Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that they intend to re-investigate the UVa Medical Center’s psychiatric ward after reports of two patients shooting up and having sex in a laundry room. CMS just finished their investigation of the psych. ward after the June allegations of sexual assault, and is due to release that report in a week or so. This new investigation is pretty much a worst-case scenario for the UVA hospital. Claudia Pinto reports on this in today’s Progress.
Archive for August, 2001
You know those weather alert things that you can buy for $50 and hang on your wall to let you know when a disaster is going to happen? They work here now, which is exciting the local press and government to no end. WVIR, the Progress and WINA are all reporting this one. The real news, though, is that a Florida-based company, Dyn-o-mat, has created a powder that, when dumped on storm clouds, turns it into a gel that drops harmessly to the ground. So we may not need those radios after all.
Local politically-minded fellow (and friend of mine) Rey Barry is taking on Charlottesville and offering solutions to pretty much every problem that you can throw at him. On his site, he has a two-part strengths and weaknesses analysis of Charlottesville and, to some extent, Albemarle County that makes for a very interesting read. If you have any interest in where we’ve come from and where we’re going (which you do, in that you’re reading cvillenews.com), give this a read.
UVa has agreed to pay the five fired hospital employees $22,000, or roughly three months of severance pay per person. The former employees can reapply for their jobs, and UVa says that they’ll be considered the same as any other applications. One of the plaintiffs likened the the settlement to pacifying a child, that UVa provided just enough to quiet the ex-employees. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
Two businessmen have been indicted by a Charlottesville jury for conspiring to get workers to remove asbestos from Staunton buildings and illegally dispose of it. Turns out that these Einsteins — Dr. David Stephen Klein and Josef Gene Weiss — recruited homeless men from Staunton to remove asbestos by slicing it out of the walls with razor blades, lacking any safety equipment. They were directed to then dump the dangerous substance in various dumpsters, including one at Buffalo Gap High School. The two men are facing millions of dollars in fines. Adrienne Schwisow has the story in today’s Progress.
It’s hot. This in itself is not news, mostly because we’re all well aware of this fact. No, there’s a better excuse to use this handy weather icon. Virginia Power says that they’ll hit a new daily record for summer power consumption sometime this week. But they promise that they’ve got enough juice to keep us all chilled, and that’s the important bit.
C. David Allis, the Byrd professor of biochemistry at UVa, has co-discovered a second genetic code, the “epigenetic code” that controls genes’ activity. The code is contained in histones, and attaches methyl groups to those histones in order to activate or deactivate the genes. This is a Very Big Deal for genetic engineering. The story is in the new Science magazine, but you can read about it on the front page of today’s Progress.
A circuit judge has ruled that the Fluvanna Supervisors didn’t violate the state constitution when they adopted a comprehensive plan. Some county residents had filed suit as an attempt to reverse the Supervisors’ permission for the Tenaska Corporation to build a natural gas-burning plant in Fluvanna. Judge John Cullen said that the plaintiffs simply didn’t meet the burden of proof. WINA has the story.
munk writes: Waldo’s out of town for a week, so now’s the time for the hundreds of you who read the site every day to start submitting news. That means you. If you saw something in TV or read something in the paper that you think fits the obvious requirements (”Charlottesville” and “News”) or if you have a topic you want to see discussed, use the link on the left over there that says Submit News to tell the admins the story. Try to include a link if it’s online somewhere. Try it, it’s fun.
A Stony Point resident is opposing the construction of a new church by Joe Cotten, a fellow resident who has long been known for his extremist religious views. The resident, Robert Runser, has asked the Albemarle Supervisors to deny Cotten’s application on the basis that Runser and his neighbors that Cotten’s “cult” might “take over the land.” WINA has the story.
City Council intends to drop the proposed noise ordinance that became such a big deal this summer. There’s simply not need for it anymore, according to many members of the public and City Councilors. A similar demand cycle occurred back in 1998, when The Jewish Mother’s loud music prompted demands for an ordinance; they went out of business, and demand disappeared. The story is in today’s Progress.
krues8dr writes: Two suspected homicides apparently took place last night in the downtown area. The police have not released the names of the victims at this time, but sources have reported them as being an adult male and a female, possibly a minor.
