Tuesday, September 28
Serial rapist is black
As of today, local cops can stop scrutinizing Latinos or white men in their search for the serial rapist. (Police reportedly sought DNA samples from two Latino men as part of the DNA dragnet.) Confirmation that the serial rapist is indeed a black man came yesterday, when police released the results of a DNA analysis of crime scene evidence, which found that the culprit’s ancestry is 85 percent Sub-Saharan African, 12 percent European and 3 percent Native American. The low contribution of European and Native American genetic components “will not likely contribute to the appearance of the rapist,” police said in a press release. Also this week, police activated a 24-hour hotline—1-866-405-2519—for tips or other information about the sexual assaults.
Wednesday, September 29
Hurry up and wait
Richard Herskowitz, director of the Virginia Film Festival, today released the lineup for the four-day program, which runs October 28-31. Though the festival, with “Speed” for its theme, will examine “our accelerated culture of fast foods and quick cuts” it will also include the other extreme, featuring techniques used in the “cinema of contemplation,” and hosting a “slow food” brunch at Mas, the Belmont tapas joint. Perhaps the festival’s hottest ticket will be Loren James, cinema badass Steve McQueen’s body double for 23 years, who will discuss the unmatched hill-jumping car chase scene from the McQueen classic, Bullitt.
SNL buys news service
SNL Financial today announced its acquisition of Arlington-based Io Energy, which, in a press release, it calls the “second largest news provider” on the energy industry. The new holding will be part of SNL’s latest brand, SNL Energy.
Thursday, September 30
Living on $217 per week
The Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development (TJPED) today released a sobering analysis of the local job market. According to the report, while the total number of jobs has increased in the last five years, the new jobs pay 40 percent less than jobs that have been cut in the same time period. For example, the 3,100 manufacturing jobs lost since 1998 paid an average weekly wage of $660 while the 1,671 new jobs in the “retail trade sector” pay an average of only $371 per week. Even worse, the 1,217 jobs in accommodations and food service pay only $217 per week. In a press release, the TJPED warned that this growing gap between highest-income and lowest-income families “will only make housing less ‘affordable.’”
Friday, October 1
Workers assail charter plan
About 50 people rallied today at the Rotunda, speaking against UVA’s plan to emancipate itself from State control. UVA, along with Virginia Tech and William and Mary, are seeking “charter” status, freeing the schools from both State funding and oversight—a politically popular move in light of the General Assembly’s recent fiscal unreliability.
While charter status could eliminate red tape for UVA’s administration, the move could also change the rules for many of UVA’s workers. The Staff Union at UVA—which called the rally to coincide with a Board of Visitors meeting on Grounds—warns that workers could lose job security if the charter passes. Fueling suspicions that the charter may be unfriendly to workers, UVA officials have yet to release details about the proposal.
Saturday, October 2
Runners support Kerry race
About 200 Left-leaning runners and walkers took to The Park at UVA this morning for the Take Back America ’04-Miler. The gloomy early-morning weather might have been responsible for the middling turnout, but it didn’t stop big Dems like State Sen. Creigh Deeds, Fifth District Congressional candidate Al Weed and Governor Mark R. Warner from stumping at the post-run rally. Warner, bolstered by John Kerry’s strong performance at the first presidential debate and an upswing in Democratic interest in Southside Virginia cities like Danville, said, “Come November 2 the Democrats are going to win Virginia and win back the Fifth District.”
Sunday, October 3
Hi! Welcome to jail!
The normally publicity-shy Charlottesville- Albemarle Regional Jail held an “open house” today. About 30 people showed up to tour the jail and meet thenew superintendent, Ronald Matthews, who replaced the retired John Isom in June.
Matthews says he was hired to introduce new programs in the jail to teach inmates skills that could prevent recidivism. He plans to introduce 13 new programs, including courses in creative writing, nursing and the culinary arts. He also says jail staff will be able to take Spanish classes to help them communicate with what Matthews says is a growing number of Hispanic inmates.
Monday, October 4
Last-minute voters register
Wannabe voters took full advantage of the local registrar’s services on this, the final day to register to vote in next month’s election. By 10am, the City Registrar’s office, open already 90 minutes, had assisted 45 people. “We have just been hopping,” said Deputy Registrar Lori Krizek. Over at the comparable County office, Registrar Jackie Harris, said, “the phone started ringing off the hook” at about 7:15am. Many grassroots organizations have been energetic in rounding up new voters.
—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.
Party on
College Dems, Republicans ramp up to election
Ali Ahmad is psyched. It’s 8pm, and he’s ready to lead the people. “We need these little, surgical strikes into the heart of liberal academia,” he says. “Who’s up for this?” The people whoop and cheer.
