Hozier Gives Shout Out to Local Shelter — Irish musician Hozier, who is known for the song “Take Me to Church,” gave the Wolf Trap Animal Rescue a mention on Twitter, along with a video of an adorable puppy. [Twitter]

A Look Inside a Tysons Software Engineer’s Wallet — As part of Refinery 29’s money series, a software engineer in Tysons gave readers a glimpse into how she spends her $100K salary. [Refinery 29]

Staying Home for Thanksgiving? — Here’s where to find local restaurants that will be open. [Patch, Our Community Now]

Vienna Residents Mad About Chopped Down Trees — “Neighbors are furious Wawa cut down three 100+ year-old maple trees that were not on the company’s property.” [WJLA]

Local Tech Company Growing — “McLean-based AppTek, which makes speech apps for enterprises, on Tuesday announced its acquisition of Ignite-Tek… The merger adds to a significant growth streak for AppTek, which says it has doubled its team in 2019.” [DC Inno]

Church and Retirement Center Hosting Thanksgiving Dinner — “Lewinsville Presbyterian Church and the Lewinsville Retirement Residence are teaming up for a community Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday, Nov. 28 at noon at the retirement facility, 1515 Great Falls St. in McLean.” [Inside NoVa]

Part of Dominion Square Sold — “Capital Automotive Real Estate Services Inc. has sold part of its 18-acre Dominion Square development site near Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons for $60.2 million after taking the larger 3.6 million-square-foot mixed-use project through Fairfax County’s entitlement process.” [Washington Business Journal]

Another Raccoon with Rabies Found in Falls Church — Earlier this month, a raccoon with rabies was euthanized by police — the second one found in the city in recent months. “While there were no human exposures to the animal in this case either, the community should be cognizant of the rabies threat at all times.” [City of Falls Church]

Fairfax County police have arrested the owner of a development company in connection to a teen boy’s death at a McLean construction site.

On July 23, a ditch collapsed on a residential construction site in the 1800 block of Solitaire Lane, trapping two people, police said. Spencer Lunde, a 16-year-old, died and an adult man received non-life-threatening injuries.

“The manner of death has been ruled accidental with the cause being asphyxiation,” police said in August.

“On Monday, evidence was presented to a grand jury who indicted Thomas Digges, 48, of McLean, on charges of involuntary manslaughter and cruelty and injuries to children,” Fairfax County police announced today (Thursday).

Digges is the owner of McLean-based Digges Development Corporation. The construction site where the teen died was a small housing project that Digges was building, WUSA9 reported.

Police said Digges turned himself into the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center this morning (Thursday) and has since been “released on his own recognizance.”

Second photo via FCPD 

Longtime Vienna furniture retailer Posh! has reopened in Vienna after closing its Maple Avenue location.

The store moved in September to 200 Dominion Road NE — just a short drive from its previous location (419 E. Maple Avenue). Owner Mary Anne Antonides is also considering expanding to another location in McLean, although she wasn’t sure when that might happen.

The new spot previously was a design studio for Antonides, but was not always open to the public, like it is today.

Posh! has resided in the building for 27 years in one capacity or another, Antonides said, adding that repurposing the location allows them to expand their “entrepreneurial opportunities.”

Currently, the shop is running a pre-Christmas sale that gives customers a 20% discount on Christmas items and custom floral arrangement and 30% off everything else in the store as a “thank you” to customers who followed Posh! to its new location.

The hours of operation are Mondays-Tuesdays from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. and Thursday-Saturday from 10 a.m. until 5:30 p.m. The shop is closed on Wednesdays and Sundays.

A McLean man linked to a neo-Nazi group pleaded guilty today (Tuesday) to possessing firearms as a drug user and lying to buy a semiautomatic rifle

Andrew Thomasberg, a 21-year-old who is a member of the Atomwaffen Division, is accused of purchasing a semiautomatic rifle for a third party, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

“He transferred that firearm to that third party after purchasing it,” the press release said. “Thomasberg also possessed at least four firearms while unlawfully using controlled substances, including marijuana, psilocybin mushrooms and opium.”

“In federal court in Alexandria on Friday, FBI Special Agent Shawn Matthews, who testified that his focus is domestic terrorism, said Thomasberg took part in the deadly Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville in 2017 with a neo-Nazi group called Vanguard America,” The Washington Post reported.

Thomasberg was arrested in September, according to The Washington Post story.

More from the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia:

“Lying to the FBI is a federal crime, and Thomasburg lied to hide an additional crime,” said Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office. “The FBI works with our partners to take criminals possessing illegal firearms off the streets.”

