King, Grisham to read for Webb
Aug 31st 11:53pm
by Dave McNair
Two of the world�s best-selling authors will be sharing the stage at the Paramount Theater in September to raise money for Virginia�s best known fiction-writing politician.
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Sparky’s deluge: Ernesto cancels Fridays
Aug 31st 10:35pm
by Hawes Spencer
Tomorrow's Fridays after 5 concert has been cancelled due to the heavy rains expected as the storm called Ernesto barrels north through Central Virginia.
The headliner was to be Sparky's Flaw, which the Hook music editor recently lauded for a "meteoric" recent rise from high school Battle of the Bands champs to UVA Battle of the Bands champs to playing with Robert Randolph and headlining at Starr Hill.
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More trouble for Kinkade
Aug 31st 3:01pm
by Hawes Spencer
Jeff Spinello opened his Kinkade-based gallery on the Downtown Mall in May 1999 and closed it in November 2003.
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HookCast for August 31, 2006
Aug 31st 2:48pm
by lindsay
Lethal Wreckage: The embattled towing company gets slapped with a $20 million lawsuit. Plus, Camblos connects alleged school bomb plot to Hitler, wineries cry foul over new delivery law, New Fitness for Ladies shuts down, and much more
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Earl Washington: 0, taxpayers: $1 million
Aug 31st 6:52am
by Hawes Spencer
A report in this morning's Richmond Times-Dispatch reveals that Virginia has now spent $1 million buying legal se
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Bomb fallout: Father faces contempt charge
Aug 30th 5:27pm
by Lisa Provence
The father of a 16-year-old former Albemarle High student charged with plotting to blow up two high schools has been hit with a contempt of court charge for writing to the school system, Liesel Nowak reveals in today's Daily Progress (although the Progress misidentified the parent).
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County hunkers down for 5-10 inches of rain
Aug 30th 3:24pm
by lindsay
Perhaps it's only appropriate that the same week Bob Dylan released his first album in five years, "a hard rain's a-gonna fall" on the east coast.
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Cat shooting prompts new gun law
Aug 30th 3:22pm
by Courteney Stuart
George and Kathy Seymour leave Albemarle District Court on August 22.
PHOTO BY WILLIAM WALKER
She was just one family's pet, but the death of Carmen the cat may soon have an impact on every resident of Albemarle County.
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Peatross opens bomb file… sort of
Aug 30th 6:54am
by Hawes Spencer
In a somewhat confusing set of moves, Albemarle Circuit Judge Paul Peatross has opened a portion of the court file of the 15-year-old student charged in the school bombing case, this morning's Daily Progress reports.
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Fence cutting cuts barriers
Aug 29th 9:29pm
by Dave McNair
The fence that had long separated the 10th and Page and Venable neighborhoods was symbolically and practically cut open on Monday, August 28 in a ceremony at the new Hope Community Center on 11th Street NW.
The fence, which symbolized the city�s history of strained race relations, had forced school children from the largely African-American 10th and Page neighborhood to walk the six blocks around or scale t
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The Hitler birthday connection
Aug 25th 3:50pm
by Lisa Provence
Commonwealth's Attorney Jim Camblos, on WINA this morning to discuss the alleged bomber case, revealed a key factor in the decision to quickly arrest three youths suspected of conspiring to blow up high schools: "The ringleader was born on Hitler's 100th anniversary of his birthday"– and the anniversary of Columbine.
The Third Reich founder became a more significant player in this local drama when Camblos mentioned again about the 17-year-old former Western Albemarle student,
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Record water use leads to warning
Aug 25th 6:26am
by Hawes Spencer
The chief of the Rivanna Water and Sewer authority told reporters yesterday that water use is spiking amid low rainfall conditions and that residents should voluntarily conserve or soon face the possibility of mandatory restrictions a la the summer of 2002.
RWSA Executive Director Tom Frederick, who has
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HookCast for August 24, 2006
Aug 24th 5:04pm
by Hawes Spencer
This is your HookCast for the issue of August 24, 2006. Enjoy the savory listenings.
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Progress presses to open bomb case– again
Aug 23rd 5:24pm
by Lisa Provence
Lawyers for Media General, a 16-year-old defendant in the alleged teen bomb plot, and the commonwealth were in court today as Judge Paul Peatross reviewed whether there was still reason to keep the teen's case closed.
