Amen!

A couple of weeks ago, this sportswriter turned on his laptop and decided to listen to a playback of the previous night’s Potomac Cannons’ game. The broadcast was, in a word, brutal. The guy barely knew all the players’ names. Once, he said, ”Fly ball to left field, and it is … .” It took…

WOODBRIDGE — Several area teams will get an early chance to size up their district competition at the annual Eddie Hope Baseball Tournament. The tournament features five Prince William County teams — host Hylton, Stonewall Jackson, Potomac, Woodbridge and Forest Park. Perennial contender West Springfield returns this year, as does Brooke Point. R.E. Lee-Springfield completes…

Almost four decades after Virginia began emptying the teeming mental wards of its state hospitals, jails across Virginia now house more people with mental illness than state and private hospitals combined. Of the 6,350 mentally ill people in hospitals or jails on a single day two years ago, 60 percent were in jails. And 43…

A 17-year-old Romanian boy who lives in a Woodbridge town house is suspected of conspiring to kill an Arlington detective, according to a warrant affidavit. The boy is a member of the 18th Street Gang, according to the affidavit. The gang originated in Los Angeles in the 1960s and is growing nationwide, according to experts….

Residents depend on a combination of career and volunteer emergency workers to fight fires and respond to medical emergencies 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The first paid county employee was hired in 1966, and more were added over the years as the need increased. By the late 1970s, the county established minimum…

A rise in street gang activity increased aggravated assaults 19 percent last year in Manassas, but overall crime showed a slight drop for the second straight year, Chief of Police John J. Skinner said Tuesday as he released the department’s annual statistical report. Overall crime numbers from 2004 stayed consistent with those from previous years,…