Local Republican Rob Schilling has been nominated by the Charlottesville GOP for City Council. The Republicans will just be running the one candidate against the Democrats’ two, who were nominated last Saturday, Blake Caravati and Alexandria Searls. If Schilling wins on May 8th, he will be the first Republican to win a seat on Council since Darden Towe in 1986. WINA has the story.
Archive for March, 2002
Former UVa Medical Center employee Rudolph Johnson has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting two psychiatric patients. Based on DNA evidence, Johnson was charged with the two attacks early last summer. The charges against Johnson prompted the firing of nine other employees, all of whom were let go because they had, in the past, been convicted of a felony. This case also led to a Medicare inspection of the hospital, which they passed, though they ended up failing a followup Medicare inspection last September. WINA has the story.
Astoundingly, the Cavaliers defeated Duke in men’s basketball last night, 87-84. UVa, who fell out of the top 25 this week, beat the #3 Blue Devils in a 12-point rally in the last 7 minutes of the game. The AP has the story.
A referendum has failed to change the UVa Honor Code’s single-sanction system. Of the 5,569 votes, 3,346 were against permitting the accused to confess and receive a three-semester suspension instead of expulsion. The system currently has just one punishment: expulsion. Nick Chapin has the story in the Cavalier Daily.
writes: Apparently, the City of Charlottesville has quietly sold the last of the free downtown public parking lots. The two-hour lot at the corner of Water St. & 5th St. SE was sold last August, according to the Charlottesville Police Dept. Although city signs limiting parking to 2 hours remain posted, the police department is no longer permitted to ticket vehicles that are parked there overtime, nor will they ticket or tow the vehicles that double and triple park there on a daily basis.
Hey, free parking!
Several people submitted stories about the Daily Progress’ two articles this weekend. One person writes, “The Saturday story clarifies a lot of factual mistakes that the police have been perpetuating for weeks. The second, on Sunday, details many of the victims’ serious injuries. It also quotes several victims wondering why the city establishment seems to be ignoring them and running to help their attackers. How about some predictions: since these stories don’t follow Maurice Jones’ party line, can we expect more public-access propaganda labeling them sensationalism?” Writes another, “If these people were the victim of rape the uproar for the lack of concern for victims would be at an national outrage. The city officials seem to be serious about the criminals not the victims.” Each Progress story contains new and interesting information about the attacks. If you haven’t read them, be certain to get your hands on a copy.
WVIR reported this evening that a survey crew has discovered human remains in the woods near the intersection of 602 and 655 in Buckingham County. Local police are guarding the scene until dawn, when the investigation will resume. The body has not been identified, but there are several missing persons cases in Buckingham that this could be connected to. This is being treated as a homicide.
For the curious, George Loper has made available the results from last week’s Democratic nominating caucus for City Council. The votes from each of the four rounds [1, 2, 3, 4] make for interesting analysis, as has already been done by party co-chair Lloyd Snook and Democrat Rey Barry. Comments can be posted below, of course, or you can e-mail your thoughts to george@loper.org if you want them to appear on his site.
Over the course of the last two weeks, the same man has held up three different stores at Barracks Road Shopping Center. The man — a white male in his 20s, 6′ and 170lbs-220lbs — has held up Ben & Jerry’s, Lindt Chocolate Shop and Barnes & Noble, all while armed. Eric Swensen had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
Charlottesville activist Stratton Salidis has announced his bid for City Council as an independent. He is the fourth candidate in a field that includes Democrats Blake Caravati and Alexandria Searls, and Republican Rob Schilling. Salidis wrote in August that he believes that “the major issues during this race will be how we shape development in the area…and also how we help young people prepare themselves for being a positive force in society.” Salidis ran in the 2000 election, ultimately getting 2.1% of the vote. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.
The City is providing an interesting new service (at least, it’s new to me) — Internet-based City Assessor’s records of real estate assessments. It used to be that you had to go to the Assessor’s office and dig through a card file, or more recently use the computer in their office. The site contains records for every parcel of land in the city, listing ownership, deed transfers, value, improvements and specifics of the structure of each home. Even if you’re not an attorney, prospective home buyer, assessor or real estate agent, it’s still fun to find out how much your neighbor’s house is worth.
dirty-mall-bum writes: Dave Grant, bassist for The Guano Boys and The Freewill Savages (amongst many other bands) died in a tragic accident on Tuesday, March 5, 2002. I’m stricken beyond words, and the thoughts and wishes of the Cville music community go out to his family. Music lost a jewel on Tuesday.
writes: The Cavalier Daily reports that UVA is planning to build a large parking garage behind the Cavalier Inn to fill the temporary parking shortage created by the construction of a new basketball stadium. The garage would then [revert] to student and faculty parking. Neighborhood residents are objecting because of the increased traffic, etc. Construction is supposed to start summer 2002. Seems to me UVA keeps growing larger and larger, ruining Charlottesville’s small town feel.
