Police Investigating Assaults

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 9, 2007 in Crime. 72 Comments

Police are trying to figure out what the deal is with random attacks on people in the greater downtown area, the Progress reports. One attack was on Friday night, when a guy was sucker punched by one kid in a group of a dozen, as he wrote about on cvillenews.com. Another was on JPA a few hours later, when a guy had a rock hurled through his car window while he was driving. And a couple of hours after that, a woman was knocked to the ground by a group of kids on the street outside of the Elks Lodge on 2nd St.

In every case so far, the attacks have come from groups of teenaged African American kids wearing white t-shirts, as is the fashion. This is where community policing efforts are particularly important — a pointed conversation between a friendly police officer and their mothers may be all it takes to nip this in the bud.

Independence Day Celebrations

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 4, 2007 in General News. 4 Comments

The Crowd Watches the Fireworks

There were July 4th celebrations throughout the area today. I went to Monticello’s 45th annual Independence Day Celebration and Naturalization Ceremony. So did Rick Sincere, who provides video highlights of the event, including a good chunk of Sam Waterston’s address. And Sylvia’s family took part in the Earlysville parade, and provides photos of some of the other participants.

County Schools Revise Flier Rules

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 1, 2007 in Education. 27 Comments

The Albemarle School Board has voted to tighten up their flier rules, Matt Deegan writes in today’s Daily Progress. This is in response to the pair of dust-ups in the schools after Christians objected to the distribution of pagan and then atheist fliers. The school board having decided that this is all just more trouble than it’s worth, they’ve decided that the only groups allowed to send home fliers with students are now school-sponsored and local government groups. As Deegan points out, that excludes groups like vacation Bible schools, SOCA, and Little League, among others, but it’s not clear that there’s any other reasonable path for the school board to take.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

Wal-Mart to Be #1 Regional Private Employer

Published by Waldo Jaquith on July 1, 2007 in Business. 37 Comments

Within two years, Wal-Mart will likely be the biggest private employer in the area, Brian McNeill writes in today’s Daily Progress. Between the location on 29N, the growing distribution center in Zion Crossroads, the planned location in Louisa and the newly-announced location in Greene, they’ll have 1,970 people working for them. The company’s low wages, poor benefits and discriminatory hiring practices make it less than clear that there’s anything particularly good about this news. McNeill’s article ends with a mysterious quote from Darden professor Paul Farris claiming that Wal-Mart’s presence may well be good for local retailers which, as The Hook‘s Hawes Spencer points out, would seem to challenge traditional logic.

Starr Hill Closing, Moving to Satellite Ballroom

Published by Waldo Jaquith on June 29, 2007 in Business and Music. 21 Comments

Coran Capshaw is shutting down Starr Hill after buying the Satellite Ballroom, The Hook reports. The folks who established the Satellite Ballroom on The Corner saw part of their mission as providing a venue not owned or operated by Coran Capshaw, so this may well have been a sale of last resort for them. The restaurant at Starr Hill, which occupies the downstairs of the two story building, has long been awkward to operate, since Capshaw has gone back and forth on whether he’s interested in it turning a profit. The paper says that a sports bar is due to move into the current Starr Hill location, continuing the tradition for the spot established by the long-standing Blue Ridge Brewery that previously occupied the location. The last gig will be local boys Navel, on July 7, according to a press release by Starr Hill.

07/06 Update: One of the owners of Satellite Ballroom posts a quick clarifying note.

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