During the last January’s Restaurant Week, $10,156 was raised for the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank, which was exactly $1 from everyone who enjoyed one of the participating restaurant’s prix fixe meals. This time around, $1 from every $26 prix fixe meal sold between July12-18 will go to the The PB&J Fund, which connects Charlottesville youth with the resources and knowledge necessary to help develop a healthy diet. The money raised during RW will go to expanding an impromptu holiday giving program the organization started last year.

By working with community partners to provide healthy meals and teach (more)

As Hook columnist Janis Jaquith predicted last month, doctors are dumping their elderly patients due to low reimbursements from Medicare, the federally funded eldercare program, according to a new survey.

C’ville Foodscapes, one of a trio of new businesses offering home gardening services, will be handing out grants in conjunction with Quality Community Council to help low-income Charlottesville-area residents enjoy their own vegetable gardens in time for the fall growing season.

“When we founded C’ville Foodscapes, it was our goal to provide the knowledge and know-how people need to grow healthy foods in their own yards,” said Patrick Costello, co-owner of the company. “We recognize that for some this is an unaffordable luxury.”

To help fund the new program, the company is seeking donations to the QCC Garden Grants fund. The amount of money raised will determine the amount of the grants.

“We’ll work within those boundaries to do something,” says C’ville Foodscapes co-owner Wendy Roberman, “but we can’t know what that will be until we see the funds and the needs.”

So far, there are plans to hand out one grant this summer, with C’ville Foodscapes working with the winning recipient to build a garden tailored to their needs. In addition, C’ville Foodscapes will visit the grant recipient in the spring to get them started on their spring garden.

A panel of three, including someone from Charlottesville’s Department of Social Services, QCC, and C’ville Foodscapes, will review applications. The deadline for applying for a grant is July 15, and the award(s) will be announced on August 15. More detailed information, as well as applications, are available at www.cvillefoodscapes.com

In the meantime, those wanting to support the program can send their tax-deductible donations to “QCC Garden Grants” either by mail or in person to “Attn: Garden Grants Program,” Quality Community Council, 327 W. Main St. Suite 101, Charlottesville 22903.

John Peterson Myers, founder of Charlottesville-based Environmental Health Sciences and former Hook FaceTime subject, is at it again—telling CNN that a chemical used to line metal and plastic food and beverage containers, bisphenol-A, more commonly known as BPA, can increase the chance of diabetes and heart disease. More alarming, says Myers,  pregnant women who consume BPA may be putting their developing babies at risk. “There are some indications it may concentrate in the fetus. It’s definitely not something the fetus is protected from,” says Myers, who penned an editorial about BPA in the the Journal of the American Medical Association in 2008. “There are several [health concerns about BPA], but for me the most worrisome relate to diabetes and heart disease, triggered in infancy or in the womb.” In 1963, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration proclaimed the chemical safe, but new research is prompting health official to take a second look. Indeed, a January 2010 report from the FDA says “recent studies provide reason for some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland of fetuses, infants and children.” “I think it’s pretty serious,” Meyers told the Hook in 2008. “The levels [of exposure to BPA] in all Americans are above levels found to cause harm in animals.”

On Saturday, June 5 the Charlottesville City Market will host its first annual ‘Dots Day’ forum, i.e. ‘Connecting the Dots in our Local Food System,’ which will allow City Market-goers to learn more about our local food system. Shoppers and chefs alike will find resources to identify local growers, home gardening and poultry-raising tips, community garden information and volunteer opportunities, seasonal cooking demonstrations, food preserving tips, and much more. The goal of the events, say City Market organizers, is to “encourage greater participation in strengthening our local food system.”

Update 3:01pm: City spokesperson Ric Barrick confirms the female struck by a vehicle at Fifth and Market streets this morning was not seriously injured. The driver of the vehicle was cited with failure to yield to a pedestrian. Original: A pedestrian was struck at the Fifth and Market street crossing this morning at approximately 8:30am, according to a dispatch from the Emergency Communications Center. Police on the scene told a passersby that the female victim was not seriously injured. At posting time, City  spokesperson Ric Barrick had not responded to the Hook’s  request for information regarding any citations issued.

Police have arrested 22-year-old UVA men’s lacrosse player George Huguely and charged him with first degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, a fellow UVA fourth year and a member of the women’s lacrosse team. Love was discovered in her apartment at 222 14th Street on May 3 at around 2:15am by one of her two roommates, who called 911.

Speaking at a press conference Monday afternoon, Police Chief Tim Longo says that while emergency responders initially believed they would be dealing with an alcohol overdose, upon arrival they realized the situation was more serious.

There was “obvious” trauma to Love’s body, Longo says, and efforts to revive her failed. Longo says he doesn’t believe a weapon was involved, and says a cause of death will be determined following an autopsy.

Love and Huguely had been in a relationship, Longo says, however the nature of that relationship and its status as of the fateful night are focal points of the investigation. Longo said he did not believe Huguely has a criminal record and says Love had not sought a restraining order against Huguely— nor had police been called to the apartment for previous domestic disturbances.

The crime has stunned the university community, which for the past week had been celebrating the men’s lacrosse team’s ACC Championship victory. (more)

A small blaze behind Wachovia Bank April 27 around lunch time evacuates the building while the air clears inside.

Local blogger Waldo Jaquith asks the question: Where can I find healthful food? Jaquith is in the process of moving (don’t worry, it’s only a few miles), and so cooking at home won’t be an option for awhile. So he’s asked his readers to help him out. It’s a good question. Where are the best places to eat out healthy-style? Over at Jaquith’s blog, some nominees are Rev Soup, Eppie’s, Zazus, Whole Foods, Bodo’s, Sticks, and even Chipotle with its Joel Salatin pork.

“This is something I’ve been meaning to ask about here for awhile,” writes Jaquith.”My wife and I allow ourselves to eat out together one time each week— a lunch or a dinner on a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday— and one lunch out during the work week, and quite frequently I’m looking for something that I’m not going to feel guilty about later.”

So let’s help him out; what’s your favorite healthy food destination?

The award-winning Blue Ridge Eco Shop, which has been selling earth-friendly products in Preston Plaza for the last three years, is moving to the Downtown Mall. “The new space is really the Eco-Shop of my dreams,” says owner Paige Mattson (pictured left in the Preston Plaza location), who was featured in the Hook’s last Green Home issue. “It sounds corny, but we are fixing it up to be the shop that I’ve had in my head since the day we dreamt up the business idea.” Mattson is currently renovating the former Chinaberry space at 313 East Main, right beside Splendora’s. Even the renovation is earth-friendly, says Mattson, as reclaimed wood from Mountain Lumber is being used for the flooring, and the shop’s own zero-VOC paints will be used for the walls. In addition to their regular line of products, Mattson says they will have a Green Design Center for do-it-yourself homeowners at the new store, and will be carrying and expanded line of natural baby products. They’ll also be offering free local delivery. Mattson says she expects to be open by the end of next week.