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Guilty: cat shooter gets 10 days
Aug 22nd 8:35pm
by Hawes Spencer
George and Kathy Seymour pointed out that in seven years of selling 2,000 cars, they've never before been hauled into court
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Harvey family killer sentenced to death
Aug 22nd 4:43pm
by Dave McNair
After more than 12 hours of deliberation, the jury in the Harvey trial has handed down a death sentence to Ricky Javon Gray, the Richmond Times Dispatch reports. According to the report, the jury indicated that it was the killing of the young Harvey daughters, Stella and Ruby, that tipped the scales.
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Police apprehend Morva
Aug 21st 3:50pm
by lindsay
At 3:39pm, word came over the New River Valley police scanner that police had apprehended William Morva in the woods near the rugby and lacrosse fields near Blacksburg's Tech Center Drive. He was armed at the time, though there are no reports of anybody being harmed in the arrest at this time.
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Fugitive shuts down Virginia Tech
Aug 21st 12:07pm
by Lisa Provence
Virginia Tech officials canceled classes at 10:30am today to help police nab barefoot, tie-dye-shirt, khaki-short and white-sheet clad William Morva, an escapee from Montgomery County Jail who's a homicide suspect.
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Mr. Feces and the Harveys’ killer both reined in
Aug 18th 7:16am
by Hawes Spencer
Jurors in Richmond required little time yesterday– just 30 minutes– to convict Ricky Javon Gray in the horrific New Year's Day murder of an artistic family that included Bryan Harvey who tasted some measure of fame as a member of the Dads and House of Freaks musical acts.
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Harvey trial under way
Aug 17th 12:45pm
by Courteney Stuart
Eight months after the brutal New Year's Day slayings of beloved musician Bryan Harvey, his wife Kathryn, and their two daughters, Stella and Ruby, the trial for their alleged murderer, Ricky Javon Gray, is under way in a Richmond court. Among details to emerge: that Gray and his accomplice, Ray Dandridge, were already in the house when a family friend dropped nine-year-old Stella off after a sleepover.
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HookCast- August 17, 2006
Aug 17th 11:56am
by lindsay
Live from...the Hook: Rockumentary spotlights local legends. Plus a retrial in the school bomb plot case, a popular pastor gets arrested for child pornography, and a local man goes to prison for swindling 11 out of nearly $150,000.
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Bomb trial: Teen's appeal lifts secrecy veil
Aug 17th 8:00am
by
Evidence in a highly publicized alleged plot to blow up two high schools was heard for the first time in a courtroom open to the public. A former Jack Jouett middle schooler appealed his conviction in Albemarle Circuit Court August 15 with the defense contending the boy didn't even know two of the three other teens arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up Albemarle and Western Albemarle high schools and that he thought the plan was a joke.
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Feces-flinging ‘white power’ man sought
Aug 17th 7:52am
by Hawes Spencer
The Daily Progress and NBC29 list a shocking litany of crimes allegedly committed by the Albemarle man who somehow worked the system well enough to remain free of jail to get into an automobile chase that resulted in the death of a Colonial Heights police officer.
Douglas Michael "Beefy" Brown Jr., 36,
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‘Not guilty’ verdict in bomber case
Aug 16th 10:14pm
by Hawes Spencer
Jurors delivered a harsh rebuke tonight to prosecutors in the trial of a a 13-year-old alleged bombing conspirator who was supposedly part of a plot to murder students and reduce two local high schools to rubble.
The four women and eight men of the jury took four hours (including a delivered pizza dinner) to find that the former Jack Jouett Middle School student, convicted earlier this year in juvenile
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Defense attacks police work; jury gets case
Aug 16th 5:37pm
by Hawes Spencer
The defense attacked the case against a 13-year-old alleged bombing conspirator this afternoon toward the end of his two-day trial in Albemarle Circuit Court, and the matter went to the jury at 5:05pm.
Defense lawyer David Heilberg criticized the Commonwealth's case, in part, for seizing several computers and then failing to introduce any computer evidence in the trial.
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Daily Show leads with Allen’s ‘Macaca’
Aug 16th 12:08am
Local wind firm $ells to BP
Aug 15th 4:12pm
by Hawes Spencer
Matthew Hantzmon (left) and Sandy Reisky have really thrown their future to the wind.
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Reading the Census leaves
Aug 15th 2:49pm
by Dave McNair
Okay, all you data junkies�the Census Bureau has released the first part of its
2005 community survey data for the Charlottesville area, which includes Charlottesville, Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna and Nelson. Like so many statistical tea leaves, the numbers reveal some interesting developments. For instance, the area is teaming with female divorcees, over 9,000 compared to 5,774 male divorcees.
