Monthly Archive for March, 2006

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Happy Fifth Anniversary

Today is the fifth anniversary of cvillenews.com. Last year I celebrated by moving from PostNuke to WordPress. This year I’m celebrating by doing nothing at all. Woo!

Some stats. There have been 1,445 front-page articles over the years, and 14,820 comments. That’s an average of an article every 24.2 hours and one post every 2.4 hours. There are an average of 3,031 readers each day, or about 13,000 unique visitors each month.

Next year let’s celebrate by making cvillenews.com useless with a dozen locally-oriented blogs that are better than this one, and then we can shut ‘er down.

WVAX Is Coming

David Sewell writes: “Driving home from work tonight, I idly tuned the AM dial to 1450, promised home of WVAX, Air America in C’ville, which has been emitting nothing but faint static since reported interference problems took it off the air following an abortive first launch in January. Now, loud and clear, some sort of generic R&B song was playing. Hmph, I thought, Saga Communications has given up on Progressive Talk for liberal Charlottesville. But just as I reached for the dial, the song was replaced by an announcer proclaiming that yes, this was WVAX 1450, completing FCC-mandated signal testing, and that Real Soon Now it would be Charlottesville’s station where ‘the left is right!’, with the likes of Randy Rhodes, Al Franken, and Ed Schultz. For what it’s worth, its signal stayed with me all the way into White Hall, suggesting that 1450 is at WINA-level wattage rather than the more feeble level they were broadcasting at in January. Is WVAX here to stay this time?”

Mystery Traffic Light Antennae?

AntennaSometime when I wasn’t looking, these antennae sprouted up on many of the traffic lights around Charlottesville. They look like flat panel directional antennae (here’s an example), though I don’t know what the city would be doing with them, least of all in tandem with traffic lights. I’ve got a picture of one in context, at the corner of JPA and Main, too. Does anybody have an idea of what these are for?

Students Don’t Support Honor Code

A UVa committee has conducted a survey of 257 students and their beliefs about the honor system, and the results are disappointing, Melanie Mayhew reports in today’s Daily Progress. Only 39% of respondents said that they would be willing to report a clear violation of the honor code. Half of respondents are unwilling to report because they simply don’t want to be involved with it. It should be noted that the respondents are self-selecting — the survey was sent to 1,000 students, and only 257 replied.

03/29 Update: In their lead edit today, The Cavalier Daily takes aim at The Daily Progress for their editorial condemning UVa students.

Caravati and Schilling At It Again

City Councilors Rob Schilling and Blake Caravati are waving their penises about again, John Yellig writes in today’s Daily Progress. (To be fair, that’s my metaphor — no need to blame Yellig for that.)

At a March 9 work session, Councilor Kevin Lynch told Schilling that it was tough to cut the real estate tax by 4% last year, and that Schilling would know that if he’d bothered to participate in the budget process. Schilling, on the paranoid side, responded: “Oh, so we have a secret little cabal going on behind the scenes. We’re dealing with the city manager outside of the public eye composing a budget. I’m glad that you admitted it because I knew that was what was going on.”

At a work session yesterday, Caravati went after Schilling for the comment, saying: “It’s an extremely serious charge, and it has political penalties to it, for sure, and actual criminal penalties. To be accused of criminal behavior and dishonesty is beyond the pale of anything that I’ve ever been accused of in my now eight years of service. Unless this type of thing can be proved and substantiated, I think that a retraction is definitely in order.”

Schilling’s not returning the Progress‘ phone calls, so it’s not altogether clear what he’s talking about. But I’m calling up now that if there’s a vast left-wing conspiracy, I want in.

03/25 Update: Oh, nevermind. Schilling claims that he never said it, audio recording and a half dozen witnesses notwithstanding. Besides, he thinks that this secret cabal only has two people in it — Lynch and City Manager Gary O’Connell. It’s very exclusive.

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