W.Va. fair CEO leaving for similar role in Va.

By WTOP Staff
November 1, 2014 | 5:40 PM

FAIRLEA, W.Va. (AP) — The CEO of the State Fair of West Virginia is resigning to take a similar post in Virginia.

Marlene Pierson-Jolliffe will end her 25-year affiliation with the State Fair of West Virginia on Jan. 13. She gave notice to Mountain State exposition’s board this week.

She told the Register-Herald (http://bit.ly/1u8HK8M ) that she wasn’t really looking to change jobs but said the new position is an opportunity to rebuild the fair in Virginia.

Pierson-Jolliffe will serve as vice president of operations for Commonwealth Fair and Events, an arm of the Virginia Farm Bureau.

The farm bureau took over the fair a few years ago after the company that moved it from Richmond to Doswell went bankrupt and the agency ended a brief partnership with a subsequent buyer.

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Information from: The Register-Herald, http://www.register-herald.com

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

By Heather Gustafson
August 21, 2026 | 10:05 PM

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.

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