Former Charlottesville-area resident and tennis legend Martina Navratilova, 53, has breast cancer, the New York Times reports. The cancer was discovered in February, and she’ll undergo radiation in May.

“I call this my personal 9/11 because I realized my life would never be the same,” she tells the Times.

However, this is not Navratilova’s first brush with death, at least according to a 1992 book which tells a harrowing tale from Albemarle County.

In Lady Magic, basketball star Nancy Lieberman alleges that nearly 30 years ago Navratilova dodged a gunshot fired by her then lover, writer Rita Mae Brown, at the house shared by the couple just west of Charlottesville.

Lieberman, now an ESPN/ABC sports commentator, details in the autobiography how she (more)

Michael Hunt nearly didn’t go to the Food Lion with his wife that Sunday afternoon. He reluctantly agreed to go, and then said he’d wait in the car. And those two choices are why three-year-old Victoria Snow is alive today.

In the same Scottsville parking lot on March 21, Jarred Snow waited in the car with Victoria, who had been ill, while his girlfriend ran in to the store to pick up something for dinner.

“I put Gatorade in a cup, and she drank it really fast,” Snow, 22, recounts. He looked in the rearview mirror and saw Victoria was throwing up and then went into a seizure.

“I got her out of the car and she was shaking in my arms and went limp,” says Snow. “I was yelling, ‘Please somebody help me.’” (more)

Best of What’s Around, Dave Matthews’ vision for an organic farm operation serving the local community, began as a CSA in 2002, but last year Matthews and his wife, Ashley Harper, announced on the farm’s website that a “difficult decision as a family” was made: to cease operations. For months, the Scottsville area operation has been dormant, the equipment languishing, the fields barren…until the  Local Food Hub recently stepped in. “The Matthews have always had a certain vision for a community-oriented working farm and learning place,” says the Hub’s Emily Manley, who says she doesn’t know why the couple decided to stop its CSA. “They approached the Local Food Hub to explore some opportunities,” says Manley. “Turns out our goals and objectives were and continue to be in line with what they are looking for— and vice versa.” The seventy-acre, certified-organic farm will now become (more)

Art photographer and author Jeannette Montgomery Barron, famous for her portraits of Andy Warhol, Robert Mapplethorpe, William Burroughs, Keith Haring, our own Beatrix Ost-Kuttner, and others in the New York art world of the 1980s, will present passages from her memoir My Mother’s Clothes, an account of her mother’s battle with Alzheimer’s and Barron’s attempt to provoke memories by showing her mother, a fashonista in her day, portraits of her clothes. New Dominion Book Shop Wednesday, April 21 at 11am. From Barron’s website: “I originally thought of photographing my mother’s clothes as a project exclusively for her, to help spark her memories from the past; she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. The project worked; my mother and I looked together at the photographs I had taken, and she would remember parts of her past. In fact, some of the titles of these photographs are direct quotes from my mother; “This is the Really Good One” and “We did a Lot of Dancing.” My mother was a small town girl from Guyton, Georgia who fell in love with my father, married and moved with him to Atlanta in the 1940s. In addition to my father, she loved clothes, especially those of the designers Bill Blass, Yves St. Laurent, and Norman Norell. As a young girl, I remember driving to Rich’s department store in downtown Atlanta…(more)

The University of Virginia School of Architecture presents the Wheedon Lecture in Asian Architecture, which will be delivered by UNESCO water resource specialist, Kala Vairavamoorthy, who will lecture on “The Challenge of Sustainable Water Management in Cities of the Future: How to Make the Transition.” Campbell Hall 153. 982-2921.

The Charlottesville Free Clinic, which has served more than 11,000 uninsured patients during its nearly 20-year run (and seems to have been a bit ahead of the “universal health care” curve), has attracted the attention of politically active pop-rock star Sheryl Crow— so much so that the 48-year-old musician plans on headlining the Clinic’s 7th annual Benefit Concert at the Charlottesville Pavilion June 21. Crow, a nine-time Grammy winner, released her sixth studio album, Detours, to widespread critical acclaim in 2008. The heartfelt album, inspired by her battle with breast cancer and 2005 engagement and subsequent 2006 breakup with professional cyclist Lance Armstrong, debuted at number two on the Billboard 200 chart. Breaking onto the mainstream music scene in 1993 with her debut, Tuesday Night Music Club, and winning such Grammys as Best New Artist, Record of the Year, and Best Rock Record, Crow has continued to set the standard for female pop-rock performers. A political activist, Crow has lent her voice to such issues as the war in Iraq, breast cancer, and global warming. The altruistic rocker will perform alongside California pop star and Grammy winner Colbie Caillat. Caillat’s 2007 breakout single, “Bubbly” caught the attention of critics and artists internationally, including Jason Mraz and Taylor Swift, with whom she would later collaborate. For both Crow and Caillat, the benefit concert will be their first appearance in Charlottesville. The free clinic runs largely through volunteers, offering primary health care and basic dental services to Charlottesville’s uninsured. The past six benefit concerts have raised over $750,000 in medical services for area families. Tickets go on sale April 16 at 10am for $35-68.

Like it or hate it, health care reform passed. The Washington Post has a simple tool that asks a few questions, then explains how you’ll be affected.

If you’re planning to dine out this week, some of the area’s best restaurants are giving you a chance to help people around the world improve the quality of their drinking water. According to UNICEF’s TAP project, 900 million people around the world, half of them children lack clean drinking water. Waterborne illness is the second leading cause of death of children under 5-years old. The TAP project is an effort to change that situation, conducted during World Water Week every year. All you have to do is pay $1 for a glass of tap water you usually enjoy for free and the proceeds will go to the project. For just $1 you can supply a child with clean drinking water for 40 days.

What’s more, students at Light House Studio put together a PSA for this year’s event called “Together We Can Fill The Cup.” Check it out here.

The restaurants participating are: Ariana Kebob, Aromas, Bang!, Blue Moon Diner, Bluegrass Grill, The College Inn, Eppie’s, Fleurie, Horse & Hound Gastropub, Hotcakes, Ivy Inn, Orzo, Petit Pois, X Lounge, Zinc, and Zocalo. The event ends this Saturday, March 27, so get out there and enjoy a great meal and help a thirsty child.

