UVa. unveils renderings for indoor practice facility
The Virginia athletics department has released the renderings for its indoor football practice facility. The University received the renderings from the Washington, D.C.,-based Bowie Gridley Architects.
The facility, also available for use by other Virginia athletics programs, will be located on one of two existing football practice fields behind the McCue Center and University Hall.
With a projected cost of $13 million for the 78,000-square foot facility, Virginia Executive Associate Athletics Director Jon Oliver said approximately $8.4 million has already been committed for the project. Oliver said the Virginia Athletics Foundation hopes to havepledges for the remaining $4.6 million by February 2012. If all funds are committed, groundbreaking for the project could take place late next spring.
“It’s important for us to keep thismoving along, because we want it to be done for 2013,” Oliver said. “If you think about the great job that Mike London has done with his recruiting, this is another step in that process to help us build a program, and we want to make this a priority, because we want the facility on-line by the start of football practice in August of 2013.
“Craig Littlepage (Virginia athletics director) has indicated that the facility is the number-one priority in the athletics department.”
Last month the University’s Board of Visitors approved the addition of the facility to the University’s Capital Projects Program. The athletics department will go back to the Board ofVisitors for approval of the design at a subsequent meeting.
“It is one thing to talk about a facility like this which will mean so much to our program,”said Virginia coach Mike London. “To see it, you get the ‘Wow’ factor. This is a significant commitment by the athletics department and the University for the football program. For us to be competitive, we need a facility of this nature to allow our student-athletes to train and practice, regardless of the conditions outdoors. I truly appreciate the efforts of everyone involved in getting us to this point and all of the donors and benefactors who will take it from renderings to reality.”
Festival to mark neighborhood improvement
Join residents of Commerce Avenue in Waynesboro as they celebrate positive choices and the revitalization of their community.
The Fall Festival will be held Saturday, Oct. 22 from noon-3 p.m. at 280 N. Commerce Ave. in Waynesboro. Commerce Avenue residents are celebrating the opening of a new Resource Center on the property, sharing multicultural food, enjoying live music and family friendly games. In addition they are helping the Central Shenandoah Valley Office on Youth’s SAW Coalition kick off Red Ribbon Week (Oct. 22 – 30).
Red Ribbon Week is a national drug awareness and prevention program and this year’s theme is “It’s up to me to be drug free.” Red Ribbon Week events include:
· Fall Festival- Saturday, October 22. 280 Commerce Ave., Waynesboro
· Distribution of ribbons to area SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) clubs
· Parent Workshop at Shelburne Middle School in Staunton, Thursday, October 27 from 6 -7pm
· Distribution of ribbons at Office on Youth locations in Staunton (900 Nelson Street) and Waynesboro (250 South Wayne, Suite 101).
Information on these events as well other education and prevention based programs can be found at
www.facebook.com/OfficeonYouth.
EMU alum featured in The Atlantic
Isabel Castillo, who holds a ’07 degree in social work from Eastern Mennonite University, is recognized in the November issue of The Atlantic as one of the “21 brave thinkers of 2011.”
Castillo’s life was summarized in magazine by Jose Antonio Vargas, a former Washington Post reporter who identified himself as an undocumented immigrant to the United States, like Castillo.
“Isabel Castillo was 6 years old when she was smuggled across the Mexican border,” Vargas wrote. “While her parents picked apples and the family sold tacos out of their home in the Shenandoah Valley, Isabel dreamed big — but only so big. After all, she did not have a Social Security number.
“Unable to apply for financial aid, she worked for a year, off the books, to save money for college. After graduating magna cum laude from Eastern Mennonite University in 2007, she was unable to legally find a job.”
Vargas praised Castillo for refusing to fearfully hide in the shadows and for pressing Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell in a public meeting to endorse the DREAM Act. This act would give undocumented immigrants who arrived in the United States as children a path to legal residency.
Since the summer of 2010, Castillo has become a national leader as a highly public advocate for undocumented immigrants. She was the 2011 commencement speaker at the University of San Francisco, which conferred an honorary doctorate on her. She was featured in a Feb. 20, 2011, New York Times article, “Dream Act Advocate Turns Failure into Hope” and on Telemundo, the second-largest Spanish-language content producer in the world.
Recently Harvard Divinity School chose Castillo to be one of 40 invitees to its 2011 Diversity and Explorations Program to be held Nov. 8-10, 2011. Castillo’s invitational letter cited her “combination of academics and interests in social justice and diversity, as well as [her] desire to explore connections with graduate studies in theology, religion, or ministry.”
