Two and a half years after he went on the run, Jim Baldi has been arrested in California, Dave McNair writes for The Hook. The former owner of an accounting firm (and Bel Rio, the Belmont restaurant) disappeared after financial irregularities emerged. He was charged with embezzling from clients, and then was gone without a trace. Many folks—myself included—thought he’d never be heard from again. The U.S Marshals Service and the Albemarle County Police tracked him down. He’s awaiting extradition to Virginia.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
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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It didn’t take long for Steve Shifflet to appear to hijack the comment section there. I’m so glad C’villenews keeps him at bay.
Off-topic: Waldo, the WVTF local news site would be a worthy addition to your Outlets list. The reporting there is getting pretty aggressive. The WVTF site has transcripts for *most* pieces, but not for the wildest recent one: that the firing of Teresa Sullivan was related to climategate and Michael Mann. It’s an interview and report on UVa Prof. Robert Geraci’s take on the matter. One tidbit I had not heard before: the enviro sciences dept. got a big donation for an endowed chair and tried to hire Mann two months before the Sullivangate. It was stopped at the dean level, appealed to the provost, and denied there too. Could make sense they thought it was crazy to rehire Mann and antagonize Cucci, but get this: the donors of the chair were Kington and Paul Tudor Jones. They had endowed the chair in the wake of the the Cucci lawsuit in the first place! What kind of power move was that? Could be old news to everyone else, since Geraci published a story in the Guardian about last November, but I thought Sandy Hausman at WVTF did a fine job telling the somewhat muckrakingly speculative story, better written than most news stories on national NPR. (It did lack any attempt at rebuttal though.)
About Baldi, I have heard the worst, let’s see what the prosecutors come up with. I don’t know why people assume he’s out of money and the business partners will never get their paltry sums back. (Paltry by Madoff standards, or even that local Ponzi.)
Or it went to the approval queue because of the link.
And on the topic of news links, the Progress link yields an error. Alas.
Thanks for the link suggestion and correction! I feel dumb about WVTF—I actually agitated for about a year for them to start posting and archiving news on their site, talked them through how to support that with their CMS, and how to archive audio. And then totally neglected to actually link to them in the sidebar. :)