Author: c-ville-weekly-writers

Tuesday, October 12
No such thing as a free ambulance

Many city governments must factor rescue and emergency medical services into annual budgets. Not here in Charlottesville, where the all-volunteer Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad (CARS) gets the job done with zero tax dollars. CARS is the busiest volunteer squad in the country, having responded to more than 12,000 calls in 2003. Yet the award-winning, 175-member rescue squad operates on a lean $650,000 annual budget. The squad this morning kicked off its 2004 annual fund drive at an event at its McIntire Road headquarters. A buzzer signaling an ambulance’s departure sounded twice during the 30-minute event. Speaking in tribute to the CARS’ efforts was Dan Jordan, president of the Thomas Jefferson Foundation. In addition to mentioning CARS’ frequent dispatches to Monticello, Jordan said the squad’s “miraculously efficient” and speedy rescuers “likely saved” the life of his daughter after she was injured in a serious car accident.

Wednesday, October 13
10 years without parole

Attorney General Jerry Kilgore and U.S. Sen. George Allen today held a ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of Virginia’s abolition of parole. Kilgore’s office touted a dip in violent crime over the last decade as evidence of the policy’s success, citing a 24 percent decrease in the state’s murder rate and 10 percent drop in assaults since 1994. Kilgore also claimed that convicted murderers with serious prior convictions are now serving an average sentence of 32.2 years in prison, up from 14.7 years in 1994. The Washington Post reports that parole proponents also held an event in Richmond, arguing that the demise of parole has little to do with decreasing violent crime, as the trend began before 1994.

Thursday, October 14
Jefferson School still up in the air

It’s been more than two years since City Council appointed a task force to decide the fate of the historic Jefferson School on Fourth Street NW. The Jefferson School Task Force has been adamant that the building should “tell the story” of African-Americans in Charlottesville and Albemarle, but they seem to be suffering from writer’s block. In a work session tonight, City Council heard how the Jefferson School could qualify for state and federal tax credits, but Council can’t act because the task force still has not decided how to use the 70,000-square-foot building. The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library is interested in relocating at least some of its operations there, and the task force wants to create some type of “cultural center,” but no further specifics have been decided.

Friday, October 15
Not in Geronimo’s backyard

A controversial $120 million telescope in Arizona was officially dedicated in a ceremony today. UVA has a stake in the telescope project, which, though incomplete, will eventually boast the “most technologically advanced ground-based telescope in the world.” With images that are 10 times sharper than those from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Arizona telescope will provide glimpses of distant planets and ancient objects, according to a press release from the University of Arizona. Environmentalists and Native Americans have long protested the telescope, claiming it desecrates a sacred Apache mountain. In a letter to C-VILLE, Robert Witzeman of the Maricopa (AZ) Audubon Society writes: “The Mt. Graham Arizona telescopes are a horror story about the University of Virginia investing millions in a project that circumvents U.S. Native American cultural and religious protection laws and U.S. environmental laws.”

Saturday, October 16
Clinic opens to protest

About 150 people lined Hydraulic Road today to protest Planned Parenthood’s new Herbert C. Jones Jr. Reproductive Health and Education Center. The peaceful demonstration had dispersed by the time Alex Sanger—grandson of Planned Parenthood founder Margaret Sanger—spoke at the clinic’s grand opening a few hours later.

No more national title talk

The UVA football team collided with reality tonight, and ran into the stifling swarm of the Florida State defense, which held the Cavs to one field goal in a 36-3 loss in Tallahassee.

Sunday, October 17
Four more years

Claiming that “one [presidential] ticket represents the mentality of 9/10, the other of 9/12” the Media General-owned Richmond Times-Dispatch today endorsed the re-election of President Bush. In touting Bush’s performance in the days after Sept. 11, 2001, the generally conservative newspaper’s editorial board wrote: “A man few would consider eloquent gave voice to the nation’s strength and abiding goodness.”

Monday, October 18
Promptness at the dais

City Council has bumped its start-time up a half hour, meeting at 7pm tonight and in the future. The earlier start and the efforts by Mayor David Brown to curb long-windedness, mean that task-force reports and budget wrangling are less likely to take the meetings past midnight, as has happened in the past.

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

First with (not as) local news
Eure family sells WINA, WWWV and WQMZ to broadcast chain

At 10am on Wednesday, October 13, just after Dick Mountjoy and Jane Foy wrapped up their morning broadcast on WINA, Brad Eure gathered the staff from his three local radio stations together in their Rose Hill offices for an announcement. Eure, who was joined by company brass from Saga Communications at the meeting, dropped the bombshell that WINA, WWWV and WQMZ were being sold to Saga, a mid-sized broadcast conglomerate based in the ’burbs of Detroit.

 Eure said his employees took the news with “a little bit of shock.” The news was also a shock to former employees and local radio fans. Would the three local stations, ranked second, fifth and sixth in this market, soon sound just like Saga’s stations in Milwaukee or Des Moines?

 No chance, Eure says.

 Regarding local staff, Eure says, “there’ll be no change.” And despite receiving what was likely a handsome price for his stations—terms of the deal have not yet been released—Eure says he will remain at the helm in Charlottesville. Eure also stressed that Saga is a particularly hands-off company that leaves programming to individual stations. “All the decisions are made locally,” he says.

 “I don’t think you’re going to see any changes in how we deal with the community,” Eure says.

 Though Saga’s press release and Eure’s statements might sound like typical corporate speak after an acquisition, several former employees and broadcasting industry observers saw no reason to doubt Eure’s promise of continuity.

 Denny King, the entrepreneur who is striving to launch WCVL, Channel 9, a local community television station, says Saga is the ideal holding company for Eure’s local radio fiefdom. (Eure continues to own two radio stations in North Carolina.)

 “In the broadcast universe, they are considered to be a very, very high quality broadcast company,” says King, who long worked in the industry, about Saga. “I don’t see any downside.”

 Eure says he was not seeking a buyer and had not talked to any other broadcast companies about a possible sale. He says Saga first began expressing interest in his stations about five years ago.

 “I never thought they’d hit our number but they did,” Eure says, citing his family’s financial considerations for the final decision to sell (the principals in Eure Communications include Eure’s father and brother, also). Once the deal, which is awaiting likely approval by the Federal Communications Commission, closes, Saga will own 86 radio stations and five radio networks in 22 markets. The company also owns five TV stations and three low-power TV stations. Saga’s 2003 total revenue of $121 million puts it far behind Media General ($837 million), which owns The Daily Progress, and Gray Television ($295 million), owner of new local CBS and ABC affiliates.

 Saga will create a subsidiary, Charlottesville Radio Group, to run the three stations. Eure will be the president and general manager of the subsidiary, says Saga CFO Sam Bush. Though Bush says the stations will not be completely autonomous from Saga’s Michigan headquarters, he says the company plans to follow an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy, adding “those stations are certainly not broken.

 “We don’t come in and start making changes for the sake of making changes,” Bush says.

 Kym McKay was a midday on-air personality on 3WV from 1996 until a month ago, when she left for a station in Winchester. Though she admits she was shocked by news of her former employer’s sale, McKay thinks Eure’s continued post and what she’s heard about Saga’s management style, should protect the quality of the three stations.

 “If it hadn’t been announced in the press, nobody would’ve noticed the difference,” McKay says. “It’s probably going to be a positive move.”

 McKay also cites the employee benefits of working for a large company that can provide retirement plans and stock options—both forthcoming Saga employee perqs that Eure confirms.

  Mike Friend, the general manager of WNRN, says he doesn’t foresee the sale having any impact on his station or on the three local stations’ programming.

 “My assumption until I see otherwise is they’re going to leave well enough alone,” Friend says, but adds, “it’s a shame that there isn’t going to be anymore local commercial media.”

 Though Sarah McConnell, Dick Mountjoy’s co-host on WINA for 20 years and now host of “With Good Reason,” which airs on public radio stations across Virginia, says she can’t speculate on changes Saga might make, she says the acquisition makes her uneasy.

 “It takes years to accumulate professionals like [those working for WINA],” McConnell says. “All that’s put into jeopardy…when it’s not your station, you can’t make the calls.”—Paul Fain, with additional reporting by Cathy Harding

Zone of contention
Abortion debate set to go to zoning board

The new Planned Parenthood clinic on Hydraulic Road is an inconspicuous two-storey brick office with a name that sounds innocent enough—The Herbert C. Jones Jr. Reproductive Health and Education Center. Yet the building has stirred such controversy that the normally dry business of County zoning codes has become enflamed with a passionate debate on abortion rights.

 On Tuesday, November 9, the Albemarle Board of Zoning Appeals will consider a challenge to the clinic, which opened on August 4. Renae Townsend, who lives near the clinic in Garden Court Apartments on Hydraulic Road, filed the appeal on August 26. She argued that the clinic is a hospital, and therefore it cannot legally reside on its current site, which is zoned for residential use only.

 In another appeal, filed in September, Townsend argues that the County should have ordered Planned Parenthood to cease operations at the clinic until the Board of Zoning Appeals made a decision on her original appeal.

 A pro-life group called the Central Virginia Family Forum is backing Townsend in her fight against Planned Parenthood. Both groups have been sending e-mails to supporters, hoping to rally large crowds to speak at the November 9 hearing; anticipating a big crowd, the BZA has decided to move the meeting from the small room it usually occupies to the 585-seat auditorium in the County Office Building.

 It’s also unusual for the BZA to hear an appeal on a building that is already built and in use, says County spokeswoman Lee Catlin. Whoever loses the appeal, Catlin says, “We expect that they’ll want to protect their interest and appeal the decision to Circuit Court.”

 Planned Parenthood of the Blue Ridge has established a legal defense fund to pay potential litigation costs.

 The debate centers on how the clinic is used. According to County zoning laws, “professional offices” are allowed in residential areas, and Catlin says “medical offices,” such as optometrists or ob-gyn clinics, fall under that designation. Because Planned Parenthood patients do not stay at the clinic overnight, “our determination is that it is a medical office,” Catlin says.

 The Family Forum, however, argues that the clinic is, in fact, a hospital. “Our whole objection, from the very beginning,” says Tobey Bouch, a board member for CVFF, “is that they don’t comply with the approved use. Calling it an ‘office building’ does not in any way resemble what they’re using it for.”

 “Talk about a detriment to property values,” Bouch continues. “Protestors, threats—that’s what property owners are concerned about.”

 In fact, since the clinic opened nearly three months ago, protests have been limited to the sporadic presence of placard-carrying anti-choice activists along Hydraulic Road.

 The debate stems from the building’s design. For the past few years, conservatives in the General Assembly have tried to pass a series of bills known as the Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (TRAP), which would require abortion clinics to have extra-wide hallways, elevators and surgery rooms that meet hospital standards. Planned Parenthood has opposed TRAP, saying it’s a sly attempt to force clinics to either make expensive renovations or close. Although TRAP has not passed yet, it’s been getting increasing support in the General Assembly. Planned Parenthood designed the Charlottesville clinic to meet TRAP standards, in case the laws ever pass.

 “We’re not a hospital, nor do we operate as a hospital,” says Holly Hatcher, Planned Parenthood’s director of statewide organizing.

 As she punches a code into one of the electronic locks that guard every door in the clinic, Hatcher reflects on the irony of the situation. Pro-life activists complaining about the clinic’s hospital features also drive the TRAP legislation that makes the features necessary; the same people who worry about protests have protested at the clinic.

