Category: Virginia

State to opt for impact fees instead of proffers?

From WTOP: Va. Developers Consider New Ways to Compensate Localities:

Virginia home builders may ask state legislators to change the way they help defray the costs of municipal services required by new development.

Currently, developers offer cash and land for roads, schools or parks. Those voluntary commitments, called proffers, are usually negotiated with city or county leaders.

In recent years, however, some localities have made proffers an informal requirement for approval of a project.

The Home Builders Association of Virginia has distributed a position paper suggesting that proffers be replaced with an impact fee on new homes that could be set by state lawmakers. The proposal also includes a new tax on the sale of existing homes, although it is unclear whether buyers or sellers would pay the tax.

And where do sellers get money from, idiot?

The buyers! Duh.

Sellers don’t have an invisible pile of money around to pay for taxes…

Cash proffers have become “an unbridled tax on new housing in virtually every modest growth area of the Commonwealth,” according to the document from the builders’ lobbying group.

Discussion of an automatic impact fee is a departure for the home building lobby, which has opposed the concept in the past.

Some developers argue that cash proffers are to blame for the current slump in the housing market because the cost is passed on to buyers in the purchase price.

Del. Terrie Suit, R-Virginia Beach, who was recently briefed on the plan, said she would be reluctant to support anything that would further tax home sales.

“Our housing market is really stressed right now,” said Suit, a mortgage loan officer. “We need people to start buying homes, so increasing the cost of buying a home is not a good thing.”

The builders association argues that its proposal would increase affordable housing options by spreading infrastructure costs among more property transactions.

Del. Franklin Hall, D-Richmond, supports revamping a proffer system that he said “is exacerbating urban sprawl.”

The Virginia Association of Counties opposes any plan that would deprive local governments of the power to ask developers to help pay infrastructure costs, spokesman Ted McCormack said.

“We’d be reluctant to give up cash proffers unless we feel like the impact fee system would offer flexibility,” he said. “A one-size-fits-all approach is probably not something that’s going to work across 95 counties.”

The General Assembly convenes Jan. 9.

Hilarity among the Republican candidates for 99th HOD

One of the persons rumored to be running for the Republican nomination for the 99th HOD seat is Austin L. Roberts, III, who is currently the President & CEO of the Bank of Lancaster. Whoever wins the Republican nomination will face presumptive Democratic nominee Albert Pollard who held the seat from 2000 through 2006.

The funny thing is that Austin L. Roberts, III contributed $500 to Albert Pollard in 2001 when Pollard was running against Roberts’s fellow Republican R. Allen Webb!

I guess Mr. Roberts was for Albert Pollard before he was against him?

99th HOD coverage

From The Free Lance-Star: GOP sets process for candidate in 99th:

Gov. Tim Kaine has not yet set a date for the special election in the 99th House of Delegates District, but Republicans have planned their nomination process.

District chairwoman Carol Dawson said the district’s Republicans will choose a nominee on Jan. 12, in a convention.

[…]

Dawson said the Republican convention will likely be held at the high school in Montross, and that between now and Jan. 12 each locality’s Republican committee will have to hold meetings to select delegates.

The district includes all of the Northern Neck and parts of Caroline County.

Wittman held the seat since 2005, when former Del. Albert Pollard Jr. retired.

Pollard narrowly lost a bid for the 28th District state Senate seat in November, and says he is running for his old House seat.

Pollard said the Democratic Party’s bylaws don’t allow them to plan their nomination method until Kaine officially calls the election.

Kaine spokesman Gordon Hickey said that while staffers are working on that, it hasn’t been done yet.

Choosing a date for the 99th District election is a bit tricky. State law prohibits holding an election in the 60 days before a primary, and both parties are having presidential primaries on Feb. 12.

That makes the earliest possible date for a 99th District election Feb. 19.

That leaves the 99th District without a delegate for the bulk of the legislative session, which begins in January. Kaine said it’s unlikely there would be special legislation to try to move up the date, and that if a delegate is elected Feb. 19 he or she would still have time to be sworn in and participate in the last few weeks of the session, including debate and votes on the state budget.

Pollard is the only Democratic candidate so far. On the Republican side, White Stone attorney Lee Anne Washington is seeking the nomination.

She is a member of the White Stone Town Council and the citizen member of the Northern Neck Chesapeake Bay Authority.

A few names of other possible Republican candidates have been floated–former King George County Supervisor Bob Barlow is one, although other sources say he may not run.

Republican candidates will have to file with Dawson by Jan. 1 and pay a $250 filing fee.

Foot-in-mouth-diease strikes again…

First, Jim Moran:

“Ethically cleansed Baghdad”?…

Christ, when will this guy learn to shut up?

