Tag: governor terry mcauliffe

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In brief: Not a noose, mayor on ‘The View’ and more

Mayor Nikuyah Walker gets national exposure on "The View."

Nikuyah goes national

The first black female mayor of Charlottesville sat at the table with co-hosts of “The View” on Martin Luther King Day to discuss the current state of the city, which has pushed a narrative that Unite the Right participants brought their hate from out of town, she said. Richard Spencer and Jason Kessler are UVA alumni, Walker noted. “You have to be honest to move forward and we have been unwilling.”

We’re on edge

A photo of two thick brown ropes with eyelet holes hanging in front of the Central Library on the night of Friday, January 12, was picked up by multiple outlets—including C-VILLE Weekly—and circulated widely before police confirmed that the ominous ropes were rigging for the banners that go across East Market Street and not, in fact, nooses.

New editor

The Daily Progress has named Aaron Richardson its editor-in-chief. The former assistant city editor and reporter at the Progress has also reported for Charlottesville Tomorrow, and succeeds Wes Hester, who stuck it out for 15 months before taking a job as a deputy spokesperson for UVA.

“Literally speechless. In the greatest stroke of irony since Alanis Morissette wrote a song about irony that wasn’t about irony, I lost my voice at the beginning of this, my last week as a professional spokesperson.”—Miriam Dickler in her sign-off from the city last week

Oh, hoppy day

The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a special use permit for expansion at Keene-based hopyard Greenmont Hopworks, where owners will build a new 10,000-square-foot facility to process the plant used to flavor beer.

Lock your doors

City police say they’ve taken several reports from people in the Rosser Lane, Blue Ridge, Hessian and Rugby Road areas who say their unlocked vehicles were ransacked between 11pm and 4am late January 14 and early January 15. In one case, cash was stolen.

McAuliffe’s greatest hits—and misses

Photo John Robinson

When Terry McAuliffe first ran for governor in 2009, many saw him as a carpetbagger with stronger ties to the Clintons than to the commonwealth. Despite being edged out in the Democratic primary by state Senator Creigh Deeds, McAuliffe ran again and won the governor’s mansion in 2013, and even won the grudging respect of some of the Republicans who controlled the General Assembly during his term—but not all. Vetoing a record 120 bills, many on social issues, probably didn’t help.

As Governor Ralph Northam begins his term, we took a look back on the record of the man whose name keeps popping up as a Dem presidential candidate for 2020—along with another Virginian, Senator Tim Kaine—and who kept touting accomplishments right up through the morning of Northam’s inauguration.

Hits

  • Restoring voting rights of 173,000 felons
  • Unemployment down from 5.4 percent to 3.7 percent
  • Revitalization of the Port of Virginia, which was on the chopping block
  • Used economic development to ward off divisive social bills like the transgender bathroom bill North Carolina passed—and for which it suffered boycotts
  • $20 billion in capital investment, including Facebook and Amazon facilities in Virginia
  • Functional end to veteran homelessness in Virginia

“I have a message to all the white supremacists and the Nazis who came into Charlottesville today: Our message is plain and simple. Go home. You are not wanted in this great commonwealth.” Terry McAuliffe on August 12

Misses

  • Unsuccessful at getting Medicaid expansion through the General Assembly, despite having Republicans over for beers
  • Sued by the GOP leadership for the blanket restoration of felon voting rights
  • Support of natural gas pipelines irked environmentalists and citizens whose properties are in their paths
  • Duped into a state grant of $1.4 million to a Chinese company that failed to open a plant in Appomattox, while repayment of a $5 million loan to another Chinese company, Tranlin, to build a paper plant in Chesterfield has stalled
  • In a radio interview on his way out the door of the governor’s mansion he blames Charlottesville officials for the events of August 12 because they granted a permit
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McAuliffe anoints Berkmar Drive, talks Morva

Governor Terry McAuliffe speaks at VDOT's ceremony to mark the opening of eight Route 29 Solutions projects. Staff photo

Virginia traffic officials began discussing ways to make U.S. 29—a highway that carries 50,000 vehicles a day—flow more successfully about three decades ago, Secretary of Transportation Aubrey Layne says. When Governor Terry McAuliffe took office three-and-a-half years ago, he made it a top priority.

Today, the governor and his colleague visited Albemarle County for a Virginia Department of Transportation ceremony to mark the opening of the Route 29 Solutions projects, which included extending Berkmar Drive from Hilton Heights Road to Towncenter Drive.

