Author: c-ville-weekly-writers

Tuesday, November 23
Poetry site gets NEA nod

Senator George Allen’s office announces today that Poetry Daily, a locally produced poetry website (www.poems.com), has been granted $7,000 from the National Endowment for the Arts. The grant marks the second dollop of NEA money this year for the site, a 7-year-old project of Don Selby and Diane Boller. The poem-a-day site, with an annual budget of about $75,000, now averages more than 1 million page views per month, says Selby. “When the NEA recognizes you, it is a nice vote of confidence,” Selby tells C-VILLE. Coincidentally, the poem posted today on the site is a Minnie Bruce Pratt work titled “Opening the Mail.”

 

Wednesday, November 24
New $24M bank proposed

The classified section of The Daily Progress today contains notice that eight investors, including four local high rollers, have amended the application they submitted earlier this month with federal banking authorities to create Southern National Bank. Local organizers of the proposed new bank, to be initially capitalized at $24.1 million, include Thomas P. Baker, Michael A. Gaffney, Charles A. Kabbash and Donna W. Richards. Baker is president of Southern Commerce Bancorp Inc. Gaffney is a homebuilder and new chairman of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority. Kabbash is a Downtown real estate developer. Richards is former COO of Guaranty Financial Bank, which was acquired by Union Bankshares in May.

 

Thursday, November 25
Gobblers get out early

Nearly 1,100 runners earned that extra piece of pie this morning by hitting the steep course laid out around the Boar’s Head Inn for the 23rd annual Turkey Trot 5K race to benefit the UVA Children’s Hospital. Winner Lewis Martin IV, a 19-year-old who finished the course in 16:50, led a pack of 1,092 runners and earned a turkey for his efforts. Last year he finished sixth overall with a time of 17:53. The top woman in the race, 38-year-old Beth Cottone, finished with a time of 20:12, 12 seconds ahead of her 2003 time, and also went home one turkey richer.

 

Friday, November 26
Florida cops arrest accused wife-killer

The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office, working on a tip from Charlottesville Police, today picked up Anthony Dale Crawford, the Manassas man who is wanted on four charges in connection with the death of his estranged wife, Sarah Louise Crawford. Charges include murder, abduction, auto theft and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony. Sarah Crawford’s body was discovered Monday morning at Quality Inn on Emmet Street. She had been shot in the chest. According to The Washington Post, six days before her body was discovered, Sarah Crawford had unsuccessfully appealed to a Prince William County judge to extend the temporary protective order she had out against her husband of five years. Quoting from Sarah Crawford’s affidavit, the Post reports that last month when she tried to move out of their apartment, Anthony Crawford told her he “understands why husbands kill their wives.” These are not the first allegations of spousal abuse against Crawford. In 1992 he was acquitted of sexually assaulting his then-wife in South Carolina, despite videotaped evidence of him penetrating the hog-tied woman whose mouth was covered with duct tape.

 

Saturday, November 27
Hundreds mourn Marine

Trinity Presbyterian Church was filled to overflowing this afternoon as nearly 900 family members, friends, fraternity brothers, Covenant School classmates, fellow Marines and congregants gathered to mourn Bradley Thomas Arms, the 20-year-old Charlottesville reservist who was killed November 19 in Fallujah, Iraq. Remembered as an obedient and religious young man who nonetheless had a mischievous streak, Cpl. Arms was honored with a service lasting nearly two hours and a Marine honor guard. One fraternity brother from the University of Georgia commended Arms’ parents, Betty and Bob Arms, for “raising a man of integrity.”

 

Sunday, November 28
Hoos win and lose in football

Falling 24-10 to Virginia Tech after the Hokies’ breakaway fourth quarter yesterday in Blacksburg, the Cavaliers today wake up to no chance of playing in a major post-season bowl game and the stark realization that the ACC’s two newest teams—both imports from the Big East—will contend for the conference championship. The Cavs finish their ACC season at 5-3. Meanwhile, after a dramatic win over New Mexico that stretched through eight rounds of penalty kicks last night, UVA’s men’s soccer team, advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals, prepares to face Duke on Saturday.

 

Monday, November 29
Real estate taxes down to the wire

City homeowners have exactly one week until unpaid real estate taxes go into the penalty phase. The City Treasurer’s Office sent out the 13,111 bills on October 18, but most have yet to be sent in, according to City Communications Director Maurice Jones. Many residents—and mortgage companies—wait until the final week, he says.

– Written by Cathy Harding from news sources and staff reports.

 

Dem yankees
New arrivals wrench Albemarle from the GOP

During the recent election season, Albemarle Republican chairman Keith Drake spent a lot of time hanging out with fellow GOP chairs around Virginia.

 “They say ‘Hey, Keith, you’ve got it made up there in Albemarle,’” says Drake. “But it’s not true. Albemarle’s been in a slow slide to the Left.”

 Albemarle went Democrat this year, picking John Kerry over George Bush, 22,069 votes to 21,180; county residents also voted for Democrat Al Weed over incumbent Republican Virgil Goode for the 5th District seat in the House of Representatives. The recent election refutes Albemarle’s reputation as a Republican stronghold.

 “That’s just not an accurate characterization anymore,” says Drake.

 To illustrate the county’s Left turn, Drake points to the 2000 Senate race. Albemarle voted for Democrat Chuck Robb over Republican George Allen, 52 percent to 48 percent. Back in 1993, however, Albemarle supported Allen for governor by a 60 to 40 margin. “That’s huge,” Drake says.

 Drake says Albemarle’s population has been changed over the past decade by UVA’s expansion and the county’s growing popularity as a retirement destination.

 “University growth attracts a liberal element,” says Drake. Social science and humanities professors, at least, tend to lean Democratic. As reported by the Cavailer Daily, a recent study by Daniel Klein, at Santa Clara University, and Charlotta Stern, at the Stokholm University, found that Democrats outnumber Republicans in the social sciences and humanities by a 7 to 1 margin. The study is at http://lsb.scu.edu/~dklein/.

 “And Charlottesville is a great place to live, and specifically to retire to. They run out of gas on their way to Florida, they put down stakes in Albemarle and they bring their values from the northeast,” Drake adds.

 Fred Hudson, chair of the Albemarle Democratic party, says the chance to vote against Bush drew many county Dems from the woodwork, especially from neighborhoods around the urban ring, like Georgetown, which supported Kerry 1,128 to 621. Republicans won by a similar proportion in Stone Robinson.

 “The shift has been pretty even throughout,” says Hudson. “There’s no holes. That bodes well for the future of successful Democratic candidates in the county.”

 Hudson isn’t dropping any names, but he promises the party will field candidates for next fall’s Board of Supervisors and school board elections. He also promises there will be a challenge to Republican incumbent Rob Bell for the 58th seat in the House of Delegates.

 Bell, who went unchallenged in 2003, says he’s not sweating Albemarle’s shift from red to blue.

 “I’ve always made an effort to listen to people in my district, whether they support me or not,” Bell says via e-mail.

 The numbers give him reason to chill. Bell’s district, which includes parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna, Green and Orange, went 58 percent for Bush; even voters in Bell’s chunk of Albemarle went 53 percent for Bush.

Albemarle voters overall may not support Bush, but they still support Republicans. In 2003, county voters resoundingly elected two incumbent Republicans—Jim Camblos and Ed Robb—to the offices of Commonwealth’s Attorney and County Sheriff, respectively.

 That year the county also elected two Republicans, David Wyant and Ken Boyd, to the Board of Supervisors, “for the first time in anyone’s memory,” says Drake. In his bid for supervisor, Wyant even met a challenger for the Republican nomination: Linda McRaven fought him for the party nod in White Hall. When she lost, she jumped into the school board race, narrowly losing an at-large seat to Democrat Brian Wheeler.

 Next year brings more big elections, with many state and local seats up for grabs: governor, lieutenant governor, four House of Delegate seats, two Virginia Senate seats, three board of supervisor seats and three school board seats will all be decided on November 8, 2005.

 The GOP’s dominance of local seats is probably evidence that county Republicans are still better organized than Democrats, whose base remains the city of Charlottesville. In the county, the lower voter turnout that typically characterizes local elections will still play to the Republicans’ advantage.

 “The further down the ballot you go, fewer people vote for that position,” says Drake. “Those voters are better informed, more active and more partisan.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Buddy system
Virginia colleges unite behind UVA charter idea

More Virginia colleges are jumping on the charter bandwagon.   When three of Virginia’s largest universities—UVA, The College of William and Mary, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute—started hyping their plans to loosen their ties to State government, smaller colleges around the Commonwealth started getting nervous. Now, they’re joining the bigger schools in calling for charters of their own.

 “Not all schools are equal in size and issues and resources,” says Glenn DuBois, chancellor of Virginia’s community college system. “But there are provisions of charter that we all deem desirable, like getting our management control away from Richmond and into our board rooms, with our CEOs.

 “It’s accurate to say all of the colleges would welcome that,” says DuBois. He also chairs the council of Virginia college presidents, which has been discussing how charter could work for all Virginia colleges, not just the three flagship schools.

 Since UVA, Virginia Tech and William and Mary started banging the charter drum last year, some have worried how the move would affect Virginia’s other colleges. Chronic state underfunding is a problem for all university presidents, says DuBois. If the state’s big schools went further out on their own (they are already decentralized to some extent), smaller schools worried the General Assembly would cut higher education funds even further.

 Another problem all the schools share, says DuBois, is irritation over the State’s red tape. Whenever a Virginia college wants to adjust tuition or even lease a building, it needs permission from Richmond. A broad charter for all Virginia schools could loosen those rules.

 “We’re a half-billion dollar agency,” says Alan Merten, president of George Mason University. “When we want to lease a new building, it doesn’t make any sense that we have to get someone in Richmond to approve it. We have to give our chief financial officers a way to do their job without running back and forth to Richmond.”

 So far, Virginia college presidents have agreed that more freedom from state oversight would be good, says DuBois, as long as that freedom doesn’t mean further funding cuts from the General Assembly.

 “The charter discussion should not interfere with the discussion of base adequacy resources,” says Eugene Trani, president of Virginia Commonwealth University. “There seems to be general agreement for flexibility plus additional support.”

 The idea of a wide-ranging charter has not progressed beyond the basic agreement that flexibility and money are good things. But the charter issue, which a few weeks ago looked as if it could drive a wedge between Virginia’s large and small colleges, now seems to be bringing the schools together in a call for a better relationship with

the State.

 “You’re going to see higher education united as the legislative session begins,” says Trani. “If we’re united, it may be easier.”

—John Borgmeyer

 

How To: Power shop Searching for an alternative to spending yet another weekend slogging through same-thing stores to find Christmas presents? Try power shopping instead.  No, it’s not about flexing the most muscle with your credit card. That would be show-off shopping. It’s about being able to clean and press a decision: “That seems right for Susie Q. I’ll get that. Next!”  Power shopping entails a commitment to being satisfied after one look through one store. It means you have to be willing to put yourself—and the preservation of your good will—first.  For beginners, here are a few pointers: Set a time limit. Thirty minutes per gift-recipient is good. If you absolutely must linger in a store aimlessly, blend it with rigorous decision-making by buying presents for more than one person. If you spot the first present within 10 minutes, you can wander through the aisles and finger every sweater for an additional 40 minutes before hitting your cut-off for making the next gift choice.  Keep perspective. You’re buying a gift, not another chance at life. It’s a gesture, not a material substitute for all the feelings you should be expressing year-round. Spot something nice, figure out if it’s within your price range, and then just buy the thing. No looking back.  Finally, stay motivated. See those sweaty, weary people picking something up, putting it back, picking up something else, and then putting that back? See the look of quiet despair in their eyes that practically begs for January to get here already? With power shopping, that doesn’t have to be you. Just set your mind to it.   Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.

Between a Rock House and a hard place
Legal Aid to restore historic site on Preston

Sometime in 1926, perhaps after many wagonloads of rock had been transported to Preston Avenue from the Rivanna River, and nine years after he had purchased three adjacent lots from a prominent African-American landowner, Charles B. Holt, a furniture repairman, used a makeshift stylus to mark his property with his signature. Seventy-eight years later, Holt’s script can still be discerned at the cement base of the stairs leading up to what’s known as the Rock House at 1010 Preston Ave.

 Long abandoned, the bungalow sits directly across from Washington Park, the city’s first blacks-only park which, it just so happens, also opened in 1926. Holt’s ID is one of the few aspects of the stone and mortar Arts and Crafts-style house that remain intact. Largely hidden behind bamboo stands that speak as loudly of neglect these days as the substantial structure

once boasted of black achievement during Charlottesville’s Jim Crow era, the house is a study in decay and disrepair.

 But if lawyers and volunteers at the Legal Aid Justice Center have their way, C.B. Holt’s Rock House will be lifted from obscurity and restored to a shape worthy of its history. Legal Aid owns the property, which adjoins its new site at the corner of Preston, 10th Street and Grady Avenue, and next week will commence the soft kick-off of a $225,000 fundraising effort to rehab the Rock House.

