Tag: Rob Schilling

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News

In brief: Masked up, KKK attacks, and more

Masked up

On May 26, Governor Ralph Northam declared that all Virginians 10 years and older must wear masks while in public indoor spaces, including retail stores, buses, and restaurants (when you’re not eating, of course).

Some have wondered how business owners would enforce such a rule with recalcitrant customers, and Tobey’s Pawn Shop owner Tobey Bouch, along with Charlottesville radio host Rob Schilling, filed a lawsuit over the mandate on June 1, claiming that masks are illegal in Virginia. But most local business owners say the directive has not been a problem.

At Corner sportswear staple Mincer’s, more than 90 percent of shoppers are wearing face coverings, says company V.P. Calvin Mincer.

“I would say a couple I’ve seen come in just with no mask. But we don’t really want to fight with them about it, so we just assume they might have some sort of medical condition.”

A few doors down at Bodo’s, the bagel chain has set up a table in its patio area for customers to order and pick up food without having to go inside. And though masks are not required outside, most customers have been wearing them, an employee says.

In Barracks Road Shopping Center, The Happy Cook has also not had any problems enforcing the rule.

“I was uncertain if there would be any sort of pushback…but honestly almost everybody who comes in has had a mask with them and already on,” says owner Monique Moshier. “We do have a thing posted on the window for people to give us a call if they don’t have one with them and we give them a mask…[But] we’ve only had to use those a couple of times, and it’s mostly just been that somebody ran out of their car without grabbing their mask.”

As for the many other businesses around Charlottesville, the Downtown Business Association’s Susan Payne says that, while it is not able to force businesses to follow the mandate, she has yet to see an establishment that’s not complying.

Charlottesville radio host Rob Schilling filed a lawsuit over Governor Northam’s mask mandate, claiming face coverings are illegal in Virginia.

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Quote of the Week

“Put your bodies on the line. Our bodies are on the line every day. America has been one long lynching for black people.”

—UVA Politics professor Larycia Hawkins, speaking at the June 7 Black Lives Matter march

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Richardson review

City Council gathered (virtually) on June 8 for a closed meeting, to discuss City Manager Tarron Richardson’s job performance and the legal state of the Confederate statues. Richardson has had a contentious relationship with council, which he’s accused of “meddling” in his operations. Even by the glacial standards of municipal government, this meeting was a doozy—it lasted five hours, according to The Daily Progress.

KKK attack

In a disturbing echo of Heather Heyer’s murder, Harry H. Rogers, a Ku Klux Klan leader, drove his car through a crowd of protesters in Richmond on June 7, injuring one person. Rogers was arrested and faces multiple charges. More than a dozen such vehicle attacks, a terrorist tactic increasingly used by white supremacists, have been committed against Black Lives Matter protesters over the past two weeks, including several in which police were at the wheel.   

Bug off

As if this spring didn’t feel apocalyptic enough, here come billions of bugs. After nearly two decades of life underground, hordes of buzzing, whining cicadas are beginning to tunnel out into the fresh air. The 17-year cicadas will be especially plentiful in western Virginia, where less development has left their tree habitats intact.

Eviction halt

As unemployment climbs past 10 percent, Virginia has halted all eviction proceedings through June 28, a move that many activists had called for in recent months. Governor Ralph Northam’s administration says it is working on a relief program for families facing housing insecurity from the pandemic and its associated economic downturn.

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News

(Don’t) take it down: Removal of Cale black history poster sparks backlash

Several Cale parents and teachers, along with other community members, came to last Thursday’s school board meeting to express their concerns over the removal of a black history poster. PC: staff photo

On February 10, local conservative radio host Rob Schilling posted a photo of a Black History Month poster from Cale Elementary School on his blog, with the headline “Fomenting dissension at Cale Elementary.” Three days later, Albemarle County Public Schools Superintendent Matt Haas left a comment agreeing that the poster was causing dissension among students, and said it was coming down that afternoon.

That decision—and the response to Schilling before the school community was officially notified—angered many Cale parents, teachers, and staff, along with other local residents, several of whom came to the February 27 school board meeting to express their concerns.

Cale teachers Lori Ann Stoddart and Katie Morgans read a collective statement signed by 33 teachers and staff at the school, some choosing to sign “X” instead of their names out of fear of being fired. 