18-year-old Danielle Patrice Carr has been charged with making a written bomb threat at UVa’s O-Hill dining hall. The threat resulted in the evacuation of the dining hall last Friday. WINA has the story. The threat is the third in the last three weeks (provided that WINA isn’t confusing this with the Cabell Hall threat on the same day) — the other two remain unsolved.
The Albemarle Supervisors have whittled down the list of 19 applicants for the Police Advisory Committee to the 4 people that will make up the committee, WINA reports. Selected members are attorney and former police officer Dana Slater, former school board hopeful Jewel Mason, former county supervisor Lloyd Wood and psychiatrist Dwight Colley. The four-person panel will have input on police policies, and review non-confidental data. The idea for the committee dates back to August, and the group was officially established by the county in early December.
For the fourth time in two weeks, UVa appears to have received a bomb threat. Just like last Friday, the threat this time was made against Cabell Hall. The building is closed off, wrapped in police tape. A police officer at the scene would only say that students that were to have exams in Cabell today should expect that they’re not going to happen; he would not confirm or deny that the cause of the shut-down was a bomb threat. Just yesterday, 18-year-old Danielle Carr — an O-Hill employee — was arrested and charged with making a similar threat against the dining hall. Today’s Cavalier Daily reports that she is not a suspect in the other threats.
Developers Colin Rolph and Lee Danielson, owners of D&R Development, are breaking up, WINA reports. The two are most well known for the creation of the downtown Ice Park, the Regal theatre and the 2nd Street crossing. The two had a rather public fight via the Daily Progress a few months ago, and it has led to a court-appointed attorney supervising the company’s break-up. Danielson has reportedly left town, and is now back in California. 10:01am Update: I just noticed that Jake Mooney has a big ol’ article about this in today’s Progress.
Ben writes: I’ve been told by the professor of a class I would’ve had an exam in today that there has been yet another bomb threat on New Cabell Hall. This is just getting ridiculous. Like previous bomb threats, this potentially means that classes in New Cabell as well as surrounding buildings (Old Cabell, possibly Rouss hall, but not Cocke, it seems) have been canceled. Someone really wanted their Spring break early.
A Keswick couple looking to create a winery is getting some heat from their neighbors. Albert and Cindy Schornberg want to build a boutique vineyard and winery on their 53 acres, making 120,000 bottles each year. But the idea hasn’t gone over so well — their neighbors are contesting the plan, and the ABC is holding a hearing next Friday. WINA has the story.
A student committee is attempting to convince the school board to permit the accused attackers, who were recently expelled from CHS, to reaccept them to CHS. They believe that the students would be better off at CHS than at the alternative education program, where they have been transferred to. WINA has the story.
Charlottesville’s Music Resource Center is soon to be homeless. The local non-profit has worked with about 500 kids each year to teach them music production, but their location in Trax has proved to be a problem: UVa is demolishing it this summer. In today’s Progress, Jake Mooney reports that UVa is working with the organization to help find them a new location.
Sunday night, a 25 people met at Mt. Zion Baptist Church to deal with the racial issues prompted by the recent attacks on UVa students. At the beginning of the meeting, the group voted to expel two members of white supremacy EURO, delcaring them to be a “highly racist organization that has no business in this meeting.” They also voted to refer to the victims as “survivors,” and decided to instruct city spokesman Maurice Jones to write an open letter to the “survivors” to express concern. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.
A state judge has struck down the Republicans’ 2001 state redistricting plan, declaring it to be unconstitutional. Judge Pattisall cited the southeast corner of the state in particular as being divided up on racial boundaries to provide the most voting strength to the smallest number of districts. The new districts, which then-Sen. Emily Couric (D) and Rep. Mitch Van Yahres weren’t shy about insulting, divided up Central Virginia in a highly-unusual fashion that left many wondering who their representative was. After Sen. Couric’s death, there was a special election in the 25th District, which Creigh Deeds (D) won by a landslide. This ruling raises the obvious question of whether that special election was even legal, and what geographic area that Sen. Deeds represents. The Washington Post has the story.
State budget shortfalls will likely force UVa and PVCC to increase their tuition rates, Eric Swensen reports in today’s Progress. It’s anticipated that they’ll have to raise their rates by 5%-9%. PVCC is pleased that their funding wasn’t cut by as much as it might have been — they’re likely to only have to raise the cost of a full-time education there by $50-$100 per semester to offset their roughly half-million dollar loss. UVa is having their funding cut by 15%-20%, for a total loss of $59M over the next two years. For all the gory details, just read the Progress article.