 Alex Gulotta, executive director of Legal Aid, says the rehabbed structure could house some of Legal Aid’s education programs or be leased to other nonprofit groups, much as sections of the former Bruton’s beauty supply building that Legal Aid occupies next door are rented to nonprofit groups such as the Public Housing Association of Residents.

 “We felt we’re part of a neighborhood that is in danger of losing its African-American historical connections,” says Kimberly Emery, a Legal Aid board member and the assistant dean for pro bono and public interest at UVA’s law school. Gulotta and others credit Emery with getting the Rock House restoration project rolling. “There’s encroachment in that area from UVA and commercial pressures. It’s been a community for a long time and now Legal Aid is part of the community. We want to be good neighbors and preserve the pieces that are there, including our house.

 “There’s probably some financially smarter options in the short term,” Emery adds, “but in the long term, this is the way we want to go because of the wonderful history of this house. It fits in with our mission—putting us all together in a house built and lived in by people who worked their way up.”

 Impressive as C.B. Holt’s legacy is, the historical significance of the Rock House doesn’t end there. One of his descendants, Asalie Minor Preston, who lived in the house from 1950 until 1973, endowed the Minor Preston Educational Fund, a scholarship fund that has awarded college money to financially needy students from local public high schools for the past 22 years. As if the philosophical links among the Rock House, a pioneering black landowner (C.B. Holt), a pioneering black educator (Asalie Minor Preston), and a pioneering social justice organization (Legal Aid) weren’t tight enough, coincidence comes into play, too. Longtime Minor Preston board member Mary Ann Elwood also sits on Legal Aid’s advisory board. Yet Elwood only learned about the Minor Preston-Rock House connection in the past year.

 “I was delighted,” she says. “I didn’t have any idea that Asalie lived there.”

Margaret Dunn is the sleuth who assembled the parts in the Rock House story. Dunn has been volunteering with Legal Aid for about seven years, and had a big role in the $2.5 million fundraising drive that got the law organization into the Bruton building a couple of years ago. Leroy Bruton, eponymous beauty supplier, had purchased the Rock House in 1978 to use mostly as a storage space and off-street parking option. The house conveyed with the much-larger building when Legal Aid made its purchase in 2002.

 “I knew eventually we would need the space,” says Emery. “Margaret needed a new project, and I asked her to investigate. As we learned more about the house, Margaret and I just fell in love with it for its own sake.”

 Indeed, as she takes a reporter and photographer on a Sunday morning tour of the house, Dunn points out with affection the details that are apparent despite the sagging floorboards and virtual carpets of paint chips. The three-paned transoms above each of the many doorways on the house’s main level, which allow natural light to pass throughout the rooms. The claw-footed bathtub on the upper floor. The raised mortar between rocks on the building’s façade. The tiny crawl spaces in the upstairs bedrooms. The basement kitchen with its cabinet-ensconced sink and adjoining coal room.

 The archival search has clearly engaged her as much as the building itself does, too. “It’s one of the best experiences I’ve ever had,” Dunn says, and it has taken her through deed books and other historical records, to the office of architectural historian Daniel Bluestone, and into little-known graveyards, as well as introducing her to the Rock House’s only living survivor, Tracie Fortune Tyler. Tyler lived there with Asalie Preston and her husband Leroy Preston in the 1950s when she was a child, and she held the deed jointly with Asalie until the house was sold. The historical quest, Dunn says “is like the house itself—you go layer by layer. Previously, I

knew very little to nothing about Charlottesville’s African-American history in the Jim Crow years.

 “I had no idea how enthused I’d get,” she adds.

 At this stage, Dunn is trying to get the Rock House listed on the City’s register of historic places. If she succeeds, the effect will be two-fold, she says. It will qualify the Rock House for the small pool of City grants available only to historically listed properties. Second, “when it’s listed, it’s very helpful to fundraising,” she says. “Otherwise people say, ‘Where’s the authentication?’”

 Dunn and her Legal Aid cohort will present the case for the house at a luncheon on December 7 when the $225,000 fundraising drive kicks off.

 For Tracie Fortune Tyler, whether the fundraiser succeeds, the process that has restored the Rock House to public attention has been overwhelming. “When Margaret called me and wanted to talk about it, I was flabbergasted,” she says. “It’s interesting to know that someone out there wants to preserve it. It touches me.”

 And for Daniel Bluestone, the UVA architectural historian who is documenting Preston Avenue’s African-American roots and who steered some of Dunn’s research, the latest turn of events for the Rock House is somehow fitting.

 “The house in some ways helps you keep your eye on the ball. There is something about being able to work against the grain of the entrenched inequity of the society that Legal Aid is trying to help,” he says. “It’s clear that C.B. Holt being able to build that house on that site at the time he did involved a fair amount of struggle and striving and all the rest.

 “That’s what I find compelling.”

—Cathy Harding

Tuesday, November 16
Giving voice to the beakless

While the drive-through window remained busy, a pair of young activists from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals appeared outside the Emmet Street KFC this noon, dangling rubber chickens and holding signs that read “KFC tortures chickens” and “Boycott KFC.” Activist Kat Erdel wore a flat-screen television playing a message from “Golden Girl” Bea Arthur denouncing KFC’s animal abuse. The other activist, Ben Goldsmith, who said Charlottesville is the first stop on an 18-city PETA tour to encourage boycotts of KFC, further alleged that KFC suppliers cram thousands of chickens into small sheds and de-feather living birds by dipping them in scalding water. “We want people to know that KFC has done nothing to stop these cruelties,” he said.

 

Wednesday, November 17
UVA charter linked to improved economy

Speaking to more than 100 UVA employees and faculty in UVA’s new Special Collections Library, President John T. Casteen III again laid out the University’s case for increased autonomy from the State. The charter campaign, which is joined by William & Mary and Virginia Tech, will go to the General Assembly in January. Casteen was highly critical of the State’s decade-long economic abandonment of UVA and argued that increased autonomy would permit the school to better fund the kind of research that eventually leads to high-tech jobs. Speaking to C-VILLE, Casteen said: “When you have the kind of economic disaster that the Southside is going through now, for instance, if you’re an educator, especially at this place, and you don’t tell people what’s going on, then you have another kind of problem.”

 

Thursday, November 18
Road lovers will have to wait

Convening at the Omni Hotel for two days of pre-session budget brainstorming, the State Senate’s Finance Committee heard that this year’s budget surplus, projected to be near $1 billion, could be mostly accounted for by the time the legislative session begins January 12. Although Governor Mark R. Warner cites long under-funded VDOT projects as a priority, Senate budget guru John H. Chichester does not support using general funds for transportation, according to The Washington Post. It seems unlikely that in an election year there will be enthusiasm for raising the gas tax either, another proposed means of funding road projects.

 

Friday, November 19
Another school bus accident

For the second time in one month, an Earlysville Road vehicular mishap sent worried parents rushing from work to an accident scene and some children to the hospital to have minor injuries checked out. Shortly after 4:20 this afternoon, a stopped school bus was rear-ended by Earlysville resident Arthur Pearson, who was driving an SUV. Last month, near the scene of today’s accident, a bus driver ran into a ditch, causing the school bus to overturn. There were no serious injuries reported from either accident.

 

 

Saturday, November 20
City’s third killing

Shortly after 2am, Matthew Ray Nelepa was shot by an unknown assailant near the intersection of 7 1/2 and Elm streets in Fifeville. He died later at UVA Medical Center. Police ask anyone with information into the shooting to call Crimestoppers at 977-4000.

 

City School Board head apologizes

Addressing the Democrats’ monthly breakfast meeting, City School Board Chair Dede Smith recapped the tensions that have beset the division during the past four months. She stressed that federal education sanctions, combined with an urgent sense that closing the city’s achievement gap “is the right thing to do,” had prompted the board and new superintendent Scottie Griffin to move quickly to introduce new learning assessments and a reading program to schools, as well as to hire an outside auditor to evaluate the system. “The community reaction has been tough but good,” Smith said. “I wish we would have had more time. I apologize for that, but we didn’t.”

 

Sunday, November 21
Miracles abound at UVA

With yesterday’s 30-10 defeat of Georgia Tech—the Cavs’ first win at Bobby Dodd Stadium since 1994—UVA, today ranked No. 16 in the ESPN poll, now stands within punting distance of a prestigious post-season bowl game. And in U-Hall, the men’s basketball team surprised everyone with a 78-60 victory this afternoon over No. 10 Arizona.

 

Monday, November 22
Iraq takes first city casualty

The family of Marine Cpl. Bradley Thomas Arms, a graduate of the Covenant School, mourns today after the U.S. Marine Corps confirmed he was killed on Friday in Al Anbar Province, Iraq. The 20-year-old reservist, who fell to small arms fire, will be honored at Trinity Presbyterian Church once his body is flown home, said his mother, Betty Arms. Brad, who went on three mission trips with that church, will be further remembered by an eponymous scholarship fund through the Abundant Life Ministry for students at Blue Ridge Commons, his father, Bob Arms said. The family also urges donations to Ambassadors for Christ International. “We know Brad’s heart is in that kind of outreach,” Betty said.

 

—Written by Cathy Harding from local news sources and staff reports.

 

 

 

Gay rights get a hearing
Council tells state conservatives to check themselves

Back off, Christian Right. That was the message City Councilors heard last week, as they considered a resolution protesting the Commonwealth’s ban on same-sex civil unions. It was the second time in two weeks that people descended on local government meetings, venting frustrations over the growing role of religious conservatives in every level of politics.

 On November 9, pro-choice advocates crowded the Albemarle County Board of Zoning Appeals to support a Planned Parenthood clinic on Hydraulic Road. On November 15, Council considered a resolution calling on the General Assembly to repeal H.B. 751, which is known as the “Affirmation of Marriage Act” and became law in July.

 Crafted by conservative Catholic Delegate Bob Marshall (R-Manassas), H.B. 751 voids any partnership between members of the same sex that would “bestow the privileges or obligations of marriage.” Opponents of the law say it is unfair and unconstitutional. Charlottesville City Councilor Blake Caravati says he proposed the resolution opposing H.B. 751 after constituents contacted him, asking Council to take a stand against the controversial ban. Council passed the resolution 4 to 1, with Rob Schilling dissenting.

 During the public hearing, Anne Coughlin, a UVA law professor, said the constitutionality of the act is questionable, and predicted it would mire the Commonwealth in lawsuits. Others said the law could prevent gay couples from executing wills or making medical decisions for their partners.

 “This law puts our family at risk,” said Claire Kaplan, an activist with the gay rights group UVA Pride.

 Others condemned the act as government intrusion into private life.

 “Every Virginian has the right to decide where their money goes or who can make medical decisions for them,” said Bekah Saxon, a city teacher. “Keep government small.”

 A few critics showed up, too. Harold Bare, pastor at the Covenant Church of God, criticized the language of Council’s resolution. One paragraph, for example, said H.B. 751 “does not reflect the needs and attitudes of an enlightened and educated people.”

 Bare said Council had attacked “the integrity of all those people who might oppose this resolution.” Seeing Bare’s point, Caravati struck the offending language from the resolution.

 In voting against it, Schilling said he worries “this Council overestimates its own importance, and in doing so undermines its own credibility.”

 Local Republican officials, who in the past opposed Council resolutions against the USA PATRIOT Act and the Iraq war, did not comment on this ordinance, though they were present at the meeting. Perhaps people like city party chair Bob Hodous recognize that casting their lot with religious conservatives might not play as well in Charlottesville as it does in other parts of Virginia.

 

 

Totally crossed out

Also on Monday, Jeff Rossman asked Council to reprimand Schilling for “using his office to suspend the First Amendment rights of our children.”

 Earlier this month, Schilling says, he received a phone call from a parent at Venable School, complaining that a political display in the school library included only information about Democrats, and that a picture of the President hanging in the hallway had a line drawn through it.

 So Schilling went to Venable, snapped some pictures and sent them to the school board. “Where I’m from, in L.A., gangs use red X’s to indicate they’re going to kill somebody,” says Schilling.

 Rossman claims Schilling demanded the picture of Bush be taken down; Schilling says Rossman is wrong about that: “My point was that I wanted the school board to consider the symbolism.”

 Bobby Thompson, the City’s assistant superintendent for school administration, says he heard similar complaints about Venable. Upon investigation, Thompson said Venable tried to get Republican material for their library display, but the party didn’t provide any.

 Thompson also ordered the crossed-out Bush picture be taken down, that is until he discovered that it was part of a second-grade art collage. “It was a student work, and not disruptive,” Thompson says.

 The whole controversy, he says, was “a misunderstanding that got out of control.”—John Borgmeyer

 

 

Burden of proof
Sharon Jones’ identity thief still haunts her

The average identity theft victim spends about 600 hours dealing with cascading hassles resulting from the crime. For identity theft victim Sharon Jones, 600 hours is chump change.

 Jones, a 41-year-old teacher at Walker Elementary School and resident of the10th and Page neighborhood, first learned that someone was running up bills in her name in January 1999. A customer service rep from Geico Insurance who shared the name Sharon Jones had lifted Jones’ identity from the company’s list of customers. The thief, who lived in Fredericksburg, eventually left Jones with $30,000 in unpaid bills.

