Tuesday, April 27
General Assembly raises taxes
The Virginia House and Senate today agreed to a package of tax increases, more than six weeks after the March 13 scheduled conclusion of the General Assembly. Albemarle Del. Rob Bell, a Republican, voted against the plan, which will boost Virginia’s two-year, $60 billion budget by about $1.6 billion through increases in sales, cigarette and other taxes, and by capping car-tax reimbursements. After passing the tax increase, lawmakers began debating how to divvy up the pot, much of which was put aside for cities and counties to spend on schools.
Wednesday, April 28
Thug life, campus style
Aaron Joshua Robinson, a UVA engineering student, allegedly shot Jamaine Winborne, also a UVA student, in the leg early this morning. Winborne, a football player who had just signed a contract with the New York Giants, was apparently not seriously wounded in the incident. Robinson fled the scene of the attack and surrendered later in
the week. Just 10 days earlier, campus police nabbed a handgun-toting Robinson when they pulled him over for speeding. According to Reed Williams of The Daily Progress, Robinson had a permit, so UVA police let him keep the gun. Robinson’s bond was set at $12,500, and his next court date is May 27.
Thursday, April 29
Cruising to fight breast cancer
A fleet of 18 silver BMWs could be spotted cruising through the east side of Charlottesville today. Though the shiny armada may have looked like Euro cannonballers or a drug lord’s posse, it was actually a fundraising stunt for the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. For eight years, BMW has launched two convoys of beamers in a criss-crossing tour of the country. People are invited to test drive the cars at each stop. BMW then donates $1 to the Komen Foundation for every mile driven. The fundraiser has netted $7 million over the past seven years.
Friday, April 30
Schoolin’ the principals
A joint program of the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration and the Curry School of Education today announced that it is the recipient of a two-year State grant to teach 10 school principals how to turn around failing Virginia public schools. The program, part of Gov. Mark R. Warner’s “Education for a Lifetime Initiative,” will select 10 principals for training at Darden. Once schooled in the art of fixing public schools that need help, the principals will be assigned to assist 10 such schools during the 2004-05 school year. Tierney Fairchild, executive director of the Darden/ Curry Partnership, said the program seeks to combine business and education strategies to help “reverse the decline in low-performing schools.”
Saturday, May 1
Early morning shooting
A 26-year-old man was shot twice in the chest early this morning. The shooting occurred near the man’s home, on Swanson Drive, one block west of the Hydraulic Road-U.S. 29 intersection. Hours later, police arrested the alleged shooter, Dominick J. Turner. According to The Daily Progress, Turner, whose nickname is “Freaky,” has been charged with malicious wounding and the use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. The victim was in critical condition.
Sunday, May 2
Break-in alert
Local media today reported that Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy J. Longo has asked City residents to lock doors and windows and, in the case of a possible break-in, to not confront an intruder. The warning comes in the wake of a recent incident in which a young woman fought off an attacker described as a young black male. After the attack, which occurred near Stribling Avenue in the City, the man fled, leaving a plaid Adidas cap at the scene.
Lights out
After tonight’s thunderstorm, several hundred area residents may be without power. According to Dominion Virginia Power, the affected homes are in the vicinity of Charlottesville High School.
Monday, May 3
A new super?
The Charlottesville City School Board hopes to hire a new superintendent of schools before the end of the day. The Board and a consulting firm winnowed the field of 140 applicants from 38 different states down to two finalists, both of whom were interviewed on Friday. Four other candidates were eliminated from consideration last week. Contributing to the final decision and participating in interviews were several parents and representatives from City Council, the NAACP, the Charlottesville Education Association, a school principal and others.
—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports
The big wheezy
Could development contribute to pollen spikes?
The golden-hued dusting of Charlottesville, the annual spring gift from the region’s trees, is a major irritation for anyone with even a minor allergic sensitivity to pollen. A pollen count of 90 is considered high. On April 22, the tree pollen count in Charlottesville peaked at 2,293.
According to Thomas Ogren, a California-based expert, development and landscaping can contribute to pollen spikes. Ogren claims that because cities and developers often plant an overabundance of certain types of trees, such as pollen-producing oaks, a new subdivision can jack-up pollen counts. Additionally, Ogren says landscapers depend on male trees, which don’t produce seeds or fruit, but do have a penchant for spreading pollen.
