It’s a steamy Friday afternoon in July, and the gates are opening on one of Southside Virginia’s biggest summertime bashes, the Cantaloupe Festival, near South Boston. Cars park on the grass outside of the Halifax County Fairgrounds, just 10 miles from the North Carolina border. The entrance road to the fairgrounds is decorated like a […]
In the late 1960s, when Turner Communications was a business of billboards and radio stations and I was spending much of my energy ocean racing, a UHF-TV station came up for sale in Atlanta. It was losing $50,000 a month and its programs were viewed by fewer than 5 percent of the market. I acquired […]
Tuesday, August 3 Football follies, Tech style UVA football coach Al Groh isn’t the only Virginia gridiron general struggling with off-field discipline problems. Virginia Tech quarterback Marcus Vick, who was expected to make a run at the helm this year for Tech, was suspended for the entire season. Vick, the younger brother of NFL superstar […]
Tuesday, July 27 Cheap labor in Charlottesville State Farm Insurance today announced a reorganization that will add 200 to 300 new jobs in its Charlottesville office. The local branch, which currently employs 1,100, had been in the midst of shedding 150 positions—leaving a significant net gain. Frederick, Maryland, was the loser in State Farm’s consolidation, […]
RESTAURANT Bizou There is something pretty special about a restaurant that can defeat not one, but two upscale French cuisineries (C&O and OXO) in a close race, only to have our unpaid intern stand up and declare, “That’s where I’m going for lunch!” Bizou is the bread-and-butter for restaurateurs Tim Burgess and Vincent Derquenne. The […]
Tuesday, July 20 Red tape for Capshaw County planners today voted on early language for the Fifth Street/Avon Street development, a 90-acre Coran Capshaw venture just beyond the city’s southern border. Planners rejected a request from Capshaw’s team to designate the space a “regional service” area, voting 5-2 for language that instead stresses community- and […]
uesday, July 13 Media General seeing green Media General, the media conglomerate that owns The Daily Progress and Boxerjam, today announced a second-quarter earnings gain of 5.9 percent compared with the same period in 2003. But earnings fell short of analysts’ predictions, knocking the company’s share price down slightly. Richmond-based Media General, which owns more […]
Restaurants help define a place. The world’s great cities are known for their dining rooms: Maxim’s in Paris, Katz’s Deli in New York, Chez Panisse in Berkeley. And Charlottesville is no different. l But behind a restaurant’s feel are its customers, particularly the cast of characters who regularly pull up a seat. l So who […]
Tuesday, June 29 Not guilty Donna Somerville, a wealthy Orange county widow, was found not guilty today in the 2001 poisoning death of her husband, wrapping up a two-week trial and a steady drumbeat of front-page stories in The Daily Progress. Because it was not a jury trial, Orange County Circuit Judge Dan Bouton made […]
Tuesday, June 29 Not guilty Donna Somerville, a wealthy Orange county widow, was found not guilty today in the 2001 poisoning death of her husband, wrapping up a two-week trial and a steady drumbeat of front-page stories in The Daily Progress. Because it was not a jury trial, Orange County Circuit Judge Dan Bouton made […]