 Jones spent years fighting the resulting court notices and false charges and trying to fix her damaged credit. Her struggle with the system seemed to be turning around in 2003, when she met with Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who highlighted her case as part of his aggressive campaign to fight identity theft. C-VILLE Weekly published a cover story about Jones’ plight in February, and, subsequently, Jones appeared in an interview that ran on CNN and other news outlets around the country.

 Now that Jones’ case has been in the spotlight, would creditors start leaving her alone? Would her identity thief finally be brought to justice?

 Not a chance.

 In fact, bills from her identity thief continue to find their way to Jones. She was off work during a recent week to recuperate from knee surgery, and spent much of the time dealing with the newly surfaced credit woes.

 Jones’ identity thief blew through the new charges, which total about $3,000, during her glory days in Fredericksburg about four years ago. Jones first caught a whiff of these bills in July, when her application for a car loan got snagged on an overextended credit rating. Jones was able to convince the dealership that the bad credit rating was not her fault because the dealership’s finance manager was a former student of hers. Having to plead that she is not a debtor or a criminal is nothing new for Jones.

 “I have to prove myself over and over and over again,” Jones says. “I feel like a gerbil in a little wheel in a cage.”

 With the help of an identity-theft savvy state police officer and a lot of luck, the criminal Sharon Jones was actually arrested once, back in September 2000. She was nabbed in Mississippi after using Sharon Jones’ identity at the scene of a car accident. But by the time the case went to a grand jury, the arresting officer had been called up to active duty in the Air Force Reserves and was serving in the Middle East. Jones was never called to testify against her identity thief, and without the police officer on hand, the jury threw out the case.

 “There should be some kind of justice,” Jones says, adding that her criminal half is likely still free and “doing what she wants to do.”

 Jones has had no better luck in trying to hold Geico accountable for the crime, claiming that an attorney told her that the case wasn’t worth pursuing because her out-of-pocket legal expenses would be too great.

 “If I had money, I don’t think I’d be in this kind of predicament,” Jones says.

 Spurred by her continuing credit problems, Jones recently contacted the Fredericksburg Commonwealth’s Attorney’s office in an attempt to secure further criminal charges against her identity thief. Though she has had no luck there either, she says she intends to visit the office in-person in coming days to “make them see that I’m a real person and that I want them to do something.”—Paul Fain

 

 

HOW TO: Avoid getting the flu With flu shots hard to come by this year, your risk of contracting the virus is high. Luckily, C-VILLE has some medically sanctioned ideas for avoiding the flu.  Your mother has probably pounded the basic precautions into your head since preschool: “Wash your hands with soap!” “Drink plenty of fluids!” and “Cover your mouth when you sneeze!” Mom got it mostly right, except for that last one. Why would you want a handful of microscopic germs and mucus particles? When you feel the urge to sneeze coming on, grab a tissue or at least turn your head away from people nearby and expectorate into your shoulder.  The basic notion to keep in mind is that flu prevention needn’t be a drag. A 1989 German study found that people who steamed in a sauna twice a week got sick half as often as those who didn’t. Some alternative health professionals also suggest that practicing relaxation for 30 minutes a day increases the number of flu-fighting interleukins in the bloodstream. And while you’re relaxing, savor a cup of low-fat yogurt with beneficial bacteria that stimulate the immune system.   Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.

 

 

Women’s work
Local feminist journal mixes art and politics

In an interview in the current issue of the biannual women’s journal Iris, author and activist Jewelle Gomez says her interest in playwriting emanates from the possibility for live performance to be “confrontational in a good way.” Finding a common thread between the poetry readings of the feminist movement in the ’70s and ’80s and the collaborative facets of theater, she continues, “I think that is one of the things that feminism is trying to do, to get people to accept being part of a women’s community in which everyone is connected.”

 The Iris release party on Wednesday night, November 17, at the Gravity Lounge, celebrating the publication’s 49th edition, might be viewed as a part of that lineage. A change from its traditional venue at The Prism, the larger event is a part of an effort by new editor Gina Welch to broaden the journal’s reach and drew on a renewed sense of urgency engendered by the Republican sweep in November.

 The issue’s theme—“Shattering the Myths”—was chosen before the national media crystallized “faith-based” as a descriptor for presidential decision-making processes, and Iris’ articles don’t address campaign issues head-on. But Welch, writing in her editor’s letter, casts the issue’s mission of candid discourse squarely in the fight against the Rove-ian narrative and the “complacency…that sustains myths.”

 Introducing three readings from the magazine and performances by New York singer-songwriter Sam Shaber, former Denali frontwoman Maura Davis and on-and-off locally based Lauren Hoffman, Welch said, “This issue comes out as a lot of things are turning against us. Hopefully this will be a coming together of like-minded people.”

 The fall/winter 2004 edition—a mixture of poetry, interviews, autobiographical essays, fiction, nonfiction, and book and music reviews—confronts a diffuse set of feminist topics. Pieces interpret contemporary TV and movies for gender politics, give compact disquisitions on female genital mutilation and dieting fads, include a personal account of a sexual assault, and meditate on how gender roles are expressed in personal choices and the roots of those choices in environmental circumstances. A story by Jennifer Moses imagines a married woman doomed by the conflicts between domestic and maternal comforts and her restless passion for a younger man with whom she has had an affair.

 Iris was launched by UVA’s Women’s Center about 25 years ago as a pamphlet and converted to bound form in 1983. Two editors ago, under Kim Roberts, the journal underwent another major evolution starting with the Spring 2002 edition when it moved firmly away from a scholarly mien and an emphasis on local figures and issues to “a more universal focus on young, educated, progressive women,” Welch says.

 Iris still depends on the University for funding and Welch, a part-time editor, also teaches a gender studies course in which students double as interns for the publication.

 About 100 people attended the release party at Gravity, each paying a $7 cover that included a copy of the new issue. The journal currently distributes about 1,000 issues locally (it’s available at New Dominion and Barnes & Noble, among other places) and another 1,000 nationally. The plan is to dramatically ramp up sales and improve Iris’ financial condition while maintaining its commitment to “defending and educating people about young women’s issues,” Welch says, by raising its profile, continuing its shift away from “buttoned-up” academic pieces and deepening its pool of contributors.—Harry Terris

 

 

Living the Poverty Diet
Lessons from eating on $2.55 a day

BY MITCH VAN YAHRES

I’ve heard it said that being poor is a full-time job. Last week I got a hint what this means when I participated in a Poverty Diet program sponsored by the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy.

 In 2004 I introduced H.R. 260, which encouraged legislators to go on a two-week poverty diet—to live for a short period of time on what a Food Stamp recipient receives. When my colleagues on the House Rules Committee rejected my resolution, they said that I should provide them information about the program and they could do it on their own. The Interfaith Center took them at their word, created a curriculum and distributed it to congregations and legislators around the state. A few elected officials and several hundred Virginians participated in this experiment in empathy. The three-day diet culminated in six regional rice and beans dinners during which we shared our experiences.

 A Food Stamp recipient in Virginia receives approximately $2.55 per day, so I had to give up many items that I take for granted. For example, a one-cup container of yogurt costs 69 cents. Granola bars, one of my favorite snacks, cost approximately 75 cents each. The apples I buy are almost 90 cents apiece. In fact, most fresh fruits and vegetables were too expensive for my new budget. I am on a heart-healthy diet and typically eat a lot of fish, which was also now out of my price range.

 The first practical problem was the high price of breakfast. My usual dry cereal costs 50 cents a bowl. Fortunately, oatmeal, one of my favorite cold-weather meals, is cheaper. But it’s still 20 cents per serving. A half-gallon of milk is about $2, so there’s an additional 25 cents per bowl. Breakfast has already cost 45 cents and I haven’t added orange juice and coffee (at least 20 cents!)

 The first day I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for lunch—25 cents. Including breakfast, I had only spent 90 cents! But then came dinner. I made a simple canned salmon dish ($1.70 per can) that contained no vegetables. I also baked a potato. All together my dinner cost $2.27, which put me 62 cents over budget. I made myself feel better about the extravagance by committing to leftovers the next day.

 On Day Two I had oatmeal for breakfast and, as promised, leftovers for lunch (and a 10 cent slice of bread.) Dinner was a big financial victory. I made a pot of bean soup, which cost $3.45, or 70 cents per serving. At the end of the day I had $1.25 to spare. But, I was in the hole from yesterday, and in order to keep costs down, I had four more servings of soup to eat.

 Day Three’s meals were no different from the first two days. Clearly, on a restricted food budget you sacrifice variety.

 

So what lessons did I learn? First, three days was not long enough to gain significant understanding of such a restricted diet. The nutritional challenges alone are daunting. As I mentioned, I normally eat a heart-healthy diet rich in fresh fruits, vegetables and fish. This would be difficult if not impossible if I had to rely on Food Stamps. It takes a lot of time, effort and creativity to plan cheap nutritious meals. I am reminded again that poverty is a full-time job.

 I learned that leftovers and cooking in bulk are essential to surviving on Food Stamps. In fact I realized how much food I throw away without noticing.

 I learned that I’m a lucky man. I’m healthy and content. I wonder how this would be different if I had to compromise nutrition and variety in order to make ends meet.

 

After H.R. 260 was killed in committee The Washington Post ran a story titled “Survivor: General Assembly.” The next day I received several e-mails on the subject. A few were congratulating me on my efforts, but a shocking number criticized me for it. One said, “I see very healthy, lazy ladies in the grocery store all the time…buying nice cuts of roast, steak, name brand foods…. Some of us work for a living and don’t live off the government, the way you Dems would like us to.” Another wrote, “It outrages me that working people’s taxes go to feed, clothe, and house idle people who won’t go out and work for their money.” And a third said, “[Food Stamp recipients] do quite well and are not in need of my sympathy.” It saddened me to think that there is so much hostility and suspicion directed toward the less fortunate.

 Reading over those e-mails made me think about the morals debate in the 2004 presidential election. The Bible reminds us that the poor will always be with us. It gives several reasons for poverty, ranging from personal choice to corrupt social institutions. Unfortunately, the current discussion focuses on personal choice and ignores societal reasons for poverty. In other words, it assumes that the poor are undeserving because they brought it on themselves and we shouldn’t help them because they will take advantage of our good will. We ignore the reality that a majority of Food Stamp recipients are elderly, children and individuals working full-time, poorly paying jobs. This is often just an excuse to hide a lack of concern. I worry about that. When did we become such a cold-hearted nation?

 In a time of rampant materialism, individualism and selfishness, it’s easy to forget that we are social beings. We would all benefit if we focused on the moral admonitions to love another, help the poor and to be humble instead of emphasizing the more divisive social issues.

 It is no accident that this Poverty Diet experience was scheduled in the days prior to Thanksgiving. As we celebrate our blessings let’s remember those we would often prefer to forget. The fact is, they could be us.

 

Delegate Mitch Van Yahres has represented the 57th District in the Virginia General Assembly since 1981.

Tuesday, November 9
Big bucks for Virginia

Virginia is sitting on a pot of money for the first time in four years. Members of the General Assembly today met at the Boar’s Head Inn to discuss what to do with the cash. The bulk of the bounce in revenue results from Northern Virginia cashing in on huge increases in federal defense and homeland security spending. During the meeting, economists told attending lawmakers that NoVa’s boom should funnel about $900 million into Virginia’s economy, according to a Washington Post account. At the meeting, some budget gurus stressed that even with money to spend, the State must resist the “spending spree” of the late ’90s.

 

Wednesday, November 10
Talking about Jefferson School

The final product of the Jefferson School Oral History Project was today presented to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Historical Society. The project is a collection of essays and interviews with 35 people, many of whom graduated from the Jefferson School. “Various advocacy groups interested in saving the historic school building from development” pulled together for the effort, according to the publication. The Jefferson School, when it opened in 1926, was the only city high school that black students could attend. Though it was closed for any educational purposes two years ago, City Council continues to ponder its future use. “I would like to make a plea to the community not to tear the school down,” says Jefferson School graduate Helen Sanders in the document.

 

Court to AG: open up

Today the U.S. Supreme Court refused a request by Virginia Attorney General Jerry Kilgore to keep secret documents related to Earl Washington, a retarded man who was wrongly convicted of a 1982 Culpeper murder. The ruling satisfies requests by Washington’s lawyers and several news outlets to see the documents, which are part of a civil case Washington has filed against state police and other law enforcement officials.

 

Thursday, November 11
More green in Albemarle

Albemarle County officials today announced the creation of a new park. Measuring just under one square mile in area, the park in the northwest portion of the county will be Albemarle’s biggest—comprising 23 percent of the county’s total parkland. Robert Byrom, who donated the land for the park, requested it be dubbed the Patricia Ann Byrom Forest Preserve Park. Located on the north side of Route 810, between Brown’s Cove and Boonesville, the park will include nature trails.

 

Friday, November 12
AM 1450 on the way?