“Building, but not sprawling” was the headline of a recent UVA Magazine story on the school’s $308 million build-a-thon this year— in the face of a recession and UVA budget cutting. But next year one massive project will dramatically alter West Main’s streetscape (something UVA has long been threatening to do): the $141 million, 7-story, 200,000 square foot Barry and Bill Battle Building at UVA Children’s Hospital, which is scheduled to go up on a temporary parking lot beside the 12th Street Taphouse from 2011-2014.

The new building, which will serve as an outpatient surgery and (more)

As UVA’s newest hospital building readies for opening this spring, the facility rising alongside UVA’s Northridge Medical Office Building on Ivy Road has been given a new name. It has been called the Long Term Acute Care Hospital, or LTACH; but with a February 25 vote from the Board of Visitors, the rising 50-bed facility will become “the University of Virginia Transitional Care Hospital.” The name, according to the Board resolution, was based on market research with a goal of eliminating any confusion with the downtown parts of the Medical Center. In a nod to modern stormwater run-off concerns, the development makes use of existing parking lots and includes a modern bio-retention basin down the hillside from the hospital.

There appears to be a backyard revolution going on in Charlottesville, as two businesses designed to help folks grow their own food have, well, cropped up. C’Ville Foodscapes and Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest are nearly identical in their missions and services, offering to design and build gardens, consult on planning and growing them, and assist in maintaining them. Both offer harvesting and composting advice, and the folks at Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest even offer chicken-keeping services. But will this urban farming movement catch on as the two companies hope it will? According to Blue Ridge Backyard Harvest co-founder Guinevere Higgins, our survival may depend on it. “At some point, our food system is going to have a very rude awakening— be it a spike in gas prices or an outbreak of food-borne illness, or a massive food recall,” says Higgins, who also founded CLUCK, the Charlottesville League of Urban Chicken Keepers. “And those best positioned to weather those upsets will be home gardeners.” Similarly, C’Ville Foodscapes co-founder Wendy Roberman and her partners Sky Blue, Sam Pierceall, Kassia Arbabi, Patrick Costello, and Angel Shockley have approached the venture with a sense of mission. “We believe everyone has the right to healthy food, and we want to help people achieve this,” says Roberman. Of course, before the two businesses came on the scene, local Grammy-nominated songstress Adrienne Young had already (more)

UVA’s Institute on Aging presents Virginia Morris, a nationally recognized authority on eldercare and author of How to Care for Aging Parents, who will discuss how families can effectively engage in the difficult but necessary conversations about legal, financial and medical plans for aging parents and spouses at the Culbreth Theater, as part of the Virginia Festival of the Book, on Friday, March 19 at 2:00pm.

A fire at 203 Robertson Avenue off Jefferson Park Avenue took down the house, but the three UVA grad students who live there were not home at the time and a pooch on the back porch was rescued. According to a release, a neighbor reported the fire around 2:35pm. Fire officials say snow contributed to the structure’s collapse. – PHOTO COURTESY CHIEF CHARLES WERNER

The Olympics may be two weeks away, but anyone interested in watching high intensity athletic competition can get a fix this weekend at Charlottesville’s first-ever Superfit Games, taking place Saturday, January 30.

There won’t be slalom or bobsledding in these games. Instead, the 100 participants from around the country– all of them adherents to Crossfit, a method of training that involves short, varied, extremely high-intensity workouts– will leap, lift, sprint and flex as they vie for the title “Fittest person in Charlottesville.”

“This is a chance to see A-list Crossfitters,” says organizer Kyle Redinger, who opened the Crossfit Charlottesville gym six months ago, but notes that Crossfit– the subject of a Hook cover story– can be adapted for all fitness levels.

“I’m sure there’ll be butterflies, never having done any type of competition like this,” says Todd Edmunds, who’s traveling in from Pennsylvania for the Games. “I’m looking to see how I can compete, compare with people outside my area.”

For contestant Gretchen Kittelberger, the Superfit Games will be her first Crossfit event but she’s no stranger to high level athletic competition. A gymnast at University of Maryland until her 2008 graduation, Kittelberger is now a law student and Crossfit trainer.

“In gymnastics, competing is down to a science– the way you warm up, the person you talk to beforehand to get you psyched up,” she says. “Crossfit is not like that, so I’m interested to see how I react in that situation.”

The competition takes place Saturday, January 30 from 7am to 7pm at the old National Linen Building at the corner of Market Street and Meade Avenue. Observers are asked to make a donation of $5 or $10; all proceeds will benefit the Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad and Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit benefiting veterans.

Ben Marchi is on the Americans for Prosperity bus as it travels the 5th District to protest Congressman Tom Perriello’s healthcare reform vote. November 10 the bus pulled into the lot at Perriello’s Charlottesville office. Marchi and the Jefferson Area Tea Party were met by counter-protesters, and the two groups traded chants of “Thank you, Tom” and “Tom must go.” Correction November 16: Ben Marchi’s first name was inaccurate in the original post and has been corrected.

Although there have been many big plans for the revitalization of West Main Street, including a streetcar, a multi-story mixed use building, and several ambitious UVA expansion projects, a new business group deplores the current state of West Main— particularly the dust that rises daily from the pot-holed parking lot surrounding the Amtrak station.

Calling the lot a “blight on the Midtown landscape” as well as a “health hazard,” and “an environmental travesty,” the newly formed Midtown Association calls on the private owners of the Amtrak parking lot to pave it.

“The history of this situation between the City and the property owners borders on municipal negligence and professional irresponsibility,” reads an Association statement. “Something has to be done.”

In the 1990s, the City pushed Norfolk Southern Corporation to sell the parcel to Gabe Silverman and Allan Cadgene in hopes of fostering a public-private partnership whose (more)

Neither admitting nor denying guilt, but facing an amazing array of charges — including smoking pot in the office, questionable prescriptions, sex with patients, and verbally abusing a 5-year-old— Staunton doctor Charles K. Weisman, 45, avoids the 18 witnesses prepared to testify and gets a three-year vacation from the Virginia Board of Medicine, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

One local filmmaker (along with a pack of kids at Riverview Park) might play a key role in the health care debate if a new video keeps advancing in the Obama Health Care Reform Video Challenge. Already, the 30-second spot from Charlottesville has been chosen from over 1,000 submissions to become one of just 20 finalists.

Eric Hurt— who once shot a television show about Spudnuts— wrote, directed, and shot “I Deserve Health Care” with producer Erica Arvold. Voting for the Challenge is now open, and individuals are encouraged to watch the top videos, vote for their favorites, and help select the winning ad that will air on national television.

The whole enterprise, but particularly Hurt’s video and a graffiti video, drew the outrage of FoxNews commentator Sean Hannity, who interviewed a conservative commentator who blasted Hurt for “grooming the next generation of entitlement-seekers.”

