Stacey Norris delivers a new doghouse to Biffle the boxer in December.
PHOTO COURTESY STACEY NORRIS

Temperatures may be getting ready to plummet, but for 50 area dogs, winter will be a little warmer thanks to one woman’s efforts to provide doghouses to outdoor dogs.

“Some people don’t realize that a dog can’t bear the weather,” says Stacey Norris, a self-described lifelong animal lover who launched the HOWS Project (Houses of Wood and Straw)– a doghouse building and distributing organization– after coming across several outdoor dogs who needed better shelter.

With assistance from various local schools’ shop classes, local businesses, and the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA, and using blueprints originally designed for a similar doghouse building project by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals), Norris has already constructed and distributed 33 plywood homes lined with straw to help keep pups sheltered– most to dogs owned by residents of Southwood Trailer Park.

Seeing the poor condition in which many dogs live is difficult, but Norris believes the owners don’t mean to be cruel.

“I’m not a big fan of ignorance or apathy, but some have a dog (more)

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Seen here at the April groundbreaking of the Landmark Hotel, Internet entrepreneur Halsey Minor also has a lawsuit pending against Sotheby’s in a dispute over payment for $16.8 million worth of paintings he won at auction in May.
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

Just two months after filing a class action lawsuit against New York-based auction house Sotheby’s, Charlottesville native and Internet magnate Halsey Minor has now sued another major auction house over additional works of art. In a suit filed in a Northern California federal court, Minor seeks unspecified damages against Christie’s for, among other things, holding on to paintings he handed them to sell for longer than he wished, resulting in their depreciation.

In his complaint, dated December 8, Minor alleges that he sent seven works by photographer and painter Richard Prince from his office in San Francisco to Christie’s in New York on May 9, with the intent of having them sent to London to be exhibited for “a single potential buyer.” Should that buyer have passed on the paintings, Minor alleges the works— which he valued at $25 million at the time of sending— were to be sent back to him by May 22.

Minor alleges that not only did Christie’s not sell the paintings, they exhibited them to more than the “one potential buyer,” and that he didn’t get the artwork back until early November, long after the global economy had taken a nosedive, resulting in the artwork’s depreciation.

Christie’s spokesperson Toby Usnik declined says that the company is confident they will win out in the end.

“We believe this lawsuit is without merit,” says Usnik, “and we intend to sue Mr. Minor for the $10 million he already owes Christie’s.”

The interesting side note to this story (more)

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A Charlottesville jury convicted Anthony Dale Crawford of the gruesome 2004 murder of his wife.

Anthony Dale Crawford, the Manassas man convicted of capital murder, rape, and abduction in the death of his estranged wife, Sarah Louise Crawford, has had those convictions overturned by the Virginia Court of Appeals.

Sarah Crawford’s nude body was discovered November 22, 2004, in a room in the Quality Inn on Emmet Street.

On February 9, 2007, a Charlottesville jury convicted Crawford of abduction with intent to defile, rape, capital murder, grand larceny (for stealing her car), and the use of a firearm in the commission of both a murder and an abduction. They found him not guilty of use of a firearm in the commission of a rape because, said prosecutor Jon Zug at the time, the jury believed the rape occurred after she was dead.

Yet, in a December 23 decision, the Virginia Court of Appeals found insufficient evidence to uphold Crawford’s convictions for rape, abduction with intent to defile, and use of a firearm in the commission of an abduction. Because the rape and abduction convictions provided the basis for the capital murder conviction, once those were dismissed, the three-judge appeals panel reversed the capital murder conviction as well— and remanded the case back for retrial on first-degree murder and use of a firearm in the commission of murder charges, according to the court’s opinion.

The court did uphold Crawford’s larceny conviction. (more)

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Rob Schilling leaves WINA; Tad Abbey leaves The Corner.
FILE PHOTOS

Last January, WINA welcomed the conservative voice of former City Councilor Rob Schilling with a six-day-a-week talk show. But just before Christmas, the AM news radio station abruptly pulled the plug on the Schilling Show, and Schilling isn’t the only Saga Communications-owned Charlottesville Radio Group staffer to be let go.

Tad Abbey, a mainstay at sister station 106.1 The Corner, has also has gotten a pink slip, and at least one other familiar radio voice soon will be out of job, an informed source told the Hook before Christmas.

The latest casualty is WINA news reporter John Peterson, who is no longer employed at the station, a caller asking for him was told January 5.

