Mall mavens unite! The Downtown Mall’s biggest backers are due at City Hall in just over an hour, and you should be there. You can ask them if their vision was great, or if time simply healed all wounds.

City spokesman Ric Barrick reveals that confirmed attendees include Satyendra Huja, the former Charlottesville Director of Strategic Planning; Cole Hendrix, the former Charlottesville City Manager (he served for 25 years!); Charles Barbour, former mayor and councilman; Mitch Van Yahres, former state delegate and mayor/councilman; current mayor David Brown, and Alvin (Al) Clements, a banker who led the Central City Commission to plan the Mall. There’s also a chance that husband-wife team of Nancy O’Brien and Frances Fife, both former mayors will be there.

And Barrick sent along these nifty archival pix! (Check out the one at left to see how the new Pavilion occupies that traffic Y in the foreground; check out the one at right to see how planners thought the Mall might evolve.)
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Not a big fan of heart-warming immigrants taking their citizenship oaths? Not into the island-wrapping, Park-gating works of the artist known as Christo?

Then surely you’ll want to drive right past Monticello this July 4, and see what’s being offered a mile down the road at Ash Lawn-Highland. Of course, YOU already know that “Ash Lawn” is a modern moniker for the home of America’s fourth president, the first future president to be wounded in war (Battle of Trenton– in 1776, natch).

You love visiting Highland not just for the strolling, squawking peacocks, but also for the laid-back, farm atmosphere which includes a low-key Independence Day starring none other than Dennis Bigelow (shown here). He is planning to entertain July 4 visitors between 1 and 4pm with tales of the sometimes-overlooked founding father.

Hey, when one follows Declaration-writin’ TJ and Constitution-drafting Madison, fame is hard-fought! But ask those more famous prezes if they have a “Doctrine” named for them? Okay then.

Ash Lawn-Highland is open daily from 9am to 6pm during the warm months. and tours are $9 for adults and $5 for children and locals.

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The Charlottesville Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying a suspect from the robbery that occurred shortly before midnight last night at the Quality Inn just off Emmet Street. Surveillance footage shows a man (click on it for a larger image) whom police estimate to be about 5′4″ and, as the photo would indicate, “heavy set.”

Police say the man displayed a knife and fled the motel with an undisclosed amount of money. Police say he should be considered armed and dangerous– and that rather than approaching the suspect, citizens with information should call Crimestoppers at 434-977-4000 or or Detective Scott Godfrey at 434-970-3277.

Update: NBC29 reports that 28-year-old Demiris Lamont Wilson of Charlottesville has been arrested and charged with two counts of robbery, two counts of abduction, and one count of assault and battery. And the station also reports that Wilson is charged not only for the incident at the Quality Inn but also a separate but similar crime the same evening/morning at the Red Carpet Inn when someone, also armed with a knife, got into a physical altercation with the clerk and made off with some cash.

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You may have noticed the unusual want ads in local papers: “Alcohol Drinkers Needed…” it reads, offering people 18 to 45 $690 dollars to spend 18 days at UVA hospital drinking free booze. Hmm…sounds like a college student’s summer dream job! Or a joke. In fact, it happens to be an important research study on a drug called topiramate, currently used to treat epilepsy, which UVA researchers believe could be a treatment for alcoholism.

“What we are trying to show is that alcohol dependence is actually a brain disease in the same way other brain diseases are … like migraine or epilepsy,” says Dr. Bankole Johnson(pictured above), chair of UVA’s department of psychiatric medicine, and the lead investigator in the study. In the course of the 12-week study, Johnson discovered that those who took topiramate were six-times more likely to quit drinking than those who took a placebo. (more)

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He’s sold over 25 million records, he’s won the Academy of Country Music’s Entertainer of the Year award twice and he’s even married a bona fide movie star, but there’s something about our little town that keeps drawing Kenny Chesney back. Only nineteen months after his show at Starr Hill, Chesney will play the decidedly less intimate John Paul Jones Arena on Wednesday, August 30.

For those who saw that rare club gig back on January 27, 2005, Chesney will have a hard time living up to expectations. That marathon show went on for a reported three-and-a-half hours, included a rare cover of the Violent Femmes and even featured the live debut of his eventual #2 country hit “The Woman with You.”

Phil Vassar and Jake Owen will fill the bottom half of the bill. No word on whether of not recent Coran Capshaw signee Robert Randolph will be there to duet on “Stronger,” a song he originally wrote with Chesney in mind.

