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Prince William County’s status in a national flood program that keeps down insurance rates could be in jeopardy if it allows mobile homes in Woodbridge to be rebuilt in a federally-designated floodway, county officials said. That’s why the Board of County Supervisors delayed a vote Tuesday on whether to go to Circuit Court over a county appeal board’s decision to allow mobile homes to be rebuilt in Holly Acres Mobile Home Park. Homes there were washed away and dozens were left homeless in the wake of September floods during Tropical Storm Lee. Read full article >>

The man who shot President Ronald Reagan went to a Barnes & Noble and viewed books about the former president and presidential assassinations during day visits away from a mental hospital, authorities said. At a hearing on Wednesday, prosecutors brought up that John Hinckley did this twice at a hearing about whether or not he should be allowed more time away from the hospital where he has been since the assassination attempt. Prosecutors said Hinckley, who shot President Reagan in 1981 outside the Washington Hilton hotel, went to the bookstore on two occasions. Hinckley sought books on Reagan, assassination, police say During the hearing, prosecutors said Hinckley’s mother dropped him off at a movie theater and then left. However, instead of going to the movie, Secret Service surveillance showed that he went to Barnes & Noble and looked at books about Reagan and presidential assassinations. Afterward, he returned to the lobby of the movie theater lobby, where his mother picked him up. It’s not clear what books he read at the bookstore during the second incident. Lawyers for Hinckley, however, said he has responded well to treatment. Moving toward full-time release They say St. Elizabeth's Hospital, where he is confined, support a plan to have Hinckley completely removed from the facility within a year. Hinckley, who was found by a jury to be insane when he shot and wounded Reagan outside the Washington Hilton in 1981, has for years been able to spend days at his mother's home in Virginia. On Wednesday, a Washington judge began hearing arguments that Hinckley should be allowed additional visits of 17 and 24 days. The city's St. Elizabeths Hospital also wants the ability to decide if Hinckley should live away from the facility full-time, according to a court document. Government: Hinckley still a danger to others Government lawyers oppose the plan, calling it "premature and ill conceived." They say Hinckley is "a man capable of great violence" and that he is not "sufficiently well to alleviate the concern that this violence may be repeated." But Hinckley's lawyer, Barry Levine, has said there is no evidence Hinckley is a danger to himself or to others. Earlier this year, he called the government's court filing opposing expanded privileges "shameful fear-mongering without any factual basis." The hearing before Judge Paul L. Friedman is expected to take several days. The witness lists include Hinckley's sister and brother as well as his psychiatrist and case manager. Members of the U.S. Secret Service are expected to testify for the government, which has suggested that the plan for expanded release would not give Secret Service agents an adequate ability to monitor Hinckley at certain times. Reagan eventually recovered from the shooting and went on to serve two terms as president. A secret service agent and police officer who were shot also recovered from their wounds. Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, was shot in the head and permanently disabled. He has since become an advocate for preventing gun violence. Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93. The Associated Press contributed to this story.

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.

Prosecutor Paul Ebert said he sought to try Aaron Thomas first because the charges against him in this jurisdiction are especially heinous.

The alleged East Coast Rapist on Wednesday had his first hearing in Prince William County court, where he faces charges for a 2009 attack on three teenage girls. Police have linked Aaron H. Thomas, 40, to a series of rapes and other attacks on women that began in Maryland in the late 1990s and continued in Virginia, Connecticut and Rhode Island over more than a decade. Read full article >>

The suspected East Coast rapist appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday morning, a hearing during which Aaron Thomas quickly demanded access to an attorney. Thomas, who was extradited to Prince William County on Tuesday, appeared through a video conference at a hearing that lasted all of five minutes. Judge Scott Bailey said that Thomas is facing eight charges in Virginia: two for rape, three for use of a firearm during rape and three for abduction. But when Bailey asked the suspect if he understood the charges, Thomas sat silently for about 45 seconds before saying no. When the judge asked Thomas, who stared at the floor throughout the hearing, what he meant, he responded, "I want an attorney." A preliminary hearing for Thomas has been set for Jan. 25. Thomas is accused of raping 17 women over a span of more than a decade in locations across the East Coast. He was arrested in March near his home in New Haven, Conn., where pleaded not guilty to charges of raping a woman in 2007. Authorities say they have DNA evidence that links him to crimes against a dozen women.

A Manassas man is charged with slashing the throat of a drinking buddy Sunday night.

A Manassas-area man faces a slew of charges after assaulting a Manassas po­lice officer Monday.

"I feel like I haven't had to work a day in my career. It's been so much fun," Hadden Culp says of his 33 years and nearly as many job duties.

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.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorneys for the man who shot President Ronald Reagan will be asking a judge to let him spend more time away from a Washington mental hospital with the goal of eventually allowing him to live outside the facility full-time. John Hinckley, who was found by a jury to be insane when he shot and wounded Reagan outside a Washington hotel in 1981, has for years been able to spend days at his mother's home in Virginia. On Wednesday, a Washington judge was to begin hearing arguments that Hinckley should be allowed additional visits of 17 and 24 days. The city's St. Elizabeths Hospital also wants the ability to decide if Hinckley should live away from the facility full-time according to a court document. Government lawyers oppose the plan, calling it "premature and ill conceived." They say Hinckley is "a man capable of great violence" and that he is not "sufficiently well to alleviate the concern that this violence may be repeated." But Hinckley's lawyer, Barry Levine, has said there is no evidence Hinckley is a danger to himself or to others. Earlier this year, he called the government's court filing opposing expanded privileges "shameful fear-mongering without any factual basis." The hearing before Judge Paul L. Friedman is expected to take several days. The witness lists include Hinckley's sister and brother as well as his psychiatrist and case manager. Members of the U.S. Secret Service are expected to testify for the government, which has suggested that the plan for expanded release would not give Secret Service agents an adequate ability to monitor Hinckley at certain times. Reagan eventually recovered from the shooting and went on to serve two terms as president. A secret service agent and police officer who were shot also recovered from their wounds. Reagan's press secretary, James Brady, was shot in the head and permanently disabled. He has since become an advocate for preventing gun violence. Reagan died in 2004 at the age of 93.

Aaron Thomas, the accused East Coast Rapist, has been extradited to Virginia, where he faces multiple life sentences if convicted.

Authorities are look­ing for three women and a man who attacked an Ashburn woman at a Manassas-area bar Friday evening.

Resident surprised to see a pair of the exotic animals running down her street.Photo Credit: Diane Murphy

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. "If I would've put this on the east side of the property, you would've known me no more than the man in the moon," Grapin told ABC7 News in October. 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.

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Prince William County police are holding an Oxon Hill woman in the investigation of a deceased infant found this September.Photo Credit: Timothy Persinko

A woman wanted in Virginia for carjacking and bank robbery has been linked to a Thanksgiving Day crime in Maryland.Photo Credit: Carissa DiMargo

Authorities are look­ing for three women and a man who attacked an Ashburn woman at a Manassas-area bar Friday evening.

A Centreville man was arrested in the Manassas Park-area on Thanksgiving day for allegedly fighting with a friend.