Month: November 2010

That Halsey Minor is busy with multiple lawsuits involving the Landmark Hotel on the Downtown Mall is a fact. But Minor is also busy strategizing about the next innovative sport: horse racing.

Minor also owes the City of Charlottesville upwards of $60,000 in property taxes. Regardless, according to a press release, Minor Racing, LLC, an organization controlled by Minor that includes other of Minor’s business endeavors, has offered to buy the racing assets of MI Development Inc. for $150 million to $170 million.

The offer includes several horse racing circuits like the Santa Ana Park and the Portland Meadows. An additional $150 million is offered for Florida’s horse racing assets.

“I have started several successful media and technology companies, and each time success came by tirelessly driving innovation,” said Minor in the release. “Modern horse racing is one of the least innovative sports. I believe by making significant digital advancements, horse racing can become one of the most innovative sports and capture the attention and imagination of a whole new generation.”

John Casey, who serves on the faculty of UVA’s creative writing program, released a new novel last month Compass Rose that grows the story he established in his National Book Award-winning 1989 novel Spartina. The New York Times’ Sunday Book Review weighed in yesterday, calling Compass Rose a "beautiful, elegaic new novel," and continuing: "It is useless and truly beside the point, in a book of such compacted sweep, to condense the plot." So I won’t try. By this point you’ve missed Casey’s local reading (late October at New Dominion), but we’d love to hear your thoughts if you’ve read it. Casey reads at the UVA Bookstore on November 17; see the comments below for details.

Tonight the Jefferson Theater hosts an event that would have pleased its namesake: the annual First Amendment Writes competition invites local poets and songwriters to present "the creative heights that can only be achieved when artists are free to express themselves on any theme, subject, or idea," sponsored by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression. Last year Carleigh Nesbitt took home the prize for her lovely song "Pull the Plow," which you can hear below. Nesbitt is a judge this year, alongside songwriter Andy Waldeck, poet Gregory Orr and other past winners.

"Pull the Plow," by Carleigh Nesbitt

UPDATE, 11AM:

Through a spokesperson, Bill Moses referred inquiries to Edward B. MacMahon, Jr., a Middleburg attorney who is representing Moses and Patricia Kluge in Farm Credit’s civil suit. “We’ll file an answer in the next 21 days,” MacMahon says, adding, “those allegations are ridiculous.”

While MacMahon acknowledges they transferred 7.18 acres into a trust for Kluge’s son, John W. Kluge, Jr., he says, “they have not fraudulently transferred anything. Farm Credit is not the only person in the world interested in that Albemarle County property.”

On the matter of unpaid property taxes, MacMahon says he “doesn’t know anything about that.”

Will Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard find a white knight before the auction scheduled for next month? “They’re trying everything they can to get strategic partners to keep the winery open,” MacMahon says. “The bank had promised that they would keep the winery open, and [Moses and Kluge] were surprised that they would instead do everything they could to shut down operations.”

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More troubles for Patricia Kluge and Bill Moses? A weekend report from NBC 29 puts Kluge and Moses at the top of the list of parties that owe Albemarle County unpaid property taxes. According to the TV station, Kluge and Moses are in arrears for $86,000. This news comes on top of earlier reports that Farm Credit of the Virginias has foreclosed on Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard. With a lien totaling $34.8 million, the bank plans to auction the property and related equipment on December 8. Additionally, the bank has filed a civil suit against Kluge and Moses alleging a fraudulent transfer of property to her son’s trust in the midst of loan-restructuring negotiations. Moses did not immediately return calls seeking comment on the claim of unpaid property taxes nor the civil suit. For more on Kluge’s recent financial troubles, click here.

Some two weeks after going into foreclosure, Sweely Estate Winery announced this morning that the auction of the Madison County winery, originally scheduled for November 18, has been canceled. Jeff Stein, vice president of auction house Tranzon Fox, confirmed that “the sale has been canceled pursuant to a negotiated agreement between owners and lenders. They’re in workout.”

Jess Sweely, proprietor of the winery, one of the area’s largest, told C-VILLE there will be “no change in operations.”  In a statement released last night, he said, he “regrets that the lender chose to advertise a foreclosure sale when they were at the end of finalizing their business terms going forward. Nevertheless, Mr. Sweely felt that it was inappropriate to comment prior to completing his negotiations with the lender.”

We’ve slowly been buttoning up our place for cold weather. Now that we’ve had a couple of real frosts, it feels like we were just in time.

In our cold frames, we have a nice little crop of Asian salad greens. But most of the rest of our winter crops (mache, claytonia, spinach, kale) didn’t germinate. So we planted again–this time in seed flats. They’re currently trying to catch up under grow lights in the house.

Turnips and radishes are doing great in another frame. When we built the frames, we used old pallets for some of them, and salvaged most of our glass from a window company in town.

