UVA will light up the lawn Friday night with a fireworks display visible over the Rotunda beginning at 9:45pm. You would too… if you were trying to raise $3 billion.

To ensure the safety of the workers setting up the fireworks display, University Avenue from Rugby Road to 14th Street will be closed from 9:30pm to approximately 10pm, according to a release, which indicates that the show will last approximately 10 minutes, during which the marching band will perform on the steps of the Rotunda on the North lawn.

The university is hosting the star-spangled celebration to publicly announce its campaign to raise $3 billion in private gifts by 2011.

University officials expect several thousand people to attend the event. The Lawn will be accessible to the public from all major entrances except those directly next to the Rotunda.

UPDATE: Since both their teams had the week off in the NFL, former UVA gridiron greats Tiki and Ronde Barber used their free Sunday to drop by Charlottesville and together contribute $1 million to their alma mater.
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After five long years, Sparklehorse fans finally got their wish this week for a fourth album from Albemarle High School alum and former Fluvanna resident Mark Linkous. Titled Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain, it features collaborations with the likes of Tom Waits, Gnarls Barkley’s Danger Mouse, and the Flaming Lips‘ Steven Drozd. The long-awaited follow-up to 2001’s It’s a Wonderful Life has generally been received well by critics, though some are more enthusiastic than others.

One of the more praiseworthy reviews came from Stephen M. Deusner of indie-rock online mecca Pitchforkmedia.com, who called it “a surprisingly unified whole as well as a powerful statement about death and life,” and gave it a rating of 8.3 out of 10, making it one of Pitchfork’s top-rated albums of the year.

British rock rag Q gave Dreamt 4 of 5 stars and named the release its Recommended Album of the Week in its Q Review podcast, saying, “While the lyrics on Dreamt for Light Years are still intimate and confessional, Linkous has swapped the melancholic alternative country genre for a gleaming new psychedelic sound.”

Other critics have been complimentary but find that Linkous is, for the first time in his career, in a holding pattern. Says Allmusic.com’s Heather Phares, “It all feels more streamlined and straightforward, which is a little bit disappointing considering how long the album took to arrive and how much Linkous’ music evolved on the other Sparklehorse albums.” Rolling Stone’s Christian Hoard agrees in his 3 of 5 star review: “Seductive though Linkous’ cushy, narcotic patter can be, his slower songs, including ‘See the Light,’ feel like they’re floating in an ocean of sleepiness.”

In only its fourth issue, the Hook ran a cover story about Linkous and the making of this album while the the musician was still living on his farm in Dillwyn. He has since moved to North Carolina, and has even gone so far as to make a “promotional video” for his adoptive home state featuring himself as a man-horse hybrid dressed in a suit.

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Remembering UHall, binge institute at UVA, tortured elephatns, DMB wrap up and more.

Click here to subscribe to the HookCast through iTunes for free! With a subscription, the HookCast will magically download to your computer each week.

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“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.” - Robert Frost, from “The Road Not Taken”

One Frost poem certainly took the road less traveled. In the newest edition of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Frost’s poem “War Thoughts at Home” makes its way into print after almost 90 years.

The poem, composed in 1918 on the inside of a copy of Frost’s book, North of Boston, was discovered by UVA English grad student Rob Stilling as he was searching through a new (more)

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Virginian Robert Duvall will head down from Warrenton to pick up the Virginia Film Award and screen his 1997 film, The Apostle, at this year’s spiritually themed Virginia Film Festival, fest director Richard Herskowitz announced today at the Music Resource Center.

Herskowitz unveiled special guests and events for the 19th festival, this year with the subject “Revelations: Finding God at the Movies,” which runs October 26-29. The lineup includes lots of locals and lots of Swedes, opening with Derek Sieg’s Swedish Auto, which was filmed in Charlottesville behind Mel’s on West Main Street. Paul Wagner will screen his new documentary, The God of a Second Chance, as will locals Brad and Kent Williamson, who will present Rebellion of Thought.

Local ashram Yogaville joins the fun, sponsoring a multi-denominational light-a-candlethon for world peace October 26 at the Charlottesville Pavilion, and a screening of Five Masters of Meditation October 29 at the ashram in Buckingham.