WVIR reported on the details of this morning’s shooting during their 11pm broadcast. It occurred at 4:30am at the coal tower behind the Lexis-Nexis offices, when a male killed two people, 16-year-old Kate Johnson, a local girl, and 23-year-old Marcus Griffin of Eastman, Georgia. Police were investigating the scene all day today, and Chief Timothy Longo admits that they have little information right now, but are actively pursuing leads. The word on the street is that they were killed in their sleep by a drifter, who had previously announced his intentions to leave town today. These are the first murders in Charlottesville in a just under a year.
Yesterday, Nelson County investigated the discovery of a body, burnt beyond recognition, inside a car in Afton. It is thought to be the remains of 38-year-old Charlottesvillian Clemente Macedo, who was sleeping in his car while staying with extended family. The Progress article presents no evidence as to why Macedo’s death should be considered murder, but it is classified as such by the police. In unrelated news, a 57-year-old woman, Betty Gowen of Crabtree Falls, was arrested yesterday and charged with the murder of her husband, 63-year-old Jack Gowen of Shipman. The Nelson County Sheriff’s office reports that there was a history of domestic altercations between the two. Austin Graham and Reed Williams cover these two stories in today’s Progress.
WVIR reported this evening that police have a suspect in yesterday’s downtown homicides. They’re seeking 20-year-old Craig Nordenson, who normally spends a great deal of time on the Mall, but he has not been seen since Friday. Charlottesville police say that a “team of investigators” are working “around the clock,” and spoke highly of the members of the “gothic subculture” that they’ve been working with to solve the crime. Anybody with information about the murders, or about Nordinson’s location, is encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers at 977-4000, or simply call the police.
rpl writes: Courtesy of Edward Murphy, of the UVa Department of Astronomy:
Tonight, Monday, August 20, 2001 at 9:00:00 p.m. there will a great pass of the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Discovery over Charlottesville and Central Virginia.
To see the ISS, start looking for a slowly moving, very bright star ow in the northwestern sky (azimuth 300) at 8:57 p.m. As it rises up, it will pass between Arcturus and Ursa Major (the Big Dipper). At 9:00:00 p.m. the ISS will pass overhead, and it will disappear into the shadow of the Earth a few minutes later (at 9:02:17 p.m.). When it is at its highest, the ISS will be 419 km away (about 250 miles). It should be brighter than Vega, which is the bright star straight overhead just after sunset. The Space Shuttle Discovery undocked from the ISS earlier this morning. It should appear about a minute before the ISS following the same track through the sky. However, the shuttle has been maneuvering, and may appear up to 2-3 minutes before the ISS, so go out early.
For more updates, or to generate your own satellite visibility predictions, visit Heavens Above.
The father of Frederick Gray, who was killed by police at Squire Hill in 1997, has filed suit against Albemarle County and several members of the police force for wrongful death. Abraham Gray Jr. and his attorney, Deborah Wyatt, filed a 35-page document alleged an extended history of misconduct, racism, and incompetence on the part of the Albemarle police force. In addition, Gray alleges that the whole system is riddled with cover-ups and instances of criminal wrongdoing on the part of particular members of the force. Adrienne Schwisow has an extensive article in today’s Progress, which is well worth reading to get a proper grasp of everything that this suit encompasses.
The suspect in Saturday’s downtown two homicides, 20-year-old Craig Nordenson, has barricaded himself at the very coal tower where he killed 16-year-old Kate Johnson and 23-year-old Marcus Griffin. The coal tower, according to witnesses, is surrounded by police with guns drawn, megaphones out and spotlights. WVIR just now reported on this, and said that police aren’t certain if it’s the suspect or not, but that they believe it is. They also reported that Nordenson has an extensive criminal record, most recently convicted of robbery and grand theft auto, and recently accused of destroying a Charlottesville police van. It’s going to be a late night.
The standoff continues. Gunman Craig Nordenson has been holed up in the old coal tower since 7:00. After I put up the previous story, I headed over to the scene. Here’s what I saw.
I’m not totally certain of what has happened this evening, but I’m fairly sure that the saga is not yet over. At 11:30pm, I walked through the chill night from my First Street apartment to the Belmont Bridge, where I expected to find a large crowd of fellow gawkers. Instead, I was greeted by just two fellows and a view of a lit-up coal tower a few hundred yards away. The possibility of being picked off by a desperate gunman crossed my mind, but my companions agreed that it was unlikely with his 9mm handgun.