“Peterson’s really troubling because he does a great job,” says former WINA sportscaster Adam Gottschalk, now hosting his own talk show with competitor WKAV. And he fears Peterson will not be replaced.

“I’m not going to comment on that,” says the operations manager for the Saga stations Rick Daniels (who also serves as co-host of the Morning Show with Rick and Jane) when asked if there would be other layoffs.

“I had no idea,” says Schilling, who found out December 19 that his (more)

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What does he do? Well, he sues to clear his name.
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The Daily Progress reports that Buckingham publicist, chicken farmer, and alleged friend to many stars Tommy Lightfoot Garrett has filed a $10.7 million defamation suit against the Hook and two of its reporters December 22 in Buckingham.

According to the Progress, the suit claims the Hook “lampoons Garrett and one of his attorneys” and that another story made “false statements about the facts” of Garrett’s plea deal after getting charged with 15 counts of forging and uttering, but the story does not reveal what the allegedly false statements are. The Hook has not yet received the complaint. [Christmas eve update: here it is! (pdf)] [Later update: the exhibits too! (pdf)]

However, in anticipation of the jury trial requested by his defamation lawyer, James Creekmore (a bold jurist recently voted a “Virginia Super Lawyer” by (more)

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Singer-songwriter Lauren Hoffman (right) hangs out with Lynchburg’s Starlight Café owners, Carri Sickmen and her partner, Julie Kotowski and their daughter, Ruby.
PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART

It’s been over a year since we checked in with the Starlight Cafe down in Lynchburg, the funky coffee house, music venue, and eatery that Ché-ville transplants Caroline Rawls Sickmen and Julie Kotowski purchased from developer Oliver Kuttner, who appears to be trying to single-handedly revive the former home of Jerry Falwell, a beautiful small city over-looking a river that just hasn’t been able to find its groove.

Well, apparently things are going pretty good. Sickman says there are major renovations going on at its Fifth Street location–when we visited last year, there were alot of unoccupied spaces–and the entire 500 block where the cafe is located is open for business.

“We’ve been very busy and we are happy to have several old Charlottesville people living in downtown Lynchburg,” says Sickmen. ” I got an ABC license back in the spring and I carry all of the Blue Mountain Brewery Beer, and just got some excellent Sake in.”

Sickmen also reports that local coffee Roaster Doug Escalera, who created the 50 and 90 blends for the original Higher Grounds, moved his operation from Charlottesville to Lynchburg last year. “We’re very happy to have his excellent coffee roasts available to us, excellent freshness,” she says.

Hmm…Lynchburg…road trip, anyone?

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President John Casteen made a “smart move,” says Larry Sabato.
FILE PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

The double-page ad in the Washington Post, New York Times, and Boston Globe December 16 is a lengthy letter to President-elect Barack Obama that starts with a high-toned “Statement by Public Higher Education Leaders Convened by Carnegie Corporation of New York.” Way down at the bottom of 2,000-word epistle, the 54 signees get to the point: Public universities want a bailout, a cut of the new chief executive’s stimulus package, and among them is the financially battered University of Virginia.

“I think it’s totally unreasonable,” says former city councilor/radio host Rob Schilling. “That means they’re asking for money out of my pocket, and my wallet is a little thin right now.”

Certainly it’s tough times in the world of public education. UVA’s endowment has lost around 20 percent– nearly $1 billion– and that’s before the fourth quarter report. Governor Tim Kaine announced December 17 that his plan to keep the state from (more)

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Robert Pianta studies “withitness,” even if he doesn’t call it that.
UVA PHOTO BY DAN ADDISON

What if classroom size, education spending, and even school quality aren’t really important? What if all of a teacher’s fancy degrees and years of service mean nothing? And what if the only truly important predictor of classroom success is something unknowable at the outset of a teacher’s career?

This is the premise of Malcolm Gladwell’s latest article in the New Yorker and one which is sure to provoke terror among teachers unaccustomed to objective measures of their abilities.

One person not terrorized is Robert Pianta. The dean of the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education, he plays a starring role in Gladwell’s story, “Most Likely To Succeed,” which appears in the style/idea mag’s December 15 edition.

Using the example of professional football quarterbacks— whose NFL performance often bears no resemblance to their college play— Gladwell paints a picture of teaching skill as a great unknown, but something that Pianta and other Curryites are trying (more)

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Rep.-elect Tom Perriello (D-Ivy) will become the youngest congressman to represent the Fifth District since 1906.
PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES

After a district-wide recount today, a three-judge panel has now made it official, Tom Perriello (D-Ivy) has defeated six-term incumbent Congressman Virgil Goode (R-Rocky Mount) to become the new representative in Congress from Virginia’s Fifth District. Perriello’s final margin of victory was 727 votes, or less than one-quarter of one percent. That’s a net gain of 18 votes for Goode from his original certified total.