The people are about 40 of UVA’s College Republicans. Ahmad, their 21-year-old president, is a senior economics major and a true conservative believer. Dressed in a rumpled t-shirt and flip-flops, Ahmad certainly doesn’t match the stereotype of the loafer-sporting, bow-tied Wahoo Republican (in fact, there’s nary a tassled loafer in sight at this meeting). But the wide-eyed, perpetually grinning Ahmad exudes what is perhaps the most intangible, most valuable quality for any would-be politico: buckets of boundless enthusiasm.
With the election four weeks away, both national parties have brought in the heavy firepower—attack ads, smears, dodges—the kind of tactics that make you wonder how Republicans and Democrats will ever manage to cooperate on the public’s business once the election is over.
At UVA, too, the competition is heating up. Both the College Republicans and a group called “Cavs ’04 Kerry” have both been going door-to-door on Grounds, trying to uncover Bush and Kerry supporters who might need an absentee ballot or want to join the group. Such canvassing is actually against the rules at UVA. But this is politics, baby. It’s winner take all, and only losers follow the rules.
Ahmad’s rival is Katie Cristol, the hyper-involved leader of Cavs ’04 Kerry. She’s also a columnist for The Cavalier Daily, a member of Chi Omega sorority, a “sustained dialogue moderator,” and a “sexual assault peer advocate.” And, grin for grin, Cristol’s enthusiasm is on par with Ahmad’s.
While acknowledging that negative campaigning can turn off voters in either party, both Cristol and Ahmad seem primed on the rush of competition.
“UVA is a competitive school,” Cristol says. “We want our football team to take names, we want to be at the top of our class and we want our presidential candidate to kick ass. My brother has fantasy football; I follow the Senate races.”
Aside from the unsanctioned canvassing, each group is organizing events and trips to push its candidate both on Grounds and in other states. On Sunday, September 26, Cavs ’04 Kerry held a concert and rally at the UVA amphitheater, and the group plans a trip to West Virginia to help with that state’s voter turnout efforts. Later this month, the College Republicans will be campaigning in Pennsylvania, which stands to be closely contested.
At a meeting on Wednesday, September 29, Ahmad asked for volunteers to roam the streets of Charlottesville with him on the night of November 1, saying that he heard “Left-wing nutzos” are planning to tear down Bush campaign materials. “We can get some fireworks or BB guns,” Ahmad says.
(If any vandalism happens, it won’t be the handiwork of Cavs ’04 Kerry, says Cristol. “I think we have better things to do,” she says.)
Until then, Ahmad outlines the night’s plan—College Republicans will fan out to some of UVA’s dorms, knocking on doors, unearthing potential Bush voters and helping them acquire absentee ballots. Ahmad’s group, which includes senior Doug Webber and a reporter, starts knocking on doors at Courtenay, a dorm on Alderman Road.
If you listen to Ahmad, you’d think UVA is swimming in liberals; listening to Cristol, you get the impression she feels besieged by conservatives. On the all-male first floor of Courtenay,at least, it’s about even. Nearly everyone identifies himself as “moderate,” and out of about 16 students the Republicans talk to, the split is even between Bush and Kerry supporters.
Finally, a student takes exception to the canvassing and asks the Republicans to leave. “Cavs ’04 Kerry is doing it,” says Ahmad.
“That doesn’t make it right,” replies the ticked off ‘Hoo.
Ahmad grins and reaches to shake his hand, but the complainer heads back to his room. “Hey,” says Ahmad, leaving with a wave, “that’s what separates us from the terrorists.”—John Borgmeyer
Patent pending
Mothers and fathers of invention gather monthly
It’s been about 10 years since Christopher de Janasz’s nephew dunked a $50 clicker for a garage-door opener into a container of juicer, getting de Janasz thinking about a simpler, tidier means to indoor vehicle storage. In southern California at the time, working at a family piston-ring manufacturing business, de Janasz hit upon the idea of embedding a remote device in the high-beam switch, and enlisted a pair of engineers to build a prototype. Soon, he had a licensing agreement with Stanley Door Systems, then a division of Stanley Works. But at about the same time that business unit was sold to another company, and de Janasz’s deal got shredded among all the moving parts in the transition.
Relocating to central Virginia in 1998 with his wife, an academic who’d gotten a job at James Madison University, de Janasz dedicated himself full-time to getting his invention off the ground. But after six months or so developing a business plan and struggling for financing in the awkward space somewhere between small business loans of a few thousand dollars and the voluptuous world of venture capital funding—and facing pressure from a spouse losing her patience—de Janasz made a retreat from the world of the self-employed and got a regular job.
It was around this time that de Janasz came across the Blue Ridge Inventors Club. “One time somebody there jokingly called it ‘group therapy,’” he says now. “That’s kind of what I use it for.”
