Norris Won’t Seek Reelection

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 29, 2013 in Government and Politics. 6 Comments

City Councilor Dave Norris will not seek a third term, he writes on his blog. Both his seat and freshman Kristin Szakos’s are up for election this year. He writes that “eight years is enough” and that “it’s time for some new blood on City Council.” Nobody has yet announced their candidacy, though that may be because nobody wanted to run against the incumbents. The election is in November.

Guy Walks into Kroger with an AR-15

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 27, 2013 in General News. 45 Comments

Some jackass strolled into the Kroger on Hydraulic carrying an AR-15 today, the Daily Progress reports, leading to at least one person wisely fleeing the store and calling 911. Police quickly arrived and detained the 22-year-old, before releasing him since, in Virginia, there’s nothing illegal about strolling around a grocery store carrying an assault weapon. Police figure this was an open carry demonstration. This is a thing, wherein people who know that it is legal to openly carry will go into crowded public places while carrying guns, on the theory that people will eventually stop being terrified and get used to this as a reasonable behavior. Basically, First Amendent : Westboro Baptist Church :: Second Amendment :: these jackasses. Anyhow, Kroger tossed the guy off their property and told him not to come back, since there’s nothing illegal about throwing a dangerous jerk off of your private property.

Dumler Again Accused of Sexual Assault

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 26, 2013 in Government, Law and Justice and Politics. 7 Comments

Scottsville Board of Supervisors representative Chris Dumler has been accused of sexual assault by a second person, Rachel Ryan reports for CBS-19. He was arrested on sexual assault charges in October, and later said that a pair of ex-girlfriends were conspiring against him. Dumler is scheduled to be in court on Thursday for a preliminary hearing.

Cavalier Daily Reducing to Twice-Weekly

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 25, 2013 in Meta News and UVa. Closed

A year after eliminating their Friday edition, the Cavalier Daily plans to print just two issues each week, Nieman Journalism Lab reports. Beginning with the fall term, they’ll print a “newsmagazine” on Monday and Thursday. The rest of the week they’ll be online-only. While this saves the paper a huge amount of money, since their major cost is printing, it also eliminates their major source of revenue—print advertising. The shift also surely reflects the reality how UVA students expect to receive news, which is via Twitter, Facebook, websites, etc. Last year’s Dragas/Sullivan saga proved to be an ideal opportunity for the publication’s staffers to embrace digital media, and their Facebook page, Twitter feed, and website quickly became essential sources of information for the many thousands of people trying to keep up with the fast-emerging story over the course of many weeks.

C’ville Commissioner of the Revenue to Retire

Published by Waldo Jaquith on January 24, 2013 in Government and Politics. 5 Comments

Somebody whose name you didn’t know is going to retire from a position that you didn’t know existed, despite that it’s a position that you may well have cast a vote for just a few years ago. In a press release, Charlottesville has announced that Lee Richards, the Commissioner of the Revenue, will not be running for reelection. Richards has held the position for twenty years. As soon as people figure out what the Commissioner of the Revenue actually does, no doubt we’ll muster a candidate or two to vie to replace Richards, and we’ll cast our votes based on our finely honed ability to judge which candidate will better commission revenue their party membership.

Oh, democracy.

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