In yet another development in the city’s rapidly shifting broadcast media scene, a Kentucky-based company has applied for a new local radio station. Anderson Communications seeks to bring AM 1450 to the airwaves and plans to locate its transmitter on Z-95’s existing tower, located near McIntire Park. Anderson’s application is available for public review at the main branch of the public library. The company also owns an FM radio station in Kentucky.

 

Saturday, November 13
Weed pulls off the gloves

In a letter published in today’s Daily Progress, failed Congressional candidate Al Weed sharply challenged the paper’s post-election “told you so” endorsement of Fifth District incumbent Virgil Goode, whose resounding loss in Charlottesville and Albemarle was more than balanced by his hefty win in the Southside counties. Noticeably short on specifics, the Nov. 9 editorial lauded

Goode for not being a liberal. Cataloging his differences with Goode point by point, from deficit spending to abortion rights, Weed challenged the DP to pinpoint why Goode’s positions “are more appropriate than those of his opponent” in the future. “When next you endorse Mr. Goode because of his affinity with the District’s voters (though not with your readers and subscribers) you might also discuss with which of his well-articulated policies you agree…” Weed wrote.

 

Sunday, November 14
Great day to be a Hokie

After UVA’s heartbreaking 31-21 loss yesterday to Miami before another record-setting crowd at Scott Stadium, the state’s best hope for an ACC champ may rest with Virginia Tech, which, like Miami, is new to the conference this year and which heads into the week with the leading ACC record (4-1). Following the loss, the Cavs dropped to 18 from 10 in the AP rankings, which boosted the Hokies one notch to 15.

 

From Guv to Prez?

Though Mark Warner is mum on his political future as he enters his final year as governor, The Washington Post today floats the idea of a national candidacy for Warner heading into 2008. Among Warner’s political assets cited in Michael D. Shear’s article is the “NASCAR-loving, pro-death penalty, pro-gun rights, fiscally conservative campaign” that first lifted the blue pol to the top job in this red state.

 

Monday, November 15
Casteen’s big bucks

Among presidents of public colleges and universities, UVA’s John Casteen III ranks ninth in compensation, making $549,783, according to a survey released today by the Chronicle of Higher Education.

—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.

 

 

Clinic wins on appeal
Planned Parenthood will stay put—for now

“You’ve gotta give them credit,” says Tobey Bouch, a member of a local conservative Christian group, the Central Virginia Family Forum.

 The 25-year-old Bouch stood outside the Albemarle County Office Building last Tuesday, November 9, hands on his hips, as people wearing “I support Planned Parenthood” stickers teemed around him.

 “No doubt about it,” said Bouch. “They mobilized their people.”

 On Tuesday, November 9, hundreds of people descended on the corner of McIntire Road and Preston Avenue while Albemarle County’s Board of Zoning Appeals considered a challenge to a new Planned Parenthood clinic that opened on Hydraulic Road in August. The appeal was filed later that month by Renae Townsend, who lives near the clinic. In a 3-1 decision, with one member abstaining, the five-member BZA ruled in favor of Planned Parenthood.

 The BZA is appointed by the Circuit Court and typically hears arguments over building setbacks or the size of restaurant signs. On Tuesday, the board found itself the referees in a reproductive rights schoolyard brawl.

 “I think there’s a lot of people who felt stunned by the election results,” said Planned Parenthood of Virginia’s Executive Director David Nova. “Now we’re hearing about a mandate to overturn Roe v. Wade. This is an opportunity to debunk that message.”

 Expecting a large crowd, the BZA moved from its usual 50-seat meeting spot to the County Office Building’s 580-seat auditorium. County police officers roamed the lobby, and pro-choice activists were already taking seats at 10am—three hours before the meeting was scheduled to start.

 The room was already overflowing by 12:30, when Josh Rubinstein climbed the pale stone staircase outside the Office Building. “If this is the last place on earth where a woman has a choice, we’ll fight for it,” said Rubinstein, who lives in Crozet. “We’re not going to let people from out of town tell us how to run our county.”

 Like Planned Parenthood, the CVFF recruited supporters from around the state to descend on the hearing. Planned Parenthood estimated that 961 supporters turned out for its cause; CVFF put the number of its supporters at around 175.

 It began with the lawyers. Townsend’s attorney, Culpeper lawyer Michael Sharman, argued that the clinic is a hospital, not a professional office, and thus should not have been allowed in a residential area. (It’s ironic, several pro-choicers noted, because the facility was built to accommodate the hospital-like architectural requirements that Planned Parenthood expects pro-lifers will eventually force through the General Assembly.)

 County Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Greg Kamptner countered that Townsend had appealed too late. He said the County was correct when it determined the clinic was a professional office, like other out-patient medical centers.

 Meanwhile, police moved through the crowded aisles, herding spectators out of the auditorium. Their explanation that jammed aisles constituted a fire hazard did not satisfy some people. “Gentlemen!” cried one woman. “How can this be a public hearing when you’re ejecting people who want to be a part of it!”

 Those who exited lined the sidewalks outside and waved pro-choice signs at passing traffic. Those who stayed grew increasingly unruly as Sharman called people to speak in the appellants’ favor.

 Bow-tied UVA medical student Steve Smith, whose property abuts the clinic, drew a round of hisses when he called it “a dumpster of a medical center,” and asked if the board were ready to “answer for their decision” should he or his property be hurt by an attack on the clinic.

 Planned Parenthood called out local heavy-hitters, such as Virginia National Bank CEO Mark Giles, to speak on its behalf. As the public hearing opened for public comment, the topic shifted from zoning to abortion. Jack Marshall, who sits on Planned Parenthood’s Board of Directors, pointed out that Joe Scheidler’s 1985 pro-life manual CLOSED: 99 Ways to Stop Abortion tells Christian activists how to fight Planned Parenthood clinics with zoning challenges.

 By 6pm, everyone had their say, and the auditorium was half-empty when the board rendered its decision.

 “I was a sheriff in 1970, and I worked an abortion case where two babies were murdered, I thought,” said board member

George Bailey. “I sent people to the penitentiary over it. That’s still on my mind. I’d like to abstain,” he said.

 Board member Richard Cogan basically agreed with the appellants, while members David Bass, Max Kennedy and Randy Rinehart said the County’s original zoning decision should stand.

 After the decision, CVFF’s Bouch, Townsend and a few of their supporters stood around Sharman as the attorney outlined their long-term strategy: appeal to the County Circuit Court, then to the Court of Appeals if necessary, and perhaps the Supreme Court. On Friday, November 5, Townsend and five of her neighbors filed a lawsuit against Albemarle County, seeking to revoke Planned Parenthood’s special use permit.

 “The higher up you go, the wider the effect of the decision will be,” Sharman said. “That’s it in a nutshell.”

 Planned Parenthood organizer Holly Hatcher says she hopes pro-choice activists will now focus their energy on the upcoming General Assembly session. Commenting on CVFF’s lawsuit, Nova says “if they want to keep trying to shut down Planned Parenthood, the County’s going to need a bigger auditorium.”—John Borgmeyer

 

 

Buying time
Andrew Alston gets three years in prison for killing Walker Sisk

Virginia throws the book at its criminals. Unless, that is, the accused is able to fork up enough cash to hire an expensive legal team that can exploit the built-in protections of the law, such as the concept of “beyond a reasonable doubt.”

 That’s what happened on the evening of November 9 when, after hearing defense arguments rich in expensive expert testimony and forensic evidence, but with no compelling eyewitnesses for the defense, a jury of three women and nine men found former UVA student Andrew Alston guilty of voluntary manslaughter rather than the second-degree murder charge the prosecution had sought in Alston’s killing of Walker Sisk, 22, a volunteer firefighter and Free Union resident. The following afternoon, the jury sentenced Alston, 22, to three years in prison, one year of which he has already served in jail while awaiting his trial. Based on his behavior behind bars, Alston could be back on the street by as early as August 2006.

 Witnesses say the altercation that ended Sisk’s life began after Sisk and one of Alston’s companions exchanged insults across 14th Street after a night of barhopping on the Corner in the early morning hours of November 8, 2003. The incident escalated as Sisk crossed the street to confront Alston’s group, but the fatal step was taken by Alston when, according to his own testimony, he “pulled out a knife.”

 The defense, headed by swarthy, cowboy-booted Alexandria attorney John Zwerling, known for defending Lorena Bobbitt and other high-profile clients, said Alston pulled the knife to defend himself from Sisk, whom Alston described, between the loudly quivering breaths that characterized his testimony, as a “furious man, crazy.”

 Moments after Alston pulled the knife, Sisk lay dying near the corner of 14th and Wertland streets, stabbed and slashed 20 times, the lethal wound penetrating his left lung and heart.

 Outside Judge Edward L. Hogshire’s courtroom on the afternoon of November 10, just after sentencing Alston, jury foreman Juandiego Wade said the jury felt they had made the decision that was “best for the community.”

 During closing arguments on the previous day, Zwerling had walked the jury through its options. Zwerling held up a placard enumerating what a “not guilty” verdict encompasses. The bullet points went up the scale from a belief in the defendant’s innocence to the belief that the defendant “is guilty but the evidence falls short.” Shortly following Zwerling’s presentation, the jury went into deliberations.

 During the five-and-a-half hour wait for a verdict, friends and family of both Sisk and Alston congregated in the lobby of the courthouse and on its front steps, talking, smoking, resting and occasionally laughing. When word spread that a decision had been reached, both groups reconvened in the courtroom. The room received the manslaughter verdict in utter silence.

 In his emotional testimony, Alston, crying at times, recounted what memory he said he had of the events after he pulled his knife: “[Sisk] grabbed [the knife] out of my hand and then he lunged at me with it.” Alston, claiming that he feared for his life, said he then grabbed Sisk’s hand and “just kept pushing away from me.” According to Alston, the 20 stabs and cuts to Sisk were delivered by Sisk’s own hand.

 Key to this seemingly absurd explanation was the defense team’s assertion that when Alston attempted to protect himself from the knife-wielding Sisk he had used aikido moves learned in an eight-week martial arts class. Through a demonstration by Alston’s former aikido instructor and classmate, the defense used perfectly choreographed maneuvers to account for the pattern of wounds across Sisk’s, chest, shoulders and back. Later, forensics experts, whose testimony cost at least $20,000, confirmed the plausibility of the scene despite the fact that Alston’s blood-alcohol level just after the time of the assault was more than two times the legal limit. No eyewitnesses testified to seeing any such aikido moves.

 Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Jon R. Zug didn’t buy this theory. In his closing arguments the charismatic prosecutor asked the jury how, if Alston was such an aikido master, did Sisk get the weapon out of Alston’s hands in the first place?

 “Where was your aikido then, buddy?” Zug asked, his voice rising as he turned from the jury to face Alston.

 The jury, however, took the bait, going with the lesser charge.

 During the sentencing phase of the trial, the prosecution’s case was simple. Zug presented the jury with a stack of papers that detailed Alston’s prior felony and misdemeanor assault convictions for a 1998 attack, when Alston was a juvenile. The purpose was clear: to establish a pattern of violent behavior.

 The defense, however, called a number of character witnesses—friends, family, Catholic priests from Alston’s Pennsylvania private school, and Alston’s psychotherapist. Many of these witnesses talked about the June 2002 suicide of Alston’s brother, Timothy, and how Alston served as a source of strength for his family around the time of that event. His psychotherapist, Dr. Marilyn Minrath, whom he started seeing in June, said Alston suffers from “unresolved grief.”  The jury spent five hours deliberating Alston’s sentence. Upon hearing the words “three years,” Alston hugged both his lawyers. Sisk’s family and friends sat stunned. Later, when he was led out the back of the courthouse, Alston smiled and joked with Sheriff’s deputies before heading back to the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail.

 In front of the courthouse, the Alston family went their separate ways before Sisk’s friends and family began to emerge from the courtroom.

 While praising the jury’s “thoughtfulness,” Zug expressed disappointment with the sentence.

 “It’s tough for me to believe that the life of somebody is only worth three years,” he said, looking weary.

 Greg Snyder, a Sisk friend who had helped to change Walker Sisk’s diapers, stood smoking a cigarette on the steps of the courthouse.

 “There’s no explanation,” he said quietly, “but that there was a proportion to punishment that was not followed today.”—Nell Boeschenstein

 

 

HOW TO: Roast a fresh turkey Say goodbye to the deep-frozen, store-bought bird, and this Thanksgiving dip into some truly fresh meat. Kate Collier, owner of Feast! specialty food market, has these pointers for preparing a fresh-kill bird. 1. Preheat oven to 500°. Place the rack in the second-lowest oven position. 2. Remove turkey from the brine and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Allow turkey to come to room temperature. 3. Fill cavity of bird loosely with rosemary, thyme, sage, two roughly chopped onions, two chopped carrots and two chopped celery stalks. 4. Generously rub butter and seasoning into the skin of the entire bird. 5. With the breast up, place turkey on a rack in a roasting pan. 6. Tightly fit aluminum foil over the breast area. Fold it in half, remove, spray with vegetable spray and reserve for later. 7. Roast for 30 minutes, until golden brown. 8. Reduce the heat to 350°, apply the foil to the breast plate, and roast the turkey to an internal temperature of 160° (the turkey will continue to cook to 165° while resting). 9. To check temperature, stick a thermometer through the foil into the thickest part of the breast. Allow 12-14 minutes per pound (cooking time for an 18-pound turkey is approximately 2.5-3 hours). 10. Move the cooked bird to a cutting board and let stand 30 minutes before carving. Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.