–last updated 6:49am Friday
Spelling of Spudnuts corrected 9:20am Friday

The Local Food Hub has teamed up with the Nelson County Food Pantry to provide locally grown produce for folks in need. The Pantry provides food for more that 240 households every month in Nelson County, and thanks to a recent donation of more than 400 pounds of sweet potatoes and red potatoes from Critzer Family Farms, as well as a walk-in fridge and freezer, the non-profit is now working with the Food Hub to receive and distribute local produce, much of it grown in Nelson County.

Kay Redfield Jamison, a professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University who is a leading specialist on mood disorders, and author of the An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness, which tells of her own struggle with bipolar disorder, will speak on Thursday, October 29 at 1pm at UVA’s Newcomb Hall Theater. She’s just come out with a new memoir called Nothing Was the Same, the love story of her marriage to the late Dr. Richard Wyatt.

Charlottesville’s City Manager, Gary O’Connell, has been on medical leave since October 22, says City spokesperson Ric Barrick, recovering at home from a “private” and unknown medical procedure that is requiring him to “rest at home to recover.” An email autoreply from O’Connell says he will return on November 23. Barrick says that O’Connell’s condition is “not life threatening” and that he would “probably return” earlier than November 23. Meanwhile, Aubrey Watts, the City’s economic development director, has been left in charge, with city staff filling in as acting City Manager on a rotating basis, says Barrick.

Dr. Peter Heymann, head of Pediatric Allergy and Respiratory Medicine at the UVA Medical Center, spoke with Rick Moore on Sunday about  food allergies. A very informative discussion if you’re interested.

(more)

Back in July, avid hunter Jackson Landers wondered on his blog if anyone would be interested in a semi-formal class on how to deer hunt from a locavore’s perspective. After all, what better way to eat local than to hunt for your own food? Of course, it’s hard to imagine local foodies more accustomed to shouldering a tote bag at the farmers market than a .30-‘06 through the woods in camouflage gear actually shooting and gutting a deer, but Landers says the response was immediate.

Landers, a broker with Landers Underwriting, was bombarded with emails showing interest in the class, from people as far away as San Francisco, which forced him to limit the class size. Today, he says he has about 10 people taking his class, which is in its fourth week.

“The curriculum that I’m teaching is largely a natural sciences approach rather than coming from (more)

It may be getting chilly, but don’t forget the Charlottesville City Market is still open. In fact, while the Market typically runs from April through October, this year the season has been extended to November 21. Also, the Charlottesville Holiday Market, which begins November 28, has been moved to the Market location in the Water Street parking lot. While current hours are every Saturday from 8am to Noon, November hours will be 8am to 2pm. So get on down there for fresh produce, crafts, herbs, meats, and baked goods before the season ends!

On Thursday, October 22 there will be a book launch at City Space on the Downtown Mall for Firewalkers: Madness, Beauty, and Mystery.  Firewalkers is an anthology of stories about seven women dealing with mental illness. Firewalkers is also part of a program sponsored by Vocal, a non-profit to redefine mental illness and help people recover.

“When we set out to create Firewalkers, we wanted people to know a mental illness diagnosis is not a death sentence,” says editor Cassandra Nudel. “It is not the end of the line or the last thing that will ever happen in your life. It is a strange and unexpected journey that most of us never asked for or ever wanted. But after walking through the fire, it has brought us somewhere. And for some of us, we could not go back. Even if we could. What is labeled “mental illness” can be a profound, turbulent, soiritual experience that has the power to enrick us, reveal unknown strengths, and transform our lives.”

The event runs from 6pm to 8pm. Contact Malaina Proore for more information at 434-243-7878, ext. 22 or

(more)

Coming exactly a week before the start of fall’s wildland fire season, when state officials fear fire outbreaks among dried branches and fallen leaves, an October 8 open burn had several local citizens calling Albemarle Fire and Rescue after smoke wafted over Charlottesville.

It turns out, however, it was simply a controlled burn on 60 acres in North Garden, one that was pre-approved by the Virginia Department of Forestry.

“There ought to be some public service announcement,” says Elizabeth Tyler. “This could put an asthmatic in the hospital, or affect older people.”

“We’re not required to notify anyone other than the local fire departments,” says Forestry (more)

Nearly three years after opening a full-scale fitness center in downtown Charlottesville to join its 64,000 square-foot flagship location at Albemarle Square Shopping Center, ACAC is expanding again with the opening of a smaller Crozet gym in the Old Trail Development. At a preview on Thursday October 8, according to ACAC VP of development Chris Craytor, approximately 300 people showed up to check out the 8,500 square-foot space located under Old Trail’s clock tower. While anyone who is already an ACAC member (more)

As the flu season draws closer, UVA Medical Center is providing an added impetus to its employees who can’t or won’t get a flu shot: Mandatory masks.

Chief Medical Officer Jonathon Truwit informs his colleagues of the unusual new requirement in a September 14 email: “Staff or faculty who are unable to or choose not to receive the seasonal flu vaccine will be required to wear masks throughout the work day/shift when the flu season arrives.”

So much for frequent hand-washing.

Those who do get the flu shot not only get to show their face in the hospital, they also get a blue sticker stamped “2009″ to sport on their name badge.

The reason for the heavy pressure to get a shot (more)

Reporters from USA Today spent 24 hours in UVA’s ER for today’s feature-length story on the healthcare crisis.

Update 8/27 8:50am: On Wednesday, August 26, the UVA-area fox bit a passerby and, according to city spokesperson Ric Barrick, it may have also bitten one of the first two residents who encountered the animal. Barrick says both injured residents are being treated for rabies, a treatment that involves a series of painful injections, and that UVA has hired an outside firm to capture the fox, who will be euthanized and tested for rabies. ******** Charlottesville police and an outside firm hired by UVA are hunting a fox in the UVA/Rugby Road area after it behaved aggressively on two separate occasions in the past 24 hours, causing one area resident to fall and injure herself while fleeing the animal. No one has been bitten, says Barrick. A press release from the city says humane traps have been set for the animal so that “routine tests” can be performed. Although the release makes no mention of rabies, that is one common reason for wild animals to behave aggressively and abnormally. According to numerous scientific sources, however, the only way to diagnose an animal (more)

Five years after a small group of terminally ill patients pleaded with UVA for continued access to an experimental compound they believed could extend their lives, the UVA doctor who discovered the compound has left the university as mounting evidence suggests the drug is safe and, more importantly, that it may be effective against Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, the deadly neurodegenerative disease also known Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The latest good news about the compound (more)

The Albemarle Board of Supervisors has requested an ordinance that would require unkempt grass at unoccupied dwellings in the urban ring to be cut. A draft of the ordinance goes to the Board September 2, according to Amelia McCulley in zoning. Supe Sally Thomas says she doesn’t favor an ordinance, but Dennis Rooker says he’s gotten complaints about overgrown grass and the varmints that take up residence at abandoned properties at locations like East Rio Road and entrance corridors. (The uncut grass photographed at University Grille is in the city, which has its own mow law.)