McAuliffe, Layne and about 70 prominent guests stood before the Berkmar Drive extension to celebrate and eventually cut the ribbon with several small pairs of scissors.

Governor McAuliffe speaks with City Councilor Kristin Szakos and Supervisor Ann Mallek. Staff photo
Governor McAuliffe speaks with City Councilor Kristin Szakos and Supervisor Ann Mallek. Staff photo

When the 72nd governor of Virginia took the podium, he said the people of Charlottesville and Albemarle County “made a lot of noise” about the busy highway corridor when he first took office. He remembers local entrepreneur Bill Crutchfield as the main squeaky wheel.

“Tell Bill the road is here,” McAuliffe said. And later he added, “You can bike, you can run, you can walk, you can do whatever you want.”

Virginia is the best state in the country, he claimed while clad in a navy suit and orange tie, but it won’t be if people can’t access it. “They’re not going to come to our state if they’re stuck in traffic.”

Layne, Board of Supervisors Chair Diantha McKeel and House of Delegates Minority Leader David Toscano also made remarks. In attendance were a number of supervisors and city councilors, as well as former supervisor Jane Dittmar, who ran for 5th District representative last year.

Other Route 29 projects, of which there are eight, include widening Seminole Trail from four to six lanes and extending Hillsdale Drive from Greenbriar Drive to Hydraulic Road. And the people of Charlottesville rejoiced when another project, the Route 29-Rio Road grade-separated intersection, opened last summer—46 days ahead of schedule.

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Ribbon cutting. Staff photo

After the ribbon cutting, McAuliffe was grilled on other topics, including today’s scheduled lethal injection of William Morva, who was sentenced to death for the 2006 killing of hospital security guard Derrick McFarland and Montgomery County Sheriff Deputy Corporal Eric Sutphin. Morva, incarcerated for burglary and attempted robbery, was receiving medical treatment when he overpowered a guard watching him, fatally shot McFarland, escaped, and shot and killed Sutphin, who was searching for him.

Many have petitioned McAuliffe to grant the man clemency on the premise of him allegedly being mentally unstable at the time of the murders.

“I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t sleep a wink last night thinking about it,” the governor said, but didn’t give any indication of his final decision. Hours later, he decided not to grant clemency.

As for the KKK’s plans to rally in Charlottesville this Saturday, McAuliffe, who has vetoed more bills than any other governor, said a number of them discriminated against women and the LGBT community.

“To me, any discrimination breeds hatred,” he said. “People are entitled to free speech, but I’m not for hate speech.”

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In brief: McAuliffe’s report card, adieu Yancey Elementary and more

Photo John Robinson

Making the grade

Earlier this month Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an executive action that will significantly cut greenhouse gas emissions from state fossil fuel power plants. Executive Directive 11 instructs the Department of Environmental Quality to establish regulations to cap carbon emissions. Only a handful of states have attempted this—it’s kind of a big deal.

Mike Tidwell, the executive director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, says the directive “is precisely what environmental advocates have been asking the governor to do for more than two years now. With President Trump dismantling climate policies nationally, it’s reassuring that Governor McAuliffe has at last responded in a powerful way.”

Noting the governor’s “decidedly mixed environmental legacy” in a Washington Post op-ed May 21, Tidwell also said this new action will improve the failing report card grade that CCAN assigned to McAuliffe last year.

Here’s how the environmental cheerleaders say he’s doing so far:

D-lister

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground: D

Cleaning up a toxic legacy of coal ash: F

Moving Virginia to a new clean energy economy: C+

Fighting sea level rise and flooding impacts: B

Final grade: D+

From racetrack to subdivision?

Court documents in the neighbors’ suit against Foxfield Racing Association showed plans to split the primo Garth Road property into 17 lots called Hermit’s Thrush, and another plan that would develop some of the 184-acre property and keep the track, according to Charlottesville Tomorrow.

5th District candidate

sneathern-amosAttorney/Charlottesvillian Andrew Sneathern got a jump on the 2018 congressional race and announced a run May 30 for the Democratic nomination, presumably to challenge Tom Garrett.

Yancey Elementary nevermore

The Albemarle School Board voted 5-2 May 25 to close the Esmont school, which has staved off closure for years, at the end of the current school year on June 9, citing dwindling enrollment—118 currently, 108 projected for next year—low test scores and a loss of $395,000 in federal grants. Students will attend Red Hill or Scottsville elementaries.

