Tuesday, May 17
Protecting your good name
Democratic State Senator and Attorney General hopeful Creigh Deeds today proposed creating a 21st Century Crimes Division for Virginia that would focus on identity theft. According to the Deeds campaign, Virginia ranks seventh nationally in reported cases of identity theft, the three largest reporting areas being Northern Virginia, Hampton Roads and Richmond. The issue was also a hot topic for former Attorney General and current Republican gubernatorial candidate, Jerry Kilgore. According to the Federal Trade Commission, ID theft in Virginia increased 27 percent between 2003 and 2004 and nearly one in 10 Americans has been a victim of the crime.
Wednesday, May 18
Let them learn to drink in the streets like we did!
Parents who serve alcohol to their minor children—or who think it’s reasonable to teach them to handle booze under adult supervision—may have found themselves arguing with some of the judiciary when reading this morning’s headlines. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals yesterday upheld 2-1 a 27-month prison sentence for George and Elisa Robinson, the Earlysville parents who three years ago stocked their son’s 16th birthday party with alcohol for him and 30 of his friends and reportedly coached some of the kids on how to disguise their alcohol consumption. After the August 2002 incident, for which Albemarle County Common-wealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos had sought a 90-day sentence, Judge Dwight D. Johnson handed down a sentence of eight years jail time. The now-divorced couple had pleaded guilty to 16 counts of contributing to the delinquency of minors. Following additional legal wrangling, Judge Paul M. Peatross convicted them on nine delinquency counts and gave them 27-month sentences. Tuesday’s ruling stems from the Robinsons’ appeal that evidence was illegally obtained from their home. Yesterday, Jonathan T. Wren, lawyer for George Robinson, said he expects to file a petition asking the full appellate court to review the decision.
Thursday, May 19
Imagine the conversation at the pawnshop
Today The Daily Progress reported a string of burglaries that occurred earlier this week, including one in which a 55-gallon fish tank, a pair of sneakers and some change were stolen from a UVA student. In another case, the thief absconded with a pair of red panties, a white bra and “a coral-colored Jelly Fantasy sex toy,” according to the staff report.
Thirteen file for School Board
Applications for three open seats on the City School Board numbered 13 at the close of business today, with applications more than doubling in the final days leading to today’s deadline. Applicants include incumbent Peggy Van Yahres, as well as former mayor Alvin Edwards, who has been among organizers of recent “achievement gap” community forums. Failed City Council candidate Kenneth Jackson also applied, as has John J. Gaines III, a 41-year veteran of the city schools. Other applicants include perennial candidate Blair Hawkins, and Karen Waters, director of the Quality Community Council. Also applying: Louis M. Bograd, Jean S. Chase, Sue Lewis, Brynda Loving-Kotter, Joseph Mooney, Chad Everette-Thorne and David Randle. The League of Women Voters will sponsor a forum for applicants on Tuesday, May 31, at 7pm in City Council Chambers. Council must make appointments by June 30.
Friday, May 20
When guns are outlawed, only meddling Senators will have guns
Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is reviving legislation that would repeal Washing-ton, D.C.’s ban on handguns, which the Republican tells constituents “undermines the Constitution.” Last year a U.S. District Court judge ruled the ban was, in fact, constitutional in response to a lawsuit by the National Rifle Association. Lending his support to Bailey at a news conference, Virginia’s own Republican wannabe cowboy, Sen. George Allen is quoted in today’s Washington Post saying that D.C.’s ban has helped foster crime in the city: “We need to restore the rights of the people to protect themselves.”
Saturday, May 21
Give him piece and quiet
Construction workers had more than a Saturday shift to grouse about after Stewart Lewis Fuller pointed a .22-caliber rifle out his window at them at around 7am today. Seems the noise across the street from his home on Raymond Road just put him over the edge. No one was hurt in the incident, and Fuller was charged with brandishing a firearm and being a felon
in possession of a firearm, according to news reports.
Sunday, May 22
Lady Cavs lose lax title to Lady Cats
While other ’Hoos were busy bagging diplomas today, UVA’s women’s lacrosse team valiantly attempted to tame some Wildcats, but in the end Northwestern overwhelmed the defending champs to take the NCAA Finals 13-10. NU sports fans found even deeper meaning in the ’Cats 21-0 season. “Sunday afternoon was the day the sport of lacrosse officially crossed over, losing its status as an East Coast niche sport,” according to posting on nusports.com.
Monday, May 23
For whom the Bell tolls
Steve Koleszar, a member of the Albemarle County School Board, is scheduled to accept the Democratic nomination to challenge incumbent Rob Bell in his quest for a third two-year term representing the 58th District in Richmond. In announcing his bid on March 16, Koleszar said, “I believe that state government has certain core responsibilities that are not being met. They include transportation, K-12 education, and higher education. We live in an era of instant gratification. But I believe in fiscal responsibility and discipline instead of just hoping for the best.”
—Written by Cathy Harding from staff reports and news sources.
You can’t always get what you want
Stones fans brave the rain and Lady Luck for tickets
“Draw the damn ticket!” Shout-ing at the top of his lungs, North Downtown resident Chad Freckmann summed up the feelings of about 100 people waiting in line for Rolling Stones tickets outside UVA’s Scott Stadium on Friday, May 20.
“Shut up!” someone yelled back.
Nobody was ready to storm the gates, but as the rain fell and the clock ticked, people grew increasingly nervous about their ability to get tickets to Charlottesville’s biggest rock buzz since Dave Matthews Band played Scott Stadium in 2001.
Earlier this month, UVA announced that the Rolling Stones would hit Charlottesville on their next tour and play Scott Stadium on October 6. The long-running band’s age-defying tour currently includes more than 20 confirmed U.S. dates, with many more possible gigs around the world that are as yet unconfirmed.
Buying tickets to any major rock concert these days can be extremely frustrating as fans blitz phone lines, Internet sites and sales outlets. With the Stones standing as one of the most popular bands in the world (and with generations of fans no doubt wondering how much longer the 60-something rockers can continue to hit the road), the ticket rush has been especially frenzied.
On May 16, Stones tickets in Boston, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Miami, Charlotte, North Carolina and Calgary all sold out in a matter of hours. Locally, UVA employees were entitled to get advance tickets starting on May 17, while student sales started on May 19. Tickets for the general public went on sale at 10am on May 20. By the end of the day, all 50,000 tickets had been sold.
Robert Wade, a 67-year-old from Schuyler, said he’s been a Stones fan for 40 years: “I’ve seen Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Chuck Berry. I’ve always wanted to see [the Rolling Stones] but they never came this close before.”
UVA student Ryan Dougherty quipped that he and three of his fellow ’Hoos were “like, the youngest people here.” Standing in line with Dougherty, Colin Chiarodo said many of his friends at UVA already had tickets. “A lot of them are going to be trying to sell them later on,” he said.
Indeed, the demand for tickets seemed to bring forth people’s inner entrepreneurs.
UVA employee Stacey Trader was one of the folks who showed up at Scott Stadium’s west ticket booth to try her luck at the lottery. “They gave UVA employees a code to get advanced tickets, but mine didn’t work,” said Trader. A security guard on duty said some UVA employees started selling their codes on eBay, so the codes were cancelled—a rumor that could not be confirmed at press time.
To discourage people from camping outside the ticket window, SMG (the Philadelphia firm that booked the show) held a lottery. At 8:30am, the 100 or so fans assembled outside Scott Stadium—some huddled under umbrellas—were given numbered ticket stubs; one hour later, at 9:30am, an SMG worker drew ticket number 2278. It belonged to former Albemarle County School Board member Madison Cummings, who got the first shot at buying up to 12 tickets, ranging in price from $60 to $350.
“I’m a fan of music generally,” said Cummings. Like most people, he came with a cellphone, coordinating with friends and family who were ready to buy tickets online or over the phone. “My daughter in San Francisco was going to try for tickets, but I just called her and told her not to bother.”
Since they were now at the front of the line, everyone behind Madison (including Freckmann, who stood immediately behind him) rejoiced.
Reed Tolbert, who stood right in front of Madison, was forced to go to the very end of the line. He accepted his fate with equanimity, however. “The last time I won a lottery, I was 18. It was the draft,” he said. And back then, he was very pleased when he pulled a high number.—John Borgmeyer
Trying to resume course?
Confusion colors supe discussion, but Board makes some advances
How many School Board members does it take to screw in a light bulb? Seven. Two to deny they’d ever been alerted to the light bulb’s needy state. One to raise questions about how the new light bulb will interact with the community. One to ask which light bulb was it, again? One to remind the others of the light bulb’s original charter. One to nod appreciatively, and one to miss the light bulb discussion entirely, thus ensuring that it will be repeated, delaying further the light bulb-replacing operation.
Replacing a superintendent, of course, is more complicated than screwing in a new Sylvania. The School Board now faces that task after the resignation last month of Dr. Scottie Griffin who, in her 10-month tenure, antagonized the division’s principals and many parents with her poor communication skills and shallowly conceived vision to improve student performance.
Last Wednesday’s meeting of the City School Board left the unfortunate impression that the early stages of the search for a new superintendent—Charlottesville’s third search in four years—could be more than a little muddled. One case in point was the discussion that followed Vice-Chair Julie Gronlund’s introduction of the advisory commission appointed earlier in the week by Mayor David Brown. The first task of the advisory group, Gronlund said, will be “to identify qualities and qualifications we will seek [in a superintendent] and how best to interact with the community.” Saying that she would provide the nine advisors with documents from previous searches, she then recommended that the other five School Board members there (Chair Dede Smith was absent) scan the materials and opine on the qualities to be sought in a new supe. To which Byron Brown, who will leave the Board June 30, eventually replied, “What are we supposed to be doing right now?” Peggy Van Yahres, whose term also ends next month and who has applied for reappointment, raised questions about what the Board will expect early on from a new administrator. Brown wondered whether the “relationship of the School Board and the committee” had yet been established. It hadn’t. Van Yahres reiterated the charge given by the Mayor to the advisory group. Ned Michie, a School Board member, asked, does the commission have a date set yet to meet? It didn’t. After which, discussion was tabled.
If the manner in which the School Board discussed the search process was not exactly reassuring, there were also some positive—or at least actual—developments that came out of the unusually brief meeting. Responding to an online petition that has received more than 200 signatures since it was first posted on May 6, Michie and Gronlund said answers to the document’s dozen questions would be forthcoming in the next week. The questions concern Griffin’s hiring, allegations of secret Board meetings during her administration, im-proper procurements, the “buy-out” that was a condition of her resignation and more. (It’s online at www.petitionon line.com/TRUST1/petition.html.) Parents Paul Wagner and Karl Ackerman, who have been highly vocal in their criticisms of Griffin and the Board, expressed appreciation for the Board’s relatively swift move to address the petition’s concerns.
But again, the Board’s cohesion came into question when members Muriel Wiggins and Bill Igbani protested that they had not been aware of the petition until the May 18 meeting, though the document had been read into the record at the previous Board meeting on May 5. Once the meeting ended, Michie expressed surprise that Wiggins and Igbani were unfamiliar with the petition. “Maybe it went over their heads,” he said.
The Board also voted 6-0 to dissolve
the position of assistant superintendent
of instruction and one secretarial position. These jobs, along with the position of associate superintendent, were created at Griffin’s request last year. Gertrude Ivory relocated from New Orleans to become associate superintendent. She is now serving with longtime di-vision veteran Bobby Thompson to temporarily fill the superintendent’s role. Laura Purnell was hired from Ohio as assistant superintendent, and it was her job that the Board unanimously eliminated last week. When word first surfaced that the Board was considering the personnel change, there was speculation that the move would be in retaliation for a highly critical letter Purnell addressed to Griffin in February. The letter was leaked and widely circulated. But last week, the Board installed her as the director of comprehensive school improvement at a salary of $102,076, a decrease of about 5 percent from her current salary.
“I’m happy,” Purnell said after the meeting. “I’ve done a lot of good thinking and good work in the last couple of weeks to lead to [teachers’] professional development.”
Purnell confirmed publicly for the first time that she authored the letter in which she said to Griffin, in part, “the decisions that you are making and the behaviors that you exhibit as our Superintendent, are significant barriers to the success of our efforts to close the achievement gap and provide excellent educational experiences for all students.”
Though Purnell went on in the letter to say, “it is my intent to make public” concerns about Griffin, she told C-VILLE last week that the letter was “written to Dr. Griffin and shared with the Board.
“It was intended to be a private matter,” Purnell said.—Cathy Harding
Wheelers and dealers
Second traffic crossing proposed for the Downtown Mall
It’s a familiar scenario: You’re walking down Water Street and a car with out-of-state plates pulls up next to you.
The driver rolls down the window and asks, “Where’s the Mall?” as his passenger fumbles with a map.
The Mall has always been a tourist attraction that suffers, literally, from a lack of visibility. But the rash of construction at the east end of the Mall—specifically that surrounding the amphitheater and Mall extension project—has brought a whole new level of traffic confusion Downtown. And business people say they are feeling the pinch.
At the City Council meeting on Monday, May 16, Joan Fenton, co-chair of the Down-town Business Asso-ciation, attested to the financial squeeze. Suggesting how to alleviate the problem, Fenton presented to Council a petition signed by 117 Downtown business people (there are 77 DBA members according to the website) in support of a vehicular crossing at the Mall’s east end. The crossing, said Fenton, would bring more visibility and thus more activity to that segment of the Mall.
The proposed crossing would be the second for the Mall; a traffic crossing already exists on the other end at Second Street.
That crossing engendered fierce debate in 1994 when developers Lee Danielson and Colin Rolph were building the Regal Theater and the Charlottesville Ice Park. Danielson, in particular, pushed hard for the crossing. Many Charlottesvillians pushed back, arguing that a crossing would violate the integrity of the pedestrian mall.
Aspects of that argument are echoed in the nascent opposition to the current proposal.
“You put [a crossing] in at Fourth Street and you have chopped that Mall all to heck,” says David RePass, a member of the North Downtown Residents Association, who advocates instead for more signage. He also advances the idea of switching the current direction of the Second Street crossing to southward from northward.
Moreover, it cannot be proven that the commercial vitality at the west end of the mall is due to the traffic crossing. The bustling nature of the west end could perhaps be attributed equally to the businesses there, says Councilor Kevin Lynch, who was active in protesting the original crossing a decade ago. The crossing adjoins the movie theater, Mudhouse and several other restaurants.
Proponents of the east-end crossing suggest that it’s most aptly viewed as a replacement crossing, not a new one. Last November, east end crossings at Sixth and Seventh streets were closed for construction, although according to Lynch Seventh Street is slated to reopen in two to three months. Drivers now have to go all the way down to 10th Street or Ridge-McIntire if they want to cross from North Downtown to South Downtown.
“We should be in the business of making Downtown as convenient as possible, and we’re making it more difficult,” says Bob Stroh, general manager of the Charlottesville Parking Center Incorporated and Fenton’s co-chair on the DBA.
Stroh recalls trying to direct tourists from the filled-up Market Street parking garage to the Water Street garage. He watched them circle a couple of times in
an attempt to follow his directions, then give up.
The petition Fenton and Stroh submitted to Council lists two possible crossing points at either Fourth Street or Fifth Street.
Fourth Street connects through all the way to Garrett Street and, says Mary Joy Scala, a neighborhood planner with the City, while this would serve more people, it could potentially attract through-traffic at rush hour.
Fifth Street—which, as of December, is the site of a time-limited crossing for deliveries—allows for a greater expanse of pedestrian-only space, but is slated for southbound traffic only, says Lynch. This option would require greater changes to the current traffic pattern, making it the more expensive of the two proposals.
The Planning Commission will hear the proposals sometime in the next two months.—Nell Boeschenstein
“Crystal” visions
With the feds cracking down on meth, it’s getting harder to cop some Sudafed
When Democratic State Senator and Attorney General hopeful Creigh Deeds pledged earlier this month to lead the charge in cracking down on Virginia’s methamphetamine labs, his concern did not fall on deaf ears.
While Virginia’s meth problem may not compare to that in the heartland (Missouri registered 2,707 meth-related cases last year, according to federal statistics), Virginia is not without a meth problem. Statewide, according to the Drug Enforcement Agency, there were 73 meth-related incidents in 2004, compared to a lone case in 2000.
Moreover, as evidenced by the Mid-west’s experience, once meth takes root in a region, it mushrooms. The relative ease with which meth-amphetamine is cooked up in home or car labs, and the plethora of recipes available on the Internet contribute to its exponential escalation. Also known as L.A., crystal, crank, Tina, 64 glass or quartz, the drug sells on the street for anywhere from $20 to $300 per gram.
Virginia’s meth cases are clumped in the southwest part of the state and in the Shenandoah Valley (the DEA pins that fact on the areas’ influx of Hispanic immigrants). But remember Herman Stanley, that worthy-of-a-Darwin-Award criminal who set up a meth lab in the Marriott Hotel on W. Main Street two years ago? His stupidity heralded methamphetamine’s official arrival in Charlottesville.
According to Sergeant C.R. Smith of the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force (JADE), methamphetamine is “new to our area.”
“Five years ago it was unheard of,” Smith says, “but in the past year [in particular], we’ve seen a slight increase.” Still she says, the meth cases in Charlottesville-Albemarle numbered “under 10” in 2004.
As meth’s hold has spread eastward, politicians have responded, as Deeds’ announcement attests. He vows to require life sentences for drug dealers whose labs harm emergency response providers. Further, those convicted of manufacturing methamphetamines, he says, should forfeit their assets to the Victims of Meth Labs Trust Fund.
According to stats from the Deeds campaign, one in six meth labs explodes or catches fire and for every one pound of meth manufactured, five to six pounds of toxic waste are produced.
Deeds, says press secretary Peter Jackson, wants “to take care of [the meth problem] before it becomes a full-blown epidemic.” The senator’s proposal focuses on the back-end of the problem because the front-end is being addressed nationally.
Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Jim Talent (R-Colorado) are co-sponsoring the Combat Meth Act 2005. Meth cooks have been making their mugs known to local pharmacies by stealing, or buying in bulk, products that contain pseudoephedrine—an antihistamine found in many over-the-counter cough and flu medicines such as Sudafed and Claritin-D. Pseudoephedrine is also the primary ingredient in methamphetamines. The proposed federal legislation would require pharmacies to put pseudoephedrine products behind the pharmacy counter.
Many states already have laws regulating the sale of pseudoephedrine-based cough syrups. As a result, a number of pharmacy chains have implemented na-tionwide policies. CVS and Wal-Mart, for example (both of which have local branches), monitor the sale of pseudoephedrine through their cash registers. Customers are not allowed to purchase more than three boxes of Sudafed at one time.
This system does not, however, prohibit the possibility that meth cooks would visit a chain throughout the day and purchase small amounts of Sudafed from different cashiers. That’s why, at the end of June and in anticipation of the proposed federal legislation, Wal-Mart and CVS will put products containing pseudoephedrine behind the counter.
Local pharmacies aren’t as high tech. Both Leigh Ann Schiebel, a pharmacist with Timberlake’s, and Janet Chrismore, a pharmacist at Meadowbook Pharmacy, rely on the personal nature of their businesses to monitor pseudoephedrine purchase.
“Timberlake’s recognizes its customers,” says Schiebel. “That’s the advantage of just a few cashiers.”