Tickets go on sale Saturday, July 8 at 10am. They are available by phone at 1-888-JPJ-TIXS, through the John Paul Jones Arena’s website and at Plan 9 locations.

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In 2003, drivers suffered lengthy delays on Rt. 250 as crews closed lanes and worked to repair the Locust Avenue and Park Street bridges, which were both damaged by the same L.W. Critzer truck in 1999. Now it’s Ivy drivers who’ll be needing books on tape.

On Monday, June 26, a truck struck the underside of the bridge on Rt. 601, near 250W and the Bellair Market in Ivy. VDOT engineers spent today assessing the damage and the news is not good: the westbound lane of Rt. 601 will be closed indefinitely. No word yet on the owner of the truck, nor what type of repairs will be required to get the bridge back in shape.

If history is any lesson, fixing the bridge may not fix the problem. In September 2003, five months after the Locust Avenue bridge reopened, it was struck again, leaving neighbors wondering why damaged bridges aren’t rebuilt in such a way as to reduce the liklihood of another costly accident.

“Insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting something different,” said one Locust Grove resident at the time.

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Despite what appears to be a written confession, the man accused of raping a then-17-year-old UVA student 22 years ago is asking the court to throw out the charges.

In a Motion to Dismiss, filed on May 30 in Charlottesville Circuit Court, lawyers for William Nottingham Beebe claim the charges violate Beebe’s Constitutional right to “due process,” a clause included in the Fifth and 14th Amendments.

“Since 1984, material evidence has been destroyed, thus depriving Beebe of his ability to investigate the allegations and defend himself,” writes his attorney, Rhonda Quaqliana in the motion.

As detailed in the Hook’s January 12, 2006 cover story, Beebe was a 19-year-old second year at UVA in October 1984 when he allegedly raped (more)

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The final radio transmission from the pilot of the ill-fated flight that crashed June 14 near North Garden were, “I’m not going to give up yet.”

The chilling recordings, just released in written excerpt by the National Transportation Safety Board, indicate that pilot David I. Brown was trying to find a tiny grass airstrip in the fog and rain. Brown, an instrument-rated pilot attempting to land at an airport with no support for instrument approaches, was apparently searching for a break in the clouds to enable a visual approach.

Brown, 55, and his passenger, friend, and business colleague Robert H. Baldwin, 75, died when Brown’s single-engine Beechcraft Bonanza crashed and burned in a pasture along Plank Road, about half a mile from the tiny runway.

“It’s a little too cloudy at the moment,” Brown reported to a Northern Virginia controller when the plane was at 4,000 feet. “Can you get me any lower?”

“That’s as low as I can give,” responds the controller.

A moment later, Brown seems to indicate that he’s visually located the Bundoran Farm airport as he declines the controller’s offer for a northwest approach. “Actually,” Brown reports, “the field is directly under me if I could, ah, spiral down.”

The preliminary NTSB report indicates that Brown had landed at the mountain-surrounded runway 25 to 30 times previously– but never before during nighttime or rain conditions. In those cases, according to the report, Brown would land at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, which offers runway lights, a control tower, and electronic assistance for instrument approaches. As previously reported, the much larger airport received no request for a landing from Brown on the day of the crash.

The NTSB sets the crash time as 11:14am, 13 minutes earlier than previously reported, and says the purpose of the trip was to work on conservation easements. The two men, the founder and the regional director, of New Hampshire-based Qroe Farm Preservation Development, were considered pioneers in creative development of farmland. Qroe had purchased Bundoran Farm in January and announced plans to build 88 homesites on its 2,300 acres.

The report notes that Brown had 3,650 hours of flight time, was FAA-rated for instrument flying, and held a pilot’s license that allowed him to pilot single and twin-engine planes.

FAA spokespersons have indicated that the controller with which the plane was communicating is located at the FAA’s Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control (pictured here) in Flint Hill, a military installation near Warrenton. The TRACON keeps air traffic separate at airports without a tower of their own.

Contrary to one initial report from the FAA, the NTSB found no evidence that the plane had struck overhead wires or any other obstacle. And a check by the Hook of the two electrical utilities that serve that part of Albemarle County found no reports of outages.

As the plane number N202EN made its final approach, Brown signalled a switch from an instrument to a visual radio frequency and made his final recorded radio transmission: “Ah, roger two echo november, I’m not going to give up yet.”