“White silence is racist violence.”—The anonymous Cville Solidarity in a May 24 press release on resisting violent white supremacism in Charlottesville

HR downsizing

UVA plans to merge its academic and medical human resources departments, which could slice 40 jobs. Employees claim they’ve been kept in the dark; UVA says they’ll be offered jobs, the Daily Progress reports.

Wenners and losers

Blank vertical book cover template with pages in front side standing on white surface Perspective view. Vector illustration.Sticky Fingers: The Life and Times of Jann Wenner and Rolling Stone Magazine, a biography about the mag’s founder, will hit bookstore shelves this October. Author and journalist Joe Hagan says it will address the now debunked UVA sexual assault story, “A Rape on Campus,” which resulted in a major lawsuit and retraction.

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In brief: Patricia Kluge’s new gig, municipal scofflaws and more

Photo John Robinson

McAuliffe’s pen

In his last year in office, Governor Terry McAuliffe was unable to deliver on a campaign promise to expand Medicaid to 400,000 uninsured citizens, which is supported by 69 percent of Virginians, according to a recent University of Maryland poll. The General Assembly’s Republican majority prevented that, but it was not able to thwart another McAuliffe vow: that he would veto any “socially divisive” legislation.

McAuliffe signed 40 of his record 111 vetoes this session, and maintained a perfect tally of having zero overridden by the General Assembly, which needs two-thirds votes in each house to do so. Republicans have a sizable 66-34 majority in the House of Delegates, and 21-19 in the Senate.

Vetoed were:

  • Rob Bell’s Tebow bill to allow homeschoolers to play public school sports
  • Steve Landes’ Beloved bill requiring schools to notify parents of sexually explicit instructional material
  • Creation of charter schools without local school board approvals
  • Religious freedom bill, which LGBT advocates say legalizes discrimination
  • Legislation prohibiting sanctuary cities
  • Switchblade concealed carry and possession by minors
  • Criminal and Virginia Lottery background checks for applicants of public assistance
  • DMV photos added to electronic poll books
  • Concealed carry without permits for protective order seekers and military personnel under 21 years old
  • Planned Parenthood defunding
  • Coal tax credit

Ragged Mountain’s current prohibition against pets is pretty widely ignored, and some owners see the natural area as a place to leave their dogs’ feces. Staff photoSee you in court

Albemarle County declines Charlottesville’s offer of arbitration after City Council votes 3-2 to defy county law and allow bike trails at Ragged Mountain Natural Area.

Chip Harding
Sheriff Chip Harding File photo

Crime studies

The Virginia State Crime Commission will study the impact of collecting DNA for additional Class 1 misdemeanors, a move long advocated by Albemarle Sheriff Chip Harding, as well as the decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana, which was favored by nearly eight out of 10 Virginia respondents in a 2016 VCU poll.

Mandatory tax disclosure

Although Representative Tom Garrett said at his March 31 town hall he didn’t care that President Donald Trump did not release his income tax returns, last week Garrett filed a bill that would require future presidents-elect to do so.

‘Patricia Kluge’s Third Act is Sparkly’

The New York Times reports the former winemaker, who sold her business to buddy Donald Trump in 2011, has rebounded from bankruptcy and is now designing jewelry pieces that sell for between $30,000 and $45,000.

“Everybody who knows Donald knows his shenanigans.”

—Patricia Kluge to the Times on Albemarle House litigation with President Trump

JenSorensen_CourtesyArtist
Courtesy Jen Sorensen

No funny business

Freelance cartoonist Jen Sorensen, whose work has appeared in C-VILLE each week since 2002, is a 2017 Pulitzer Prize finalist “for a thoughtful and powerful selection of work appearing in a variety of U.S. publications and often challenging the viewer to look beyond the obvious.”

 

 

Inappropriate hugger in court

Brien Gray-Anderson, 21, who was charged with assaulting women on the Rivanna Trail last spring, pleaded guilty April 10 to one felony count of abduction and two misdemeanor sexual battery charges. Two women were the victims of unsolicited hugs and bottom touching, and a third was pulled to the ground but fought Gray-Anderson off. He’ll be sentenced August 1.

$9 million facelift

A $9 million project that had UVA’s Northridge Internal Medicine building on Ivy Road blanketed in scaffolding for nearly two years is winding down. Its updated look includes a new entrance and lobby, larger elevators, a new staircase and a more traditional architectural look similar to the Transitional Care Hospital next door.

