Ryan Belmore

Jason Kelce played baritone sax with the U.S. Army’s Jazz Ambassadors at NOVA’s Schlesinger Center in Alexandria, “proving he is not the only one in his family with musical chops,” per PBS.

lolsob - NBC4 - your photo is an Alexandria (Virginia) DASH bus, not an LADOT DASH bus

“They approached me, all three dressed like hobbits, playing music from the Lord of the Rings to hand me back the ring,” Mohr said. “We made friends that evening.” www.cbc.ca/radio/asitha...

City Council will receive an update on the Detention Center Study and ALPRs on Tuesday. They'll also consider appointing an Interim Independent Policing Auditor. Docket: legistar.granicus.com/alexandria/m...

“Allan asked for help, and unfortunately he didn’t get the help he asked for.” Sandra Jones sued two Alexandria officers and the city today, on her son’s 34th birthday, over his 2025 death in police custody. I was at his grave as the family gathered.

The state’s consultant estimated that by 2045, a merged Northern Virginia bus system would cost anywhere from about 1% less to about 9% more a year to run than keeping DASH, ART, CUE and Fairfax Connector separate. That’s before what he called “significant one-time transition costs.”

Councilman Abdel Elnoubi said he submitted eight more questions to the department Friday on the readers' effectiveness. He shared them with The Alexandria Brief.

Sen. Mark Warner says he sent a "fairly testy letter" to 25 of the largest tech companies, accusing them of failing to keep their promise to take down or clearly label AI-generated election fakes. "They have hugely failed at this," he told Virginia reporters Wednesday.

ACPS' draft 2027 legislative priorities put replacing Virginia's school funding formula first and add positions on AI, including a ban on vendors using student data "to train commercial AI models." The School Board hears them Thursday. No vote is scheduled.

Hours before Aguirre spoke, the city said in a statement to The Alexandria Brief that it hadn't received a formal presentation or detailed information from VDOT. "At this stage, it would be premature for the City to take a formal position without additional information."

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Something to watch for: accounts like this one are publishing AI-written “news” about Alexandria with AI-generated images. This storefront doesn’t exist. The posters in the window are gibberish. More important than ever to check bylines and whether a real person reported it.

2026 is shaping up to be the worst year yet for local news. Yet again. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I feel it. Fewer journalists, less money, less trust. The work hasn’t gotten easier — it’s gotten heavier. www.niemanlab.org/2026/10/from...

California just created a $200M refundable tax credit for local journalism jobs — $20K per journalist retained, $15K per new hire, $7.5K part-time. First law of its kind. I’d love to see other states look hard at this. www.rebuildlocalnews.org/explainer-ca...

City Council will meet tomorrow at 8:30 a.m for the purpose of “Acceptance of resignation of a City Council appointee.” I’ve been working on a story that’s possibly regarding this all week and will share as soon as I can.

The map went up late this afternoon. Here's where Alexandria police have their 61 license plate readers, what the department's new numbers say, and why the outside audit it expected to start today isn't happening in its traditional form.

Technical.ly talks to National IQ's first CEO about the innovation district that runs from Arlington into Alexandria — 350 jobs, $100M in startup funding, 32 businesses by 2028. technical.ly/civics/micha...

Spent this morning with both pursuit policies. Alexandria's permits a chase only for six violent felonies — murder, rape, abduction, armed robbery, felonious assault, arson causing death. Auto theft isn't one, and APD didn't pursue. State Police policy has no offense threshold, and troopers did.

Story's up: the full draft Duke Street Land Use Plan is out. A 20-year plan that caps most redevelopment at 85 ft, adds height only where it buys affordable housing, and expects 1–2 new buildings a year. Council could vote in December. Comment through Nov. 13.

Got beat on this one. Worked on it most of the day. It happens... I've got the petition, the management correspondence and Metropolis's written answers to residents, plus questions out to both companies. If the answers add anything, I'll report it. www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/n...

The full draft Duke Street Land Use Plan is out — 253 pages, first rewrite since 1992. Heights up to 150 ft near transit, 10% affordable tied to new density, 12 districts. Comment through Nov. 13, hearings in December. Story coming. www.alexandriava.gov/DukeStreetPlan

Phil Vassar first walked into the Birchmere as a college kid to watch Gordon Lightfoot. On Oct. 22 he plays it the same way — acoustic, no full band. We talked about the last three years, the covers, and George Jones's bus.

Hard story. Three teens dead after a pursuit through Alexandria. I sent State Police a series of questions to understand more about how it unfolded. Here's what they said.

Early look: The Alexandria Brief now has a community events calendar at alexandriabrief.com/events Still building it out — more features and events coming next week. But if you have an event happening in Alexandria, you can add it directly to the calendar right now.

Why did Alexandria land the national Faith & Blue kickoff? Rev. Markel Hutchins told me today it came down to the region and to Chief McGuire — specifically a 54-mile walk from Selma to Montgomery the chief made in 2020. Details and RSVP info in the story.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Four nights, four meetings. Tonight it was the chief and about 30 residents on license plate readers.

As a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ), I fully support this condemnation. www.spj.org/spj-condemns...

Feeling a little chippy after a long day at the desk. So here's the backstory on the changes I made today... I quietly embedded hidden text in every Brief story. That's how I found out competitor sites were scraping my original reporting and dropping it into AI platforms—without attribution.

Nearly 2.5 hours on DASH's $3.7M overrun at tonight's council work session. How the error happened, what DASH is cutting, and what could change for riders. Story coming on The Alexandria Brief.

The city gave the goats up to 10 days. They finished in six. Total cost: $9,500. Now humans have to clean up after them.

Alexandria's red-light camera data gets destroyed within two business days if no ticket is issued. Flock license plate data is kept 21 days regardless. Different cameras, different laws, very different rules — and APD spelled out the difference this week. www.alexandriabrief.com/alexandria-p...

City staff walked City Council through some of what they've found (so far) during demolition at City Hall, including a playbill dated to about the 1870s, legible enough to read the actors' names and the admission prices: 10 and 20 cents. Story - www.alexandriabrief.com/asbestos-has...

Backyard rain gauge has registered just about 3.5 inches of rain so far this week.

Alexandria City Council wraps up Legislative at 9:56 p.m., moves into Closed/Executive Session. Coverage to come.

This is exactly why reader-funded, newsletter-first journalism matters more than ever. The link economy is breaking. Direct-to-reader journalism has never mattered more. Axios: Link economy breaks as AI reshapes web traffic www.axios.com/2026/09/19/a...

Alexandria City Council kicked off its public hearing by saying the applicant has requested to defer this item. The request was approved unanimously. www.alexandriabrief.com/city-council...

Grab a cup of coffee and join me in catching up on the week (so far).

Tried to narrow it down to 5, ended up posting 7. Truth be told, there were like 12. Thanks to everyone for reading and supporting!