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Tim Peterson

Stories by Tim

Fairfax Station: Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

Fairfax Station: Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

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Burke: Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

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Springfield: Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

Neighborhood Development Outlook Update

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newcomers

Who Runs Burke?

Newcomers Guide: Who Runs Springfield?

Who Runs Springfield?

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Mount Vernon Neighborhood Outlook: Commercial, Residential Projects Reshape Area

“Embark Richmond Highway” to meet Sept. 21.

Baywood Hotels is planning to break ground this fall on a 92-room hotel in the Woodlawn area.

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Mount Vernon: Picnic with the President

Mount Vernon Neighborhood Friends raising money to upgrade fire suppression.

Lorne Campbell was told the historic property he bought on Robertson Boulevard was once part of an area where George Washington liked to have his pigs graze.

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Fairfax: The Path to Eagle

Boy Scouts team up with Friends group to improve public trails.

On the morning of his service project, Carter Murray of Fairfax realized he’d forgotten a small but vital detail: Food.

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Volunteers Clean Up Old Colchester Road

Ten volunteers offered up their Saturday morning to clean up Old Colchester Road in Lorton. The team, which included members of the Mason Neck Lions Club and Civic Association, Del. Dave Albo (R-42) and his son, collected 14 bags of litter, a tire and other assorted trash, according to environmentalist Joe Chudzik of Mason Neck.

Fairfax Police Helicopter Crew Live-Tweets

Fairfax County Police helicopters are neither birds nor planes, but their crew got slightly more avian as they “live-tweeted” experiences from inside the hangar and helicopter through Twitter on Aug. 26.

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Torres Trial Date Set for December

Bond denied for former police officer charged with murdering John Geer.

Shortly after 10 a.m. on Aug. 19, former Fairfax County Police officer Adam Torres entered the circuit courtroom for his arraignment, dressed in a baggy, blue-green prison jumpsuit. Torres was indicted the previous Monday by a special grand jury for killing Springfield resident John Geer in August, 2013.

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Burke: Shopping with the Sheriff

The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office continued an annual tradition of collaborating with Target Department Store to provide back-to-school shopping opportunities for children in homeless families.

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Lorton: Warning Letter Sent to AAAACO Auto Parts

Twenty days. That’s how long AAAACO Auto Parts in Lorton has to respond to a letter sent by the Department of Environmental Quality stating they may be in violation of solid waste management regulations.

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Fairfax County: Policy Changes Recommended on Mental Health and Crisis Intervention

About half of the inmates in the Fairfax County Jail have a mental health illness or substance abuse disorders. The Mental Health and Crisis Intervention Team subcommittee of the Fairfax County Ad Hoc Police Practices Review Commission included this information from County Sheriff Stacey Kincaid in the introduction to its list of policy change recommendations to the full commission on Aug. 17.

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Fairfax County: Former Police Officer Charged with John Geer Murder

Adam Torres indicted by special grand jury.

Adam Torres has been charged with murdering John Geer. Though Torres shot the unarmed man once in the chest nearly two years ago, the then-Fairfax County Police officer remained on the department’s payroll until being terminated July 31, 2015.

Mount Vernon Brief: Suspect Arrested For Homicide

Fairfax County police have arrested 19-year-old Michael Norman Powell of Alexandria and charged him with second-degree murder in the death of Khalid Aboumalik, 42.

Mount Vernon Brief: Neighborhood Resource Fair Returns Sept. 12

From animal control and code compliance to stormwater management and community revitalization, Lee District community members will have a chance to get a variety of county service questions answered — all in one place.

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Mount Vernon: Questions Pursued after Encounter with Police

Iraq war veteran calls Internal Affairs commander’s statements “victim blaming.”

Alex Horton waited patiently for his chance to speak. Meanwhile the Use of Force subcommittee of the Fairfax County ad hoc commission to review police policies and procedures waded through the results of a survey to determine the content and language of policy change recommendations it will eventually bring to the full commission.

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Mount Vernon: Use of Force Subcommittee To Pilot Case Review Process

The Aug. 12 Use of Force subcommittee meeting began with a discussion of the Fairfax County Chief of Police Edwin Roessler’s public release of brief summaries of every officer-involved shooting going back to 2005.