Northridge
Before
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In brief: 5-star dreams, bathroom fears and more

Owner John Dewberry plans to turn the Landmark into a 5-star hotel. Photo Matteus Frankovich/Skyclad AP

Unlike NC…

Governor Terry McAuliffe signs an executive order at UVA January 5 that prohibits state contractors from discriminating against gay and transgender people, and notes that the Tar Heel State has lost hundreds of millions of dollars because of its bathroom bill. Delegate Bob Marshall immediately filed a bill prohibiting such nondiscrimination.

Lieutenant guv race gets icky

Bryce Reeves
Bryce Reeves Publicity photo

An anonymous e-mail claiming state Senator Bryce Reeves is having an affair with a campaign aide, which he denies, is tied to the cell phone and IP address of opponent and fellow senator Jill Vogel’s husband, the Washington Post reports. The Vogels, both ethics lawyers, deny sending the hurtful missive and claim they were hacked.

Diantha McKeel
Diantha McKeel. Publicity photo

New BOS chair/vice-chair

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors elected Diantha McKeel chair and Norman Dill vice chair as its first order of business January 4.

Mourning community activist

Holly Edwards was known for bringing different voices in the community together. Photo Kelly Kollar
Holly Edwards was known for bringing different voices in the community together. Photo Kelly Kollar

Charlottesville’s former vice mayor and beloved advocate Holly Edwards died January 7 at age 56. Read more at c-ville.com.

Local layoffs

Relay Foods’ January 2 notice that it was changing its name to Door to Door Organics did not mention that 48 workers in Charlottesville would lose their jobs, as would an undetermined number in Richmond, according to the Daily Progress. Service to Lynchburg and North Carolina ends January 15.

curnish
Richard V. Curnish. Charlottesville police

Alleged wanker arrested

Police respond to a report of a man masturbating outside the 1800 block of JPA at 12:55am January 4 and charge Richard V. Curnish, 55, with indecent exposure, masturbation in public and peeping. Charlottesville police say Curnish is a suspect in a December 30 peeping reported at the same location.

Snow casualty

Ryan S. Spencer, 40, of Rochelle, was on Preddy Creek Road January 7 when he lost control of his 2010 Cadillac SRX on a sharp curve and struck a parked vehicle belonging to a driver who stopped to assist with an earlier accident in the same spot. Spencer ran off the road and overturned into the creek. He died at UVA Medical Center.

Dewberry dreaming

landmark.JPG
The city hopes to make a deal with developer John Dewberry in the next few weeks, which means site plans for developing the Landmark Hotel skeleton could be available by spring. Matteus Frankovich/Skyclad AP

“The devil’s in the details and we’re working to get those details right,” says Mayor Mike Signer about plans for the Downtown Mall hotel that could soon transform the Landmark Hotel skeleton, an unfinished structure since its former developer, Halsey Minor, halted construction eight years ago.

Purchased by Atlanta-based John Dewberry in June 2012, the new owner promised to turn his focus to Charlottesville after he finished converting a former office building into his first hotel in Charleston, South Carolina, which didn’t happen until last summer. Signer says the city hopes to make an agreement with Dewberry in the next few weeks, leading to site plans that should be available by spring.

The hotel could bring 150 jobs with it, according to Signer, and would be a wedding and conference venue in the heart of the Downtown Mall. Hotel plans could also include spaces for additional businesses including a restaurant, a spa and retail.

Dewberry, who says he’s “just trying to build a brand named after [his] beloved father” is proud of the distinctions his Charleston hotel has already raked in, including a spot in a New York Times article titled, “For Fall, Seven Notable New Hotels.”

Without a firm timeline, he confirms he’s working with the city to bring the same five-star experience to Charlottesville. “That’s the hardest type of real estate in the world,” he says.

Henrietta's_02_jwb
It’s possible that a new Downtown Mall hotel will include a restaurant similar to Henrietta’s, located in The Dewberry Charleston. Photo Jonathan Boncek

Quote of the week

“Do not waste my time. I will veto it so stop in your tracks right now.”
—Governor Terry McAuliffe reiterates his pledge at UVA January 5 to veto “socially divisive” legislation such as a ban on abortions at 20 weeks and bathroom bills like North Carolina’s HB2.

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Innocent man: Governor grants full pardon for Robert Davis

Robert Davis is ready to "thrive and flourish" as a free man with his felony record expunged. Photo Ryan Jones

 

Robert Davis faced the camera on Facebook live at 7pm December 16. Two hours earlier, at 4:48pm, Governor Terry McAuliffe signed an absolute pardon that proclaimed Davis’ innocence for the two murders that kept him in prison for 13 years.