Other celebs attending the fest include actor Liev Schreiber, who will screen his directorial debut, Everything Is Illuminated; child actor William Moseley of The Chronicles of Narnia fame, who will present that film; novelist/screenwriter Michael “The Player” Tolkin with his film, The Rapture; and punk preacher Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye.

The complete festival schedule will appear online Thursday, September 28, and tickets go on sale Friday, September 29.

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Nelson County: flooded with memories 37 years after the fatal deluge, peeping pastor gets 60 days, Lethal driver guilty in life-changing wreck, and DMB superstars Boyd Tinsley and Fenton Williams talk about what it all means.

It’s all here in this week’s edition of the Hook. (Sorry for the technically glitches that delayed this week’s HookCast!)

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Has the anti-drinking crowd succeeded in crushing Foxfield? On Sunday, the quiet fields, line-less port-a-johns, and absence of vehicular traffic seemed to tell a story. Indeed, according to Foxfield’s boss, approximately 3,000-4,000 people attended, significantly fewer than the typical crowd of 5,000-6,000 at past fall “family day” versions of the semi-annual steeplechase event.

“We probably had less people then we normally do because there were so many activities going on this weekend– Dave Matthews Band and George Clinton, among others,” says Foxfield Racing Association President Benjamin J. Dick.

The crowd of mostly parents and children who did show up were not shortchanged. More than 80 horses took part in the steeplechase races over the course of the day.

“We had to create a seventh race to accommodate all of them,” Dick says.

In recent years, Foxfield has come under fire for allowing underage alcohol consumption, although the primary criticism has been levied at the spring running of the races that has served as a de facto “Easters” party since UVA cancelled that celebrated spring event nearly 25 years ago.

Other bummers included cancellation (more)

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UVA has dumped its early decision admission program in the wake of similar decisions by Harvard and Princeton universities, the school announced yesterday. The program, which accounts for 30 percent of accepted students, was eliminated in an attempt to provide greater accessibility to low-income students.

“The opportunity of early decision,” said UVA President John T. Casteen III Monday, “has come somehow to be the property of our most advantaged applicants (more)

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A national realtors’ report that home prices dropped for the first time in 10 years in August doesn’t have dire implications here yet– although prices of properties in the $500,000 range and above could be lower than a year ago, according to local real estate guru Dave Phillips.

The National Association of Realtors reported yesterday that home prices were down 1.7 percent in August from a year ago. In Massachusetts it’s even worse– prices have tanked 6.1 percent. Not to worry here?

“I’m just shaking my head,” says Phillips, CEO at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Association of Realtors. “They’re making it sound like markets have gone to hell in a handbasket.”

The Charlottesville market is much more insulated because of UVA, says Phillips, but it has changed dramatically in the past year, with more than twice the inventory. And houses are remaining for sale longer. That said, “This is likely to be the second best year for sales,” coming in right behind last year’s record, says Phillips.

In mid-May, in one sign of local softening, prices fell on spec houses in this area. However, Phillips notes that houses priced under $300,000 are still appreciating. It’s the bigger-ticket properties that are suffering– relatively.

“A house that sold for $800,000 a year ago may sell for $700,000 now,” says Phillips.

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There’s more bad news for Senator George Allen, who’s spent the last several weeks of his campaign first doing damage control for his “Macaca” incident and then adjusting to news that he’s from a Jewish family. Today, on the webzine Salon, three of Allen’s former UVA football teammates say the Senator displayed racist attitudes– and took at least one racist action– when he played for the Cavaliers in the early 1970s.

“Allen said he came to Virginia because he wanted to play football in a place where ‘blacks knew their place,’” Dr. Ken Shelton told Salon.com. According the the article, Shelton, a white radiologist now living in North Carolina, played tight end for the UVA football team when Allen was quarterback, and recalls that Allen “used the N-word on a regular basis back then.”

The other two teammates, who spoke to Salon on condition of anonymity, also recalled Allen’s use of the “N-word,” but Shelton’s memories are the most detailed. He claims Allen gave him the nickname “Wizard” because he shares a last name with 1960s KKK Imperial Wizard Robert Shelton.

The most disturbing of Ken Shelton’s recollections, however, is of a hunting trip he took with Allen and a third white teammate. Shelton tells Salon that after the trio had killed a deer, Allen asked where black residents lived. He then stuffed the severed head of the doe into their mailbox.