People flipping out about the swine flu, H1N1, and the worry that getting vaccinated might mean suffering from Gullain-Barré Syndrome might be calmed by reading this 2001 book by New York Times reporter Gina Kolata, whose research disputes the popular notion that one had anything to do with the other during the Ford Adminstration’s 1976 effort to stem the flu’s spread. The Virginia Department of Health reports that a Prince William-district woman died July 22 of h1n1.

In the months since it dominated headlines in April and May, swine flu has been quietly traveling the globe– and one of its recent destinations is right here in Charlottesville. In fact, according to doctors, it’s quite likely someone you know has had it– even if they didn’t realize it.

In addition to seven confirmed cases of swine flu in the Thomas Jefferson Health District, the five-county jurisdiction that includes Charlottesville and Albemarle.

“We’ve seen 15 cases,” says Dr. Carlos Armengol, a pediatrician who works downtown at Pediatric Associates on 10th Street.

Armengol says the Centers for Disease Control is no longer confirming the virus unless an individual is sick enough to require hospitalization. In milder cases, an in-office flu test is conducted. Positive results for type A influenza are enough to assume swine flu, says Armengol.

That was the case at both UVA, where at least seven campers have reportedly been diagnosed, and at ACAC’s summer camp on Four Seasons Drive, where in mid-June, a sign warned parents that a camper there had been diagnosed.

In a prepared statement, ACAC spokesperson Teppi LoSciuto says the camper didn’t show symptoms while attending the camp, and that the alert the camp posted for parents was in accordance with advice from the Health Department. Directors of two other local camps, Triple C Camp and Field Camp, weren’t aware of any cases among their campers. But even if that changes, Armengol says, parents shouldn’t be overly alarmed.

“All the kids we’ve seen have had very mild symptoms,” he says, “no sicker than with seasonal flu.”

That’s what some parents of ACAC campers say they’re hoping for.

“In the absence of any information suggesting that the virus has evolved into a form more dangerous than has been reported over the last few months,” Robert Nichols, father of an ACAC camper, said soon after the sign was posted. “I’m not overly concerned at this point.”

Thomas Jefferson Health District epidemiologist Elizabeth Davies says that’s the reaction she hopes others will share.

“I hate how this whole situation has people in such a panic,” she says of swine flu in general. Davies says “basic daily measures” including frequent hand washing and avoiding others who are ill can offer protection.

“It is a new situation,” she says, “but the prevention is so easy.”

President Obama announced July 8 he’s chosen famed geneticist, UVA alum, and Staunton native Dr. Francis Collins to be his director for the National Institutes of Health. “Dr. Collins is one of the top scientists in the world,” the president said of Collins in a statement, “and his groundbreaking work has changed the very ways we consider our health and examine disease.” Collins is most famous for decoding the human genome in 2000. Born in Staunton in 1950, Collins received his B.S. in chemistry from UVA in 1970. Collins joins Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano as the second UVA alum appointed by President Obama to head a federal department or agency. –photo courtesy of the National Institutes of Health

Even before the General Assembly banned smoking in restaurants and bars effective December 1, longtime smokers’ paradise Rapture decided to pull the plug on puffing.

“We had made the decision before we heard about the legislation,” says co-owner Mike Rodi.

Last August, the restaurant went smoke-free at lunch. “We were losing business,” says Rodi. “We’d have maybe one smoking table, and people waiting for non-smoking. And we had a lot of smoke drift.”

In January, smoking in the bar and Club R2 was limited to between 11pm and 2am, and on June 15, smoking was fini at Rapture.

The restaurant has a new chef, new items on the menu, and the owners are ready to freshen up the decor, paint and upholstery. It seemed pointless to do that in a smoky environment, says Rodi.

He points out (more)

The Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport recently installed some of those new and allegedly super-efficient and hygienic hand-dryers, the Dyson Airblade/

Fashion house Geoffrey Beene LLC is trying to make science sexy. Thus the “Rock Stars of Science” spread in the June GQ that features UVA medical school Dean Steven T. DeKosky (third from left) and 10 other distinguished scientists on a shoot with Sheryl Crow and Aerosmith’s Joe Perry, among others, to raise the stereotypically dweeby profile of science researchers. “Plus,” says DeKosky, “everybody needs to rock out, now and then.”

It’s a risk nearly all parents take when they send their children off to school, but on the morning of Friday May 29, risk became unhappy reality for the entire fifth grade of Baker-Butler Elementary School, as they became the second group of area school kids ensnarled in an injury-causing accident. In this case, the bus company involved has seen one of its vehicles, a motorcoach, fail its last three federal inspections and get pulled from service. Could this trip-spoiling incident have been prevented?

Police charged the driver of one of the buses, Samuel Hilton Richard, with following too closely. Richard, 62, a 37-year industry veteran, tells a reporter he’s not at liberty to discuss the accident.

However, another industry player, Dan Goff of A. Goff Limo, calls the bus company involved, Lynchburg Bus Service Inc., the “low-cost carrier for this area.” And SAFER, a website run by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, notes that 75 percent (more)

A Giles County family lost power in the wee hours of Monday morning, May 18, and almost lost their lives after operating a generator in the basement of their home. As reported in the Hook’s recent cover story, operating such equipment indoors releases carbon monoxide, an odorless and deadly gas. Furnaces are another frequent source of the gas, and home safety experts recommend every home be equipped with a carbon monoxide detector. Giles County is located in southwest Virginia, on the West Virginia border.

 The new food guides are here! The new food guides are here! That’s right. Piedmont Environmental Council’s local food guide is out and its more extensive than ever. Who knew there was such a bounty of local food sources and sympathies? Well, we did, of course. This year, the guide includes 11 grocers, 8 farmer’s markets, 23 produce farms, 9 orchards, 15 meat, poultry, and dairy producers, 8 CSAs, 2 cheese makers, 4 caterers, and 15 restaurant (they list 16, but OXO has long since closed) that support local growing and eating. And all of it’s available online at the PEC’s Buy Fresh, Buy Local website.

There’s also a new Farmer-Chef Express directory designed to bring folks needing food together with those growing and raising it. Restaurants and shops, even the Harrisonburg City School systems, supply information about what food they need and how much, and food producers says what they produce and how much. 

Of course, the local food movement is about more than just eating well–it’s about saving our small farms!

“As the local food movement grows, it can help change the trend we are facing across Virginia that farmland is being lost,” says Melissa Wiley, director of our local Buy Fresh, Buy Local chapter. “Statewide, between 2002 and 2007, 500,000 acres of farmland were lost. Buy Fresh Buy Local can improve the economic outlook for small farms, which ultimately preserves farmland and the potential for people to grow food here in the future.”

