Mentally and physically-disabled children and adults who play tee-ball in the Miracle League of Alexandria enjoy all kinds of morale-boosting rules. Everyone person who takes a swing — no matter where the ball lands — hits a homer and gets to round the bases. Players from T.C. Williams’ baseball team help Miracle Leaguers catch balls and run the bases to make sure no one gets hurt. Each game is two innings. No score is kept. And no team wins.

The only wrinkle: The Miracle League players in Alexandria are using a regular dirt field instead of a synthetic diamond. The rubberized version would be smoother and reduce the chances for accidents.
Players and fans prepare for a spring season game in May. (Miracle League of Alexandria)

“Two weeks ago, we couldn’t play because there was rain and it was too soft for the players’ wheelchairs, and they would get stuck,” said Bill Rivers, a retired manager for the General Services Administration, who serves as the chairman of the Miracle League of Alexandria. “The ultimate goal is to have a special field.”

Players with the Upper Loudoun Youth Football League brought a signed football to court Wednesday in support of assistant coach Seth Rocca. (Courtesy Gregory Harris)

The parents of a 14-year-old football player who was allegedly assaulted during a practice session on Sept. 28 decided not to seek a protective order against the assistant coach accused of shoving the teen to the ground.

 At a hearing Wednesday, a Loudoun County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court judge granted the parents’ request for a nonsuit, meaning that their petition to seek a protective order was dismissed without prejudice, according to defense attorney Gregory Harris.

Seth H. Rocca, 28, an assistant coach for the Upper Loudoun Youth Football League, was charged with assaulting the young player after he allegedly shoved the boy to the ground during a practice session. The player’s parents called Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office deputies to the scene, and Rocca was charged with simple assault as a result of their investigation, according to authorities.

Several coaches and parents who witnessed the interaction questioned the charge, arguing that the incident was a misunderstanding that escalated after Rocca and the player both fell to the ground while Rocca was attempting to demonstrate a blocking technique.

 The parents of the teen player initially sought a protective order against Rocca, but they told the judge at Wednesday’s hearing that they did not with to proceed with the matter, Harris said.

The Virginia Citizens Defense League will hold a demonstration this fall at George Mason University in Fairfax to protest rules that make it more difficult to carry firearms on campuses.

“Higher-education ‘no gun’ policies do not make the innocent any safer,’’ the group wrote in an e-mail to supporters. “Those policies disarm students, faculty and staff not only on campus, but going to and from campus.”

The protest follows a Virginia Supreme Court decision earlier this year that George Mason University’s ban on guns in campus buildings and events, such as football games, is permissible.

How well do you know your neighbors? Another alleged spy has been arrested in Northern Virginia. A Leesburg man was indicted on charges of gathering intelligence for Syria, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Read more from the Post about Mohamad Anas Haitham Soueid, a 47-year-old Syrian-born U.S. citizen. According to the indictment, he sent video and audio recordings of people protesting against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to a Syrian intelligence contact.

Save your quarters; parking will be free in Old Town Alexandria on Black Friday. (Dayna Smith - For The Washington Post) Good news for shoppers (and merchants) in Old Town Alexandria: Free parking on Black Friday, Nov. 25.

At the request of local business owners, Alexandria’s acting city manager Bruce Johnson waived collection of fees from parking meters and city parking lots for the day. Traditionally, the day after Thanksgiving is a huge shopping day, and merchants hope that the sales get them “in the black,” or profits, for the year on that day.

The waiver, as announced at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, only applies to Old Town, not other areas of Alexandria.

Northern Virginians, who endure some of the worst traffic in the nation, don’t want to try to solve the region’s congestion problems with tolls, according to a poll released Wednesday by Quinnipiac University.

Fifty-two percent of registered voters in Northern Virginia polled oppose putting tolls on I-95 -- a proposal sought by Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R) to raise money to improve the corridor. Forty-two
Dulles Toll Road, Vienna, Va. (jahi chikwendiu) percent approve.

The Federal Highway Administration, which has authority over tolling on interstates, recently granted the state preliminary approval to move ahead with a plan to require tolls from drivers heading into the state from North Carolina.

Northern Virginia voters prefer tolls by a margin of 52 percent to 38 percent over raising the gas tax to fund road repairs in the state.

Statewide, more residents — 60 percent to 28 percent -- favor tolls over a gas tax increase. That’s not too surprising considering only some use I-95, while all drivers would be impacted by an increase in the gas tax.

Reporting for a story on Vietnamese MIAs took me one Sunday afternoon to a municipal building in Northern Virginia, where a veterans group had gathered.

One by one, the former South Vietnamese soldiers stepped out of their meeting at Annandale’s Mason District Governmental Center to the lobby, where I’d arranged to interviewed them. Photographer Matt McClain took their pictures as we talked.
Kevin Cao, 16, learned of his missing great-uncle only through a chance encounter with others looking for MIAs. (Matt McClain - For The Washington Post)

Kevin Cao, a junior at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, happened to be in the building. Cao was there to meet with parents who wanted to sign their children up for a free tutoring program that he’d created for area elementary school students.

As Cao, 16, waited for parents to trickle in, he noticed the older men being interviewed and photographed. He asked what was going on. McClain and I explained that we were doing a story about Vietnamese in the area who had loved ones still missing from the war.