PPV Report: Surprise ending to Night of Legends
The mystery partner was revealed. The main event went off without a hitch. A special guest referee kept order. And then … Kevin Nash walked out on AWE.
Awesome Wrestling Entertainment made its national-television debut Saturday night before a sellout crowd at Augusta Expo in Fishersville, Va.
The show started with the first-ever one-on-one match for former ECW stars Tommy Dreamer and Terry Funk. Funk came to the ring to wild applause from the crowd and from his opponent, Dreamer, a protege who had admitted beforehand that the match with his mentor would be tough for him personally. Funk changed the tone quickly, attacking Dreamer with the house mic at the opening bell and battering Dreamer around the arena with the aid of chairs, the ringside table and the steps leading to the ring.
Dreamer scored a controversial pinfall with a schoolboy rollup. Funk attacked the referee following the quick three-count, and postmatch highlights showed that Funk had kicked out at two.
Next up was a battle of Future Legends, Jamin Olivencia and Sonjay Dutt. Dutt, a veteran of TNA, controlled the action at the outset, but Olivencia rallied to gain control late in what might have been the match of the night. Olivencia rolled up Dutt for the one-two-three to sneak another controversial pinfall in the series between the two.
Perry Saturn made his return to the ring at Night of the Legends against C.W Anderson. Saturn had last wrestled in 2002 before a knee injury put him on the shelf, sending his life into a tailspin that ended with him being homeless for a short time. Anderson controlled the match at the outset against the ring-rusty Saturn, who survived a series of near-falls to score the win in his return.
Mohammad Akbar drew the most heat of the night from the live crowd before his match against Hall of Famer “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan with an anti-American rant that Duggan interrupted backstage before storming the ring. Akbar more than held his own against the 32-year veteran before Duggan scored the pinfall at the seven-minute mark. Backstage cameras caught up with Akbar, who directed another anti-American rant at Duggan and the live crowd before stalking off.
Billed as “The Future of AWE,” Alex Silva tangled with veteran Fit Finlay in another match-of-the-night candidate. Accompanied by Hall of Fame Diva Tammy Sytch, Silva took control of the matchup early before Finlay went down with an apparent match-ending knee injury after taking an awkward bump into a turnbuckle. Finlay gamely continued and had a series of near-falls on Silva, who used a tug of the tights for illegal leverage while scoring the pinfall on Finlay. After the match, Silva did a quick interview with a backstage camera crew that showed that he had suffered an apparent broken nose from a stiff Finlay blow late in the matchup.
A Special Attraction match featured Short Sleeve Sampson from Hulk Hogan’s Micro Championship Wrestling against Abo Shongo. Sampson dominated the matchup with the bigger Shongo and won with an off-the-top-rope frog splash on his prone opponent.
This all set up the main event, which featured The Rock-n-Roll Express against Kevin Nash and a mystery partner, who was revealed to be Diamond Dallas Page. AWE CEO Marvin Ward, who had been scheduled to tag with Nash in the grudge match, interrupted the match at the two-minute mark and said that at Nash’s request the match would be a singles match between Nash and Morton, who had egged on the match with a series of shoot interviews blasting Nash for perceived slights dating back to 2002.
Ward also inserted former NWA World Champ Ron Garvin as the special guest referee to maintain order for the main event.
The 7’1″ Nash as would be expected dominated the early action against the 5’10″ Morton, who rallied at the five-minute mark and seemed to have Nash on the edge of an upset after attacking his surgically-repaired left knee.
Nash regained control and chokeslammed Morton for a near-fall, at which point he grabbed the house mic and asked Morton if he had had enough, at which point the bloodied Morton responded that he’d proven his point by taking the beating from Nash. Nash offered a handshake as a way to say no hard feelings, then used his powerbomb finisher on Morton to set up the apparent ending pinfall.
Then Nash mysteriously left the ring and was counted out by Garvin, leaving Morton the improbable winner in one of the more impressive performances of his career.
Did you miss Night of Legends live? Click here to watch the replay.
TBSC represented at Broadway HIgh School Volunteer Fair
Timberville Broadway Senior Center Director Joyce Nussbaum represented the senior center at Broadway High School’s Community Night and Volunteer Fair.
Information was given out about the services available through Valley Program for Aging Services and TBSC. Volunteers were recruited to help with the Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser on Oct. 21 and students were also given an opportunity to sign up to be notified of future volunteer opportunities.