Ah, remember just going to the grocery store?

The babies switched over a decade ago at UVA hospital had some tragic moments, as did the more recent pair in Russia. But what happened in Heppner, Oregon, actually united a couple of families, according to the New York Times account.

Despite new spending on pedestrian safety, another person has been hit by a vehicle. The latest incident occurred around 6pm on Saturday, May 9 near the intersection of Oak Street and South First Street in the vicinity of Oakwood Cemetary

Forget the economy, forget Iraq, forget gay marriage or any other hot news topics. For the last several weeks, swine flu has been the headline hog— especially with up to three cases reported in Virginia. Even as the latest reports from health organizations suggest the bug, now known by the pork industry-favored moniker H1N1, may actually be less virulent than basic seasonal flu, masks are “totally sold out,” says Meadowbrook Pharmacy pharmacist Janet Chrismore.

“It’s been nuts,” says Chrismore, noting that reports suggest the masks aren’t particularly effective protection against viruses, so those who are unable to acquire them shouldn’t be concerned. Indeed, according to the CDC, the masks are most useful at preventing someone already infected with swine flu from spreading the virus through the community– not the other way around.

That message doesn’t seem to have reached customers of several other local pharmacies, which report a booming mask business.

At CVS pharmacy on the Downtown Mall, the masks were (more)

Laura Burns didn’t realize how bad the swine flu epidemic was until her classes in Mexico City were canceled Friday, April 24. Even then, she thought it was just for one day.

“They canceled classes in all schools,” recounts Burns, a former Hook intern who’s doing graduate work in international relations at La Universidad Iberoamericana and who describes her adventure on her blog. “On Saturday, they announced they were canceled until May 6.”

She began hearing more on the news about the swine flu outbreak in the city of 8.8 million, and the news was getting more dramatic.

“The mayor started talking about canceling public transportation and suspending all activity,” she says. “I went out on Saturday night, and all the bars were closed. It was like a ghost town.”

By Sunday, April 26, Burns decided to return home to Charlottesville. She already (more)

Virginians need to get out more often and be a little nicer– or at least that’s what a new psychological study [pdf] indicates. According to scientists from the University of Texas at Austin and Britain’s University of Cambridge, Virginia is the 45th-most introverted state, as well as being the 44th-most agreeable, according to their study of 500,000 Americans and their exhibition of the “Big Five” personality traits: extroversion, conscientiousness, openness, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The study finds North Dakotans are both the most extroverted, and most agreeable Americans. –photo courtesy Sergei Yahchybekov/Flickr

A fourth-year UVA student hospitalized on March 25 with bacterial meningitis has made a full recovery and was released last week, according to UVA spokesperson Carol Wood. The male student’s identity has not been released due to confidentiality laws, says Wood. The strain and whether the student had been vaccinated against the disease are also confidential. Ninety five percent of UVA undergrads have received the meningococcal vaccine, which is 90 percent effective against four of the five strains. The disease causes stiff neck, severe headache, and a high fever, and has a mortality rate of 15 percent. Although one student tested positive for the bacteria in January 2007, it’s been two and a half years since the last full blown case struck Charlottesville. UVA student Jennifer Leigh Wells, a Monticello High School grad who lived off campus with her family, died September 10, 2006 at UVA Medical Center– days after she’d first complained of a headache. Wood attributes the latest victim’s survival to his seeking out and receiving prompt medical treatment. –story updated 1:22pm on Monday, April 6.

The University of Virginia’s Science & Art project presents “The Art of Diagnosis: What can Abstract Art Tell Us about the Anatomy of Disease?,” an exhibition of 400 abstract images by Brydie Ragan plus a presentation by UVA microbiology prof Julie Davis Turner and Ragan.

“The Science & Art Project, conceived by University and community artists and scientists, seeks to nurture and accelerate pervasive interactions that emphasize creative innovation across disciplines. The project organizers encourage members of the University and Charlottesville communities to join this experiment that will culminate in citywide exhibitions, presentations and related publications.”

Atrium and Room 2005 of the School of Medicine’s Medical Research Building 5. For more information visit, www.virginia.edu/sciartproject/artofdiagnosis.html.

No, this isn’t Bob McDonnell, who resigned February 20 to run for governor. Bill Mims now has the attorney general job until January 16, 2010, and he was in town March 20 to spur lawyers to a Legal Food Frenzy in support of the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. Last year attorneys pulled in 65,000 pounds of food.

So says the cognitive-decline research of Dr. Timothy Salthouse.

Already reeling from Governor Tim Kaine’s signature on a law that bans puffing in their favorite watering holes, Virginia cigarette users got hit with another shocker this week: The price of a pack of Marlboros, the flagship smoke of homegrown tobacco manufacturer Philip Morris, leaped 71 cents a pack March 9, pushing prices over $5 in most stores.

At Bellair Market, cigarettes that had been less than $4 last week rang up at $5.03 this week. At Lucky Seven, those Marlboro Lights cost $5.79 a pack, and at the Shell on Preston Avenue, the price was $5.83 a pack.

“At $4.09, I am the cheapest around,” says Frazier Breeden at Tobacco Express on Rio Road, whose customer reactions are  “a lot of fussing and complaining.”

The basis for the increase is a 62-cent federal excise tax that goes into effect April 1. “Everybody knew the price was going up April 1,” says Breeden. “When Marlboro called me Thursday morning [March 5], they said they were going up Monday [March 9].” (more)

Five years ago, a Daleville man with a home-based daycare center, Orvil Reedy, inadvertently ran over one of his charges while cutting grass (and attempted to restart the stalled machine before seeing the four-year-old boy’s legs protruding from under the mower deck). The courts have approved a $2.5 million verdict against MTD Products, which should— the jury ruled— have ensured that its mower blades stop spinning whenever the clutch is depressed.

The six biggest makers of baby bottles have voluntarily agreed to stop using Bisphenol A, or BPA, a material strongly decried by locally-based researcher Pete Myers. A recent study may have helped lead to the recent decision.

Covenant and St. Anne’s-Belfield have both closed temporarily in recent weeks because of sick students, but rampant infection isn’t limited to private schools. Henley Middle School had 153 students home sick last week out of 748– 20 percent of its population. “I’ve been here 22 years,” says Susan Childress in guidance. “This is the worst I’ve seen.” Numbers are better today: only 116 students are out sick.