 But Hatcher relishes another irony—a group of Planned Parenthood supporters have agreed to donate money to the group for every protestor who pickets the clinic. Last week, as CVFF was planning to protest at the clinic on Saturday, October 16, Planned Parenthood staff was planning to count the protestors and send their supporters a bill. The money will be mostly used to help low-income women cover the $300 cost for an abortion.

 “It’s kind of poetic,” Hatcher says.—John Borgmeyer

Food fright
Supply drops at food banks as demand rises

The sluggish economy has taken an unexpected casualty, namely the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank network, which is experiencing a 14 percent drop in donations compared to this time last year. The operations director, Lyn Hall, says that as of September 30, for a three-month period, the food bank this year had received donations totaling some 787,000 pounds of food, compared to 911,000 pounds of food for the same period last year.

 Blame the economy.

 “Food processors and those in the business of providing food to food banks are, rightly so, looking for ways to increase revenue,” says Blue Ridge Area Food Bank CEO Marty White. “So, they are looking to secondary markets that are paying pennies on the pound as opposed to donating to the nonprofits for nothing.” (Secondary markets include dollar stores or close-out stores, which sell perfectly good items that might not meet the requirements of primary grocery stores.)

 “There’s nothing wrong with that because they’re able to save jobs if they can increase revenue,” White adds. “But at the same time we continue to see the demand for food remain steady and even increase.”

 As a result, Charlottesville’s own Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank, one of four food banks in the Blue Ridge Area network and which provides food to the city of Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Culpeper, Fluvanna, Greene, Madison, Orange and Rappahannock, has been affected.

 At the same time, says Thomas Jefferson Area Food Bank regional manager Sarah Althoff, there is a surge in demand for food bank services. “An increased need is happening because working families are struggling to make ends meet. A big part of that is that minimum wage is not even living wage. So we’ll see one or more members of a household are working, but they are still not able to provide groceries for their family.”

 Authorities say 40 percent of the people using food bank services are working or have someone in their household working. Last month, the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank network served 36,000 people.

 “More and more we see the working class coming in,” says White. “The folks who are working their hardest, not sitting on their porch waiting for a handout, but working one, two, or three jobs. We’ll see people in their [work uniforms] coming to get food before they go to work or standing in line for food after they get off work.”

 Those who visit the food bank can usually expect to find foodstuffs like peanut butter, dried milk and canned salmon from government sources, along with privately donated food like coffee, canned meats and stews and canned fruit.

 Those seeking to donate should know that “We’re actively looking for cereals, meats, canned fruits and vegetables,” says Althoff. Additionally, cash donations are needed.

 “The most staggering thing that we try to get across is: For every dollar donated we are able to provide $17 of food and food services due to our bulk purchasing power,” says Althoff.

 At one time, the federal government played a larger role in supporting local food banks, but “The government has gotten out of the social service industry,” says White, “and what’s taking its place—the churches, soup kitchens, Salvation Army— has always been there and with the increased demands that’s where folks are having to go.

 “The old food bank model is changing. We are having to rely more on the public for donations and food drives.”

 With winter approaching and need predictably on the rise during the colder months, there will likely be no drop-off on referrals to the food bank, even as donations decrease. Sources at the Monticello Area Community Action Agency say that in September alone they referred more than 70 needy people to local food banks.—Victoria Long

Election undercard comes to 29N
Goode and Weed square off in debate at Northside Library

About eight hours before Bush and Kerry began their third and final debate, Virgil Goode Jr. and Al Weed had their own oratory tussle at the Northside Library on Route 29N. The debate on October 13 between Goode, a Republican who represents this district in the U.S. House of Representatives, and Weed, the Democratic challenger, exposed many parallels to the Bush vs. Kerry main event.

 Goode, like Bush, speaks with a common-man twang and inherited the political legacy of his father, with whom he shares his name. Weed shares Vietnam vet cred with Kerry. And, like the Democratic presidential candidate, Weed sometimes meanders in the weeds when trying to explain his positions.

 But the two debates differed in that Goode and Weed each offered arguments that were aggressively straightforward. Goode and Weed came down more firmly than their national counterparts with their stances on gay marriage, abortion, guns, immigration and other issues. To borrow from Bush’s money line in that evening’s debate, the congressional candidates staked out platforms that are on the left and right banks of the “mainstream in American politics”—though defining what exactly is “mainstream” seems impossible in this polarized political season.

 The Northside Library event was also snippier in tone than was the final presidential debate. After Weed took a shot at Goode’s success as a lawyer, Goode cited a harsh C-VILLE Weekly review of the wine Weed produces at his Nelson County winery. (Goode added that C-VILLE is otherwise “all for” Weed. If you missed the newspaper’s endorsement of Weed, that’s because we haven’t published one.)

 Below are snippets from the Goode/Weed debate. Undecided voters, who have been bathed in cloying praise from the media during this election season, might want to just flip a coin if these debate comments don’t help them make up their minds.—Paul Fain

The draft

The candidates were asked if they’d support a military draft if a re-elected President Bush called for one. Weed said he would back the draft in this scenario, but only if the volunteer-only force was “still stuck in Iraq with no way out” and required bulking up. Goode did not directly address the scenario, saying, “We don’t need to go to a draft…we need to maintain an all-volunteer force.”

Health care

Goode said, “Our health care system is still probably the best in the world.” But acknowledging the problem of growing health care costs, Goode supports tax credits for individual and families’ expenses on private health insurance. Goode also stressed the need for tort reform to help limit medical malpractice suits that increase healthcare costs and cause “doctors and hospitals to continually practice defensive medicine.”

 Weed supports a single-payer health care system, which would expand Medicare coverage to all Americans for health care and prescription drugs. “Every other industrialized country has this, but Virgil, and his pals in the drug and health insurance industry, will try to persuade you that health care justice and efficiency is a socialized plot,” Weed said. “I believe you can think for yourselves.”

Gay marriage

Weed supports gay marriage and said Goode and other gay-marriage opponents are seeking to “deny rights to a certain group of Americans” with disingenuous arguments that are bolstered only by “alarmist claptrap.”

 “If you want to legalize homosexual and gay unions, you ought to vote for Al Weed,” Goode said, before vigorously asserting his belief that marriage should be between a man and a woman.

Gun control in D.C.

Congress recently voted to revoke Washington, D.C.’s ban on handguns. Weed disagrees with this vote, stating that Washingtonians should be able to determine the city’s handgun policy without federal intrusion.

 Goode voted for the bill, and said high murder and theft rates exist in D.C. because “all the crooks know that the law-abiding citizens in D.C. can’t protect themselves.”

Metro sexual
Sex and the city life in a new book by UVA student Jane Mendle

In January 2003, while on winter break at home in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, 28-year-old UVA psychology graduate student Jane Mendle had no plans to sit down at the computer and bang out a best seller. But five weeks of vacation and “not really a New Year’s resolution” left her with 76 pages of what would soon become Kissing in Technicolor, published this month by the Avon Trade division of Harper Collins.

 What the layman would call “chick lit,” Harper Collins prefers to classify as “commercial women’s fiction,” according to Mendle. And, in typical Bridget Jones (the ne plus ultra of chick lit) hilarity, the novel comes complete with ridiculous e-mail excerpts and lists of neuroses. The plot follows Columbia University film school graduate student Charlotte Frost and her doomed romance with daytime-TV heartthrob Hank Destin, whom she casts in the lead role of her highbrow thesis film. After Charlie and Hank make whoopie, antics ensue.

 So far, the book has gotten a lot of play, with Publisher’s Weekly, Cosmopolitan and Booklist all pushing it, not to mention the coveted four stars from Seventeen Magazine.

 “I didn’t expect it to end up being as big a deal as it has ended up being,” says Mendle, describing the day she started writing as “just seeming right.”

 With the first 76 pages completed, Mendle—who in a fashion similar to her heroine lived in New York and worked in publishing and film in her early 20s—found herself an agent. Mendle’s agent found her a book deal and cash advance. Admitting the money was “a lot of motivation,” Mendle put in the laptop hours at local coffeehouse Java Java and had her novel wrapped up by November. (Coming full circle, Mendle gives two readings of Kissing in Technicolor at her old haunt on October 28 at 7 and 8:30pm.)

 When talking about her experience, Mendle is visibly astonished by the ease with which a book deal fell into her lap. She is less surprised, however, by the fact that she wrote the thing at all. Always an exacting e-mail correspondent, Mendle believes she simply channeled the energy she devoted to her 9-to-5 correspondence into writing the novel.

 A self-described grammar freak and “voracious reader,” Mendle explains that she was drawn to chick lit because, when she was younger, “there was something…about trashy romance novels…that really resonated” with her.

 The success of Kissing in Technicolor aside, Mendle has no plans to completely forego a career in psychology for the glitzy lifestyle of a best-selling author. She does, however, plan to write again one of these days—perhaps pop psychology, perhaps something else.

 “When and where is unsure,” she says. “But I can’t imagine not ever writing another book.”—Nell Boeschenstein

Tuesday, October 5
New supe’s tests examined

In their fourth public meeting in one week to address new standardized testing, Charlottesville school administrators convened this evening with nearly three-dozen attendees at the Friendship Court meeting room. Under discussion: the “Flanagan” tests, the first major instructional initiative by new city superintendent Scottie Griffin. Acknowledging that the six-week interval between Griffin’s hire and the announcement of the Flanagan mandate did not allow time for teachers to comment on the tests, which have been in use for five years in Albemarle County, Dr. Laura Purnell, assistant superintendent for instruction, further said the “underlying assumption” of Griffin’s action is that “we value” standardized achievement measures. Griffin, who is charged with closing the racial achievement gap in city schools, has been under fire from some highly involved school parents for her management style and programmatic changes. Earlier this year, one city elementary school failed to meet federal educational benchmarks.

Wednesday, October 6
Staff emergency hours expanded

Stony Point area residents and Scottsvillians have less to fear from a daytime emergency after Albemarle Supervisors today adopted a new policy that will put paid rescue workers at the Stony Point Fire Station and Scottsville Rescue Squad, five days a week, 6am to 6pm. The change effectively restricts the hours that volunteer-only squads will respond to emergencies to weekdays after 6pm and weekends. Stony Point’s emergency-response area includes two county elementary schools.

Thursday, October 7
UVA makes the most of its access

Reaching ESPN’s weeknight football audience for the first time since 1997, the Cavs improved their record to 5-0 by pummeling ACC rival Clemson 30-10. The televised win would put Al Groh’s team at sixth in national rankings by week’s end. Meanwhile, during halftime, while 60,000 fans at Scott Stadium enjoyed the soul stylings of The Temptations, TV audiences got their first glimpse at a new commercial promoting “Access UVA,” the school’s innovative financial-aid program that replaces need-based loans with grants to low-income students. The ad features film actor and 1992 UVA grad Sean Patrick Thomas, who wooed Julia Stiles in Save the Last Dance.

Friday, October 8
Virginia is for peepers

The State Department of Transportation today partially reopened the eastbound rest area on I-64 below Afton Mountain, “just in time for the Columbus Day weekend and fall foliage travel,” according to a news release. After heavy rains and flooding damaged the rest center’s wastewater treatment plant two years ago, VDOT closed the building. When it reopened at noon today, the center lacked a full-facility toilet, instead offering motorists the use of Port a-potties.

Applause for local artists

With “you’ve come a long way, baby,” an implicit theme, Piedmont Council of the Arts marked its 25th anniversary with its annual awards dinner this evening at the Omni. Live Arts Artistic Director John Gibson was recognized as Individual Artist of the Year and iconoclastic developer Gabe Silverman with his wife, artist Karen Shea, got the nod as Philanthropists of the Year. Live Arts started 15 years ago in a windowless suite at the back of The Michie Building, a Market Street space owned by Silverman, who kept rent for the community theater group well below market value.

