Zak Failla

Assistant Managing Editor

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Equal parts Lois Lane, J. Jonah Jameson and Vicki Vale, Zak! has traveled from coast-to-coast covering small and big town community news in both in print and online for nearly a decade since his graduation from the award-winning Roy H. Park School of Communications at Ithaca College in 2010.

Before settling into the Hudson Valley, Zak! previously spent time in the New York Daily News newsroom and worked for hyperlocal digital news outlets on Long Island. He wrote sports for The Ithacan and The Ithaca Journal before taking his talents to the Pacific Northwest, where he served as the sports editor at the Shoshone News-Press until heading back east to work with Daily Voice.

Zak Failla's Contributions

College Park, MD
Your Community
Family Pleads For Help As Massive Search For Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar Comes Up Empty Family Pleads For Help As Massive Search For Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar Comes Up Empty Family Pleads For Help As Massive Search For Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar Comes Up Empty
Family Pleads For Help As Massive Search For Missing UMD Student Dilan Ashar Comes Up Empty A Maryland family just wants their son home. The search for 22-year-old University of Maryland student Dilan Shaan Ashar intensified on Saturday, Oct. 3, after campus police released new surveillance images that dramatically changed the timeline of his disappearance. Ashar was last seen on camera at approximately 2:30 a.m. on Friday, Oct. 2, at the Terrapin Trail Garage on the UMD campus in College Park, according to the University of Maryland Police Department. Dilan Shaan Ashar. University of Maryland Police Police have classified Ashar as a critical missing student and are askin…

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by Zak Failla
Potomac, MD
Breaking News
Crews Dig Through Basement Wall To Save Worker Buried For 3 Hours In Potomac (UPDATED) Crews Dig Through Basement Wall To Save Worker Buried For 3 Hours In Potomac (UPDATED) Crews Dig Through Basement Wall To Save Worker Buried For 3 Hours In Potomac (UPDATED)
Crews Dig Through Basement Wall To Save Worker Buried For 3 Hours In Potomac (Updated) For more than three hours, a construction worker was buried in Maryland with rescuers digging toward him from two directions. The race to free him finally ended around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, when crews pulled the worker from a collapsed trench outside a home on Falls Bridge Lane in Potomac. Getting him out took more than 65 rescuers, a vacuum truck, buckets and shovels, a hole punched through a basement wall, and a painstaking operation designed to make sure the ground did not come crashing down again. The technical rescue in Montgomery County. Twitter/@mcfrsPIO The worker h…

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by Zak Failla
Towson, MD
Breaking News
'Justice For Khloe': Suspect Captured Hours After Baltimore March For Murdered 12-Year-Old 'Justice For Khloe': Suspect Captured Hours After Baltimore March For Murdered 12-Year-Old 'Justice For Khloe': Suspect Captured Hours After Baltimore March For Murdered 12-Year-Old
'Justice For Khloe': Suspect Captured Hours After Baltimore March For Murdered 12-Year-Old The signs demanded justice for Khloe. Less than 24 hours after family, friends and neighbors filled a Maryland street calling for answers in the murder of 12-year-old Khloe Ishway, detectives made an arrest. Baltimore Police announced on Tuesday, Oct. 6 that 23-year-old Tyree Reynolds had been taken into custody in connection with the fatal shooting that killed Khloe and wounded four others on Friday, Oct. 3. Hours after Baltimore walked for 12-year-old Khloe Ishway, police arrested a suspect in her murder. Baltimore Police Department via Facebook The arrest came hours after member…

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by Zak Failla
Burke, VA
Breaking News
Springfield Man, 93, Dies Days After His Crash Injuries In Burke Were Downgraded: Police Springfield Man, 93, Dies Days After His Crash Injuries In Burke Were Downgraded: Police Springfield Man, 93, Dies Days After His Crash Injuries In Burke Were Downgraded: Police
Springfield Man, 93, Dies Days After His Crash Injuries In Burke Were Downgraded: Police A 93-year-old Virginia man has died days after being hospitalized with what were initially believed to be non-life-threatening injuries. Springfield resident Gerald Brook has been identified by investigators with the Fairfax County Police Department as the victim in a two-vehicle crash over the weekend in Burke. Investigators say that shortly before 2:15 p.m. on Sunday, Oct. 4, Brook was a passenger in a 2010 Nissan Altima heading north on Fairfax County Parkway approaching Burke Lake Road when the Nissan was struck by a 2017 Toyota 4Runner. Brook was initially taken to an area hospital wi…

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by Zak Failla
Arlington, VA
Breaking News
Fake Babysitting Job Became Bloody Kidnapping Plot To Silence DC Rape Accuser, Feds Say Fake Babysitting Job Became Bloody Kidnapping Plot To Silence DC Rape Accuser, Feds Say Fake Babysitting Job Became Bloody Kidnapping Plot To Silence DC Rape Accuser, Feds Say
Fake Babysitting Job Became Bloody Kidnapping Plot To Silence DC Rape Accuser, Feds Say The babysitting job never existed. It was bait, federal prosecutors say, used to lure two women into a DC basement where they were stabbed, bound with duct tape, and kidnapped in a plot designed to keep one of them from testifying in a rape case against Cierra Charity Lee's boyfriend. Now, the 21-year-old District resident will spend more than eight years in federal prison for her role in the October 2025 attack. Lee was sentenced on Tuesday, Oct. 6, to 102 months behind bars after pleading guilty to kidnapping and armed robbery, according to the US Attorney's Office. The setup started wi…

