Monthly Archive for November, 2006

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Jury Rules Against County Police in Shooting

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 17, 2006 in Law and Justice. 14 Comments

Today a Charlottesville jury awarded $4.5M to the family of a man killed by police at Squire Hill in 1997, Liesel Nowak reports for the Daily Progress. Twenty-six year-old Frederick Gray was unarmed when fighting with police after they entered his home. They attempted to subdue him with pepper spray and a baton, but police said that he had incapacitated three of the four officers and the remaining officer was forced to shoot and kill him. Sgt. Amos Chiarappa had previously come out on the winning end of a civil trial in 2003 and was even cleared by police.

The case pitted well-known local attorney Debbie Wyatt, who argued that there was a racial component to the case (given the the victim was black and the officers were all white), against Sen. Mark Obenshain, who argued that the inconsistencies in the case did not merit ruling against the officer. Obenshain was elected to the 26th District (in the valley) in 2003. His sister stepped down this week as chair of the Republican Party of Virginia, and their father was a powerful and well-known Republican leader in the state until his 1978 death in a plane crash.

Clear Channel Selling Local Stations

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 17, 2006 in Business and Meta News. 5 Comments

Clear Channel has announced that they are seeking buyers for all of their TV stations and 448 of their 1,200+ radio stations, including all of their C’ville stations, the Virginian-Pilot reports. Honestly, I can’t even keep track of all of their local stations anymore. I know it includes 107.5 FM and 1260 AM, but I know there are at least a few others. Shareholders may reject an all-in-one buyout, so it could happen that these local stations will come to be subject to a little competition. Realistically, though, I suspect they’ll all be bought by one big conglomerate, somebody on the scale of Saga Communications, who owns WINA, Z95, 3WV and 106.1 FM.

Judge Peatross to Retire

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 17, 2006 in Law and Justice and Politics. 13 Comments

Albemarle Circuit Judge Paul Peatross will be retiring come January 31, Bob Gibson reports in today’s Daily Progress.

But the real story here is his replacement. Much as word of Del. Mitch Van Yahres’ retirement set aspiring politicians’ eyes agleam last year, Peatross’ retirement is have the the same response among well-known lawyers. Gibson writes that Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos, C’ville General District Judge Robert Downer, Daniel Meador, deputy prosecutor Richard Moore, and assistant prosecutor John Zug are all likely to angle for the position.

Judgeships are not elected, but are appointed by the General Assembly. Having sat through some judgeship appointment votes at the Republican-led GA, they basically all sail through, voting for whomever the Courts of Justice committee has supported who, in turn, often supports whomever the local bar association supports. Interestingly for us, both Del. Rob Bell and Del. David Toscano sit on Courts of Justice. Del. Toscano has called for an open and fair process this time but, frankly, that’s just not going to happen under the current leadership in the General Assembly, who’s actually taken to killing bills under secret votes by a half dozen people in the dark of night.

I don’t know about y’all, but I find the prospect of Judge Camblos terrifying. Jim Camblos is not a man known for his good judgment and definitely not known for being on an even keel or, for that matter, simply being nice.

If you support an open, fair selection process and you’re represented by a Republican (Del. Bill Janis, Del. Rob Bell, or Del. Watkins Abbitt), contact your representative and let him know. If there’s anybody you’d like to see as judge — or anybody you really don’t want to see as judge — contact your representative (of whatever political stripe) and let him know, particularly if you’re represented by Del. Bell or Del. Toscano.

Bob Gibson Interview

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 16, 2006 in Meta News. 2 Comments

It’s not often that local reporters are interviewed. Lisa Provence turns the tables on Bob Gibson in this week’s Hook.

This is kind of a short blog entry, but I don’t really have anything else to write. Except this.

Poverty Diet Podcast

Published by Waldo Jaquith on November 16, 2006 in Blogs and General News. Closed

MAACA has put on their annual three-day poverty diet over the past three days, in which participants voluntarily spend just $2.83 on food. The idea is to give participants an understanding of what it’s like to live on the budget allotted to food stamp recipients.

This time around, local blogger and CHS student Michael Strickland participated. He kept an audio diary over the course of the three days, talking about what he was eating, how he felt, and how he did with his budget. And it’s available via the Charlottesville Podcasting Network, natch. It’s interesting and enjoyable — I’d love to see more people working with CPN’s Sean Tubbs to create this sort of original audio webcast.

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