Mount Vernon: Bennett Joins Former Opponent Storck’s Supervisor Campaign

She didn’t beat him and now she’s joining him.

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Centre View: Shopping with the Sheriff

Program benefits school-age children temporarily living at the Katherine K. Hanley shelter in Fairfax.

The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office continued an annual tradition of collaborating with Target Department Store to provide back-to-school shopping opportunities for children in homeless families.

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Burke: Supervisors to Hear Proposal for More Regulation of Donation Bins

Burke resident Nicole Hudak didn’t think much of it when she would see extraneous items left in front of Goodwill and Better World Recycling clothing donation bins near the corner of Old Keene Mill and Lee Chapel Roads.

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Springfield Native Competes on “America’s Next Top Model”

Justin Kim never planned to be a model. The 23-year-old Springfield native’s parents encouraged him to pursue law or medicine. While studying law and society at George Mason University, Kim thought he might find a career with an agency like the FBI or criminal courts.

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Lorton: Community Members Call for More Giles Run Clean-up

Bill Niedringhaus was just scouting new hiking trails along Giles Run creek in the Lorton area. But in his November 2014 exercise, he discovered thousands of used tires and other discarded automotive parts in the area.

Mount Vernon: Police Identify Homicide Victim

One day after Fairfax County Police reported finding the victim of an apparent homicide in Huntington Park, they identified the dead middle-aged man as Khalid Aboumalik, 42, with no permanent address in Fairfax County.

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Fairfax County Schools Seek Public Input

Focusing on $100 million shortfall.

With Fairfax County Public Schools facing a projected Fiscal Year 2017 budget shortfall of $100 million, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Karen Garza established a task force to look at programs or services that may be eliminated to reduce some of that deficit.

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Fairfax County: Geer Shooter Leaves Police

Adam Torres, the Fairfax County Police officer who fired the shot that killed Springfield resident John Geer in August 2013, is no longer with the department, police said Aug. 7.

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Fairfax County Chief Releases Information on Decade of Officer-Involved Shootings

Citizens can now explore summaries of Fairfax County police officer-involved shootings that occurred over the last 10 years.

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Mount Vernon: Rights Restored

Secretary of the Commonwealth visits Bethlehem Baptist Church.

Fifteen years ago, a local man made a mistake. He was working in the automotive industry and accepted a gift of socks, ties, suits and gloves. The merchandise turned out to be stolen and valued at over $200, the minimum for a felony charge in the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Clifton, Fairfax Station and Springfield Communities Join Public Safety Agencies for National Night Out

A well-known tunnel-bridge on Colchester Road connects an area of Fairfax Station with the rest of the county, both geographically and mythically. Its link to historic reports of a vandal in a bunny costume has gotten it plenty of attention, including actual acts of vandalism on and around the structure.

Springfield: No Foul Play Suspected in Huntsman Lake Death

The dead body of Leslie P. Brassfield, 22, of Fairfax, was found Sunday, June 14 in Huntsman Lake in the Springfield area.

Burke: Pohick Library Scheduled to Close for Renovation

The Pohick Regional Library, opened in 1987, is due for change. The building is scheduled to close for an expected 18 months of renovation on Sept. 5, according to a Fairfax County release.

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Lorton and Mount Vernon: Bennett Joins Former Opponent Storck’s Supervisor Campaign

She didn’t beat him and now she’s joining him. Nearly two months since Dan Storck won the Democratic primary election for Mount Vernon District supervisor, his campaign announced former opposing candidate Candice Bennett has joined up as the Storck team’s director of communications.

Pedestrian Dies after Being Struck in Lorton Road

Farman Batalia, 70, of Lorton, died early in the morning on July 30 after being struck by a vehicle while crossing Lorton Road near the intersection with Armistead Road.

Springfield-Franconia: Moped Rider Dies After Colliding with Camry

Peter Matthew Kester, 56, died at the scene where his moped collided with a Toyota Camry sedan in the 6400 block of Franconia Road. Fairfax County Police received a call about the incident around 9:30 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 3, according to the police release.

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Fairfax County Seeks Partner to Develop Training Center Property

Deadline for offers on the surplus land is Sept. 1.

