Tuesday, December 26
Martinsville to become Martinstown?
 Remember Martinsville: The Southside Virginia city that got the shaft in a deal brokered by Rep. Virgil Goode with defense contractor MZM, Inc. is now considering giving up its city charter to make ends meet. |
The poor City of Martinsville is considering giving up its City charter to become a town, allowing it to rely more on surrounding Henry County for its services, Media General reports today. It hardly helps matters, then, that the City may have to pay back up to $500,000 in State funds allocated for a defunct deal with defense contractor MZM, Inc., brokered by 5th district Congressman Virgil Goode. Henry County (not as rich as the king, its namesake) says it could do without Martinsville on its dole. An MZM facility which once promised 150 jobs shut down there in July 2006, taking away 30 area jobs after MZM founders were found guilty of donating illegal campaign contributions to Goode and other candidates.
Wednesday, December 27
Mmm…clones!
 The FDA will announce cloned food is O.K. for human consumption. On the new menu—dairy from cloned cows and meat from crows, pigs and goats that all look exactly alike. |
The FDA is expected to announce that meat and dairy from cloned cows, goats and pigs will be approved for human consumption, WCAV-TV reports. Kelli Hughes, a clinical nutritionist at UVA, says the food won’t be much different from the crap we’re eating now: “We consume as a society genetically modified foods every day that we don’t even know about.” And, scientists and farmers say cloned food is better than genetically modified food because it’s an exact copy of the original animal. Who’s hungry?
Thursday, December 28
What a meth
Defendants in a Shenandoah Valley meth case are making their way through U.S. District Court in Charlottesville, the Harrisonburg Daily News Record reports. Judge Norman K. Moon will sentence 10 defendants on drug and racketeering charges in January, and at least ten more have pleaded guilty to participating in the large meth ring. Authorities seized over a pound of methamphetamine, 40 weapons and $10,000 in an investigation, according to U.S. attorney John Brownlee, and they say the racketeers distributed over 50 pounds of meth in Rockingham and Augusta counties from 2004 to 2005. Drug conspiracy convictions carry a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. Effective September of last year, Virginia pharmacies started keeping products with pseudoephedrine (a drug that can be used to cook meth) behind pharmacy counters. That’s right, you can’t just buy it by the case anymore.
Friday, December 29
Free Clinic isn’t free
The Charlottesville Free Clinic is one of many health facilities statewide to receive grant money from the Virginia Health Care Foundation, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports today. The clinic will receive $36,000 for salary support for a full-time nurse practitioner. The Free Clinic also recently got the nod from City Council and the County Board of Supervisors to expand its facilities on Rose Hill Drive. The clinic serves the area’s working uninsured—since its founding in 1992, staff have seen over 8,000 patients and provided 30,000 office visits.
Who, us? First Night props
The New York Times Escapes section today makes mention of Charlottesville. Apparently, we’ve got the second-oldest First Night celebration, following in Boston’s footsteps and tied with Worcester, Massachusetts. The first First Night began in 1976, when a Boston artist decided she didn’t want to spend the first day of the new year with a hangover. Responsible revelers around the country have rejoiced ever since.