“I’m a free man,” said Davis on camera. “I’m trying not to cry, y’all have to understand, I’m trying not to cry.”

He then took scissors and cut the GPS ankle bracelet that he’d worn since getting out of prison December 21, 2015, when McAuliffe granted him a conditional pardon.

“I’m a free man,” he said. “I’m a free man.”

Davis was 18 years old when Albemarle police wanted to talk to him about a horrific murder that had taken place in his Crozet neighborhood February 19, 2003. After the flames died down in the house on Cling Lane, Nola Charles, 41, was found with her arms duct-taped and a knife in her back. Her 3-year-old son, Thomas, was found under debris in her bedroom, dead from smoke inhalation.

Two neighborhood siblings eventually convicted for the murders, Rocky and Jessica Fugett, said Robert was involved in the slayings. Despite dozens of denials the night police picked him up at midnight and interrogated him for six hours, desperate to get some sleep, Davis finally said the fateful words, “What can I say I did to get me out of this?”

Davis entered an Alford plea in which he did not admit guilt, but acknowledged the prosecution had evidence to convict him with what’s now considered a textbook coerced confession coupled with the possible testimony of the Fugetts, both of whom have since recanted their statements that Davis was present at the murder.

Davis, 32, describes the past year he’s been out of prison as “a wild, fun ride.” He says he’s met a lot of musicians, a lot of friends and been astounded by the support of the Charlottesville community. “It’s been phenomenal,” he says.

But it wasn’t total freedom. He had to report to a probation officer and initially had an 11pm curfew. He had to ask for permission to visit his mother over the mountain in Crimora. And he had to wear the ankle bracelet.

“I’ve got an amazing probation officer who lets me do what I want as long as I don’t get in trouble,” he says. He was allowed to go to the beach for the first time as an adult, but because the bracelet is water resistant, but not waterproof, he couldn’t go swimming.

In a year of firsts, he has his own apartment, his first serious relationship and the support of total strangers. He was the subject of a “Dateline” episode, and says every time it airs, “I get texts from people I don’t know saying they’re so glad I’m home,” he says.

He works at ACAC and Holly’s Deli, as well as at his own side landscaping business. But living in Charlottesville is expensive. “I’ve been stressing over how I’m going to pay the bills,” he says.

Now that he’s been granted a full pardon, there could be compensation from the state, says his lawyer, Steve Rosenfield, who has spent thousands of unpaid hours working on Davis’ freedom. A state legislator must submit a bill and have it voted on by the General Assembly.

“It’s an amount that saddens me,” says Rosenfield. “They take the average salary in Virginia and give 90 percent of that. It doesn’t take into consideration Robert lost his teens and twenties. There’s no, ‘Sorry we took away your childhood and young adult years.’”

And there’s another thing that gnaws at Rosenfield. “We’ve been contending for 13 years the confession Robert gave Detective Randy Snead was a coerced confession,” he says. “It’s amazing to me that you can look at it online, and after the conditional pardon, [former Albemarle police chief Steve] Sellers all of a sudden proclaims it’s an unreliable confession. How competent is that police department? Wasn’t anyone paying attention?”

Sandy Seal, Davis’ mother, had her son returned to her last year on her birthday. She acknowledges that the Charles family were victims, but says she and her family were, too.

And the whole 13 years Davis was in prison, she says, “I’ve been kicking myself. I never talked to my kids and said, ‘If a policeman wants to talk to you to clear something up, say you want a lawyer.’”

Davis’ full pardon is only the third one McAuliffe has granted, says Rosenfield, who will request Davis’ record be expunged.

“I’ve had capital cases go to jury,” he says. “I’ve seen people executed. I’ve seen juries make large awards. I’ve never had anything like this—the emotional reaction to Robert’s declaration of innocence.”

“I just screamed at the top of my lungs,” says Davis when he heard the news.

Now he can get rid of the stigma of being a convicted felon, travel and live a normal life, he says.

And throughout his long ordeal, one thing Davis hasn’t been is bitter. “People ask why I smile so much and seem so happy,” he says. “It’s because I’ve been given a second chance at a decent life. I’m just amazed at how much Charlottesville has opened up its arms for me.”

DavisAbsolutePardonGrant

 

 

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House calls: Finding shelter for local homeless vets

Caleb Fox works at The Haven to get veterans housed. eze amos

It’s been almost one year since Governor Terry McAuliffe announced that Virginia was the first state in the U.S. to functionally end homelessness among veterans—and while it may not seem that way when residents drive through Charlottesville and see people begging, evolving housing programs are having positive effects on the city and surrounding counties.

