Local News

The tree house can stay. The Fairfax County Zoning Board ruled Wednesday morning that Marc Grapin, a Falls Church resident and Iraq war veteran, can keep the tree house he built for his two sons in the front yard of his home. Grapin and more than a dozen supporters delivered a petition that more than 1,500 people signed in support of the tree house, which he built for his sons to fulfill a promise he made before he was deployed. The zoning board voted to approve a variance, which means the tree house, which is in Grapin's front yard, can stay, provided he meets certain criteria. That criteria includes a time limit for how long the tree house can stay - five years or if and when he moves - and an order that the plants that have grown around the tree must stay. Grapin spent $1,400 and six weeks building the tree house, but someone registered an anonymous complaint about it in October. At that point, Fairfax County said the 10-by-10 foot structure had to come down. The order was given despite the fact that a county official gave him the go-ahead to build it.

An environmental report concludes the James River's health has declined in the past two years, as anti-pollution efforts are failing to keep pace with increasing population and development.

A Connecticut man who police believe is responsible for a series of sexual assaults along the East Coast over more than a decade was arraigned Wednesday in Virginia on charges of raping two teenage trick-or-treaters in 2009.

A manufacturer of processed biomass fuel in the U.S. and Europe is planning to establish a wood pellet manufacturing operation in Southampton County.

Two women have been convicted of charges stemming from the death of a toddler who was left in a hot car in Danville.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) - Officials at Arlington National Cemetery are breaking ground on a new columbarium that is expected to hold the cremated remains of more than 20,000 individuals. The cemetery projects that the new columbarium will allow the cemetery to accommodate cremated remains until 2024. Groundbreaking on what has been designated as Columbarium Court (hash)9 is scheduled for Wednesday morning. Construction will begin in January and is expected to take about 18 months. More than 300,000 people are interred or inurned at Arlington.

Officials at Arlington National Cemetery are breaking ground on a new columbarium that's expected to hold the cremated remains of more than 20,000 people.

Distracted driving awareness programs are credited with helping change cell phone behaviors, according to AAA Mid-Atlantic.

A battle over a treehouse built by an Iraq war veteran for his young sons is finally over.

A pair of zebras went galloping through a Loudoun County neighborhood Tuesday. Neighbors in Leesburg were shocked when they saw the wild animals on their street. “I think I've had too much coffee today, I think I'm seeing zebras in front of the house,” Dianne Murphy posted on Facebook when she awoke to the graceful animals grazing in front of her yard. “It was just a little chaotic and surprising and they're very beautiful animals but you're kinda thinking where are they going to go?” Murphy said. MORE: SEE PHOTOS OF THE ZEBRAS' RUN The two zebras had roamed less than a mile from the Leesburg animal zoo when a maintenance worker accidentally left a gate open. “They were not a concern as far as them attacking anybody, or um attacking anyone's animals,” Nicola Alicandro of the zoo said. But the zoo was worried to see the wild animals roaming the roadways for some three hours. Neighbors grabbed their cameras to capture the captivating creatures. “I have a friend who moved to Africa and I was saying ‘look you didn't even have to move out of the area, you couldn't just stayed in Leesburg and seen the wildlife,’” Murphy joked. Sheriff's deputies and animal control officers were able to use tranquilizers on the zebras to get them back to the petting zoo where they are resting safe and sound.

A group of volunteers decorated thousands of graves at the Arlington National Cemetery with special holiday wreaths in honor of fallen service members Tuesday. “It's a beautiful sight to see those green fur wreaths with red ribbons against those white stones,” said Wayne Hanson of Wreaths across America, the group that organizes the decorating. Volunteers have decorated various sections of the cemetery since 1992 in a yearly tradition. In 2010, the group raised enough money to decorate 24,000 headstones. This year, for the very first time, they want to decorate every gravesite at the cemetery, which houses more than 220,000 headstones. “In this time of year where traditions include exchanging gifts, the soldiers we honor today gave us gifts. They gave us the gifts of safety and security,” Hanson said. Each wreath is handmade in Maine and shipped to Virginia, costing about $15 each. To reach their goal, the group will have to raise $2.5 million. Holiday wreaths are being laid at the graves of U.S. service members at 600 sites around the globe. “We feel it's our way of honoring those vets,” Hanson said. “because we feel they should never be forgotten.” The wreath effort is driven by donations and volunteers. Through the organization’s website donors can sponsor a wreath for a specific service member buried at Arlington.

Police say the body of a missing Richmond, Va., man washed ashore in Palm Beach County.

A Maryland woman has been charged with concealing a dead body after police say she buried her apparently stillborn infant in a shallow grave in Virginia.

In October, Fairfax County authorities told a Falls Church father and Iraq war veteran that the tree house he built in his yard had to come down. On Wednesday, Mark Grapin is taking his case, and 1,500 signatures of support, to the county zoning board. After he returned from his last tour of duty in the Middle East, Grapin spent six weeks and $1,400 to build a 10-by-10 foot tree house in his front yard. But after an anonymous complaint, Fairfax County put him on notice that the structure violated zoning laws. The structure at Grapin's Marc Drive home is in his front yard. “It is heartbreaking,” Grapin says. “I shudder to think of the possibility of having to unscrew all these boards and take them apart for the trash man.” Grapin's fight has already cost him thousands of dollars, and on Wednesday, he'll hand deliver thousands of signatures on a petition that was started by another Army sergeant on the activist website Change.org. "Mr. Grapin, like all soldiers, cannot promise a safe return home from the battlefield," Army Sgt. Cameron Dunbar-Yamaguchi, who started the petition, said in a statement. "But soldiers can try to make a more tangible pact with friends and family. A treehouse was such a pact." Grapin's hearing with the zoning board is likely his last chance to safe the tree house from demolition, despite the fact that he says Fairfax County gave him the go-ahead to build it months ago.

A federal jury on Tuesday convicted a member of a multistate document fraud ring of kidnapping and murdering a rival fake-ID seller in Arkansas.

Gov. Bob McDonnell on Tuesday called for eliminating two state agencies and 19 boards and commissions, consolidating more than two dozen others into existing state operations and deregulating some trades as part of a two-year government reform initiative.

Two zebras from a Leesburg zoo escaped their enclosure and briefly wandered through a residential neighborhood before being captured.

A local woman already accused of two bank robberies and a carjacking has struck again and may be looking for new transportation.

The scene at Pier 13 was a homecoming in reverse.

Virginia State Police say nine people were killed in traffic accidents during the five-day Thanksgiving holiday.