Water Street and Market Street were barricaded by police cars and ambulances, though the Lexus Law Publishing building prevented a view of most of the action. At the late hour, few cars drove across the bridge, but those that did stopped to inquire as to what we were staring at. Our group grew as the minutes ticked by, all of us staring at flashlights playing off the cement cylinder. By 12:00am, a helicopter thumped overhead and began to circle, playing its floodlight across the area. Our little group was now ten people strong, with several cars parked on the bridge, their drivers rubbernecking in the comfort of their own vehicles. Soon a sweatpants-clad middle-aged man came along, toting a video camera and a handheld scanner. His son was a police officer, he explained, and he was not sure if he was among those on the scene.
The scanner made the distant scene considerably more interesting. Shortly after 1:00am, it became clear that officers had positioned men inside the tower, and intended to bring in a mediator in an armored car. Should that fail, they planned to fire in tear gas to force him out.
Given the layout of the tower’s levels, it seemed quite unlikely that police could proceed safely beyond the first level. There was simply no way for them to climb to the next level undetected. The helicopter had left to refuel. The plan was for the officers to move in as soon as the helicopter returned with its spotlight, bringing in the mediator and then the tear gas, should it be necessary.
Our group of thirty was forced off the bridge around 2:00am, shortly after the helicopter showed up. The police wanted to secure the entire area, making it impossible for observers to watch the impending action. Two of us, seeking a line of sight, headed up the Market Street parking garage. From the top level, in the far corner, we could just barely see the tower.
At 2:13am, it happened. A shot was fired. Twenty seconds later, another shot. Though it was difficult to see, we could detect no tear gas coming out of the structure. Two minutes passed, and then two more shots separated by twenty seconds. Again, we couldn’t tell what had happened. The helicopter sped up its frantic circling, and the swarms of police cars in the area seemed to move with a sense of urgency.
Then the parking garage closed at 2:30, and we left. Knowing that I’d been defeated, I headed home for dinner.
Has Nordenson been killed? Did he shoot at the officers? Was that tear gas? I have no idea. No doubt by morning, all will be known. Perhaps the standoff will still continue, or perhaps it will all be over. But for now, I’m a bit baffled.
Incredibly, gunman Craig Nordenson, who had barricaded himself in the downtown coal tower last night, escaped. After an all-night standoff, a SWAT team stormed the tower at 7:40am and found it empty. Police aren’t sure how he managed to get away, what with the dozens of police, the helicopter, the infrared and night vision, and the dozens — possibly hundreds — of onlookers. Several friends of Nordenson have said that he owned a handheld police scanner, and witnesses last night that had snuck right up to the coal tower were shocked to find large areas of land adjacent to the tower entirely unguarded, leaving a potential exit route for the gunman. This also makes the four shots fired around 2:15am a bit of a mystery. All of this is oddly reminiscent of April’s standoff between the SWAT team and an empty house, which resulted in several tear-gassed poodles and a destroyed house.
Craig Nordenson has been apprehended. After being forced out of the garage of a home at 1108 East Market Street, reportedly the home of Katie Johnson’s grandparents, he was taken into custody and is, as I’m typing, being loaded into a wagon. This appears to bring the whole saga to a close, though a long trial for the murders of Johnson and Marcus Griffin stretches ahead. But a lot of questions linger.
Mayor Blake Caravati said at last night’s City Council meeting that he intends to hold a living wage hearing on September 17th. City Council is attempting to reconcile protesters’ demands for an $8 minimum wage with the Chamber of Commerce’s opposition. The hearings will be regarding the requirement that all city contractors pay their employees a living wage. WINA has the story.
Federal Judge Norman Moon has issued an injunction against construction of the 29 bypass. The injunction is a result of a lawsuit filed by Charlottesville’s Southern Environmental Law Center. Judge Moon agreed that the construction could pose a hazard to the reservoir. WINA has the story.
