Virginia
How Fairfax Co. residents feel about potentially hosting a casino – WTOP News
A proposal to allow Northern Virginia voters to weigh in on whether to build a casino in Fairfax County has advanced to the state’s House of Delegates.
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How Fairfax Co. residents feel about a casino possibility getting built there
A proposal to allow Northern Virginia voters to weigh in on whether to build a casino in Fairfax County has advanced to the state’s House of Delegates.
And even though the latest plan doesn’t specify Tysons as the location for the project, some community members there are still skeptical.
“It’s already congested enough,” Kristin Harrig said. “There’s enough to do here. We don’t need to gamble here. You can go across the river to the National Harbor.”
Previous attempts to advance the casino project focused on the Tysons area. The new legislation, though, would allow the casino to be built anywhere in Fairfax County.
Virginia’s state Senate approved the plan Friday, 23-14, though several lawmakers representing Northern Virginia opposed it.
Some elected officials in the suburb have spoken out against the project, and with a 5-4 vote, the Board of Supervisors opted to keep it out of its legislative priorities.
“Maybe somewhere out in Loudoun County or something like that, but not in Fairfax County,” resident Jamaal French told WTOP. “But in Northern Virginia, definitely.”
Kevin Ejtemai, who owns a business in the Tysons Corner Center mall, said he has “three small children, and we don’t want this area to become inundated with gamblers and drunk people walking around the casino, around town.”
But Senate Majority Leader Scott Surovell said many similar concerns are overblown. There isn’t any organized opposition to the project outside of McLean, he said, adding that he lives “closer to the MGM Casino than most of these people in McLean complaining, and it hasn’t changed my quality of life.”
“A lot of people, I think, are sort of saying the sky is going to fall, but I don’t think it’s consistent with reality,” Surovell said.
Dipen Patel said he’d support a casino project in Tysons, and “I don’t see a reason why Fairfax should not have a casino.”
“As much money is flowing from Virginia to Maryland, we’re better off doing one here,” Patel said, “because we see a lot of population coming to MGM for gambling purposes.”
Surovell said that last year, the House of Delegates didn’t really speak about the proposal: “But I’m confident that this year, the House is interested in figuring out a way to proceed on this, and I think we will get something on the governor’s desk.”
But for French, “as a resident of Fairfax County, it’s already hard enough to get around out here. I’m not for it, not right here, but somewhere close that I can still get to it.”
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Virginia Delegate Dan Helmer led fellow Democrats to major gains in November’s election. Now he’s turning his attention to the redistricting of the Commonwealth, and a run in the newly proposed 7th district. He joins Sydney Persing on The Final 5 to discuss.
FAIRFAX, Va. (7News) — Virginia State Police have identified the man who was shot and killed by a trooper after a crash ended in a stabbing attack on Interstate 495 Sunday afternoon.
Jared Llamado, 32, of McLean, died at the hospital on Sunday after he was shot.
RELATED | 2 dead, dog killed after stabbing spree, trooper shooting on I-495 in Fairfax County
Investigators said Llamado was confronted by the trooper who opened fire around 1:17 p.m. The trooper was responding to a report of a road rage incident and found Llamado with a knife, according to a news release.
Four stabbing victims, all women, were also found at the scene, along with a dog that was also stabbed.
Michelle Adams, 39, died from her injuries. The dog also did not survive. The three other women were all taken to the hospital with serious injuries, according to VSP. 7News is not identifying the surviving victims.
Investigators said the stabbings stemmed from a crash in the southbound lanes of I-495.
The trooper who opened fire was not hurt and is on leave pending the outcome of the investigation into the use of force.
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Investigators said they do not believe the attack is connected to terrorism.
Virginia
Two dead after I-495 road rage incident leads to stabbing, Virginia State Police shooting – WTOP News
A road rage incident led to a shooting involving the Virginia State Police on Sunday on Interstate 495. Four individuals were also stabbed.
Two people are dead Sunday in Annandale, Virginia, after a road rage incident led to a shooting involving Virginia State Police on Interstate 495.
A release issued by the Virginia State Police said a trooper fatally shot a man after responding to a report of a road rage incident on the southbound lanes of I-495 just before 1:30 p.m. at exit 52, near the Little River Turnpike.
The man, transferred to a hospital with serious injuries, has been pronounced dead. VSP said the trooper shot in self-defense after the man confronted him with a knife.
The trooper did not suffer any injuries during the altercation.
Officials found four stabbing victims at the scene, but only identified a 39-year-old woman and a dog. Both the woman and the dog died.
Early findings suggest the stabbings took place after a crash on the Capital Beltway. The crash remains under investigation.
The VSP’s release comes after the main lanes of the Capital Beltway Outer Loop, before Little River Turnpike, were closed to traffic for several hours, only recently opening the express lanes. Main lanes between Arlington Boulevard and the Little River Turnpike remain closed.
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