Cao was born in the United States, but his parents and grandparents hailed from Vietnam. He wasn’t sure if he had any MIAs in his family. So on the spot, he phoned his father.

Turns out that Kevin Cao had a great-uncle, Thanh Cao, who fought for the South and disappeared in battle in 1972. Thanh Cao was his grandfather’s brother. He was a favorite, playful uncle to his father.

Cao’s father and grandfather still pray that Thanh’s remains will be recovered. Thanh’s sister has performed ceremonies on behalf of his soul, which some Buddhists believe cannot go to heaven until the body gets a proper burial.

But as much as the pain of the war lives on for the older Caos, they have chosen to share little of it with the generation born here.

“Why hasn’t anyone ever told me about him?” Kevin asked his father.

When the call was over, Kevin relayed his father’s reply: “He told me, ‘The Vietnam war was long — and over.’”

Pfc. David H. Sharrett II and his father, David H. Sharrett, at Fort Benning, Ga., in November 2006. They lived in Oakton and both went by "Dave." (Courtesy David H. Sharrett) I will be stepping away from the State of NoVa blog for the next few weeks to undertake some focused reporting and writing for the Dave Sharrett story. Sharrett was an Army soldier from Oakton who was killed by friendly fire in Iraq in January 2008, and his family has struggled mightily to find out how it happened, and why no one was held accountable.

Other Virginia reporters will step up and continue to fill this blog with fascinating items from around Northern Virginia, so keep reading, and I’ll be back soon.

Here are the earlier posts on the Sharrett story:

Vol. 1, Introduction, and Vol. 2, Homework

Vol. 3, Background,

Vol. 4, The Report

Studio Bleu dancers perform "Silence," choreographed by Marinda Davis, first-place winner at the Revolution National Talent Competition in Washington in July 2011. (Courtesy Studio Bleu Dance Center) On a late weekday afternoon, Studio Bleu Dance Center in Ashburn was bustling. In one pink-walled studio, eight adolescent girls in leotards watched their ballet instructor carefully as she demonstrated a sequence of steps. In another room a few doors down, a co-ed group of younger children, ages five to seven, were in the middle of a jazz technique class. Near the lobby, a lineup of kids formed along the wall to help each other with homework, as the flow of new arrivals continued through the front doors.

“There’s a lot going on!” said studio owner Kimberly Rishi.

It was something of an understatement: Dancers at the studio are preparing to perform at the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade in New York next month, and have also been invited to perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London. Over 2,100 students – competitive and recreational alike – attend more than 300 classes every week at the dance center, which announced this month that it was ranked the third Top Studio in the United States by the Federation of Dance Competitions.

The ranking was the first time the studio had been recognized by the FCD, Rishi said; Studio Bleu also won the FDC Studio Excellence Award, presented this year to 13 studios nationally.

Michelle Kresge, Vice President of the Federation of Dance Competitions, said Studio Bleu was awarded the rank based on its competitive dance team’s performance at a number of local and national competitions.

“They had a lot of winning routines,” Kresge said. “They’re a very high-quality, highly recognized studio in the nation.”

The Studio Bleu competitive dance team is unique for a couple of reasons, Rishi said — the 250-member team, with members ranging in age from three years old to 18, is the largest in the country; and any dancer at the studio can be a part of it.

Update, Oct. 7, 5:30 p.m.: Speakman just released this statement:

"The Internet has brought many new things into our lives, including the opportunity to display poor judgement (sic) on a global basis in nano-seconds. Like many of us, I receive tons of messages from acquaintances and friends every day on my iPhone. Some make me laugh, some I dump in the trash immediately and a few I forward along to others whom I hope will find them amusing. In this instance, I obviously misjudged a person of my recent acquaintance and I regret that my hasty action caused her any discomfort."

Original Post:

The Loudoun County sheriff’s race just took another turn for the weird.

Ronald D. Speakman, 50, is running as an independent candidate for sheriff of Loudoun County. (Ron Speakman for Sheriff) Last week, independent candidate Ronald Speakman text-messaged a photo of a man’s penis to a woman who apparently was working for his campaign. I have seen the photo, the phone that received it, and Speakman’s cell phone number attached to the photo. You do not want to see the photo.

Speakman admits that he sent the photo but said it was intended as a joke after the woman made a series of sexual comments and text messages. He said the photo was not of him, which appears to be true. He said the woman did not work for him. And he said he was not going to apologize for sending it.

The woman did not find the photo of a man’s genitalia particularly hilarious. She strongly denied making any sexual comments or text messages to Speakman. She said she had no political background, had never heard of Speakman or any of the Loudoun sheriff candidates before Speakman approached her in a Leesburg bar one afternoon last month. She said she came forward because “I think ... has no business wearing a badge...The thought of him being the leader of our police force scares me.” She was able to cite examples of online blog posts she wrote on Speakman’s behalf as evidence that she worked for him.

You may recall that last month it was reported that Speakman, while an officer in Leesburg in 1988, launched an extramarital affair with a married woman. The two eventually bought a house together in Springfield, and in 1993 she shot him there. That incident was sparked by a dispute over whether Speakman was seeing another woman. Speakman subsequently married that woman and remains married to her. Speakman said the affair was an error committed in his youth.

For more background on how the lewd photo wound up on the woman’s phone, continue to the jump: