Tuesday, December 25
Former UVA coach’s team beats Maryland
Ten years after being fired as UVA’s men’s basketball coach, Jeff Jones is celebrated in a John Feinstein column in today’s Washington Post. On December 22, Jones’ current team—American University—traveled the short distance from their home in northwest Washington, D.C. to Maryland’s Comcast Center, where they beat the Gary Williams-coached Terrapins by the score of 67-59. "Realistically, Jones’ last chance to take a team into Maryland and win went by the wayside the day he left Virginia," writes Feinstein. "But there he was, being congratulated by Williams after his kids played with all sorts of poise down the stretch."
 Getting into UVA is getting harder for out-of-state applicants. |
Wednesday, December 26
UVA still a long shot, and getting longer
Even though UVA recently went out touring with Harvard and Princeton in an effort to open its doors to more low-income high school students, a story in today’s Norfolk Examiner says UVA is becoming more and more of a long shot for out-of-state, public-school applicants. "The University of Virginia, a school considered notoriously difficult to get into from out of state, is among those schools becoming more and more unreachable," writes Courtney Mabeus in the Examiner story. "In 2006, the school offered 107 students out of 319 public school applicants a spot in that year’s freshman class." Of those 107 students, 33 enrolled. This year, 378 public schoolers applied to UVA, and 105 were accepted. Thirty-one enrolled, down two from last year.
Thursday, December 27
 Benazir Bhutto’s local visits revealed her strong character and drive for peace and understanding, bloggers say. |
Search for missing PVCC graduate continues
Authorities resumed their search today along the Des Plaines River in Illinois for a missing woman who graduated from Piedmont Virginia Community College, reports the Chicago Tribune. Anu Solanki, 24, has not been heard from since Monday afternoon when she left her workplace in the Chicago area. Solanki came to the U.S. from India about 10 years ago with her family, who stayed with relatives in New Jersey for two years before moving to Charlottesville, where much of her family still lives. After graduating from high school, Solanki received an associate’s degree in biotechnology from PVCC. On Monday, Solanki had planned to place a broken idol of the Hindu god Ganesh in the river, family members and friends told the Tribune. "Everyone’s sad right now. They’re praying," said her cousin Alkesh Patel. "You have to play that waiting game."
Friday, December 28
Local bloggers remember Bhutto
The assassination of former Pakastani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has evoked strong reactions across the world, including on a couple of local websites. Charlottesville-based political blogger Rick Sincere recalls meeting Bhutto in a Fairfax townhouse and calls her "one of the most authentic political leaders I have ever met." The Charlottesville Podcasting Network responded to Bhutto’s death with a recording of her 2002 speech at Roanoke College, a year after September 11. "The world is a very different place than what we had dreamed of when the Berlin Wall fell and the Cold War ended," Bhutto said at the beginning of her speech. "The era of peace for which we prayed became a time of war." She then discussed the difficult times that Pakistan and the Middle East faced and emphasized that the 2001 terrorist attacks did not represent the majority of the Muslim world.