But several local experts, though not discounting Ogren’s theories, think it’s unlikely that landscaping could substantially boost pollen production in this area.
“It’s definitely true that what gets planted can affect pollen counts,” says T’ai Roulston, a scientist and the associate director of UVA’s Blandy experimental farm.
However, Roulston says, “It depends on what people are planting and what they’re cutting down.” He says that in the Charlottesville area, landscapers would be hard-pressed to plant trees that were bigger pollen producers than any natural growth they might be replacing. In fact, the un-greening of Charlottesville could actually reduce pollen.
“There is already a ton of pollen in the air from what’s natural,” Roulston says.
Dr. Gretchen Beck of Blue Ridge Allergy & Asthma Inc. is Charlottesville’s pollen guru. Every few days, Beck collects a “rotorrod” from a tower atop the Sperry Marine Center on U.S. 29. She then takes the contraption back to her office and, using a microscope, counts the pollen it collects. Pollen counts are based on the number of pollen grains collected per cubic meter during a period of approximately 24 hours. Beck’s estimate is Charlottesville’s official pollen count.
“It was wall-to-wall tree pollens,” Beck says of her April 22 count. The main offenders that day were pine, maple and oak. By April 28, the tree pollen count had dropped to a still sky-high 1,463.
With this much pollen in the air, “if you are even mildly sensitive, you’re going to notice it,” Beck says.
Dave Rosene is an arborist with the Van Yahres Tree Company, which cares for but does not plant trees. He says he doubts local developments are contributing to pollen spikes.
“Even if you looked at one of our bigger developments…what they put in is either native or closely related to native,” Rosene says, citing the common practice of replacing Virginia pines with non-native white pines. In this case, both trees pump out a large amount of pollen.
Rosene says as long as there are trees in the Charlottesville area, there are likely to be pollen problems.
“If you want the benefits of trees, you’ve gotta put up with other things, and that’s pollen in the spring,” Rosene says.
Besides, as Beck says, not all of Charlottesville’s pollen is homegrown. From her collection perch above the tree line, Beck has collected sagebrush pollen, which is native to the parched plains of Oklahoma and other western states.
“Pollens definitely can travel hundreds, even thousands of miles,” Beck says.—Paul Fain
Station gestations
Change is in the airwaves with local TV scene
Don’t touch that dial! Channel 29, WVIR-TV, will have a fight on its hands this fall. And they’ll have to do it without one of their heavyweights. Unfortunately for WVIR, the station will take on two contenders without Dave Cupp, its longtime leader in the newsroom.
Cupp, who has been WVIR’s news director for more than 25 years, will leave the station “at some point in the fall,” he says.
During his tenure at NBC 29, Cupp has seen the news team increase from five people and one camera to more than 40 employees and three news trucks.
In a statement, Cupp says he’s leaving WVIR to join his wife, who is teaching at Harvard University.
“My primary focus in the time remaining to me at NBC 29 will be to help find and train the next news director and to help put new equipment and strong staffing in place to prepare Dateline 29 News for the exciting challenges of the future,” Cupp says.
One of those challenges will be from Channel 19, a CBS affiliate owned by Gray Television, Inc., which is slated to begin broadcasting in mid-August. Gray has recently filed permits for studio facilities in the Frank Ix building on Elliott Avenue and for a new antenna tower on Carter’s Mountain.
According to the Federal Communications Commission, Gray paid the Charlottesville Broadcasting Company $1 million for the Channel 19 license. The company promises “a full complement of daily local news broadcasts” for the new CBS affiliate. On May 11, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will hold a public hearing on Gray’s proposal for satellite dishes at the future studio in the Ix building. Also that day, County planners will hold a public hearing on the company’s plan to replace an antenna tower on Carter’s Mountain with a slightly shorter, 190-foot tower and antenna.
The other new player on the local TV scene, Bob Sigman and Denny King’s planned Channel 9, an independent community station, also plans a Downtown broadcast studio, which they say is in the works for the Market Street parking center on the Mall. Once fully operational, King estimates the two proposed television stations would create 60 to 75 new jobs.
