Kaine and McEachin Nominated

Richmonders Tim Kaine (for Lieutenant Governor) and Donald McEachin (for Attorney General) were both selected in yesterday’s Virginia Democratic nominations. Kaine won with 40% of the vote and McEachin with 33%, edging past Sen. John Edwards‘ 30% by just over 6,000 votes. Here in Albemarle, we chose John Edwards over McEachin, though we did select Kaine. Statewide, only 4.1% of registered voters voted. For the best coverage, see George Loper’s site.

Van Yahres Supports Hemp

Delegate Mitch van Yahres is on a mission to keep hemp legal in Virginia. The DEA intends to ban products made from industrial hemp, which is found in t-shirts, lip balms, and even in a line of handbags sold by Dave Matthews and company. The DEA wants to ban hemp because of its similarity to marijuana, although it does not contain THC. Van Yahres advocates hemp as a crop that could replace tobacco in Virginia’s economy. The story was on WVIR this evening.

UVa Employee Tied to 2nd Rape

UVa Hospital employee Rudolph Johnson, who was charged with raping a patient (the source of the recent firing of nine UVa employees), is now being accused of a second rape, on the strength of DNA evidence. WINA has the story.

We’re #12! We’re #12!

Forbes Magazine and the Milken Institute have ranked Charlottesville as the 12th best small place for business and career. We got beat out by a whole bunch of cities that I’ve never heard of, including Monroe, LA (#6), Tyler, TX (#8), and Greely, CO (#1).

Dozens Rally for University Nine

As planned, seventy people showed up at the UVa Hospital on Friday to support the “University Nine,” hospital employees that were fired for past felony convictions. Those felonies included drug possession, writing bad checks and a firearm charge, according to the Progress. Even the executive director of Virginians Aligned Against Sexual Assault said that the firings were a bad idea. For more information, see George Loper’s coverage, which includes excerpts from newspaper articles and pictures of the event.

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