BY DON BERARD

In October, three alleged cocaine dealers snared by the Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement task force picked up another felony charge for allegedly hawking their wares within one-fifth of a mile of a school. Virginia state law makes it illegal to sell drugs within 1,000 feet of a school— even if the dealer isn’t targeting children as clientele and even if the dealer has no idea the school is there.

Jose Cano, 26, from Woodridge and Jorge Rosales-Garcia, 26, from Fredericksburg were arrested October 20 behind Kohr Brothers Frozen Custard in the Woodbrook Shopping Center, according to Rosales-Garcia’s attorney, Jessica Smith. They were charged with possessing with the intent to distribute 4.5 ounces of cocaine within 1,000 feet of Woodbrook Elementary, a school that is not visible from the parking lot where they were busted.

The two men were in court November 19 for preliminary hearings, and the 1,000-foot charge was dropped for each, although for different reasons.

For Rosales-Garcia, the charge was nol prossed as the result of (more)

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“It was not a 100 percent victory,” says Danielson’s attorney, Connor Crook.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

“The truth is out there,” said the lawyer fighting for a right to re-file the high-profile hotel collusion lawsuit by internet millionaire Halsey Minor against developer Lee Danielson.

“Well, whatever the truth is,” responded Judge Edward Hogshire, “right now it’s just a broad brush of allegations.”

“We need more time to flesh all this out,” explained Minor’s lawyer, Ryan C. Berry. “Give us leave to amend.”

And so the judge did. But in the case of the former colleagues now dueling over development of a posh hotel for the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, this would be Minor’s only victory on Friday, November 20.

Judge Hogshire dismissed most of Minor’s claims including his allegation that (more)

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Mike and Natalia Bost say they can’t afford to pay a $100 water/sewer bill at Autumn Hill apartments.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

When Natalia and Michael Bost moved into Autumn Hill apartments with their new baby in July, they thought the $827 a month rent for a two-bedroom apartment was a pretty good deal— until the day they received a $200 water and sewer bill. Now, they’re among several tenants at the Commonwealth Drive-area complex who think water is being used as a profit center.

“We were told that water, sewer, and trash payments would be made directly to the leasing office and that they would run $30-40 a month,” says Natalia Bost. “In our last apartment, we paid (more)

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Minor and Danielson during happier times at the groundbreaking of the Landmark.
FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN

Lawyers for formerly entwined hotel-makers Halsey Minor and Lee Danielson will be in court Friday in a case that puts the troubled Landmark Hotel project back in the spotlight. In a follow-up to a recent story about hotel owner Minor, here is a look at most if not all of the litigation in which Minor has recently been involved.

The Landmark Hotel

Minor v. Danielson & SFG
Filed: February 11, 2009, Charlottesville Circuit Court
Alleging: That Danielson’s company, Hotel Charlottesville LLC, intentionally hid $5.2 million in expenses for such “ordinary and customary” costs as elevators, (more)

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Mike Dillard of UVA’s Facilities Management unclogs a leaf-choked storm drain at 8:50am on University Avenue.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

The rush-hour lake on University Avenue didn’t slow everyone down.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

With over five inches having already fallen and more still on the way, the National Weather Service issued a flood warning for urban areas and small streams in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

The rainfall slowed rush-hour traffic on University Avenue as a workers with UVA’s Facilities Management pitched in with a rake to unclog a storm drain whose blockage created a temporary lake near the Snyder Tennis Courts on the busy thoroughfare.

According to hourly measurements at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport listed at the Weather Underground, as of 11am Charlottesville received 5.02 inches of rainfall since midnight.

While the Weather Service indicates that no flash flooding is expected, the flood warning remains in effect until 1:15pm with particular concern expressed for Free Union and Crozet. The Weather Service points out that most flood-related deaths occur in automobiles, so drivers are cautioned not to drive through flooding streams over water-covered bridges.

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Jimmy in 2008.
PHOTO BY MICHAEL W. PENDERGRASS

I think my wife and I don’t get out enough. We won two free tickets to the November 17 Jimmy Buffett concert in Charlottesville from a local newspaper’s contest. It was wonderful.  We walked in from the law school smugly watching what appeared to be all of Virginia streaming into the John Paul Jones Arena.

The ginormous parking lots around the Arena were plastered with a special brand of tailgaters: guys in hula skirts and coconut bras, girls with shark pasties. Many sporting parrot, crab, and shark hats and some in shark and pirate costumes, all downing flagons of Caribbean-pastel margaritas mixed to the tunes of Jimmy and whining 12-volt blenders.

Some cars were decorated. A popular fixation were big shark fins duct-taped to the roof.

We approached JPJ and found (more)

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Jefferson Area Tea Party chairman Bill Hay has his differences with Congressman Tom Perriello, but he does not condone burning Perriello in effigy.
PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE

About a week after Guy Fawkes’ Day, the British holiday celebrated with bonfires and effigy burning of the guy who tried to blow up Parliament, a Danville group announced its plans to burn Congressman Tom Perriello and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy at a November 21 bonfire. Yet Charlottesville-area reaction indicates that some Virginians don’t quite have the same stiff upper lip as their Brit cousins about torching likenesses— especially of their elected leaders.

“This is not something we condone,” says Bill Hay, head of the local group. “I had a conniption when I heard about it.”

Hay says that the Jefferson Area Tea Party, as much as it (more)

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