Emerging from a Pavilion on the Lawn a little before 2pm today accompanied by his third wife, Jeanne Vander Myde, and a cluster of aides, Virginia Senator John Warner circled the Rotunda and descended the front steps to a podium where he announced his retirement after 30 years as a U.S. Senator, the second longest tenure in Virginia history. Senator Harry F. Byrd Sr. holds the record.

With his smiling, sometimes tearful looking wife standing a foot away, taking her eyes from his face only to laugh when the press corps did (a selfless gesture it would be hard to imagine one of Warner’s other wives doing), Warner said he chose the Rotunda as the site of his announcement because it was “hallowed ground,” and because UVA Professor Larry Sabato, who watched the proceedings with former Virginia Governor Gerald L. Baliles, suggested it.

Warner said he made his decision after keeping a journal for six months, debating with himself whether he could help in these complicated times. Warner said he thought the situation in Iraq and Afghanistan is the most complex he has ever seen. Warner said in the end, though, he decided it was time and, of course, quoted Thomas Jefferson: “There is a fullness of time when men should go and not occupy too long the ground to which others have the right to advance.” (more)

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A special prosecutor finds that Albemarle police Sergeant Pamela Greenwood did not violate any laws in the death of pedestrian Jesus Tolentino Dominguez two months ago. She will not face criminal charges.

Fluvanna Commonwealth’s Attorney Jeff Haislip, left, oversaw the investigation that cleared Greenwood, who had been on administrative leave and just returned to work a week ago.

Greenwood was traveling north on Hydraulic Road in a police SUV at 9:50pm June 27 when she struck Dominguez about 50 feet past the intersection of Earlysville Road, Haislip said. Greenwood had slowed at the intersection and was going an estimated 30 to 33 mph when Dominguez, who had already crossed three lanes coming from the Rock Store, stepped into her path.

The vehicle swerved to the right and hit Dominguez with the driver’s side of the car and side mirror. “Her injuries were significant, with numerous lacerations to the liver and numerous broken bones,” Haislip said at a press conference at the Albemarle County police department. (more)

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Mary Hanna, mother of Iraq war veteran and activist Evan Knappenberger, read a prepared statement from the front porch of her Woodbrook home Friday morning, speaking out against the practice of involuntary active service extensions for members of the military and throwing her support behind her son’s cause.

“I need to put my voice next to his,” Hanna said. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for him.”

As she chastized both the military bureaucracy that she says has lied to young people entering the armed services, and the political pressure she says her son experienced as an army intelligence analyst in Iraq, Hanna’s voice shook with emotion. She addressed (more)

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4:11pm update: Former chair of the Albemarle Board of Supervisors and close Warner associate Forrest Marshall says the senator has discussed his future extensively with him over the last several months and that Warner himself probably doesn’t know what he’ll announce tomorrow.

“I’ve got a feeling he still isn’t sure,” Marshall says. “One day he thinks [running for re-election] is what he wants to do, and the next day he thinks he’s too old.” Should Warner walk away from a run at a sixth term, Marshall says he doesn’t see the UVA Law alum relocating to Charlottesville: “He just built that new home of his in Arlington, but he’ll continue coming here because he likes to bird hunt here and likes to play golf.”

In this period of uncertainty, Marshall says all that’s for sure about his friend’s future is the next few days. “He’s coming over here tomorrow night for dinner,” says Marshall, speaking from his Scottsville farm, “and then we’re going bird hunting on Saturday afternoon.”

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The eyes of the political world will be on Charlottesville tomorrow afternoon when Senator John Warner (R) announces whether he will retire or seek re-election in 2008. The five-term senator has scheduled a press conference for 2pm at the Rotunda.

Anticipating that Virginia’s 80-year-old senior senator might not seek another term, successors have been quietly (and some not so quietly) waiting in the wings. Ever since announcing he would not seek the White House in 2008, former Gov. Mark Warner (no relation) has been the Democrats’ dream candidate. As of June 30, his political action committee, Forward Together, had $726,695 in cash on hand, every cent of which could be spent in a Senate run.

UVA professor and political pundit Larry Sabato says his sources tell him (more)

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It seems Roanoke has been heavily courting Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management lately, hoping the music mogul and concert promoter will put his weight and experience behind a proposed amphitheater on the old Victory Stadium site with a capacity of 7,000. The city put out a request for proposals earlier this year hoping to find someone to design, build, and manage the proposed $11.6 million project, but so far only Red Light and the Jefferson Center, a Roanoke-based non-profit arts organization, have shown interest.

“Yes, we have some interest in the project,” says Pavilion Manager Kirby Hutto, “but not as a developer. We’d be interested in managing and operating another amphitheater, but not in building and owning one.”

While Capshaw promotes and organizes events all over the world, Hutto says, managing and operating another facility would be (more)

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Not only is Carolyn Brooks’ house gone, her whole neighborhood is gone– still devastated two years after Hurricane Katrina slammed the Gulf Coast.

