Still no sign of 24-year-old Oscar Junior McCauley IV (that’s not a mistake: it’s really his name), who escaped from Nelson Sheriff’s deputies on Friday morning. Despite the SWAT team, helicopter, and tremendous manpower combing the Monticello Ave. / Route 20 area of town, he somehow got away. His gun and some ammunition have been found on Monticello Road, WINA reports, but there has been no other sign of him.
Archive for December, 2001
Craig Winn, the man whom we can thank for Value America, will be appearing on WINA tomorrow morning during their 9-10am show. He (apparently) written a book about Value America, a tome that is certain to be of interest to many of us.
The Albemarle County Supervisors have established a citizens’ advisory panel to oversee the county police. The three-member panel will be appointed early next year, and will have input on police policies. They will be able to review police car videotapes, but they will not have access to confidential or internal investigation data. This all started in August, when county resident Daley Craig got upset with the police, and demanded the creation of a citizen review board. A few weeks later, County Police Chief John Miller endorsed the idea, and submitted a proposal to the county that it be created. Late in September, County Supervisor David Bowerman endorsed the idea, and it just passed yesterday. The County is actively seeking applicants, so interested parties would do well to contact them soon. WINA has the story.
Testimony during the preliminary hearings for murder suspect Craig Nordenson has provided some of the first details of what transpired at the coal tower in the early hours of August 18th, during the standoff, and his apprehension. In today’s Progress, it’s revealed that Nordenson attempted to kill himself during the garage standoff, details of the hours that led up to the shooting, and even the details of the shooting itself.
The county fire marshal has arrested eight Stony Point Fire Company volunteers, including three adults and five minors, on charges of arson, conspiracy to commit arson, and contributing to the deliquency of a minor. A fire marshal investigator said that they did it because “they were bored.” They’d set three fires thus far, and planned to burn down an empty home in the Key West subdivision. The Daily Progress has the full story in today’s paper, or you can read a quickie on-line from WINA.
Albemarle Police Detective K. W. Robinson has been suspended from the force after being served with a warrant for assaulting a suspect during questioning. In August, Robinson and three other detectives were questioning 21-year-old Corey Faison when they provoked him to grab at a camera that they had. That prompted them to throw Faison to the ground and beat him, punching him dozens of times, resulting in Faison’s being brought to the hospital with several broken ribs. The entire affair was captured on videotape, but county police said that it didn’t matter: they pointed out that they could have beaten him with nightsticks if they’d wanted to. Detective Robinson has a history of misconduct: he was fired ten years ago by Chief Miller for kicking a man in the face while arresting him, though his job was reinstated by an appeals board. WINA has the story, though the Progress is likely to have extensive coverage in today’s paper.
Philadelphia architectural firm Wallace Roberts & Todd has been signed to design the east end of the Downtown Mall and the 2nd and 4th Street improvements. The biggest portion of the project will be designing the transit station, which has to fit in with City Hall, the Fridays After 5 amphitheater and the yet-to-be-built Community Chalkboard. The $360,000 plan should be completed in a year, permitting construction to start in 2003. The international firm is known for their urban space work, having won awards for their designs for Miami’s pedestrian mall, Baltimore’s inner habor and San Jose’s light rail system. WINA has the story.
Entergy Wholesale Operations, the power plant company that applied to construct a natural-gas plant in Louisa last July, appears to have withdrawn their application, the Progress reports. It’s unclear as to whether or not the project is dead, though an Entergy executive says they do still plan to have a plant there at some point. The plant was the fifth to be proposed for our area in the past 24 months, and is the only one that is not underway.
At a forum on the topic last night, the merits of red light cameras were debated among a crowd that included the chiefs of police of Charlottesville and Albemarle, both 25th District Senate candidates and Delegate Mitch Van Yahres. Proponents argue that it would make busy intersections (think Rio and 29) safer, but opponents fear 1984-style government. Van Yahres intends to support a bill in the upcoming General Assembly session that would permit localities to install the cameras, a move that was supported by both chiefs of police. Jane Maddux said that she didn’t know enough about it to have an opinion, and Creigh Deeds expressed reservations of the assumed-guilty-style policing that is inherent with automated ticketing systems. The story is in today’s Progress.