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What does the JonBenet murder case have to do with Charlottesville? Well, maybe nothing besides the wide-spread, never-substantiated rumor about five years ago that the Ramseys were planning to move here.

Of more concern to Charlottesvillians who believe in truth and justice is the fact that Patsy Ramsey, who died yesterday of ovarian cancer, was long swarmed by a media circus appalled by the alleged tackiness of the beauty pageants in which the late child participated and a Boulder, Colorado, District Attorney’s office that focused on the parents as perpetrators despite a litany of evidence that pointed to an intruder.

Even the usually esteemed Washington Post, in its account of Patsy Ramsey’s death, seemed to question the intruder theory by spending several paragraphs on the lawsuits between the Ramseys and the media, and the Post actually repeated the long-debunked no-footprints-in-the-snow allegation.

The District Attorney’s obsession with the Ramseys led two detectives to resign, and as one of them, Lou Smit would later reveal, the Boulder prosecutors– dealing with their only murder that year– seemed to ignore evidence that didn’t fit their theory. Indeed, in 2003, a federal judge in Atlanta rebuked the Boulder investigation and stated that most evidence supported the intruder theory.

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The Paramount Theater unveiled its 2006-07 season today, and once again the slate skews more toward the parents than the kids, including swinger Paul Anka (September 6), country songstress Trisha Yearwood (October 11), rock ‘n’ roll co-founder Bo Diddley (November 7), folk legend Art Garfunkel (January 20), velvety crooner Johnny Mathis (December 18), and the band that Mike Love calls the Beach Boys (May 11).

After a premiere season dominated by elder statesmen of entertainment, many wondered if the Paramount would make a play for younger audiences in their second season bookings, but it appears that, for now, they will stay the course.

It should also be a good season for fans of classic TV: Major Healy and Jeannie will reunite when Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden bring the play Love Letters to town (December 2); Vicki Lawrence will revive a beloved Carol Burnett Show character in Vicki Lawrence and Mama: A Two Woman Show (October 14); former Tonight Show bandleader Branford Marsalis will play some jazz (September 10). That’s not to mention two comedienne conquerors of stage and screen: Whoopi Goldberg (January 13) and Lily Tomlin (May 3).

Last year, many were upset that they couldn’t get tickets to certain events because they had been bought up by those with Paramount memberships. Members still get first dibs this year, but Paramount director of marketing Kristen Gleason was quick to point out that “There is a six-ticket limit per member per event, anyone can become a member, and, of course, you can become a member for this season when you buy your tickets.” A complete schedule can be found at the Paramount’s website.

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The Crozet family that held the party that cost numerous Western Albemarle High School students their blemish-free criminal records and chances for post-season athletic play will not face any criminal charges, prosecutor James E. Camblos III announced today.

“They were trying to do the right thing,” said Camblos, pointing out that the couple who hosted the May 28 post-prom party on Hillsboro Lane not only didn’t provide alcohol for their under-legal-drinking age attendees, but they also poured out contraband alcohol and prevented the students from driving. One 17-year-old and fifteen 18-year-olds were cited in the early-morning raid, according to the Albemarle Police Department.
In another infamous underage drinking party, held May 19 at Bishop Hill Farm, no parents were present Camblos said, and he says investigators are attempting to learn who provided alcohol for that event. A 17-year-old youth, Nolan Jenkins left that party and died in what police have suggested was an alcohol-related crash on Route 53.

Camblos says his office will “aggressively” prosecute any store employees or even “big brothers” who supply such alcoholic beverages.

Camblos told reporters at a Court Square press conference that he spent a lot of time conferring with police, examining the law, and even well debating the issue while commuting to his downtown Charlottesville office with his wife, Christine. “That’s what took me so long,” Camblos said. See video.

“They were trying to have an alcohol-free party,” Camblos said of the prosecution-free parents. “They didn’t quite get there, but they were trying.”

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Thomas Jefferson is lauded for founding the University of Virginia and writing the Declaration of Independence. Few, however, know that he was an ardent advocate for a liberty that modern day Americans feel particularly strong about: chocolate.

Just as he detailed his plans for the future of America in his correspondence with John Adams, Jefferson similarly related his innovative ideas about chocolate distribution in a 1785 letter to the Massachusetts-based patriot.

“By getting it good in quality, and cheap in price,” Jefferson wrote, “the superiority of (more)

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On June 17, 2005, Tyco CFO and Albemarle County land baron Mark Swartz was convicted for embezzling millions of dollars from Tyco, and now– almost exactly a year later– a private corporate investigation has an even tighter Charlottesville connection. Reports today from Reuters and the AP indicate that Charlottesville-based businessman Ludwig Kuttner has been forced out of his role as CEO of the New York-based Hampshire Group pending a financial investigation.