Sandra Powell speaks at Staunton Senior Center
Oct. 18 was a special day at the Staunton Senior Center. We had a guest speaker, Sandra Powell,who attempted to run across the country in order to raise money for AIDS orphans. Her story first caught the attention of Program Director Lori Pullin as she read about Sandy in the newspaper. Sandy agreed to come to tell us her amazing story; we got a glimpse of her story as well as her spirit.
Sandy, her husband Ben, and good friend Sarah Irvine started out from Los Angeles en route to New York City. Even though she could not complete the journey due to stress fractures, the group raised $2,500, learned much about themselves and fellow citizens and viewed sight after sight of wonderful if not sometimes desolate parts of the United States.
Much of their trip was along Rt. 66 which used to be the major route across the country. Sandy said they experienced only positive aspects of the people who reside on the back roads and small towns of America who were so gracious and open-hearted to them, providing water and other needed items along the way. The crew passed through California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Kansas where they had to terminate the journey after 1,500 miles!
SSC members greatly enjoyed all the pictures and stories that Sandy and Sarah provided, as well as the inspiration provided by their remarkable story! Sandy, who gives all the credit to the support of her husband and friend Sarah, ended her presentation by saying that she found it is not material things that matter in this life, but ipeople and family.
Staunton Senior Center members enjoy journey to Shenandoah Caverns
A dozen SSC members made their way to Shenandoah Caverns last Thursday for their fall trip. They participated in the “Senior Day Out” held there; even though touring the caverns was not on the agenda for the day, three seniors paid a little extra to see the underground sights.
Other members enjoyed the gift shop and “Main Street of Yesteryear”, viewing a wide variety of beautiful, moving, colorful holiday and other special window displays as they might have done in younger years.
The group then moved onto another building on the grounds which houses 27 authentic parade floats; everyone was amazed by the enormous size of the floats as well as the color and movement of them. Both the window displays and the floats were very fascinating and enjoyed by all.
Transportation was provided in a special colorfully decorated van wagon over to the Yellow Barn where members and staff enjoyed a nice buffet luncheon, musical entertainment, and more shopping at yet another gift shop.
We would highly recommend this special day for seniors from Virginia and West Virginia. We found all the activities at Shenandoah Caverns to be plenty to make a nice day trip away from the Center.
Yes, Virginia, you are pretty happy with your legislature
A recent Quinnipiac University poll of Virginians has residents generally happy with the direction of state government – making us sort of one-of-a-kind in that respect.
The only state legislature in the nation to get a positive approval rating from its residents is the Virginia General Assembly. According to the Quinnipiac poll, 47 percent of Virginians approve of the job being done by the Virginia state legislature, with 35 percent expressing disapproval.
“My colleagues and I work hard to understand the diverse issues facing Virginia and fix our problems with commonsense, forward-looking solutions. There can be no greater reward in this job than to see that the Commonwealth approves of the work we are doing for them here in Richmond,” said Speaker of the House Bill Howell, R-Stafford.
Virginia has split control of its General Assembly among the two major parties. Republicans have a majority in the House of Delegates, with Democrats in the majority in the State Senate.
“By more than 3-1, Virginians are happy with what’s going on in the state compared to the country and this optimism shows in their views of state politicians. All statewide elected officials, and even the State Legislature, get thumbs up for their job performance. In these tough times that is pretty remarkable,” said Peter A. Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute.
Only 2 percent of Virginians polled were “very satisfied” with the overall direction of the nation, while an additional 17 percent of Virginians indicated they were “somewhat satisfied” with the direction of the nation. In contrast, 10 percent are “very satisfied” with Virginia’s direction and 56 percent are “somewhat satisfied” with the direction of the Commonwealth.
ACLU asks Richmond to allow Occupy protests
The ACLU of Virginia has asked Mayor Dwight Jones of Richmond to reconsider his decision to toss Occupy Richmond campers from a Downtown Richmond public park.
In a letter faxed earlier today, ACLU of Virginia Executive Director Kent Willis notes that the Richmond police had originally told demonstrators they would be allowed to remain overnight. This is in keeping with many other cities, including Washington, D.C. and Cleveland, where campers have been allowed to camp overnight in public parks.
In D.C., campers in Freedom Plaza were told they may remain as long as four months. In Cleveland, protestors are not only camping overnight, but police have apparently distributed camping gear to demonstrators.
“There is nothing more American than the First Amendment right to protest in public, and it is incumbent upon public leaders to make sure that both the letter and spirit of that constitutional right are protected and perpetuated,” said Willis.
