Daniel Widdowfield will appear in court Monday, August 4 for a bond hearing.
COURTESY OF UVA POLICE

Today UVA police announced the arrest of 24-year-old Daniel Wayne Widdowfield, a shop worker for the UVA athletics department, on three felony charges of contacting someone he thought to be a female minor for sexual purposes. Apparently, had Widdowfield been successful in his alleged solicitation, the girl would not have been the first to become acquainted with him.

A look at Widdowfield’s profile (log-in required) on social-networking website Facebook.com reveals that, while Widdowfield has yet to be convicted of anything, he counts at least 100 local underage girls among his 219 “friends,” including students from Albemarle, Monticello, Western Albemarle, and Charlottesville High School. In fact, according to Widdowfield’s profile, a rising sophomore girl from Spotswood High School in Rockingham County became friends with Widdowfield just before noon today, and on Tuesday he “sent a (more)

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Former governor Jim Gilmore makes his entrance to greet supporters at Sam’s Kitchen on Emmet Street.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

In the realm of American politics, “change” might be a word most associated with Sen. Barack Obama (D)’s presidential campaign. But today, in Charlottesville, another recent candidate for the White House showed that the Illinois senator has not cornered the market on the year’s biggest political buzzword.

“It is time for a change,” said former governor Jim Gilmore (R) to a room of about 30 supporters, “and when I’m elected to the United States Senate, we’re going to give people a fresh energy policy.”

Such was the theme of Gilmore’s remarks at yesterday’s stop at Sam’s Kitchen on Emmet Street, as he touted not only his history of lowering the car tax as governor, but also his plan to lower gas prices which he says are “rocking and rippling through the economy.”

The Republican candidate for retiring U.S. Senator John Warner (R)’s seat in Washington laid out an energy plan that included hybrid vehicle technology, as well as coal, and nuclear power, but stressed the need to “drill for oil in the United States of America, and drill for it now.”

“Nobody said I was a bad environmental governor,” said Gilmore, “but I’m concerned about people suffering right now and we need to put both policies in place: energy production and the environment.”

To that end, Gilmore asserted (more)

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Randy Pausch spoke before a packed Cabell Hall in November 2007.
PHOTO COURTESY GABRIEL ROBINS

Former UVA computer science professor Randy Pausch, who inspired millions through his “last lecture” on YouTube and best-selling advice book, died Friday of complications from pancreatic cancer at the age of 47 at his home in Chesapeake.

UVA computer science professor Gabriel Robins remembers his mentor and friend as full of energy.

“Life around him was like Alice in Wonderland,” says Robins. “Strange but wonderful things would happen.”

Pausch taught computer science at UVA from 1988-1997 before joining the faculty at Carnegie Mellon University. He was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and the following year he gave a 76-minute speech titled “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams” that quickly circulated on the Internet and has now been viewed over 10 million times.

“He turned cancer and a death sentence into the ultimate teaching tool,” says Robins.

In the lecture, Pausch used an experience from his time at UVA to illustrate the (more)

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Michael Crafaik stands in front of the Bistro that shares his moniker.
PHOTO BY MARISSA D’ORAZIO

Ever since Michael’s Bistro, a venerable Corner eatery, mysteriously shut down over a week ago, a whirlwind of speculation has blanketed media and blogs– but with comment from the controversy-plagued Bistro owner curiously omitted from the various reports.

But 38-year-old Michael Crafaik— a firm believer in “Don’t believe what you read”— wants to set the record straight. The younger Crafaik has referred to his restaurant as a “family,” but even families hit stumbling blocks.

“It will always be a family, but sometimes families get a divorce,” Crafaik says. “My partner tried to oust me.”

The shut-down seemed to stem from a falling out with former business partner Chuck Adcock that Crafaik terms an “emotional hurricane” �� la Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

“It was a crazy time; people lost their cool,” Crafaik says. “It was the heat of (more)

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The first of two men facing capital murder charges in the November 2007 shooting death of a St. Clair Avenue resident will stand trial August 25 in Charlottesville Circuit Court. And, for the first time in a decade, a Charlottesville jury will decide whether to recommend the ultimate penalty for the defendant: death.

