Op-Ed
By Adam Stevenson I imagine that every place has its own comparative advantages and pleasures, both subtle and obvious, that let it grow up in a person’s affections until one’s identity is inseparable from the beauty and bounty of the place one knows best. This is both simple and complicated. It’s simple in how natural…
By Charles Houston No more candidate mailers clogging my mailbox. No more questionable ads on social media. No more candidate photos popping up when I use Google. Rejoice Yes, be happy those irritants are gone, but rejoicing at the election results is up to your opinion about the results. The most notable thing is that…
By Ron Rise Sr. On the northwest edge of the Town of Purcellville quietly rests a 14.2 acre-green open space with forested wetlands with life-giving waters of the South Fork Catoctin Creek, all nestled quietly along N 21st Street. In 1996, Bruce Brownell approached the Town of Purcellville during the design and development of his…
By Charles Houston Many simple ideas would make our lives more pleasant, and I’ve listed some. I also delve into politics and land use issues, inter alia. I’ve ignored practicality and difficulty, so this list is aspirational. I’ll start with a slam dunk: Daily Life Call centers must be located within the US, preferably in…
By Charles Houston Right now, I don’t have time to write a proper column myself, so I’ve cheated, putting ChatGPT to work on two related topics: Sprawl, and the benefits of rural living. I’ve never fiddled with artificial intelligence until now. An intriguing thing about ChatGPT is that you can adjust the reading levels of…
Voters’ choice: who will stand up for western Loudoun? By John Ellis, candidate for Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, Catoctin District The majority of western Loudoun’s citizens want to preserve the unique, historical charm and character of western Loudoun’s small towns, villages, and countryside. They do not want more development. But that is not what…
By Charles Houston Some of the residents in new subdivisions off Old Wheatland Road have signed a petition asking that the road be paved. There are 100 or so signatures, but only 59 addresses. The latter figure is the one to use. Paving Old Wheatland is a very bad idea for many reasons. A Defective…
By Charles Houston Perhaps all of us have some degree of cupidity – greed, or simply wanting more and more of something. That’s fine unless it’s at the expense of others. Then it’s a problem, and Loudoun has some nasty examples. The Dulles Greenway No surprise that its Aussie owners are back again, this time…
By Charles Houston July 8, 2026 (AP) Elon Musk today opened his hand and revealed a small, glistening 8-sided object, an octahedron, a prototype high-density data storage device which he named a “MegaServe.” According to Musk, each MegaServe holds up to 640 petabytes of data, 50% more data than is held in all the servers…
By Robert A. Pollard As they proliferate across our county, it’s worth asking if data centers are truly manna from heaven—or is Loudoun living its own version of The Little Shop of Horrors? In the 1986 movie, a little plant mutates into a carnivorous monster shouting “Feed me!” as it thirsts for more and more…