Monthly Archive for August, 2001

Page 10 of 10

Homeless Dump Asbestos

Two businessmen have been indicted by a Charlottesville jury for conspiring to get workers to remove asbestos from Staunton buildings and illegally dispose of it. Turns out that these Einsteins — Dr. David Stephen Klein and Josef Gene Weiss — recruited homeless men from Staunton to remove asbestos by slicing it out of the walls with razor blades, lacking any safety equipment. They were directed to then dump the dangerous substance in various dumpsters, including one at Buffalo Gap High School. The two men are facing millions of dollars in fines. Adrienne Schwisow has the story in today’s Progress.

UVa Settles with Fired Hospital Employees

UVa has agreed to pay the five fired hospital employees $22,000, or roughly three months of severance pay per person. The former employees can reapply for their jobs, and UVa says that they’ll be considered the same as any other applications. One of the plaintiffs likened the the settlement to pacifying a child, that UVa provided just enough to quiet the ex-employees. Reed Williams has the story in today’s Progress.

Rey Barry Takes on C’ville

Local politically-minded fellow (and friend of mine) Rey Barry is taking on Charlottesville and offering solutions to pretty much every problem that you can throw at him. On his site, he has a two-part strengths and weaknesses analysis of Charlottesville and, to some extent, Albemarle County that makes for a very interesting read. If you have any interest in where we’ve come from and where we’re going (which you do, in that you’re reading cvillenews.com), give this a read.

Weather Alert Radios Work

You know those weather alert things that you can buy for $50 and hang on your wall to let you know when a disaster is going to happen? They work here now, which is exciting the local press and government to no end. WVIR, the Progress and WINA are all reporting this one. The real news, though, is that a Florida-based company, Dyn-o-mat, has created a powder that, when dumped on storm clouds, turns it into a gel that drops harmessly to the ground. So we may not need those radios after all.

Medicare to Re-Investigate UVa Psych. Ward

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has announced that they intend to re-investigate the UVa Medical Center‘s psychiatric ward after reports of two patients shooting up and having sex in a laundry room. CMS just finished their investigation of the psych. ward after the June allegations of sexual assault, and is due to release that report in a week or so. This new investigation is pretty much a worst-case scenario for the UVA hospital. Claudia Pinto reports on this in today’s Progress.

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