Potential buyers have until September to make their offers to purchase the roughly 80 acres of property along Braddock Road where the Northern Virginia Training Center currently sits.

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Burke: Residents of Olde Forge-Surrey Square Rally for Playground

The original public playgrounds in Olde Forge-Surrey Square -- dating back to the 1960s -- were past repairs and upgrades. For the sake of safety and continued fun for children and their parents, they needed to be replaced.

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Fairfax Station and Clifton: Teens Charged in Little Rocky Run Car Fires

Four teenagers from the Centreville and Clifton area were charged with setting fire to vehicles, Fairfax County Police announced July 23, associated with 11 vehicle fires in the Little Rocky Run neighborhood over the last several weeks.

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Fairfax Station: Saving the Whitehall Family Farm

Growing responsibly and benefitting veterans

As Fairfax resident Jeff Waters guided his nimble four-wheeling cart over a bumpy dirt path through the woods on his family’s 200-plus-acre farm, he said confidently, “It’s a lot closer to being done than it looks.”

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Fairfax County Ad Hoc Commission Subcommittees Report

“It is well past time for the Fairfax County Police Department to start providing timely, honest and effective communications with everything it does.” When former director of Fairfax County public affairs Merni Fitzgerald delivered the final report and recommendations of the communications subcommittee of the Fairfax County ad hoc commission to review police practices, commissioner Joseph Cammarata responded immediately to those words in report’s introduction.

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Fairfax: Special Grand Jury Begins Hearing Testimony in John Geer Case

Since shooting John Geer dead in the doorway of his Springfield home on Aug. 29, 2013, PFC Adam Torres of the Fairfax County Police Department has remained at work, albeit out of the field, but undisciplined by police and unprosecuted for any criminal wrongdoing.

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Fairfax County School Board Honors Retiring Leaders, Adopts Budget Review and Audit Plan

In their last meeting of the summer, Fairfax County School Board members began by remembering former superintendent Dr. Robert Spillane, who recently died, and recognizing outgoing members of the school system’s leadership team.

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Burke: Terra Centre Elementary School Renovation Nearly Completed

Molly Field, of Burke, is going on her 13th year as a Terra Centre Elementary School parent. Her third of three children will be in sixth grade there this fall. And though the educational experience hasn’t been lacking for her, friends have referred to the school as “The Shire,” a subtle dig at the mid-1970s design to be more efficient and environmentally friendly by using a green roof and sealing off many opportunities for natural light in favor of heating and cooling cost savings.

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Springfield Athlete to Compete in Special Olympics World Games

Karen Dickerson has run 16 marathons, well on the way to reaching her goal of completing one in every state in America. At 29, Dickerson has been a Special Olympics athlete for 18 years.

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Fairfax Station: New Christ Church to open in August

This is what the founders of Christ Church first envisioned in the mid-1980s. Though they first met in elementary schools, including Silverbrook Elementary school in Fairfax Station, the idea was always to form a regional church with a major road presence, said the current church executive director Debra Merrill.

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Springfield: Cottontail Swim Team Raises Money for Haiti

Members of the Cottontail Cobias summer league swim team know that not everyone has a 25-meter pool to swim in -- much less clean water to drink.

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Burke & Springfield: New Giant Draws from Virginia Farms

Last month, a new 50,000-square foot Giant Food grocery store opened in the Kings Park Shopping Center at 8970 Burke Lake Road in Springfield.

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Mount Vernon: Not Willing To Wait

Elected officials and candidates discuss Bus Rapid Transit and Metro expansion timetables.

Waiting at least 11 years for implementing a Bus Rapid Transit system along the Route 1 corridor and 25 years to extend the Metrorail Yellow Line to Hybla Valley is too much time.

Mount Vernon: Human Remains Discovered In Mount Vernon Area Woods

A man walking in the woods near Woodlawn Park discovered decomposing human remains and contacted police.

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Baptist Youth Campers Repair Lorton Homes

Jeff Moten started the week with 31 teenagers on his lawn. Baptist youth from around Virginia arrived at his Lorton property around 9 a.m. on Monday, July 13. By 10, they had cleared much of the natural overgrowth in his front and back yards, begun stripping his home’s roof and removing debris from a rear room where the floor had collapsed.