commuters who live in western Prince William and Fauquier counties can leave the driving to someone else come Dec. 17 when a new bus begins round-trip service from Haymarket to Arlington. The “OmniRide Haymarket Express” will make four trips in the morning and four return trips in the afternoon and early evening. It will run along I-66 between Haymarket and the Rosslyn Metro station. The trips will originate from the new park-and-ride lot on the northeast corner of U.S. 15 and Interstate 66. The Monday-through Friday service is meant to give workers an alternative to traveling by car. It’s the...

When the 66 Express Lanes opened a year ago, officials promised the tolls would mean a smoother ride on the interstate, a major east-west thoroughfare from Northern Virginia into the District that is infamous for its headache-inducing congestion. The state’s promise — less congestion and faster travel times during rush hour — has been fulfilled for many commuters able to pay or carpool, but the new toll system has had an adverse effect for many of the remaining road users. For some commuters, the rush-hour period has simply shifted later — outside the toll hours — and dumped them onto...

WASHINGTON — Extended Interstate 66 HOV hours and high morning tolls aimed at reducing the number of cars hitting a chokepoint passing the Dulles Connector Road appear to be the biggest drivers of traffic changes since tolls for solo drivers began in December.A new state review of traffic and tolling data on I-66 and parallel roads over the first six months finds more concentrated and severe eastbound traffic delays through the Rosslyn area now than in the same period last year between 8 a.m. and 9:15 a.m., but significantly reduced traffic jams on I-66 inside the Beltway elsewhere and during...

Officials at Arlington National Cemetery announced that they had evacuated the area after a bomb threat Wednesday morning. All visitors and staff had been safely removed from the area and the emergency services are investigating, according to the statement. "We will update the public as soon as we have additional information," officials added. DEVELOPING

The solemn ritual of a burial with military honors is repeated dozens of times a day, in foul weather or fair, at Arlington National Cemetery, honoring service members from privates to presidents. But in order to preserve the tradition of burial at the nation’s foremost military cemetery for future generations, the Army, which runs Arlington, says it may have to deny it to nearly all veterans who are living today. 10 Arlington is running out of room. Already the final resting place for more than 420,000 veterans and their relatives, the cemetery has been adding about 7,000 each year. At...

President Trump pledged to Gold Star families on Monday to "never forget our heroes,” saluting those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day. The president marked his second Memorial Day as commander-in-chief with a ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. The president laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, alongside Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford. He then delivered brief remarks. "We gather to honor the lives of America's greatest heroes," Trump said. “We’re joined today by the families of American heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice....

Just five hours after four people were injured in a dog attack in the North Sound, the animal was euthanized. It happened around 12:30 p.m., off Cemetery Road in Arlington. Police say four Jehovah’s Witnesses parked in front of a house and as soon as one of them - a 70-year-old woman - got out of the vehicle, a pit bull attacked her. “I just heard the screaming - I heard some screaming and I didn’t really pay much attention to it. I was on my phone and I just thought it was kids. It sounded like a little girl...

FAIRFAX, Va. — Both Interstate 66 tolls for solo drivers and expanded HOV hours have not slowed traffic on most major parallel routes during the morning rush hour, Virginia transportation officials said Tuesday.A new analysis — which found the average daily toll paid in January was $12.37 — also showed that even an increased number of cars on some roads like U.S. Route 50 did not significantly change travel times in January, compared with the same time a year earlier.“What we’re still seeing is the project is working as intended,” said Nick Donohue, Virginia’s deputy transportation secretary.The Virginia Department of...

Investigators are looking into an apparent hazmat situation at Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall in Ft. Myer, Virginia, after a number of people began feeling sick after opening a letter, officials said. Arlington Fire, one of the units responding to the scene, said "11 people started feeling ill after the letter was opened" in an administration building. Three patients were hospitalized and were said to be in stable condition. #Update: Ft Myer Hazmat, 11 people started feeling ill after letter was opened in consolidated admin building. 3 were transported. Condition not known. Ft Myer PIO enroute. — Arlington Fire (@ArlingtonVaFD) February...

Almost a dozen people have been injured at a Washington-area military base as a result of a letter that contained a hazardous substance, according to local first-responders. Hazmat crews rushed to Joint Base Myer-Henderson Hall and were trying to identify the substance Tuesday afternoon, according to the Fort Myer Fire Department’s Twitter account.

Clicks on an Arlington, Virginia, website are originating from an internal Amazon site While the world waits with bated breath for Amazon to announce which of its 20 “finalist” cities will be awarded the pleasure of trading its tax base to Jeff Bezos in exchange for the company’s much-ballyhooed second headquarters, a small local news website may have found the answer in its Google Analytics data. ARLnow.com, which serves Arlington, Virginia, found an unusual amount of traffic to a December story about Arlington County winning an award for its environmentally friendly policies. After doing some digging, the site says the...

At the current rate, the cemetery will run out of room for burials in the early 2040s. It's raising some tough questions about eligibility WASHINGTON — Tough choices lie ahead for the caretakers of Arlington National Cemetery — the hallowed grounds are beginning to reach capacity, and options are being considered to preserve available space. At the current rate, the cemetery will run out of room for burials in the early 2040s. “There are some things that can be done that would significantly restrict who is eligible and therefore extend the life of the cemetery … over 100 years,” said...