 

 

America, can we talk?
UVA’s Vamik Volkan shrinks America’s head

America, I’m coming to you as a friend. I understand you’ve had a hard time recently. You’re under a lot of stress.

 You’re a great country, but let’s face it—you have some anger management issues. And lately you’ve been spending more time with those people who stand on the street corner, screaming about the end of the world.

 We love you, America. Frankly, though, we’re worried.

 Maybe you need professional help.

 Let me recommend someone you can talk to. His name is Vamik Volkan. He’s a Turkish doctor and professor emeritus at UVA, and in 1987 he founded what is perhaps the school’s funkiest offshoot—The Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction.

 Volkan’s larger claim to fame, however, has been his work in the field of psychopolitics. For the past two decades, he has studied large-group psychologies and the dynamics of mass movements.

 Two years ago, he founded a publishing company in Charlottesville, Pitchstone, which just released Volkan’s new book, Blind Trust: Large Groups and Their Leaders in Times of Crisis and Terror.

 America, wait! Don’t get mad. Look, I know you don’t care much for books. I’ll admit, Volkan’s no Tim LaHaye, but give him a chance. Volkan’s a pretty smart guy, and he just might be able to help you.

 Between 1980 and 1986, Volkan sat in on a series of unofficial dialogues between Israel and Egypt as a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Foreign Affairs. The group investigated the psychological aspects of the long-running conflicts between Arabs and Jews. Since then, he’s participated in negotiations all over the world between all kinds of people who passionately hate each other.

 America, give Volkan a chance. On a recent afternoon he and I sat in his living room, decorated with the kind of large brass trays on which Turkish people serve meals to big groups. Volkan explained exactly what he would say to you, America, if you would just go talk to him.

 “Every enemy is real,” says Volkan. “They’re shooting at you. But there’s also a fantasy. We project ideas onto our enemy.”

 Admit it, America. Both you and Al-Qaeda are guilty of this. The “great Satan” is on par with “either you’re with us or with the terrorists,” don’t you think? Huh, maybe?

 On September 11, America, we took a terrible hit. In our collective pain and helplessness, Volkan says, we naturally started dwelling on past humiliations, like Pearl Harbor, and imagined all the bad things that might happen to us next. In these times of fear, individuals tend to identify closely with their large groups—they become more “American” or more “Muslim.” People also tend to look to their leaders as “saviors” who, like a father, might protect them from unseen threats.

 America and Al-Qaeda are similar, Volkan says, in that both of their leaders claim to be inspired by God.

 “Gods do not negotiate,” says Volkan. “They only give you permission to kill the devil. Both sides start talking about a clash of civilizations, and the talk is what makes it real.”

 America, you know Al-Qaeda isn’t going to disappear, or negotiate. There’s no simple solution. Yet Volkan suggests a good start might be letting go of all the lofty rhetoric about gods and monsters, good and evil, and to stop listening to those crazies scream about Armageddon.

 Relax, America. Take a deep breath. Lie down on Volkan’s couch and forget for a while about the liberals, conservatives, terrorists, fascists, homosexuals and zealots lurking in the shadows.

 “When you actually go out and talk to people,” says Volkan, “they’re pretty much all the same.”—John Borgmeyer

Tuesday, November 2
Albemarle gets blue shading

Voters came to the polls in droves in both Charlottesville and Albemarle County today, with voter turnout topping that of the 2000 elections. In Albemarle, a whopping 75 percent of registered voters came to the polls to vote in the presidential race, as did 66 percent of Charlottesville’s registered voters. The Kerry/Edwards ticket landed a 72 percent share of Charlottesville’s votes (hardly a surprise), but Albemarle’s voters also leaned toward Kerry. The slim 888 vote margin by which Kerry topped Bush in Albemarle is a shift, as Albemarle went for Bush over Gore in 2000, and even for Dole over Clinton in 1996. The Kerry triumph in this area did not result in any electoral points, however, as Virginia went to Bush/Cheney by a 54 to 45 percent vote margin.

 

Wednesday, November 3
Tax hikes for roads?

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors today discussed forming a regional transportation district that would include both the county and the city of Charlottesville. A joint approach would give local officials more muscle in developing and building road projects—such as an interchange for the Meadowcreek Parkway. But the transportation district would need money to have any power, so the Supes began discussing different means to raise the cash. One option is a gasoline tax, which, at a 2 percent rate, could generate $3 million per year. The other ideas County officials have suggested involve rate increases in property taxes.

 

Thursday, November 4
Seniors denounce road

About 50 people showed up at the Senior Center on Pepsi Place to hear City and County planners present plans for four alignments of the proposed Hillsdale Drive Extended, a road that would connect Greenbrier Drive and Hydraulic Road. The project is part of a City-County strategy to ease traffic on 29N by building parallel roads, instead of a bypass. Many people who spoke at today’s public hearing—most of them senior citizens who live in the apartments, condominiums and nursing homes in the Hillsdale corridor—denounced the road as unsafe and unnecessary. “We do not want the noise, dirt and volume of traffic passing so close to our communities,” said Robert Metzger, president of the Brookmill Neighborhood Association, to loud applause.

 

Friday, November 5
Looking back at “Left Behind”

At a summit held at UVA 15 years ago, then-President George H.W. Bush and the nation’s 50 governors came together at UVA to talk about education. That conference began the push for accountability standards in schools, which eventually resulted in the No ChildLeft Behind Act. The success of that policy, passed by the current Bush Administration, has been hotly contested nationally and locally. To mark the anniversary of the 1989 summit and to re-evaluate No Child Left Behind, Gov. Mark R. Warner joined U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige and other national education experts at a forum at UVA this week. At the event, Paige said No Child Left Behind is “our nation’s guarantee that all children will receive a good education,” reports Bob Gibson in today’s Daily Progress.

 

Saturday, November 6
UVA rolls again

Scott Stadium was a packed house today. The crowd of 63,072 was the biggest ever in the 73-year-old stadium’s history. UVA fans were treated to a big win as the Cavs used smothering defense and a solid ground game to grind-out a dominating 16-0 win over Maryland. With the win, the race for the ACC crown is solidly in Virginia, as UVA and Virginia Tech now stand together at the top of the rankings with 4-1 conference records. UVA, ranked No. 10 in the AP poll, controls its own destiny as it hosts the slumping Miami Hurricanes next week, then travels to Georgia Tech and finishes with a huge game at Virginia Tech to close out the regular season.

 

Sunday, November 7
Rough homecoming for Schaub

The Atlanta Falcons had no game today, so Falcons’ backup quarterback and former UVA standout Matt Schaub spent some of his bye week in Charlottesville. Accordingto an AP report, Schaub was allegedly involved in a fight outside of a Corner restaurant early Saturday morning. Schaub surrendered to Charlottesville police, and was charged with assault and battery before being released on his own recognizance.

 

Monday, November 8
NAACP takes a vote

The Albemarle-Charlottesville branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) holds its election of officers today, with votes being taken at the Quality Community Council offices on W. Main Street. The national organization of the NAACP is currently under investigation by the Internal Revenue Service, which is considering yanking the civil rights organization’s tax free status for alleged politicking against President Bush during the election season.

 

—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.

 

 

Gay like us
City Council puts out the welcome mat for same-sex unions

Time and again, Charlottesville has proved itself a liberal’s blue oasis in Virginia’s otherwise flaming red political landscape. Now City Council is telling its gay citizens that while Virginia may be for haters as far as they are concerned, Charlottesville is still for lovers of all persuasions.

 On Monday, November 1, Council approved a legislative package by 4-1 (with Republican Rob Schilling dissenting, as usual) that, among other things, will ask the General Assembly to repeal the controversial H.B. 751, which bans civil unions between persons of the same sex.

 The request comes as part of the City’s annual “legislative program,” a list of 18 policy statements and requests for action from Council to the General Assembly. The request to repeal H.B. 751 (which became state law in July) came from Councilor Blake Caravati. He says gay and straight constituents have encouraged him to officially oppose the controversial law that not only nullifies civil unions performed in other states, but also a variety of other contracts and agreements between people of the same sex.

 “Everything you do in the civil realm is threatened if you’re gay,” Caravati tellsC-VILLE. “There’s quite a few ideologues out there that are out to get homosexual people, ignoring the fact that we live in Virginia, the seat of revolutionary freedom.”

 Freedom seems none too popular, however—on November 2, 11 states, following Virginia’s lead, resoundingly supported bans on same-sex marriage. Virginia’s Republican-dominated legislature isn’t likely to take Charlottesville’s proposal seriously (“Maybe I should combine it with a Ten Commandments display,” Caravati quips), but gay rights activists say the symbolism in Council’s gesture nonetheless is appreciated.

 “The message they’re trying to send to Richmond,” says UVA Pride activist Claire Kaplan, “is the institution of heterosexual marriage is not harmed by encouraging strong families elsewhere.”

 But even around Charlottesville, not everyone sees it that way. Marnie Deaton, who runs the Central Virginia Family Forum, says via e-mail that her group believes civil unions are “dangerous” because they are available to both gay and straight couples.

 “Civil unions would basically create a second-class union,” Deaton says, “that would be easily dissolved, leaving deserted spouses without any avenue for alimony or legal claim to repair the union.”

 In the past, Council has also passed resolutions to oppose the Iraq invasion and the PATRIOT Act. Conservatives say these kinds of actions take away from regular Council business—which conservatives often don’t much care for, either.

 “If you just want something cheeky,” Deaton continues, assessing the possible upside to Council’s proclivity for symbolic gestures, “time that the Council spends on such resolutions is time not spent finding creative ways to spend tax dollars that conservatives consider outside the legitimate purposes of government.”

 

The RWSA gets serious

On Monday, Council also heard an update on the water supply plan from Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority Chairman Thomas Frederick.

 “Our goal is to get a federal permit and actually do a project this time,” Frederick said.

 That’s a relief. The RWSA has been trying to expand the water supply for about 20 years now, but to no avail. First, federal regulators shot down plans for a new reservoir on Buck Mountain Creek. In February, a consultant’s miscalculation forced the RWSA to scrap a plan to expand the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir.

 The two most promising options, according to Frederick’s report, are now expanding capacity at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir or building a pipeline to the James River. Strangely, despite past failures to build on Buck Mountain, several Councilors said they favored that project over other proposals.

 “This is pretty permissive environmental regime right now,” said Councilor Kevin Lynch. “I’m not sure I agree with all that, but at the same time, this involves the safety and welfare of our citizens.”

 Frederick responded that State and federal regulators would not support a new reservoir. “My impression is that there would be considerable opposition from several regulatory agencies if we pursue that.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Prosecution forces Alston to face his alleged handiwork
Accused murderer loses his cool during coroner’s testimony

The temperature in the room rose when Dr. Marcella Fierro, Virginia’s chief medical examiner, took the stand in Charlottesville Circuit Court as a witness in the trial of Andrew Alston, a former UVA student accused of murdering Free Union resident and volunteer firefighter Walker Sisk one year ago. Before Fierro began her testimony, Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John Zug warned he was about to exhibit disturbing evidence, prompting the quiet exit of Sisk’s mother and other family members.

 Up until that point, Alston, the 22-year-old defendant, had listened impassively to eyewitness accounts of the early-morning altercation that occurred on the Corner on November 8, 2003. Numerous witnesses gave detailed testimony about the encounter, which began with two groups of young men exchanging insults across 14th Street and ended with Sisk’s murder near the intersection of 14th and Wertland streets. However, Alston’s demeanor changed during Fierro’s testimony.

 While Fierro began describing Sisk’s injuries, a courtroom television monitor displayed a mug shot of Sisk’s face as he appeared on the coroner’s table.

 “When I observed him, he had 20 stab wounds,” Fierro said, enumerating the length and depth of each of Sisk’s wounds in a relentless drone. “Exhibit number 11 is the lower back and buttocks of the deceased…”

 As this went on, Alston removed his wire-rimmed glasses, laid them on the table and began to wipe his eyes. His robust, high-powered Alexandria attorney, John Zwerling, offered him tissues.

 Moments later, Alston was bent over, sobbing, shaking and creating such a disturbance that Fierro had to temporarily suspend her testimony. Zwerling, his arm around Alston, led his client from the room. When the court returned to session, Alston had waived his right to appear for Fierro’s testimony.

 In the late afternoon of November 3, the day before Alston’s meltdown, Zwerling and Zug laid out their opening arguments to the bow-tied Judge Edward Hogshire and to the jury. Many members of the 12-person jury were selected based at least partly on their unfamiliarity with media coverage of Sisk’s murder, some of which included accounts of Alston’s juvenile assault convictions and acquittal for an earlier 2003 assault charge. Alston now stands accused of second-degree murder for which he could face up to 40 years in prison.