Brooks left her home in New Orleans’ Lower Ninth Ward August 28, 2005, one day ahead of the storm, with nothing but the clothes in her suitcase. “We thought we were going to be back in a few days,” she says.

Her sister drove Brooks and two of her children– she has eight altogether– to Memphis. Today she lives in Charlottesville and reflects on the events of two years ago.

“It’s sad,” she says during her lunch break at Kroger, where she fries chicken for the deli. “I know people who drowned, babies drowned…” (more)

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Update/Clarification 8/31/07: The Hogwaller Ramblers are NOT breaking up. While the post below, and the news short that appears in this week’s print edition of the Hook seems to suggest the Ramblers have hung up their instruments, that is not the case according to Jamie Dyer.

“We’re just giving up our regular Sunday night gigs at Fellini’s,” he says. “We’re not breaking up. In fact, we’ll continue to play the last Saturday of every month at Fellini’s.” Dyers says his feelings about the changing music scene in Charlottesville led to his decision to stop the long-running weekly gigs, but he’ll still keep the Rambler’s musical fires burning.

Our apologies to the Ramblers and their fans for appearing to post an obituary. #

After 16 years playing Sunday night gigs at The Blue Moon Dinner, Escaf�, and Fellini’s (long enough for those venues to changes hands a few times), the Hogwaller Ramblers are calling it quits, says frontman Jamie Dyer.

“Charlottesville’s not the same town anymore,” says Dyer. “We’re starting to feel like a tourist attraction.”

Indeed, the Hogwallers were a gritty rock/bluegrass/country band long before anyone ever heard of the Hackensaw Boys, and as much a homegrown treasure as another popular local band you may have heard of.

In fact, for historians of that other band’s rise to stardom, it’s impossible not to recognize the Hogwallers as major players in the mid-’90s local music scene. They played Farm Aid in 1999 and performed on Michael Feldman’s NPR radio program “Whaddaya Know,” but it was their regular Sunday night gigs at Fellini’s back then that made them local legends for the wild fun and debauchery they inspired.

In many ways, the Hogwallers were like a local non-profit support group for musicians. As Dyer told the Hook in 2004, “The band has gone through massive changes in lineup. I’d swear half the town can claim membership in this band at some point or another.”

Dyer says the group’s final Sunday night gig will be at Fellini’s this Sunday, September 2.

Of course, Dyer also cites his full-time job and few gray hairs as reasons to finally call it quits, but it’s clear the changing face of our local music scene has informed the decision.

“It’s been coming for long time,” says Dyer. “This used to be a funner town to play music in. Now it’s become so cut-throat. People aren’t playing for the music anymore; they’re concerned about where it will get them.”

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5:54 update: In a bulletin issued a few minutes ago, the NWS says the storm has weakened and isn’t such a big deal anymore, although parts of eastern Albemarle could feel high winds until around 6:15.

5:50pm update: Dig this 5:40pm radar from the NWS.

The National Weather Service reports that a big thunderstorm is heading toward downtown after sweeping southeast through Crozet and Ivy from the west. They call it a “severe thunderstorm warning” with winds in excess of 60mph and capable of producing “penny-sized hail.” Tomorrow, they’re issuing a “heat advisory” with a high temperature between 95 and 100 with a heat index, because of the high humidity, of 105.

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The man whose own apology put him behind bars for a 22-year-old crime has another reason to rue his mea culpa. His mother, said to be his last living relative, died Wednesday, and although his sentence has just three more weeks to run, Charlottesville officials won’t let him leave jail to bury her.

William N. Beebe, who sexually assaulted a 17-year-old UVA first year in 1984, then made international headlines by apologizing to his victim more than two decades later, learned this afternoon that Judge Edward Hogshire had denied his request to be allowed to temporarily leave the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, where he has been housed since his March sentencing.

Hogshire first heard the request at an unannounced but public hearing yesterday morning, where Beebe’s attorney, Rhonda Quagliana, asked him to grant Beebe (more)

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For years, listeners in the vast WVTF broadcast area have awakened at 6:50 every Friday morning to the dulcet, southside Virginia accent of Dr. James “Bud” Robertson, Virginia Tech distinguished professor, talking about the Civil War. Today, the war is over– or at least Robertson’s long-running series on WVTF is.

“I’ve done over 300 and that’s enough,” says Robertson, 77, from his Blacksburg home. “Doing the show is like digging in the ground: the deeper you dig, the harder it gets.”