Last night’s public hearing on the Rt. 29 bypass project brought a tremendous crowd out to the Doubletree Hotel, where VDOT was holding the information session and hearing. As Peter Savodnik writes in today’s Progress, “the overwhelming consensus of the roughly 800 attendees at the Virginia Department of Transportation meeting was that building the four-lane, 6-mile bypass would be a mistake of Herculean proportions.” The purpose of the hearing was to get public input on the environmental impacts of the roadway. Concerns along those lines ranged from watershed destruction to destruction of farmland and forest, the loss of salamander habitats to contamination of the reservoir. VDOT will, theoretically, take all of the information provided by the attendees and use it to assist in making decisions about the future of the bypass.
The Virginia Discovery Museum, located on the east end of the Downtown Mall, is putting an antique carousel on the Mall. The restored miniature carousel (it’s just 9.5 feet wide and 8.5 feet tall) just needs to be approved by the Board of Architectural Review, and then the details must be worked out regarding leasing the rides. Says Peppy Linden, the museum’s executive director, “it is so charming and it is so pretty and it is so appropriate for the mall and the museum.” Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.
UVa has asked the Department of Environmental Quality for permission to burn more fuel at their power plant. Their plant, on JPA near the UVa Medical Center, operates without scrubbers to decrease sulfur dioxide emissions. They are exempt from air quality regulations because of their non-profit status. The University has considered moving to the clean-burning natural gas, but the $4M price tag has left them cold. Jake Mooney and Eric Swensen have the story in today’s Progress.
miss_tori writes: According to several music trades online, including R&R, the FCC is holding a hearing on the potential for diminished competition in Charlottesville’s radio market. The blurb states, “The commission says that Clear Channel’s long-pending acquisition of Air Virginia’s WUMX/Charlottesville, VA would reduce the number of ‘effective’ competitors in the market from three to two, and it plans to hold a hearing to resolve the matter. The hearing would be the first since 1969 to deal with market-concentration issues in a radio station sale. FCC Chairman Michael Powell notes that the top two owners in Charlottesville would have a combined 94.2% market share. ‘This level of concentration, in the absence of any countervailing considerations or public interest benefits, is simply too significant for us to conclude that the transaction is consistent with the public interest.’” Does Charlottesville’s listening audience care who owns which stations? Do they even know?
krues8dr writes: I just heard on 3WV that the yellow bike program will be launching today. They said something about a parade or something downtown, starting from City Hall, and that the public was invited to come down and join in the festivities.
It’s at the east end of the Downtown Mall, at 11:45…I think. Between krues8dr and I, there’s just enough information here to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. I’ll be there!
Last night, several city residents asked the Charlottesville School board to reconsider their January vote to transfer city preschoolers from the Jefferson School into smaller schools throughout the city. In particular, Kenneth Martin suggested that there be a one-year delay before transferring the kids. But the 4-3 split from the original vote remained, with only Muriel Wiggins, Olivia Boykin, and Julie Gronlund interested in a revote. WINA has the story.
A UVa law student is suing her professor, alleging that he assaulted her in class. Professor Kenneth Abraham was demonstrating simple assault to the class, and “tapped” Marta Sanchez on the shoulder. Sanchez now seeks $35,000 in damages from Abraham, alleging that the tap brought long-surpressed traumatic memories to the surface. “To expect I wouldn’t be bothered by this,” said Sanchez, “is to expect Holyfield not to be bothered by Tyson biting his ear.” Peter Savodnik has the story in today’s Progress.
Maryland skydiver Bob Kresge died at Louisa County airfield on Saturday. The reportedly-experienced skydiver’s parachute collapsed about 50 feet above the ground, while he was making a small turn. A representative from the sheriff’s office descirbed it as “a freak accident.” Austin Graham has the story in today’s Progress.
writes: On NPR’s Morning Edition yesterday, Adam Hochberg reported on a rash of assaults in Charlottesville, Virginia, by town teenagers on local university students. Some say the attacks are typical town-and-gown tension. Others say race plays into the situation, since the teens are black and the victims are white, Asian and Indian. You can listen to the story here (a RealAudio stream).
White supremacy group EURO (European-American Unity and Rights Organization) has requested transcripts of Dr. Rev. Alvin Edwards’ sermons from his Mt. Zion Baptist Church from last September until January. In a press release, the organization effectively accuses Edwards of causing the recent attacks on UVa students, saying: “Considering the position Reverend Edwards has taken on the assaults, and the political nature of many black churches today, we are very concerned why three young Black teens from his congregation would target Whites for attacks. If his sermons incited these Black teens to attack Whites we want to know it, and put a stop to it.”
The Department of Environmental Quality is looking into UVa’s power plant to determine if they’re violating the federal Clean Air Act or Virginia law. The investigation was prompted by UVa’s recent application for a permit to increase output. Jake Mooney has an extensive article in today’s Progress.