Saturday, October 9
Gunshots follow bar fight

City police responded to early-morning gunshots following a bar fight at West Main, a Starr Hill-area restaurant opened in May by Patrick and Andrew McClure, owners of Corner mainstay The Virginian. According to published reports, witnesses said a man left the bar with a bloody nose shortly after 1am. Within moments, witnesses heard gunshots. Later, shell casings were found in a parking lot near the restaurant.

Sunday, October 10
Funding grows like a weed

Fifth District challenger Al Weed reported today that as of September 30 his campaign to unseat four-term incumbent Republican Congressman Virgil Goode has raised a total of $352,271. According to his staff, Weed is on track to come close to a half-million dollars in campaign contributions by the end of this month. Local supporters have another opportunity to help Weed when folksinger John McCutcheon performs at a fundraiser on Sunday, October 17. Goode, who had raised a total of $442,750 as of June 30, has until Friday to report his latest quarterly receipts.

Monday, October 11
More bricks coming

A pickup truck with a flashing orange light and two men in white hardhats were the only signs that a major construction project had begun this morning on the east side of the Downtown Mall. The extensive undertaking, dubbed “completing the dream” by City officials, will feature a modern-looking transit center and a large covered amphitheater. Also key to the plan is the extension of the Mall’s bricks, a facet that can be seen in a model on display at City Hall.

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

Hablas espanol?
Jail tries to avoid getting lost in translation

A trip to jail is never any fun, but imagine being locked up and unable to communicate.

 As Central Virginia’s Hispanic population grows, so does the number of Spanish speakers who end up in jail. But so far, guards at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail haven’t always been able to communicate with their inmates.

 “Some employees speak Spanish, but they’re not available all the time,” says jail Superintendent Ronald Matthews. “When they’re not, we have to try to communicate, and it can be difficult.”

 This year, the Regional Jail will begin teaching employees to speak Spanish—one of 13 new programs Matthews plans to introduce at the jail. The program will be funded through the jail’s education budget.

 Last week, there were only five Hispanic inmates at the jail. The number fluctuates, says Matthews, but he says the trend of more incarcerated Hispanics—who are still statistically recorded as “white” by the local justice system—has been noticeable at the jail for about a year. He says officers house Spanish speakers together so that bilingual inmates can help interpret.

 That’s not always a reliable method, though.

 “Listen to someone talk for a minute, then try to repeat it. It’s impossible,”says Reuben Marshall, who works forthe International Rescue Committee in Charlottesville, and coordinates interpreter services for local agencies.

 Area courts, schools and social services hire interpreters. Virginia’s Supreme Court keeps a list of interpreters who have passed a State-approved test (although the program that certifies new interpreters has been shut down for three years due to budget cuts). Courts can also get interpreters on the phone 24/7 through Interpretalk, a company with an 800 number that charges a per-minute fee to speak to interpreters.

 City and county police, like the jail, both have officers who speak Spanish, but they are not always on duty.

 “It has potential for serious problems when you’re in a serious situation,” says Charlottesville public defender Jim Hingeley. “It also hampers investigations if the victim is a Spanish speaker.

 “What happens more often than not,” Hingeley says, “is that you have a family member who speaks some English, but you don’t know how accurately the interpretation is taking place.”

 Hingeley acknowledges the political controversy over whether the government ought to spend extra money accommodating Spanish speakers, especially illegal immigrants. “But I think it’s an obligation the government has. It’s something we need to get right,” he says.

 At the Regional Jail, the question is not whether to accommodate Spanish speakers, but the best way to handle what he expects will be an ongoing increase in Hispanic inmates. Matthews, who was hired to introduce a wide range of inmate programs, says communication is not something that should be left to chance. “We want our officers to be prepared,” he says.—John Borgmeyer

Parking knot
Downtown businesses adjust to losing city’s last free parking lot

Last week, 1,500 loyal customers of the C&O received a postcardin the mail from owner Dave Simpson to let them know about the end of a longtime perk: No more free parking in the lot next door while they enjoy a fine French dinner at the long-established Water Street restaurant.

 Indeed, the 40-space lot—the last free one in the city—has been cordoned off as developer Bill Nichtmann preps its transformation into Water Street Plaza, a five-storey, multi-use complex designed by Formwork, a Downtown architect firm. Think retail, offices and condos as the City’s new development mandates take hold.

 No worries, Simpson told customers; he was ready. C&O customers can park in the lot across the street from 5:30pm to 2am.

 He bothered with the mass mailing, Simpson says, because “I think it always is best if, [when] people’s environments are being shifted around, that they get a little heads up about what’s going on.”

 C&O was just one of many businesses at the east end of the Mall to depend on the free lot, however. Terri Gable, owner of Studio Baboo, says that she has been putting out the word on parking alternatives to customers as they stop by.

 Maybe she should be referring people to Bob Stroh, general manager of the Charlottesville Parking Center.

 “When you talk about free parking not being available Downtown, it’s really not true,” he says, referring to the fact that the Water Street parking garage has never reached capacity. “We encourage people to figure out where [the free parking] is, and if you ever have a question I can guarantee you that there’s parking in the Water Street garage.” Many Downtown businessesvalidate garage tickets for two hours of free parking.

 Moreover, after Election Day, the City will open up additional spaces on Market Street behind City Hall and in the Market Street garage for temporary short-term parking.

 Still, Gable and her retail neighbor, Elizabeth Hurka of The Cat House, are concerned about pedestrian business dropping off because of parking glitches and impending construction. And not just from Water Street Plaza. The overhauling of the Amphitheater and building of the new bus transfer station, dubbed Presidents’ Plaza, across from City Hall, both begin next month. But Patty Pribus of the Blue Ridge Country Store, which will soon be right on the edge of the torn asphalt, takes another attitude.

 Ninety percent of her clientele is people who work on the Mall, Pribus says. They’re “here already,” she says, and she doesn’t see why a little construction would change that.

 Plus, “We’ll get more business from the construction workers!”—Nell Boeschenstein

Second act
Former Hanson guitarist rails against monopolies

Back in 1997, Buckingham County resident Ravi was touring with Hanson, the world’s biggest-selling musical act. He played his guitar in front of 40,000 screaming fans at arena performances and even jammed for then President Bill Clinton at a Christmas party at the White House.

 Ravi, 33, is still a professional musician, having recently toured with Suzanne Vega and performed at Live Arts. But the former pop insider has drifted far from the major label-big business side of music. These days he devotes much of his energy to two newsletters in which he bemoans the “mediocrity forced on art” by the “corporate dictatorship” of mega-conglomerates such as Disney and AOL Time Warner.

 So how can a musician who joined three kids from Tulsa on their “MmmBop”-singing, big-label-orchestrated ride complain about The Man?

 “Actually, the industry was very different then,” Ravi says of Hanson’s year of dominance. “My attitude was ‘Wow, the big wheel really does work.’”

 He argues that in 1997, five major labels kept up the competition, and the tour circuit had yet to become dominated by Clear Channel, which produced or promoted 32,000 concerts and events in 2003.

 Ravi admits that there were few drawbacks to playing with a band that was in the midst of selling 8 million copies of its major label debut. He flew from town to town, enjoying each stop as a tourist, his only task to play guitar on stage for a couple hours.

 “I loved it. I had a lot of fun,” Ravi says of tour. “I really lived my childhood dream.”

 But then, in 1998, the wheels fell off. Record labels like Polygram shuttered in a “progressively monopolizing” music industry. Hanson got shuffled around, eventually landing with Def Jam, a hip hop label and hardly an ideal fit. At the same time, the prepackaged horror of the boy-band craze arrived. Though one could say that the gimmicky pop of Hanson augured the rise of ’N Sync and the Backstreet Boys, Ravi and his underage pals were shoved out of the limelight.

 “It was really sad to see that whole thing fall apart,” Ravi says.

 Ravi, who refuses to disclose his last name, because “once you figure out how to say it, you’ll forget my first name,” is a guitar virtuoso whom critics have compared to Eric Clapton and Peter Frampton. But it wasn’t until 1999, when he says “the city of New Orleans slapped me in the face,” that Ravi again focused on his music. After a visit, Ravi moved to the Big Easy, living there as a musician for three years. In a city that he says totally rejects ambition, Ravi regained an appreciation of art that “New York and L.A. will just squeeze out of you.”

 Out of that slower lifestyle, and a growing belief that corporate America is no longer “serving our needs,” Ravi this May began his two Web newsletters— www.cultureofintegrity.org and www.artisticintegrity.org—that he claims now have a combined circulation of about 12,000 readers. In defending his role as a pundit on the sites, which also publish reader feedback, Ravi thinks his experience in a pop juggernaut gives him insight on mega-conglomerates’ growing influence over art and culture.

 “I’ve seen that change, from the inside. Therefore I feel that I can, subjectively, comment on it,” he says.

 Ravi, who moved to the area one year ago, stresses that his viewpoint is not anti-capitalist, pointing to the quality of life and dearth of chains on the Downtown Mall as an example of “healthy capitalism.”

 “We as individuals need to redefine what value is,” Ravi says. “I think that we have to make corporate America react to us.”—Paul Fain

Tuesday, September 28
Serial rapist is black

As of today, local cops can stop scrutinizing Latinos or white men in their search for the serial rapist. (Police reportedly sought DNA samples from two Latino men as part of the DNA dragnet.) Confirmation that the serial rapist is indeed a black man came yesterday, when police released the results of a DNA analysis of crime scene evidence, which found that the culprit’s ancestry is 85 percent Sub-Saharan African, 12 percent European and 3 percent Native American. The low contribution of European and Native American genetic components “will not likely contribute to the appearance of the rapist,” police said in a press release. Also this week, police activated a 24-hour hotline—1-866-405-2519—for tips or other information about the sexual assaults.

Wednesday, September 29
Hurry up and wait

Richard Herskowitz, director of the Virginia Film Festival, today released the lineup for the four-day program, which runs October 28-31. Though the festival, with “Speed” for its theme, will examine “our accelerated culture of fast foods and quick cuts” it will also include the other extreme, featuring techniques used in the “cinema of contemplation,” and hosting a “slow food” brunch at Mas, the Belmont tapas joint. Perhaps the festival’s hottest ticket will be Loren James, cinema badass Steve McQueen’s body double for 23 years, who will discuss the unmatched hill-jumping car chase scene from the McQueen classic, Bullitt.

SNL buys news service

SNL Financial today announced its acquisition of Arlington-based Io Energy, which, in a press release, it calls the “second largest news provider” on the energy industry. The new holding will be part of SNL’s latest brand, SNL Energy.

Thursday, September 30
Living on $217 per week

The Thomas Jefferson Partnership for Economic Development (TJPED) today released a sobering analysis of the local job market. According to the report, while the total number of jobs has increased in the last five years, the new jobs pay 40 percent less than jobs that have been cut in the same time period. For example, the 3,100 manufacturing jobs lost since 1998 paid an average weekly wage of $660 while the 1,671 new jobs in the “retail trade sector” pay an average of only $371 per week. Even worse, the 1,217 jobs in accommodations and food service pay only $217 per week. In a press release, the TJPED warned that this growing gap between highest-income and lowest-income families “will only make housing less ‘affordable.’”

Friday, October 1
Workers assail charter plan

About 50 people rallied today at the Rotunda, speaking against UVA’s plan to emancipate itself from State control. UVA, along with Virginia Tech and William and Mary, are seeking “charter” status, freeing the schools from both State funding and oversight—a politically popular move in light of the General Assembly’s recent fiscal unreliability.

