Charlottesville Breaking News
nTelos Pavilion: Naming rights headed to telecom co.
The Charlottesville Pavilion is soon to be nTelos Wireless Pavilion.PHOTOS BY LISA PROVENCE
Will rights to the generically named Transit Center (right) go next?PHOTO BY LISA PROVENCE
The actual unveiling of the name took place April 5.photo by Hawes Spencer
The original name remains on this 2005 stone plaque.photo by Hawes Spencer
"Thanks a lot, Henry," joked nTelos CEO Jim Hyde to broadcast journalist Graff who revealed the name a week earlier.photo by Hawes Spencer
Charlottesville Free Clinic director Erika Viccellio reacts with joy at the $5K donation nTelos offered the non-profit health-care agency.photo by Hawes Spencer
A few steps away, hired PVCC student-artist Jason Gaviria commemorates the event in chalk at the free speech monumentphoto by Hawes SpencerThe Charlottesville Pavilion is losing its old name. Henceforth the Downtown Mall landmark will be known by a more corporate (and curiously-capitalized) moniker: nTelos Wireless Pavilion. (It could be worse; the Nissan Pavilion in northern Virginia got a new name last year that sounds like something behind the counter at the local video store: Jiffy Lube Live.)
Although the site of the Charlottesville Pavilion is owned by the public, in 2004 the city leased the property to music/real estate mogul Coran Capshaw, via CEDA, the Charlottesville Economic Development Authority. And all along, Capshaw's company, Charlottesville Pavilion LLC, has held the naming rights.
"That's pretty standard in arenas and pavilions," says CEDA director Aubrey Watts. "That's part of the revenue stream for developers and promoters."
The name has to be approved by City Council and CEDA, and Watts sees no reason that won't happen– unless the sponsor happened to be Marlboro, Trojan, or another corporate brand that might be considered unseemly for children.
The city lent Capshaw $2.4 million to build the pavilion, contributed another $1 million, and demands that he operate the place for 20 years with at least 10 days a year for city-sponsored events, according to the lease [PDF below].
While Capshaw's...
Equinoxer to activist: The making of a soldier in the war against the war on drugs
The fraternity seizures made national news and got hefty coverage in the Daily Progress.Albemarle-Charlottesville Historical Society
On March 22, 2011, Graham revisited the scene of his arrest, what had been the TKE house.photo by hawes spencer
George H.W. Bush awards the Medal of Freedom to Ronald Reagan, who asked Congress to expand the death penalty from murderers to "drug kingpins."George Bush Library
Nancy Reagan launched "Just say no" in 1982 (Click on photo to see her and slogan) when an Oakland schoolgirl asked her how to respond if offered drugs.White House Photographic Office
President Obama, the first president to admit some cocaine use, eliminated the five-year mandatory minimum penalty for crack cocaine possession when he signed the Fair Sentencing Act of 2010.Obama-Biden Transition Project/Pete Souza
Retired Police Chief John deKoven "Deke" Bowen: "If I had to do it all over again, would I? Yep."file photo by Lisa Provence
When Bill Clinton signed welfare reform, he made drug felons-- thousands of whom had merely possessed drugs-- ineligible for government assistance.U.S. Government
Graham returned to Charlottesville on the 20th anniversary of Operation Equinox to denounce the War on Drugs.photo by Hawes Spencer
TKE sold this house to pay government fines. It now serves as a satellite house for another fraternity, Phi Delta Theta.photo by hawes spencer
Delta Upsilon got its house back late in 1991 by paying an undisclosed financial settlement. (In 2011, the fraternity moved to a new structure on Chancellor Street.)photo by hawes spencer
Phi Epsilon got its house back without penalty and later rejoined and took the name of a national parent, Zeta Beta Tau.photo by hawes spencer
Former CPD narcotics agent Chip Harding now regrets getting life sentences for drug dealers.photo by hawes spencer
The drug war continues, as Governor Bob McDonnell just signed legislation making possession of more than half an ounce of synthetic marijuana, aka "spice," a felony carrying a potential jail term of 10 years.file photo by Jen Fariello"Just say no." –First Lady Nancy Reagan
Jamie Graham did not say no. He said yes. In fact, he said yes many times. Yes to that bottle of champagne his friends were passing around in high school at a New Year's Eve party, yes to the guy who said "chug it." He said yes to trying marijuana on that very same night, though it never actually got him high the first few times. And, in the summer before college, Graham said yes to LSD. He'd been reading all about Ken Kesey and the Day-Glo acid trippers of the 1960s, and he'd gotten curious.
