Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo has replied to the Albemarle Police Chief and Commonwealth’s Attorney’s recent accusation that C’ville police botched the murder case against Dylan Tyree. Adrienne Schwisow provides the details in today’s Daily Progress.
Archive for July, 2001
The Washington Post had an extensive write-up about the Downtown Mall this weekend. Author Caroline Kettlewell speaks quite highly of our Mall, praising landmarks like Mudhouse, McGuffey, Chaps and Mark’s Hotdogs, and seems to have especially enjoyed Fridays After Five. Quite satisfyingly, she describes the Mall as “thriving and vibrant,” and “decidedly happening,” something that nobody rational could have said just a few years back. Yay us.
…but the two aren’t necessarily related. After last night’s Scottsville fireworks (which were quite good, IMHO), 24-year-old Steven Campbell was relieving himself in the parking lot when he was attacked by several men. One of the men bit off the tip 1/3 of Campbell’s left ring finger. So if you see a white male in his early 20s with an extra fingertip, let the Albemarle County police know about it. The story is from WINA.
One car from a train derailed this morning. It rolled from the 10th Street train yard to the Carlton/Meade crossing, landing on its side. CSX officials have learned that some folks were trespassing on CSX property last night, and it’s possible that they released the brake. The derailment was apparently intentional, a security mechanism to prevent runaway train cars from crossing roads. WINA has more info.
Charlottesville’s most productive artist left town a few years ago, but now you can find him on-line. Yup, Steve Keene is now selling on-line. What’s especially cool is that you don’t get to pick out your painting — you can buy a small painting for $8, or a large one for $12. Some things never change.
State environmental regulators have denied the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority’s application for an extension on the life of the Ivy Landfill. They’ll have to refuse trash from industrial customers beginning September 1st. The story is from WINA.
Eric Cantor, who represents the 7th District, has introduced a bill to the House that would amend the Constitution to make it illegal to harm the U.S. flag. Concidentally, public radio commentator (and my mother) Janis Jaquith recently wrote an essay on this very topic. WINA has the story.
The Progress reports that Trax is closing down for the summer, and reopening again in the fall with a new name and new events. Fresh owner Michael Duchesneau says that it will likely end up with the moniker of “Tahiti Joe’s” or “Frankie’s Patio.” He intends to introduce top 40 dance nights, and is quick to point out that there will be “no hip-hop, no rap.” Writes Fidel: “Thank heavens. Can’t be having that subversive element in Charlottesville…need to give the old Katie’s crowd a place to go!” Say, I wonder if Duchesneau’s considered naming it “Crossroads?”
Based on the hours-old gathering of semi-inebriated ex-Boxerites at Miller’s, it looks like about a third of Boxer Learning employees have been laid off. BoxerJam, thir sister company, laid off everybody in May, so this could be worse. It’s a tough time to be a tech in C’ville.
After an anonymous donor gave UVa $20M a month ago, UVa is now proceeding with full-on planning for the replacement for University Hall. They intend to put the 15,000-seat arena in the north parking lot, across from U-Hall. The project will cost $125M. UVa says that they intend to raise funds in a similar manner to that of the Carl Smith Stadium. I guess that means that we’ll have Littlepage Court at the Bob Young Stadium at the George Welsh Arena in the Pete Gillen Basketball Center, or something like that. The story is from the Cavalier Daily.
Four living wage activists were arrested following a march on the Downtown Mall yesterday evening. A dozen or so folks marched down the mall in early evening, waving signs and puppets, before several of them chained themselves to the Omni’s elevators. Spot Etal, Nicholas Graber-Grace, Andrew Holden and Abi Miller were arrested after police cut them loose. In an interview with the Progress, an activist with the UVa Labor Action Group was shocked with the arrests, saying “To see [Graber-Grace] taken away as a criminal has really hurt me a lot.” George Loper has the full article on his website, in addition to a press release from the four arrestees.
City Councilman Kevin Lynch says that the proposed downtown noise ordinance is no longer necessary. Recent tests on the Downtown Mall have shown that the problem doesn’t seem to exist any more. WINA has the story. Last time the noise ordinance was proposed, back in 1998ish, advocacy disappeared, too. That time it was because new restaurant The Jewish Mother was playing music until the wee hours of the business. JewMom went out of business, and the demand for the new law disappeared.
Martha Jefferson Hospital is moving. The 98-year-old hospital has been a downtown landmark on Locust since 1928, and have simply run out of space. So they’re constructing a replacement hospital of the same size (400,000 sq. ft.) at Peter Jefferson Place on Pantops Mountain, plus another 400,000 sq. ft. in additional buildings. They’ll be moving from their relatively-compact 9 acres to 84 acres that they purchased in April. The new hospital won’t be finished until 2008, at the earliest. It’s not yet known what will happen to the existing building, or what the effect will be of moving such a large business from the City to the County. The Progress has a story about this in today’s issue.