The Albemarle County school board voted 5 to 2 last night to expand their student anti-discrimination rules to cover sexual orientation, WINA reports. The change largely resulted from the efforts of the Gay-Straight Alliance at MHS. (An organization that, ironically, is forced to operate as a stealth school club, because MHS won’t permit them to exist.) The two dissenting votes came from Ken Boyd and
Chairman Charles Ward.
Alan Norford, who has been the fire chief for the Stony Point Fire Company for the past 13 years, has resigned. This is a direct result of 8 Stony Point volunteers being arrested earlier this week on charges of arson. Norford was one of the founders of the Stony Point Fire Company, and will remain on with the company as a volunteer. WINA has a brief piece, but the Daily Progress has the complete story in today’s issue.
Entergy Wholesale Operations, who had withdrawn their application build a power plant in Louisa, has said that they intend to re-file an application next year. They want to alter the power output of the plant, and will be making design changes on that basis. The story is in today’s Progress, but you can read WINA’s blurb.
A jury has convicted Dr. John Reeves, of Albemarle, of first degree murder, sentencing him to 45 years in prison. He killed his ex-wife in November of 2000, apparently over child support and alimony payments. Reeves was over $300,000 in debt, owing $138,000 to his ex-wife. The story is in today’s Progress, and in brief on WINA’s site.
The owners of the Harry A. Wright salvage yard, next to Coiners’ in the Woolen Mills, figure they’ve got just the solution to the Ivy Landfill’s closing of the construction debris section: they’ll accept it at their place of business. At 150 tons per day, the plan isn’t exactly popular. And under city zoning regulations, it’s not what you’d call legal, either. C’ville planning director Jim Tolbert said that it just can’t happen, and has sent a letter to the entrepreneurs to that effect. The story is in today’s Progress.
City Council passed, 3 to 2, a new leash law that allows off-leash areas three days out of the week in Riverview Park. Councilors Meredith Richards and Blake Caravati voted against the law, in part because they felt the scheduled off-leash days system was confusing. The law is experimental, and will come up for review in June of 2002. In a discussion on City of Dogs, advocates of the new leash law make it clear that they would like to see more parks opened up, so this may just be the beginning. The story is in today’s Progress.
Don’t forget to vote today: the candidates are Democrat Creigh Deeds and Republican Jane Maddux. Voting will take place at your usual polling place, but only for people in the new 25th district; those of you in the old 25th district will remain unrepresented for the next two years.
Democrat Creigh Deeds is the winner of the 25th District Senate election. He defeated Republican Jane Maddux in every district, 69% to 31%. In Charlottesville, Deeds nabbed 76% of the vote, and 58% in Albemarle. WINA has a detailed breakdown of the returns. Deeds will finish up the last two years of the late Sen. Emily Couric’s term before facing the next election.
The library is upgrading their computer systems, WINA reports and the new features should be wicked cool. They recently upgraded their terminals to Linux running X Windows and Netscape, and their website has allowed on-line catalog searches and book renewals for about a year now. I’m told that the new system will have a bunch of interesting new features, though the only one that WINA cites in their story is that they’ll be able to e-mail notices instead of snail-mailing you to let you know when a book is in or you’ve got one overdue. Nice.
It’s finally cold enough that Wintergreen can make snow, and this weekend things are opening up for the first time this year. They’ll be opening with beginner and intermediate slopes, and presumably opening the black diamonds as soon as they can. Just a reminder: lift tickets are $20, ski rentals are $11 and snowboards are $26. WINA has a brief story.