The Ivy Foundation, which dropped $45 million on UVA for a biomedical research facility in 2005, has written another check, this one for a new Biomedical Innovation Fund, which will support five high-risk projects this year with $260,000 in grants. The Ivy Foundation was created in 2000 with funds remaining from the closure of the W. Alton Jones Cell Science Center in Lake Placid, N.Y. According to a UVA release, the fund’s assets increased significantly with the 2004 sale of Upstate Group, a company whose principals included former Board of Visitors member William C. Battle and Sheridan G. Snyder, a 1958 graduate of U.Va.’s College of Arts and Sciences.

Smoke ‘em if you’ve got ‘em, because after December 1, that won’t be happening in most of the restaurants and bars that still allow smoking in Virginia. The General Assembly passed today the ban that Governor Tim Kaine has sought since he was took office in 2005. Lighting up will be allowed in private clubs and restaurants with a separately ventilated room.

Conflagrations like this will not be allowed until after 4pm in Albemarle County from February 15 through April 30.

That’s when “things are about as dead and dry as they’re going to be,” says Albemarle Fire Rescue Assistant Chief James Barber. Add to that low humidity and high winds, and the potential for an out-of-control burn heightens. After 4pm, says Barber, spring winds typically die down and humidity increases.

“Fires that get away from debris burns are probably the number one cause for forest fires,” says Barber.

Open fires should be 300 feet away from woods, fields and homes, and violations are a Class 3 misdemeanor punishable by up to a $500 fine. Besides the criminal violation, those who allow a fire to escape are liable for the cost of suppressing the fire as well as any damage caused to others’ property. (more)

School is canceled Thursday, February 12, at Covenant Lower School because 25 percent of the students have the flu and were out Wednesday, February 11, according to an NBC29 report. Students already were scheduled to be off Friday, February 13, and Monday, February 16, for winter break.

Compared to Charlottesville’s central business district, which has been getting free corrugated cardboard (all cardboard, actually) pickup since February 2007, Staunton’s new plan to gather the stuff each Friday arrives as an appreciated, but clearly humbler effort, compared to Charlottesville’s Monday-Saturday service.

Martha Jefferson Hospital, planning to move itself to Pantops, has borrowed $160 million in the form of municipal bonds, a lending instrument formerly reserved for local governments and one that was tossed into the turmoil of the financial crisis, the Daily Progress reports.

It’s billed as a move for human health and the environment, that City Council may take advantage of a new state law that enables it to ban bus idling. However, one transportation company owner brands the proposed ordinance, which could hit bus operators with $50 fines for idling over 15 minutes, as potentially inequitable because it provides no escape clauses for private buses.

“It’s tough enough to compete,” says Dan Goff, who owns Old Dominion Charters, “but when they pass laws that exempt their own buses, that’s not fair.”

Goff, who became aware of the proposed ordinance via a call from a reporter, says that many citizens may not realize that the reason for the idling is usually climate-control— that heating and cooling a bus takes a long time if the engine gets turned off.

“Would you want to get on a cold bus on a hot day or on a hot bus on a cold day?” asks Goff, who posted a lengthy critique of the enabling legislation (more)

Neo-pop artist Monty Montgomery, who is off to San Diego after this exhibiton, shows new and old pieces at Maya Restaurant. The Mariana Bell Band will play music until 9-10pm. 633 W. Main St. 979-6292.

Charlottesville’s controversial plan to buy its own ambulances, add rescue staff, and charge citizens for ambulance service has been quietly taken off the table, Henry Graff reports for NBC29. The city’s 2007-2008 budget earmarked $750,000 for Charlottesville to take over services many argued that the 48-year-old, volunteer-run, Charlottesville Albemarle Rescue Squad already provided.

Besides a projected drop in revenues, several things have changed since spring 2007, says Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner: Albemarle County added an ambulance to its Monticello Fire Station in the urban ring, and the city, county and CARS were unable to reach an agreement on billing for ambulance service.

“My argument was ambulance capacity,” says Werner. “We needed three-and-a-half, and CARS had three.” With Albemarle’s fourth ambulance now in service, that exceeds capacity needed at peak hours, he says.

“I never questioned CARS’ response time,” says Werner. “It was about capacity.” (more)

Former member of bluegrass legends the Country Gentlemen and Scottsville native Eddie Adcock has become an overnight Internet sensation for a YouTube video of his recent brain surgery, during which a conscious Adcock played his banjo the entire time! Doctors at Vanderbilt Medical Center in Nashville were trying to correct a tremor in Adcock’s right hand, and they figured the best way to test their work was for Adcock to keep picking as they poked around his grey matter. Already, the video has logged over 140,000 views.

A creative smoke detector promotion by Albemarle County Fire Department yielded free pizza for lucky— and safety conscious— Domino’s Pizza customers last week. The October 7 promotion promised customers of the Seminole Trail store a free pizza if a county firefighter riding along with the delivery driver determined that all of the home’s smoke detectors were functioning.

Barber says three firefighters teamed up with three delivery drivers from 4-7pm and served up about a dozen free pies.

“I would have liked to have gotten more houses, but overall I’m pleased,” says County Fire Marshal James Barber, who adds that the department deliberately limited the scope of the promotion because it was their first attempt and they didn’t know how strong response would be. Barber expects the department to repeat the promo in about six months, and says that “hopefully, it’ll be expanded.”

Despite the relatively low number of pizza calls, to the firefighters’ delight, the detectors were working at almost every home they visited. “We replaced two batteries,” says Barber, “but every home we went to, the detector basically was functional.”

Barber says the firefighters answered residents’ questions about detectors (more)

The wife of Augusta County Sheriff Randy Fisher smelled smoke before the smoke detector sounded during a September 22 fire at the couple’s residence, according to Mike Fisher, Chief of the Dooms Volunteer Fire Company in Augusta.

At around 12:30am, Mrs. Fisher was awakened by the smell of smoke. She “went down the hallway to the kitchen thinking neighbors were burning something,” says Chief Fisher (no relation to the Sheriff). “When she came back up the hall to the bedroom, the smoke detector sounded. Her husband was working downstairs, and she yelled for him to come back upstairs.”

The Fishers escaped from the house with their two dogs, but by the time firefighters responded, the flames had spread from the attic– where an electrical fire likely started, according to Chief Fisher– into the main living area.

In most Augusta County fire investigations, fire officials determine the type of detector present, says Chief Fisher. The detector at Sheriff Fisher’s home was completely destroyed, says Chief Fisher, so identifying whether it was photoelectric or ionization was impossible. Chief Fisher says he didn’t see any other smoke detectors present in the house.

Sheriff Fisher has not returned the Hook’s repeated calls.

Remember the old adage, “If you lie down with dogs, you’ll get up with fleas“? Well, this year Charlottesville pet owners are learning to take that literally. According to several veterinarians, groomers, and dog and cat owners, the nasty little bugs that nest in animals’ fur, drink their blood, and turn happy homes into hives of horror have been worse this year than at any time in recent memory.