The two owners of the Charlottesville Ice Park are arguing over the future of the facility. Lee Danielson wants to shut it down, telling the Progress that “the ice park should have closed down long ago. Economically, it has not worked.” But business partner Colin Rolph said that “the ice park is not going to be closed. It would be a huge loss to downtown. It’s still there, and it’s just fine, and it’s not going to be closed.” Regarding Danielson’s comments, he said that “Lee is basically not part of Charlottesville anymore.” Jack Mooney has an extensive story in today’s Progress.
Fluvanna has approved Competitive Power Ventures‘ power plant, the one that was reported as approved some weeks ago. Turns out that was just the Planning Commission, so now it’s approved for real. (?) WINA reports that well over 100 people attended last night’s meeting, and some have already said that they intend to sue the Board over the approval.
Remember the SWAT team that destroyed the house on Nassau Street a few months ago? Well, the folks that lived in the house are moving out of the motel they’ve been living in and into a house on Ware Street. WINA has the story.
At 2 AM this morning, a Tokyo Rose customer was discovered by bouncers to be carrying a pistol in his waistband. When they tried to eject him, he ran upstairs to the restaurant and began shooting randomly. Though he did not hit anybody, several people were injured in the ensuing panic. The customer escaped, and has not yet been found. Police describe him as a slender 6 foot-tall black male. WINA has the story.
Yet another class-action lawsuit is being filed against the underwriters of Value America’s ‘99 initial public offering. Shareholders charge that they created a distorted sense of demand for the stock. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
Former Tandem headmaster John Howard is attempting to convince folks to give their impending tax rebate to charity. Millions of Americans will be receiving checks for $300 - $600 over the coming weeks, and Howard thinks that the unexpected money would be best spent on local charities. He plans on giving his rebate to Legal Aid (which is where my check is going, if I get one.) Howard is working on a site, CAOneForAll.org, which he hopes to have fully functional in the next couple of weeks. Bob Gibson had the story in last week’s Daily Progress.
The UVa Honor Committee has found the first of the 122 accused cheaters guilty. The students were charged with cheating after Professor Louis Bloomfield analyzed their term papers and discovered that many of them had been copied from others. 30 investigations have been completed, with 20 cases dropped and 9 destined for trial. The rest of the cases will be investigated over the summer. The Cavalier Daily has the full story.
A Richmond man was driving a tanker loaded with 5,473 gallons of tar through Nelson yesterday when the truck overturned. Nearly all of the tar spilled out, pouring into a house’s front yard and covering a two-year-old dog with the hot, sticky substance. The animal was put to sleep at a nearby animal hospital a short time later. State police closed the road, and will not be able to remove the tar until it dries. They have accused the driver of speeding, but charges have not yet been filed. The house’s property damage is estimated at $15,000.
Writes Jeff Eisenberg in the CavDaily, “You’re the new guys, so that makes you inferior… You are inferior because you are more stupider than upperclassmen in the same way that women are more stupider than men.” He proceeds to explain why it is that first year students are generally lesser humans than upperclassman; it’s pretty funny. I put this in the satire category, but one can never be certain.
WINA has a scoop: Wal-Mart will build a huge distribution center in Louisa County, just of Route 64, within the next two years. It will employ 600 people. The official announcement is expected this afternoon.
In case it’s not totally obvious (based on the hundreds of Jeeps with out-of-state license plates trying to figure out how the hell to drive across the Mall), Camp Jeep is in session. Through Saturday, bajillions of Jeep owners will descend on Nelson county and do Jeepy kind of things that their asphault-loving vehicles normally don’t get to experience. Be nice and give directions to these folks. They come to town, spend money, and leave. We love them.
18-year-old Jamie Poindexter, charged with the April murder of Alison Meloy, has been judged not mentally competent to stand trial, according to a psychiatrist and a psychologist. A judge has to make the decision as to whether or not he’s competent, so this isn’t final. Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos is quoted in today’s Progress as saying “‘At this point I have two options, I can get a second opinion or we can have him sent to get restored’ [to competency].”
The Piedmont Environmental Council has done the math: it turns out that if all of the 22 proposed power plants in Virginia are built, we’ll produce enough power to satisfy the needs of 25% of the country. WINA has the story.
How cool is this? In March of 2000, City Mapping took these aerial pictures of town, and broke them up via a grid so that you can look at a photo of any part of town. I found my office and my apartment!
Today’s Progress reports that Charlottesville police have begun to issue tickets for “excessive horn-honking” to drivers on West Main that are honking to support living wage protesters at the Marriott. Section 46.2-1060 of the Virginia Code says that it is illegal “to use a horn otherwise than as a reasonable warning,” so it appears that the police are legally correct. Protester Nicholas Graber-Grace (arrested for trespassing at The Omni quite recently) says that “this is a form of speech, people expressing their discontent and desire for justice.”
