Tuesday, June 19
Green architects on Sundance
The Sundance Channel’s new series, “The Green,” tonight featured Charlottesville architect William McDonough who, with his colleagues, is working with the U.S. Postal Service on a “cradle to cradle” policy that would remove toxins from packaging. McDonough is also helping with a Ford Model U, a concept car made entirely of recyclable or biodegradable parts.
Reliving their kicks
For those looking to revisit the glory of the 2004 Charlottesville High School boys’ soccer team, a video called “Sudden Death” aired on WVPT this evening. The film chronicles the PK shootout between CHS and Jefferson Forest, netting the Black Knights their first-ever state championship.
Wednesday, June 20
Locals on the tube
 His feet touched our ground! Steve Carell, in a flurry of media coverage for EvanAlmighty, appeared with Meredith Vieira on the “Today” show last week. |
Meredith Vieira of the “Today” show welcomed the nicest guy in show biz, Steve Carell, this week. While some of the graphics in the film Evan Almighty were digital, the animals, which were on set while the movie was filmed in Crozet, were real and smelly. “They are horrifying,” Carell said. And, for more comedians and local flavor on TV, Charlottesville-born Anne Marie Slaughter appeared last night on “The Colbert Report” to talk about her book The Idea That is America. The wicked-smart dean of the Woodrow Wilson School for Public and International Affairs at Princeton said of Guantanamo Bay, “I think we should shut it down.” To which Colbert replied: “Do you have a better place to store our terrorists?”
Thursday, June 21
Where the lobbyists aren’t
State Senator R. Creigh Deeds has left Richmond law firm Hirschler Fleischer over a conflict of interest, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. The state bar prohibits members of the General Assembly from being employed at companies that lobby, a rule that may be soon revised. Deeds is making the switch to Framme Law Firm, founded by Lawrence H. Framme III, who was the treasurer for Deeds’ ill-fated campaign for attorney general.
Bye-bye, Covesville tree
 A menacing poplar lost its life this week in Covesville, saving the local Presbyterian Church from an imminent foliage threat. The removal process required the power company to take down lines before the tree could be felled. |
Good old Norfolk Southern Railroad will spare no expense when it comes to protecting certain Presbyterian churches. The railroad company temporarily stopped train service and hired Barlett Tree Company to remove a gigantic poplar from its property because the tree was hanging over a building on nearby Cove Presbyterian Church’s property.
Friday, June 22
So misunderstood
The issue of a land-zoning swap spurred by the National Ground Intelligence Center (NGIC) expansion, first reported in C-VILLE, just won’t go away. A beleaguered Ken Boyd, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, appeared today on the WINA “Morning Show” to respond to mounting criticism over a 2006 resolution to move 30 acres of local developer Wendell Wood’s land into the designated growth area, in order to satisfy him for selling growth-area land to NGIC at what is said to be below cost. “I really am concerned there’s a lot of misinformation about how the Board of Supervisors works,” says Boyd to a mostly sympathetic call-in audience. Boyd emphasized that the move isn’t yet a done deal.
Saturday, June 23
Carpenter’s narrow escape
“This I Believe,” a radio essay that airs on NPR, featured local folk songstress Mary Chapin Carpenter today. Carpenter survived a pulmonary embolism, a usually fatal blood clot in the lungs. During recovery, the five-time Grammy-Award winner fell into depression but was revived after a visit to the grocery store. “The young man who rang up my groceries and asked me if I wanted paper or plastic also told me to enjoy the rest of my day,” Carpenter said. “I looked at him and I knew he meant it.”
Sunday, June 24
Desperate times call for Warner
 Can everyone’s favorite cowboy, Virginia Senator John Warner, warn the President about Iraq and turn the surge into a skee-daddle? Frank Rich ponders in the Sunday NYT. |
If the end of the Iraq war will come only “when a senior senator from the President’s party says no,” who will speak up? Op-ed columnist Frank Rich suggests in today’s New York Times that Virginia Senator John Warner would be a perfect choice since he voiced opposition last year and has enough “clout to give political cover” to other GOP members. The question is whether Warner is up to the task of playing William Fulbright to Bush’s LBJ. Rich writes: “Surely he must recognize that his moment for speaking out about this war is overdue.”
Monday, June 25
Forum for young minds
A UVA psychiatrist and law professor teamed up with a mental health advocate at the Miller Center for a forum on “Mental Health and Law Reform” today. Dr. Gregory B. Saathoff, director of the Critical Incident Analysis Group and Richard J. Bonnie, director of the Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy, joined Alison Malmon, executive director of Active Minds, Inc. on what’s become a hot topic following the Virginia Tech shooting.