“I never saw anything like this,” says Jim Stuart, whose indoor/outdoor cat brought fleas into the house where they multiplied and spread into every room. Stuart (no relation to this reporter) is a lifelong pet owner who says that in the past he’s been able to kill fleas quickly with over-the-counter treatments. Not this time.

“We set off bombs, used every flea thing known to man, and they kept coming back,” he says.

At Old Dominion Animal Hospital, the phone has been ringing off the hook with calls from flea-bitten pet owners desperate for help.

“People are saying, ‘What do I do?’” says Old Dominion (more)

Last week, the Albemarle County Fire Department announced a smoke detector promotion in which anyone ordering pizza from Domino’s Pizza on Seminole Trail on Tuesday, October 7 between 4 and 7pm will receive a free pizza if a firefighter riding along with the delivery driver determines all smoke detectors in a customer’s residence are functioning. If any of the detectors aren’t working, the customer pays for the pie but gets a free detector.

There was just one problem with the creative promotion: the department made no mention of the type of detector that should to be present in order to receive the free pie.

Not anymore!

At the Hook’s request, says Albemarle Fire Inspector Joseph Gould, the department will now not only check if the detectors are functioning but will also identify the type of detector. Homes equipped with battery operated ionization detectors, even if they function, will be offered the combination detectors that are supplied through the county’s free detector program. Residents of homes with hardwired ionization models will be educated on the need to replace their detectors.

As the Hook has reported on extensively, ionization detectors– the type found in at least 90 percent (more)

Paintings & Prose (formerly Jane’s Attic), the gallery at Lakeview Virginia Neurocare, Inc, presents a multi-artist exhibition of paintings, film, and sculpture, entitled, “Menopause: Meeting the Myth.” Curator and artist Dorothy Palanza has assembled work from Germany, Japan, and the U.S. The show also includes the biographical documentary film Ilona Upstairs. On view through October 24. A First Friday opening is scheduled for October 3, 5:30-8:30pm, with artists’ talks at 7pm. 406 E. Main St. on the Downtown Mall. 220-3490.

For a man whose job it is to put fear into the hearts of Major League hitters– a job he’s done successfully for 12 seasons– tears coming down the face of Billy Wagner at a press conference are a rare thing. But yesterday, as the New York Mets relief pitcher and Crozet resident announced he would undergo surgery on his left elbow that may end his career, Wagner just couldn’t contain himself.

“Will, he was upset,” Wagner said, speaking of his 10-year-old son as his eyes welled up. “He’s not ready for it to be over.”

Specifically, Wagner will have what’s most commonly known as “Tommy John surgery.” Named for the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher on whom it was first successfully performed, the procedure involves (more)

Remember locally-based researcher Pete Myers? A new study adds heft to his concerns about a ubiquitous food-packaging material called Bisphenol A.

Should the drinking age be lowered from 21 to 18?

That question is being asked around UVA Grounds– and around the country– thanks to the Amethyst Initiative, an effort by a group of college presidents to open an “informed and unimpeded debate” about lowering the minimum drinking age. On Saturday, UVA prez John Casteen told parents of incoming first-year students he still didn’t know whether he’d ink his own name below the 128 college presidents already on the list, according to a transcript of his speech.

“It depends on whether they’re able to develop and publish the evidence,” he said, “to prove there’s not a negative difference in the impact on young people.”

Some people intimately acquainted with the drinking habits of UVA students are hoping Casteen will soon see that evidence.

“I would like to see Casteen sign,” says John Crafaik, owner of Littlejohns, who believes the drinking age should be lowered.

“From my experience, they’re going to (more)

Charlottesville radio host and autism parent Coy Barefoot not only scored an interview with presidential candidate Barack Obama a couple of days ago. He also got the Illinois senator to elevate the plight of autistic children, now estimated at one to six per 1,000 births.

“We are desperate,” said Barefoot, “for a political leader to stand up and say, ‘We have a national crisis, and we are going to help these children.’ Are you that guy?”

“I am,” Obama replied.

Last month, Barefoot, who has an autistic six-year-old son, helped push controversial autism doubter Michael Savage off WINA radio. The five-minute interview with Obama originally aired on WINA, where Barefoot hosts an afternoon drive-time show called “Charlottesville, Right Now.”

Less than two months after an ATV accident on his Charlottesville area farm, Dave Matthews Band saxophonist LeRoi Moore has died from unexpected complications stemming from his injuries, according to numerous internet reports. On June 30, Moore was seriously injured while riding his all terrain vehicle on his farm outside Charlottesville. Initially listed in critical condition, Moore was released from the hospital several weeks later, only to return to UVA medical center on July 21, reportedly with complications from a collapsed lung.

According to a release from the Dave Matthews Band publicist on TMZ.com, Moore died unexpectedly today in Los Angeles at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, where he had recently returned “to begin an intensive physical rehabilitation program.”

The Dave Matthews Band was scheduled to play a concert at the Staples Center in L.A. tonight. At posting time, the status of that concert is unknown.

Every three days, someone in the state of Virginia dies waiting for an organ transplant. Andrea Tribastone is doing everything she can to turn reduce those numbers as she plans for the 4th annual Carl Tribastone Memorial race.

Tribastone knows more than anyone that one person’s tragedy can be another person’s— or other persons’— miracle. Her husband died unexpectedly in 2004 during surgery to remove a benign brain tumor.

“He was totally healthy,” Tribastone remembers. He was also an organ donor whose heart, liver, and kidneys were used to save four lives. While she chose not to learn the identity of the people he helped, she knows their ages and where they live. Her loss inspired her to spread information that could save other lives in the future.

On the one-year anniversary of his death, Trabistone planned a run in Carl’s honor. All proceeds went to LifeNet Health— the same organization that initiated the discussion with her about organ donation in the hospital.

According to Tribastone, after Carl’s death, LifeNet stayed (more)

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)

visit Charlottesville Pavilion online

In their annual list of the “Top 10 Healthiest Cities to Live and Retire,” the American Association of Retired Persons has rated Charlottesville the seventh healthiest city in the country in their monthly magazine. “The one-time home of Thomas Jefferson rates in the top-ten cities for family-practice doctors, oncologists, and cardiologists,” write the AARP editors who compiled the list. “It ranks fourth among among U.S. metropolitan areas in the number of physicians per capita.” Ranked ahead of our town are Boulder, Fargo, North Dakota, Santa Fe, Madison, Honolulu, and topping the list is Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rounding out the top 10 are Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Francisco, and Naples-Marco Island, Florida #
visit Charlottesville Pavilion online

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)

visit Charlottesville Pavilion online