According to the article, in the week before publication, Salon reporters interviewed 19 former UVA teammates and college friends of Allen. In addition to Shelton and the two who said Allen used the word “nigger,” two others claimed they were bothered by his display of the Confederate flag. Seven said they didn’t know Allen well but didn’t recall him making racist comments. Seven said they were close friends and had never heard or seen an indication that Allen was racist.

Allen’s campaign did not return calls from either Salon or the Hook. However, in a press conference reported by the Associated Press, Allen called Shelton’s assertions “ludicrously false” and claimed he never used racial slurs.

A campaign spokesperson for Jim Webb, Allen’s opponent for the Virginia Senate seat he’s held since 2000, declined to comment directly on allegations in the Salon article. “Jim is in Hampton Roads talking to constituents about economic fairness,” says Kristian Denny Todd. “His message is a positive one, and has the right kind of values that line up with most Virginians’ values.”

Allen’s attitudes made headlines in late August when he referred to a UVA student and Webb campaigner as “Macaca,” and incident that made headlines across the country. S.R. Siddarth, a student of Indian descent, was following Allen on the campaign trail.

Last week, Allen again made headlines when he finally acknowledged that his mother was raised Jewish in Tunisia during WWII, something she never told him, he said, until this past summer.

Daily Progress reporter Bob Gibson first reported on Allen’s Jewish roots three years ago, but at Allen’s behest the paper ran a correction.

Shelton’s controversial recollections coming on the heels of the two previous issues is “dreadful timing for George Allen,” says Joshua Scott, director of programs for UVA’s Center for Politics. If Allen hopes to defeat Webb in November, the questions about his past and his racial views need to be quelled.

“The reality is we’re still 40 days out from the election, so there’s time for Allen to recover from this, espeically if the allegations are false,” says Scott. “But if this is still a story we’re talking about two weeks from now, Allen’s in a lot of trouble.”

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Bob Gibson, the dean of political reporting at the Daily Progress, reveals today in his Sunday column another bizzare Jewish roots denial from Senator George Allen– this one from way back in 2003.

As Americans have been learning over the past week, unlike some public figures such as Madeleine Albright, who revel in revelations about their ancestry, Allen initially took a stance conveying unease with discussion of his family’s Jewish heritage, including his now-famous September 18 bristling at a television reporter who had the temerity to raise the issue.

After Gibson alluded to Allen’s Jewish roots in a warm-and-fuzzy October 2003 column, the Senator’s then-press secretary demanded and won this correction in the Progress: “Etty Allen, the mother of Sen. George Allen, was raised a Christian, according to the senator’s staff. Her religious background was mischaracterized in a Sunday column.”

Does Allen have his own special timetable for releasing information or misinformation? The Washington Post revealed recently that Allen’s mom kept her secret until late August of this year. (Gibson also points out today that Allen had once asked the Progress to avoid using Allen’s middle initial “F,” which stands for Felix, in its reports. Felix was the first name of Allen’s Jewish grandfather.)

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UVA’s third-string quarterback is on his way to a second start, the coach confirmed tonight, and some are talking about an entire season.

Despite the lopsided loss to Georgia Tech yesterday, Jameel Sewell, a Richmond-area redshirt freshman will start another game as UVA’s starting QB when the Cavalier’s play Duke September 30. “In staff discussions today, we all felt he handled himself positively,” head coach Al Groh said tonight in a conference call. “All the up-the-field throws– he threw each one of them well last night.”

Groh’s comments bolster widespread pundit speculation that the QB slot may, after starts by Christian Olsen and Kevin McCabe, belong to Sewell for the rest of the season, even though Groh himself declines to speculate past the next game. “All we can think about is the one we’re playing next week.”

After several dropped passes and allegedly weak line protection in Thursday night’s 24-7 loss, Groh suggested that Sewell’s left arm deserved a few more points. “He could have gotten some more help,” Groh said.

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With its angular lines, large windows, three decks, and galvanized steel roof, the Eco-Mod house on 7-1/2 Street off Cherry Avenue looks like it could have come right out of the pages of Architectural Digest. But despite additional unusual design features– including a rain water collection system, a multi-zone heating and cooling system, hardwood floors throughout, and walls with an R-30 insulation value– this house can’t be bought by the rich or famous when it goes on the market in the next week or so.

