It was one year ago today that UVa Student Council president candidate Daisy Lundy reported that she had been the victim of a racist assault perpetrated to force her out the running for office. Lundy was elected after her opponent withdrew from the race, shortly after the FBI opened an investigation into the attack. In October, the case went before a grand jury, but nothing has come of that thus far. On cvillenews.com, Lundy’s story was poked full of holes and generally met with great skepticism (and elsewhere, too), so the news that the case remains open with no known leads will come as little surprise to many. Kate Andrews has the story in today’s Progress.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for February, 2004
cvillenews.com has a new neighbor — CvilleIndyMedia, a local iteration of the the Independent Media Center family of sites. The site is run by Alexis Ziegler, and should be familiar-looking to anybody reading this site. The major feature of CvilleIndyMedia is that it’s democratically-run: instead of having submissions run through an approval process, anybody can post a story about anything, making it a truly open site. Assuming that CvilleIndyMedia sticks to the approach used by most Indymedia sites, its focus will be on progressive social change, such as environmentalism, sustainability, peace, equality, animal rights and, of course, politics.
In a startling revelation by Liz Nelson and Reed Williams in the Daily Progress, Republican City Council candidate Kenneth Jackson has been found to have been convicted four times for assault and battery, with a knife on three of those occasions. In 1985, the 18-year-old Jackson stabbed a classmate several times; in 1990, he got in a fight, assaulted a police officer and resisted arrest; in 1993, he went after a coworker with a knife; and in 1994, he cut a man in the torso after the man slapped him. Jackson sees no reason why any of this should concern voters. “They were years ago,” he said. “That’s one of the great things about our society. It gives you a chance to change.”
One year after Fridays After 5 became a paid event, they’re reverting to being free of charge. This comes after the Charlottesville Downtown Foundation, the organization that runs Fridays After 5, lost two thirds of its sponsorship budget from Virginia State Lottery (had its budget cut), Adelphia Cable (declared bankruptcy, in serious legal trouble), SunCom (slackers?) and Technicolor (fired 750 people, moved to Guadalajara). It didn’t help any that it seemed to rain mightily last summer, but only on Fridays — a third of the year’s concerts were rained out. The organization intends to return to featuring local acts, the city has agreed to lower their usage fees, and things are a bit cloudy beyond that, because of the planned extension of the east end of the Downtown Mall. Lisa Provence has the story in this week’s Hook, and Liz Nelson has the story in yesterday’s Progress.
A couple of weeks ago, the much-debated Hollymead Town Center project, a huge shopping center under development in Hollymead (which is not, in fact, a town) was the victim of some $30,000 in vandalism. But it wasn’t your regular vandalism — the perps left a banner reading “Your construction = long-term destruction — ELF.” The Earth Liberation Front describes themselves as “an international underground organization that uses direct action in the form of economic sabotage to stop the destruction of the natural environment.” They estimate that they’ve done $100M in damage to those businesses who “profit from the destruction of life and the planet.” ELF issued a press release taking credit for the attack, describing the action as “part of the ELF’s ongoing actions against large-scale developments going up at the expense of what little green space is left in North America.” Lisa Provence has the story in The Hook.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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