 In his arguments, Zug described Alston’s loss of control as he attacked Sisk with a knife. The one lethal wound, Zug said, was a cut that penetrated the heart. According to Zug, Sisk then doubled over as Alston continued to repeatedly stab him in the back, shoulders and buttocks.

 In her opening arguments in Alston’s defense, Zwerling’s co-council, Andrea Moseley, described how Alston acted in self-defense.

 “There is little doubt that when Walker Sisk was sober, he was a very fine person,” Moseley said, in her customary barely-audible monotone. “But when he was drunk, his personality changed.”

 She described how Alston had been a peacekeeper for most of the verbal altercation, and painted Sisk as Alston’s aggressor, describing the victim as 40-pounds heavier than Alston, tattooed, drunk, and wearing a t-shirt with a Confederate insignia.

 Investigators never recovered the murder weapon. Moreover, despite Alston’s ex-girlfriend testifying to his propensity for carrying knives “pretty regularly,” and Alston’s neighbor testifying to having seen him show off a knife “big enough that it made me uncomfortable” earlier on the night of the murder, none of the eyewitnesses could confirm having seen a knife in Alston’s hands as he “punched” Sisk, as eyewitnesses described it. Thus, Zug’s task was to explain what happened to the knife.

 Zug reasoned that Alston’s brother, Ken, who was with Alston at the scene of the murder, disposed of the knife using Alston’s Jeep Cherokee. Blood samples found in the Jeep matched Andrew Alston’s DNA profile and Zug contended that this blood came from an injury to his right hand, incurred while he stabbed Sisk.

 To prove that Ken Alston ditched the murder weapon, Zug interrogated Officer Mark Frazier of the Charlottesville Police Department. The prosecutor showed Frazier an evidence envelope containing Andrew Alston’s bloodstained car keys, which Frazier discovered in Ken Alston’s pants pocket a few hours after the murder. The blood on the keys belonged to Andrew Alston.

 Throughout the first four days of the trial, Zug’s red-faced, fiery courtroom style was countered by Zwerling’s relentless cool. After asking a witness a particularly difficult question, Zwerling would pause for effect and flip through a thick notebook bursting with Post-it notes. Occasionally, he would rub his be-ringed fingers through his gray beard.

 Frazier, who helped arrest Alston, testified that when police found Alston in a bedroom at a friend’s residence farther up 14th Street, Alston refused to show his right hand, first hiding it under the covers, then under a pillow.

 To treat the cut on Alston’s hand, Frazier took him to the UVA Hospital Emergency Room. There, lying on a hospital bed with his hands cuffed across his chest, “on several occasions, [Alston] fell asleep and started to snore,” Frazier testified.

 The prosecution had not concluded its case by press time, and the defense was scheduled to then begin Andrew Alston’s case for self-defense on the morning of Monday, November 8. The trial should conclude by the end of the week.—Nell Boeschenstein, with additional reporting by Paul Fain

 

HOW TO: Stage a legal protest There are so many reasons to be disgruntled, don’t you think? Election results, zoning appeals, election results. What you need is a good old-fashioned protest or rally to soothe your frustrations. What you don’t need is to get arrested for protesting illegally, so follow these steps to voice your concerns the right way.  The City of Charlottesville doesn’t require a permit for such activism, but be sure when you’re exercising your First Amendment rights that you don’t obstruct fire lanes, or vehicular or pedestrian traffic. Also be sure you’re staging your event on public property. (Example: the Albemarle County Building). As a courtesy, give the City Police Department a heads up at 977-9041. Got other legal questions? Call the City Attorney’s Office at 970-3131.  For UVA students making noise on Grounds, they’ll have to contact the Dean of Students office at 924-7133. Depending on where you want to hold the protest, the dean will connect you with the proper administrator to make sure your protest doesn’t conflict with another event on campus. In the case you want to use loudspeakers and music, you’ll need to obtain an Amplified Music permit. Call the UVA Police at 924-7166 in advance to keep them apprised of your planned activities. Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.

 

 

 

Sweet home Alabama
Legal Aid attorneys working on Hispanic issues head south

Charlottesville’s Legal Aid is losing another attorney who specializes in issues affecting local Hispanics. Yet Legal Aid director Alex Gulotta says the move won’t permanently sideline the group’s efforts to help the growing number of immigrants living and working in Central Virginia.

 Last month, Legal Aid attorney Mary Bauer left Charlottesville for Montgomery, Alabama, to join the Southern Poverty Law Center. Now, Legal Aid attorney Andrew Turner will soon be joining Bauer in her effort to create the SPLC’s first migrant-worker justice center.

 “We’re losing a couple of great advocates,” says Gulotta. “We’ll hire two new great advocates. I’m fully confident we’ll find good people, but it will take time.”

 Bauer started working for Legal Aid in 1991. Her litigation against seafood processing plants on Virginia’s eastern shore helped establish Charlottesville’s Legal Aid as a powerful force in the struggle for fair working conditions for Hispanic immigrants. Bauer left Legal Aid last spring to stay home with her kids.

 “The SPLC called out of the blue in April,” says Bauer. “I wasn’t really looking for a job, but I came down for a visit and got really excited about the project and the opportunity to start something from scratch.”

 Bauer will lead the SPLC’s first Immigrant Justice Project, which will join similar projects in Florida and Virginia that serve Hispanic migrant workers. Founded in 1971, the SPLC became one of the country’s premier civil rights firms by defending death row inmates and suing to desegregate all-white institutions. Bauer’s new job is a big one—she will create and oversee a program that will serve migrant workers in nine southeastern states: North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.

 Little is known about the Hispanic workforce in this region, says Bauer, except for the fact that it’s growing. “Our first project is to go out in the field and talk to people over this huge expanse, and figure out where we should concentrate our energies,” says Bauer.

 To help her out, Bauer says the SPLC snagged Turner, who started working for Legal Aid in 2002 fresh from law school at New York University. “I think he’ll enjoy traveling around, learning about the players and the industry,” says Bauer.

 Turner says the local Hispanic population has become more stationary in recent years. Instead of following agriculture jobs around the southeast, more immigrants are settling in Charlottesville and taking permanent jobs with construction crews, hotels and local restaurants.

 While Turner says he’ll miss the quality of life Charlottesville affords, he says there’s a “belly of the beast” appeal to working in the deep South.

 Judy Bartlett, a Latino outreach coordinator with a local group called Rural Health Outreach, says Bauer and Turner have had a discernable effect on working conditions for Hispanic workers.

 “People know about Legal Aid because they’ve done a lot of outreach,” Bartlett says. Bad-guy employers know about Legal Aid, too, she says. “Most people are now well behaved since Mary’s been there.”

 Still, there’s work to be done. A common problem is that some restaurants only pay their immigrant workers tips, and that’s illegal; and Legal Aid gets more requests for help with immigration issues, Gulotta says. For now, Legal Aid attorney Doug Ford will help fill Turner’s shoes.

 Gulotta, Turner and Bauer all say they’re glad to see the SPLC embrace immigrant justice, and that there are only good vibes about the transition.

 Gulotta says it shouldn’t be toohard to recruit Turner’s replacement. “Charlottesville’s a pretty attractive place,” he says.—John Borgmeyer

Decision Day
November 2, 2004

The day was glorious—the balmy temperatures and crisp colors of Indian Summer inviting optimism as record numbers of registered voters took to the polls in Charlottesville and Albemarle. By day’s end, we had cast 31,841 votes for Fifth District challenger Al Weed and 25,883 for Right-wing incumbent Virgil Goode. We gave an even more decisive margin to John Kerry over George W. Bush—33,160 to 25,356. But victory would follow another course by nightfall as shortly after 9 o’clock at Downtown’s Gravity Lounge, a tired-seeming and genuinely appreciative Weed addressed a couple-hundred Democratic supporters, conceding the election to Goode. The four-term Republican vigorously outflanked Weed in the final days of the campaign and ultimately captured 64 percent of the district’s votes. Asked later what he might have done differently, Weed said, “I don’t speak in sound bites.”

 Despite the sound drubbing, Weed said, “I’m not embarrassed” of his energetic, almost two-year campaign across the sprawling Fifth District. And though Weed wouldn’t say if he’d run again, he confirmed, “I’m not out of politics.”

 Meanwhile, over at Wolfie’s on Rio Road, traditional gathering spot for Albemarle Republicans, the mood grew progressively upbeat as the returns started coming in. The standing-room-only crowd spilled out onto the patio, swelling to about twice its expected size, said Delegate Rob Bell, who circled among loyal supporters, reporters and casual spectators. “This is not the usual volunteers who show up for everything,” he said. Though few were focused on the inaudible punditry of TV’s talking heads, applause and cheers of “four more years” erupted as red state by red state appeared on the screen, and word of Goode’s victory spread. As 10 o’clock rolled around, the crowd dwindled, but the party was still going strong. “We’re gonna keep going, so long as an apparent resolution is in sight, even if it’s 1 in the morning,” Bell said.

 But the sun would rise on one more perfect autumn day before the presidential outcome would be decided. As 2pm approached on Wednesday, dozens gathered outside the C-VILLE office, where the Mall-facing TV is always tuned to CNN, to watch as a somewhat combative John Edwards introduced the man who won Charlottesville but not enough of everywhere else. Someone in the crowd muttered something about theocracy. Someone else suggested Kerry had a good long nap coming to him. The crowd grew denser, Kerry gave his thanks, and then the passers-by dispersed, perhaps unaware that the next day they really would awaken to a cold, heavy rain.—C-VILLE editorial staff

Tuesday, October 26
A detestable act

Today The Daily Progress announced it would adopt a new advertising policy, after some readers protested the newspaper’s decision to run an anonymous ad decrying homosexuality as “A Detestable Act… Wickedness… Gross sin!” The quarter-page ad, which contained no identification of its sponsor, appeared in the DP on Monday, October 25. John Kimbel of the DP today posted a message on George Loper’s website (http://loper.org/~george). “Some of our readers… told us they expected us to identify the organization placing the ad,” Kimbel wrote. Consequently, he said, the organization must identify itself if the ad runs again, and future advocacy ads will no longer be anonymous.

 

Wednesday, October 27
To unseal or not to unseal?

A federal court has ordered Virginia State Police to unseal documents relating to the arrest of former death row inmate Earl Washington Jr., according to news reports today. Washington was days away from execution before DNA testing earned him a pardon for the 1982 rape and murder of Rebecca Lynn Williams, a 19-year-old Culpeper woman. Even after his pardon in 2000, Washington was still regarded by authorities as a suspect in the murder. In an effort to finally clear Washington’s name, Charlottesville attorney Steven Rosenfield, one of Washington’s attorneys, wants the state police to open their files on Washington. Though the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals has ordered Attorney General Jerry Kilgore to open the files, Kilgore will likely appeal to the Supreme Court. “This Attorney General likes to spend the taxpayers’ money using bad judgment,” Rosenfield said in an interview with C-VILLE Weekly.

 

Thursday, October 28
Eure sale price is $22 million

In an earnings call today, Saga Communications, the Michigan-based broadcasting company that recently announced a plan to buy three local radio stations, said that the deal is for “approximately $22 million.” Saga CFO Sam Bush said the radio stations—Eure Communications’ WINA, WWWV and WQMZ—will “add approximately $4.0 million in net revenue and $1.5 million in station operating income,” each year for Saga.

 

Friday, October 29
NAACP busted for Bush bashing?

A speech by Julian Bond, a UVA history professor and chairman of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), has resulted in an IRS investigation of the venerable civil rights group, NAACP officials today announced. A letter from the IRS to the NAACP says Bond’s keynote address at the July NAACP convention, which “condemned the administration polices of George W. Bush on education, the economy and the war in Iraq,” may have broken rules that keep nonprofit groups from “intervening in a political campaign.” During a press conference call today, NAACP officials questioned the “suspicious timing” of the investigation, hinting that it might be aimed at blocking the NAACP’s get-out-the-vote efforts. “So far as I know, this has never happened in the United States before,” Bond said of the investigation.

 

Saturday,October 30
John Warner, NASCAR dad

Taking time out from Election Weekend GOP duties, Sen. John Warner stopped by UVA Grounds to lend support to his documentary filmmaker son John Warner, Jr., who showed two-thirds of his NASCAR trilogy at this weekend’s Virginia Film Festival. The Senator, who narrates all three of Junior’s NASCAR movies, joked that he “didn’t even get a ham sandwich” for his voice-over efforts. “You ham it up enough,” replied the younger Warner, a 1986 UVA grad and onetime racecar driver.

 

Sunday, October 31
Back in the hunt

An off-week was just what the UVA football team needed. With huge upsets yesterday of ACC foes Florida State and Miami, the 6-1 Cavs shot up to the top of conference rankings and are again in the running for a big bowl game. UVA, which also rose to No. 12 in the AP rankings released today, controls its own fate with looming games against No. 11 Miami and No. 18 Virginia Tech.