“It’ll be somewhere in the mid-$200’s,” says Roger Voisinet, the listing agent who’s handling the sale for Piedmont Housing Alliance. The house, designed and built by UVA architecture prof John Quale and a team of his students, has now been handed over to PHA to sell. Like other Piedmont Housing houses, Voisinet says, the Eco-mod qualifies for lending through the Virginia Housing Development Authority. That means it must be sold to a first-time homeowner whose income (for a family of three) cannot exceed $90,000.

Also unusual about the house: it has been “condo-ized,” says Voisinet, creating a 550-square-foot studio dwelling in the basement that will be sold separately for a price likely in the low to mid $100,000s.

Piedmont’s Peter Loach says the basement unit will be completed in approximately six weeks, while the upstairs– which features extensive IKEA cabinetry, lots of sliding doors and stainless steel– still requires a few weeks of finishing touches, such as trim work and final landscaping.

Those who might be interested should take note: Loach says more than 300 qualified buyers have been through the Piedmont Housing Alliance office this year, so competition may be steep.

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The company whose “we salute you” Bud Light commercials often thank people for minor accomplishments has made a major gift to the university that prides itself on taking a leadership role in fighting risky drinking.

“We salute you, University of Virginia,” Anheuser-Busch spokesperson Francine Katz declared today in a Rotunda Dome Room press conference after she handed UVA president John T. Casteen III a check for $2.5 million.

UVA will use the gift to help fund a new research group to be headquartered at the university: the National Social Norms Institute. What are social norms?

There’s a clue in the press release: “The goal is to get students to emulate the positive behavior of the vast majority of students.” In other words, most students aren’t binge-crazy, and administrators want to get the word out.

In fact, according to the office of Student Health, 20-25 percent of UVA students actually abstain from drinking alcohol at the university, roughly equivalent to the national average of about 20 percent.

This is not to say that UVA has never had problems with binge drinking. In 1997, forth-year art history major Leslie Baltz died of head injuries from a fall down her apartment steps. Her blood-alcohol content was 0.429, about five times today’s legal driving limit.

“Her friends thought they were doing the right thing,” Casteen said. “We hope all students know the best thing is not to leave them alone to sleep it off.”

Director of Student Health James C. Turner said (more)

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Last night, the Jade Task Force (the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force) seized 1000 Ecstasy tablets with a street vale of $25,000 during an undercover operation in the 1700 block area of Hydraulic Road, according to a press release. Hung Ngoc Nguyen, 49, was arrested on two counts of distributing the drug and is being held without bond at the Albemarle/Charlottesville Regional Jail. Police also say the investigation is ongoing and some additional arrests are pending.

Patented in 1912 by the German pharmaceutical company Merck, the drug —technically known as Methylenedioxymethamphetamine, street names for which include Ecstasy, Adam, XTC, hug, beans, and the love drug—was later studied as a biological weapon by the U.S. Army in the 1950s and given the name EA-1475. Psychotherapists later used the drug to help patients remove psychological defenses and improve their capacity for introspection. In the 1970s, it began to be used as a recreational drug, but really took off in the early 1980s when it became the “club drug” of choice, along with cocaine, at city club scenes and dance parties. Users report feelings of empathy, openness and well-being while on the drug, which has an effect that lasts from 3 to 6 hours.

The drug was made illegal in 1985, but its popularity continued to soar. In the 1990s, it became the club drug of choice at raves, a kind of frenzied version of the early dance party movement of the 1980s.

Although death rates for ecstasy are statistically low, reported deaths of otherwise young, healthy rave-goers over the last decade have raised concerns about the safety of the drug. In high doses, the drug can cause sharp increases in body temperature, resulting in liver, kidney, and heart failure. Of course, the same risks are present with the use of stimulants such as cocaine and amphetamines.

Today, ecstasy is one of the four most widely used illegal drugs in the world, along with cocaine, heroin, and marijuana. According to a national drug survey conducted in 2004, 450,000 people in the U.S age 12 and older had used the drug in the past 30 days.

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With the opening of the John Paul Jones Arena, UVA hopes to see its fair share of hoops luminaries pass through its doors playing for the Cavaliers in the next several decades. What better way to get the new era started than with the band whose #1 hit was called “Shining Star”?

