On Tuesday, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority warned us that 2006 could be another drought year. Now state officials are sounding the same warning.

“We have just experienced the driest March in the entire statewide record of 112 years,” said Patrick J. Michaels, a state climatologist in Charlottesville, according to a Richmond Times-Dispatch report. Michaels said we could see some improvement in the dry conditions by mid-April, but underscored that with a big “if.”

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According to Charlottesville City School staff, violence in our schools is “the worst it’s ever been” the Daily Progress reports. The comment was a refrain at last night’s meeting of the Charlottesville School Board’s new task force on violence. In reponse, the board voted to spend $70,000 to install 40 security cameras in Charlottesville High School. The task force also recommended that the Alternative Education Program, which is currently a half-day program, be changed to a full-day program so students aren’t left with so much free time. Parents at the meeting also wanted the board to investigate mistreatment of students by school staff. One parent said a school staff member had “used a racial slur toward her young son and said he would never amount to anything,” according to the DP.

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The 15-year-old boy whose secrecy-shrouded trial wrapped Tuesday afternoon has been found guilty of the same two counts pleaded to by his 16-year-old co-conspirator: conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to blow up a schoolhouse. (more)

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Yikes! Less than an hour ago, the entire back corner of the old Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court collapsed. Officials were still trying to figure out who was going to talk to the press when the Hook arrived on the scene. Stay tuned for details!

Update 4:45 pm:“They (Kenbridge Construction Co.) were in the process of underpinning the foundation for the three-story court house addition,” says city building code official Tom Elliott. “Right now, the contractor has to find a structural engineer to temporarily brace the structure.” (more)

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With Duke having taken down its team roster from its athletics website in the wake of gang rape allegations that led a judge to order required 46 of the 47 players on the squad to submit DNA samples, it’s hard to determine which former Central Virginia all-star players are part of that team. A source, however, insists that there are some fine young local boys/men on that anguished team.

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The UVA student convicted of lying about the circumstances surround his bizzarre handling of an already-graded exam has filed notice that he intends to appeal his expulsion, according to this morning’s Cavalier Daily. Convicted of lying in a March 26 open Honor Trial, third-year engineering student Steve Gilday has tried to (more)

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UVA first-years Michael Brown, a varsity football player, and Michael Giallombardo, a varsity soccer player, are off to a bad start. The two were arrested early Tuesday morning and charged with breaking into the Delta Upsilon fraternity house earlier this month and starting a brawl, a felony charge that could land the two in jail.

However, according to Ric Barrick, director of communications for the City of Charlottesville, “The investigation is definitely still pending. According to some investigators, a lot of witnesses haven’t been truthful in some of their answers,” the Cavalier Daily reports. “[Police] are giving them the opportunity to step up to the plate before they take the process any further; they hope they will take advantage of that.”

The arrests, says Barrick, were made after police interviewed Delta Upsilon brothers and others involved in the incident.

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In Charlottesville, restaurants open and close so frequently these days that it’s hard to keep track of them. Not so with the C& O Restaurant. The landmark bar and fine dining establishment celebrates its 30th anniversary this week (more)

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So was there a serious plot by four teenagers to blow up Western Albemarle and Albemarle High schools? Judge Susan Whitlock ruled March 28 that the public doesn’t need to know, presumably to protect the privacy of the teens– even though their identities are pretty widely known.

After the hoopla of a February 3 police press conference announcing the alleged threat, authorities remained mum on (more)

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Singer James Brown, the “Godfather of Soul,” and Willie Nelson, the pony-tailed king of country (who once bragged of smoking marijuana on a balcony at the Carter White House), are among the mega-stars who’ll perform this summer at the Charlottesville Pavilion. The announcements, made today by Pavilion manager Kirby Hutto, are the latest wave in Charlottesville musical history which will soon see Ween and Wilco play at the Pavilion and which saw the Rolling Stones perform at Scott Stadium last October. Today’s announcement also revealed that melodic rocker-pianist Bruce Hornsby, Merle “I’m proud to be an Okie” Haggard, and an act featuring Wynton Marsalis and the Neville Brothers will star among the performers at the newish outdoor facility built on City land by Dave Matthews Band manager Coran Capshaw.#

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At yesterday’s Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority board meeting, executive director Tom Frederick warned that 2006 could be another drought year.

“The spring planting season is fast approaching,” Frederick wrote in a written report, ”�and I would strongly urge all our citizens to think and practice “water conservation” now and recognize there is a higher than average probability that this year could be a drought year.” While our reservoirs are full right now, Frederick reported, abnormally dry conditions are causing concern.

In 2002, the area suffered a drought that had restaurants using paper plates, car washes closing down, and people collecting rainwater and siphoning soapy bath water.��

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Third-year UVA Engineering student Steve Gilday told an Honor trial that he was innocent of cheating charges when he scanned, re-graded, and re-submitted a BIOL 301 exam Sunday, according to the Cavalier Daily. Gilday’s defense for scanning a paper and resubmitting it complete with grading pen marks allegedly made to emulate the ink color and style of his TA? That the exam paper became wet and illegible after he left it out at the frog laboratory in the Gilmer Hall science building, where Gilday was employed. (more)

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The Associated Press got the facts (or fact) wrong when reporting on Cornell University freshman, Matthew Pearlstone,19, who was found dead Friday, March 17 in UVA’s Cauthen residence hall. Here’s the correction:

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) _ In a March 23 story about the death of a Cornell University freshman visiting the University of Virginia, The Associated Press erroneously reported that an autopy found that he died of alcohol intoxication. The cause of death was determined by toxicology tests, according to Arkuie Williams, an administrator for the state medical examiner’s office in Richmond.