Both the first defendant, 22-year-old William Douglas Gentry (left), and his cousin, 19-year-old Michael Stuart Pritchett (right), whose trial date has not yet been set, are charged with a slew of felonies in addition to capital murder, including felonious entry, felonious use of a firearm, and robbery. Their alleged crimes took place on the night of November 8, 2007 at 807 St. Clair Avenue, a small, white cottage set approximately 200 feet back from the road. The rental property was home to 26-year-old Jayne Warren McGowan, a beloved UVA grad who’d moved from D.C. back to Charlottesville three months before her death to take a job with the non-profit AIDS/HIV Services Group

It’s been 18 months since the last capital trial in Charlottesville. In that case, a jury found Dale Anthony Crawford guilty of capital murder in the death of his wife, Sarah Louise Crawford, whom he killed in Northern Virginia before transporting to a Charlottesville motel. Despite the gruesome nature of Crawford’s crime, the jury (more)

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WINA decided to remove the Savage Nation.
PUBLICITY PHOTO

After comments blasting autism as just another over-diagnosed American problem, controversial radio personality Michael Savage has been dumped by a Charlottesville station. And for at least one local talk-radio host, the dismissal of “The Savage Nation” comes none too soon.

“As the father of a six-year-old boy who has been diagnosed with autism,” says WINA personality Coy Barefoot, “I was outraged. He clearly is spreading what I know to be outright lies about autism.”

“I’ll tell you what autism is,” Savage boomed in his July 16 broadcast. “In 99 percent of the cases, it’s a brat who hasn’t been told to cut the act out. That’s what autism is. What do you mean they scream and they’re silent? They don’t have a father around to tell them, ‘Don’t act like a moron. You’ll get nowhere in life. Stop acting like a putz. Straighten up. Act like a man. Don’t sit there crying and screaming, idiot.’”

“Quite honestly, it came down to common decency,” says WINA program director Rick Daniels. “Although he was trying to make a bigger point, he didn’t clarify it at all. We took into account our listeners and some feedback we’ve gotten, and we wanted to do what was best for our community.”

While Savage’s syndicator, Talk Radio Network, found the comments merely “inartful,” Media Matters, a D.C.-based organization “dedicated to correcting conservative misinformation” agrees with WINA that (more)

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Imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery— but the University of Virginia has two imitators in cyberspace that it doesn’t find sufficiently flattering to tolerate: a Middle Eastern university with a similarly styled website, and a creepy blog that purports to be an official UVA website, but smells more like rumor-mongering Juicycampus.com.

“We got three emails from media representatives in the Middle East saying that the Islamic University of Gaza has ripped off our website,” says UVA spokeswoman Carol Wood. “Ours is totally copyrighted.”

So Wood fired off a letter to Islamic U. “This is a cause of great concern to us,” she wrote, “as well as to the individuals in your region who have reported it to us. We ask that you take down this design immediately and replace it with a design of your own.” (more)

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A month after promising to quickly seek dredging proposals, the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority revealed today that it’s letting the dredging process wait for guidance from a task force led by an adamant dredging opponent.

“This is so obviously an exercise in futility,” says dredging fan Betty Mooney. “The task force is to keep us from knowing the cost of dredging in time to make it part of our water supply.”

Authority director Tom Frederick, who on June 23 was touting an “ambitious” July 8 start date for issuing a request for proposals (RFP), revealed Monday, July 28, at the board’s monthly meeting that the process was stalled by order of the four local water bosses. He said today the officials decided June 30 to hold back the RFP until the task force could guide it.

“It’s not out on the street,” Frederick said of the RFP. “I did poll the individuals (more)

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While he was a Washington Redskin, Nick Novak kicked a last-second, 47-yard field goal to beat the Dallas Cowboys.
FILE PHOTO BY WILL WALKER

NFL training camps are just moving into full swing, and an Albemarle High School grad has a shot at getting back into professional football. Nick Novak is fighting for the chance to be the Kansas City Chiefs’ kicker for the upcoming season, as teams across the league begin to pare down to their final roster for the 2008 season.