According to court documents and testimony, Thomasberg has association with white supremacist organizations, such as Vanguard America and Atomwaffen Division.

Thomasberg pleaded guilty to making a material false statement in relation to the purchase of a firearm and to possessing firearms while being an unlawful user of or addicted to controlled substances…

Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, and Timothy R. Slater, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Washington Field Office, made the announcement after U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady accepted the plea. Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Anthony W. Mariano and Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Walutes, Jr. are prosecuting the case.

Thomasberg will be sentenced on Feb. 28, 2020 and faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Photo via Joe Gratz/Flickr

Tysons Reporter is back with its new monthly crime map showing where the incidents occurred in Fairfax County Police Department’s McLean District Station.

We went ahead and pulled together all of the incidents noted for the McLean District Station in FCPD crime recaps from Oct. 1-31, weeded out the ones that are not in the Tysons Reporter coverage area and plotted them in the interactive map above.

The McLean District Station covers crime in Merrifield, Dunn Loring, Falls Church, McLean, Tysons and Great Falls.

The map only includes information from FCPD and does not include reports to the police departments in the Town of Vienna or the City of Falls Church.

Use the icon in the top left corner of the map to toggle between the various types of crimes displayed.

Fairfax County’s weekday police recaps are not comprehensive lists of every incident and the addresses are approximate. FCPD also notes that information in the recaps “is generally based on initial reports made to the police department.”

Anyone with information about any of these crimes should call 703-691-2131 or 1-866-411-TIPS(8477).

A garage fire broke out today (Friday) in a residential area near Langley Oaks Park in McLean.

Fairfax County Fire and Rescue tweeted at 12:22 p.m. that crews are working to extinguish the fire.

The fire is in the 900 block of Douglass Drive, which is near Dead Run.

Map via Google Maps

Updated at 4:20 p.m. — All of the lanes have reopened, MATOC tweeted. 

Southbound lanes of GW Parkway are closed near the intersection with Route 123 in McLean.

The closures are due to a vehicle crash, according to an alert from Fairfax County.

All of the southbound lanes are closed as of 3:24 p.m., according to Virginia 511.

Drivers can expect delays. Traffic is backed up about 1.5 miles, the Metropolitan Area Transportation Operations Coordination Program tweeted.

Crash w/ Injury. GW Parkway SB at VA-123. Fairfax County, VA. All SB lanes are blocked. Delays are approximately 1.5 miles.

— MATOC Alerts (@MATOC) November 5, 2019

Map via Google Maps

Absentee Ballots Rushed to Voters — “Roughly 1,300 new ballots were sent out Oct. 16 and 17 to accommodate the new Republican candidate, Eric Anthony Jones, on the ballot, Fairfax County’s general registrar Gary Scott told the News-Press.” [Falls Church News-Press]

Advisory Firm Moves to Tysons — Capstone Strategic, Inc. announced Friday that it has moved to 8521 Leesburg Pike, Suite 230. [Benzinga]

Facebook Considered Tysons For New Spot — “Social media giant Facebook Inc. has reached a deal to take a large block of office space in Reston Town Center after weighing other potential locations, including Tysons.” [Washington Business Journal]

Calling All Volunteers — “The City Council is looking for seven volunteers to join the newly-created Stormwater Task Force, which will update the list of stormwater improvement projects in the City’s Watershed Management Plan.” [City of Falls Church]

New Glass Recycling Container in Vienna — “We worked with Fairfax County to get our very own exclusively glass purple recycling container that is hungry and waiting at its location on Mill Street NE in the gravel shoulder next to Capitol Building Supply.” [Town of Vienna]

Car Crash Closed McLean Road — The 1800 block of Great Falls Street in McLean was closed due to a car crash on Sunday. The road has now reopened. [Fairfax County Police Department]

After a storm last night, two roads in the Westhampton neighborhood in McLean are closed due to fallen trees.

According to the Fairfax County Police Department, the roads closed are:

• Hutchinson Street at Great Falls Street
• Turner Avenue at Grayson Place

Both are blocked by a tree in the roadway.

Power outages last night in McLean and Tysons have been resolved.

Updated at 8:30 a.m. — Power has been restored.

Roughly 500 Dominion Energy customers are without power as a storm sweeps through the area on Halloween night.

One power outage is affecting 326 customers in McLean, spanning from Georgetown Pike to Route 694 just west of I-495.

Another one is affecting 228 customers where the Dulles Access Road intersects with Leesburg Pike above the Spring Hill Metro station in Tysons.

The causes of the outages are pending investigation, according to Dominion’s outage map.

Map via Dominion Energy