“We’re asking Mayor Jones to listen to his police department, which apparently sees no problem with the overnight campers, and to his conscience, and to reverse his decision to throw out the campers,” added Willis. “It’s not too late to be a help to demonstrators, rather than a hindrance.”
Members of the Occupy Richmond group met with ACLU representatives today to report that they had first been told they could remain overnight but that the mayor had overruled the police department’s decision.
County, ACSA to provide water kiosk for Riverheads
For some citizens of Augusta County who are not able to get potable water because public water or private wells are not available at their location, another option is now available.
Thanks to a cooperative project between the Augusta County Board of Supervisors and the Augusta County Service Authority, a new water kiosk is now located at the Riverheads Fire and Rescue Station, just off of U.S. Route 11 north of the Greenville interchange with I-81. Riverheads Board of Supervisors member Nancy Sorrells led the effort to make this project a reality.
The water kiosk concept is not a new one. Many communities across the U.S. and countries across the globe use water kiosks to provide safe, clean water for their citizens. The Augusta County station provides ACSA treated water at a cost of 1¢ per gallon.
The kiosk uses a pre-paid card that allows the user to dispense water in quantities from ten gallons up to thousands of gallons. Two dispensing connections are provided at the kiosk: a 2-inch cam-lock connector to allow for the quick filling of trucks and larger tanks on vehicles, and a 5/8-inch garden hose connector for smaller containers.
To purchase water from the kiosk, a user must come to the Service Authority Customer Service Counter at the Verona Government Center, purchase a kiosk card for $10, and load it with a pre-paid balance up to $750. The self-service card can immediately be used at the kiosk to dispense water. The card can be re-used by simply returning to the ACSA Customer Service Counter and purchasing additional pre-paid gallons and adding them to their card.
For more detailed information visit the ACSA website at
www.acsawater.com/waterkiosk or contact the ACSA Customer Service Department at 540-245-5681 with any questions.
Press Conference: Frank Beamer
Opening statement: “As I said Saturday, I’m really proud on how our football team responded down at Wake Forest. I think we went in there and beat a really good football team, a well-coached, good football team. That was a great win for us.
Boston College is a team we’ve played a bunch of times and I have a lot of respect for them. They’ve had some tough injuries and some turnovers, but they’ve had an off week, so they come in here fresh. [They're] big, strong, tough, well-coached a defense that bends, but doesn’t break. Their quarterback [Chase Rettig] has hit 53 percent of his passes and is getting about 200 yards a game throwing. This is a team that we need to make a great preparation for and another tough conference game.
On injury report: “I’ll leave out the injury report. We’ll put that out Thursday with the status of our players at that time.”
On how the players who replaced injured defensive starters fared on Saturday: “They did all right. (Tyrel) Wilson I thought had an excellent ball game. Played tough, played fast, hung in there great. (Detrick) Bonner had a couple plays, but he’ll be better with a good week of practice here this week. (Alonzo) Tweedy was kind of in and out of the game according to the personnel groupings, but he’s got a lot of good ability and he made some nice plays for us. They did well. The young (defensive) linemen, (Corey) Marshall and (Luther) Maddy, I think are coming along, getting better each and every week. So we just got to keep plugging along.”
On the performance of the offensive line after a slow start on Saturday: “I thought they all did ok. We’ve got a thing called chain gang and you grade a winning percentage. (Andrew) Lanier, (Greg) Nosal, (Andrew) Miller, (Jaymes) Brooks, (Blake) DeChristopher, (Nick) Becton all are in that. Some of the troubles there early weren’t particularly them. There were other people involved that missed an assignment here, missed an assignment there and all of a sudden the play doesn’t look very good. But overall, I thought they did well for the day.”
On the punting position: “(Michael) Branthover – I think he’s another guy as he gets more and more comfortable, he’s going to get better and better. He’s a guy like I told you earlier, he’s got a strong, strong leg and has a good, quick release time. And that’s two really good things to start out with. I’m looking forward to and I think again as he gets more and more confidence, calms down more and more, he’s going to get better and better.”
On if long-term consistency of program and the ability to bounce back after losses are due to staff stability: “Yeah I think you can. I’m really proud of this coaching staff. I’m proud of how we handled things on Saturday. I mean there wasn’t panic there. We just hung in there and we keep talking about as a football team, we want to get better as the day goes along. I thought we did as a coaching staff too. I think the consistency that you have there on the staff, how we try to run our program and how we to try to be consistent from day to day on how we treat kids. They know what they’re getting here. When we do lose, we don’t flip out. We find out why we lost, identify that and try to correct it. That’s all as long as the kids are giving great effort. And effort around here has never really been an issue, but I think that goes back to our coaching staff too. The relationships they have with the players. I think we care about each other around here and trust each other and I think as a result when a problem comes up we have a chance at getting it solved. I think those are the issues really.”
