The seventeen Occupy Charlottesville members who refused to leave Lee Park hav been convicted of trespassing, Samantha Koon writes for the Daily Progress. The park closes after 11 PM, and though allowed to remain for weeks, their permit was finally non-renewed. Some protesters refused to leave, and were arrested. They were fined $100 apiece, which can be paid outright or covered via community service. The group member who stripped off her clothes and read a statement of protest during the arrests had the charges of indecent exposure against her dropped, with Judge Robert Downer finding that it was a non-sexual political statement and therefore protected expression.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith
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U.S. District Judge Norman Moon has dismissed the lawsuit brought against the city on behalf of panhandlers, Samantha Koon reports for the Daily Progress. (See instead CBS-19’s story, if you don’t have Progress access.) Attorney Jeffrey Fogel filed the lawsuit after city council passed a law prohibiting solicitation of people doing business with vendors or within 50 feet of the crossings. Government’s ability to limiting free expression is generally constrained to time, place, and manner restrictions, and those limitations must be content-neutral. Fogel’s argument was that those restrictions are not content-neutral, because they specifically prevent people from asking for money. Moon ruled that these are merely place-based restrictions, because people are still free to ask for money outside of those areas.
Jefferson Trail Treatment Center for Children is going out of business, and the building is being demolished, CBS-19 reports. You might remember Jefferson Trail under any of its prior names, which it kept changing every time they were found to have beaten or raped their young patients: Millmont Center, Brown Schools, or Whisper Ridge. They changed their name three years ago after the director of operations pleaded guilty to attempting to have sex with one of the children in her care. (For more on how terribly that kids were treated at the facility, see examples 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.) But I’ll say this for Jefferson Trail: there’s no evidence that they ever abused their patients while they operated under that name. So, uh…good job?
City Council has OKd the fifty-year water-supply plan, Graham Moomaw writes for the Daily Progress, which means that the new dam at Ragged Mountain Reservoir is going to happen. Though they voted for a dam a year ago, rather than dredging, it remained to sort out the funding and to fit it into the long-term water plan, and that’s what culminated in this evening’s 3-2 vote. Councilors Dave Norris and Dede Smith voted against it, and Mayor Satyendra Huja, Kathy Galvin, and Kristin Szakos voted for it. Construction should begin in the spring.
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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