The reports indicate that the company, the Hampshire Group Limited, has placed Kuttner and several other top executives on administrative leave for alleged “misappropriation of assets for personal benefit” as well as alleged accounting deficiencies, improper (more)

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As you can see, they’ve begun clearing the land for Albemarle Place, the self-proclaimed “town center” at the intersection of Route 29 and Hydraulic Road that will be two-times the size of the Downtown Mall. Developers still have a few hoops to jump through, such as getting Albemarle County Architectual Review Board approval for a possible 10-story residential building, a 14-screen movie theater, and final drawings for the new Whole Foods building, but it looks like the mega-development is a go. Apparently, this kind of early grading is allowed, even though the final site plan has not been approved, because it pertains to a zoning application that was already approved. Huh? Calls to the Albemarle Planning Commission were not returned by blog post time, but we hope to find out soon why developers were allowed to jump the gun. Stay tuned!

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Here they come…yesterday, the Charlottesville Board of Architectual Review approved architect Bill Atwood’s “Waterhouse” project, the first of several 9-story buildings projects being developed on or near the Downtown Mall. (more)

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Apparently Virginia schoolchildren are not the only ones who would rather pack their lunch than eat cafeteria food. The Old Dominion received a D for the food sold at its public schools from the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The public advocacy group based its 50-state study on the health value of foods sold in cafeterias, vending machines, and at school stores.

As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, commonwealth officials say the study is flawed because it doesn’t take into account efforts made at the local level to improve student eating habits. In fact, Albemarle County’s own Agnor-Hurt Elementary was cited for its daily salad offerings, its choosing baking over frying, and fun fruit taste tests. That’s not to mention how Albemarle school officials removed french fries from the a la carte menu in high schools.

The CSPI bestowed the highest grade on Kentucky with an A-. Ironically enough, this is the same group that’s busy suing the Bluegrass State’s most famous export, Kentucky Fried Chicken, for making chicken that contains (gasp!) a lot of fat.

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Andrew Alston’s summer vacation begins on the June 21 solstice, the longest day of the year, when he walks out of prison today after serving not-quite three years for knifing to death 22-year-old firefighter Walker Sisk November 3, 2003, in a drunken encounter on the Corner.

The former UVA student heads to Pennsylvania, where his family lives in Lower Gwynedd near Philadelphia, for his court-ordered probation– though he’s appealing that. And Sisks’ parents have been awaiting his release so they can slap him with a $3-million civil suit.

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The former Crozet whose smiling mugshot belied the severity of her alleged crimes was convicted yesterday of driving under the influence of alcohol in a Chesterfield County Court. The murder charge against Kelly Dinelle Payne, 33, will be tried later, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, which has been following the case.

Payne allegedly ran over Richmond pedestrian Ashokkumar Patel, 51, with a pickup truck on March 7, according to the Times-Dispatch. It was Payne’s 2002 DUI conviction in Albemarle County that 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.

She is still being held without bond.

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UVA prof Wende Marshall, the only person convicted in the Living Wage protest held in Madison Hall, had her charges dropped June 19, according to the Progress. Seventeen student protesters were acquitted of trespassing May 22, and Marshall was preparing to appeal to Charlottesville Circuit Court when the prosecution dropped the charges, saying it didn’t seem fair that the person who was there the least amount of time should be the only one convicted.

Convicted trespasser Rich Collins didn’t fare so well with his civil suit against Shoppers’ World, which had him arrested for trespassing last year when he campaigned in front of Whole Foods for a General Assembly seat. Judge Paul Peatross ruled that the Virginia Constitution provides no general right to campaign on private property– even if the private property has replaced the public square, as Collins contends.

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The trial for accused cat shooter George Seymour has been postponed to August 22 at 3pm.

Seymour had been scheduled to appear in Albemarle County District Court this morning for his alleged role in the shooting of Carmen, a three-year-old cat belonging to his neighbors, Klaus and Vanessa Wintersteiger.

As detailed in the Hook’s May 18 cover story, “Claws and Effect: Bentivar shooting sparks outrage,” Carmen was shot through the neck on the night of April 24. She dragged herself home, where the Wintersteigers discovered her and took her to the emergency vet clinic. She was euthanized that night, and by the next day, police had arrested Seymour– who allegedly confessed to the shooting– and charged him with a class one misdemeanor.
Though Seymour faces up to a year behind bars and up to a $2,500 fine, animal rights activists are using the case as a platform for their stance on toughening Virginia’s animal cruelty laws.