 While charter status could eliminate red tape for UVA’s administration, the move could also change the rules for many of UVA’s workers. The Staff Union at UVA—which called the rally to coincide with a Board of Visitors meeting on Grounds—warns that workers could lose job security if the charter passes. Fueling suspicions that the charter may be unfriendly to workers, UVA officials have yet to release details about the proposal.

Saturday, October 2
Runners support Kerry race

About 200 Left-leaning runners and walkers took to The Park at UVA this morning for the Take Back America ’04-Miler. The gloomy early-morning weather might have been responsible for the middling turnout, but it didn’t stop big Dems like State Sen. Creigh Deeds, Fifth District Congressional candidate Al Weed and Governor Mark R. Warner from stumping at the post-run rally. Warner, bolstered by John Kerry’s strong performance at the first presidential debate and an upswing in Democratic interest in Southside Virginia cities like Danville, said, “Come November 2 the Democrats are going to win Virginia and win back the Fifth District.”

Sunday, October 3
Hi! Welcome to jail!

The normally publicity-shy Charlottesville- Albemarle Regional Jail held an “open house” today. About 30 people showed up to tour the jail and meet thenew superintendent, Ronald Matthews, who replaced the retired John Isom in June.

 Matthews says he was hired to introduce new programs in the jail to teach inmates skills that could prevent recidivism. He plans to introduce 13 new programs, including courses in creative writing, nursing and the culinary arts. He also says jail staff will be able to take Spanish classes to help them communicate with what Matthews says is a growing number of Hispanic inmates.

Monday, October 4
Last-minute voters register

Wannabe voters took full advantage of the local registrar’s services on this, the final day to register to vote in next month’s election. By 10am, the City Registrar’s office, open already 90 minutes, had assisted 45 people. “We have just been hopping,” said Deputy Registrar Lori Krizek. Over at the comparable County office, Registrar Jackie Harris, said, “the phone started ringing off the hook” at about 7:15am. Many grassroots organizations have been energetic in rounding up new voters.

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

Party on
College Dems, Republicans ramp up to election

Ali Ahmad is psyched. It’s 8pm, and he’s ready to lead the people. “We need these little, surgical strikes into the heart of liberal academia,” he says. “Who’s up for this?” The people whoop and cheer.

 The people are about 40 of UVA’s College Republicans. Ahmad, their 21-year-old president, is a senior economics major and a true conservative believer. Dressed in a rumpled t-shirt and flip-flops, Ahmad certainly doesn’t match the stereotype of the loafer-sporting, bow-tied Wahoo Republican (in fact, there’s nary a tassled loafer in sight at this meeting). But the wide-eyed, perpetually grinning Ahmad exudes what is perhaps the most intangible, most valuable quality for any would-be politico: buckets of boundless enthusiasm.

 With the election four weeks away, both national parties have brought in the heavy firepower—attack ads, smears, dodges—the kind of tactics that make you wonder how Republicans and Democrats will ever manage to cooperate on the public’s business once the election is over.

 At UVA, too, the competition is heating up. Both the College Republicans and a group called “Cavs ’04 Kerry” have both been going door-to-door on Grounds, trying to uncover Bush and Kerry supporters who might need an absentee ballot or want to join the group. Such canvassing is actually against the rules at UVA. But this is politics, baby. It’s winner take all, and only losers follow the rules.

 Ahmad’s rival is Katie Cristol, the hyper-involved leader of Cavs ’04 Kerry. She’s also a columnist for The Cavalier Daily, a member of Chi Omega sorority, a “sustained dialogue moderator,” and a “sexual assault peer advocate.” And, grin for grin, Cristol’s enthusiasm is on par with Ahmad’s.

 While acknowledging that negative campaigning can turn off voters in either party, both Cristol and Ahmad seem primed on the rush of competition.

 “UVA is a competitive school,” Cristol says. “We want our football team to take names, we want to be at the top of our class and we want our presidential candidate to kick ass. My brother has fantasy football; I follow the Senate races.”

 Aside from the unsanctioned canvassing, each group is organizing events and trips to push its candidate both on Grounds and in other states. On Sunday, September 26, Cavs ’04 Kerry held a concert and rally at the UVA amphitheater, and the group plans a trip to West Virginia to help with that state’s voter turnout efforts. Later this month, the College Republicans will be campaigning in Pennsylvania, which stands to be closely contested.

 At a meeting on Wednesday, September 29, Ahmad asked for volunteers to roam the streets of Charlottesville with him on the night of November 1, saying that he heard “Left-wing nutzos” are planning to tear down Bush campaign materials. “We can get some fireworks or BB guns,” Ahmad says.

 (If any vandalism happens, it won’t be the handiwork of Cavs ’04 Kerry, says Cristol. “I think we have better things to do,” she says.)

 Until then, Ahmad outlines the night’s plan—College Republicans will fan out to some of UVA’s dorms, knocking on doors, unearthing potential Bush voters and helping them acquire absentee ballots. Ahmad’s group, which includes senior Doug Webber and a reporter, starts knocking on doors at Courtenay, a dorm on Alderman Road.

 If you listen to Ahmad, you’d think UVA is swimming in liberals; listening to Cristol, you get the impression she feels besieged by conservatives. On the all-male first floor of Courtenay,at least, it’s about even. Nearly everyone identifies himself as “moderate,” and out of about 16 students the Republicans talk to, the split is even between Bush and Kerry supporters.

 Finally, a student takes exception to the canvassing and asks the Republicans to leave. “Cavs ’04 Kerry is doing it,” says Ahmad.

 “That doesn’t make it right,” replies the ticked off ‘Hoo.

 Ahmad grins and reaches to shake his hand, but the complainer heads back to his room. “Hey,” says Ahmad, leaving with a wave, “that’s what separates us from the terrorists.”—John Borgmeyer

Patent pending
Mothers and fathers of invention gather monthly

It’s been about 10 years since Christopher de Janasz’s nephew dunked a $50 clicker for a garage-door opener into a container of juicer, getting de Janasz thinking about a simpler, tidier means to indoor vehicle storage. In southern California at the time, working at a family piston-ring manufacturing business, de Janasz hit upon the idea of embedding a remote device in the high-beam switch, and enlisted a pair of engineers to build a prototype. Soon, he had a licensing agreement with Stanley Door Systems, then a division of Stanley Works. But at about the same time that business unit was sold to another company, and de Janasz’s deal got shredded among all the moving parts in the transition.

 Relocating to central Virginia in 1998 with his wife, an academic who’d gotten a job at James Madison University, de Janasz dedicated himself full-time to getting his invention off the ground. But after six months or so developing a business plan and struggling for financing in the awkward space somewhere between small business loans of a few thousand dollars and the voluptuous world of venture capital funding—and facing pressure from a spouse losing her patience—de Janasz made a retreat from the world of the self-employed and got a regular job.

 It was around this time that de Janasz came across the Blue Ridge Inventors Club. “One time somebody there jokingly called it ‘group therapy,’” he says now. “That’s kind of what I use it for.”

 The Inventors Club was founded in 1995 by longtime friends Richard Britton, a physicist and the holder of several patents, and Mac Woodward, a former teacher and inventor who traces his interest in the field to his uncle, who served as commissioner of patents under Franklin Roosevelt. Woodward and Britton, who are in the process of handing off responsibility for the club to a younger generation, are currently at work to bring to market a solution that dissolves hypodermic needles as an environmentally safe alternative for the disposal of medical waste.

 Acting club president Linda Uihlein, the proprietor of Em Paks, a recently launched seller of emergency-preparedness kits, says the basic mission of the organization is “to encourage and help independent inventors bring their products to the world.” Meeting on the third Wednesday of each month, the club offers like-minded members the opportunity to confabulate, share and vet ideas and projects (protected by a confidentiality statement signed at the beginning of each session), and seek advice and resources from a group with a diverse set of experiences and areas of expertise.

 Members in particular point to Woodward as a knowledgeable and well-connected authority on the invention process, including gaining patents and seeking financing and partnerships with manufacturers and marketing organizations.

Meetings have lately been held at Woodward’s residence, with four to eight members typically attending, according to Uihlein. On a recent Wednesday, the proceedings were primarily made up of a roundtable presentation of members’ ongoing projects. Elbert Dale, retired from the Air Force, said he’d made initial patent filings for a collar fitting designed to protect Husqvarna weed eaters from clogging with grass, about which he intends to approach the Swedish manufacturer. Mark Wilson, a designer, gave an account of his ergonomic tableware venture. Dubbed “Curvware,” the line is a radical departure from traditional utensil forms and aims at bio-mechanically friendly function, calling upon “gross motor movements” from users as opposed to “fine motor movements.” Gerry Sackett, a builder for 35 years, demonstrated his “self-storing component brace,” a metal brace that attaches to beams before they are put in place as trusses, rafters or joists, and effortlessly pivots to secure them in the structure, simplifying construction in awkward, high places, for instance.

 After a year at regular work, de Janasz returned to his garage-door transmitter with some savings, and was serendipitously approached by Harley Davidson, which was developing a similar aftermarket application for its motorcycles. Harley Davidson now licenses his patent for the high-beam switch. Currently selling automobile devices (which he has manufactured in China) under his “Flash2Pass” brand through the Internet and specialty catalogs, and seeking shelf space at major retailers, de Janasz still describes his company as “tiny, in the struggling, start-up mode.” But after a decade of perseverance, de Janasz has finally achieved firm footing and is optimistic about his prospects. Next up: an entree to the gated community market with a pilot program at the Glenmore development.—Harry Terris

Back waters
Council spares big developer on water quality

Last week, City Council decided to cut developers some slack regarding a new water quality ordinance Council passed on September 20.

 The ordinance protects Meadow Creek, Moore’s Creek and the Rivanna River by requiring developers to maintain 100-foot buffers between their projects and the waterways. If construction must affect the river, developers must make up for it by improving a stream somewhere else—a process called “mitigation.”

 The ordinance had been in the works for months, and according to the City’s Nieghborhood Development Services, 37 site plans were submitted just before Council voted on the ordinance.

 When Councilors passed the ordinance last month by a vote of 4-1, they decided that the new rules should take effect immediately. This meant that the ordinance would affect about 13 projects that had already been submitted to NDS. Councilor Rob Schilling said that was unfair, and voted against the ordinance.

 Last week, Mayor David Brown, seemingly subject to buyer’s remorse, called a special meeting on Monday, September 27, and urged Council to change its mind. “I was feeling uneasy with the fairness to people who entered the planning process under a set of assumptions,” says Brown.

 Councilors Blake Caravati and Schilling agreed, and with a 3-2 vote Council concluded that the new water ordinance would not apply to site plans already submitted to NDS. Councilors Kevin Lynch and Kendra Hamilton stuck to their original view that the ordinance should take effect immediately.

 The flip-flop was no doubt spurred in large part by a site plan submitted on September 17 by the Cox Company, which aims to put a “big box” store and parking lot at the northwest corner of Hydraulic Road and the 250 Bypass (currently occupied by Dominion Virginia Power). The site plan puts Meadow Creek, which flows through the southwest corner of the 15-acre project, in a culvert beneath a parking lot.

 No tenant has been announced for the site—which still must be approved by the City and the State Department of Environmental Quality.

 Courting developers to the Dominion site has been a City priority for some time, says Lynch. But he says he felt “ill served” by NDS staff.

