Blue Ridge Leader
For the nine winners of the 26th Annual Loudoun Chamber of Commerce Small Business Awards, there was nothing unlucky about Friday, Nov. 13, even though the celebration had to be converted to an all-virtual event for safety precautions due to COVID-19. It was an especially good night for Catoctin Creek Distilling Company of Purcellville, which…
A new Virginia law banning the use of cellphones while driving goes into effect Jan. 1, 2021. The mandate was signed by Gov. Ralph Northam on July 8, making Virginia the 22nd state to ban the use of handheld devices while driving. The law now prohibits drivers from holding any personal communication devices while driving a…
11/21/20 5:02 p.m. 151 W. Main Street Hit and Run The complainant reported that a dark colored SUV traveling west on Main Street struck the driver’s side mirror of her parked, unoccupied vehicle and fled without stopping to provide information. Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to call Officer David Camp…
The contractor for the new Loudoun County Courthouse is planning to pour concrete slabs for the building’s basement. Due to the size and complexity of these pours, extended work hours are required. Construction will start before, and potentially end after, the contractor’s current allowable work hours of 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday.…
The holidays are full of excitement, good food and fun times with family. As preparations for the busy holiday season are underway, the Loudoun County Combined Fire and Rescue System encourages residents to follow safe cooking practices. Cooking is the leading cause of residential fires during the Thanksgiving holiday and throughout the year. Take a…
In a recent paper published in the journal Science, researchers Michael A. Clark, Nina G. G. Domingo, Kimberly Colgan, Sumil K. Thakrar, David Tilman, John Lynch, Inês L. Azevedo, and Jason D. Hill [Clark] show that greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) from agriculture alone are enough to warm the planet 2 K. In their study, the…
Besides fresh Christmas trees, few florae exemplify the holiday spirit like poinsettias—and local growers are ready for the season. Poinsettias are cultivated in all 50 states and are one of the top-selling plants in the nation. The 2018 U.S. Department of Agriculture Floriculture Crops Summary showed potted poinsettias accounted for $149 million in U.S. floriculture sales that…
By Laura Longley Do you remember Snowmageddon? The 2010 storm when Mother Nature dumped 32.4 inches of the white stuff on Dulles Airport—the heaviest single-storm snowfall ever recorded in the region? Ten years later that record still stands. Back then, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s current generation of satellites were still in development. Now,…
I have reached a conclusion: I definitely prefer the world as seen from within the Park’s boundaries to that of the ‘real’ outside. Perhaps one day, I shall just stay here. Having – literally – driven past the borders of Fireman’s Field Park in Purcellville hundreds of times (the local landmark lies between the Town’s…
This was another spectacular year for the Piedmont Environmental Photo Contest. The public decided the winners by popular vote, and for PEC staff, that’s a welcome process: They confess it would have been too difficult for them to choose. All of the 25 photos submitted were taken in one of the Virginia Piedmont counties represented…