“Matt Haas’ actions have done harm to the teachers, students, and families of the Mountain View/Cale Elementary community,” Stoddart said. “People of color within our staff, student body, and families feel demeaned and disrespected by the removal of a poster that contained nothing but historical fact and was used as instructional material for teachers in our school.”

The poster, written in colorful letters on yellow laminated paper, read: “Dear Students, They didn’t steal slaves. They stole scientists, doctors, architects, teachers, entrepreneurs, astronomers, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc. and made them slaves. Sincerely, your ancestors.” It was based on a poster Jovan Bradshaw, a teacher at Magnolia Middle School in Mississippi, created for her classroom for Black History Month last year.

Both in his comments on Schilling’s blog and at the meeting, Haas agreed that the poster’s message was “true and compelling.” But he said because the school’s Black History Month committee did not plan an academic program for the poster, it “spawned destructive confrontations between students who obviously lacked the mature perspective to understand the intent of the message.”

Although the same poster was put up in the school’s cafeteria last year, and didn’t cause any issues, Haas said at the meeting that this year’s poster was bigger, and placed outside the school’s main office, where it was much more visible.

He said about a dozen staff members reported to Cale Principal Cyndi Wells that the poster was “divisive,” and caused disagreements among students. Wells called him, he said, to discuss the issue and, after conferring with the school board’s legal counsel and Phil Giaramita, ACPS’ strategic communications officer, they decided to take the poster down.

ACPS Superintendent Matt Haas took heat for the removal of a Black History Month poster. PC: Hate-Free Schools Coalition of Albemarle County

 

In addition to not providing an “age-appropriate context” for the poster, Cale’s Black History Month committee, which includes about a dozen teachers, did not receive approval to put up the poster from Wells, who became principal last July, Haas explained. Stoddart and Morgans believe that Haas unfairly blamed Cale’s teachers.

“By abruptly removing the poster and falsely claiming that Mountain View/Cale teachers were not using the poster instructionally, Matt Haas robbed our school community of the opportunity for learning about and understanding each other,” Stoddard said during the meeting. “When Matt Haas could have led our school and our county in a bold conversation of our shared past, he chose instead to pander to those who did not want our community to evolve.”

Cale parent Tannis Fuller was particularly displeased with Haas’ communication about the poster’s removal. She said that on February 13, several hours after Haas left his comment on Schilling’s blog, she received a vague email from Wells about the poster, but nothing from Haas. 

“Am I to understand that Haas found it more important to assure a community not affected by the poster that the poster was coming down, than to assure the faculty, staff, and students of Cale that he had their backs?” Fuller asked. “To whom is Matt Haas accountable? The readers of the blog or the faculty, staff, and students of Cale?”

Haas, however, did not view his comments on Schilling’s blog as problematic.

“If I’m made aware that someone has posted something about the school system on their site, whatever I communicate I’m going to put it on that site. I also did it on the Hate-Free Schools [Coalition of Albemarle County] Facebook page,” he said. “That’s just what I do.” 

Hate-Free Schools member Amanda Moxham emphasized that the poster needed to be put back up, and encouraged the school to have a discussion with students about the controversy surrounding it.

“These are the conversations that need to be held at a young age so that when our students get to high school, they’re not combating each other over these ideologies,” Moxham said. 

Following public comment, Haas admitted he “often makes mistakes, especially in terms of my communication style,” and offered a formal apology. But he added that “we all need to take ownership,” and said “there was more that the school staff could have done prior to using the poster to set the stage for a positive dialogue and outcome.”

Cale’s Black History Month committee is currently working with the school’s administration, as well as with Dr. Bernard Hairston, assistant superintendent for school community empowerment, to determine what to do next. Hairston has also met with some African American parents at Cale, who suggested that “with the proper support and context and information, the poster could be [put] back on display,” Haas said.

“I support that…and I think that would be a great next step,” he said. “Someone might say, ‘Well, it’s too late because it was a part of African American History Month.’ But I would also say that it’s not one month out of the year…that’s part of reframing the narrative.” 

Correction 3/6: the Hate-Free Schools member who spoke at ACPS’s School Board meeting on 2/27 is named Amanda Moxham, not Maxhom.