 “They let the plan in under the wire,” says Lynch. “They knew we were working on this ordinance, and they didn’t raise the issue with councilors, and didn’t hold the developer to a higher standard.”

 NDS Director Jim Tolbert says the Cox Company didn’t get any special treatment. “I understand the frustration,” says Tolbert. “But until we get a plan in, we don’t talk about it publicly.”—John Borgmeyer

Tuesday, September 14
Presidential hopeful on Grounds

Paying his first-ever visit to “Mr. Jefferson’s University,” Libertarian Party presidential candidate Michael Badnarik, who will be on Virginia’s November 2 ballot, smoothly courted a crowd of about 200 college students—and a few other types—in a balloon-decorated campus auditorium this evening. Befitting a self-declared defender of the Constitution, Badnarik invoked TJ’s name more frequently than either of his major party rivals. He anticipated the spoiler issue, saying to the polite crowd in his prepared remarks that “the only wasted vote is one you cast for a candidate you do not respect.”

Wednesday, September 15  
More props for UVA

UVA may no longer be able to brag about being the No. 1 public university—having been leapfrogged on the U.S. News & World Report list by U.C. Berkeley—but it can tout its new ranking as one of the “50 Best Colleges for CosmoGIRL!s.” Editors of CosmoGIRL! magazine consulted with guidance counselors and admissions offices and looked at six key factors, including the number of prominent female faculty members and the strength of women’s sports programs, to determine the ranking. The list won’t boost UVA’s overall ranking, however, as U.C. Berkeley is a CosmoGIRL! hotspot as well.

Thursday, September 16
Worth a nickel?

The same visage of Thomas Jefferson has graced the front of the 5-cent piece since 1938. But the design for the 2005 nickel, which was released by the U.S. Mint today, zooms in closer to Jefferson’s face. Even more shocking is news that Monticello has been bumped on the back of the nickel for pictures of a bison and view of the Pacific, according to the Associated Press. Monticello was previously replaced on two 2003 nickel pressings, which also featured Lewis and Clark-themed scenes. The two new nickel designs will only be minted for one year, with Monticello’s hallowed arches landing back on the coin in 2006.

Friday, September 17
The best is yet to come

Tony Bennett, who famously croons, “I left my heart in San Francisco,” will be the first performer to hit the stage at the reopening of the Paramount Theater. The new schedule, released today, begins with Bennett at a “pre-opening fundraising gala” on December 16. The official opening comes two days later with a day of classic movies and 25-cent admissions. The Paramount’s first season, which unfortunately includes “1-800-CALL-ATT” star Carrot Top, brings a fairly wide range of acts, such as Broadway musicals, dance performances, country star Ricky Skaggs and the Duke Ellington Orchestra.

Saturday, September 18
Tornado alley

As the remnants of Hurricane Ivan blew through the area on Friday, the spinning of the powerful storm spawned at least 40 tornadoes across Virginia—far more than the state receives in a typical year—according to a statement issued today by the Virginia Department of Emergency Management. Gov. Mark R. Warner declared a state of emergency, the third such weather-related declaration in five weeks. The twisters spared Charlottesville and Albemarle, but slammed many areas along the Route 29 corridor, including Greene County, where the storm destroyed four homes and damaged 65.

Sunday, September 19
Bashing the conservative media

Liberal group MoveOn.org helped director Robert Greenwald produce a documentary on Fox News Channel, called Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch’s War on Journalism, which sold 100,000 DVDs this summer. MoveOn has been screening the movie around the country, and today showed it at the Charlottesville Ice Park to 150 attendees as part of a fundraiser for Sen. John Kerry. In his review of the film, Washington Post film critic Desson Thomson describes how one Fox reporter claims to have been suspended for airing footage from a poorly attended event at Ronald Reagan’s presidential library. “This kind of firsthand, detailed testimony,” Thomson writes, “even in the context of a liberally biased film, is not easy to dismiss as propaganda or the lamentations of the fired and disgruntled.” The event raised $2,000 for MoveOn’s political action committee.

Monday, September 20
Commonwealth’s top poet

Though the appointment isn’t quite as cool as being Poet Laureate of the U.S., which she was during two years of the Clinton Administration, UVA poet Rita Dove today is sworn in as Virginia’s Poet Laureate in a ceremony in Charlottesville’s U.S. Courthouse and Federal Building. Dove, a Commonwealth Professor of English at UVA, won a Pulitzer Prize in 1987. The publisher’s abstract on her latest book of poems, American Smooth, says Dove “pay[s] homage to our kaleidoscopic cultural heritage—from the glorious shimmer of an operatic soprano to Bessie Smith’s mournful wail, from paradise lost to angel food cake, from hotshots at the local shooting range to the Negro jazz band in World War I whose music conquered Europe before the Allied advance.”

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

ELECTION WATCH
Take a stand for your man

Can’t decide about the upcoming 5th District election? Take our helpful quiz

We keep hearing so much about undecided voters—the folks who don’t care a lick about a candidate’s policies, his personal history or stance on the issues. They vote from the gut, for the candidate whom they “relate to,” or “identify with.”

 If you’re not sure whether you’d rather have a beer with 5th District Congressman Virgil Goode, a Republican, or his Democratic challenger, Al Weed, take the following quiz and find your man.

You know you’re voting for Virgil Goode if:

…you’re a Democrat. No wait, you’re an Independent—no, wait, you’re a Republican.

…you learned how to identify with the trials and tribulations of hard-working Americans—at UVA law school.

…your favorite fruit is tobacco.

…the only Spanish you want to hear is “Taco Bell.”

…your idea of an economic recovery is a community yard sale.

…you think Bush is a sissy if he doesn’t send our kids to Damascus and Paris once they’re done in Tehran.

…Rhett Butler is your idea of a real man.

You know you’re voting for Al Weed if:

…your idea of a fundraiser involves breaking open a piggy bank and counting the change.

…Robutussin is what you call fine wine. (Just kidding, Al—we love ya!)

…your idea of a good time is field-stripping an M-16 and then working for 12 hours on your farm.

…your cell phone ring plays “The Fighting Green Berets.”

…you’ve heard all the 4:20 jokes and they’re just not funny anymore.

…you carry pictures of Meredith Richards, Al Gore and Michael Dukakis in your wallet.

…you get most of your news from Al Franken.

Blinded by the light
“Improved” wireless tower stirs up Ashcroft neighbors

The door to Diane Gregory’s ridge-top home in the Ashcroft subdivision of Albemarle County swings open to reveal a spacious living room. Clearly visible from the front stoop, through the windows at the back of the house, is a dark tower with a flashing white light.

 Gregory noticed a dramatic change in the tower, which sports equipment for six wireless telephone companies, in February. The previous structure “looked like a stick with a dull red light on it,” Gregory says. After Valentine’s Day weekend, however, a shorter tower that was substantially thicker and featured a powerful flashing beacon had replaced it.

 “At night, the whole neighborhood was lit up like a firecracker was going off,” Gregory says.

 Alan Higgins, who lives to the east of the tower in Boyd’s Tavern, likens the early effect of the new beacon to “a mild lightning flash” in his bedroom. “It drove us crazy,” he says.

 Gregory and Higgins aren’t the only county residents to notice the altered tower, which stands to the south of Ashcroft and about a mile northeast of where 250 East hits I-64. But to the Albemarle County Supervisors, who approved the tower construction in March 2002, the new tower was meant to be an improvement on the old one.

 After a few days and several complaints, the strobe was turned down and switched to a standard red light during evening hours. But though the light is now less blinding, Gregory is still irked by the more obtrusive tower.

 “If I had seen that tower, I’m not sure I would’ve bought this home,” says Gregory, who moved to the swanky neighborhood two years ago.

 It’s probably too late for Gregory and her neighbors to do anything about the tower, which is owned by Boston-based American Tower Corporation. According to Stephen Waller, a senior planner for the County, American Tower has complied with the County’s conditions and the tower facility has passed “final inspections.”

 Yet the tower has a particularly contentious history, and is illustrative of the challenge Albemarle faces in balancing wireless coverage with ugly towers that block its famous rural vistas. Wireless antennas are discussed often during Planning Commission meetings, with Waller estimating that two to four applications for new wireless facilities are filed each month. American Tower alone owns 11 towers in Charlottesville and Albemarle.

 Originally built in the 1960s for radio, the Ashcroft tower was 296′ tall and comprised a latticework of thin bars. American Tower, which bought the structure from Eure Communications in June 1999, wanted to rent space for more wireless antennas than the old tower could support. The company began negotiating with County planners for a new tower at the Ashcroft site, but eventually submitted a compromise plan: They would keep the original tower by building reinforcements around it while also cutting it down by 36′.

 That plan didn’t cut it for the County Planning Commission, however, which nixed the application in February 2002, calling the tower “highly visible” and inconsistent with the County’s wireless zoning policies.

 “You can put earrings on a pig, but it’s still a pig,” said Planning Commissioner Pete Craddock before voting against the tower, according to minutes from the meeting.

 American Tower had better luck a month later with County Supervisors, who, in March 2002, approved the tower construction. Valerie Long, a local lawyer who represented American Tower during the Supes’ lengthy debate, argued that the tower would not be “any more visible than the existing tower” because of its reduced height and design enhancements that would give it a “a narrower profile.”

 Homeowner Diane Gregory scoffs at this claim, and her complaints are bolstered by the tower’s thick dossier in the County Office Building. A diagram of the extensive reinforcing bars shows a structure that is clearly wider and less transparent than its predecessor. Also in the file is a description of the state-of-the art beacon, which is designed to beam only straight out and above the horizon, signaling to aircraft but not shining at the ground around the tower. The bummer for Gregory and other Ashcroft residents is that most of their neighborhood sits on a ridge about 250 feet above the tower site—directly at eye level with the beacon.

 “It was sort of obvious that they did not think it through,” says Ashcroft resident Dot Kelly of the changes to the tower.

 Asked if County Supervisors were sufficiently warned about the aesthetic effect of the new tower, attorney Long offers a short pro forma statement from American Tower. To wit, the company has complied with County rules and tower neighbors are welcome to review the tower site’s files at the planning office.

 Stephen Waller, who indeed reviewed the tower application, says it’s hard to gauge what a tower will look like or whose view it might obstruct when considering a design on paper.

 “Anything that you’re looking at in the planning situation, you’re going to have to look at the tradeoffs,” Waller says. “There’s no way to visit every site in the County where this site is visible from.”—Paul FainIn the last U.S. presidential election, more than half of eligible voters didn’t turn out at the polls. Kind of makes you wonder how America can truly be called a democracy when 100 million people aren’t participating in one of our most democratic processes. You can help get outthe vote. The Charlottesville/Albemarle headquarters for the campaigns of George W. Bush and John F. Kerry need volunteers.

 The Democratic headquarters, located at 309 Water St., is trying to get folks to knock on every door in the city and county, handing out voter registration forms and promotional materials about Kerry along the way. Volunteers are also needed to staff tables at Fridays After 5 and the City Market on Saturdays, as well as to make reminder phone calls on Election Day and give rides to the polls. Call the Democratic headquarters at 296-1865.

 The Republican headquarters, located at the end of Holiday Drive, has plenty of volunteer opps, too. Help is needed with get-out-the-vote phone calls, rides to the polls and administrative tasks. Contact the Republican headquarters at 974-1617.

City schools
blowup blows over?

It was, as Dr. Scottie Griffin says, an “almost insane” few days. Just four weeks into the school year and three months since she assumed her new post as superintendent of city schools, Griffin became the focus of a flurry of strongly-worded e-mails from parents that were widely circulated among teachers, parents and the media over the September 11 weekend.