SNL Financial is moving from their Downtown Mall headquarters to the old National Ground Intelligence Center, just a few blocks away. The City has worked for the past year to attempt to locate a tenant for the 100,000 sq. ft. building since NGIC moved out in the county and the federal government gave the building to the City. The building requires about $6.5M in renovations, which SNL will pay for, though it’s proposed that $2.5M of that be funded by a seven-year loan from Charlottesville to the company. The 30-year lease is worth $14.8M, plus property taxes. City Manager Gary O’Connell says that he’s not concerned about the prospect of finding tenants for the 50,000 sq. ft. building that SNL currently occupies. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress, which is particularly worth reading because of the extensive details offered in the story.
writes: Yet another local casualty of the telecom downturn, Adelphia Business Solutions filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today: Adelphia Business Solutions Files Chapter 11 ABS owns significant fiber facilities in the greater Cville region and was one of the first competetive dialtone providers.
Can we get a show of hands? Who’s still in business?
Last night, a team of architects from Philadelphia’s Wallace Roberts & Todd unveiled their plan to give the east end of the Downtown Mall (and much of downtown) a new look and some new features. Council approved the design process back in December, and this is the result of that. The initial goal was to design a CTS bus transfer station, but the plan now includes a mall expansion, planing trees along West Main, dead-ending South Street and installing a parking garage under the amphitheater. Some people are unhappy with the plan, though, notably because it can’t possibly be accomplished with the $3M in federal grant money that has been allocated. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.
A Lynchburg man, along with some Charlottesville businessmen, have filed a petition with Albemarle County Judge Peatross, asking him to appoint a grand jury to investigate the delay of the construction of the Western Bypass. The story is from WINA.
The first of the teenagers charged with the January assaults on UVa students has been sentenced. Gordon Lathan Fields was not charged with committing a hate crime. Instead, he pled guilty to assault and battery by mob, and was given a 30-day jail sentence, 50 hours of community service and made to provide financial restitution to the victims. Fields claimed that he thought that his friend was being attacked, and was coming to her rescue. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman says that there’s no basis for charging any of the nine teenagers with hate crimes, despite that some of them confessed that they’d chosen their victims because they were white. Adrienne Schwisow has the story in today’s Progress.
writes: A new study has found all kinds of things in the paint pits at the Ivy Landfill that nobody knew were there, a Friday Progress story reports. It’s the first ever exhaustive study of the pits’ contents, and they found PCBs, DDT and all kinds of nasty things. Oh, and paint. They also concluded that the pits were the source of much of the pollution on the site and the surrounding properties, though they say the stuff hasn’t spread much since the pits were capped in the mid-1990s.
Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.
Happy birthday to us. cvillenews.com is one year old…as of Thursday. (Close enough.) In that year, there have been 489 stories, 2613 comments and 180 registered users, plus countless anonymous posters. This year has brought us notable stories like the investigation into UVa students for cheating; the UVa hospital’s firing of convicted felons; living wage protests; the coal tower killings, the standoff with suspect Craig Nordenson, and subsequent chase and capture of Nordenson; September 11th, the police beating of a suspect, the earthquake, the approval of power plant after power plant; the death of Emily Couric; the launch of the Internet free-speech chalkboard; the debut of The Hook; and most recently, the arrest of CHS students for attacking UVa students. I’d like to take this occasion to ask you: what is cvillenews.com doing right, and what is it doing wrong? Are the stories about the right things? Is it useful to you? Oh, and thanks, all. It’s been a good year.
The Fluvanna County Supervisors are considering yet another property tax, their third in three years. The 10% increase, say some supervisors, is necessary to compensate for the drastic reduction in state funding. The proposed 2003 budget will be presented on April 10th at 7pm at the Fluvanna County Courthouse. Austin Graham has the story in today’s Progress.
Albemarle County School Board member Gary Grant has, for the second time in as many years, publicly released a listing of teachers whose contracts are being non-renewed. He sent out the listing of 38 employees along with the reason for their non-renewal via his e-mail newsletter that he sends out to his constituents. When Grant did this last year, his fellow board members ended up passing a motion to scold him. His move isn’t much more popular this year: says board member Diantha McKeel, “I’ve had it with this kind of behavior.” Grant argues that it’s public information that is useful to the public. Kate Andrews has the story in today’s Progress.
Albemarle County Judge Peatross has denied the request by a Lynchburg man to have Route 29 North declare to be a public nuisance. The petition, filed by Robert Jordan, blames the Piedmont Environmental Council and the Southern Environmental Law Center for the delay in construction of the Western Bypass. Jordan intends to re-file his petition, though this time to a circuit judge in Lynchburg. The story is from today’s Progress.
An early-morning shooting has left one man dead and one man injured. The shooting occurred in the 10th and Page area. No information has been released about the victim or the cause of the killing. Police are asking anybody with a tip to call Crimestoppers at 977-4000. The story is from WVIR’s 11pm broadcast.
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