On success of the passing game during past two games: “Well again I think having a veteran offensive line has certainly helped. I think having a threat at tailback certainly helps. Our tight end has come up big the last couple weeks on a couple crucial plays – (Chris) Drager’s been really good. We’ve got a couple more that can really run, so hopefully we can get them more involved in the passing game also. And then we do have some receivers that you can really count on. I think (Jarrett) Boykin and Danny (Coale), Marcus Davis came up with a couple plays. D.J. Coles hurt himself there but, we’ve got some guys there that you can count on. But I just think Logan (Thomas) each and every week gets more and more comfortable. As I’ve said a couple times, I think the more you know where you’re going with the ball, the more accurate you become. You’re not late, you’re anticipating where a guy’s going to be and I think that’s happening with Logan as he gets more and more experience.”
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Mark Cooper: Solar flap misses point on energy subsidies
Posted on October 19, 2011 · Leave a Comment
If, however, the goal is good energy policy — not just deficit reduction — the fact that solar companies are going broke could turn out to be a positive development, if it puts the spotlight on nuclear reactors rather than just solar panels.
Although the solar industry receives significant subsidies — loan guarantees among them — it still is primarily a market-driven industry. It must raise capital in financial markets. It must purchase liability insurance. It must make its sales in competitive markets. On the other hand, for more than 50 years the construction of nuclear reactors in the United States has been the recipient of an array of massive subsidies and other special arrangements that go way beyond loan guarantees and totally insulate it from market forces.
For example, the Price-Anderson Act shields firms that build and operate nuclear reactors from incurring full liability for nuclear accidents. Utilities are required to have a small amount of private insurance and create an industry-wide liability pool that is capped at about $12 billion. If a major accident were to occur, liability beyond this amount would shift to the public. That risk is not a purely theoretical one: The current estimate for the cost of the ongoing Fukushima disaster in Japan is $250 billion … and rising.
Taxpayer-backed loan guarantees and limited liability are not the only subsidies the nuclear industry is receiving today. In every state where there is active pursuit of new reactors, construction is subsidized by ratepayers with what is euphemistically known as “advanced cost recovery” (also known as construction work in progress, or CWIP). This “robbing today’s Peter to power tomorrow’s Paul” arrangement requires ratepayers to pay for reactors years before they ever generate any power. It’s caused an uproar in Florida, where many of the ratepayers who dig the deepest to pay for reactors will be dead and buried when — and if — the first electron of power is generated.
In short, this brand of American “nuclear socialism” means that the public is shouldering virtually all of the risk of new nuclear reactor construction. In contrast, stockholders of solar companies, whether they manufacture equipment or develop solar facilities, assume much more of the potential downside of solar deployment.
One can even make the case that no-holds-barred subsidies for nuclear power have the effect of crowding out solar companies. The price of solar panels has been declining dramatically over the past several years because of fierce competition and excess capacity created by softening demand for electricity. With prices falling and demand growth slowing, the higher-cost competitors are squeezed out.
In contrast to the declining cost of solar, the projected cost of nuclear reactors has been rising sharply. The federal government’s Energy Information Agency estimates that since 2008, when the current crop of new reactors was first proposed, the projected cost of nuclear reactors has increased by 60 percent, while the cost of building solar photovoltaic capacity has declined about 20 percent. If this were a truly efficient market, construction of new nuclear reactors should have been the first projects to be abandoned. But they were not.
Because utilities are not subject to effective competition, and prefer to pad their rate base with high-cost nuclear projects for which they are guaranteed cost recovery, they keep their nuclear projects going while rejecting alternative sources of energy that actually are less costly and can be brought online more quickly.
And that is how the widely publicized failure of a solar company that received a federal loan guarantee could expose the mother of all energy subsidies — the extensive array of direct and indirect support that federal and state governments provide to the far more costly nuclear power industry.
If energy subsidies that pervert market forces are really going to get the boot, then nuclear power should be the first industry required to pay its own way and compete head-to-head in a truly competitive marketplace.
On the other hand, if policymakers wish to ignore the economic fundamentals of electricity markets and treat loan guarantees as an effort to point energy policy in a new direction, solar is a much better candidate for “infant industry” support than nuclear reactor construction, which already has half a century of subsidies under its belt.
Filed under Blogs · Tagged with energy subsidies, green, green economy, solar energy