 Some of these complaints, which focused on specific policy moves as well as management style, rankled school officials and leaders in the African-American community who thought parents had unfairly targeted Griffin, Charlottesville’s first black superintendent.

 At a jam-packed and emotional School Board meeting on Thursday, September 16, parent Jenny Ackerman acknowledged the “divisive and hurtful effect” of some of the e-mails, including a widely posted laundry list of complaints that she and her husband had authored, adding, “we understand that the debate cannot take on personal or racial overtones.”

 After Ackerman’s apology, School Board Chairperson Dede Smith expressed the Board’s “100 percent” support for Griffin, who then briefly spoke. Two hours of public statements followed, several of which touched on the race issue.

  A smattering of boos and hisses greeted Dr. M. Rick Turner, Dean of African-American Affairs at UVA, when he said that people who have criticized Griffin’s initiatives “really can’t accept the color of her skin.”

 Rev. Alvin Edwards, a former mayor, took a more instructive tone, saying the “disturbing e-mails” contained “harsh rhetoric that can and will divide our community.”—Paul Fain

Big bid-ness
Taking chances at the City auction

Clyde Nicholson is a large, round man with a boonie hat covering his gray-streaked hair and a shirt pocket stuffed with an eyeglasses case, pens and a toothbrush. From the back pocket of his pants he pulls out a creased newspaper. That’s where he saw an ad listing the two late-model Chevy pickups that brought him here today to the city yard on Fourth Street for Charlottesville’s annual public auction.

 Nicholson, a Vietnam veteran, is no stranger to the auction game. A used furniture dealer with a shop in the nearby Shenandoah Valley town of Grottoes, he entered the trade after retiring from the Army in 1980.

 “I buy everything at auctions,” he says.

 In fact, the work truck he’s looking to replace he bought at auction nearly 10 years ago for $800. He says that truck paid for itself the next day when he used it to haul away a solid mahogany chest of drawers he got a deal on—auction quarry, yet again.

 Still, even for an experienced hand, auctions involve a roll of the dice. “You can’t keep track of all the things going on,” Nicholson says when asked about trying to read competing bidders and the danger of buying bum equipment at “as is” terms of sale. “People who say they never got burned are lying.”

 The City of Charlottesville’s auction last Tuesday, September 14, offered a chance at bargains on scores of vehicles and large equipment pieces. Pickups, retired police cruisers, transit buses, tractors, rider mowers, a strikingly conspicuous black police stakeout van, a Sullair compressor with a very rusty jackhammer and a 1985 Tennant street sweeper were among the items up for bidding. Conditions ranged from a pair of total wrecks good only for scrap metal to new-looking rides ready for a spin.

 The City’s Office of Procurement and Risk Management is charged with selling off equipment that’s been replaced, and holds a weekly sale of smaller items at fixed, non-negotiable prices. (In part because smaller budgets have reduced turnover in City inventory, the sales will likely be moved to a monthly schedule in October or November.) Certain items of greater value are from time to time posted at an eBay store the City maintains. But the vast majority of proceeds are raised through the annual big-ticket auction, which this year netted about $92,000 from about 250 registered bidders, compared with last year’s $60,000. This year, everything offered was sold, except for a single transit bus.

 As the sale worked its way down rows of wares, each new vehicle was announced by a revving of the engine—at least those that could turn over. To the unschooled ear, the cant of the auctioneer’s team was a tensing stream of syllables. Is he calling out the last bid or setting a benchmark for the next one? “TwocanIgohalf.” Two thousand? Two hundred? Half of what? Who’s the other guy bidding? If I can’t see him I can’t size him up. If I look too hard he’ll see into my mind.

 In the end, Nicholson didn’t get his truck. The first sold for $4,800, well above his desired range. The second went for $3,000, and Nicholson regretted not making a stronger play for it the instant the lot closed. “That truck’s worth $3,100,” he said. “I was just stuck on $2,700. Gonna dwell on this one for a while.”—Harry Terris

Tuesday, September 7
Ballot blues for Ralph

The Virginia Board of Elections today gave Ralph Nader the official thumbs down in the independent candidate’s quest to be on the state’s presidential ballot this November, ending weeks of partisan hand-wringing. Both election officials and a Washington Post review deemed that Nader’s troops broke the rules in scoring the needed 10,000 signatures to get their man on the ballot.

Wednesday, September 8
Road warriors

The red lights and traffic on U.S. 29 aggravate people from Warrenton to Danville. Today, about 60 bigwigs from up and down the U.S. 29 corridor came to Charlottesville to talk about improvingthe road at a “Route 29 Summit.” Reportedly, much of the discussion, and the disagreements, focused on the hated stretch of the road around Charlottesville, and proposals included bypasses on either side of the city and a various gas taxes to pay for construction.

Thursday, September 9
Nice day for a swim?

Members of local rescue squads were seen scanning the Rivanna River around noon today, looking for a man who reportedly jumped into the swollen, fast-moving river somewhere near the Free Bridge. However, City spokesperson Maurice Jones says the initial report is that witnesses spotted the man getting out of the river near Riverview Park, getting into his car and driving off.

Friday, September 10
Lawyer angry over man’s treatment

Kerry Cook, a Fluvanna County man who was shot by police during a violent encounter at Friendship Court on August 21, has emerged from a coma and currently is listed in fair condition at UVA Medical Center. Civil rights attorney Debbie Wyatt, who is representing Cook, tells C-VILLE she is upset with Charlottesville police and the City Commonwealth Attorney’s office for, as she claims, officers attempting to interview her client at the hospital despite her request that he be left alone until he is healthier. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman says he can’t comment on his office’s actions regarding the incident until a “comprehensive and impartial investigation is completed.” Wyatt says her client is “vulnerable” and that “he is in fear that his life is in danger.” Cook is in the custody of the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, and, according to Wyatt, was to be discharged and taken to the jailsite today. Wyatt, who saw Cook on Wednesday, says his injuries, which include a stomach wound she describes as “pretty huge,” are too serious for him to be taken to the jail. She says Cook was granted a reprieve from the hospital discharge because he has developed a fever in recent days.

Saturday, September 11
Bradshaw shines for Marshall

Though the UVA football team hardly needed extra help in their 56-24 stomping of UNC, one of their former recruits also had a big game at an even bigger venue today. Ahmad Bradshaw, a freshman from Bluefield, Virginia, was tossed off the UVA football team shortly after a booze-related arrest near the Rotunda. Today, he had a team-leading 81 rushing yards for unranked Marshall University in a barnburner against football powerhouse Ohio State University. Playing in front of 104,622 fans in Columbus, Ohio, OSU eked out a last-second win with a 55-yard field goal.

Sunday, September 12
Short-changed no more?

The State of Virginia pays about $9,700 for each in-state student attending UVA. But the University of North Carolina and the University of Michigan, two comparable top-flight state schools, get $22,484 and $19,213 from their respective home states, according to The Virginian-Pilot. In response to Virginia’s funding shortcomings, The Daily Progress’ Bob Gibson today reports that UVA, Virginia Tech and The College of William & Mary have begun a full court press for more fiscal freedom through a charter system.

Monday, September 13
No honeymoon for superintendent

A major spat may be brewing over the direction in which Dr. Scottie Griffin, the new Charlottesville superintendent, and the School Board is steering city schools. During the weekend and this morning, parents and teachers circulated lengthy e-mails that denounce Griffin’s initiatives and management style and call for complaints to be aired at this Thursday’s school board meeting. “Morale among teachers and school administrators is rock bottom. We will not stand aside idly while they polish their resumés,” write parents Jenny and Karl Ackerman in one of the much-posted e-mails. Among the “upheaval and wholesale restructuring” by Griffin and the School Board that rankle the Ackermans are the removal of Deputy Superintendent Arletta Dimberg, a “gag order” on teachers, the discarding of a reading program (PALs), and a supposed singular focus on the SOL standardized test scores. At press time, School Board member Julie Gronlund responded to the charges via e-mail, defending Griffin’s "proven ability as a collaborative leader."

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

Is that a rocket in your pocket?
Pocketbike rider happy to see new rules

When Ben Purdy was a sophomore at Charlottesville High School, he went “nuts” over a neighbor’s new Honda Interceptor motorcycle. When the rest of his classmates were getting their first cars—or, as Purdy calls them, “coffins”—he got a Honda VTR 250.

 “If you haven’t ridden a bike yet, you haven’t lived, man.” Purdy says. “It’s like riding a horse. Humans were meant to be on top of something and just riding it.”

 Purdy’s latest obsession, however, seems at odds with his enthusiasm for straddling unbridled horsepower. He was one of the first people in Charlottesville to own a “pocketbike,” a super-tiny motorcycle a mere three feet long and 20 inches high. It looks like a clown’s bike, powered by the same kind of engine that runs a weed whacker.

 About six months ago, a friend of Purdy’s discovered the bikes for sale on the Internet for $400 each. He and his friends bought five, tinkering with them to boost their speed. They raced the pocketbikes in local parking lots, hitting top speeds of about 35 miles per hour. Since then, the bikes have appeared at several local retailers.

 Purdy’s parking lot race sessions have caught the attention of passers-by—including the police.

 “We were riding at McIntire Park, and the cops asked us to quit scaring the children,” says Purdy. “Apparently, we were riding too close to the playground. I died laughing, though, because they sent three cars to talk to us.”

 Because pocketbikes are equipped with engines that displace less than 50 cubic centimeters, and because their top speed is less than 30 mph—in their unmodified form—they are classified as mopeds by Virginia law and are therefore street legal. That means riders do not have to weara helmet nor obtain a special license, and the machines do not need headlights or state tags.

 That will change soon, however. On Tuesday, September 7, Charlottesville City Council gave tentative approval to an ordinance requiring moped riders to wear helmets, and to obtain a license from the City Treasurer. There will be a second vote on the ordinance at Council’s next meeting, on September 27.

 While pocketbikes will fall under the law, it appears to be aimed primarily at the scooters proliferating around the city. According to City documents, police have received numerous complaints about noise from the vehicles—exacerbated by owners who remove the muffler to gain horsepower—as well as about reckless driving.

 Purdy applauds more safety regulations. Scooters, he said, have become hazardous. “I saw some guy carrying his baby sister on one the other day,” says Purdy. “He was going full throttle, and his front wheel was going like this,” he says, making a wobbly motion with his hand.

 “Safety is good,” says Purdy, offering this advice to any motorcycle riders: “Always be scared on it. When you lose that, you’re about to die.”

Beach bitchin’

This summer, Virginia Beach sent nasty letters to City Police Chief Tim Longo, complaining that Charlottesville cops are unfairly ticketing Virginia Beach residents. On Tuesday, City Council basically told the coastal crybabies to take a long walk off one of those short piers.

 In 2003, Virginia Beach stopped issuing local car decals, which indicate that people have paid their local property taxes. Around here, not having a decal earns you a ticket from Charlottesville’s men and women in blue.

 People who get an unfair ticket can write or call the City Treasurer and have the fine dismissed. That’s apparently too much trouble for Virginia Beach’s commissioner of revenue and city attorney, who in April sent letters to Longo asking his department to simply stop ticketing stickerless car owners.

 That ain’t gonna happen—the City’s decals sell for 25 bucks, and they help the City collect property taxes, says Deputy City Attorney Lisa Kelley. Longo says it would be unsafe for officers to tie up police radios checking out a car’s city of origin. For now, the City will stay status quo and hope Virginia Beach doesn’t try to sue.

