Va. council mulls renaming street from Confederate general to honor Neil Armstrong

By The Associated Press
February 26, 2020 | 3:51 AM

HAMPTON, Va. — A Virginia city council is pondering changing a street named for a Confederate general to Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong.

The Daily Press of Newport News reports the Hampton City Council is scheduled to vote on a resolution on Wednesday to rename Magruder Boulevard to Neil Armstrong Parkway.

Pubic Works Director Jason Mitchell said Hampton has been home to NASA Langley Research Center for more than a century and wanted to recognize the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

The road is currently named for John Bankhead Magruder, who led troops against the U.S. in the Battle of the Peninsula.

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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