The only problem was, this Eagle Scout, debate team captain, and high school track star with a 4.5 GPA didn't know anyone who did acid. So he bounced the idea off of some of the students he tutored after school. Some of them had long hair, smoked, and looked like they knew how to get a hold of the stuff. Most of them laughed at their clean-cut 18-year-old math tutor when he asked about getting acid. But one did not. And within a few weeks, Graham had the first of what would be many experiences with LSD.
He said yes to the University of Virginia when he was offered an academic scholarship. And he said yes to Tau Kappa Epsilon when they asked him to pledge. He said yes to parties and long hair, yes to Grateful Dead concerts and Gulf War protests, and yes to the new world of freedom that is college life. And of course he said yes to his studies, maintaining a...
Wet zero: Worrell's wastewater gadget cleans up in SF
Thanks to an Albemarle company, this new San Francisco building may release no sewage at all.photo courtesy Worrell WaterOnce again, Worrell Water Technologies, the company founded by ex-Daily Progress owner Tom Worrell to develop earth-inspired wastewater re-use technologies, has sold one of its state-of-the-art Living Machine systems to a major buyer. This time, it's the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which wants to display the system in its new 13-story headquarters.
Back in December, the U.S. government purchased a Worrell system for a new border control facility in Otay Mesa, California; and another Living Machine is operating in the 10-story headquarters of the Port of Portland, the entity that runs Portland International Airport, where water from sinks, showers, and toilets is reused for use in toilets (and where about only 20 percent of the water typically used in a conventional office building is consumed).
“The new San Fransisco office building shows how we can begin to transition to decentralizing energy and water systems, even in a dense urban area,” says Will Kirksey, senior vice president at Worrell Water Technologies, in a release that notes that the company now has more than a dozen major systems in operation around the world.But there are none in Al...
Absolute Kluge: Eyes on Trump as winery hits auction block
The carriage house comes in a tract with 647 acres.PHOTO J.P. KING WEBSITEWhen the winery founded by Patricia Kluge was on the block in December, no one came close to the bank's $19-million minimum. But at the upcoming April 7 absolute auction, someone will go home with a winery– or part of one.
An absolute auction means the highest bidder gets the property, with no minimum, and the owner can't bid on it, explains Bill Shmidheiser, attorney for Farm Credit, which is trying to recoup its $35-million loan to Kluge.
"It assures buyers the property will be sold at the highest price," he says. "The public knows the owners are not testing the waters."
The 901-acre Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyards has been divvied up into six tracts."As a whole, it's a big bite," explains Shmidheiser.
But at least one high-profile potential buyer– The Donald– may think splitting the property is a mistake.
"We might be interested in buying the whole thing," says Jason Greenblatt, general counsel for Donald Trump's empire. "I think they're destroying it by splitting it. And I think they're harming the Virginia wine industry by doing so."
Trump emerged as a player in the liquidation of Kluge's ass...
'Tragic accident:' UVA student dies in fall from roof
Thomas W. Gilliam IV was interested in foreign policy.PHOTO COURTESY THE GILLIAM FAMILY
The Physics Building is on McCormick Road.PHOTO UVA WEBSITE
Tommy Gilliam, as his family called him, is second from the right, with his younger brothers, James and Benjamin, his mother, Vicki, and father Tom.PHOTO COURTESY GILLIAM FAMILYThomas W. Gilliam IV's last day alive had been "magnificent," says his grandfather. The 19-year-old UVA student went to church with his grandparents and his father, who was in town for dental work from Ireland, where the family lived. They went out to lunch and then he worked on his resume with his dad. They went to a performance of Celtic Woman at John Paul Jones Arena Sunday night, March 27, and dropped Tom off at his dorm at 10pm.
"He said he had to finish a paper," says Tom Gilliam Jr., the young man's grandfather.
Two hours later, he was dead, the victim of what authorities believe was an accidental fall from the roof of the Physics Building.
"He slipped and fell," says his grandfather.
An emergency call came in at 11:15pm, Gilliam was taken from the McCormick Road building at 11:38pm, and he arrived at the UVA Medical Center at 11:43pm, where he died.
"At this time, we do not believe that either foul play or alcohol were involved," says UVA spokesperson Carol Wood in a release. "Nor do we believe that this was a suicide. Investigators believe it was a tragic accident." An autopsy is being performed.
UVA police are investigating the incident, and issued a statement Monday night that the east door of the Physics Building was compromised, and that Gilliam entered through that door and opened the main door to let in other students.
"Unfortunately, with the snow and rain on Saturday and Sunday, the roof of the Physics Build...
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