Reed Williams and Jake Mooney’s front page story in today’s Daily Progress offers the most complete story of the four-day Nordenson saga that has been made available so far. Suspect Craig Nordenson visited the coal tower with police this afternoon explaining what had happened. Though some details remain murky (such as where he hid Monday night, and the motive for the murders), a number of mysteries have been cleared up. Nordenson is charged with breaking and entering, grand larceny, three counts of attempted robbery, possessing a firearm after having been convicted of a felony and two counts of capital murder. He is being held in the local jail, A bond hearing is scheduled for the morning.
Craig Littlepage, UVa’s interim athletic director since June, has been named the new director for the athletics program. He is the first African-American to hold the position at the university. The 50-year-old has worked with their athletics department for 11 years. See UVa’s press release for more information.
krues8dr writes: I just received this week’s Jefferson Theater movie listings, and at the top of the email was the following notice:
“Important notice: after nine and a half years of offering movies at two
bucks, the Jefferson is raising its price this Friday to $2.99. For those
who just can’t imagine paying more than the old price, please visit the
Jefferson on ‘Two-dollar Tuesdays.’”
Whoa. It never occurred to me that it would ever cost anything but $2. I hope they intend to keep a lot of pennies on hand.
harry writes: Both the Daily Progress and NBC 29 carried stories recently involving Muslims rising to the defense of “Cupcake”, the Downtown Mall street vendor. What neither news source was able to provide was exactly what sort of discrimination was being alleged.
An unnamed convict has escaped from the jail on Avon Street Extended. This has been confirmed by Eure Communications (WWWV, WINA, WQMZ, etc.) The escapee is bearded and wearing blue; no further information is available at this time. If you happen to see him, do not approach or follow him, just call 911. 11:05pm: Details below.
NBC 29 offered some details leading off their 11pm broadcast. The escapee’s last name is "Eaves," though I’m not sure of the spelling or his first name. He is 5′9″ tall and 140 lbs, and is serving multiple life sentences for rape and apparently other nasty things. There are 100 officers searching for him tonight. He’s likely still shackled and wearing prison blues. After running across the street from the jail, he ran into a field, and police dogs tracked him as far as the pond behind the Dickinson Building at PVCC. There have been multiple sightings in the downtown area, and a few folks have contacted us to let us know that helicopters have been over an area ranging from the downtown area to PVCC. It is thought that he may have escaped in a silver 1997 Honda, with the license plate YVX-5818.
Remember that truck full of hot tar that drove off the road and spilled its 5,000-gallon load? Well, driver Anthony Cooper has been found guilty of reckless driving, and has lost his license for 30 days and was fined $200. WINA has the story.
Yesterday, Governor Gilmore met with UVa President John Casteen regarding UVa’s $26M plans to expand their Special Collections building. The state had committed to spending $7M to support the project, which would create an underground facillity to store the University’s extensive collection of rare documents. State budget shortfalls, which are widely attributed to Gov. Gilmore’s huge tax cut, have prevented UVa from carrying through with this planned construction. Gilmore did not commit to making a budgetary exception, but said that he’d have a decision in 30 to 45 days. UVa has the story.
Timothy Eads, who escaped from jail yesterday, was caught downtown at 8:30pm this evening. He was spotted on the corner of Avon and Garrett by two men, who shouted out to him by name. Eads took off running, and hid under a moving van parked in front of the Rentway across from Spudnuts. The men called 911, and police arrived quickly with a K9 unit. A German shepard dragged the man out by his head, from the undercarriage of the truck. Bleeding badly, he was taken to the hospital, where it was discovered that he had a key tied to a tooth in his mouth. Police say that it’s the key to his shackles, which he was not wearing at the time that he was arrested. The story comes from WVIR’s 11pm broadcast.
Dave Matthews Band has provided $50,000 for a scholarship for a Charlottesville or Albemarle County 16-24 year old. The Fight for Your Rights Leadership Scholarship, which is being run by MTV, is also providing scholarships to four youths in Houston and New York, sponsored by Destiny’s Child, Method Man and Mena Suvari. Interested individuals can apply on-line. The winners will be announced on October 24th. The story is from today’s Daily Progress.
Madison, Wisconsin’s satirical weekly, “The Onion,” has directed their biting humor our way. In last week’s issue, they carried a story entitled “Candidated Turns to Focus Group for Position on Rape,” in which they say that Earley “has not yet declared whether he will adopt a hardline anti-rape stance or take a more moderate position to avoid alienating the state’s estimated 35 pro-rape voters.” You can read the short piece just a few stories down the front page of the issue.