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Transit center toilets to open!
Aug 11th 4:20pm
by Courteney Stuart
There may be lots of potty talk tonight at Fridays After Five, but it's not because a swarm of toddlers is taking over the venue: at 5pm, the brand spanking new public restrooms at the Transit Center should be opened for the first time.
Getting the bathrooms working has been a, ahem, #1 priority for the city. (And maybe a #2 priority as well). Today was the target date, says transportation boss Judy Mueller.
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1870 House Destroyed
Aug 10th 5:47pm
by Rosalind Warfield-Brown
Fire destroyed the 1870 home of Warren Guthrie and Holly Dilatush-Guthrie at 5539 Stony Point Road Thursday afternoon, August 10. According to County spokesperson Lee Catlin, two dogs in the two-story house were able to escape, but the structure was declared a total loss. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
#
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Hook editor subpoenaed in bomb case
Aug 10th 3:41pm
by Lisa Provence
In the latest chapter of a case that's put four local teenage boys behind bars after they were convicted of conspiracy for allegedly plotting to blow up two high schools, the Albemarle commonwealth's attorney office has subpoenaed Hook editor Hawes Spencer to be a witness for the prosecution, and assistant commonwealth's attorney Darby Lowe also demanded copies of all articles about the case the free weekly newspaper has written.
Spencer, who interviewed a 13-year-old and his parents, detailed in
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HookCast- August 10, 2006
Aug 10th 3:19pm
by lindsay
The Mayor Bunch: It's the story...of a lovely city (and the 15 mayors who live here). Plus the arresting officer in the cat shooting case gets arrested, John Paul Jones speaks out on "the Jack," and what's the deal with those City car decals?
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Goode, Weed go at it
Aug 10th 10:18am
by Dave McNair
It�s probably a good thing that 5th District Rep Virgil Goode and Democratic challenger Al Weed are running against each other.
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Progress coaxes hearing in bomb case….but little else
Aug 9th 4:08am
by Dave McNair
The Daily Progress is reporting that Albemarle County Judge Paul M. Peatross Jr.
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DMB asks fans for help on greatest hits album�Dave & Mick reunite!
Aug 8th 11:04am
by Dave McNair
In a recent e-mail newsletter to fans, the Dave Matthews Band announced plans to put together a greatest hits album in the ââ?¬Å?near future.ââ?¬Â Apparently, itââ?¬â?¢s a requirement of the bandââ?¬â?¢s 2004 contract with RCA.
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Hurting Hogan to miss JPJ RAW show?
Aug 7th 12:42pm
by Dave McNair
WWE.com (World Wresting Entertainment) is reporting that Hulk Hogan has a knee injury and will probably miss the RAW show at the ââ?¬Å?Jackââ?¬Â on August 14. The Hulkster had an MRI over the weekend which revealed a partially torn meniscus in his right knee. Apparently, the seemingly ageless WWE Hall of Famer is feeling his age.
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Lawyer: Lethal near bankruptcy
Aug 4th 4:09pm
by Hawes Spencer
Lethal Wrecker is back in the news again, and this time it's pleading bankruptcy– well, almost. Readers may remember that 2003-2005 were banner years for dust-ups involving Lethal Wrecker and the company's predatory pricing practices– specifically, consistently overcharging parkers trying to pry their impounded cars from Lethal's grasp.
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Dozier goes home
Aug 4th 1:08pm
by Courteney Stuart
Leaning on a cane, Kimberly Dozier, the CBS journalist injured in Iraq on May 29, took several steps outside Kernan Hospital in Maryland on Wednesday, August 2, before going home, according to a CBSnews.com report.
Dozier, 40, who attended UVA grad school in the early 1990s, was critically wounded by a roadside explosion as she and her crew worked on a Memorial Day story about U.S. troops in Iraq.
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The Pointe: County densification continues
Aug 3rd 10:49am
by Dave McNair
Yesterday, the Albemarle County Board of Supervisors approved rezoning for North Pointe, the 264 acre proposed development along 29N just past the airport that will add 900 new homes and 500,000 square feet of retail space to the area.
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HookCast- August 3, 2006
Aug 3rd 9:52am
by lindsay
Your free ticket to Charlottesville: The 2006-2007 Annual Manual
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