“When people ask how we were able to come from 34-points behind to win in a district that John McCain carried,” says Perriello in a statement, “I tell them of our commitment to a people-powered campaign, fueled by thousands of individuals and the largest grassroots network the district has ever seen.”

Perriello indicates he hopes his win will help turn over a new leaf in Congress.

“We showed with this historic upset,” he says, “that people are ready to trade in the old politics of fear and division for a new style of positive, solutions-oriented public service.”

Goode tells the Hook that (more)

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Glassner Jewelers will soon vacate its primo Barracks Road location, and close stores in Roanoke and Staunton.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

This summer, when a wedding ring lost for 25 years turned up in a drain in the street outside Ben & Jerry’s, Glassner Jewelers, where it had been purchased, cleaned up the wedding band and put it in another jewelry box for a joyful Selden Tilden, who’d been devastated to lose it as a newlywed. The news about Glassner Jewelers eight months later doesn’t have a happy ending.

The 39-year-old store at Barracks Road will close its doors in mid-January, putting eight employees out of work.

“The jewelry business is having problems right now,” says Sheri Beveridge, who, with her parents, owns the three remaining Glassner stores in Charlottesville, Roanoke, and Staunton. “Once people are hurting financially, they give up luxuries like jewelry.”

She cites an industry publication that predicts that 20 percent of jewelry stores will go out of business during the current economic downturn. “It’s a sad time in the jewelry business right now,” she says.

At one time, there were seven Glassner Jewelers shops, with three (more)

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Michael Crafaik (left) with uncle Hugo Robinson and half-brother Chris Strong.
PHOTO COURTESY CHRIS AND COLLEEN STRONG

Those mourning the death of J. Michael Crafaik III, the entrepreneur and libertarian political leader who took his own life last week at age 37, say he’ll be remembered for his sharp mind and his loyalty to friends even as he struggled with the demons of bipolar disorder.

“The Michael that I knew was one of the smartest, kindest human beings I’ve ever had the privilege of knowing,” says Eric Strzepek, who befriended Crafaik in the eighth grade and graduated with him from Charlottesville High School.

Crafaik was such a top student, Strzepek recalls, that he earned 5s— the top possible score— on all of his Advanced Placement exams, and was named a National Merit Scholar. At the same time, Strzepek says, his friend could pique authority figures with a disdain for “silly” rules.

“If there was a beautiful 75- to 80-degree day in February, he, I, and another friend were more likely to be found playing basketball at the Dell or thowing a football at Chris Greene or doing (more)

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What was once a quintet is now a quartet, as Dave Matthews Band embarks on its first full tour without saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore, who died in August.
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For the first time in nearly three years, Dave Matthews Band will come home for a two-night stand at John Paul Jones Arena on Friday, April 17 and Saturday, April 18. Tickets will go on sale Saturday, January 17 at 10am. Members of the official DMB fanclub Warehouse can start making their orders online today.

Sadly, this will also be the first hometown show for DMB since the death of saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore in August due to complications from a June all-terrain vehicle accident on his farm outside Charlottesville.

Though the band’s promotional photo would indicate that they have not opted to replace their fallen brother with a new, official member, Jeff Coffin of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones will join the group to play Moore’s parts just as he did in the days immediately following Moore’s injury and continuing through the end of the band’s fall tour. DMB will also have longtime partners guitarist Tim Reynolds and trumpter Rashawn Ross on stage for the spring tour.

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Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris and his four fellow City Councilors agreed to give RWSA chair Mike Gaffney another two years in office.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Despite the controversy and cost overruns that erupted on his watch, incumbent Michael Gaffney appears to have won a clear path to a fourth term as chair of the Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority thanks to a vote by City Council Monday, December 15. However, in making the appointment, the City announced its intention to add two new members to Gaffney’s embattled board.

“I really don’t see how that’s going to solve the problem,” said a disappointed Kevin Lynch, a former City Councilor unswayed by the effort to pad the board with an additional representative from the City and from the County.

“It’s clear to the public that the board needs new leadership, but it’s not clear to the elected officials,” said Lynch.

Gaffney’s administration has come under fire this year for tossing out an earlier water plan in favor of one designed by a Pennsyvania-based firm called Gannett Fleming which won infamy for (more)

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