On August 9th-ish, I’m moving from Charlottesville to Blacksburg, to attend Virginia Tech for a year and a half. Between being busy as a full-time student and being physically out of the area, I don’t think that I ought to be running cvillenews.com in that time. I just wouldn’t do a very good job of it, I don’t think. So, what should happen to the site in that time?
I figure there are a few options. The first is to shut it down. But that option sucks, and I won’t do it. The second is to try to run the site from afar and, if it works, keep doing it. The third is to switch the site to a less intensive format, perhaps more blog-based with simplified commenting. (Translation: Make the site something that I’d feel was less important to keep timely and relevant.) The fourth is to hand the reins over to somebody else in that time.
It’s that fourth option that’s probably best, I figure, but I’m certainly open to arguments to the contrary or suggestions of other solutions. If the fourth option, who should do it? How do I find or pick somebody?
What do y’all think?
Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos will not be filing criminal charges against former deputy Steve Shiflett, WINA reports. Shiflett, a deputy hired by Sheriff Edgar Robb, claimed in March that a black man had shot at him, unprovoked, hitting him in the torso and his patrol car. A suspect was detained, but released shortly thereafter. Sheriff Robb declared it to have been a “hate crime,” although he found himself defending Shiflett in early June after the deputy was accused of inventing the whole story. The police opened an investigation, Shiflett resigned, and Robb declared on Monday that he was “ready to put this behind us.” Camblos predictably agreed with Robb, so what happened will likely remain unknown. Results of the ballstics test and a polygraph of Shiflett by the Albemarle police have not been made available. 07/04 Update: Josh Barney and Elizabeth Nelson have a story in today’s Progress.
At Monday’s City Council meeting, Charlottesville Democratic Party chairman Lloyd Snook introduced a resolution to Council that had been passed by the Charlottesville Democrats at a recent meeting, opposing the USA PATRIOT Act, WINA reports. The Charlottesville Republicans and the Center for Peace and Justice have expressed similar opposition to the PATRIOT Act to Council. Now Council intends to take up the matter at their next meeting to determine if they should pass a city resolution. Back in February, Council passed a resolution opposing war in Iraq, which some decried as a partisan abuse of Council. Does the bipartisan support make this any different? Should Council be in the business of such things?
Full disclosure, not that anyone cares: I was among those that voted to pass that resolution at that Charlottesville Democrats meeting.
Albemarle County has launched a great new website, the first major overhaul that their website has seen in years. Their old site was clunky, difficult to navigate, and not particularly informative, whereas the new site is nicely laid out and packed with information. The site actually went up about a week ago, but I totally forgot to mention it here.
Having a hard time keeping track of all of the planned developments for 29 North? The Hook has put together a guide, giving the vital stats and stories behind Hollymead Town Center, North Pointe, and Albemarle Place. With 3,690,000 square feet of space between them, there’s a whole lot of traffic planned for 29. Not everybody’s down with the proposals, though — on Wednesday, a group of protesters held a “Voluntary Tax Collection Day,” seeking the $100,000,000 that will be necessary to widen 29 to 11 lanes to support the addition of Hollymead Town Center. Unfortunately, they fell well short of their goal. David Dadurka had the story in Thursday’s Progress.
Surprising nobody, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors approved rezoning of 24 acres on 29 by 5-1, permitting the creation of a substantial portion the 165 acre Hollymead Town Center shopping center. (The BOS will rule on two other parcels in August.) They did so after two hours of public comment, with plenty of speakers both in favor of and opposed to the big-box development. Ultimately, the supervisors agreed with Charles Martin, who said, simply, “I think a big box is OK.” David Dadurka has the story in today’s Progress.
Hundred of students will be arriving for school this fall without a place to live, Elizabeth Nelson reports in Sunday’s Progress. Eagle’s Landing and Camden Plaza, two new student apartment complexes, have been pre-renting apartments for months, with Eagles Landing telling prospective students on their website that if they decide to live there, “[their] life will be a million times easier.” The only problem is that, due to construction delays, the complexes won’t be finished until well after the students arrive. UVa doesn’t have nearly enough dorms to house the students, and it’s not clear if area hotels could handle them all. A consequence of UVa’s approach to housing students, or just an unfortunate situation?
At last night’s City Council meeting, Council passed the proposed anti-PATRIOT Act resolution, by 4-1, with slight modifications, after dozens of people spoke unanimously in support of the resolution. Despite the complete support from a broad cross-section of Charlottesville residents, lone Republican Councilor Rob Schilling refused to support the bill, telling opponents that they should contact their federal representatives instead. Elizabeth Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
Obligatory disclaimer: I spoke in support of the resolution.
Nelson County farmer Al Weed has started running against Congressman Virgil Goode for the 5th district congressional seat for the November 2004 election. Weed already has a pair of paid staffers, a couple of dozen volunteers, and a campaign office, almost a year and a half before the biennial election. If this race seems familiar, it’s because Vice Mayor Meredith Richards ran it just last year, losing to Goode with 36.5% of the vote. Richards leaves open the possibility that she may run against Weed for the Democratic nomination, saying that she intends to decide by Christmas. Bob Gibson has the story in today’s Progress.
Disclaimer: I’m heavily involved with Al Weed’s campaign. You know, in case it’s not totally obvious after reading the story.
The Courtyard by Marriott hotel on West Main was evacuated on Wednesday after police discovered a meth lab in a guest’s room in the hotel. They went there after being tipped off by somebody that was busted with a similar setup out in the Fluvanna woods on Tuesday night. 40 guests and staffers were made to leave the building during the clean-up; crystal meth is made of some fairly unpleasant stuff. Austin Graham had the story in Thursday’s Progress.
Just 16 months after it was announced, SNL Financial held the grand opening of their new headquarters, the old National Ground Intelligence Center building, on Thursday. The 270-employee company has signed a 33-year lease for the city-owned building, in addition to paying the $5MM to renovate the hulking structure. Employees will start to move the few blocks to the new building on Monday. SNL doesn’t yet know what they’ll do with their massive, soon-to-be-vacant building on the Downtown Mall. Courteney Stuart has the story in this week’s Hook, and Liz Nelson in Thursday’s Progress.
In today’s Daily Progress, Reed Williams has followed up on the case of the lying deputy, looking into Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos’ selective enforcement of laws against filing false police reports. Camblos says that ex-Deputy Stephen Shiflett hasn’t been charged because Shiflett hadn’t confessed. Reed Williams found that in there have been 17 incidents of false reports in the last 18 months, with charges being filed in 12 of them. Only 9 of those 12 charges involved confessions from the accused. Interestingly, there was enough evidence that Shiflett was lying for Sheriff Robb to apologize to the black community for Shiflett’s false accusation that that he was shot by a black man, and enough evidence for the county police to declare that Shiflett had lied, but not enough for Camblos to bring charges.
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