Novak is vying neck and neck– er, foot and foot– with rookie Connor Barth for the job. According to the Kansas City Star, “Both missed their first field-goal attempts, which were 38 yards, but made their next three. They kicked field goals as long as 42 yards.”

Novak is no stranger to pressure-packed situations. In 1996, two days after he sat for a Hotseat interview, the Hook was there when he suited up as a Washington Redskin for a game against arch-rivals, the Dallas Cowboys. With six seconds to go and the game tied, Novak missed a 49-yard field goal attempt– only to watch the Redskins block the Cowboys’ own kick to win the game. With no time left on the clock, Novak went from goat to hero when his 47-yard second attempt squeaked through the uprights to give the ‘Skins the win.

Thus far, that’s been the apex of Novak’s professional career. Weeks after (more)

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Softballers steal the last moments of sunlight on the unlit Darden Towe fields.
PHOTO BY STEPHANIE GARCIA

Exiled from their historic home in McIntire Park by the Charlottesville City Council, local softballers scrambling for playing time face a new hurdle as an effort to light fields at Darden Towe Park faces stiff opposition from some neighbors.

“This is a rural area,” says Clara Belle Wheeler, owner of a farm adjacent to the park. “The City and County agreed verbally and in writing not to light Darden Towe. There were never to be lights at that park.”

Well, maybe. The original use agreement for the jointly owned park on the eastern banks of the Rivanna River indeed prohibits lighted fields during the park’s first three development phases. However, the City and County amended the agreement in June of last year.

“I think there’s a misunderstanding about what was stated in the original agreement,” says County Deputy Director of Parks and Rec Bob Crickenberger. “There may have been statements made or ideas out there that were not in the original agreement.”

Crickenberger says that the City and County can light the fields if both vote to do so. That’s what has Wheeler so worried. “I don’t see how the City and County can reverse their promise,” she says. “It would be a violation of that law and their moral obligation.”

However, not all neighbors share her concern– certainly not all (more)

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A Greene County man suing his homeowners association under the Racketeer Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act says his property was vandalized on the eve of his June 23 court date. Police contend the damage was accidental, caused by volunteer firefighters who got stuck on Douglas Dye’s Dogwood Valley property.

Dye (left) was returning home around 8pm June 14 when he met two Greene County trucks going around a blind curve “excessively fast,” he says. “I had a bad feeling. It puzzled me.” When he got to his gate, “I saw mud coming out onto the county road.”

He found the land around his pond rutted and gouged. An emergency spill pipe coming from the dam had been run over and damaged, causing seepage and, he says, threatening the dam. (more)

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PHOTO BY LAURA HOFFMAN

Portions of Water and Market streets were closed this morning after a delivery truck backing up outside the C&O restaurant hit a pole and snagged an electrical wire, according to Charlottesville Battalion Police Chief David Hartman.

While Water Street was temporarily closed from 4th Street SE to 10th and Market, C&O employee Michael Volpendesta said the restaurant never lost power.

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Larry Wilson came to Charlottesville in 2006 to manage John Paul Jones Arena.
COURTESY OF POLLSTAR

While the Paramount Theater has had no trouble attracting notable national talent to its stage since its re-opening in 2005, the Paramount board has had a hard time attracting a permanent executive director. Following a tenure that brought crooner Tony Bennett, violinist Itzahk Perlman, comedian Bill Cosby, and $16 million in funds to the theater, president and CEO Chad Hershner resigned abruptly and without explanation in October 2006.

Ten months later, a national search identified Edward Rucker, a Charlottesville resident since 1988 and president and CEO of the Richmond Forum– an ongoing speakers’ series that charged rock-concert prices for Richmonders to hear visiting dignitaries. Rucker’s tenure saw continued booking success for the venue, with shows from the likes of Dionne Warwick, Judy Collins, and Peter Frampton. And yet, in May 2008, the Paramount once again had to announce a mysterious resignation by their top man, stating in a press release that Rucker had left “to pursue other opportunities,” though at the time Rucker could not say specifically what that next opportunity was.

