Yearly Archive for 2006

Page 20 of 71

Wal-Mart Opening in Louisa

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2006 in Business. 24 Comments

A Wal-Mart is opening right in the middle of downtown Louisa, WCAV reports, and Mayor Jim Artz couldn’t be happier. He describes it as being “like Santa Claus…coming to town.” Just one person interviewed seems to have any sense, the grandmother of James Grooms, who points out that Wal-Mart will put out of business every local establishment still hanging on. The mayor says, simply, “if you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.”

Wal-Mart’s business strategy is, famously, to move into economically hurting areas like Louisa, make their prices so low that they shut down the mom-and-pop businesses, and then they raise their prices again when they don’t have any competition. In exchange, locals get minimum wage jobs. I’m mostly blogging about this so that I’ll be able to link to my “I told you so” when the mayor gets run out of town on a rail in a few years.

O’Reilly Takes on Casteen, Cav. Daily

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2006 in Meta News and UVa. 15 Comments

Host Bill O’Reilly put John Casteen on his “On Notice” board on Fox News’ “The O’Reilly Factor” last night, The Hook writes:

Those remarks came during a segment about two cartoons run in the August 23 and 24 editions of the Cavalier Daily. Drawn by third year Grant Woolard as part of his comic strip Quirksmith, one depicts Jesus Christ crucified on a Cartesian x/y axis, the other shows a nativity scene in which Mary responds to Joseph’s concerns over a “bumpy rash” by saying “I swear, it was immaculately transmitted!”

“People should write letters to John Casteen until this publication is thrown off campus,” said O’Reilly. At one point O’Reilly began to read from Casteen’s letter to him. When he got to the first mention of Thomas Jefferson, O’Reilly stopped and said, “Thomas Jefferson would throw this publication off campus so fast.”

The Cavalier Daily is, of course, an independent student publication. There’s nothing that John Casteen can do no matter what they write. The paper’s ombudsman, Lisa Fleisher, addressed the topic a couple of days ago, concluding that there’s no need to apologize, but that the comics probably shouldn’t have been published because they’re just not particularly funny.

Groups Ask BoS for Growth Target

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2006 in Development. 3 Comments

Several area environmental organizations have appealed to the Board of Supervisors for a growth target, Bob Gibson writes in today’s Progress. Representatives from Advocates for a Sustainable Albemarle Population, The Sierra Club, and Citizens for Albemarle asked the Board of Supervisors to simply set a number so that we know when we’re done growing: 150,000, 200,000, 500,000, whatever.

They say — and I agree — that we should simply pick a target so we can plan ahead. If what we love about Albemarle that it’s so rural, then we’ll want a lower target. But if we agree that Albemarle should eventually resemble Manhattan, we’ll want a higher number. We’ve been planning the size of families for a couple of generations now. Can’t we plan the size of our cities?

DMHMRSAS Investigating Whisper Ridge

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 14, 2006 in Business and Law and Justice. 1 Comment

The running joke that is Psychiatric Solutions’ Whisper Ridge continues, Rob Seal reports in today’s Progress. This time it’s The Virginia Department of Mental Health doing the investigating, with the matters including a suicide attempt and two occasions in which police had to be called to deal with unruly patients. Mind you, they have something like six patients in there now — if they can’t handle a half dozen kids, I’m not sure how they ever hope to function at their full capacity of many dozens. But I get the sense this joint isn’t run by people who think that far ahead.

I must point out, because it’s so bizarre, that the full name of this state government organization is The Department of Mental Health, Mental Retardation and Substance Abuse Services, or “DMHMRSAS.” They actually call it that. I want to know if they spell it out, or if there’s some way that they pronounce it: “dumhumrasass” or something.

David Breeden Dies

Published by Waldo Jaquith on September 13, 2006 in General News. 6 Comments

David Breeden, of Biscuit Run fame, died of heart failure yesterday. You either knew David for his soapstone sculptures — seven are scattered around public places in town — for his family by way of one of his seven gregarious children, or for his 30-year-running Wednesday night potluck dinner. The Breeden family recently sold the bulk of their property to a developer for $46.2M, which will become “Fox Ridge,” south of town.

The funeral will be at the Thomas Jefferson Unitarian Universalist Church on Rugby at noon next Wednesday. And, yes, the potluck will be held that night.

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