The big question is whether the small Charlottesville media market of approximately 70,000 television households, which Nielsen Media Research ranks 186th in the nation, can support three TV stations.
If like-sized television markets are any indication, the two new stations may indeed find enough viewers to stay afloat. Meridian, Mississippi, which is just above Charlottesville in the rankings, has three local network affiliates, while Great Falls, Montana, which is slightly smaller than this market, has four.—Paul Fain
The art of cool
2Fly Designs gives local artists a big-time look
As any up-and-coming musician knows, you need more than just a tight band and a catchy set list to make your mark.
Unless you want club owners or record executives to flick your demo toward the circular file, your band needs a product—a good-looking press pack, a website with lots of flashy graphics or perhaps a CD-ROM that includes your latest video.
“I know what I like to look at, but I don’t know how to make it,” says Jamal Millner, a local jazz guru whose rapid-fire guitar lines have added a touch of shred to the likes of John D’earth and Corey Harris.
Millner’s got the flashy licks, but when he needed a flashy website and video for two upcoming albums, he turned to Scott Wilson’s company, 2Fly Designs.
Since Wilson founded the company in 2000, he’s been the designer of choice for many of Charlottesville’s local heroes, and for some bigger national acts as well. The company specializes in Web design, but the 32-year-old Wilson also works on videos, TV commercials, photography and graphic design for his clients, which range from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors to the shock-rappers Insane Clown Posse.
“If it’s interesting, or if it’s for a good cause, I’ll do it,” says Wilson.
His specialties are Flash, a Web format that allows viewers to see audio and video without a media player, and vectorized images, a technique for tweaking photographs.
“Even though he’s using computers, his artwork always looks very organic and original,” says Millner.
After arriving in Charlottesville from Breckenridge, Colorado, five years ago, Wilson met music promoter and Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw at the C&O Restaurant, which led to Wilson’s year and a half tenure at Capshaw’s merchandise company musictoday.com. In the fall of 2000, he started 2Fly, which now includes his partners, Tom Walker and Chris Wilmer.
“I’ve never had an investor, never took out a loan,” says Wilson, who puts in 12-hour days at his office in the Linen Building at the corner of Market Street and Meade Avenue. The funky industrial space, with its corrugated metal roof, exposed ductwork and Razor scooter leaning in the corner, looks like an Internet company from the boom days.
In some ways, Wilson’s company reflects the trickle-down economics of DMB. Some of Wilson’s A-list clients, like David Gray and the North Mississippi All Stars, are signed to Capshaw’s ATO Records. Wilson also designed a t-shirt commemorating DMB’s free benefit concert in Central Park last summer. One of Wilson’s newest clients is DJ Sasha, who recently signed to Capshaw’s Red Light Management.
“They throw me some bones,” Wilson says of his connections to the Capshavian empire.
Despite the big names in its portfolio, though, 2Fly’s success speaks to a sturdy local music scene, one that’s cool enough to inspire image-makers like Wilson, whose chief product is, after all, coolness.
“I like filming artists like [singer-songwriter] Devon or John D’earth,” says Wilson. “If I can take someone that has talent and elevate them a little bit, it elevates us all.”—John Borgmeyer
Passing of the paws
Batesville resident helps animals and their owners deal with death
Seeking help after the death of a loved one is a fairly regular occurrence. Many pick up the phone for comfort after losing a sister, brother, mother or aunt. But Batesville resident Rita Reynolds gets calls from those grieving different kinds of companions, ones with names like Fido, Rover or Tabby. At her farm, Howling Success, Reynolds cares for her own sick and dying animals, and also assists others going through the process.
“I receive many calls from people whose companions have just died and their grief is usually tremendous,” Reynolds says. “But people calling to ask whether or not they should euthanize an animal companion experience a greater agony just trying to make the decision.”
Reynolds, also a writer and publisher of the quarterly journal La Joie: The Journal of Appreciation of All Animals, says that death is not an end, but rather a transition to the next stage in the life of the animal’s spirit. Death, she believes, is also an essential part of the relationship we share with our companions. By assisting them in the transition from the “here” to “there,” we honor them. To be “present” physically, spiritually, emotionally and mentally during this transition is the greatest gift we can give them and also helps us to live to the fullest and richest extent possible.
