O-Hill is going to start composting their food waste, Aaron Lee wrote in the Daily Progress yesterday. They account for half of the food served at the university, sending 5,000 pounds of food to be composted into soil, rather than to sit in the anaerobic environment of a dump, where food generally can’t biodegrade. Steve Murray’s Earlysville-based Panorama Pay-Dirt will be hauling it off beginning Tuesday.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Monthly Archive for November, 2008
Page 4 of 4
Those hoping to find out who won in the Goode/Perriello race will have to wait a while longer—until around Christmas, if the 2005 recount in the Creigh Deeds/Bob McDonnell race for attorney general is any guide. Historically, the best source of data has been straight from the SBE, rather than from third parties like CNN, etc., so those are the numbers to look at. Though at this moment Goode is up by a hundred-odd votes, we’re in the territory where minor adjustments from precinct officials can and will toss the race back and forth. Following this from hour-to-hour will drive you nuts.
That said, many of us are bound and determined to be driven nuts. And to that end, electronic voting expert and UVa professor Bryan Pfaffenberger provides an explanation of what we’re seeing here today:
I just did an analysis of the changes due to Veris [the new (and controversial) state voter registration database system] malfunction (?). In Danville, Tom Perriello’s vote totals (”original value”) were REDUCED by 308, while Virgil Goode’s vote totals were INCREASED by 1819.
I do not understand why vote totals would have been affected by VERIS “going down after midnight,” as the VBE update page states. It seems the system is used to report vote totals. So precincts were able to report vote totals before midnight (presumably, these are the “original values”), but were prevented from finishing until this morning, when (it seems) the system was rebooted. Why, then, would vote totals have been decreased as well as increased?
There will certainly be a recount, and that recount will require volunteers from both campaigns to go stomping around in sheds and barns to witness the audit of the voting equipment over the course of a half a day. If you want to help, get in touch with your candidate of choice and offer to observe come the appointed day. I did it for Sen. Deeds, and have volunteered to do the same for Tom Perriello.
Those of y’all who are as eager to keep up with the fluctuations of numbers as I am are welcome to post the changing numbers here as they settle down in the coming days.
It was a good day for Democrats here in Virginia. Barack Obama has won the presidency, of course, with spontaneous celebrations breaking out in the streets of cities across the nation and the world, but he also won the state of Virginia, with about 51% of the vote with 95% of precincts reporting right now. Mark Warner won John Warner’s Senate seat handily, defeating Jim Gilmore. Both candidates easily won Charlottesville and Albemarle.
Less clear is the outcome of the race between Rep. Virgil Goode and and Democratic challenger Tom Perriello. Though Perriello is ahead, there are two outstanding precincts that historically have gone heavily Republican, so Goode is likely to emerge about two hundred votes ahead, by my math. But that’s before the provisional ballots are counted, and that’s before the inevitable recount. Expect this one to stretch out for a while.
It’s election day, kids—go vote. There are no constitutional amendments, just president, Senate, and House.
Here in Stony Point we had 49 people in line at 6am—probably ten times what we’ve ever seen here before—with steady, heavy traffic ever since. Over two hundred people had voted by a little after 7:00. Nobody has needed to wait more than a few minutes, and the election workers are as efficient and friendly as ever. The rain has held off so far in the northern half of the county, which has surely helped turnout.
What are you seeing at your precinct?
10am Update: Albemarle County reports that 17,556 people voted by 9am, just over 26% of the electorate. That’s compared to to 10% in 2007 and 17% in 2006. (I’m afraid I have no figures for 2004, the last presidential election.) Jeff Uphoff provides photos of Walker in the city—between the donut wagon, the school band, and the bake sale, it seems like quite a hub of activity.
7:00pm Update: “There also have been reports of fake robocalls instructing voters in the Charlottesville area to go to the wrong precincts, allegations that the Virginia State Police are currently looking into.” So says the Washington Post. The results are going to start coming in shortly—follow the returns at the SBE’s website.
Circuit City is closing their Charlottesville location, Louis Llovio writes in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. They’re shutting down 154 other stores across the country, laying off a fifth of their employees, and probably facing bankruptcy. This move was inevitable to anybody watching the Richmond business’s death spiral over the past couple of years. The NYSE just warned them that they’ll be delisted if they don’t get their share prices up—they’re at $0.40 at the moment, almost a doubling in value since today’s announcement.
With so many locations closing, I guess oddly-shaped stores will litter the stripmall landscape across the nation, a la Golden Skillets. Who this is really bad news is Albemarle Square, which continues to be viable only because acac remains. It would just take the loss of one or two spots there—Plan 9 or the Northside branch of the library—before you’d see tumbleweeds in the parking lot.
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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