Monthly Archive for September, 2005

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UVa Employment RSS Feed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 26, 2005 in Business, Site News and UVa. 3 Comments

Scanning UVa’s classified staff job listings is a pain. There’s no way to just look at recent additions. With 329 jobs listed right now, I’ve gotten tired of pawing through the list each day to find new openings.

I’ve constructed a screen-scraped UVa staff openings RSS feed. It’s updated once every 12 hours (so please don’t poll the feed every 20 minutes), and simply lists every staff opening available in Charlottesville right now. I built this for myself, but I figure any of y’all on the job hunt might find it equally useful.

Note that this is in addition to the existing WINA, Cavalier Daily, and Daily Progress RSS feeds.

No Competition for County School Board

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 26, 2005 in Education and Politics. 5 Comments

There are three candidates running for three seats on the Albemarle County School Board. The county moved to an elected school board in 1993, and this is a first. Diantha McKeel and Pamela Moynihan are running for reelection, while Jon Stokes is running for an open seat. James Fernald has the story in today’s Daily Progress.

With Charlottesville facing the question of whether to move to an elected school board come November, it seems reasonable to ask whether this bodes well for the concept of an elected, rather than an appointed, school board. Is it possible that Albemarle is totally blissed out on the school system? There’s no change needed that warrants a changing of the guard, or even a little accountability? Or are the obstacles to running for office greater than whatever problems exist, and simply don’t merit the investment of time and money for anybody in these three districts? I’m seriously not sure if this means that the system works, or that it’s totally broken.

Cari and Duane Continuing to Contribute

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 26, 2005 in Site News. Closed

As I mentioned recently, I was so pleased with our recent guest bloggers that I wanted to keep it up. So I’ve invited Cari and Duane to keep contributing to cvillenews.com. In particular, I’ve asked Cari to make a point of writing about UVa, since she’s a senior, and I’m lousy about figuring out what’s going on there. Both of ’em are going to need some time to get their sea legs, so y’all be nice.

I want very much for the site to represent much more than just my take on things (hence the comments). Bringing in additional contributors is one part of expanding the influences. Another part will be more frequently referring to local blogs as a source of both fact and opinion, to encourage more people to read local blogs and more people to start blogging. We’ve got sixty-something local blogs now. I’d like that to top 100 by the end of the year.

SPCA Rummage Sale

Published by Duane Gran on September 25, 2005 in General News. 1 Comment

Whether you are moving or just need to clean out the attic, consider checking out the Charlottesville-Albemarle SPCA rummage sale as a venue to donate items. C’mon. Do it for the cats. Or the dogs, if that is your thing.

Low Wages, High Expenses

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 22, 2005 in General News. 4 Comments

Good news! C’ville exceeds the national average cost of living while keeping wages are unusually low!

Oh. I’m sorry, that’s actually bad news. It sounded really good at first.

Our overheated housing market and the mounting costs of sprawl aren’t helping any. The collapse of Central Virginia manufacturing industry since NAFTA has particularly hurt. While the problems may be clear, the solutions are murky.

“Charlotte$$ville…the best city in America you can’t afford.“

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