Monthly Archive for October, 2009

Page 3 of 8

Bad News Comes in Threes

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 24, 2009 in General News. 9 Comments

It’s been a bad last few days here in Charlottesville.

Mother, North Garden farmer, raw milk advocate and local food activist Kathryn Russell died in a car accident on 29S on Thursday night. The owner of Majesty Farm and VICFA board member was crossing 29 on Plank Road when her truck was hit by a van. She wasn’t wearing a seatbelt, and died at the scene. To learn more about Kathryn, see Meg McEvoy’s 2007 C-Ville Weekly article about local food.

Local musician and regional drumming legend Johnny Gilmore died in a house fire, also on Thursday night. He performed with just about every musician in town at one time or another—his eponymous trio, Cory Harris, Soko, Tim Reynolds, Jamal Milner, the C’ville All-Stars, and untold dozens more. It’s not yet known how the fire started, but it appears to have started at the foot of the bed in which he was sleeping, perhaps by an unattended cigarette. His 73-year-old father escaped, but is now left homeless, without the money to pay for his son’s burial. a fundraising/memorial concert is being held Sunday night at Fry’s Spring Beach Club.

Farmer and farmers market founder Jack Cason is hospitalized after a car accident a week ago, and he’s in bad shape. He drove to town while feeling dizzy, crashed, and the truck caught on fire. The eighty-year-old is at the UVA Medical Center in a medically-induced coma with severe burns, awaiting skin grafts. Many vendors at the market are donating 25% of their sales over the next month to a fund to help with his considerable medical expenses.

Bell Challenger Compares Him to a Cheating Husband

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 22, 2009 in Politics. 22 Comments

The Democratic challenger to Delegate Rob Bell sent out a mailing earlier this week comparing him to a cheating husband, Brian McNeill writes in the Progress. Cynthia Neff‘s glossy, 8.5″x11″ one-page mailer shows a bouquet of roses on one side, with large text reading: “It’s like a cheating husband who sends flowers to cover up what he’s done.” (Image here.) The back side says that “Rob Bell is just like a cheating husband who gets away with it,” saying that he sends a lot of friendly letters to constituents, but—Neff argues—he does it to cover up that he’s voting against the interests of the citizens of the 58th District. (Image here.) Bell immediately incorporated the front of the image into a fundraising e-mail, which he sent out on Monday, calling it a “doozy” of an attack ad. He calls the attack a sign that Neff’s campaign is desperate. In the Progress, Neff’s campaign spokesman didn’t address the implication that Bell had been unfaithful to his wife, but instead repeated some of the criticisms already present in the mailer, such as that Bell has voted against increasing teacher pay and voted to prevent rape victims from receiving emergency contraception in emergency rooms to prevent pregnancy.

Property Boundaries on Google Maps

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 21, 2009 in In Brief. 7 Comments

Google Maps is showing county property boundaries. Bravo, Google and county GIS folks! (Via DP)  #

County Dropout Rates for Black Students Have Tripled

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 21, 2009 in Education. 3 Comments

Black students in Albemarle County high schools are graduating at a lower rate this year than last year, Rachana Dixit and Brandon Shulleeta report in today’s Daily Progress. Of the class that entered ninth grade in 2004, 5.4% of black students dropped out. Of the class that entered in 2005, 15.2% dropped out, nearly triple the rate of the prior year. However, it’s helpful to look at the raw numbers for perspective. Only 138 black students entered the county school system in 2005, so we’re looking at an increase of about fourteen students, or about five students dropping out per high school.

The county school system points out in a press release some of what’s behind those numbers:

Although fewer black students graduated on-time in 2009 than their counterparts in 2008, one-third of those students who did not graduate are still enrolled in school and are on track to graduate within five years. Nationally, about 71 percent of students graduate on time with a regular diploma, but barely half of black and Hispanic students earn diplomas with their peers.

“A number of our black students who did not graduate in 2008 stayed in school another year and graduated in 2009,” said Dr. Matthew Haas, Director of Secondary Education for the school division. “These students had gotten behind early in their high school careers and persisted to finish their work and graduate at nearly the same rate as their peers. As a School Division, we have now put into place more programs to help students who fall behind early in high school get caught up sooner, so that they can not only graduate, but graduate on-time.”

A school system representative tells the Progress that they’ve put retention programs into place in the past couple of years—which they say have been very successful—which are too new to have fully benefitted the most recent class of students.

That may all be true, but the headline here—”Black dropout rate in county triples”—is a bitter pill.

Medical Marijuana (Apparently) Legalized in VA

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 21, 2009 in In Brief. 12 Comments

With President Obama OKing medical marijuana, my reading of Virginia law tells me that it’s now legal right here in Charlottesville.  #