Fairfax County, Virginia

The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to move forward with a 3.5% local tax on recreational marijuana sales, the highest rate permitted under Virginia law. State rules allow localities to set a cannabis retail tax rate between 1% and 3.5%, and the board did not consider a lower figure. The local levy would apply on top of standard state and local sales taxes and Virginia's state marijuana tax, which starts at 6% and rises to 8% after July 1, 2029.

A draft tax ordinance is expected in spring 2027, followed by a public hearing, with projected revenue to be included in the county's FY28 budget plan. The county is also working on zoning rules to determine where dispensaries can operate. The moves come as Virginia prepares to launch retail cannabis sales on July 1, 2027, with licenses expected in early 2027. Future state tax revenue is slated for addiction treatment, education, health care, and communities disproportionately affected by past drug enforcement.

Jefferson County Public Schools (Jeffco) in Colorado has sued the Trump administration after federal officials threatened to cut $50 million in funding over the district's transgender-inclusive policies. Interim Superintendent Rob Stein says complying would violate Colorado's state anti-discrimination law, which protects transgender students, leaving the district caught between conflicting state and federal mandates.

The Education Department claims Jeffco violated Title IX by letting students use facilities and join sports teams based on gender identity, citing a disputed figure of 61 boys on girls' teams that the district says actually refers to managers, mascots, and a shared coaching roster. The case, one of more than five dozen similar federal investigations nationwide, has drawn in high-profile figures including Justice Department civil rights lawyer Harmeet Dhillon and law firm led by former special counsel Jack Smith, now representing Jeffco and other targeted districts. The dispute highlights broader tension between Trump's executive orders on gender and sex and state-level protections, with advocates calling Jeffco's legal pushback a rare exception to widespread institutional compliance.

A Washington Post letters roundup features educators arguing that assigning excerpts instead of full novels shortchanges students. Retired teachers Richard Parker and Diane B. Norton contend that literary devices only make sense in the context of a complete story, and that excerpt-heavy programs like Benchmark Advance, despite being research-based, fail to inspire a love of reading compared with reading full works such as "Charlotte's Web" aloud in class.

Separate letters respond to President Donald Trump's executive order renaming Lake Ontario "Lake America," a move tied to ongoing U.S.-Canada tensions. Writers, including a professor emeritus at the University of Western Ontario and residents from California and Michigan, question the legality and practicality of a unilateral renaming of a body of water shared with Canada, comparing it to overstepping legal procedures for changing a personal name.

Fairfax County police have arrested 19-year-old Alexis Antonio Cedillos-Campos in connection with the fatal stabbing of 42-year-old Carmen Lizet Puch of Reston. Puch was found dead early Monday in a parking lot near the Difficult Run Trail along Georgetown Pike, discovered by a jogger who alerted authorities. She had suffered multiple severe knife wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police Chief Kevin Davis said the killing was targeted, not random: Cedillos-Campos and Puch were coworkers at a local restaurant and had been in an intimate relationship. Surveillance footage reportedly showed him arming himself with a knife, gloves, and a water bottle before leaving to confront her. Cedillos-Campos, a Salvadoran national, entered the U.S. illegally near El Paso in April 2024 and was released under Biden-era policy after being processed by Customs and Border Protection. He now faces murder charges, with federal immigration authorities expected to lodge a detainer as the case proceeds.

A campaign to recall Fairfax County, Virginia, Commonwealth's Attorney Steve Descano has gathered more than 10,000 signatures following the February 2026 stabbing death of Stephanie, a 41-year-old woman killed while waiting for a bus. The suspect, Abdul Jalloh, who entered the country illegally, had reportedly been arrested more than 30 times, including for rape, malicious wounding, assault and prior stabbings, with several charges declined or reduced under Descano's tenure since 2020.

Fairfax police say they warned Descano's office repeatedly about Jalloh, including an email in May and a written warning in November cautioning that further violence was likely. Stephanie's mother, who launched the recall petition, cites Descano's campaign statements about limiting immigration consequences in charging decisions and donations from Soros-backed groups as evidence of a broader policy failure.

Descano remains in office as the recall petition continues to circulate, drawing renewed attention to prosecutorial discretion policies, immigration enforcement, and public safety accountability in Virginia's most populous county.