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Whether or not developer Keith Woodard will be able to demolish everything but the facades of the buildings he owns at First & East Main on the Downtown Mall (right across from Hamilton’s) to make way for a 9-story mixed-use building went undecided at last night’s City Council meeting. According to council clerk Jeanne Cox, the Councilors decided to defer the decision. “They decided they wanted to talk with the Board of Architectural Review again about the project,” said Cox. “We’re trying to set up a meeting in July.”

Woodard was appealing a previous BAR recommendation, which allowed for the demolition of one building and the partial demolition of another between 101 and 111 East Main Street, but called for the complete preservation of 101 East Main, currently home to the Charlottesville Community Design Center. Of course, following that recommendation would make the project considerably more expensive for Woodard, who sought to by-pass it with a City Council vote. (more)

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This week, Craigslist, the popular free online classified site that boasts 10 million users visits a month, added 300 more city listings, including Charlottesville.

“From a business perspective,” writes local real estate blogger Jim Duncan, “ignoring this entrance could prove fatal.” As Duncan and others have pointed out, Craigslist is single-handedly transforming the classified advertising business. While newspapers continue to charge for advertising, Craigslist allows users to post ads for free. In addition, its numerous loyal users virtually guarantee a wide audience for whatever you’re hawking, whether it be a used car, piano lessons, gold doubloons, or a house. (more)

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The Downtown Mall celebrates its 30th birthday this year and a celebration is coming together faster than you can say “urban success story.” In a press release, the City of Charlottesville and the Downtown Business Association announced a three-day birthday party for everyone’s favorite seven-block stretch of brick.

On July 6, opening ceremonies will feature, among other things, the unveiling of a giant “30th” sculpture made of bricks by local artists. If the sculpture is anything like the 12-foot-high “3″ and “0″ being painted in the Water Street Garage (pictured at left), it should be quite the impressive edifice.

Subsequent events include “A Celebration of Downtown Arts and Entertainment” on July 7 followed by “Family Day with the Kids” on July 8.

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Speaking out for the first time about how the living wage sit-in affected him personally, UVA President John Casteen says he ran out of patience– he eventually had them arrested– only after protesters allegedly harassed him and his wife Betsy via his home phone number at Carr’s Hill.

In a letter in the most recent edition of the UVA alumni magazine, Casteen wrote, “After some ten nights of obscene and threatening calls, and specifically after eight cell phone calls from the porch of Madison Hall between 1:30 and 3:30am, hours when the callers knew I was in the building because they saw me through windows, but when Betsy was at home, I gave up.”

Casteen explained he has kept his home number published for the duration of his 16-year presidency so students and parents with emergencies could contact him directly. He added that the number is still listed, but after the night in question, calls now go to the University police.

The phone calls are the centerpiece of Casteen’s argument that he was more than reasonable with the student protesters. After citing the ways he tried to work with the sitters-in, including offering to “assist with their arithmetic” in computing a living wage, he goes on to write that, “At least some students think that vandalizing Madison Hall’s furniture (even kicking a leg off a couch), and resisting arrest are forms of peaceful protest.” However, he must not have been in court when UVA police officer Melissa Fielding admitted that she was the one who damaged the couch during the course of the April 15 arrests.

Casteen does not fully blame the students for what happened, saying that “professional activists have made students their front line” and that “their adult coaches had misled them.”

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Chris Johnson claims he was treated unfairly by UVA football Coach Al Groh, and he’s joining two other players heading to Grambling State University, according to Jerry Miller in the Progress.

Johnson, a heavily recruited 2004 CHS grad who’s the son of Walton Middle School principal Eric Johnson, was suspended from the team for academic reasons in September 2005. He and his father say Groh promised him his scholarship back if Johnson got his academic house in order, and Johnson attended PVCC to do so. When Groh offered him a spot on the team this fall as a walk-on, the Johnsons cried foul and allege that Groh was not honest with Chris. Groh blames the miscommunication on the Johnsons, says he never promised the scholarship back, and then cites the confidentiality factor in declining to discuss details of the incident.

Says an indignant Chris Johnson, “Why would I pay to go to Piedmont and come back as a walk-on when I can go somewhere else and have it all covered?”

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