Now, instead of conducting yet another national search for a director, the Paramount board has enlisted the aid of a local entertainment industry heavyweight. No, Coran Capshaw has not added the renovated movie house to his empire. The Paramount is looking to Larry Wilson, general manager of the John Paul Jones Arena, and his company, SMG Facility Management, to take over.

“I’m doing pretty much everything,” says Wilson. “We’re under an exploratory, 90-day consulting agreement. Then if that goes well, we’ll work with the board of directors to reach a more permanent agreement.”

That means Wilson is presently doing double duty as JPJ’s GM and as the Paramount’s acting GM. According to Paramount spokesperson Kristin Gleason, the Paramount gig is no afterthought for Wilson.
“He’s typically (more)

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Rejecting at least two private bids, leaders of downtown’s for-sale parking company have declared that they won’t consider any offer below $17.5 million and have once again extended the deadline, thereby hinting that the City of Charlottesville (for whom it has already been twice extended) is the favored buyer. That’s a blow to the other would-be deal-makers, neither of whom saw their proposals sent to a shareholder vote.

“I don’t know why they keep extending the deadline,” says would-be buyer and company shareholder Richard Spurzem. “The sales process doesn’t seem to be handled very professionally.”

Contacted by mobile phone, CPC chair Jim Berry said, “I have nothing to report, Hawes. Thank you very much for calling.”

Originally, there was an April 1 deadline for purchase offers, which is the date Spurzem (more)

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Last night, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore was re-admitted to UVA Hospital “due to complications stemming from his recent accident,” according to a statement on the band’s website. This news comes two weeks after the band announced that doctors had upgraded Moore’s condition from fair to good following an all-terrain vehicle accident on his farm outside Charlottesville. No word on what Moore’s current condition is, and calls to UVA Health System, and to the band’s management were not returned at the time of this post.

On June 30, while taking a break between shows outside Washington, D.C. and in Charlotte, Moore was injured while riding an ATV and rushed to UVA Hospital in serious condition, which UVA defines as “vital signs may be unstable, and not within normal limits. Patient is acutely ill.” The next day, doctors upgraded Moore’s condition from serious to fair, and a week later, his condition had improved to good.

To date, neither the band nor the hospital has discussed the nature or the extent of Moore’s injuries.

While one of their founding members recuperates, Dave Matthews Band (more)

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Eugene Abram Foster, the scientist turned historian who single-handedly smashed through over a century of denial by scientifically linking the family trees of Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings, died July 21 at UVA Medical Center.

Foster, 81, a pathologist at UVA Medical School and later Tufts University New England Medical Center, was also well known as a civil rights activist. But it was a retirement project suggested by a friend, his decade-ago DNA study on the descendants of Hemings and Jefferson, that created a firestorm.

“It was kind of astonishing,” says lawyer/author Annette Gordon-Reed. “He’s a scientist who entered into history.”

Gordon-Reed had just published her own Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings: An American Controversy when Foster’s work appeared November 1998 in the weekly scientific journal Nature. Combining historical accounts and DNA evidence, Foster concluded (more)

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Yesterday, friends, family, and passers-by gathered at a make-shift memorial on the corner of Monticello Avenue and Sixth Street SE to remember slain teen Joshua Magruder. American flags, stuffed animals, written messages, beer bottles, cigars, and figurines adorned a graffiti strewn wall in the area where Magruder was gunned down last Saturday morning.

On Monday, four people were arrested and charged with the murder–Bobby Wayne Gardner Jr., 25 , Trenton Michael Brock, 20, Theodore Calvin Timberlake, 20, and Rachel Turner, 25�€“ were arrested in a motel room on Emmet Street at 8pm Sunday, where they were “holed up,” according to Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo.

Today, the memorial was still standing, along with a special framed message from Magruder’s cousin, India Scott (see photo below), who calls him by his nickname “Spanki,” and writes, “I know you wasn’t perfect and all, but no one had a right to take you life…We miss you cuz!! Watch over your baby girl…she love you just like we all do!!”

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