Editor's Picks: The Best of Arlington Patch

Hello!

Welcome to Arlington Patch. We have a large number of people today who seem to have stumbled across our site perhaps for the first time thanks to HuffPost Politics. If you aren't familiar with Patch, we're AOL's hyperlocal news arm. We have more than 900 sites across the country, including more than 30 in the Northern Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C.

If you are new, we hope you'll stick around and check out the site. Below, I've put together a few links from the past couple of years that have had broad appeal. Thanks for stopping by!

Jason Spencer

Editor, Arlington Patch

Arlington has an electric startup scene. Tech startups here like Opower, UberOffices, Gridpoint, uKnow.com and more are working hard, enjoying success and helping transform this area to the Silicon Valley of the East Coast. Arlington recently hosted "Lean Startup" author Eric Reis, who was impressed with the culture here.

Just days before the 2012 election, the son of our longtime Democratic congressman was caught on video apparently giving advice on how to skirt voter identification laws. The video, by conservative activist James O'Keefe, has sparked local and state criminal investigations. Patrick Moran resigned from his father's campaign soon after the video was released. Despite this, U.S. Rep. Jim Moran still enjoyed a comfortable victory on election night.

Speaking of Jim Moran, he's been heavily involved in the fight to keep the National Science Foundation in Arlington. It's a big deal for this area. The NSF has an annual budget of $7 billion and approves about 11,000 requests for funding annually. And thanks to the presence of DARPA, the Virginia Tech Arlington Innovation Center, the Office of Naval Research and others, a number of businesses have situated themselves within a few blocks of the area, creating a dynamic synergy.

From last year:

Check out our series of video interviews with 9/11 first responders — local firefighters who were at the Pentagon on the day of the terrorist attack.

Click here to read a profile of Caroline Temmermand, a transgender woman who is making a difference in her community.

And here's one of our earliest stories — "Life After Law" looks at some young lawyers who have had trouble finding a career practicing law, and others who have stopped practicing to pursue more fulfilling dreams.