• Asides

  Hemings book wins National Book Award
  Last night in New York, New York University law professor Annette Gordon-Reed won the National Book Award for nonfiction for her groundbreaking study of Sally Hemings and three generations of her extended family The Hemingses of Monticello. Among the more surprising revelations in this book, Gordon-Reed’s second book of scholarship on Thomas Jefferson, is that Hemings was actually the half-sister of Jefferson’s late wife Martha. (1)

  UVA Law alum Napolitano to head Homeland Security
  PHOTO COURTESY UVA SCHOOL OF LAW It looks like President-elect Barack Obama will have at least one UVA connection in his cabinet. The Associated Press reports that Obama has chosen Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano to be his Director of Homeland Secruity, the first woman to ever run the department. Napolitano graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1983, and returned to Charlottesville last year to deliver the law school’s commencement address. (1)

  Wintergreen cranks up snowmaking...
  … while Mother Nature cranked Snowshoe with 31″ inches of natural snow this week. Wintergreen plans to open for skiing December 12, while Snowshoe opens this Friday. (2)

  Bark brochure available
  Albemarle County has put out a barking-dog brochure that advises citizens how to approach their neighbors about their noisy canines, which police prefer, and how to seek civil and/or criminal redress. Also, report property and nuisance incidents to Albemarle police online. (1)

  Judge's decision could affect Goode-Perriello race
  A hearing on December 8 in U.S. District Court in Richmond could affect the outcome the still-too-close-to-call race for Congress between Rep. Virgil Goode (R-Rocky Mount) and Tom Perriello (D-Ivy). Judge Richard L. Williams will decide whether to count absentee ballots from members of the military mailed past the absentee ballot deadline of Saturday, November 1. It remains unknown just how many of those ballots were from the Fifth District, but attorneys for the presidential campaign of Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) estimate a total of 5,000 absentee ballots had come in after the deadline. Perriello currently leads Goode by 745 votes. (5)

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