 

Monday, November 1
Two cousins—two police shootings

This year, both the Charlottesville and Albemarle County police departments have been involved in police shootings. According to Reed Williams of The Daily Progress, the two men shot by local police this year are actually cousins, and share a violent past. Robert Cooke, 30, who is scheduled to appear in Albemarle General District Court today, allegedly shot an Albemarle police dog while fleeing a burglary scene on Sunday, October 24. An Albemarle cop then shot Cooke twice. Cooke’s cousin, Kerry Cook (who spells his last name differently) was shot by a city police officer during a violent confrontation at Friendship Court in August. The DP reports that the two cousins were tried as juveniles for a 1988 Charlottesville robbery in which an elderly female store clerk was brutally beaten.

—Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.

 

Exile on W. Main Street
Sidewalk-sign crackdown handicaps businesses

In early September, Cal Glattfelder looked out the window of his record store on Water Street and saw someone absconding with his sign.

 “I just happened to be looking out the window,” he says. “I see this guy picking up the sign and carting it down the sidewalk.”

 Glattfelder, who runs Sidetracks record store, confronted the would-be thief. He turned out to be Reed Brodhead, a City zoning inspector.

 “What’s going on?” Glattfelder asked.

 “Didn’t you get the letter?” Brodhead replied.

 In late August, Brodhead sent Glattfelder’s landlord, Oliver Kuttner, a letter warning that freestanding signs—such as the one Glattfelder had leaning against a telephone pole outside his store—were prohibited by the City’s zoning ordinance.

 Glattfelder, however, hadn’t seen the letter and didn’t know about the law until he caught Brodhead taking his sign. Glattfelder took control of the record store across from the Ice Park a year and a half ago, and he says the sign on the sidewalk “has an impact” on business. Glattfelder says he needs some way to let passers-by know where the store is, but the City is so far determined to crack down on illegal signage.

 Similar confrontations have occurred along W. Main Street.

 It all started in early summer, when a group of blind people came to a City Council meeting. They claimed that temporary signs and sandwich boards made walking dangerous for them, especially along the narrow sidewalks of W. Main. According to the City’s zoning code, such signs are permitted on the Downtown Mall and the Corner, but not on Water Street or W. Main, a commercial dead zone that the City would like to redevelop into a pedestrian thoroughfare, and where a few new businesses are trying to take root.

 The City’s zoning department started cracking down in August, sending out letters that threatened to “initiate legal proceedings, which may include civil or criminal penalties,” according to a letter mailed to Gabe Silverman, who owns the purple Main Street Market on W. Main. Hayley Peppard relied on a sandwich board to bring customers into her flower store, Hedge, inside the Market. The City confiscated her sign before she saw the letter, however.

 “It’s a problem for me, because I don’t have a storefront,” says Peppard. On the Mall and on the Corner, people have time to relax, move slowly and look at all the shops. Drivers on W. Main don’t, she says, so she considers the ordinance “not fair.”

 The harsh wording of the City’s letter surprised Patrick McClure, who owns West Main—A Virginian Restaurant, as well as the original Virignian, which is on the Corner. “The last line was almost funny,” he says. After threatening to prosecute the business owners, the letter concluded with the sentence. “Thank you for helping make Charlottesville a world class city.”

 On Monday, October 18, a group of W. Main business owners appeared at City Council’s regular meeting to ask for help. “My sign has been out there for 32 years,” said Lois Mundie, who owns the Shear Power hair salon on W. Main. “The sign is responsible for 30 new clients a week at my store,” she says.

 Mundie says the group plans to band together and hire an attorney to fight the crackdown, but McClure hopes the matter can be settled without a legal standoff.

 “This is not a ‘burning torches’ issue,” McClure says. “It’s a fly on the shoulder of City Council. We’d like them to knock it off.” He says many of the affected business owners plan to write letters to Mayor David Brown this week.

 So far, Neighborhood Development Director Jim Tolbert says enforcement will continue. He says he wants to meet with the offending shopkeepers to discuss other types of signs they could use.

 “I’m not going to recommend allowing sandwich boards on the sidewalk,” says Tolbert. “Our sidewalks are far too narrow as it is. And I don’t think a sandwich board, when it’s behind parked cars, is the best advertising in the world.”

 For now, the only sidewalk sign permitted on W. Main is one at L’Etoile Restaurant. Owner Mark Gresge paid about $50 for a permit for his sign, he says. But it may not last. City zoning administrator Ashley Cooper says the permit may have been issued in error, and that her office is reviewing its validity.

 So it looks like Council will have to step in. Peppard says she’s already talked to City Councilors, and they’ve been “real helpful.”

 “I feel like they’re going to take care of it,” she says. “Until then, it’s a pain in the ass.”—John Borgmeyer

 

Mountain flop
Traffic complaints dominate Pantops master plan meeting

The bulldozers have been busy of late on Pantops, Thomas Jefferson’s former farmland that was given its name by T.J. himself in deference to the sweet views it commands from a certain hilltop location just east of Charlottesville. And, as one of Albemarle County’s designated growth areas, more development is on the way. To better plan for Pantops’ growth, County officials and residents began work in October on a “master plan” for the area—a process that was recently completed for Crozet.

 Before they could begin master planning, however, residents needed to be brought up to speed on development in Pantops.

 To that end, County planners held a public meeting at the Montessori Community School on Monday evening, October 25. During the meeting, which was attended by about 30 people, planners ran down a list of proposed and ongoing development projects and gave a tutorial on the County’s planning policies.

 But attendees weren’t particularly interested in discussing zoning rules or even the specifics on the many residential and commercial developments.

 “How much longer are we going to go without talking about traffic congestion?” asked Pantops resident Ron Dimberg, as soon as the County planners had finished their presentation.

 A litany of likeminded comments followed, including worries about bottleneck traffic on the Free Bridge and about new developments bringing more cars to neighborhood cut-throughs. Though the meeting’s facilitator, Becky Clay Christensen, tried to steer the discussion back to the County’s zoning policies, traffic ruled the rest of the night.

 “Until you have roads that move traffic, what we’re talking about here doesn’t matter,” said Lynwood Bell, who says he moved to Pantops to avoid the road hassles on Route 29N. “I don’t need to talk about this, I need to know what my elected officials are going to do about it.”

 Two of those elected officials, County Supervisor Ken Boyd, who represents Pantops, and Kevin Lynch, Charlottesville’s vice-mayor who also sits on a regional transportation board, were on-hand to address residents’ complaints.

 “The problem is money,” Boyd said of the County’s traffic conundrum. With little funds coming from Richmond to build new roads, Boyd said, the County couldn’t possibly make all of its desired road fixes.

 “If you start adding up all these [road projects], it’s in the hundreds of millions of dollars,” Boyd says.

 Lynch drew applause when he stressed the need for a framework of roads and public transportation to support development in Pantops. But later, he shifted some of the responsibility for the region’s traffic problems back on residents, asking if the meetings’ attendees would support a 4-cent hike in the gas tax to pay for road projects.

 Though County planners didn’t engage in the traffic question during the meeting, suggesting that the topic would be better addressed in upcoming discussion groups, they made a compelling case for the need for a master plan. Though they acknowledged that the neighborhood is already an “urbanizing neighborhood,” its future is not sealed.

 Senior Planner Tarpley Gillespie drove this point home by pointing to a map of Pantops that was speckled with many “areas of indecision,” all of which are likely sites of future development. Among several current proposals Gillespie mentioned is the Cascadia project, which features 384 housing units and 10,000 square feet of commercial space on the east side of Route 20N. By having a master plan in place, County planners say they can help steer that neighborhood, for instance, to be better interconnected while also determining what sort of public facilities—such as roads, parks and schools—are needed to support growth.

 Longtime resident Dimberg was hopeful after the meeting, but not because he was optimistic about a better model for growth.

 “I am encouraged about what I sense is a rising tide of opposition [to development],” Dimberg said, adding “these meetings are 10 years too late.”—Paul Fain

 

HOW TO: Lose five pounds in a hurry Did you Snickers and candy corn yourself into a new pants size last weekend? Need to drop the roll by the end of the week? These easy tips are neither safe nor medically endorsed, but they definitely work. In the immortal words of Fernando, it’s not how you feel, it’s how you look. And you look a little bloated right now, sweetheart.  Start with black coffee for breakfast, followed by broth at lunchtime, and a small bunch of seedless grapes for dinner. Supplement at snack time with Diet Coke and Camel Lights. Should dizziness and cramping beset you, classic signs of dehydration, load up on more coffee or water, if health is a concern.  Visit the Stairmaster twice daily for a couple of 50-minute workouts. Other fun ways to burn calories include snacking on celery and cucumbers, which provide negative energy to your body once you’re done chewing them.  Fiber is important to any weight-loss plan, of course. Chew through this issue of C-VILLE once you’ve finished reading it. Also consider Metamucil or aloe vera supplements.  Don’t forget appetite suppressants. Among the most effective are Fox News and NBC reality weight-loss show “The Biggest Loser.”   Need to know how to do something? E-mail your questions to howto@c-ville.com.

 

 

Walker Sisk Murder 101
High-profile trial of suspect Andrew Alston finally begins

Former UVA student Andrew Alston’s trial for second-degree murder begins on November 3, and is scheduled to conclude on November 8—one year to the day after Alston, 22, allegedly killed Walker Sisk, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter and Free Union resident during an early-morning verbal confrontation on the Corner.

 Alston’s legal team has been busy in the yearlong runup to the trial. His revolving crew of at least six lawyers has filed several pre-trial motions and also successfully pushed back the trial date, which had been scheduled for August 30.

 John K. Zwerling, a prominent Alexandria defense attorney who is cited regularly in The Washington Post and on CNN, is leading the defense for Alston, a suburban Philadelphia native whose father is a corporate lawyer and an elected township supervisor. Charlottesville Circuit Court Judge Edward L. Hogshire has granted Zwerling’s request to suppress Alston’s prior felony and misdemeanor assault convictions for a Halloween evening attack in 1998, when Alston was a juvenile. That previous incident may not be introduced during the trial, but could be used during sentencing, if Alston is convicted.

 However, Judge Hogshire denied a defense motion that would have prevented speculation about Alston’s propensity to carry or collect knives. Sisk was stabbed and cut 20 times, with the lethal injury coming from a wound to the chest and heart, according to an autopsy report.

 The evening leading to Sisk’s murder began with two groups of young men out for a Saturday night of barhopping on the Corner. When Alston, his brother Kenneth and two friends encountered Sisk and fellow firefighter James Schwab later that night, there was plenty of jawing, but no violence until Alston attacked Sisk, according to January testimony from both sides of the encounter.

 “I didn’t see any hitting going on at all,” testified Jeffrey Cabrera, who was with Alston’s group when they met Sisk and Schwab near the corner of 14th and Wertland streets. “Just the usual swearing going back and forth between each other.”

 At some point, two witnesses said, Alston began striking Sisk.

 “It was a strange-looking punch,” Cabrera said, adding that it looked like Alston may have been holding keys in the hand with which he was hitting Sisk. Neither Cabrera nor Schwab said they saw a knife.

 “He wasn’t fighting back, at any point,” Schwab said of Sisk’s role in the altercation.

 Schwab said he heard his friend cry out in pain a couple times. Sisk eventually slumped to the ground, lying face-first, according to witnesses. Schwab testified that when he rolled Sisk over, “he was blood from neck to waist.”

 Sisk later died from the wounds. Charlottesville police followed a track of blood to a nearby house on 14th Street, where they arrested Andrew Alston. Investigators never found a murder weapon.

 In Alston’s car, which was parked near the scene of the murder, investigators found blood from Alston, whose hand was allegedly cut during the incident. The defense has sought to exclude this evidence, claiming that the blood came from a previous injury. The bloodstain could be used to argue that Alston’s brother Kenneth transferred some of Alston’s blood to the car during, perhaps, an effort to dispose of the murder weapon.

 The pre-trial maneuvering is not the first time Alston has battled a charge of violence in a local court. Just weeks after his arrest last November, Alston beat the rap for a misdemeanor assault stemming from a September 2003 argument he had with his girlfriend, a fellow UVA student. During that trial, the girlfriend testified that Alston’s parents pressured her to sign a written statement denying Alston’s culpability in the assault, according to an account by Liesel Nowak of The Daily Progress. Alston was acquitted of that charge, and taken from the trial back to the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, where ever since he has been held without bond.—Paul Fain

Tuesday, October 19
Bush’s beady eyes

A tour bus featuring a giant picture of President Bush and the line “Yes, Bush Can! ’04” rolled into town today, coming to a halt at an environmentalist rally near the UVA Rotunda. Two men in suits emerged from the bus to loudly voice their support for the President. Though many passers-by took the display at face value, the bus and its occupants are part of a rolling joke by accomplished performance artists who mock the Bush Administration. Let in on the gag, Elliot Haspel, a UVA junior, says “I would’ve gotten it if I stood here for five minutes because I noticed [Bush’s] eyes were evil,” gesturing at the bus. Indeed, the likeness of the President had been distorted with beady eyes. Taking a break from the faux-stumping, Mike Bonanno, 37, a New York City-based filmmaker and professional satirist, says the parody’s goal is to expose the administration’s policies, such as the Clear Skies Act, which he says are presented in direct contrast with their actual goals. Bonanno and crew later cued a massive cloud of fake smoke from the bus, which elicited giggles from Haspel and other students.