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Opinion

Strategic voting: A guide to single-shotting

Mayor Nikuyah Walker likely benefited from her supporters’ embrace of single-shot voting in 2017, finishing first at the end of an independent run for council. Photo by Eze Amos

By Jake Mooney

Seventeen years ago, when I was a reporter for The Daily Progress and Lloyd Snook was the chairman of Charlottesville’s Democratic Party, he accused me of writing an instruction manual for voters to elect Republican Rob Schilling.

I was not perfect as a reporter, but I thought this was unfair because I never would have tried to get any particular candidate elected, certainly not Rob Schilling. But what also rankled, then and now, was the underlying idea that there was something wrong with voters casting informed and intentional votes for the candidates they want to win, whoever those candidates may be.

Snook was angry, specifically, that I wrote about a strategy called “single-shotting,” which Schilling’s supporters were planning to use and eventually did use successfully. This approach likely also helped Mayor Nikuyah Walker win her council seat as an independent in 2017, and it’s one that some politically minded people are starting to talk about again as the Democratic primary approaches.

In short, single-shotting is when you vote for just one candidate, even when you’re allowed to vote for more because there are multiple open seats. If you think that sounds incredibly simple, or like something that barely deserves a proper name, then I agree with you. But I’d like to spend a few more words here on the general idea: An instruction manual, if you will, for casting your smartest possible vote(s).

The first thing to remember is that, even if there are multiple seats open, you don’t have to cast all of the votes you’re entitled to. You may be allowed to vote for three candidates, but you can choose to only vote for two, or one. For some reason, people have a hard time with this: They think you’re wasting one of your votes if you decide not to cast it. I would frame it differently, and say that by voting for candidates you aren’t really excited about along with your favorites, you’re actually diluting the power of each of your votes.

The guiding principle, basically, is to vote for the person or people you most want to see win. Unsure about whether a candidate is worth one of your votes? Just close your eyes and picture that person beating your top choice, and decide if you like the way that feels. The point here is not just to vote for the people you like, but to avoid voting for people who might beat them.

Here’s how it worked for Walker in the last election: She knew a lot of people would be voting for the two Democratic nominees, Heather Hill and Amy Laufer. If some of her supporters had voted for Walker and Hill, and some for Walker and Laufer, then those votes, combined with votes for a Hill-Laufer ticket, would have buried Walker in third. In order to beat at least one of them, Walker needed to get a lot of votes, but also to minimize the number of votes Hill and Laufer each got.

In short, Walker needed her supporters to vote just for her, and not for either of the others. Just like Schilling needed his supporters to vote just for him, and not for either of the Democrats. In both of their cases, thinking about the race this way seemed to work. (It’s hard to know because the city doesn’t track single-shotting, but records show there were 5,877 votes that could have been cast and weren’t.)

This election—which is actually the Democratic primary, but will go a very long way towards deciding who gets elected in November in this heavily Democratic city—is even more complicated because it’s got three open seats, not two. In practice, I think that means it will be hard for supporters of any one candidate to shut out any one other candidate altogether; there are just too many open spots. But you can still try to make sure your top choice or choices get elected while giving the candidates you don’t like as few allies as possible.

So: Do you really like candidate A, and think your top priority is to make sure that person gets on the council? Then just vote for candidate A and leave the other spots blank. Are you really sold on candidates A and B, but not so sure about candidate C, even though C seems like a nice enough person? Well, how will you feel if C gets enough votes to finish ahead of A or B?  Personally, I’d skip the vote for C—unless, of course, I was positive C wasn’t going to get that many votes, and I wanted to support that person as a symbolic gesture.

True, by casting fewer than three votes, you’re giving up your theoretical right to choose all three winners. But in practice, your top three choices likely won’t all get elected, and you want to avoid helping your third choice beat your first choice.

Back in the real, non-hypothetical world, I don’t know exactly who I’m going to vote for in the upcoming City Council primary, although I confess I have a decent idea of who I’m not voting for. (I’m part Sicilian, and don’t let go of grievances very easily.)

What I am sure about is that people deserve to elect the candidates they want, and no one else. If they need instructions to make that happen, then so be it.

