Monthly Archive for August, 2007

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Camblos Drops BB Gun Charges

Remember the BS charges brought against four UVa students after they filmed a scene that involved a BB gun for a class assignment? Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney Jim Camblos actually charged them each with “brandishing a firearm.” Well, four months later Camblos was forced to accept that the charges were just goofy — Brian McNeill reports in the Daily Progress that Camblos has dropped the charges against the kids.

The whole thing smacked of his equally ludicrous charges in the “smoke bombers” case this time last year, when he charged those middle school students with conspiring to “blow up” their school. After the case led to an acquittal, Camblos showed no interest in his universal condemnation, even pointing to the fact that one of the accused kids’ birthdays was also the anniversary of Columbine as evidence against him. This time around, Camblos realized that he’d have to drop the charges, since no judge or jury would rule against these kids, and managed to keep himself from threatening the media for violating a non-existent gag order. Those who need to get caught up can look at my year-old compilation of the most outrageous things that Camblos has ever done.

It’s well worth noting that Camblos is running for reelection this year — he’s seeking a third term. I sent $50 to his challenger, Denise Lunsford, via her website a few days ago. There’s not much I know about Lunsford, other than that she’s not Camblos. That’s good enough for me. On the other hand, if Lunsford wins, what in the world would I write about for the next four years? I’d be like Jon Stewart without Bush as president.

One if by Land, Two if by Sea

When a convertible full of four blondes nearly mowed me down on McCormick this afternoon, I knew it was on: the students are coming. Tomorrow is the big day, though the all of The Corner, 14th Street and 29N is bound to be a mess through Sunday.

And there’s your annual day-before warning.

Rate of Assaults Downtown Doubles

While everybody was wondering whether crime has actually risen downtown recently, The Hook found out. Simple assaults are occurring at twice the 2004 rate, which is a pretty startling increase. In fact, it’s the single most common crime downtown, occurring 134% more often than shoplifting. To re-mount my two-year-old hobby horse, if the police would simply make raw crime report data available online (incident, date, time, and block address), news outlets and citizens activists could mine this data for trends on our own.

C-Ville Weekly Reviews Rapist Arrest Coverage

I always like to point out when local media outlets manage to write about other media outlets in a way that’s both useful and even-handed. C-Ville Weekly has done so this week. Scott Weaver writes about how local media outlets covered the arrest of of Nathan Antonio Washington, the suspect in two of the serial rapes and the presumed suspect in all of them. It was a tough story to report on, due to the tension between wanting to say “the serial rapist has been caught” and the need for the restraint of sticking to the facts. As Weaver explains, some media outlets did a better job than others, with TV news taking a particularly “aggressive if not hysterical tone.” (cVillain is taking their mention rather badly. Hey, guys, you got a mention — be happy.) Weaver managed to write an informative article about other media outlets — even their direct competition in the former of The Hook — without resorting to snark or bomb-throwing. That’s great to see.

Time Lapse Video of the Chalkboard

The Thomas Jefferson Center has posted to their website a two minute time-lapse film of people writing on the chalkboard, made by recent AHS graduate Sasha Solodukhina. It’s pretty clever:

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