On Tuesday, living wage activists will descend on the Chamber of Commerce, armed with toilet bowls to protest the Chamber’s opposition to a living wage. The protesters intend to set up several johns in front of the Chamber’s Market Street offices and offer $6.50 to anybody that’s willing to spend an hour scrubbing one of them. Even City Councilor Kevin Lynch will be attending to lend his support. It should be interesting to see how the Chamber handles the protesters.
This is in the satire category because it’s almost unreal. Orange County supervisors have just spent $15,000 to get themselves outfitted with laptops. They come with, according to the Progress, “dial-up modems and a CD-ROM.” They hope that the laptops will streamline things. Currently they have to be physically given packets of paper prior to each meeting. Now, in a huge leap for efficiency, they’ll be physically given floppy disks. Says the board chairman Roderic Slayton, “Initially there’s some expense, but I think that in the long haul it’s going to save the county money.” The article goes on to say that Supervisor Sonny Dodson has been using his new $1,800 laptop to play solitaire, while Supervisor Grover Wilson became quite frustated with his. Albemarle County spokeswoman Lee Catlin, quick to play catch-up, says that Albemarle is looking to move to an electronic medium, too. One hopes they’ll avoid the teletype.
Jackson Landers has provided another satire piece, this one lampooning the v-chip and the television industry.
“In a seven page open letter to the Virginia House of Delegates, Parents for Safe Children proposed new, mandatory standards for the manufacture of new televisions that would include an ‘off’ switch on the front of the device. The idea is quickly gaining support on both sides of the aisle.”
However, the proposal will have many staunch opponents to overcome before it becomes law. The ACLU has wasted no time scrambling to lobby against the proposal.
“This is just the type of thing we have a constitution in place to protect,” said Willis Carroll, attorney for the ACLU. “The government has no right to tell the people what they can or cannot freely say, or for that matter, tell them whether or not they can stop listening to what the TV has to say. We may not like everything that the television says, but we have to respect its right to say it.”
Manufacturers are equally opposed to the measure, citing reasons similar to those of the ACLU. Frank Minter, CEO of Zenith Technology Group, explained his industry’s position to cvillenews.com.
“Look, if we go ahead with something like this it’s going to add at least $1.23 to the cost of each television. That’s a burden that the consumer is ultimately going to have to absorb, whether they want the censorship button on there or not.“We also have to ask ourselves where all this is going. First it’s an ‘off’ switch. Next, you’re going to hear people talking about removing televisions from their homes altogether. They’ll start reading newspapers, listening to the radio and surfing the Internet. Maybe even engaging in conversation with one another. It’s a slippery slope, my friend. A slippery slope.”
The University of Virginia has sold their HMO, QualChoice of Virginia to Coventry Health Care in Bethesda, MD for $12.5M. Coventry provides coverage in Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Lousiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. UVa’s CEO Leonard Sandridge told WINA that running QualChoice had become a distraction. A condition of the sale is that Coventry Health Care will have a five-year contract with UVa. Hopefully, this won’t result in UVa being in a similar situation in 2006 to Stanford’s current situation.
43-year-old Kroger security guard Phyllis Lamb accidentally shot an employee last night. Lamb, who works at the Barracks Road Kroger, approached three employees and offered to show them a .45 round. After removing a bullet from the chamber, she attempted to put the safety on, but accidentally fired the gun. 34-year-old employee Robert Miller was shot in the hand, and was treated at the UVa hospital for severe damage to his pinky and his right thumb. WINA has the story.
The never-ending parade of area power plant proposals marches onward. Entergy Wholesale Operations of New Orleans has filed an application with Louisa to build a 1,000-megawatt gas-burning power plant in the county. This is in addition to the four plants already approved in Buckingham, Fluvanna and Louisa. Says Lee Lintecum, Louisa’s county administrator, of the proposal, “We have not found anything negative about it.” Austin Graham has the story in today’s Progress.
WVIR reported this evening that Charlottesville is in the early stages of determining how to fund a proposed expansion of the Downtown Mall. The plan is to expand the Mall all the way to the amphitheatre and extending it down some side streets, much like 3rd Street SE, the expansion that was unwillingly funded by, among others, Michael and Jill Williams of Williams Corner Bookstore. (Now Virginia National Bank.) Though funding for the project is still very much in the exploratory phase, City Councilors Maurice Cox and Blake Caravati both expressed an interest in a business tax being levied on area property owners.
UVa Police are investigating allegations of yet more misconduct at the psychiatric ward of the UVa Medical Center. Police say that on July 21st, a visitor provided heroin to a male and a female patient, who shot up in a bathroom and then had sex in a laundry room. The timing couldn’t be worse for the psych. ward, given the problems [1, 2] that they’ve had there in previous months.
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