Despite an optimistic outlook, Charlottesville’s 2nd best-known basketball team was knocked out of the Final Four earlier today. In a wild battle with the Dallas Movin’ Mavericks, the wheelchair-bound, Charlottesville-based basketball team, the Cardinals, lost in overtime, 69-67.

“Our guys really gave it their all,” says Cardinals coach Tom Vandever, “but ultimately it just wasn’t quite enough.”

Vandever reports that Arthur Tracy had 23 points, Eddie Wimbish had 15, “TV” had 12, Joey Leavitt had 8, Brandon Rush had 7, and Chris Robinson had 2.

“We had a couple of heart-stopping moments (more)

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For the first time in a dozen years, college circuit rock star Ben Folds is coming to Charlottesville. His first and only appearance until tomorrow’s free show at UVA was April 13, 1995. Then, still on his way to stardom, the North Carolina-based Ben Folds Five opened for Shannon Worrell at the Jefferson Theater.

Besides surprising Worrell’s crowd of sophisticates with his amazing blend of fuzzed-out guitar, hand-slamming piano work, and cynical word-play, the 1995 show was notable for something else. It was there that, from the front row, local photographer/ filmmaker Alexandria Searls shoots a picture (seen above) that winds up being the only band shot in the BFF’s first CD.

Folds, now a solo artist, headlines tomorrow’s UVA “Springfest,” a free gig held at Nameless Field and featuring an up-and-comer on the Israeli-born country music scene. He is Eef Barzelay, and although born in Tel Aviv, he’s the product of American parents. Better yet, Barzelay (seen here at right) scored a film that just won a big award at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

The film, Rocket Science, a coming-of-age story about a stuttering debater, recently won the 2007 Sundance Film Festival Award for Dramatic Directing. The film, from Jeffery Blitz, who also directed the Academy-award nominated documentary Spellbound, gets its theatrical debut August 10 when it’s released by Picture House/HBO.

Barzelay takes the stage around 3:45pm, and Ben Folds plays around 5. Nameless Field is located behind Memorial Gym, next to the Snyder tennis courts. The bummer about tomorrow’s concert? That a UVA ID is required to attend.

Saturday morning update: A commenter (below) says you don’t have to have an ID to catch the music, just the free food. If so, that’s great news for music fans!

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The City seems to have learned this lesson from offering a free trolley route ( began as the “HooBus”), which faced some opposition when it was proposed, but has since become the most traveled CTS City route, shuttling nearly 1,080 riders a day from the University to the Downtown Mall–to borrow from a local car dealership, “Everybody rides!”

Starting April 2, UVA students, staff, and faculty will be able to ride free on any CTS route with a UVA photo ID. The change comes after a year of negotiations between the Charlottesville Transit Service and the University of Virginia, during which a pilot program resulted in a sharp increase in CTS rider-ship. The program will run until June 2008, and as the CTS is quick to remind us, the fare-free program does not apply to the Football Shuttle service or to CTS LINK service.

So could this be a prelude to a City-wide free transit system for everyone? According to City spokesperson Ric Barrick, thats not out of the question.

“Yes, we’re looking at the feasibility of becoming a fare free system,” says Barrick, “but currently its just in the planning stages. We would need to make up for the $30,000 a month fare revenue that is generated, but City Council has expressed an interest in the possibility.”

Given the fact that Charlottesville is awash in cash, giving up $360,000 a year to get people out of their cars, and to make getting around Charlottesville free, might not seem like much of a sacrifice to some.

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An anarchy symbol with a red dripping stain, a dark-colored tube taped to a post, and a white cylinder with what appear to be protruding wires are among the evidence discovered outside Brownsville Elementary School and Henley Middle School in western Albemarle County on Tuesday, March 27. The discoveries prompted administrators to close both schools for the day and launch an investigation involving “between 10 and 15 public safety agencies, local, state and federal,” says Lt. John Teixeira of Albemarle County police.

This afternoon, Teixeira announced the arrest of two Henley students, both under 14. Each has been charged with four felony counts of constructing and/or placing a hoax explosive device. If convicted, the youths could be incarcerated until they turn 21.

A call to the home of one of the teens was answered by a woman who hung up when asked about the situation. Already, there are messages of support from friends on one of the suspects’ MySpace.com page, such as “if i find someone that snitched on you i’ll kick there a** for you guys,” and “iama go investigate cuz i dotn bealive u did it man.”

If the incident gives a feeling of deja vu, it’s not surprising. Last year Albemarle County was (more)

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“Thank you all for being here,” said one teacher this morning at Henley Middle School as she entered the building at 8:15am amid five Albemarle police cruisers and a similar number of uniformed officers– a bigger-than-normal police presence at the school to ensure a normal day.