Reluctant to let go of the peppers, I covered some with a sheet of plastic (along with bystander marigolds). That doesn’t work nearly as well as…

…digging them up and bringing them inside.

Our little fig tree, which we planted this spring, has made us proud with its summer growth. When it got really cold, we covered it each night with a tarp for frost protection. Then my husband called Edible Landscaping and found out that, being on the south side of the house, the fig is probably O.K. without any cover.

On a similar note, the chickens had been fitted out with a 100-watt bulb in their coop for a little extra nighttime warmth. But further research revealed that this isn’t necessary. If and when the temp gets into the teens, we’ll give them some straw, and they should be fine.

What are your winter preparations, and what do you find hardest to let go of when cold weather comes to your garden?

Once among the priciest real estate listings in the country, Albemarle House, the English-style mansion owned by Patricia Kluge and her husband Bill Moses, remains the costliest listing in Albemarle County even after a recent price reduction to $24 million. It was originally listed for $100 million, before dropping to $48 million earlier this year. C’ville Bubble Blog broke the story today.

Facing foreclosure of her winery and operations, as well as $86,000 in unpaid property taxes due to Albemarle County, Kluge and Moses are also subject to a civil suit filed on October 29 by Farm Credit of the Virginias, which holds the lien on their winery property and acreage. That suit alleges a fraudulent transfer of land while Kluge and Moses were in loan restructuring discussions with Farm Credit.

To read more about the pending auction of Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard and the unpaid taxes, click here. And here.

There are two things about the otherwise solid red Fifth District, which is about the size of New Jersey, that appeal to Democrats. It’s 23 percent African American and its biggest population center is the liberal bastion of Charlottesville. Still, only three Democrats have won the Fifth since it was redrawn in 2001. Read this week’s cover story, about Tom Perriello’s recent loss, right here. And don’t forget to leave comments.

It didn’t start off very pretty as Duke scored 21 points in the first quarter, but Virginia came back in the second stanza and the game stands Duke 24, Virginia 21.

Virginia ran a fake field goal in the second quarter as Robert Randolph ran it in for a 20 yard touchdown on a perfect trick play. Marc Verica has struggled early, and he threw a horrific interception within Virginia’s own 20 yard line, but he did get better as the game progressed. Verica hit Keith Payne on a 9 yard TD to bring it to 21-24 Duke at the half.

Both of Duke’s QB’s have played well so far for the Blue Devils. Starter Sean Renfree has a TD pass, and backup Brandon Connette has two rushing TD’s for Duke in the first -half.

Keith Payne leads the Hoos in rushing with 11 carries for 81 yards and a rushing touchdown. Dontrelle Inman has looked great for Virginia, and he has 5 catches for 105 yards.

Go Hoos. Please don’t lose to Duke three times in a row! Duke? Really? 

Duke (3-6), down one in the 4th quarter, converted a critical 3rd and 18, and went on to beat Virginia for the third straight time. If you like defense, then you might not want to read on. 41 points were scored in the 4th quarter alone.

Virginia (4-5) had a chance with 33 seconds remaining and 58 yards from the Duke end-zone to tie the ballgame up, but after several errant throws by Verica, and a costly false-start on Kris Burd, the Blue Devils walked off the field with the win.

If you only read the Virginia box score after the game, it certainly looked like the Hoos pounded Duke badly. Virginia gained 641 yards of total offense, with 416 of it coming through the air, and another 225 yards coming on the ground. Marc Verica threw for 416 yards on 24-46 (4TD’s) passing, but he also threw three bad interceptions, including a terrible second quarter INT at UVA’s own 20 yard line.

Penalties killed Virginia all day as they had 11 flags thrown their way for 103 yards. Duke won their first ACC game of the season in front of the smallest crowd I have ever seen at an ACC football game.

Duke’s quarterback tandem of Sean Renfree and Brandon Connette each played brilliantly for the Blue Devils. Renfree rushed for 23 yards on 10 carries and two scores, and he threw for 220 yards as he was 17-29 through the air. Connette rushed for 77 yards, also scored two TD’s on the ground, and he passed for another 40 yards as he completed his only pass.

Virginia’s Dontrelle Inman led all receivers with 238 yards on 10 catches and 1 TD and a 23.8 average. Keith Payne was UVA’s leading rusher as he had a 6.0 yard average, 2 TD’s and 120 yards on 20 carries.

UVA’s kicker scored a sweet 20 yard rushing touchdown on a fake field goal in the second quarter to make it 21-14 Duke, and the two teams seesawed back and forth all afternoon in a nearly 4 hour contest.

Virginia only punted once, Duke just twice. I’ve never seen a game in the modern era of Virginia football where the Hoos tackled so poorly, and had such a poorly orchestrated defensive game plan.

The Wahoos return home to face Maryland on Senior Day, Saturday at Scott Stadium at 3:30 p.m. Plenty of good seats will be available. Virginia must win their remaining three games if they are to go to a bowl game in London’s first season in Charlottesville.