Partnerships between Veterans Affairs medical centers, programs that support veterans families and local homeless organizations such as The Haven continue to piece together a complex, and often sensitive, puzzle.

Functionally ending homelessness does not mean it is eradicated. It means programs are in place to ensure a veteran’s experience with homelessness now—or in the future—will be “rare, brief and non-recurring,” according to McAuliffe. Rapid Re-Housing and Homelessness Prevention are two examples of programs available.

The Haven is often considered the homeless point of entry in Charlottesville and its five surrounding counties: Greene, Nelson, Fluvanna, Louisa and Albemarle.

Situated in a former multi-story church donated by Evan Almighty director and UVA alum Tom Shadyac on the corner of East Market and First Street North, The Haven has been addressing the needs of the area’s homeless community since opening its doors in 2010.

Caleb Fox, veterans case manager for The Haven, says the change towards housing programs has been monumental.

“The Rapid Re-Housing program is based on this notion of housing first,” says Fox. “In the last three years the approach to homelessness has really shifted on its head. It used to be getting folks into a shelter, addressing their physical and mental health, substance abuse, income issues and then getting them into a house. Now it’s get them into housing and then working on the other things through individual case management.”

Former Charlottesville mayor Dave Norris is another influential figure in the fight against chronic homelessness. During his time in office from 2008 to 2011, he was instrumental in getting The Crossings—a permanent supportive housing community for formerly homeless people—funded, developed and officially launched. He’s witnessed firsthand the changes to the system.

“There’s been this real focus nationally of addressing homelessness,” Norris says. “The consensus was that we were doing a decent job of putting a Band-Aid on homelessness, but not doing a very good job of actually ending it.”

He attributes a lot of the progress in reducing veteran homelessness to the Rapid Re-Housing thrust. “We saw a considerable increase in both state and federal resources that funneled through organizations such as The Haven and others,” says Norris.

The increased funding for these programs is based on statistical data, says Fox. Evidence suggests that getting someone off the street and into a stable situation generates better outcomes—and there are only slight differences between the programs for vets and non-vets.

The VA-funded Rapid Re-Housing program is more time-limited, providing a maximum of nine months of rental assistance, compared with two years for non-veterans, says Fox.

Since 2015, Fox says 54 veterans from the Charlottesville area have been enrolled in vet programs. He estimates the local homeless population at 185 to 220 people, which means about a quarter of them are veterans. Of the 54 veterans, 13 were enrolled in the Supportive Service for Veterans Families Homeless Prevention Program, which is intended for people who are not homeless but are imminently at risk, and the remaining 41 vets were enrolled in the SSVF Rapid Re-Housing program.

Fox says the support service programs spent approximately $79,000 to assist 24 veterans in these two programs with security deposits, rental assistance, utilities and deposits, transportation costs and moving expenses.

For the 30 remaining veterans, some decided to leave the area. Others declined services. Fox says he continues to work with the veterans who have not yet been housed to address any barriers they might have, including criminal background or credit issues.

“The goal the VA has set is that it’s a handup, and not a handout,” Fox says. “We send veterans on their way once they are in a stabilized situation, and ready to pay their own housing costs.”

While the need and desire for more funding are ever-present worries, he credits the increased focus on veterans over the past several years for some of the positive changes across the nation.

“Officials have spent a lot of money since the start of the Obama administration to address veteran homelessness, and it’s working,” says Fox.

Norris concurs that the cooperation across party lines really propelled the fight into the national spotlight. Getting vets into homes was a rallying point in Washington, and beyond.

“The least we can do is make sure our men and women who served this country in uniform never find themselves out on the streets,” Norris says. “In a city like this, in a state like this… we are showing that we can honor that commitment.”

 

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Governor goes shopping at Mincer’s

Are the orange stripes too much? Governor Terry McAuliffe checks out polos at Mincer's. Staff photo

Governor Terry McAuliffe popped into Mincer’s on the Corner this afternoon because he likes to visit small businesses—and he needed a new polo shirt. “Extra large,” says McAuliffe. “I’m pumped.”

He was in Charlottesville to speak to UVA scholars at the Center for Politics and he’d had lunch “with Larry and Terry—” Professor Larry Sabato and UVA President Teresa Sullivan.