Don’t forget that tomorrow is UVa’s move-in day. Thousands of students will descend on the town like locusts, leaving a trail of cash in their wake. So either stay away from Route 29 and Main Street this weekend, or do your best to make some money off of them. Be nice.
In 1999, 69-year-old Daley Craig was watching his grandson’s football team at WAHS play a game. While watching, he was smoking a cigar, which he was told violates a county ban of tobacco use on school grounds. Craig refused to stop smoking, and he was forced to leave school grounds by police. This has turned into a cause for Craig, who is not so interested in smoking on school grounds as he is in creating a citizen review board to oversee the Albemarle County police force. Said Craig, “I have made it quite clear on the record that I find it despicable that the only review of alleged police review in Albemarle County is `internal.’ That sort of review cannot be objective or thorough, and is tainted by apparent conflict of interest. Yet you have refused to establish any sort of objective review and are a party to the cover-up.” He went on the criticize the police’s killing of William Wingfield Jr., saying “Since then, the police have killed another person. The one they claim was attacking them with a garden hoe. Wow, a real garden hoe! A demented man with a garden hoe attacking three supposedly able policemen and women armed with billy clubs and Mace, and the police had to shoot him.” Needless to say, police aren’t very happy with Craig, and he’s dead-set on having a review board. Peter Savodnik has an extensive article in today’s Progress.
The Progress has an article today on school fashion. It’s relatively straightforward, except for a quote from the principal of Buford Middle about goths in the school, who wear all black. “We can’t allow things like that to go,” Daniel said, adding that some of the students in question wore pentagrams, a satanic symbol. “It’s OK if you want to wear black, but when you begin to have symbols and have things painted on their bodies, I have to step in,” the principal added.
WINA is reporting that a Monticello High School student was abducted, robbed, and left out near Louisa. He was nabbed on the corner of 10th and Page, and police are looking for two adult males and an adult female, who the student says abducted him.
At midnight last night, a black male held up a 38-year-old guy on Oak Street, brandishing a handgun and demanding money. The victim said that he had no money, but handed over his wallet, keys, and escaped on foot. The robber pursued the victim, shouting “take your stuff back,” but the victim kept running. The robber is described as in his 20s, 5′9″, 180lbs and as having facial hair. At the time of the robbery, he was wearing a demim hat, jeans and a white t-shirt. WINA has the story.
The 20th annual Albemarle County Fair starts this afternoon, running through the weekend. It’s out in North Garden, and they hope to attract 25,000 visitors this year, due to the last two years’ fairs being rained out. County Fair organizers fear that if there isn’t sufficient attendance this year, they won’t have the money to continue. With their traditionally-excellent line-up (fire prevention contests, sawmill demonstrations, hog-calling, llamas, fiddling and wheelbarrow races…just the basics), this is a classic local event that you just don’t want to miss out on.
20-year-old Dominic Morris was sentenced to four years in prison for his role in last September’s shootout at the Goco on Cherry Ave. Judge Hogshire, commenting on Morris’ totally clean record, said that “this appears to be radically uncharacteristic.” The shoot-out was a result of a confrontation between Morris and a friend, who ended up being shot eight times and hospitalized in critical condition. Adrienne Schwisow has the story in today’s Daily Progress.
Fork Union Military Academy teacher Gregory Allen Moyer was convicted in 1997 of, in the words of the Daily Progress’ Austin Graham, “committing a string of bizarre sex crimes involving cadets.” Strangely, the wealthy parents of one of his victims took him into their home while Moyer appealed his case to the Virginia Supreme Court. In May, he skipped out on the $50,000 bail that the couple had posted for him. When time ran out for Moyer to show up, the couple sent a check for $50k to Fluvanna County. Said Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip, “He hasn’t served one day of his sentence that the court handed down and that he should be serving right now. The revocation of the bond is no consolation to me. It’s nice for the commonwealth to have, but we’re going to keep looking for him.”
