Most students spent their snow break eating more than usual, According to an online poll at NOVAFortnightly.com. Behind that students evidently grew bored spending more time than usual “Twittering or Facebooking.” With the grass and mud starting to peak through the snow pack and memories of Snowmageddon I and II fading fast we’ve added a few pictures contributed by the staff of the Fortnightly. For the snow lovers voraciously ogling these pictures, we may have more snow as local meteorologists are calling for a possible blizzard on Thursday.

Getting a credit card is about to become a lot harder for those younger than age 21. New regulations intended to clean up the credit card industry include additional measures to protect young people. The so called Credit CARD Act will go into effect on Feb. 22.  The new law was championed by President Obama to protect consumers from unfair practices of the credit card industry.
The CARD act requires those younger than 21 to prove they earn enough money to pay off a credit card. Otherwise, a person age 21 …

A man was fatally shot in a residence near NOVA’s Annandale campus on Monday night around 10:30 p.m. When the police arrived they found a man with head trauma from a gunshot. According to a press release from the Fairfax County Police Department there were others in the residence at the time who police were able to identify and then determine there was no threat to public safety.

The victim was identified as Nathan Smiler of 8317 Little River Turnpike. The shooting occurred in the 8300 block of Little River Turnpike, if it was at the victim’s home was not made clear.

The 2010 version of the Washington Auto Show – its 68th – was entitled “Change Happens Here” and ran from Jan. 27 to 31 at the D.C. Convention Center. Its title was an apt description of the show, with the current emphasis of the federal government on energy and environmentalism and its large ownership of General Motors.
As has been the trend the last few years, the show emphasized the green aspects of new vehicles and built on last year’s show, which was entitled “Driven by the Environment.” Another year of research and development of green vehicles has led to the predicted introduction of a number of them in 2010.

Bright and early one recent morning, students from Northern Virginia Community College’s Annandale campus loaded onto a bus headed to Richmond, home of the Virginia Senate. Nervous, yet full of excitement, these students were able to dip their toes into politics and get a first-hand look at what really happens behind the scenes.

Winter is here, and that often means taking refuge from the cold weather by hanging out in the cafeteria or student lounges while trying to study. It’s too cold to hit the beach, but the weather changes too much to ice skate. Skiing is expensive, and the last thing you want to do is join a gaggle of tourists at some district museum you’ve probably already been to.

So what can you do when campus cabin fever hits? Go underground. Less than two hours west of Washington, D.C., are several vast underground caverns that leave visitors in awe of their spectacular geological formations.

Terracotta warriors are invading a National Geographic Society Museum exhibit in Washington. “Terra Cotta Warriors: Guardians of China’s First Emperor,” features not only the warriors but artifacts from the reign of that first emperor and other terracotta figures. A movie called “The Real Dragon Emperor” was shown at limited times, depicting the life of the first emperor.

The NOVA hockey team won its first match of the year 7-6, on Friday, Oct. 16 at the Virginia Stating Center in Charlottesville with a 9:45 pm start. As an exultant Coach Haga stated afterwards, “We got a monkey off our back,”in two ways, in winning its first game of the year after two losses and in coming back from a very early 3-0 deficit.

Burke Lake Park, Fairfax County hosted around 2.500 people of all ages, who made a chilly Oct. 25 into a pre-Halloween holiday. Scooby Doo, Winnie the Pooh and giant pumpkins among other characters were the main attraction for children who formed long lines  in the early morning to get on the Ghost Train.
Starting at 8 am, the event organizers from NOVA’s Park and Recreation program along with more than a 100 volunteers, met at the entrance of the park to initiate a day full of scary fun and enthusiastic …

The past two weeks have been filled with twists and turns in regard to health care reform. Multiple reports and, finally, a committee vote have pushed President Obama’s health care reform tread another step forward.

On Oct. 7, the Congressional Budget Office, the non-partisan agency which provides analyses of legislation and budgets for Congress, released a memo containing their findings on the monetary aspects of the most prominent health care bill to date: the America’s Healthy Future Act of 2009.