That’s right, funkophiles. Earth, Wind & Fire is coming to town as part of a special “Countdown to Tip-Off” event for men’s and women’s basketball season ticket holders and those who bought into five and six game ticket packages. The concert will happen at the John Paul Jones Arena on November 11, the night before UVA plays its first games at “the Jack.”
“This event is a great way to say thank you to our fans who have made a commitment to support our basketball programs,” says UVA Associate Athletic Director Jon Oliver.

The set from Earth, Wind & Fire will be preceded by opening act Wayman Tisdale, a former forward for the NBA Sacramento Kings who for nine years has enjoyed a second career as a jazz bassist.

Known for hits like “September,” “After the Love Has Gone,” “Star,” “Let’s Groove,” “Boogie Wonderland,” “Shining Star,” and “That’s the Way of the World,” Earth, Wind & Fire was one of the biggest hitmakers of the ’70s and early ’80s. With eight #1 singles on the Billboard R&B charts, the metallic-suited, many-membered group sold over 75 million records worldwide.

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Former governor Mark Warner has been called a lot of names in his political career, but luddite isn’t one of them. From founding what would become cell phone giant Nextel to being one of the first politicians with his own blog, Warner has always been on the cutting edge of communications technology. So it comes as no surprise that he recently became the first 2008 presidential contender with a page in Facebook.com.

Like MySpace.com, Facebook is a social networking website that allows users to set up a profile where they can tell a little bit about themselves, post photos, and connect with other users by asking them to accept their “friend request.” Originally started by a Harvard undergrad as a way for college students to connect, the site recently expanded to allow anyone to join.

In his profile, Warner calls his political views “moderate,” and lists his interests as “small towns that are working to get it right” and “getting things done.” His favorite movies are Field of Dreams, North by Northwest, and Saving Private Ryan. And although he claims he doesn’t watch much TV lately, he does recall Hill Street Blues and Star Trek as past faves. He also proudly displays his picture with U2 frontman Bono in his photo gallery.

So far it seems Warner is being received well. At this moment, he’s received 52 posts on his virtual “wall,” and all are of encouraging and complimentary, with the exception of one poster who is “disconcerted” that he hasn’t heard Warner talk foreign policy, and another who calls the former governor “a nerd” for listing best-selling science fiction novel Dune as one of his favorite books.

This Facebook appearance comes on the heels of Warner holding a online town hall meeting last month using a computer game called The Second Life. That event featured a computer-generated avatar that looked and sounded like the former governor– the only difference being that the digi-guv could fly.

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The father of the 15-year-old ensnared in Albemarle County’s bomb conspiracy dragnet escaped his own possible bout behind bars today, as a judge agreed that the dad’s intent wasn’t sufficient to warrant a conviction.

“Technically, I think you violated the court order,” said Circuit Court Judge Paul Peatross. “I’m dismissing the contempt. End of case.”

“We won,” said the dad outside on the courthouse steps. In court, the dad, a financial planner, declared from the stand that his June 22 letter to the Albemarle School Board was clumsy but not contemptible. “He’s a smart man,” said his lawyer. “But he’s not a lawyer.”

Because of the boy’s age, the boy and his father have not been identified by the Hook.

The Board had expelled the boy following his late March conviction in juvenile court on two conspiracy charges. The dad testified that he was thrice asked– once in writing and twice verbally– by School Board Superintendent Pamela Moran to notify the Board if his son’s status with the justice system changed.

The son’s legal status improved drastically May 19. In a plea agreement, the boy dropped his appeal in exchange for accepting the lesser deferred charge of “communicating a threat.” With good behavior, the charge would never actually be lodged against him, and the records would eventually get expunged.

Virginia law says a court has 15 days to provide such information to a school board, but that didn’t happen. Sought for comment, Albemarle Circuit Clerk Shelby Marshall was on vacation and would not return until next week, according to deputy clerks.

The father testified he grew frustrated when the court failed to send that notice and claimed he never imagined that his letter– sent a month after his son’s plea– would put him in legal jeopardy. I felt the ball was in my court,” he testified. “I’m a babe in the woods when it comes to all this law stuff,” the dad said afterwards.

During today’s hearing, prosecutor Darby Lowe mentioned that she obtained the dad’s letter from School Board attorney Mark Trank. Whether Trank offered the letter or merely produced it when asked could not be learned at press time. However, it is known that the dad once waged a lawsuit against the County school system which, forced to concede that it didn’t have a policy it thought it had, settled the case.

