Charlottesville Breaking News
Fake IDs: How hard is it?
A Virginia's driver's license is hard to fake well, say officials.DMV publicity photoThe recent bust of a fake ID ring where over $2 million was found in a house on Rugby Road brought attention to a lucrative criminal enterprise with high demand, particularly in a college town. So how hard is it to produce what law enforcement described as "high-quality false identification"?
Not very, apparently.
"What is problematic is the level of sophistication in some of the IDs we see," says David Huff, senior special agent with Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. "Before, even with minimal training, an officer could tell the fakes." Now, he says, they almost have to put them side by side to tell the difference.
Fake IDs, often called "novelty" items on the Internet, are incorporating images that only appear under ultraviolet light, says Huff. Sometimes the fakes will scan in bars that use scanners.
And if someone wants to produce an ID at home that will pass a cursory glance, all it takes is a printer and magnetically encoded card stoc...
Get Out! events, shows, things to do
Primus brings its freak show to the Pavilion on June 5.publicty photo"Rock music should be gross: that's the fun of it. It gets up and drops its trousers." – Bruce Dickinson, British rock guitarist and lead singer for Iron Maiden.
Quirkfest at the Pavilion
Primus, the San Francisco-based rock band, has been serving up their irreverent, funk-metal tunes for nearly three decades now, summoning the spirits of Frank Zappa and Pink Floyd, and they're showing no signs of slowing down. Green Naugahyde, the band's 2011 album, and the first in more than a decade (released by our hometown ATO Records), brings with it both the band's youthful love of experimentation as well as some real-life experience. As bassist and vocalist Les Claypool told Rolling Stone in 2011, "It's got 20 years of life experience on it— from many different angles. A song like 'Jilly's on Smack' just wouldn't have been written in the early Nineties, because we hadn't lost a friend to heroin addiction. A song like 'Lee Van Cleef,' which is reflective of my youth, just wouldn't have been written back then. So there's a lot of salt to it, yet there is this vigor of Jay's [Lane, drummer] very rhythmic playing." The album's title, by the way, comes from the lyrics of "Lee Van Cleef," which in true Primusian quirkiness, is about some guys watching Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef movies and driving a yellow Studebaker with seats made of green Naugahyde. D...
Summer reading: 5 local authors to take to the beach
In a town where there are more writers per capita than readers, it can be daunting to think about keeping up with the local offerings when it seems like just about everyone has a book. For your convenience, the Hook nets out a few must-reads from Charlottesville's literary luminaries (and there are plenty more). So when you're packing up for the beach or heading to the hammock and looking for something to delve into, here are five books worth reading if you're living here– or even if you don't.
The Art of Fielding
by Chad Harbach
Former Hook fiction winner and UVA creative writing MFA,
Harbach was the "It" first-time writer two years ago, getting a
bidding war and a roll-out that would make published writers who
have to do their own marketing– the majority– weep. With good
reason. The Art of Fielding, which made the New York
Times best books of 2011 list, is a darn good read, loosely
about baseball at Westish College in northern Wisconsin, but also
about friendship, family, love, and dreams. You know, the
basics.
Tiny bullies
Nick GalifianakisCarolyn:
I'm having trouble dealing with my violent niece and nephew, 5 and 7. I have two children of my own a little older. We are a tight family that (mostly, despite this big issue) enjoys hanging out together quite often. It's common for the 5-year-old to hold my 7-year-old down and just swing punches. The boy was kicked out of day care at 2 for his violent tendencies. In an effort to not tear the family apart, we've tried to deal with it by telling ourselves that in time it will go away. Things aren't better, except that he is wiser now and waits for when he thinks we're not watching to hit our kids.
At a recent birthday, the two hit or kicked every kid at least once.
I am as nonconfrontational as it gets, and as a result I think my kids have learned that being hit by them is OK. In a world of bullies, I need to send the message that it is most definitely not OK, even with family.
I just don't know how to open the parents' eyes. They don't express any concern or impose any real discipline and leave everyone else to deal with them. The children don't take our discipline seriously as a result of a lifelong use of empty threats by the parents.
I love them and want them in our lives, but I'm worried about ca...
Decision delay: Dumler awaits ruling on petition
Christopher Dumler leaves Albemarle County Circuit Court after the May 20 trial. Judge Cheryl Higgins will rule on whether Dumler remains on the board on May 31.Courteney StuartAt least 470 of his constituents want him gone, but embattled Albemarle County Supervisor Chris Dumler hangs on– and he has at least one more week to serve the Scottsville District before Judge Cheryl Higgins rules on a petition to remove him from office.
"For the board to work, it requires trust, and they don't have it in Mr. Dumler's case," said special prosecutor Mike Doucette in his closing argument, wrapping up a four-hour trial on Monday, May 20 that brought at least three of Dumler's fellow supervisors to the stand along with several unsatisfied Dumler constituents.
"I was really appalled, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt," testified supervisor Ken Boyd of his feelings about his fellow board member immediately following Dumler's October arrest on charges of forcible sodomy. Boyd noted that after Dumler pleaded guilty in January to a reduced charge of misdemeanor sexual battery, "I lost respect for him."
Supervisor Duane Snow described his inspiration for writing an open letter asking Dumler to step down after the conviction, explaining that staying silent while Dumler remained on the board seemed "the wrong message to send to our youth."
Back in early February, soon after Dumler accepted the plea that reduced the...
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