 A 90-82 defeat at the hands of North Carolina last Friday was one of the few ACC disappointments this year for Aisha Mohammed and the rest of the UVA women’s basketball team. |
Tuesday 2/12
Obama gets posthumous endorsement
Former Del. Mitch Van Yahres has endorsed Barack Obama from the dead, reports Bob Gibson of The Daily Progress today on his blog. The Democrat and former Charlottesville mayor died Friday after complications from surgery for lung cancer, but Van Yahres’ family members placed a note in his obituary asking his friends “in lieu of expenditures on flowers and the like, to make a healthy and significant contribution to the presidential campaign of Barack Obama or, if they insist, the charity of their choice.”
Wednesday 2/13
Obama, McCain sweep Potomac primaries
Roughly 35 percent of registered Charlottesville voters turned out in the freezing rain on Tuesday. Barack Obama carried every city precinct, winning 5,563 votes to Clinton’s 1,805. Overall, Obama took the Commonwealth by a convincing margin, winning 64 percent of the votes. Hillary Clinton won just 35 percent in spite of a last minute visit to Larry Sabato’s politics class the day before. The Republican vote was much closer in the city. John McCain won 596 votes to Mike Huckabee’s 312. Ron Paul came in third place with 144 votes.
Thursday 2/14
Downtown store raided by federal agents
Sexshuns, a sneaker and apparel store on the Downtown Mall, was raided by federal agents yesterday, and the 39-year-old owner of the store, Reynold George Samuels Jr., has been indicted by a federal grand jury in Charlottesville on drug, firearm and video bootlegging charges. Seven other people were indicted along with Samuels. The U.S. Attorney’s office alleges that Samuels was the leader of a ring that, since December 2001, had distributed cocaine, crack and pirated DVDs throughout western Virginia. Because Samuels is already a convicted felon, he faces life in prison if convicted on these new charges.
Friday 2/15
Public smoking ban fails again
Proposals to ban smoking in public places such as restaurants, stores and offices came to a dead end once again in the Virginia House of Delegates, reports The Washington Post today. The House’s General Laws Committee set aside four bills aimed at banning smoking yesterday in addition to eight similar ones that were shelved last week. Democratic Governor Tim Kaine, who supported such a ban and had hoped to see it implemented during the legislative session, said that he was “not surprised.” According to the Post, two-thirds of Virginia restaurants ban smoking already.
Saturday 2/16
Dems turning their backs on immigrants?
Are state Democrats now marching to the same beat as the Republicans when it comes to immigration? Three speakers at the Albemarle/Charlottesville Democratic Breakfast exhorted local Dems to keep supporting basic rights for immigrants in the face of more than 100 bills in the General Assembly—some introduced by Democrats—officially geared to make life tougher for illegal immigrants but which would make life tougher for legal immigrants as well. Asked Peter Loach, a member of the Governor’s Virginia Latino Advisory Board, “What happened to the progressives’ outrage?”
Sunday 2/17
“Grumpy Old Politicos”
New York Times columnist Frank Rich reviewed speeches of both John McCain and Barack Obama following their victories in the Chesapeake primaries. Rich notes that McCain was swamped by “a collection of sallow-faced old Beltway pols,” including former Republican senator George Allen, whose presidential hopes were dashed by a racial comment. With Obama claiming 52 percent of the white votes in the Virginia primary, Rich writes that Allen “is the foreigner in 21st century America.”
Monday 2/18
Capshaw’s Seven Oaks Farm for sale
 Coran Capshaw is getting rid of his historic house. Does this mean he’s moving out of Charlottesville? |
Well, look what popped up in Sunday’s Daily Progress, page B7, just across from George Will himself. It’s an ad for Coran Capshaw’s nationally registered, Greek revivaled, 100-acre Seven Oaks Farm. Whether the fact that the Charlottesville mogul’s 16,870-square-foot home is up for sale means Capshaw plans to leave the area is unclear. Maybe he just needs a bigger pool house.