Moreover, both also agree that they haven’t had a problem with pseudoephedrine products getting bought or stolen in bulk…yet. Just in case, Meadow-brook trains its cashiers to pay attention to anybody buying more than two boxes of a pseudoephedrine product and to question the customer if suspicion is aroused.
As a test, I paid Timberlake’s a visit, bringing seven boxes of Sudafed to the counter. While I was being rung up, pharmacist and Timberlake’s proprietor John Plantz emerged from behind his counter and asked, “Is this a test?”
Caught red-handed, I conceded my motive to which Plantz responded, “I need to talk to my employees about [the pseudoephedrine situation],” and he refused to sell me the Sudafed.—Nell Boeschenstein
Chapters and verse
Boutique poetry imprint Tupelo Press moves to town
“Author’s Prayer,” a prologue to Dancing In Odessa, a 2004 collection of poems by Ilya Kaminsky, is dizzying in the way it extols poetry’s promise and heft. Kaminsky, deaf since the age of 4, and a political exile now living in America, writes, “I will praise your madness, and/ in a language not mine, speak/ of music that wakes us, music/ in which we move.”
In their esteem and exuberance for poetry, these lines could speak for the book’s publisher, Tupelo Press, a 5-year old independent imprint with a growing list of accolades and an im-pressively prolific cat-alog that’s moving
to Charlottesville from Vermont.
“Our mission starting out was to discover wonderful emerging talent—emerging poets particularly, new voices,” says Jeffrey Levine, Tupelo Press’ founder and publisher. Describing a difficult environment for poets at commercial publishers and established literary presses, Levine says, “When you have someone who’s really an astounding talent, there’s virtually nowhere to go.”
Levine, a graduate of Warren Wilson College’s masters of fine arts program, had earlier careers as a symphonic clarinetist and a lawyer, during which time he determined “that what I really preferred to do was shut my door and write poetry.” Initially relying on a nest egg accumulated during Levine’s corporate years, Tupelo “hit the ground running” and published five books in the fall of 2001. Now the group has more than 25 books on its list and nine more slated for publication in the coming year.
Tupelo’s emphasis has been on poetry and new writers, and recently the press increased its Dorset Prize to $10,000, “making it the most lucrative purse for an unpublished book of poetry in this country,” according to press materials. But the imprint also publishes literary fiction and nonfiction, and will be putting out a work by established poet Floyd Skloot.
Immigrant Americans like Kaminsky, who, among other plaudits, recently won the $10,000 American Academy of Arts and Letters Metcalf Award for Dancing In Odessa, also comprise a significant component of Tupelo’s output. Still, it’s difficult to pigeonhole a Tupelo book.
“All the work is characterized by a very keen sensitivity to the language, to the possibilities within the language, to the music within the language,” Levine says. “I look for work that’s not like anything else, that doesn’t really remind one of anyone else, work that takes chances in one way or another.”
Tupelo’s second pillar, Levine says, is the unsparing approach to design that the press applies to its books, which feature high-quality paper, French flaps and matte-varnish covers. “It’s a very rich and honoring way to put poetry on the page, and that’s the whole concept the press has been about since the beginning,” says Susan Williamson, Tupelo’s associate publisher and the woman in charge of its Charlottesville transition.
Tupelo’s relationship with Charlottesville developed from its growing involvement with the Virginia Foundation of the Humanities and the organization’s Festival of the Book. Late last year, Tupelo announced that it had moved publicity, grant writing and author support operations to an office in the VFH building, which is located near the Boar’s Head Inn. Levine plans to complete the transition in a year or two.
“Charlottesville is kind of a magical place in a way for poetry,” says Williamson, who is also the chief editor of Streetlight Magazine, a Charlottesville literary and arts journal. “It’s a place where people really care about poetry more than you would find in many other communities.”
Tupelo has already begun to put down additional roots in Charlottesville, embarking on poetry workshops in area schools and prisons, with plans to expand such activities.
“Charlottesville’s a place that’s easy to love and seems willing to love this press,” says Levine. “It’s kind of a mutual adoption.”—Harry Terris