 “I’m not inclined to jump through hoops for Virginia Beach,” said Councilor Rob Schilling during the Council meeting.

Remembering Herman Key

Also on Tuesday, current and former members of the City Planning Commission asked Council to consider renaming a street or a building to honor Herman Key, who died in June at age 39.

 They suggested renaming the 9th/10th streets connector for Key, a Fifeville resident who served on a wide variety of City boards and committees, most recently as Vice Chair of the Planning Commission.

 Key also captained the Charlottesville Cardinals Wheelchair Basketball team; his fellow commissioners further suggested renaming the Downtown Recreation Center in his honor.

 Council opted to schedule and advertise a public meeting in the Fifeville neighborhood to discuss how best to memorialize Key.—John Borgmeyer

Chain reaction
Supes give green light to two big boxes south of city

The tide was turning against Coran Capshaw’s proposed Fifth Street/ Avon Street development, which is slated for woodland between the two roads just south of the city’s borders and north of I-64. Project designer Frank Cox and Steve Blaine, who was representing the band manager and real estate magnate’s New Era Properties, watched helplessly as County Supervisors wrangled over preserving old-growth trees and limiting square footage for big boxes.

 But then Lindsay Dorrier Jr., who chairs the Supes, reminded his colleagues of how Panorama Farms developer Jim Murray failed in his controversial proposal to bring Wal-Mart to the same spot back in 1999.

 “I don’t want to have a repeat of that [failure],” Dorrier said. Earlier, during the September 8 meeting, Dorrier had stressed that the 90-acre Capshaw development would pull traffic off of 29N and create a necessary transportation link in the proffered connector road between Fifth and Avon streets.

 A few minutes later, County Attorney Larry Davis deftly proposed compromise language, and a deal had been struck.

 “We can live with that,” an assuredly relieved Blaine said of the new comprehensive plan amendment for the site, which was then unanimously approved.

 The compromise means a Lowe’s and a Target or two similar big boxes are likely to be built at the site, which was given the green light for far more big box space than County planners had suggested. Though Capshaw’s reps were careful to say that no deals have been brokered with retailers, store prototypes for a large home-improvement store and a discount retailer were the basis of the requests by his team.

 The Supes approved 300,000 square feet of big box space at the site, which would allow for the typical 170,000 square foot Lowe’s and 130,000 square foot Target (roughly the same size as the Wal-Mart on 29N). If these chains aren’t part of the mix as the development moves through rezoning, similar big box retailers such as Home Depot or Costco will likely get the nod.

 “I think the site would easily accommodate two substantial big boxes,” said Frank Cox of the 50 developable acres among the wooded, hilly land. Besides big box chains, Cox and Blaine say a large grocery store, restaurants and a drug store will likely be part of the development.

 Blaine told Supervisors before the public hearing, which drew zero speakers, that a Wal-Mart study had found that 62 percent of shoppers at the 29N Wal-Mart indicated that they would shop at a new store at this spot. Though Blaine mentioned the study only to tout the potential traffic benefits and repeatedly asserted that no tenants are booked for the site, his mention of Wal-Mart prompted The Daily Progress to speculate that the mega-retailer might open a second area store—raising the possibility of another ruckus like the Wal-Mart battle of 1999.

 But in an interview with C-VILLE, Coran Capshaw puts to rest any Wal-Mart worries.

 “There’s no intent to build a Wal-Mart,” Capshaw says. “There’s no secret there’s interest on their part. I’m going to look elsewhere, despite their interest.”

 Capshaw says his latest development is bolstered by the “tremendous amount of growth” on the south and west sides of Charlottesville, much of which comes from projects in which he has a hand.

 “I don’t think there is a better site in the community if we’re going to commit to another big box,” Supervisor Dennis Rooker said.

 The Supes’ worries about the development came chiefly from Sally Thomas, who said big boxes could dominate what was to be a mixed-use development and that plans didn’t necessarily fit the “urban template” County planners have been pushing in recent years.

 The plan for two new big boxes will likely draw heat as the project moves forward. Jeff Werner of the Piedmont Environmental Council, who attended the public hearing, cites figures from Albemarle and other sources that show greater Charlottesville already hefts 7 million square feet of retail space, with another 3 million square feet on the way. Werner says this works out to 80 square feet per person, more than double the average in the strip-mall nirvana of Northern Virginia.

 “We need more retail like we need a hole in the head,” Werner says.—Paul Fain

This ’bud’s for you
Cavalier Daily hires its first off-Grounds ombudsman

If you want to get Jeremy Ashton all riled up, tell him that the Cavalier Daily is “just a student newspaper.”

 “That makes me angrier than anything,” says Ashton, a 25-year-old graduate student at the University of North Carolina’s School of Journalism. “It’s difficult fighting that perception, though.”

 Why would a Tarheel care what people think about UVA’s school paper? This fall, the Cavalier Daily hired Ashton to be the paper’s first non-alum ombudsman.

 Ombudsmen serve as mediators between newspapers and their readers, fielding complaints and critiquing coverage. The Cavalier Daily has had an ombudsman for years, says editor-in-chief Chris Wilson. But that person has always been a former member of the paper’s staff.

 “Usually, they’d be far enough removed so they wouldn’t have any overlap with current staff, but they’re still, in effect, an insider,” says Wilson. “We decided to try something different this year.”

 Wilson sent queries to various graduate journalism programs. On Monday, September 6, Ashton’s first column appeared in the Cavalier Daily, which supports itself through advertising and has no faculty advisor.

 “Each week in this column, I will tell you what the staff can do to improve,” Ashton wrote. “And I’ll tell you what they’re doing right.”

 Ashton entered N.C. State as an engineering student, and graduated in 2002 with a degree in biochemistry. But after working at N.C. State’s student paper, The Technician, he took a job at a community paper near Charlotte. He’s now pursuing a master’s degree in medical journalism at UNC, and the Cav Daily kicks him $100 each week to critique the paper.

 Time presents the biggest problem for college newspaper reporters, says Ashton, who says he worked 25 to 30 hours per week as a sports editor for The Technician in addition to being a full-time student. “If you’re going on the road to the game, then you’ve got to write the story and edit other stories, your weekend is shot,” says Ashton. “You’ve spent it all on the newspaper and done nothing for school.”

 The pressure to write well on a tight deadline can easily lead to reporters cutting corners. Jayson Blair, the now-infamous New York Times reporter, admitted he made up stories when the pressure became too much to handle. As first reported in C-VILLE, The Cavalier Daily had its own brush with plagiarism last spring, when two reporters were fired for copying movie reviews off the Internet.

 Being busy “doesn’t excuse sloppiness,” says Ashton, “but I know what the reporters are going through.”

 So far, though, Ashton hasn’t had to deal with anything as egregious as plagiarism. In fact, he’s only received one e-mail from a UVA student, complaining about a Cavalier Daily reporter who quoted men in an article, but described them as “she’s.”

 Wilson says Ashton has freedom to write whatever he wants in his ombudsman column. “We’re paying someone to criticize us,” says Wilson. “My greatest hope is that readers take advantage of that resource.”—John Borgmeyer

Sign me up
Locals registering to vote in droves

Spencer Gifts is a goofy chain store in Fashion Square Mall that counts lava lamps and “Chucky” dolls among its best sellers. This year, however, Spencer Gifts is also touting voter registration forms, as are 7-Eleven branches, doctors’ offices and other local businesses.

 “It has been a very busy month,” says Jackie Harris, the General Registrar for Albemarle County since 1991, adding that she’s seen “more independent groups than ever before working on voter registration.”

 Harris says 56,500 Albemarle residents were registered to vote by September, exceeding her projections for the November 2 election, which features the big Bush v. Kerry decision, as well as an active challenge by Democrat Al Weed for Virgil Goode Jr.’s Fifth District seat in Congress. Harris says she expects the county to have 1,000 more voters before October 4, the registration deadline.

 “I half expect to see voter registration on the back of a cereal box,” Harris says.

 Her counterpart for the City, Sheri Iachetta, has also been busy. Iachetta says her office registered 400 UVA students in just two days this month, forwarding the paperwork for out-of-town students to the appropriate localities.

 A rancorous presidential election season clearly underscores the drive to sign up voters. And though local Democratic groups seem to have the most visible registration drives, both sides of the aisle are working to register voters locally. For example, an ambitious program spearheaded by UVA’s Center for Politics, which seeks to register 2004 voters before the election, is working with both Democratic and Republican student groups. Molly Clancy, a programs and research associate for the Center, says the program landed 1,000 new voters in just five days.

 Harris says local businesses that are signing up voters have been careful to be nonpartisan in their efforts. Asked what’s behind the push, she cites an increasing “civic mindedness that everyone needs to vote.”—Paul Fain

Tuesday, August 31
Pointed evidence

Lawyers for Andrew Alston, a former UVA student accused of stabbing Walker Sisk to death in November, succeeded in prohibiting Alston’s juvenile criminal record from being used during cross examination in his upcoming trial, according to today’s Daily Progress. However, the court ruled that prosecutors may discuss Alton’s alleged knife-carrying habits.

Richmond swamped

Floodwaters today receded in Richmond’s Shockoe Bottom district, the downtown neighborhood that was engulfed by a 10-foot wall of water on Monday afternoon, leaving collapsed buildings, and cars stacked on top of each other. The disaster was caused by tropical storm Gaston, which dumped a foot of water on the Richmond area, surprising meteorologists who had predicted no more than four inches of rain. At least eight people were killed in the torrent, and damages are expected to top $15 million, according to The Washington Post (later estimates put the damages at $60 million). In response to the flood, Gov. Mark Warner, who today toured the 25 square blocks that received the brunt of the flooding, issued a declaration of emergency and has asked for federal clean-up funds.

Wednesday, September 1
Help wanted?

The Charlottesville area boosted its number of jobs by 17.4 percent in the last decade, outpacing the state’s rate of job growth, according to a report released today by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce. But the report also tagged the “troublesome trend” of a recent decrease of jobs in the private sector, which now sports 1,057 fewer employees than it did in 2000. Hardest hit were manufacturing jobs, a net 2,295 of which were lost locally since 2000. The transportation and information sector also cut jobs in recent years, according to the report.

Thursday, September 2
Kilgore’s no girlyman

Virginia’s Attorney General Jerry Kilgore, who is attending the Republican National Convention, checked in with the folks back home in a conference call today with reporters. “John Kerry realizes he cannot take Virginia from us,” Kilgore said on the call, citing an AP story that claimed Kerry’s campaign had skipped Virginia in recent ad buys. “The Virginia delegation is excited,” Kilgore said. “We’re pumped up.” Kilgore’s NYC swing included a primo invite to hang with First Lady Laura Bush and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in President Bush’s box on Tuesday night.

Friday, September 3
Before the flood

During a particularly fierce season for hurricanes and tropical storms, the State Corporation Commission (SCC) of Virginia today warned, “Homeowner policies issued in Virginia generally do not provide coverage for damage to your home and belongings caused by floods and surface water whether or not they are caused by a hurricane.” The SCC encourages Virginians to check in with their home and car insurance companies to see what sort of bulked-up disaster insurance they may need. For people living in a floodplain, the SCC recommends purchasing flood insurance, which the Fed sells to eligible people through the National Flood Insurance Program.

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

Caught in the Act
Affirmation of Marriage Act claims its first victims

When marriages dissolve, it’s not unusual for children to become pawns in their parents’ squabbles. There’s not much difference between gay and straight marriages in this regard. What’s different is how Virginia courts treat children of gay parents, at a time when conservative politicians have made an election issue out of people’s private lives.

