A candidate for the Virginia Beach School Board’s District 3 seat is challenging the eligibility of his opponent, citing what he calls discrepancies in the signatures he was required to collect in order to be on the ballot.

A legal complaint filed by Mark Bohenstiel names his opponent, John Sutton III, along with the City of Virginia Beach, and the city’s Director of Elections and three Electoral Board members as co-defendants. Bohenstiel alleges that 14 of Sutton’s petition signatures are dated Feb. 4, 2024, while the witness’s signature is dated the prior day and that therefore his candidacy is invalid because he would not have reached the required 125 signatures.

Related Articles

Presiding Circuit Court Judge Afshin Farashahi said he would rule on the matter this week so that it could be resolved prior to the ballots being officially printed.

Following the brief hearing, Sutton called the complaint “frivolous” and said it is an example of his opponent engaging in the “politics of personal destruction.”

“In my 18 years as a teacher and administrator, my integrity has never been questioned,” Sutton said in an interview.

Kaptan said after the hearing that the citizens of Virginia Beach deserve “qualified” candidates for school board. Asked if he was referring to whether Sutton was personally qualified or legally qualified, Kaptan said his words “speak for themselves.”

Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com

WTOP’s Jason Fraley previews the DC Shorts Film Festival (Part 1)

How did you celebrate your 21st birthday? A beloved local film festival blows out 21 candles this week!

The 21st annual D.C. Shorts International Film Festival returns Thursday through Sunday.

“Let’s be honest, when you turn 21, your life gets wild and I think that’s D.C. Shorts Year 21, we’re about to get wild,” Program Director Joe Carabeo told WTOP. “The films are more in your face, they’re more impactful, you’ve never seen these filmmakers make these types of films before.”

This year’s festival will once again be held at the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on Bryant Street in Northeast D.C., as well as a new location at Crescendo Studios in Falls Church, Virginia.

“We’re trying to bring people out this direction and try to include more of the local scene,” Festival Director Anavic Ibanez Canlas told WTOP. “We’ve got 11 showcases, 14 world premieres, 12 U.S. premieres and 52 Washington, D.C., premieres, so please come out and support your creatives from the filmmaking industry.”

The festival kicks off with short documentaries ranging from the family-friendly to the risqué.

“We always start with kickass documentaries,” Carabeo said. “There’s one called ‘Entering Pornland,’ you basically follow a girl on her journey entering pornography. To counterbalance that, there’s a film called ‘Pet Store’ about a pet owner who takes in sloths. … I’ve gotta give you the two contrasting ones, that’s the diversity that we have! We also have Yoichi’s White House, a documentary on one of the main photographers in the White House.”

Friday is the best day for fans of so-called “genre flicks,” such as action, sci-fi, fantasy and horror.

“There is a film called ‘Dummy’ where someone falls in love with a dummy,” Carabeo said. “‘Leverage’ is an action movie about a down-and-out Santa Claus. We have international heist films that take place in Paris. We have ‘The Soul Trader,’ which is a socialite taking souls in Hollywood.”

Saturday brings animation, drama and rom-coms, followed by the annual LGBTQ+ showcase.

“You start your day with animation, then you want to bring it down a little with ‘Did You Feel Something?’, that’s our dramas, ‘Rom Com Is Not Dead,’ which is romance and comedy, then ‘Wonderful As You Are’ is always one of the most popular screenings because pride is strong in D.C.,” Carabeo said. “‘Tennis, Oranges,’ one of those Rumbas escapes a hospital and tries to live a normal life but discovers life on the outside is not nice.”

It all culminates Sunday with local films and the fan-voted awards ceremony.

“The first block is called ‘Oh, I Can Do That,’ essentially a block of films about creators, people who are musicians, filmmakers, artists,” Carabeo said. “Then to follow that up afterwards is a block called ‘Why Not Make It Here?’ which is our local filmmakers block. … There are so many people out there like, ‘You can’t make movies in the DMV,’ and we have proven that this is a go-to place to make movies.”

Find more information here.

WTOP’s Jason Fraley previews the DC Shorts Film Festival (Part 2)

Listen to our full conversation here.

Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.

© 2024 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.

Though the new college basketball season is still over two months away, the Virginia men’s basketball coaching staff is entering a very busy portion of the calendar, as we are nearing the end of the recruiting cycle for the high school class of 2025 and getting into the peak of official visit season.

UVA is in the running for several premier recruiting targets in the class of 2025 and is hosting five of those prospects for official visits over the next month. That stretch of visitors began this past weekend, when four-star point guard Keyshuan Tillery took his official visit to Virginia.

Tillery posted on Instagram to recap the visit, including several pictures of himself in a home UVA men’s basketball jersey and a couple of pictures of himself joined by Virginia staff members Chase Coleman, Ronnie Wideman, Ron Sanchez, Orlando Vandross, and Isaiah Wilkins.

Tillery, a 6’1″ point guard from New Hampton, New Hampshire, is also scheduled to take official visits to Wake Forest, Cincinnati, Ohio State, and Villanova over the next several weeks. He is ranked No. 49 overall in the ESPN Top 100 for the class of 2025 and is the No. 71 overall prospect according to 247Sports, which also has Tillery rated as the No. 10 point guard in the country and the No. 2 recruit in the state of New Hampshire.

Virginia’s other official visitors are coming in pairs. Charlottesville point guard Chance Mallory and five-star forward Nate Ament are scheduled to visit on the weekend of September 13th, the same weekend that the UVA football team will host Maryland in a Saturday night primetime matchup. On the weekend of September 27th, the Cavaliers will host four-star point guard JJ Mandaquit and four-star power forward London Jemison.

Virginia also made the cut lists for four-star small forward Cam Ward (Washington, D.C.), four-star combo guard Derek Dixon (Washington, D.C.), four-star power forward Tre Singleton (Jeffersonville, IN), and four-star power forward Marcus Jackson (Richmond, VA).

Derek Dixon already came on an official visit to Virginia in April and multiple other unofficial visits and should announce his decision by the end of the month. No official visits to UVA have been scheduled for Tre Singleton or Cam Ward, though Ward did come on an unofficial visit over the summer. Marcus Jackson was offered late and UVA made his cut list, but there has been no reported official visit scheduled yet.

Virginia has two open scholarship spots for the 2025-2026 season.

Virginia Basketball Roster Analysis: Balancing Youth vs. Experience

Virginia Basketball Legend Joe Harris Announces Retirement

Column: Why the Kyle Guy Hiring is Great for Virginia Basketball

Virginia Basketball: Evaluating the Strengths & Weaknesses of UVA’s Roster