New Request for Submissions Of City Hall Portraits to Go Out
F.C. City Council will issue a new request for artists to submit works for portraits that may go into the Council chambers at City Hall, perhaps replacing some in there that are now all of historic white males. The request is for renderings of two specific individuals who contributed a great deal to the City of Falls Church in its earlier years, namely four-term Mayor Carol DeLong and Council member Freddie Foote Jr., the City’s first African-American Council member.
An earlier request was too vague, the Council was told this Monday at its work session, and was canceled.
A Welcome Sign Readied For F.C. City Hall
A special sign of overt welcoming that will include the word, “welcome,” in over a 20 languages is being readied for posting at City Hall, the F.C. Council determined at its work session this Monday. The project will tie in with the 75th anniversary of the City of Falls Church celebration that is slated to coincide with the annual Fall Festival on Sept. 14, when the completed work will be displayed. The Council is slated to vote on its choice of design at its meeting this coming Monday.
Plans Updated for Geothermal HVAC at Community Center
Work to install a new HVAC unit at the Falls Church Community Center will begin in January and commence through March, the F.C. Council was told Monday night at its work session. The project will include the drilling of 16 wells 500-580 feet deep to tap the geothermal resource, but that is in comparison to the 188 wells drilled recently for tapping energy for Meridian High School.
Sen. Kaine Cites Need for MDMA-Assisted Therapy
In an effort to help veterans struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, 80 members of Congress, including Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine, recently highlighted the need to consider MDMA-assisted therapy as a treatment.
MDMA is a psychedelic drug currently illegal under federal law. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is weighing whether to approve it for medicinal purposes.
Kaine, a Democrat, and 18 other senators sent a letter Monday to U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Robert Califf pointing out that about 6,000 veterans die by suicide each year — many suffered from trauma while serving in the military.
“Existing treatments and medicines for PTSD, the last of which FDA approved nearly 25 years ago, have not decreased the frequency of suicide within the veteran community,” the letter states. “As a nation, we cannot allow our veterans to continue to suffer in silence and must identify treatments proven to drastically decrease the adverse effects of PTSD.”
Neo-Nazis Organizing for Fall Races: The Guardian
While far-right extremists from all corners of the internet are targeting vice-president Kamala Harris as she takes the reins of the Democratic ticket, one of the longer standing US-based neo-Nazi terror groups is also attempting to continue its covert activities as the presidential election season begins in earnest, according to a report in The Guardian.
Rinaldo Nazzaro, 51, a former Pentagon contractor and analyst at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) turned founder of the Base, wrote on his personal Telegram account that he’s seeking a stateside leader for his organization and is willing to pay them a salary of up to $1,200 a month.
The Russia-based leader, who is the subject of an FBI investigation and once called a Department of Justice “matter” by a US government official, is not known to have set foot in the US in years. With the recent surge in racially motivated riots in the United Kingdom, authorities across the west have become increasingly concerned with Russian sponsorship of far-right extremists.
The Base was considered a domestic terrorism threat in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election campaign. The group adheres to the principles of accelerationism; a hyper violent political doctrine calling on followers to hasten the collapse of modern society through acts of terrorism.