“They just want us here for parent and student comfort,” said Sergeant Scott Cox, as the sun shone on a quiet morning at the Crozet-area public school, one day after Henley and the next-door Brownsville Elementary were closed by authorities after an allegedly suspicious envelope and cylinder were discovered at the schools.

Attendance at both schools were lower than normal, with 52 students staying home from Brownsville (only nine of which were confirmed to be sick) and 55 students missing school at Henley. Albemarle schools superintendent Pam Moran says that (more)

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Charges of racism on Corner, No more Rescue Squad?, ‘Fearless Consumer’ says goodbye

ON THIS WEEK’S COVER:
Dressing Down: Was this bar speaking in Code?
Are big, baggy clothes bad news? Owners of Jaberwoke restaurant on the Corner recently decided the answer is yes. People sporting such duds, they claim, are more likely to be rude to staff and start fights in their establishment. So a month ago, citing “safety” and a wish to encourage “better behavior,” the owners imposed a dress code banning various articles of clothing at Jaberwoke and their other two restaurants, The Virginian and West Main. The action ignited a firestorm. Is such a dress code racist?

ALSO IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE: (more)

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Just two months after being diagnosed with neurodegenerative disease Multiple Sclerosis, a local woman is on the brink of winning $10,000 for MS research through a national fundraising competition sponsored by Kevin Bacon.

The contest, called Six Degrees after the trivia game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon,” relies on the number of donations rather than the size.

Robin Maxwell, a 38-year-old triathlete and mother of two, is in third place having raised nearly $11,000 with 635 donations. The top six contestants will receive an additional $10,000 for their cause after the contest ends at midnight Saturday, March 31. The leading contestant– raising money for autism research– has nearly 1,200 donations, and Maxwell says she’s pushing hard to make sure she doesn’t fall out of the running.

Numbness in her feet bothered Maxwell this fall, but she chalked the sudden symptom up to overtraining since she had been running longer distances in preparation for her first marathon. When the tingling sensation began to creep up her shins, however, Maxwell decided to seek medical advice and eventually got the devastating news. While she says she has had dark moments, she’s focused her competitive drive and high energy on raising money for research.

“I want there to be a cure in my lifetime,” she says. “I have the ability to speak up and to fundraise and to raise awareness.”

Donations of any amount can be made at the Six Degrees website and must be in by midnight March 31.

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At a 4pm press conference, Albemarle police Lt. John Teixeira corrected himself and told reporters that police did not, in fact, “blow up” anything at Brownsville Elementary and Henley Middle School this morning, but rather that a package had been “disrupted” using a water cannon and that another “item” had been otherwise “neutralized.”

The only other new information revealed about the suspicious items found just before 7 this morning were that they had been left “out in the front area of the schools.”

Pressed by reporters about what led police to suspect danger, Teixeira said, “It’s like playing a game of poker. You only have so much in your hand when you’re going up against somebody, and you don’t want to let them know what you have in your hand.”

Asked whether this amounted to a simple prank, Teixeira said, “I consider this to be a felony; a felony is not a prank.”

As for whether Brownsville and Henley will open its doors for classes tomorrow, Albemarle schools superintendent Pam Moran said parents should monitor the county schools website or call the school closings hotline at 296-5886. Teixeira told anyone with information that could aid the investigation should call the police department at 296-5087 or Crimestoppers at 977-4000.

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Despite helping cement their role in music history, Bill Siddons may always face second-guessing over his management of the Doors, the late 1960s rock and blues band whose albums have sold over 50 million copies and counting.

Siddons, in Charlottesville today and tomorrow as part of a music business symposium, began working for the Doors while still a teenager but never quite managed to rein in the excesses of frontman Jim Morrison. Backers of the Jim’s-still-alive conspiracy theory still wonder about Siddons’ decision not to peek inside the casket when Morrison died in Paris at the age of 27.

“Yeah, I recognized when somebody pointed out, when I got back, that that was my professional responsibility,” explains Siddons. “But I didn’t go there professionally. I went to help Pam.”

Pam was Pamela Courson, Morrison’s girlfriend who took his surname and lived (more)

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At about 11:45pm today, police robots detonated two suspicious packages found early this morning by custodial staff at Brownsville Elementary and Henley Middle Schools. At a press conference at the Moose Lodge near Crozet, Albemarle police Lt. John Teixeira said there were threats at two different schools.”We have multiple agencies– city, state, federal, local– working on this,” he said. “That should tell you how serious it was.”