Here’s some ethic cleansing from Saddam Hussein:

Iraq’s Legacy of Terror: Mass Graves

Babies found in Iraqi mass grave

Iraq: Iraqis Open Saddam Hussein’s Mass Graves, Demand Justice

Uncovering Iraq’s Horrors in Desert Graves

Mass grave unearthed in Iraq

113 Kurds Are Found In Mass Grave

Graves of Mass Evidence

Mass Graves of Iraq: Uncovering Atrocities

At least he didn’t blame the “‘extraordinarily powerful’ pro-Israel lobby” like he did last time.

Second, Ron Paul:

From the AP: Paul keeps white supremacist donation:

Republican presidential hopeful Ron Paul has received a $500 campaign donation from a white supremacist, and the Texas congressman doesn’t plan to return it, an aide said Wednesday.

Don Black, of West Palm Beach, recently made the donation, according to campaign filings. He runs a Web site called Stormfront with the motto, “White Pride World Wide.” The site welcomes postings to the “Stormfront White Nationalist Community.”

“Dr. Paul stands for freedom, peace, prosperity and inalienable rights. If someone with small ideologies happens to contribute money to Ron, thinking he can influence Ron in any way, he’s wasted his money,” Paul spokesman Jesse Benton said. “Ron is going to take the money and try to spread the message of freedom.”

And Paul isn’t going to stop pandering to 9/11 conspiracy theorists as well, I guess?

“And that’s $500 less that this guy has to do whatever it is that he does,” Benton added.

Black said he supports Paul’s stance on ending the war in Iraq, securing U.S. borders and his opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants.

“We know that he’s not a white nationalist. He says he isn’t and we believe him, but on the issues, there’s only one choice,” Black said Wednesday.

There’s no need for a sarcastic comment after reading that, is there?

“We like his stand on tight borders and opposition to a police state,” Black told The Palm Beach Post earlier.

On his Web site, Black says he has been involved in “the White patriot movement for 30 years.”

UPDATE: Ron Paul’s Photo-Op with Stormfront

And we needed a study to tell us this?

From WTOP: Study: Inmates Likely to Return After Release:

A state study shows a large number of inmates released from prison end up back behind bars.

No d’uh.

I could have told you that for free…

The study presented to the Virginia State Crime Commission says of the inmates entering the system, 42 percent have been in prison before and nearly half violated probation.

Barry Green, interim deputy secretary of public safety, says the Virginia Department of Corrections’ budget topped $1 billion for the first time this year. One way of controlling the costs would be to keep fewer released offenders from returning.

Sounds like a great idea to me.

Virginia’s rate at which released prisoners return to prison within three years is 29 percent. Green says while the number appears high, it is the eighth lowest among the 30 states that rank the statistic by that definition.

Manslaughter charge finally dismissed against Greene County game warden

About time.

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: Charge dismissed in death of teen:

A judge dismissed a voluntary manslaughter charge yesterday against a game warden who shot and killed a Greene County teenager during a traffic stop in January.

Robert Orrin Ham III, the first Virginia game warden charged in a line-of-duty shooting, had pleaded not guilty in August. Game wardens are sworn law-enforcement officers authorized to make arrests.

Authorities said Ham and a deputy sheriff, responding to a report that Allen Michael Cochran had abducted his girlfriend, stopped Cochran’s car on U.S. 33 on Jan. 24. When Ham tried to remove the girl, the 16-year-old driver accelerated the car and struck Ham, who then fired into the vehicle, authorities said at the time.

Cochran’s family later disputed the claim that he had abducted his 15-year-old girlfriend, saying the two were running away together and that the shooting was unwarranted. Ham was placed on administrative duties after he was indicted by a grand jury.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Ronald L. Morris and defense attorney Steven Benjamin said in court yesterday that if the case had gone to trial, it would not have resulted in a conviction.

Uh, why did you get an indictment against him then? Idiot…

“There was no crime. This was a necessary, justifiable shooting,” Benjamin said after court.

Col. Mike Bise, chief of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Law Enforcement Division, said an internal investigation also found that Ham acted appropriately.

“It was an unfortunate and tragic event, but we have been confident the court would reach this decision,” Bise said.

Some more information from a prior post:

Cochran’s psychiatric history will likely take center stage as the case moves forward. Ham’s lawyers are requesting Cochran’s medical records in hopes of gaining further insight into the teen’s thinking the night of the shooting.

Court filings indicate the defense is looking for evidence that Cochran was suicidal, perhaps homicidal, when he and Ham crossed paths Jan. 24.

“It is our understanding and belief that Mr. Cochran was . . . very disturbed,” defense attorney Steven D. Benjamin said.

Two weeks before the shooting, Benjamin said, Cochran underwent a psychiatric evaluation after threatening to kill former classmates at William Monroe High School and members of his girlfriend’s family.