As for the boy, he seems tired of the home-schooling that’s been his education since his expulsion. “I want to play football again,” says the boy, who would have begun his junior year at Albemarle High School this fall. “They don’t have football in home school,” cracked the parent of another boy ensnared in the alleged conspiracy. (That boy, the only one to face jury, won an acquittal in mid-August.)

Ironically, it was the family of the 15-year-old who sought the closed hearing that landed the father in trouble. “We were objecting to a lot of evidence that we saw as improper,” explains the dad. “We fully intended it to go to a jury trial.”

So why the plea? “They offered us this deal,” he says, “to make it all go away.”

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The UVA fourth-year student who died of bacterial meningitis last week had Strain B, the least infectious strain of the disease, the Centers for Disease Control reported on Monday.

The news is what UVA administrators were hoping to hear. “That strain is less likely to cause outbreaks among several people, and generally causes isolated, single cases,” said UVA’s executive director of student health, Dr. James Turner, last week.

Twenty-one-year-old Jennifer Leigh Wells had complained of headaches on Friday morning, according to an account in the Daily Progress, and stayed at her parents’ home in Charlottesville, away from school and her part time job at A Cut Above, the hair salon owned by her mother and stepfather. She reportedly collapsed that afternoon and was rushed to UVA Medical Center before she died on Sunday.

Unlike a decade ago, the vast majority of college students are now vaccinated against four of the five strains of meningitis. Turner estimated 95 percent of UVA students had received the vaccine, but in Wells’ case, the vaccine, which is ineffective agains strain B, would not have helped.

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On the steps of the main branch on East Market Street Thursday, September 21, at 10am, officials from Albemarle County and the Jefferson-Madison Regional Library will announce that they have selected Grimm & Parker Architects of Mclean (in association with Heyward Boyd Architects here in town) to design the new 15,000-sq.-ft. Crozet Library. Architects from Grimm & Parker will also be on hand to discuss the project.

A new Crozet Library? Who knew.

According to Susan Stimart, a County business development facilitator, $5.4 million has been set aside for the project, which was approved after a 2001 study using local census data indicated a need for a bigger library. However, there are still a few hurdles to clear.

“We’re going to need a bit more funding,” admits Stimart, “because the cost of construction has gone up so much.” In addition, the county still hasn’t decided on a building site. Recently, says Stimart, the county purchased land on Harris Street (across the from the restaurant Cocina del Sol) as a possible location, but also has an option to build on the Crozet Waldorf School site. At a meeting at Western Albemarle High School on October 25, a building site will be chosen.

Grimm & Parker, who have designed more than two dozen libraries, are best known recently for the new library in Rockville, Maryland (pictured above). In an unusual twist, so to speak, the design commemorates some significant local history– the unlocking of the human genetic code, which the Rockville-based company Celera Genomics Group accomplished in 2000. One side of the building undulates in a reference to one half of a double helix, while the landscaping along the wall references the other side.

Apparently, Grimm & Parker plan to study Crozet history in a similar effort to commemorate and symbolize it in their design of the new library.

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Sally Hemings was buried again last night. The former property and paramour of the third president, who is likely interred by the site of a wide city road, was shoveled under in favor of a Charlottesville celebrity of more recent vintage.

At City Council last night, the five-member body voted unanimously to give the 9th/10th Street Connector a new name in honor of Hall of Fame football player Roosevelt “Rosie” Brown who grew up in Charlottesville. The street opened in the late 1990s.

During their lifetimes, rumors of Jefferson’s relationship with the woman whom detractors called “Dusky Sally” dogged the President. While some of Jefferson’s descendants steadfastly maintained that the Sage of Monticello lived a monkish existence after the untimely death of his wife, Jefferson’s own writings suggested otherwise.

In France, he appeared to carry on an affair with the wife of a prominent artist. Around the same time, the word “mulatto” suddenly crept into his vocabulary– even when discussing such things as the color of the soil in southern France. When light-colored children– including one with an amazing propensity for the violin– began growing up in Sally Hemings’ household, the rumors intensified. One child named Madison Hemings later gave a lengthy newspaper interview proclaiming that he was a child of TJ. And in 1998, DNA testing, combined with historical testimony, confirmed that TJ and Hemings had children together.