 In July, House Bill 751, known as the Affirmation of Marriage Act, became law in Virginia. The law states the Commonwealth need not honor same-sex civil unions formed in other states.

 Following the Bush Administration’s example of low-blow politics, Virginia Del. Bob Marshall (R-Manassas) crafted the bill to exploit homophobia. But when the law was first put to use last month, H.B. 751 was wielded not by angry fundamentalist Christians, but by a lesbian mother against her former partner.

 On August 24, a Frederick County judge ruled that Lisa Miller-Jenkins was the sole parent of 2-year-old Isabella, effectively denying visitation rights to Isabella’s other parent, Janet—despite the fact that Janet and Lisa raised Isabella together as partners in a civil union.

 Lisa Miller and Janet Jenkins met in Frederick County, Virginia, in 1997. “We wanted to get married,” says Janet, “or as close as we could get.”

 The couple were joined in civil union in Vermont in 2000, and they combined their last names with a hyphen. Lisa gave birth to Isabella in 2002, and the couple settled in Fair Haven, Vermont. But when the relationship turned sour, Lisa took Isabella back to Frederick County in September 2003.

 As Lisa and Janet prepared to square off in court, both sides of the gay rights debate rallied to their respective corners. Anti-gay groups advised Lisa, who now claims to be a “former lesbian,” according to newspaper reports. Gay rights groups, including Richmond-based Equality Virginia, stepped in to advise Janet in a custody dispute that illustrates not only the political charge injected into gay domestic fights, but also the legal chaos caused by conflicting state marriage laws.

 In June, a Vermont court awarded Lisa temporary custody of Isabella and gave Janet visitation rights in Virginia. But Janet claims Lisa never allowed her to spend time with Isabella alone, and Janet demanded more traditional visitation rights.

 On July 1—the day H.B. 751 took effect in Virginia—Lisa filed a petition in Frederick County Circuit Court. On August 24, a Winchester judge ruled that Virginia had jurisdiction in this case, and that Isabella belonged only to Lisa, her “natural” mother.

 Joseph Price, who is Janet’s attorney and a director on the board of Equality Virgina, says he plans to appeal immediately. “We think the judge got the analysis totally wrong,” Price says. “He was just making a political statement.”

 Not surprisingly, Lisa’s lawyers disagree.

 “We don’t feel the judge was politically biased,” says Peter Hansen, a Winchester attorney. “He was applying [the Affirmation of Marriage Act] that says Virginia need not enforce the rights or claims arising from same-sex marriage contracts.”

 UVA psychologist Charlotte Patterson—a gay mother whose research on same-sex families is widely quoted—says that in divorce cases courts typically grant both straight parents some type of custody, even in cases involving child abuse and neglect, protecting what she calls “a child’s right to continue the important relationship with both parents.

 “Children of gay and lesbian parents need these same kinds of protection,” says Patterson. House Bill 751 was designed to punish gay adults, “but it has the effectof punishing children who are likely to grow up heterosexual,” Patterson says.—John Borgmeyer

The Jamaican connection
Court documents expose JADE bust of Jamaican crack dealers

Local media have been captivated by the recent arrests of eight alleged members of the crack-dealing local gang the “Westside Crew” and the life sentences two Estes Street dealers received on August 30 for murder and drug convictions.

 But newly released documents in the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville are a reminder that many of the area’s most active troublemakers, like the drugs they sell, come from far away. The Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement (JADE) task force has netted at least eight alleged drug dealers with out-of-town roots this year—according to court records and news accounts—including two separate busts of Jamaican citizens.

 The documents, filed by John L. Brownlee, U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia, colorfully depict one of these investigations, in which JADE detectives took down brothers Colin and Andrew Gordon, two Jamaicans with New York City-area drivers’ licenses. According to prosecutors’ accounts, the busts, which went down at two area hotels in January, included one major screw-up that resulted in detectives chasing and tackling one of the alleged crack dealers in a hallway in the English Inn.

 The Gordons, whose cousin Noel Gordon was also arrested in the bust, were allegedly involved in a common practice in which Jamaican drug gangs bring “wholesale” amounts of powdered cocaine to Central Virginia from New York City, according to a report from the Department of Justice. Much of the cocaine is then converted into its crack form, distributed to lower-level dealers, and eventually sold on local streets.

 In a search warrant, Detective Granville Fields, the lead JADE officer on the Gordon brothers case—who claims 12 years of experience in narcotics investigations and 500 arrests—writes that “out-of-town drug dealers will often ‘set up shop’ in hotel rooms,” using them to stash drugs, money and guns.

 Colin Gordon had likely been in the Charlottesville area for some time. JADE officers had set up two drug buys between informants and Colin last October and November. And Colin, 35, who ran under the alias Christopher A. Donald and was known as “Jamaican P” or “Big Daddy,” had been pulled over for speeding in Charlottesville as far back as December 2002. He had apparently illegally re-entered the United States after being deported to Jamaica in 1997 for previous crimes, which include two drug felonies committed in Maryland and Connecticut. 

 To finally arrest Jamaican P, JADE first arranged “a controlled buy” from a woman drug dealer who relied on him for her supply of crack, according to court records. After getting pinched in the police buy on the night of January 20, the woman quickly agreed to buy drugs from Jamaican P in a sting at the English Inn. Getting a small-fry dealer to help police nab a serious drug supplier is a classic JADE tactic, also employed by many other vice squads and in crime dramas on TV. In this case, the scheme worked, with one glitch.

 JADE took two adjacent rooms at the Inn, setting up the woman in one room and detectives and surveillance equipment next door. The two rooms were connected by a door, which, unfortunately for the JADE team, was apparently left unlocked during the bust.

 The female drug dealer was working as a police informant from her digs in the English Inn during the early morning of Wednesday, January 21—just hours after being snared by the fuzz. She called Colin Gordon and a few of her customers, with cops listening to all the calls. After she told Gordon that she had buyers waiting for drugs, he agreed to come to her hotel room, according to prosecutors.

 Gordon drove to the English Inn in his van. When he arrived, the woman threw her room key down to the parking lot so he could use a back door to the hotel, presumably to attract less attention.

 After entering the room, Gordon may have known something was up, because he “very shortly thereafter” walked over to the door between the two rooms. When he turned the doorknob and opened the door, he saw a roomful of cops and snooping gear.

 “Detectives tried to shut the door but their presence was thereafter compromised,” reads the understated legalese from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

 Police then burst into the informant’s room, but Gordon “pushed them aside” and ran out into the hallway. “It took four detectives to subdue the defendant,” prosecutors claim.

 The English Inn did not return calls from C-VILLE about the hallway chaos that occurred that morning, so it’s uncertain whether other hotel guests may have peeked out their rooms to see police wrestling a dreadlocked Jamaican to the ground or if the hotel and cops had cleared the floor in anticipation of the sting.

 According to detectives, when Gordon was on the ground, he threw a plastic bag that contained 16 grams of cocaine base, or crack, and two grams of cocaine powder. Among the items Gordon was carrying were $4,000 in cash, a “large amount” of jewelry, a fake New Jersey driver’s license and a room key for the Red Carpet Inn.

 Detectives rushed to the Red Carpet Inn, which is on 29N, and arrested Andrew Gordon, 29, in room 207. After getting a search warrant for the room, detectives found an impressive stash, which included three-quarters of a pound of crack, a half-pound of powdered cocaine, $60,000 in cash, scales, razor blades, a nine-millimeter pistol and a .357 Magnum revolver. Investigators said the street value of the seized drugs was $140,000, according to an account by Reed Williams in The Daily Progress.

 The drugs and guns brought a host of charges on the Gordon brothers, whose case is currently being hashed over in the U.S. District Court in Charlottesville. Also arrested in the bust, which a JADE officer says was likely the biggest local drug seizure in years, was the Gordon brothers’ cousin, Noel L. Gordon, who pleaded guilty to his charges in May, and will testify against his cousins in their eventual trial. If convicted, Colin, an illegal immigrant, faces a mandatory life sentence.—Paul Fain

Right to choose?
Pro-choice Republicans get louder this time at the RNC

In New York City last week, former Albemarle DelegatePaul C. Harris was true to the GOP, as always. He favorsan amendment to the Constitution that would outlawabortion, even if the pregnancy endangers the prospective mother’s life, even in cases of rape and incest, period. “Some won’t agree with the amendment, but the Republican Party has to do what is morally right in protecting the most innocent people in the country—our unborn fetuses,” says the Republican star, who may make a run for Virginia Attorney General in 2009. He and Commonwealth GOP Chair Kate Obenshain Griffin, both staunchly “pro-life,” were two Virginians on the Republican National Convention’s (RNC) platform committee. Not surprisingly, the platform approved during last week’s convention in New York echoed those of past years with a call for a “human life amendment,” not to mention an appeal to appoint judges who respect “the sanctity of innocent human life.”

 Harris may believe the force of morality is on his side, but surveys suggest his views are out of line with the majority of Republicans, both in Virginia and throughout the nation. According to the Republican Majority for Choice (RMC), the principal pro-choice Republican advocacy group (as oxymoronic as that might sound), while many Republicans reject the “pro-choice” label, 73 percent believe that the abortion question should be a woman’s concern, not the government’s. And a 2003 poll conducted by Virginia Polytechnic Institute’s Center for Survey Research found that 67 percent of Virginians support a woman’s legal right to an abortion, a percentage that has remained relatively stable for the past seven years.

 The RMC now refuses to remain a “silent majority,” and they made that clear during convention week. Jennifer Stockman (wife of former Reagan budget director David Stockman) and actress Dina Merrill co-chair the organization, formed from three separate PACs in 1999. And their Virginia chair Katherine Waddell emphasizes that pro-choice does not mean pro-abortion: “We support options including abstinence, prevention, motherhood, adoption and abortion,” she says.

 During convention week, the group sponsored a swanky “Big Tent Celebration,” where Republicans could let their pro-choice hair down, schmoozing with the party’s relative moderates like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and former governors Pete Wilson of California and Christine Todd Whitman of New Jersey.

 Situated on the Met Life building’s 56th floor where partiers enjoyed some respite from the chaotic streets while taking in panoramic views of Manhattan, State Sen. H. Russell Potts, a Republican from Winchester whom the RMC recognized for his pro-choice record, said, “A terrible contradiction exists in the small government party that now wants to intrude on women’s lives.” For him, abortion is a personal issue between “a woman, her God and her doctor.”

 Republicans for Choice, led by Alexandria resident Ann Stone, is another PAC that claims 150,000 members. Just before the start of the Republican National Convention, several Republicans for Choice members attended the March for Women’s Lives, where 25,000 reproductive rights supporters marched over the Brooklyn Bridge into lower Manhattan. Abortion should havenever become “a Republican/Democrat, liberal/conservative issue,” Stone says. “The debate is between those who trust women and those who don’t.”

 Just as Emily’s List dedicates itself to electing pro-choice Democratic women to state and federal offices, the WISH List (Women in the Senate and House) supports pro-choice Republican female candidates and also hosted a convention breakfast fundraiser.

 Post-convention, the question remains: Will pro-choice Republicans support Bush in November? The RMC and the WISH

List tolerate the platform’s exclusive language, while focusing their efforts on electing more of their kind to Congress.

 Indeed, pro-choice Republicans seem to struggle with what they see as hypocrisy within their own party. “All week Republicans talked about personal freedom, the liberation of Afghan and Iraqi women,” Waddell says, “and yet here they are trying to restrict women’s reproductive rights.”—Laura McCandlish