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This from The Daily Anthenaeum, West Virginia University’s student newspaper, “Rounding out the weekend at 123 Pleasant St., The Hackensaw Boys from Charlottesville, Va., brought in the biggest crowd the venue has seen in weeks. There wasn’t a moment when the floor wasn’t shaking from dancing feet… the boys used every instrument that is indigenous to the south, including mandolin, fiddle, and stand-up bass. But those weren’t the most impressive instruments showcased. That prize belongs to the band’s assemblage of coffee cans the percussionist used. He wore about eight to 10 of them around his neck, and each one served a different duty - inspiring a huge amount of foot-stomping that would take the Grand Ole Opry by storm.”

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New Attorney General Robert McDonnell will be in town this Tuesday, March 28 to help the Boys and Girls Clubs of Charlottesville/Albemarle launch a program designed to keep area youths from joining gangs. As was reported on the Hook.net, gangs are alive and well in Charlottesville, even putting their monikers on the Downtown Mall’s free speech wall. McDonnell will be the keynote speaker at the event, which will take place at 6:00 pm at the Omni Hotel.

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TV crews from at least five stations are currently perched around the entrance of the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court, awaiting the exit of William Beebe, the man accused of raping a woman 21 years ago when the two were UVA students. The subject of a January cover story in the Hook, the tale of a man who– following his 12-step program’s edict to apologize to (more)

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In reaction to escalating violence in city schools, Charlottesville school officials have created a 15-person task force to start dealing with the problem. The task force will meet at 9:00 am today at Charlottesville High School and present its findings to the school board next week. This week, the Hook reports on the increased violence at Buford Middle School, where “some teachers are claiming the problems with violence are only going to get worse if the school administration doesn’t do more to keep the students and staff safe.”

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The mayor and another City Councilor have put lone Republican Councilor Rob Schilling on notice that they’re not going to take it any more. They’re furious that he’s accused them of conspiring (as a “cabal”) to create the City budget, but as the Daily Progress reports this morning, Schilling has (more)

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Electoral Board Vice Chair Joanie Schatzman earned the ire of School Board candidate Vance High when she told a DP reporter she was “repelled by Vance.”

Schatzman tells WINA that she’s not repelled by High, just by his ideas, and he should “stop whining and start campaigning.” She did apologize for the angst her remark caused High, who filed a grievance with the State Electoral Board and called for Schatzman’s resignation.

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The former Crozet resident beaming widely for her mugshot after allegedly killing a Richmond pedestrian was charged with murder yesterday by a multi-jurisdictional grand jury, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Kelly Dinelle Payne, 33, had blood-alcohol level of .22 percent at least four hours after she allegedly struck hotel worker Ashokkumar Patel, 51, with a pickup truck on March 7, according to the story.
Payne is a former Crozet resident whose 2002 DUI conviction in Albemarle County made her a habitual offender, a fact underscored by her 2001 arrest for her hit-and-run killing of a 13-year-old girl in Tennessee. The Times-Dispatch reports that her lawyer contends that his client– described in a readthehook.com/blog headline as smiling, drunk, deadly– is actually remorseful and may be enveloped in “medication” and “profound psychological issues.”
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According to a March 22 press release put out by the U.S. Department of Defense, Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Sperry Marine is being awarded a “$40,305,984 indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for engineering and technical services in support of the analysis, repair, alteration, maintenance and product improvement on existing Sperry Marine Integrated Bridge System (IBS) and steering/ship control systems equipment.”

While we’re not sure what that means, we do know that’s a heck of a lot of money!

According to the release, the work will be performed here in Charlottesville and is expected to be completed by March 2011.

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According to an autopsy report, Cornell University freshman, Matthew Pearlstone,19, who was found dead last Friday morning in UVA’s Cauthen residence hall, died of “alcohol intoxication,”the Richmond Times-Dispatch is reporting. Medical examiners deemed Pearlstone’s death an accident, but would not disclose Pearlstone’s blood-alcohol level.

As was previously posted on Hook.net, Pearlstone, a freshman from Missouri, had been the guest of a first-year student and, according to a Cavalier Daily story, drank from a flask of alcohol he took to a Thursday, March 16 gathering at the Sigma Phi Epsilon fraternity house, a possible violation of “dry rush” rules.

Correction: From the Associated Press:
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) _ In a March 23 story about the death of a Cornell University freshman visiting the University of Virginia, The Associated Press erroneously reported that an autopy found that he died of alcohol intoxication. The cause of death was determined by toxicology tests, according to Arkuie Williams, an administrator for the state medical examiner’s office in Richmond.
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It was twenty years ago yesterday that UVA physiology graduate student Pat Collins was last seen alive. Unfortunately for his parents and friends, the mysterious disappearance of the 27-year-old has never been solved.
His case was long treated by the UVA Police Department under former chief Michael Sheffield as a walkaway, according to Hook contributor Barbara Nordin.
According to her two 1997 cover stories, one of which took first place for Investigatative reporting from the Virginia Press Association, the UVA P.D. (more)

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City Councilor Kendra Hamilton is celebrating the book fest by coming out as a member of Cave Canem Poets, a nationwide collective of poets of African descent that will have a 10th anniversary reading 8pm Friday, March 23, at Gravity Lounge.

Hamilton will be reading from her new book that’s coming this fall and then partying with the poets.

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Charlottesville School Board candidate Vance High wants the head of Electoral Board Vice Chair Joanie Schatzman, who told DP reporter Sarah Barry that she was “repelled by Vance” after a candidate’s forum March 18.

He’s sent out a press release and a copy of the grievance letter he sent to the State Electoral Board denouncing Schatzman’s “lack of impartiality” and demanding that she retract her comment, apologize and resign.

At the end of his release, High adds, “School board elections are about students and Charlottesville has 34% dropout rate for Afro-American students. This is where public attention should be focused.”

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