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by Zak Failla
Severna Park, MD
Breaking News
Hit-Run Driver Apprehended After Severna Park Coach, Ump Left To Die In Crosswalk, Police Say Hit-Run Driver Apprehended After Severna Park Coach, Ump Left To Die In Crosswalk, Police Say Hit-Run Driver Apprehended After Severna Park Coach, Ump Left To Die In Crosswalk, Police Say
Hit-Run Driver Apprehended After Severna Park Coach, Ump Left To Die In Crosswalk, Police Say The search for the driver who left a beloved Maryland coach and umpire dying in a crosswalk has ended with an arrest. Michael Garner Hilliard, 56, of Severna Park, has been identified as the suspect in the fatal hit-and-run that killed 54-year-old Steven Joseph Reynolds over the weekend, Anne Arundel County Police announced on Tuesday, Oct. 6. Hilliard is being held without bail, according to the department. The arrest comes three days after Reynolds was struck at approximately 10:25 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, while crossing northbound Ritchie Highway at Magothy Bridge Road in Severna Park.…

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by Zak Failla
Potomac, MD
Breaking News
WATCH: Rescuers Race To Free Worker Buried After Potomac Trench Collapse (DEVELOPING) WATCH: Rescuers Race To Free Worker Buried After Potomac Trench Collapse (DEVELOPING) WATCH: Rescuers Race To Free Worker Buried After Potomac Trench Collapse (DEVELOPING)
Watch: Rescuers Race To Free Worker Buried After Potomac Trench Collapse (Developing) A painstaking rescue is unfolding in Maryland after a worker was swallowed by collapsing dirt while working beside a home. More than 65 rescue workers were called to Falls Bridge Lane in Potomac on Tuesday, Oct. 6, working to free the trapped worker after the trench collapsed at approximately 3:20 p.m., according to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson Pete Piringer. The worker had been waterproofing a single-family home when the dirt suddenly gave way, initially burying him up to his armpits. His coworkers called 911 and managed to clear some of the dirt away from hi…

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by Zak Failla
Ashburn, VA
Breaking News
Former CIA Official Admits $194M Fraud Scheme After 298 Gold Bars Found At Ashburn Home: Feds Former CIA Official Admits $194M Fraud Scheme After 298 Gold Bars Found At Ashburn Home: Feds Former CIA Official Admits $194M Fraud Scheme After 298 Gold Bars Found At Ashburn Home: Feds
Former CIA Official Admits $194M Fraud Scheme After 298 Gold Bars Found At Ashburn Home: Feds David Rush's golden run came crashing down in Virginia. The 49-year-old Ashburn man and former CIA officer pleaded guilty on Tuesday, Oct. 6 to orchestrating a staggering fraud scheme that siphoned approximately $194 million from the federal government, according to the US Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Rush wasn't some outsider trying to crack the system. He was inside it. Federal prosecutors say Rush held a senior executive-level government position, complete with a Top Secret/Sensitive Compartmented Information security clearance. He got there, in part, by lyin…

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by Zak Failla
Lexington Park, MD
Breaking News
Morning Ride Turns Deadly For Harley Rider, 26, In Maryland Crash With Mustang: Sheriff Morning Ride Turns Deadly For Harley Rider, 26, In Maryland Crash With Mustang: Sheriff Morning Ride Turns Deadly For Harley Rider, 26, In Maryland Crash With Mustang: Sheriff
Morning Ride Turns Deadly For Harley Rider, 26, In Maryland Crash With Mustang: Sheriff Treyquan Johnson never made it home from an early-morning ride in Maryland. The 26-year-old Pocomoke City-area man was riding a Harley-Davidson when he and the driver of a Ford Mustang crashed shortly before 6 a.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 6, in the area of Old Virginia Road and Ocean Highway. By the time first responders arrived, there was nothing they could do for Johnson, who was pronounced dead at the scene. The other driver escaped serious injury and was checked out without being taken to a hospital, according to the Worcester County Sheriff's Office. Now investigators are trying to piece to…

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by Zak Failla
Lexington Park, MD
Breaking News
Maryland DUI Suspect 'Mule Kicked' Deputy, Ripped Bolts From Jail Cell Benches: Sheriff Maryland DUI Suspect 'Mule Kicked' Deputy, Ripped Bolts From Jail Cell Benches: Sheriff Maryland DUI Suspect 'Mule Kicked' Deputy, Ripped Bolts From Jail Cell Benches: Sheriff
Maryland DUI Suspect 'Mule Kicked' Deputy, Ripped Bolts From Jail Cell Benches: Sheriff Na’Jer Khalil Robert Ayres went down swinging during his DWI arrest in Maryland. The Salisbury man took on all comers over the weekend after admitting to having a few beers before getting behind the wheel and parking in a questionable spot, according to the Wicomico County Sheriff's Office. Shortly after 1 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 3, a deputy on patrol in the area of the US Route 13 Bypass and Coulbourn Mill Road spotted a vehicle parked in the emergency turnaround. While speaking with the driver, later identified as Ayres, investigators say deputies observed multiple indicators of impa…

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by Zak Failla
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