Author Archive for Waldo Jaquith

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Council to Consider Anti-PATRIOT Resolution

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 9, 2003 in General News. 22 Comments

At Monday’s City Council meeting, Charlottesville Democratic Party chairman Lloyd Snook introduced a resolution to Council that had been passed by the Charlottesville Democrats at a recent meeting, opposing the USA PATRIOT Act, WINA reports. The Charlottesville Republicans and the Center for Peace and Justice have expressed similar opposition to the PATRIOT Act to Council. Now Council intends to take up the matter at their next meeting to determine if they should pass a city resolution. Back in February, Council passed a resolution opposing war in Iraq, which some decried as a partisan abuse of Council. Does the bipartisan support make this any different? Should Council be in the business of such things?

Full disclosure, not that anyone cares: I was among those that voted to pass that resolution at that Charlottesville Democrats meeting.

Camblos Refuses to Charge Shiflett

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 3, 2003 in Law and Justice. 7 Comments

Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos will not be filing criminal charges against former deputy Steve Shiflett, WINA reports. Shiflett, a deputy hired by Sheriff Edgar Robb, claimed in March that a black man had shot at him, unprovoked, hitting him in the torso and his patrol car. A suspect was detained, but released shortly thereafter. Sheriff Robb declared it to have been a “hate crime,” although he found himself defending Shiflett in early June after the deputy was accused of inventing the whole story. The police opened an investigation, Shiflett resigned, and Robb declared on Monday that he was “ready to put this behind us.” Camblos predictably agreed with Robb, so what happened will likely remain unknown. Results of the ballstics test and a polygraph of Shiflett by the Albemarle police have not been made available. 07/04 Update: Josh Barney and Elizabeth Nelson have a story in today’s Progress.

Who’s Gonna Run cvillenews.com?

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 3, 2003 in Politics. 74 Comments

On August 9th-ish, I’m moving from Charlottesville to Blacksburg, to attend Virginia Tech for a year and a half. Between being busy as a full-time student and being physically out of the area, I don’t think that I ought to be running cvillenews.com in that time. I just wouldn’t do a very good job of it, I don’t think. So, what should happen to the site in that time?

I figure there are a few options. The first is to shut it down. But that option sucks, and I won’t do it. The second is to try to run the site from afar and, if it works, keep doing it. The third is to switch the site to a less intensive format, perhaps more blog-based with simplified commenting. (Translation: Make the site something that I’d feel was less important to keep timely and relevant.) The fourth is to hand the reins over to somebody else in that time.

It’s that fourth option that’s probably best, I figure, but I’m certainly open to arguments to the contrary or suggestions of other solutions. If the fourth option, who should do it? How do I find or pick somebody?

What do y’all think?

Alb. Police Accuse Deputy of Impeding Probe

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 30, 2003 in Law and Justice. 40 Comments

An Albemarle County sheriff’s deputy suspected of making up a story of how he was shot in March (see the recent story and discussion for details) has now been accused by Albemarle police of falsifying information and impeding the investigation, WINA reports. Steve Shifflett resigned from his job as a deputy when the charges became known. The timing of all of this is not particularly good for Sheriff Edgar Robb, who hired and has since defended his hiring of Shifflett, since Robb is currently running for reelection. 07/01 Update: Reed Williams has a story in today’s Progress, in which it’s stated that whether there is an investigation into this bizarre case is in the hands of Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos. Sheriff Robb says that he knew full well of Shiflett’s history at the time that he hired Shiflett, concluding that he’s “read to put this behind us.”

Express Car Wash Sues Charlottesville

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 25, 2003 in Law and Justice. 57 Comments

Henry Weinshenk’s Express Car Wash has, with the help of The Rutherford Institute, filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Charlottesville over last year’s water restrictions, WINA reports. As a refresher, on September 17, emergency water rationing was put into place by the city when the water supply was forecast to be exhausted in 80-100 days. As the first step, outdoor water usage restrictions were put into place, followed by raising the price of water and ordering car washes to shut down. On September 20, Weinshenk announced that he had no intention of ceasing operations, believing that it was reasonable to use the dwindling water supply to wash cars. After being met with heavy criticism, Weinshenk issued a press release three days later, announcing that they had switched to a water-free system of cleaning the cars, thus remaining open throughout the drought. According to a press release by The Rutherford Institute, they are seeking to have the drought restrictions declared unconstitutional, plus damages. “Local businessmen should be able to operate free of fear that they will be arbitrarily shut down by government officials in times of duress,” declares Rutherford president John Whitehead in the release. Was this a case of unfair targeting, or was it a reasonable restriction in a time of emergency?

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