But it was the year-later sleuthing by Charlottesville-based USA Today reporter Dennis Cauchon (the same man who matched the babies switched at UVA Hospital with their respective families) that determined that Sally Hemings was likely buried on the site of today’s Hampton Inn & Suites on West Main Street.

Utilizing data supplied by Monticello historians as well as old land records in the Albemarle County Courthouse, Cauchon determined that Hemings lived, after she and her kids won their freedom from Monticello, on West Main at what today is the intersection of the 9th/10th Connector and West Main Street.

Cauchon also learned that Charlottesvillians of the day– in an era preceding cemeteries– were typically buried in their own yard. Thus, Hemings’ remains likely lie under the hotel. The hotel that’ll soon look out on a road with a name that honors a great football player.
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Two days after refusing to apologize for running two controversial comics depicting Jesus Christ, the Cavalier Daily issued a statement today apologizing for the cartoons. UVA third-year Grant Woolard drew the cartoons for his comic strip Quirksmith. The statement reads, in part: “Offense was not our intent-– neither the intent of the artist, nor the intent of the newspaper, which seeks to provide contributors an open forum to present their ideas.”

Woolard’s August 23 and August 24 cartoons depicted Jesus Christ crucified on Cartesian x/y axes and Mary professing that her “bumpy rash” was “immaculately transmitted,” respectively. The CD has removed the cartoons from their website and replaced them with a statement from Woolard that says, “The sole intent of my comic strip is to present situations that provoke thought and amusement. As this comic did not achieve that goal, I have requested that it be taken down from the Cavalier Daily website. I apologize for the offense the comic has produced.”

The dustup turned into a sandstorm on September 13 when Fox News commentator Bill O’Reilly called for UVA president John Casteen to kick the Cav Daily off Grounds for running the cartoons and accused Casteen of “hiding behind his desk.”

CD editor Michael Slaven was unavailable for comment, but his voicemail recording says, “Members of the Cavalier Daily staff will not be doing interviews or making press apperances from this point forward.” Nor was Bill O’Reilly or anyone on the O’Reilly Factor staff available for comment.

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Political junkies across the Commonwealth and the nation will rise and shine at 9am this Sunday morning, when Senator George Allen and his Democratic opponent, former Navy Secretary Jim Webb square off on NBC’s Meet the Press. It will be the first time the two candidates have debated publicly. The first debate was hosted by the Virginia Bar Association at their annual convention at The Homestead, but was not allowed to be televised.

It could be a key point in a race that’s proving to be tighter than most pundits expected. Following “Macaca-gate,” Allen’s lead has slipped from 12 percentage points in July down to just four with a four percent margin of error in the most recent Mason-Dixon poll.

The informal, hour-long debate will be moderated by Meet the Press host Tim Russert, as part of the program’s ongoing series of senatorial debates. It’s hard to forecast how the veteran Washington reporter will steer the debate, but one might expect that the two candidates’ recent spats over Webb’s use of Ronald Reagan in a campaign ad and a 1979 article of Webb’s entitled “Women Can’t Fight” about the place of women at the U.S. Naval Academy will be discussed.

The following day, Allen and Webb will debate again at the Hilton in McLean where the Fairfax County Chamber of Commerce will host the candidates. That tussle will be moderated by ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.

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If you’ve tuned in to the morning show on WINA news radio in the past few days, you’ve likely heard hosts Jay James and Jane Foy bemoaning the high gasoline prices in this area and talking about some poll in which 82 percent of their listeners believe they’re getting gouged. Well, let’s ignore the fact that 1) that’s an unscientific poll, and 2) that polls don’t prove facts.

Instead, let’s look at a report from the Newsplex which actually spoke with a Darden prof who explained why Charlottesville– for some reason other than rapacious cads colluding to rip off the public– might have higher prices than some other parts of Virginia.

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget that last spring, sometime around April, the Charlottesville area (according to AAA figures) actually had slightly lower prices than surrounding areas.

The point is that petrol is a commodity, and its price is set more by consumers than any alleged market manipulation by oligopolists. “It’s the intensity of demand by local consumers that tends to drive price,” the Darden prof, Peter Rodriguez, says in the story.

In fairness to Jay and Jane, we should point out that they did have former Charlottesville City Councilor Rob Schilling on the show a day or two ago to make a similar point.

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