Calling the shots

The NCAA today announced that Craig Littlepage, UVA’s Athletic Director, would head the Division I Men’s Basketball Committee during the 2005-06 school year. The Committee makes the all-important call of which teams gets into the NCAA tournament and how to seed the teams.

 

Wednesday, October 20
Diploma dispute

Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner recently trumpeted the fact that 94.3 percent of Virginia’s high school seniors earned their diplomas this year, proving, the Guv said, that the SOL standardized tests did not create a “graduation crisis,” as some critics had warned. Today, a nonprofit group challenged Warner’s claim, arguing that fewer students are receiving “regular diplomas.” The group, Parents Across Virginia to Reform SOLs, said 10.5 percent of this year’s seniors received some form of modified or special diploma, up from 3 percent last year.

 

Thursday, October 21
Amber Alert arrives

At a press conference held today, local officials announced the details of a new, regional Amber Alert system for Charlottesville,Albemarle County and UVA. The program, named for a 9-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996, creates a “uniform method” for getting the word out about abducted or kidnapped children.

 

Friday, October 22
Tuning into big bucks

The share price for Saga Communications, the Michigan-based broadcast firm that announced on Oct. 13 its intention to purchase WVIR, WWWV and WQMZ, was today holding steady at about $16.90, down only slightly in the nine days since the purchase announcement. According to a recent report in Billboard’s Radio Monitor, a trade publication, Saga CFO Sam Bush says his company is paying “inthe low $20 million range” for the three Charlottesville stations, owned by Eure Communications. The terms of the deal have not yet been officially released, pending FCC approval of the sale.

 

Saturday, October 23
Cruising in Chapel Hill

After losing badly to Florida State University last weekend, the UVA football team today rebounded by walloping conference patsy Duke 37-16. Senior Alvin Pearman, who started over Wali Lundy at running back, rushed for 223 yards in the victory—one yard short of a UVA record. The Cavs’ next game is against a struggling Maryland team, which comes to town on Nov. 6.

 

Sunday, October 24
Burglary suspect shot in county

Robert Lee Cooke, 30, was shot twice early this morning when Albemarle police responded to a suspected house burglary, reports Claudia Pinto in The Daily Progress. Police say Cooke fired shots during a foot chase, hitting and killing a police dog. Cooke was in critical condition after the shooting. Andy Gluba, the K-9 officer who responded to the burglary call, is on paid administrative leave while Virginia State Police conduct an investigation.

 

Monday, October 25
Weed makes the pitch

In a final push before the Nov. 2 election, Democrat Al Weed, who is challenging Virgil Goode Jr. for the Fifth District seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, is taking a “Quality Jobs Tour” through depressed Southside, Virginia. Weed is holding press conferences today in Danville and Martinsville to talk about the area’s unemployment woes and his plans to expand health care coverage. In Martinsville, which leads the state with a 17.5 percent unemployment rate, Weed will meet with former Pillowtex employees outside of their shuttered factory. In a recent debate, Weed said: “I don’t think Mr. Goode is to blame for unemployment rates on the Southside.” But Weed has been sharply critical of Goode’s votes on economic policy and his stance on health care.

 —Written by Paul Fain from local news sources and staff reports.

 

Pregnant pause
UVA scientist uncovers secrets of sperm

Male contraceptive options are decidedly old school. Besides getting a vasectomy, if a guy wants to keep his sperm in check, he has the choice of abstinence or condoms—both pregnancy preventing methods that date back hundreds of years.

 But according to Dr. John C. Herr, professor of cell biology at UVA, modern male contraceptives are on the way.

 “I’m very hopeful that male contraception is going to be here within four years,” Herr says.

 Herr says Chinese scientists are leading the way in making the first wave of drug-based male contraceptives a reality. Herr and the lab he directs at UVA, the Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, are in the forefront of research on the second generation of male contraceptives. One promising method, pioneered by Herr, could temporarily shut down a man’s sperm production. To develop and eventually market such a drug, Herr has partnered with Schering AG, a major German pharmaceutical company.

 Herr says he can’t elaborate on how this male contraceptive works, or what sort of drug form it might take, citing the proprietary nature of drug development.

 “The drug stuff is all under wraps,” Herr says.

 Herr is also working on other sperm-based technologies, including a home fertility kit for men called SpermCheck, which may eventually find their way to drugstore shelves. To help bring SpermCheck and other patents to the marketplace, Herr founded a local company called ContraVac, Inc. The company employs five people and includes a lab on W. Main Street, according to Ed Leary, ContraVac’s chief financial officer. On October 13, ContraVac received an award from Virginia’s Center for Innovative Technology for the big-ticket commercial potential of its products.

 The SpermCheck kit is startlingly simple looking, and the beige contraption fits easily in the palm. The home fertility test requires only a drop of semen—obtained in a manner familiar to any man. Inside the little device, the semen comes into contact with two antibodies that have been designed to discern the presence of sperm. Herr says the fertility kit can easily and cheaply tell, to an extremely high degree, whether a man is, in essence, shooting blanks.

 “It’s so sensitive, that we can detect 100,000 sperm [per milliliter],” Herr says. If that number sounds high, consider that a milliliter of semen typically contains 150 million sperm and a single drop more than 7 million of the little wigglers. If a man produces fewer than 5,000 sperm in a drop of semen—a level that SpermCheck can detect—he is totally infertile, Herr says.

 So what’s the value in determining male infertility?

 For starters, countless medical resources are spent on counteracting female infertility. But though Herr says studies show that as much as 40 percent of infertile couples are struggling to conceive because of problems rooted in the man’s testicles, “infertility is perceived to be a female problem.”

 By determining that male infertility is behind conception woes, SpermCheck would help avert unnecessary tests on women. In addition, Herr says, SpermCheck would show whether a vasectomy or male contraceptives have been successful in suppressing sperm counts. Since it usually takes several weeks for a male contraceptive to take effect, SpermCheck could show when a man’s swimmers were no longer doing their thing. As a result, Herr says this accompanying diagnostic “is going to be key in bringing about the advent of male contraception.”

 But when a male birth control pill is available, will men actually want to take it?

 Apparently so, says Herr, citing several studies.

 “By and large, there’s about 40 to 50 percent of the men, across many cultures, who are willing to use the contraceptive,” Herr says. “They feel it’s their turn to become part of the equation.”

 Herr’s many discoveries regarding men’s fertility have a common origin in his study of sperm proteins, which he began in 1978. Most of the 10 million or so human proteins, the building blocks of cells, exist in all tissues in the body. But Herr has found several proteins that exist solely in sperm. Armed with these proteins and the human genome, Herr and 35 colleagues in his UVA lab are able to use “reverse engineering” to clone genes and begin designing drugs that specifically target sperm development.

 In the hallway outside Herr’s cramped office hang several photographs of sperm. Herr points to red splotches on the surfaces of the depicted sperm, each of which marks one of the sperm-specific proteins he has found.

 “We’re interested in finding proteins that human beings make that no one has ever harvested before,” Herr says.—Paul Fain

 

Here comes the sun
Old SNL building to get a facelift

Daylight has always been a problem for the former SNL building on the Downtown Mall, which was built as a department store in 1955. Department stores eschew natural light so as to better control the lighting on clothes and other wares, leaving the SNL building with small windows that resemble portholes on a cruise ship.

 But the building’s owner, music promoter and über developer Coran Capshaw, aims to let the sun shine in the space. Within one month, work will begin on “an enormous” window on the Fourth Street NE side of the building, says architect Robert Nichols of Formwork Design, who is working on the project.

 “It’s a huge change. It’s a significant amount of work,” Nichols says of adding the window, which will fit glass and aluminum in a giant 60’x60′ space to be opened in the side of the building. Nichols says another, smaller window will be added on the Mall side of the building, and the Fourth Street entrance will also be spiffed up.

 Capshaw bought the building and an attached annex on Fourth Street from database company SNL Financial for $2.8 million. The deal closed in August. Nichols says the 40,000 square foot space will feature a mix of office and retail, with a single retail tenant and/or restaurant on the first floor.

 “They’ve got a few things in the air,” Nichols says of potential tenants, but declines to divulge any specifics.

  The annex on the side of the building will also see action in coming weeks. Artist Rob Tarbell will kick off an exhibit in the space, dubbing it Gallery 111—the digits in homage to the annex’s address—on November 5.

 “The gallery is essentially me,” says Tarbell, whose exhibit will be entitled “Bird by Bird by Bird.” Tarbell says he’s taken the approach of finding an unused space and treating it as “an actual gallery” in other cities, including his native Dayton, Ohio.

 “Basically it just comes from the concept of do-it-yourself,” says Tarbell, who has had his work featured among ArtInPlace pieces and in the former City Centro, which was located in the first floor of the SNL building. “I want to get other artists involved.”

 Tarbell says he approached Capshaw about creating the gallery, and secured a temporary deal for the space.

 “He’s allowing me to use it for a while,” Tarbell says.

 Laurel Hausler of Nature Visionary Art says she’s glad to hear that Capshaw has plans in store for the annex and the larger brick behemoth, which sits just across the street from her gallery.

 “I just hope that Fourth Street becomes more of a special draw,” Hausler says. —Paul Fain

 

The morning after
Must-have gizmos for surviving the election

With predictions of doom and gloom raining down on the electorate during these last days of the campaign like so many laser-guided bombs, it’s hard to know exactly how to survive the apocalypse should The Other Guy win this thing on November 2. If flight out of the country isn’t an option for you, consider stocking your bunker with an End of the World Survival Kit, available in either the Kerry Wins or Bush Wins variety. —C-VILLE editorial staff

If John Kerry wins…
Our Survival Kit for Conservatives will help you endure life once America’s Most Liberal Senator becomes President.

Secretary of State Hanoi Jane’s “Diplomacy of Steel” videocassette
Adjusting to John Kerry’s New World Order of global capitulation is hard work. Learn how to lose your swagger and get your internationalist freak on with this 60-minute workout video. Special features include instruction on how to flex your bi-lateral muscles and how to unwind from the contortions of relentless flip-flopping.

No Burger Left Behind redeemable vouchers
Major shake-ups are due for school lunches when Kerry and the Big Ketchup lobby control Congress. Regulations will stipulate that every student’s burger receive a healthy dollop of Heinz Tomato Ketchup—newly reclassified as a vegetable. These vouchers will help schools shoulder the price for the mandatory ketchup shipments.

Osama-B-Gawn Fly Tape
Hear that buzzing noise? It’s the annoying din of evildoers, right outside your front door. Osama-B-Gawn brand pest control now offers a solution, perfect for every home and suitable for all decors, in the form of easy-to-roll tape that will help you catch those pesky, border-crossing terrorist folks who can be such a nuisance to freedom-loving Americans.

French-English dictionary
English-only speakers will be at a severe disadvantage when they try to sort out their giant tax forms while on the phone with a swarthy IRS official, newly imported from Marseilles or Gay Paris. Interpret government documents with greater confidence after you pick up a few phrases, mon ami. Convenient travel size fits neatly in your new Euro-trash jacket.

If Bush wins….
Survive four more years of the GOP with our Survival Kit for Liberals.

“What Would Jesus Do?” Legal Handbook
Our President has the digits for the Big Guy Upstairs programmed into his cell phone. But the sodomites, nonbelievers, harlots, Philistines, Babylonians, stray sheep and other sinners who unfortunately slink around this great land will need extra help to know their legal rights. Free bag of stones with every purchase. Act now and receive a four-year supply of shame!

Big Brother Ashcroft’s Home Wiretap Kit
There is no “free” in freedom. Your friends and neighbors are keeping tabs on you, so who’s watching them? Prove your patriotism (and collect juicy information on the desperate housewives next door) with this easy-to-assemble homeland-security must-have. Free lie detector set if you catch your spouse muttering pro-terrorist sentiments, like “Maybe rich people ought to pay more taxes,” or “I support health care for all.”

Executive Model MP-7 submachine gun, autographed by the President
Liberty is on the march. With new investment opportunities opening up across Iran, Syria, North Korea and France, the discerning American businessman will want this vital (compact, fully automatic and armor piercing) tool as he teaches reluctant locals about the value of free markets.

Murdoch-B-Gawn tinfoil hat
News media are increasingly consolidating and ramping up their effort to disseminate a simple, fair-and-balanced message. Technology is also moving forward, with innovative programming from Fox News now available via microwave frequencies that enter the brain without the unnecessary medium of a television, radio or newspaper. The hands-free news is available 24/7, with a new-improved slogan: “We transmit, you believe.” If you’d rather not, though, protect your brain from the Murdoch Factor with this stylish, lightweight hat.