Teixeira says a police investigation is currently under way but refused to answer any questions specific to that investigation, except to promise, “We’re going to find out who did this.”

When they arrived for classes, students at Brownsville and Henley were transported to nearby Western Albemarle High School. Brownsville officially closed at 11:30; Henley closed an hour later. County buses transported those students without rides back home. All activities at Western Albemarle– including all sporting events and practices– will go on as scheduled.

Albemarle County Schools Superintendent Pam Moran says (more)

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“We are involved in a bomb threat this morning,” says County spokesperson Lee Catlin, who hastily convened a press conference after “suspicious circumstances” at Henley Middle and Brownsville Elementary disrupted the academic day.

Albemarle police Sergeant Scott Cox escorted media over to the nearby Moose Lodge and revealed that the two things found around 7:15 this morning were an envelope and a cylinder. The state bomb squad and the FBI have been summoned.

Catlin urges parents to keep Henley and Brownsville students home if they haven’t already gone to school or to retrieve them from the spot where they’ve been diverted, Western Albemarle High School. She says that classes for Western students are ongoing until further notice.

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The Crozet area is in an uproar this morning, as two county schools have been closed and their students “diverted” after reports of suspicious packages found at both Henley Middle and Brownsville Elementary.

Traffic is snarled, and County spokesperson Lee Catlin confirms that the side-by-side schools along Route 250 have been “sealed off” behind a “perimeter” due to what Catlin would describe only as “suspicious circumstances.”

More as it develops from the Hook’s reporter on the scene.

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Charlottesville’s best known basketball team might have been knocked out of the running for a national title, but our city still has a chance at hoops glory thanks to the Cardinals, Charlottesville’s wheelchair basketball champs. On Friday, for the first time in the local league’s 27-year history, its Division II team– the most competitive of its three teams– will compete in the Final Four of the National Wheelchair Basketball League’s biggest annual tournament, playing (more)

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Rutherford Institute founder John Whitehead has gotten phone calls from parents concerned that Albemarle County schools combat underage drinking by forcing parents to promise to snitch on their kids if they want to play athletics. The athletic training rule, i.e., the pledge, is already under scrutiny of a committee of principals and school administrators, which will make a recommendation to Superintendent Pam Moran.

“While we support the spirit of the administration’s efforts to discourage student use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco, the Training Rule as it has been structured poses a serious risk to the rights of parents and students and constitutes an unwarranted invasion into the privacy of families,” writes Whitehead in a March 26 letter to School Board Chair Sue Friedman. (more)

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Despite sounds of construction and yellow caution tape, the downtown Charlottesville Transit Center is celebrated its grand opening today.

The $6.5 million facility was initiated in February 2003 as part of the East End Downtown Mall Improvement Project. The 10,000 square-foot transit center is located near the amphitheater on Seventh and Water Street, despite early controversy over its location, as the Hook reported back in May 2003.

“This is fantastic,” Charlottesville resident Leroy Keyes says. “I usually catch the bus closer to Ridge Street, but I wanted to check this out.” Although Keyes says he waited (more)

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In 2004, “Thomas Jefferson” did Jon Stewart the favor of writing the foreword to America (The Book), a spoof of high school civics textbooks as written by Stewart and his cohorts at The Daily Show. Now, Stewart will return the favor when he comes to Mr. Jefferson’s University on Saturday, April 28 to perform stand-up comedy at John Paul Jones Arena.

Tickets to see America’s favorite fake newsman go on sale Saturday March 30 at 10am. Seats will cost between $57 and $67 for the general public and can be purchased (more)

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The Hook and the Richmond Times-Dispatch are the winners of the Virginia Press Association’s highest honor, the VPA Award for Journalistic Integrity and Community Service, awarded last night at the Association’s annual meeting in Norfolk.

The Times-Dispatch won for stories about a hurricane, local jail conditions, and the aftermath of war. The Hook won for its story of the “12-step” rape apology case, the shooting of a pet cat, and for its coverage, penned mostly by Lisa Provence, of the so-called “school bombing plot,” which a VPA judge lauded as the Hook’s “shining crown jewel.”

“Throughout its coverage of this bizarre case,” wrote judge Tim McGuire, a former president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, the newspaper paints a chilling ‘Star Chamber’ portrait. Under the veil of (more)

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Friday evenings at Davenport field this season have been a relaxing, calm atmosphere to watch Virginia baseball. Not tonight. The first ACC series of the season brought an intense anticipation to the stadium that fans haven’t seen yet this year, and the Cavaliers delivered by defeating Miami 4-1.