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News

Foy fired: Longtime WINA morning host given the boot

Jane Foy’s new job is to set up a regional survey pool that she hopes will be a national model to measure community opinion. Virginia Hamrick

 

Regular listeners to WINA’s “Morning News” may have noticed the absence this week of co-host and producer Jane Foy, but they were not given a reason why.

Foy, who had been on vacation and was coming back to work Tuesday, only learned in a phone call the night before that she was no longer on the show on which she’d worked since 2001, at the station where she’d worked for almost 20 years.

“It was a surprise,” says Foy. “You always know it’s coming because it’s the nature of the business, but you’re always shocked when it’s your time.”

The morning show is being “retooled,” Foy says she was told. The 6am to 10am drive time slot will lose an hour and go down to one host (her former co-host Rick Daniels).

“It’s just a programming change,” says Charlottesville Radio Group’s general manager Mike Chiumento. “The show with Rick and Jane hasn’t changed in 11 years.” The new version will have more features from CBS and be “more like the ‘Today Show,’” he says.

“It was extremely difficult to think about and execute,” says Chiumento. “She’s just a stellar part of the community.”

Before and after: Foy was still on the WINA website Wednesday, but by Thursday Rick Daniels was shown solo.

“I don’t know how I’m going to wake up every morning,” says regular listener Mary Miller. “Jane’s program was centered on local events. I appreciated her ability to keep us in touch” with news around town.

“I never like hearing this stuff,” says Joe Thomas, who hosts the morning show at competitor WCHV and says he once got fired on the way to a public event. Foy’s abrupt ouster, he says, “unfortunately is way too common in corporate radio.”

Charlottesville Radio Group includes ESPN Charlottesville, 106.5 the Corner, 3WV, Z95.1 and Country 92.7, and is owned by Michigan-based Saga Communications, which purchased the locally owned Eure Communications in 2004.

“I feel for her as somebody who’s committed this much time and effort in the community,” Thomas says. “She brought a great professionalism in journalism from the storied stations she’d worked with.”

A Pittsburgh native, Foy, 70, started her career in broadcast at a television station there nearly 50 years ago, doing film editing, public relations, and promotions. One day, a general manager at a local radio station called to ask what she thought of a show. She described it as “yawn radio,” which must have been the right answer. He hired her to take over the program and become the first female AM talk show host in Pittsburgh, at age 24.

Foy’s colleagues at WINA declined to comment, including Rob Schilling, who himself was dropped by the station 10 years ago. He’d filled in as Foy’s cohost on the “Morning Show” after Dick Mountjoy, another staple of local radio, died in 2008, and then Schilling was given his own show.

After Saga pulled the plug, Schilling’s fans launched a campaign to bring the conservative host back, which it did in January 2009.

State Senator Creigh Deeds was surprised to learn Foy is off the air and calls her “a voice that everybody knows and an essential part of everyone’s morning.” He’s been appearing on her show since he was first elected to the Senate in 2001, and says she’s a tough interviewer. “I know I wasn’t going to get softball questions.”

When reached on the phone, Foy sounds upbeat, and says her severance agreement was “very satisfactory.” Another bright side: She won’t be getting up at 4am and going to bed at 8:30pm.

And despite being the full-time caregiver for her husband, who has dementia, she says she will be looking for another job and hopes to do some volunteer work as well.

She’ll still be hosting the Walk to End Alzheimer’s on October 20–only this time it won’t be as Jane Foy of WINA.

 

 

 

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News

In brief: GOP scrambles, council contretemps, stormy waters and more

Distiller Denver Riggleman secures the 5th District GOP nomination by one vote. Submitted photo

Riggleman snatches 5th District Republican nomination

Five days after Congressman Tom Garrett announced he would not seek re-election to deal with alcoholism, distiller and former gubernatorial candidate Denver Riggleman fended off 10 other candidates in a five-hour marathon meeting June 2 at Nelson County High in Lovingston and secured the nomination by one vote.

Because Garrett’s announcement came so late in the election cycle, the 5th District GOP committee’s 37 members decided who the party’s pick would be to face off against Dem nominee Leslie Cockburn in November.

