11-Year Old Car Thief

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 28, 2002 in Law and Justice. 5 Comments

writes: From WINA: ‘An Albemarle County police sting operation to catch a car thief has netted an 11 year old girl from the Village Square subdivision. Earlier this week two cars were stolen in the area when residents left them running to warm them up in the morning.’ According to a Richmond report the girl weighs 180 pounds! Guess she not a little girl anymore.

Apparently, after the first two cars went missing, the police set up a sting in a running car and caught the kid. She’ll be charged with attempted grand larceny.

Kevin Cox Petitions for Elected School Board

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 26, 2002 in Education. 10 Comments

Local activist Kevin Cox is starting a petition drive to change switch Charlottesville’s school board from appointed to elected. Cox believes that an elected school board would be more responsive than the elected board. He’s working from now until early August to get 1,800 signatures to create a referendum on the fall ballot. WINA has the story.

Dogwood Blues Festival Lineup Announced

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 26, 2002 in Entertainment. 2 Comments

Big_Al writes: The Charlottesville Downtown Foundation released this year’s April 18-21 Dogwood Blues Festival lineup, which includes The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Luther “Guitar Junior” Johnson, The Radiators, and The Holmes Brothers. Local acts scheduled to appear this year include Code Blues (Charlie Pastorfield & friends), Tom Robbins & the Chicken Head Band, Jump Street, and the one and only Danny Beirne. A portion of the Festival’s proceeds benefits Greater Charlottesville Habitat for Humanity. Visit the Dogwood Blues Festival web site for more information.

Mt. Zion Sold to Silverman

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 26, 2002 in Business. 17 Comments

The Rev. Alvin Edwards’ Mt. Zion Baptist Church on Ridge Street is being sold to developer Gabe Silverman. The church plans to build on a 30x larger site on South First Street, and will break ground in April. Silverman isn’t sure of what he’ll do with the 8,000 sq. ft. church. The sale of the building is estimated to be completed in by mid-2003. Jake Mooney has the story in today’s Progress.

Matthews Buys Kluge/UVa Land

Published by Waldo Jaquith on February 26, 2002 in Politics. 10 Comments

Dave Matthews is now one of the county’s biggest landowners — he’s spent $5.3M to buy 1,261 acres of the 7,379 acres that local billionaire John Kluge donated to the University last May. UVa is selling off much of the land to fund the eventual development of the core of the property, and there were concerns that the land could be purchased by a developer. Matthews has announced that he intends to preserve farming and forest lands on his five new farms, and will place an open-space easement on the farms. Eric Swensen has the story in today’s Progress.

Sideblog