At Mincer’s, the governor was faced with some tough choices—which striped shirt to buy. He ended up with a couple and some shorts as well.

mcauliffe-mincer
Staff photo

He quizzed Mark Mincer on his bestsellers—UVA-emblem jackets and chapstick—as well as Mincer’s biggest sales weekend, in between chatting with customers and posing for photos.

Outside, he spoke to young women dining at the Virginian. “Be sure to vote this year,” he advised.

And he weighed in on the 5th District congressional race, in which Dem Jane Dittmar faces off against Republican state Senator Tom Garrett. Not surprisingly, he endorsed Dittmar. “We need people who can get things done,” he said. “I’m tired of partisanship. We need someone who can work with the new president—Hillary.”

mcauliffe
Governor Terry McAuliffe on the Corner. Staff photo

Next stop: Democratic campaign headquarters on the Downtown Mall.

 

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Startups compete for $25,000 prize

From left to right, Sepehr Zomorodi, Zachery Davis, Payam Pourtaheri, Ameer Shakeel, Joseph Frank and Dr. Mark Kester are current members of the AgroSpheres team. Courtesy of Payam Pourtaheri

This month, 30 startup companies across the state will pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges in an attempt to snag one of five grants. Though it might sound like an episode of “Shark Tank,” the competition is part of the Virginia Velocity Tour, and five companies pitching their food-and-agriculture-themed products September 23, on the tour’s last stop in Charlottesville, hope to take home the $25,000 prize.

At other stops on the tour—Roanoke, Richmond, Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia—the pitches will highlight regional strengths, including biotech, health, energy and security.

The team behind AgroSpheres—a startup founded by UVA students and faculty that is one of this month’s competitors—also won the Entrepreneurship Cup and $22,500 at the 2016 Tom Tom Founders Festival. Payam Pourtaheri, a founder, describes his team’s idea: “Pesticides are a necessary evil for farmers,” he says. “They would like to not use these chemicals, but they need to use them to protect their crops. What we want to do is work with farmers and develop a spray that would degrade pesticides.”

The spray will contain genetically engineered bioparticles, which will harness the benefit of genetic engineering without the risk of environmental contamination, he says.

“The battle between the farmer and nature has been going on for a long, long time,” Pourtaheri says. “This way, they can be a little less stressed about the chemicals they’re putting on their crops.”

Ameer Shakeel, a fourth-year pursuing a degree in biomedical engineering at UVA and another founder of AgroSpheres, says his team’s vision is in line with the future of agriculture—farmers around the world are looking for eco-friendly ways to mass produce their crops.

Though the initial outreach of AgroSpheres has been in America (the team’s current product can degrade organophosphate pesticides, which account for 36 percent of pesticides), Shakeel says their goal is to expand their form of bioremediation globally, especially in countries where DDT—a harmful insecticide banned in the U.S.—is used to control malaria.

Essentially, AgroSpheres would exist to “go in and clean everything up,” he says.

While the startup has already received about $41,000 in grants since its founding in March, its members hope to raise another $50,000 or $60,000 by the end of the year.

The tour is a partnership between D.C.-based investment firm Village Capital and the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Despite the fact that Entrepreneur Magazine recently named Charlottesville the fourth-best place for entrepreneurs in the country, Village Capital CEO Ross Baird, a UVA alumni who now teaches entrepreneurship and impact investment at the university, says 78 percent of investment in startup companies happens in New York, Massachusetts and California.

“Entrepreneurs have the ability to solve the most important problems in the world and we know that there are great entrepreneurs everywhere,” says Baird. “But when you look at who gets the chance to scale their businesses, most are left out.”

The teams pitching in Charlottesville:

AgroSpheres—a biotech company dedicated to environmental remediation and precision agriculture.

Seasonal Roots—an online farmers market delivering weekly to homes and offices.

Hungry Marketplace—a chef-driven food service that seeks to deliver fresh-made meals to your door, like Uber for eating.

Bonumuse Biochem LLC—a company developing and scaling up a novel enzymatic process for producing tagatose, a natural, rare, healthy sugar, at 20 percent of the cost of the standard industrial process.

Edible Edu—a comprehensive, mobile cooking cart that school systems, hospitals and wellness coaches use to get people excited about whole food and educate them about nutrition through food and cooking.

Tellus Agronomics—helps farmers improve their overall profitability by focusing on reducing the cost of production through nutrient management and cost-sharing conservation grants, and increasing the revenue stream through sales of nutrient credits.