Charlottesville’s Broadslate Networks is closing down. According to a post on the Neon Guild mailing list this afternoon (below), they have laid off 150 of their employees, and are keeping a few on to maintain things until they can sell the company. It’s impressive that they burned through $60M in venture capital in just six months. The company owns a tremendous amount of fiber optics, which they’re in the business of leasing the use of. 4:47pm Update: An anonymous poster has pointed out that they do not, in fact, own much in the way of fiber optics, despite misleading press to the contrary. 12/22/01, 1:18pm Update: Today’s Progress reports that not all 150 were laid off, but 120 were; apparently, the few dozen employees remaining are local folks.
To: Neon Guild Mailing List
From: Tracey Linkous
Subject: Broadslate closing its doors
Date: Fri, 21 Dec 2001 14:37:54 -0500
My friend Katie Van Sciver called to let me know that Broadslate closed their doors this morning. From what I was told, they laid off 150 or so people and have only a skeleton crew to maintain their current clients until they can sell the company. Several folks we all know were laid off today including Katie Van Sciver, Paula Gunter, and Chuck Moran. Morgan Allen’s position was phased out a few weeks ago. I’m sure there are many others you will know, but this is who I am aware of currently. I have encouraged Katie and others to network as much as possible perhaps becoming more involved and active in some of the many wonderful networking groups our town hosts including: the Neon Guild (http://www.neoneguild.com), Charlottesville Company of Friends (http://www.fastcompany.com/cof), the Charlottesville Young Professionals (mailto:Tracey@caar.com or 817-2394); and the Communication Arts Guild (http://lists.waldo.net/mailman/listinfo/comartguild).
Please reach out to as many people as you can in this tough economy and Holiday season to nurture one another.
Your fellow community catalyst,
Tracey
Two unoccupied Orange homes and a barn in Madison were all destroyed last night in fires that occurred within a half-hour span. All were within ten miles of one another. Jack Fray, chief of the Madison County Volunteer Fire Department, notes that the barn fire was quite similar to the six arsons all reported on October 20th. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.
Oscar Junior McCauley IV, a convicted felon who who esacaped from a Nelson County sheriff’s deputy three weeks ago, has been captured in West Virginia. At 4:30am yesterday morning, Albemarle police responded to a report of a stabbing and the abduction of 29-year-old Christian Brooke McCauley, and another report of a stabbing of 29-year-old Anthony Ray Shifflett. Though today’s story in the Progress gets quite muddled from there, one can only assume that Oscar McCauley was accused of these stabbings, though it’s quite impossible to determine at what point the abducted Christian McCauley was released, or what the details of that are. No matter, Oscar McCauley was arrested in Ranson, WV and is being held in Martinsburg on $1M bail. The story also explains the circumstances surrounding his escape: he somehow unlocked his handcuffs while in the back of the deputy’s car, and asked the deputy for a cigarrette. He obliged, and McCauley hit the deputy in the head, took his handgun, and took off running. Today’s Progress has the details. Kind of.
Rodney Pough of Pensacola, FL, has been arrested and charged with attempted capital murder. A state policeman attempted to stop Pough in Henrico for speeding, but the suspect fled west on 64 at over 100 mph. He drove over a tire-deflation strip and continued to drive on his rims, so two police cars got ahead of him and created a “rolling roadblock” by driving slowly in both lanes. As Pough approached, he shot twice through his front windshield at the cars, injuring one of the officers. The suspect crashed his vehicle in Louisa and ran into the woods, leading to a manhunt involving state police, dogs and a couple of helicopters. He was tracked down by a pair of bloodhounds at 3:40am, and his now in custody. Today’s Progress has the story.
Tonight is the 20th annual First Night Virginia New Year’s Eve celebration on the Downtown Mall. The usual impressive line-up of events are scheduled from 3pm until 12am, including concerts and puppet shows, ice skating and face painting, theater and, of course, fireworks at midnight. An all-admission pass is just $10 for adults, $5 for kids, and toddlers are free. City buses will run until 1am, and they’re free to anybody with a First Night pass. For those of you too cheap to spend $10, or with an urge to volunteer, First Night is desperate for dozens more volunteers. Give them two hours, they’ll give you a pass for the night. Call 434-975-8269 for more information.
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