Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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City Website Voted Best in the Country

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 25, 2006 in General News. 3 Comments

Writes Sean:

See the press release. Appropriately, I found out about this because I signed up for City-related press releases after visiting the new and improved website shortly after it launched.

The award is the City-County Communications and Marketing Association’s Savvy Awards in the website subcategory of the communications technology category, for cities of our size. The website for the award is, ironically enough, horrible. Given that the new Charlottesville website launched after the deadline for submissions, I assume that the old Charlottesville website won. Nevermind — the press release specifically says it’s for the new website.

CBS 19 on the “Crime-fighting Clown”

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 25, 2006 in Meta News. 4 Comments

This is some the weakest shit I have ever seen on a local media outlet. I don’t know what’s worse: that CBS 19 provided an ad for a circus masquerading as news or that Chief Longo took part in it.

Note to local charitable causes: If you want get out your message via the news, you’ll have to put on a clown nose and hand out cookies to anybody “caught having just a good ol’ time.”

Voting Machines Truncating Candidate Names

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 24, 2006 in Politics. 19 Comments

Charlottesville finds itself in the national spotlight, embarrassingly, after the Washington Post today reported that Jim Webb’s name is too long to appear on our electronic voting equipment. Charlottesville voters will choose between voting for “George Allen” or “James H. ‘Jim’,” something that may leave voters scratching their heads. That’s because the screen on the Hart InterCivic eSlate can’t fit all of the text in Webb’s name. The problem isn’t new — it’s been ongoing since the city first bought the equipment four years ago.

I’ve never been a fan of the eSlates (the scrollwheel interface is clever on an iPod, but ridiculously laborious for the purpose of writing out text, such as write-in vote), or really electronic voting at all, but this seems particularly egregious. It would seem to me that the appropriate measure would be for the State Board of Elections to grant an exception to Charlottesville, with the permission of Jim Webb, to list him simply as “Jim Webb,” but apparently the plan is to leave things as they are and to post signs describing the problem.

Electoral Board member Rick Sincere has weighed in on this, explaining how the problem came to be and what’s being done about it. Look for more on this from Bob Gibson in Wednesday’s Daily Progress.

10/25 Update: “Phred” points out that the problem is on the summary page shown before casting the ballot, not when voters are selecting a candidate, meaning that the problem is inconsistent. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

Elvis Shifflett in Critical Condition

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 24, 2006 in Crime. 25 Comments

Family members of Elvis Gene Shifflett were permitted to visit him in the hospital yesterday, CBS-19 reports, three days after Shifflett was captured in a massive manhunt resulting from his attempt to kill his ex-girlfriend two weeks ago. Shifflett is in serious condition, but is expected to survive, after being shot repeatedly by a pair of police officers.

Elvis ShifflettNew details are now coming out about the events of Friday afternoon. Police found a loaded semiautomatic SKS and forty rounds in ammunition in his vehicle shortly after he abandoned the car while fleeing police. Crystal Morris, who was in the car with him at the time of the chase, says that Shifflett claimed that he hadn’t turned himself in because he believed they would kill him. She told police that Shifflett was unarmed. Shifflett was spotted by police while he was attempting to steal a flatbed truck on Brookhill. Chief Tim Longo says that he was repeatedly ordered to show his hands and, when he didn’t comply, officers opened fire, hitting him in the neck, back, chest, and arm. The Hook broke the news yesterday that Shifflett was shot in the face and at least one injury was inflicted by an M16.

The state police are investigating the shooting now, as is required, leaving Charlottesville police unable to say much about the matter.

Elvis ShifflettIn the Progress, Rob Seal reports that Shifflett has a heck of a rap sheet, going back two decades, including felony convictions. And the Hook reports that it runs in the family: Shifflett’s brother, Jeffrey Wayne Shifflett, is wanted by police for a string of burglaries and for threatening the lives of police officers in his brother’s case. Police are sufficiently concerned about the threat that they’re not releasing the names of the officers involved in the shooting. He is considered armed and dangerous.

NBC 29 Creates an RSS Feed

Published by Waldo Jaquith on October 24, 2006 in Meta News. Closed

Glory be!, o rapturous day!, etc., etc.: NBC 29 has an RSS feed. Once the Daily Progress creates one, I don’t know what I’ll complain about. (Don’t worry — I’ll find something.) Thanks to James for the tip.

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