The committee had four rounds of voting, and until the last round, Riggleman trailed Cynthia Dunbar, who lost the 6th District nomination two weeks earlier and whose far-right positions would have made the red-leaning 5th District a toss-up, according to pundits at UVA’s Center for Politics.

Riggleman and his wife, Christine, own Silverback Distillery, which uses the nickname the couple’s daughters bestowed upon Riggleman, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence officer and Department of Defense contractor.

Last year, Riggleman briefly was a candidate for governor before withdrawing. The libertarian-leaning Republican says he’ll join the House Freedom Caucus if elected to Congress.

Riggleman has publicly groused about Virginia’s Prohibition-era laws governing alcohol sales, and he told the Washington Post if he’d known about the state’s arcane regs, he and his wife would never have set up shop here. Riggleman also has fought Dominion Energy, which planned to run its controversial pipeline through his Afton property.

“I need you to have an understanding of what it really means to be black.”—Activist Rosia Parker to City Council June 4 after she was not named to the city police citizen panel

Civilian review board controversy

City Council named seven people to an independent police review panel in a 3-2 vote Monday, and consternation ensued. Mayor Nikuyah Walker and Councilor Wes Bellamy voted against the appointments, which did not include some police critics like civil rights lawyer Jeff Fogel. Activist Don Gathers, who was appointed to the board, said the fact the council vote was made on racial lines “should be problematic to people.”

“The Silly Clowncil Song”

Charlottesville City Council meetings have become must-see TV over the past year as they spiraled out of control. Now council has its own parody song and video, courtesy of former tea partier Carole Thorpe and former councilor Rob Schilling. Thorpe sings and penned new lyrics to “Goodbye Cruel World,” a 1961 James Darren hit, and Schilling produced the video.

New confederate real estate

staff photo

A billboard courtesy of the Virginia Flaggers has been catching eyes on East High Street since May 1. A bronze Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson is depicted riding his trusty steed next to a quote that’s attributed to him: “All I am and all I have is at the service of my country.” Says proud flagger Grayson Jennings, “Looks good, doesn’t it?”

Slow down, Nikuyah

When Mayor Nikuyah Walker was pulled over for allegedly driving 43mph in a 25mph zone in September, she was given a ticket and convicted in November. She appealed the driving infraction June 1 in Charlottesville Circuit Court, where a second judge also found her guilty of driving too fast, but reduced her fine by $200, to $90, according to attorney Jeff Fogel.

Television tactics

UVA Health System professionals are testing whether focused sound waves can treat hypothalamic hamartoma, a rare brain mass that causes a “giggling” form of epilepsy, after the experimental approach was used on a recent episode of “Grey’s Anatomy.” Neurologist Nathan Fountain, the principal investigator of this clinical trial, says, “It was a very clever and surprising use of our research.” UVA is recruiting test participants from ages 18 to 80.

The water’s (mostly) fine

photo Tom Daly

Just in time for swimming season, new bacteria monitoring results from the James River Association show that the river is generally safe for recreation about 80 percent of the time. The other 20 percent? Eh.

Seventeen percent of collected samples showed levels of pollution that are unsafe for swimming, but those were mostly taken after significant rainfall, when bacteria washes into the James from surrounding land and sewage systems.

“This data demonstrates that our local waterways are safe for recreation most of the time, but extra caution is necessary after rainstorms,” says Jamie Brunkow, a James River riverkeeper. In other words, the throngs of people who will undoubtedly flock to the river in the summer heat might want to check its conditions before they grab their beach towels and beer coolers.

And the association makes that easy with its website called James River Watch, which shows what’s up with the waterway at all times.

The health of the river is determined by location, with highest health scores of 100 percent given to Chickahominy Riverfront Park in James City and the James River Fishing Pier in Newport News, and the worst score of 63 percent given to Rocketts Landing in Richmond. Both Charlottesville public access points on the Rivanna River, a tributary of the James, at Riverview and Darden Towe parks, pass with percentages in the mid-80s.

JUST THE FACTS

• 4 million annual visitors to the James River

• 6.5 million pounds of commercial seafood caught annually

• 200 public access sites on the James and its tributaries

• 236,217 hunting and fishing licenses purchased within the watershed in 2016

• $18.9 billion annual economic benefits provided by the river