Late last night, an anonymous individual submitted the following: “I was playing tennis at Snyder Tennis Courts, when a drive by shooting occured at Sigma Nu. I heard a squealing of tires, four sounds of what was shockingly reminiscient of gunshots, and then another squealing of tires. Reports from partygoers were scarce from what I could gather, most thought it was gunshots, others simply said fireworks. However a majority did say that one male was ‘jumped’ at the scene. Police arrived moments later, two staying at Sigma Nu and the others continuing down Ivy towards the intersection of Rugby and the Corner.” It turns out that a several attackers beat up Colonel Jose Martin when he was leaving the party at Sigma Nu on Carr’s Hill Road. One of the guys fired into the air before they all took off. The frat house was being rented out at the time, so none of these folks have anything to do with the frat or UVa. WINA has the story.
The latest C-Ville Weekly has an impressive overview of the recent coal tower shootings and the subsequent chase and capture of suspect Craig Nordenson. They provide a number of interviews, a detailed timeline, and the most coherent overview that has yet been published.
Allen Graves of Ivy has arrested last Friday by the Albemarle Fire Marshall’s office (can they do that?) on charges of reproducing child pornography. They were investigating several arsons on his street a few years ago when they, apparently believing him to be a suspect, seized his computer. That was when they found the illegal material. WINA has the story.
The University has bought a good chunk of Emmett Street over the past few years, by way of the The University of Virginia Foundation, a company set up to purchase property for UVa. (Set up because, if UVa buys land from the City, they don’t have to pay property taxes, which the City hates. So this organization does pay taxes, so the City’s tax base isn’t eroded by UVa’s expansions.) The plan is to turn the street into an entrance way for the University, starting with Scott Stadium and new basketball arena. They’ll also demolish some of the properties between Ivy Road and Massie Road so that they can expand Central Grounds. Their current problem is that they don’t own the Chevron or the Budget Inn, and they’re not sure that they can do anything until the owners of those properties sell. Sarah Marchetti has an extensive story over at The Cav. Daily’s most excellent site.
Janis Jaquith writes “Hey, everybody, I just got this swell gift in the mail from the Republican Party of Virginia — it’s this black sign that says in big, bold letters, ‘I’m a liberal and proud of it.’ This is so cool! I’m gonna tape it up inside the back window of my car. I’ve always wanted a bumper sticker that said something like that, and now, voila! it shows up in my mailbox. Alls I need is a little Scotch tape, and I’m in business. Thanks, Republican Party of Virginia!”
You know, my girlfriend got one of those too. We’re both liberal Democrats, and it wasn’t immediately clear, even after reading through the mailing, that it was criticizing Democrats. I think I was supposed to be horrified to find that certain state candidates were in favor of homosexual marriage (”God forbid the promiscuous heathens marry!,” I think I was supposd to cry out), that some people would hypothetically favor raising taxes if it was necessary, etc. I wonder how Democrats ended up on this mailing list. Did anybody else get this?
In light of Foxfield’s recognition as a “disaster” (in the words of an Albemarle County Supervisor), it’s fortunate that Foxfield met with representatives from the ABC, the county, and MADD. Foxfield has become known as a twice-annual drinking festival for UVa students that only tangentially involves horses and something about running in a circle. Recommendations include limiting attendance to 20,000 people (2/3 of this spring’s attendance), increase enforcement of drinking laws, and selling more non-alcoholic beverages. The Progress may have the story today, but only the Cavalier Daily’s article can be linked to.
The Bayly Art Museum has a new name: University of Virginia Art Museum. It seems that it became known as the Bayly Art Museum because it’s in the Thomas H. Bayly Museum. More important, this is the first step in their plan to build a $30M, 41k-square-foot museum next door. The museum director points out that “the name of the museum could change again to reflect a major gift.” Dave Matthews Band Art Museum, anyone? Erin Montgomery has the story in today’s Cav. Daily.
$138,000 worth of marijuana was seized by the Fluvanna County Sherriff on Wednesday from seven locations around the county. Most of it was growing in the woods, and it will be unlikely that it will be determined who is responsible for it. However, two arrests may be made. The story is in today’s Progress.
57-year-old Betty Gowen has confessed to the murder of her 63-year-old husband in Shipman on the 17th. The two had a history of domestic disputes, and Sheriff Gary Brantley described the murder as “not unexpected.” The story is in today’s Progress.
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