To be exact, Robertson has done 312 shows, the first one airing September 3, 1993. “This is the most popular series we’ve ever produced and aired,” says WVTF news director Rick Mattioni. (more)

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The Corner radio takes off, Bush daughter engaged to Darden student, Serial rape suspect indicted

ON THIS WEEK’S COVER:
Savage’s beast: How The Corner took a bite out of local radio
It’s less than a year since they’ve been on the air, but 106.1-FM WCNR, otherwise known as “The Corner,” has already become an airwaves-eating behemoth. How did they do it? Figuring out this new Frankenstein’s monster of local radio begins with its master, young programming director Brad Savage, but where does it end? With the demise of fellow alternative station WNRN? With a connection to music mogul Coran Capshaw? Questions abound and we’ve got the answers.

ALSO IN THIS WEEK’S ISSUE (more)

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Much more of this, and they might have to start paying city taxes. That’s right, Wilco will be playing yet another Charlottesville gig, this time on October 20 at the Charlottesville Pavilion. Counting frontman Jeff Tweedy’s January solo appearance at the Paramount Theater, it will be the Chicago-based rockers’ third Charlottesville show in two years.

On all three occasions, Charlottesville impressario Coran Capshaw has been responsible for bringing the band to town, whether through his Charlottesville Pavilion (where Wilco opened the 2006 season) or his Starr Hill Presents (which booked Tweedy’s solo show), leading to rumors that (more)

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He sat in a chair wearing the black-and-white uniform of inmates on Avon Street. Nathan Antonio Washington, the man charged in two assaults attributed to the serial rapist, listened on video from jail to events taking place at 10am today in Charlottesville General District Court.

A Charlottesville grand jury indicted Washington August 20 on six charges in the brutal November 2002 rape of a woman in the Willoughby subdivision. When Washington was arrested August 13, warrants charged him with two counts in that attack. Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman made a motion to drop the two charges– nolle prosequi, in legal Latin lingo– but Washington defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana objected. Wait, wondered legal novices in the courtroom. Why would Quagliana object to the prosecution dropping charges against her client?

Legal expert David Heilberg calls such maneuvers “pretty typical.” The state wants to (more)

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Two years ago, the barren roof of the Albemarle County Office building on McIntire Road adopted sustainable architecture’s equivalent of a hair piece—a green roof. As these photos show, it appears the various greenery planted on the roof’s surface have taken root.

“It’s safe to say (the roof) has become a self-sustaining ecosystem that will continue to provide environmental benefits for years to come,” declares (more)

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A Charlottesville grand jury indicted serial rape suspect Nathan Antonio “Toni” Washington August 20 on charges stemming from a November 11, 2002, attack on a woman in the Willoughby subdivision.

Washington is charged with rape, forcible sodomy, attempted sodomy, malicious wounding, breaking and entering, and robbery. When arrested on August 13, Washington was charged with two counts: rape and B&E with intent to rape.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman refused to confirm the indictments yesterday, but today he did send out a press release about the secret proceedings. The release says he expects to request additional (more)

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In the clearest sign yet that gangs have become a problem in Charlottesville, the city has announced its first Gang Awareness Community Seminar to be held on August 30 starting at 7pm in City Council chambers. Members of the Charlottesville and Albemarle County police departments, elected officials, school officials, and civic groups will be on hand to discuss how public education, awareness, and participation can play an important role in reducing gang-related violence in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

Back in February 2006, when the moniker 6NO south side turned up on the free speech monument, it seemed hard to believe there was real gang activity in Charlottesville. However, as Charlottesville police detective Brian O’Donnell confirmed at the time, it was (more)

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It’s a local music line-up just about any Charlottesville venue would be proud to host: Jim Waive and the Young Divorcees, David Sickmen, Lauren Hoffman, Sarah White, and Robbie St. Ours. But there’s something unexpected about this Saturday’s show featuring some of Charlottesville’s best known acts: it’s happening in Lynchburg, the industrial city an hour to our south to which a select group of former Charlottesvillians have recently removed.

At the center of this small transplanted community is the Starlight Caf�, a coffeeshop and restaurant opened by developer Oliver Kuttner last October and purchased two months ago by Carri Sickmen and her partner, Julie Kotowski (both are pictured at left along with daughter Ruby on Sickmen’s lap, and songstress Hoffman at right).

The upcoming show– a grand opening celebration for the Caf�– starts at 4pm on the outdoor patio of the little blue eatery named after Oliver Kuttner’s other brainchild, a luxury bus service called the Starlight Express. The Caf� is in Lynchburg’s former Greyhound station on Fifth Street downtown, which is also (more)

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A series of seemingly random attacks in and around the Downtown Mall this summer have not only sparked fear and outrage in the hearts of Mall visitors, they’ve also sparked a number of debates: whether the threat has been exaggerated by the media, how the threat, if it exists, should be addressed, if the threats are really new at all, who the attackers are and why they are doing it, how race might play into the situation, and even if cameras should be installed on the Downtown Mall.

To help put the issues in perspective, the Hook asked the Charlottesville police department for crime data on the Mall from the beginning of 2004 to July 13, 2007. In addition to a compilation of total crime listed by category, Lt. David Shifflett Jr. of the Crime Analysis Unit also (more)

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