In an ongoing series, Elizabeth Nelson is profiling each of the six candidates for City Council. In the past three days, she has written about Democrat David Brown (love the headline headline: “Chiropractor wants to give back”), Democrat Kendra Hamilton, and independent Vance High. Still to come, of course, are Democrat Kevin Lynch and Republicans Ann Reineke and Kenneth Jackson. Doing her best to make this election interesting, Nelson has been covering each of the candidate forums, most recently the NAACP forum, the highlight of which was a woman calling Kevin Lynch an “airbag” with a personality problem who is “full of crap,” leading to Lynch’s rejoinder that he wasn’t the one with the need to defend his personality. Ah, those wacky forums.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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Joining WVIR and the summer-slated CBS affiliate is yet another television station, Channel 9, a broadcast station. This one is billed as all C’ville, all the time — city news, city music, segments based on print media features, and a rebroadcast of WINA’s morning show. They hope to sign a lease on the old WINA space, in the Market Street parking garage, but still have the small issue of raising $3M to get things going. September 1 is the slated launch date. Liz Nelson has the story in today’s Progress.
In January, City Council voted to get Attorney General Jerry Kilgore’s opinion as to whether a supermajority is necessary to sell 9.2 acres of McIntire Park to the state to create the Meadowcreek Parkway. Kilgore has returned his opinion, which holds that the supermajority is not necessary, because, he writes, “public highways belong entirely to the public at large.” His opinion seems at odds with the relevant section of the Virginia constitution, article VII, section 9, which states, simply: “No rights of a city…to its…parks…shall be sold except by an ordinance or resolution passed by a recorded affirmative vote of three-fourths of all members elected to the governing body.” With the council race in progress and up to three new councilors taking office on June 30, it’s not clear if Council will act on this now, or wait until after elections. Bob Gibson had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
In the second interesting moment in the City Council race since the nominations (the first being the revelations about Kenneth Jackson’s penchant for stabbing people) , Republican candidate Ann Reinike said at a Wednesday candidate forum that she supports teaching creationism in Charlottesville schools. Apparently by way of explanation, Reineke said that she does not believe that creationism is a religious topic. Bob Hodous, chairman of the Charlottesville Republicans, defended Reineke, saying that not everybody believes in evolution. It is noteworthy that city councilors have no role in the school system, other than selecting school board members. Liz Nelson had the story in yesterday’s Progress.
A transportation survey commissioned by area business group the Free Enterprise Forum shows that 55% of those polled believe that traffic is a major problem on Rt. 29, 70% support the 29 bypass, and 70% support building the Meadowcreek Parkway. The survey was conducted by Mason-Dixon, a well-known polling firm, and was based on telephone interviews with 625 registered voters in Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, and Fluvanna. While these results seem to support the results of an early March survey commissioned by WINA, Councilor Kevin Lynch (who responded to questions about the Meadowcreek Parkway on cvillenews.com in December) has dismissed it as a “push poll,” citing the interests of the business group that funded it. David Dadurka has the story in today’s Progress.
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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