The Inventors Club was founded in 1995 by longtime friends Richard Britton, a physicist and the holder of several patents, and Mac Woodward, a former teacher and inventor who traces his interest in the field to his uncle, who served as commissioner of patents under Franklin Roosevelt. Woodward and Britton, who are in the process of handing off responsibility for the club to a younger generation, are currently at work to bring to market a solution that dissolves hypodermic needles as an environmentally safe alternative for the disposal of medical waste.
Acting club president Linda Uihlein, the proprietor of Em Paks, a recently launched seller of emergency-preparedness kits, says the basic mission of the organization is “to encourage and help independent inventors bring their products to the world.” Meeting on the third Wednesday of each month, the club offers like-minded members the opportunity to confabulate, share and vet ideas and projects (protected by a confidentiality statement signed at the beginning of each session), and seek advice and resources from a group with a diverse set of experiences and areas of expertise.
Members in particular point to Woodward as a knowledgeable and well-connected authority on the invention process, including gaining patents and seeking financing and partnerships with manufacturers and marketing organizations.
Meetings have lately been held at Woodward’s residence, with four to eight members typically attending, according to Uihlein. On a recent Wednesday, the proceedings were primarily made up of a roundtable presentation of members’ ongoing projects. Elbert Dale, retired from the Air Force, said he’d made initial patent filings for a collar fitting designed to protect Husqvarna weed eaters from clogging with grass, about which he intends to approach the Swedish manufacturer. Mark Wilson, a designer, gave an account of his ergonomic tableware venture. Dubbed “Curvware,” the line is a radical departure from traditional utensil forms and aims at bio-mechanically friendly function, calling upon “gross motor movements” from users as opposed to “fine motor movements.” Gerry Sackett, a builder for 35 years, demonstrated his “self-storing component brace,” a metal brace that attaches to beams before they are put in place as trusses, rafters or joists, and effortlessly pivots to secure them in the structure, simplifying construction in awkward, high places, for instance.
After a year at regular work, de Janasz returned to his garage-door transmitter with some savings, and was serendipitously approached by Harley Davidson, which was developing a similar aftermarket application for its motorcycles. Harley Davidson now licenses his patent for the high-beam switch. Currently selling automobile devices (which he has manufactured in China) under his “Flash2Pass” brand through the Internet and specialty catalogs, and seeking shelf space at major retailers, de Janasz still describes his company as “tiny, in the struggling, start-up mode.” But after a decade of perseverance, de Janasz has finally achieved firm footing and is optimistic about his prospects. Next up: an entree to the gated community market with a pilot program at the Glenmore development.—Harry Terris
Back waters
Council spares big developer on water quality
Last week, City Council decided to cut developers some slack regarding a new water quality ordinance Council passed on September 20.
The ordinance protects Meadow Creek, Moore’s Creek and the Rivanna River by requiring developers to maintain 100-foot buffers between their projects and the waterways. If construction must affect the river, developers must make up for it by improving a stream somewhere else—a process called “mitigation.”
The ordinance had been in the works for months, and according to the City’s Nieghborhood Development Services, 37 site plans were submitted just before Council voted on the ordinance.
When Councilors passed the ordinance last month by a vote of 4-1, they decided that the new rules should take effect immediately. This meant that the ordinance would affect about 13 projects that had already been submitted to NDS. Councilor Rob Schilling said that was unfair, and voted against the ordinance.
Last week, Mayor David Brown, seemingly subject to buyer’s remorse, called a special meeting on Monday, September 27, and urged Council to change its mind. “I was feeling uneasy with the fairness to people who entered the planning process under a set of assumptions,” says Brown.
Councilors Blake Caravati and Schilling agreed, and with a 3-2 vote Council concluded that the new water ordinance would not apply to site plans already submitted to NDS. Councilors Kevin Lynch and Kendra Hamilton stuck to their original view that the ordinance should take effect immediately.
The flip-flop was no doubt spurred in large part by a site plan submitted on September 17 by the Cox Company, which aims to put a “big box” store and parking lot at the northwest corner of Hydraulic Road and the 250 Bypass (currently occupied by Dominion Virginia Power). The site plan puts Meadow Creek, which flows through the southwest corner of the 15-acre project, in a culvert beneath a parking lot.
No tenant has been announced for the site—which still must be approved by the City and the State Department of Environmental Quality.
Courting developers to the Dominion site has been a City priority for some time, says Lynch. But he says he felt “ill served” by NDS staff.
“They let the plan in under the wire,” says Lynch. “They knew we were working on this ordinance, and they didn’t raise the issue with councilors, and didn’t hold the developer to a higher standard.”
NDS Director Jim Tolbert says the Cox Company didn’t get any special treatment. “I understand the frustration,” says Tolbert. “But until we get a plan in, we don’t talk about it publicly.”—John Borgmeyer