Consider this your reminder that the Virginia Festival of the Book runs from Wednesday through Sunday. Dozens of events are scheduled in that period, most of which are readings or presentations by a panel of authors. Notable participants include David Baldacci, Joan Biskupic, Amy Goodman, Hendrik Hertzberg, Elizabeth Kolbert, Warren St. John, Lawrence Weschler, Jeffery Deaver and Art Spiegelman. Local notables participating include Barbara Ehrenreich, Rita Dove, John Casey, Terri Allard, John McCutcheon, Gregory Orr and George Garrett. (Nearly) all events are free and open to the public. For the schedule, author bios, etc., see the Book Fest website.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for March, 2006
Page 4 of 9
Mayor David Brown has launched a blog. He writes that being mayor “gives me a chance to see and learn about Charlottesville in ways that I would like to share…I thought a blog might be a good way to communicate,” and also announces his goal of walking or bicycling on every street in C’ville while he’s on City Council. (That was totally going to be my goal if I were ever on Council, not that there’s any danger of that. Damn his creativity.) Charlottesville now joins Washington D.C., St. Louis and…uh…Reading on the list of cities with blogging mayors.
Increased safety concerns at Buford Middle School, from students behaving violently, and the school board beginning to address the matter led a reader to send me some data about crime rates there. Police incident reports for 2005 for both Buford and CHS (544k PDF), which are public data, indicate visits to CHS every couple of weeks, with incidents ranging from runaways to bomb threats, “suspicious circumstances” to traffic accidents. Buford received less frequent visits, but offenses include assaults, drug possession, robbery and “fires not arson.” I count twelve assaults (simple and intimidation) for the year at Buford but, having nothing to compare that to, I don’t know how that compares to the average for Buford or for comparable schools.
The six candidates for the two open seats on the Charlottesville School Board participated in a candidate forum held by the Charlottesville Democrats yesterday morning. Vance High, Sue Lewis, Juandiego Wade, Leah Puryear, Charlie Kollmansperger and Ned Michie answered three initial questions before taking half an hour’s worth of questions from the audience. The hour and a half recording is available on the Charlottesville Podcasting Network.
Sean McCord writes: “As part of PBS’s American Experience series, WHTJ will be broadcasting ‘Murder of the Century,’ about the murder of Stanford White in 1906. White, of course, was the renowned architect who over the redesign of UVA’s Rotunda after it burned down in 1895. C-Ville Weekly ran an article a few years ago on White, the rebuilding, and his infamous murder by millionaire Harry Thaw over White’s affair with Thaw’s winsome wife, Evelyn. I am looking forward to PBS’s documentary treatment of this story.
“WHTJ will be broadcasting ‘Murder of the Century’ on Monday, March 20th, at 10:00 PM.”
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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