“Our players are playing very aggressively in all facets of the game – pitching, defense, baserunning, and swinging the bats offensively,” Virginia coach Brian O’Connor said. “It was a great overall win.”

The Cavaliers are amidst an unprecedented season, where they started the year with an all-time high No. 9 ranking. After taking two out of three from the North Carolina Tar Heels last weekend, Virginia carried its (more)

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A week after Corner-area eatery Jaberwoke was accused of racism for its new dress code, its customers are free once more to dress as they please.

“The dress code is gone,” Jaberwoke restaurant co-owner Anderson McClure declared yesterday afternoon during an at times contentious public meeting on the issue at the restaurant.

This follows a controversy that exploded in the pages of the student run Cavalier Daily and the creation of a Facebook group titled “Hoos Against Jaberwoke” (more)

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Is America ready for Trevor Moore?, Short story contest winner, Turn in your kid?

ON THIS WEEK’S COVER:

Is America ready for Moore? Trevor sure hopes so
A decade ago, Trevor Moore was a wisecracking teenager with a popular sketch comedy show on Charlottesville public access that towed the line between good and bad taste. Now he’s grown up and on national TV every week as part of The Whitest Kids U’ Know, a half-hour sketch comedy show put on by the troupe of the same name that he co-founded. Can the former cable access sensation make America laugh?

Additionally, we have a winner in our annual short story contest and this year, this year the prize goes to (more)

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Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Jim Camblos announced his re-election bid for the Republican nomination today in front of the Albemarle Courthouse, attended by fellow Republicans Delegate Rob Bell, Sheriff Ed Robb and sheriff candidate Chip Harding.

Charlottesville native/Crozetian Camblos has been Albemarle’s top prosecutor since 1993, and he’s run unopposed the past two elections. This November, he may face challenger Denise Lunsford, who is seeking the Democratic nomination.
Camblos recently was rebuffed by the local bar and the General Assembly in his bid for the Albemarle Circuit Court seat (more)

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Two years after he resigned as UVA men’s basketball coach– and days after he crossed paths with his former team at the NCAA Tournament in Columbus, Ohio, where he was broadcasting the games for radio network Westwood One– rumors abound that Pete Gillen may soon prowl the sideline once again. The Tampa Tribune reports that Gillen has interviewed for the head coaching position at the University of South Florida. Gillen has so far refused to comment publicly on the possibility of heading to Tampa.

Other reported candidates for the position include University of South Alabama head coach John Pelphrey (who interviewed days after Gillen), and University of Connecticut associate coach Tom Moore (who coached alongside Dave Leitao when the current UVA head man was also a Huskies’ assistant).

One very vocal Gillen supporter lately has been (more)

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Remember the Charlottesville public access cult hit sketch comedy program The Trevor Moore Show? The one that featured a plucky teenager doing everything from paling around with a “Giant Walkin’ Talkin’ Box” to reenacting scenes from Hamlet with roadkill? Well, that class clown is still clowning around, only now he’s getting paid to do it for a national TV audience.

Tonight at 11pm, cable network Fuse airs the premiere episode of The Whitest Kids U’ Know, a weekly sketch comedy show from Moore’s New York-based comedy troupe of the same name. Butterflies don’t even begin to describe Moore’s sense of anticipation.

“We’ve been performing this stuff for (more)

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After a nine-year career that began when he was a student at UVA, WINA sportscaster and talk show host Jed Williams will vacate his “Best Seat in the House” Monday, March 26 to start a new gig on WNSP 105.5, a Mobile, Alabama, affiliate of ESPN Radio.

Williams says that while he’s reluctant to leave Charlottesville, he jumped at this new opportunity because it allows him to focus on his biggest interest. “I decided two years ago that I’m most passionate about doing a daily talk show and interacting with a dynamic radio audience,” he explains. “And the opportunity to do a three-hour show every day during drive time in a bigger media market, not to mention one where they’re almost religious about sports, allows me to take the next step as a sports talk show host.”

Williams will (more)

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The Cavalier Daily is reporting this morning that another Virginia college student has fallen prey to the “overpaid apartment scam,” which the Hook’s Fearless Consumer wrote about last week.

Here’s how it works. An out-of-area person replies to a classified ad by offering to pay in advance for an apartment rental, in this case a summer sublet from second-year UVA student Shelina Merchant, with checks or money orders exceeding the total bill. The student is then asked to refund the difference between the overpayment and the actual amount due, $3,660. Unfortunately, the latest victim learned too late, the payments were made in bogus money orders.

This scam first came to light with cars in an October 7, 2004 Hook story and again (more)

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