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Absolute pardon: Soering petitions another governor

Two young lovers and two heinous murders: A documentary of the Elizabeth Haysom and Jens Soering story heads to the U.S. as Soering seeks an absolute pardon. Courtesy Filmperspektive

During the 30 years he’s spent in prison, Jens Soering has maintained he had nothing to do with the brutal 1985 murders of Derek and Nancy Haysom, and that he only confessed to protect his girlfriend, Elizabeth Haysom, from the death penalty.

Now Tim Kaine, the governor who agreed to send Soering back to Germany in 2010, a decision overturned by his successor, Bob McDonnell, is running for vice president, and Soering’s attorney has filed a petition for absolute pardon with Governor Terry McAuliffe, thrusting the case back into the international spotlight.

Germany, from its highest levels of government, has long lobbied for Soering’s return, and Chancellor Angela Merkel discussed the case with President Barack Obama. German filmmakers have made a documentary, The Promise, on the heinous case in which two UVA Echols scholars were convicted that premiered in Munich in March and will be screened in the U.S. later this year.

Attorney Steve Rosenfield filed the petition August 23 and says he has indisputable scientific evidence that proves Soering, 50, is innocent. He points to a 1985 lab analysis of blood taken from the Haysoms’ Bedford home, which documents five stains of type O human blood—the same as Soering’s, but also the most common blood type.

In 2009, DNA analysis was done on two of those samples—the others were too degraded—and Virginia’s Department of Forensic Science said that Soering was “eliminated as a contributor.”

“That completely undermines the government’s argument it was Soering’s blood,” says Rosenfield.

But that’s not all. Rosenfield has a laundry list of errors made during the investigation and prosecution of Soering, who says he confessed because he thought his father’s mid-level diplomatic status would give him immunity.

An expert on police interrogations and confessions, Dr. Andrew Griffiths spent four months reviewing all statements Soering made to police and prosecutors after he and Haysom were caught in London a year after the murders, and concluded British and American investigators “violated a host of British laws,” says Rosenfield, including holding Soering incommunicado and denying him access to his solicitor.

Soering also failed to accurately describe the crime scene, says Rosenfield. The UVA student claimed he was in the dining room, walked behind Derek Haysom and sliced his throat. “Why didn’t we find blood on the table?” asks Rosenfield. Haysom was found with 38 stab wounds in the living room, which was awash in blood.

Nancy Haysom was wearing her night clothes, and FBI profiler Ed Sluzbach said the killer was someone she was very comfortable with because she was a “proper woman” and wouldn’t have entertained in her pajamas. Soering said she was wearing jeans, says Rosenfield.

Elizabeth Haysom, who is serving 90 years in the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women as an accessory before the fact, claimed she was in Washington, D.C., to establish an alibi while Soering drove to Bedford to kill her parents. Yet a dishrag was found near Nancy Haysom’s body with type B blood, the same type as Elizabeth’s, says Rosenfield.

Elizabeth also alleged she was on a street in Georgetown when Soering drove up in the rental car, covered in blood and wearing only a sheet. Detectives sprayed the car with Luminol, which causes even minute flecks of blood to light up in blue. No stains turned up in the car, according to Rosenfield.

Prosecutors in the 1990 trial also tied Soering to a sock print, the use of which has been discredited by the FBI and American Academy of Forensic Scientists, along with bite marks. In 2009, Innocence Project cofounder Peter Neufeld and UVA law professor/wrongful conviction expert Brandon Garrett wrote an article that asserted sock prints are not accepted as scientific evidence.

And then there’s the mysterious man. About two months after the murders, transmission shop owner Tony Buchanan said he called Bedford investigators because a woman and man brought a car to his shop that had blood on the floorboard and a hunting knife, the type of weapon police believe was used, in between the seats. After Haysom and Soering went on the lam, Buchanan said he recognized her from news photos, but the man with her was not Soering. Police never responded to his information, Rosenfield says.

Rosenfield held a press conference August 24, during which he criticized Republicans and right-wing media who are “uninterested in the facts of the case” and who instead are targeting Hillary Clinton’s running mate Kaine for attempting to repatriate Soering under the terms of an international treaty.

Present at the press conference were Kaine staffers who spent months investigating the case, which McDonnell rejected immediately upon taking office with no investigation, according to Rosenfield.

Not only does Rosenfield want Soering given an absolute pardon, but while the parole board investigates the case, he wants Soering released from the Buckingham Correctional Center on parole “in light of Jens’ innocence.”

Rosenfield represented former Crozet resident Robert Davis, who spent 13 years in prison after making a false confession. McAuliffe granted him a conditional pardon December 21, 2015.