Reynolds says it is important to “converse” with dying animals to find out their preferences—whether they wish to die on their own or die through the mercy of euthanasia. She offers three suggestions on how to go about this: “First, I tell the dying creature it is O.K. to die. ‘If you need to go,’ I say, ‘go ahead, I support your journey every step of the way.’”
Next, she asks the animal to show her how they would like to proceed—for instance, whether or not the pet would like veterinary assistance. Finally, Reynolds suggests entering a calm and peaceful mental state to wait for the answer.
She also offers some suggestions to ease a pet owner’s grief. Of her hundreds of experiences helping animals of all types—including mice, dogs, cats, cows, and donkeys—transition, she says, “When the death of an animal is complete, I often feel suddenly and desperately alone—it can be overwhelming—but relieved that the animal’s soul is free of pain. Now I can begin to mend my own pain of loss through ceremonies of grieving, burial of the body and establishing a memorial.”
Letting go of any guilt concerning the euthanasia decision, celebrating the animal’s new existence, completing goodbyes, finding a truly understanding person to talk with and creating a tribute—such as writing a farewell letter to the pet—all help relieve our grief and pain. Reynolds says the grieving process takes as long as it needs to take and that people should let grief itself out so that they are finally at peace with the transition that the pet has made.—Jane Morley
Pressing effect
Bush-bashing Mall vendor waves flag, t-shirts
Come November 2, Mac Schrader doesn’t want you to reelect Bush, or reject Bush. He wants you to “reeject” Bush, since, Schrader says, he didn’t win the election the first time.
“When I saw how the election went, it upset me,” says Schrader. “I had to do something.” That something has been a year-long stint on the Downtown Mall, weather permitting, promoting the single-minded notion of “reejecting” Bush in 2004—a slogan Schrader created that he hopes will “infect the nation.”
Nonargumentative, and supposedly nonpartisan, Schrader, a writer who helps run a nursing home part-time in Belgium, is not looking for controversy. “It’s not anything against the Republicans. They can be a part of this,” he says.
His beef with Bush? “I have so many reasons,” says Schrader. “Lying about going to war upset me the most.” Regardless of the reason, his message has struck a chord with some.
“From the very first day, I was very accepted by the community,” says Schrader, now in his third t-shirt printing; he’s sold about 500 so far. Governor Mark Warner took a “Reeject Bush” button. The entourage of the Mayor of Besancon, Charlottesville’s French sister city, gave him a thumbs-up on their recent visit. Allegedly, even Republican Congressman Virgil Goode tried to buy two buttons, but walked away miffed when Schrader wouldn’t give him a discount.
“If Bush is on TV, I turn him off,” says Rebecca Wood, a local who paused at Schrader’s table while walking her dog. She says she likes his literary approach.
Schrader has his detractors, too. He says one irate passerby told him, “Have you thought of something easier…like a Jewish fan club for Hitler?” Other Mall walkers don’t get his message immediately. “I can be perceived by some as a nice, young Bush supporter one moment and then a split second later I’ve become some kind of liberal-commie-terrorist.” And then there was the Marine who kicked over his table.
Schrader says the experience, his first foray into activism, has been educational. He keeps an Oxford Dictionary of Politics on hand for further edification, pointing out one of his favorite words, “hegemony,” a euphemism for empire frequently used by neoconservatives (as in “benevolent global hegemony”), but which the dictionary definition concludes is “a system with a built-in tendency to self-destruction.”
Another relevant word defined therein is fascism: “A rightwing nationalist ideology or movement with a totalitarian and hierarchical structure that is fundamentally opposed to democracy and liberalism.” Schrader shrugs, “Rich, corporate entities are setting the agenda.”
Schrader, too, has an agenda. Beside his wares stands a stack of voter registration forms. “Nothing is more rewarding than when an 18-year-old fills one in,” he says, smiling.
Schrader plans to continue selling his slogan until November 1. On November 2 he will serve as an election official.—Brian Wimer