The night of the shooting, Ham, whose duties include law enforcement, was assisting sheriff’s deputies who were looking for Cochran in connection with the disappearance of his girlfriend, Chelsea Walker.

Authorities spotted a 1995 Chrysler with Walker in the passenger seat near the entrance to the Woodridge subdivision.

According to the defense, Ham approached the car but Cochran drove forward and struck the 24-year-old game warden, throwing him onto the hood and continuing through the intersection.

Benjamin said his client fired at Cochran only after unsuccessfully warning the teen to stop the car.

The Robert Wittman/Jeff Sili smear machine?

From the idiot’s nest of FredTalk (most of the threads have now been deleted by The Free Lance-Star for slanderous content but a few are still available; good thing I’ve got backups!):

At 11/14/07 11:29 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

Yes, the election is over, but the compte passed on something one of his chicadees told him about one of the gruesome twosome [presumably Tom James and I] doing some rather creepy stalking…..

There was lying about being a reporter after entering the courtroom while votes were being counted.

And following that candidates wife home – does cranmama know about that?

At 11/14/07 06:45 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

Hmmmm, I don’t see a pimply-faced stalker in that crowd [at the Republican Convention].

Maybe he was outside waiting for the candidate’s wife to come out so he could follow her home….

At 11/14/07 06:47 PM, from “junie”:

I know Rob [Wittman]’s wife…she’d tear ass up and send his home crying.

At 11/14/07 06:48 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

And what about someone who snuck into the courtroom while the ballots were being counted and then lied about being from the newspaper?

What kind of person would do such a thing?

At 11/14/07 07:52 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

Only if you are the wife of a candidate who doesn’t like being followed home after a public meeting….

There’s talk of a lawsuit on another matter.

Best to stay clear of wierdos.

Especially if they post slander.

At 11/14/07 08:25 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

And what about a sick freak who follows married women home after public meetings?

What, at least a year in the pokey for that, wouldn’t you agree?

With mandantory drug testing and psychological help, of course to help them get over their disease….

At 11/14/07 08:51 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

Did you hear about the punk who followed the married candidate’s wife home?

Disgusting, isn’t it?

At 11/14/07 09:13 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

You may want to ask that tall pimply-faced kid with the aura of loser about him about it.

Hmm, I wouldn’t consider myself tall, but everyone is tall when viewed by someone at Jeff Sili’s height…

I bet if you are nice, he’ll rat out his buddy.

Plenty of others are.

You should see the flood of pms I got today, starting about 5:15 pm…..a veritable avalanche.

And those with connections that matter never mention it……

Really? Then why did you start posting the bullshit at 11:29 AM?

At 11/14/07 09:22 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

There’s some other stalking been going on that hasn’t been filed yet, and a nasty lawsuit is going forward, too, but on another matter.

And didja hear about the punk who tried to get in there and crusade against corruption while the votes were being counted?

His crusade led him to lie about who he was and that he was with a newspaper and finally someone grabbed him by the belt and scruff of his neck and tossed him through the cafe doors into the horse trough out fronta the courthouse!

At 11/14/07 09:28 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

Maybe a letter in the regular mail would be better, considering some of the harrassing email Wittman got……

Funny, I’ve never sent Wittman an email in my life!

At 11/15/07 12:13 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

You shoulda been here between 5 and 6 and seen the dozens of pms that came rolling in. There must havbe been 50 of them.

Incredible stuff and you can be sure the phone lines have been lit up all night across the county…..

At 11/15/07 12:17 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

As Blulady would say, “I’m connected.”

And today the dam broke and those in the know have been having a jolly old time.

The fact is, there are a few characters around who like to send harassing emails.

Again, I’ve never sent Wittman an email in my life!

At 11/15/07 01:16 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

Those two [presumably Tom James and I] leered at the wrong woman this summer and now it’s catching up to them.

LOL, the only time that Tom James and I were at the same place this summer was the first Board of Supervisors candidates’ forum. Funny, I was sitting by a candidate for Commonwealth’s Attorney, as well as several law enforcement officers, and the former sheriff. I would love to know who I was “leer[ing]” at.

At 11/15/07 01:42 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

Talk to some of the women working for the county tomorrow and you’ll see what they are all buzzing about.

At 11/15/07 08:29 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

I swear, I think everyone at the Caroline County library using public access computers is pm-ing me.

It’s like I suddenly have a fan club down there.

At 11/16/07 01:08 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

When he was caught lying about being from the newspaper and firmly asked to leave, they say the look on his face was priceless!

At 11/16/07 01:41 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

I understand a certain candidate is quite unhappy about his wife being followed………..

And finally when it was brought to their attention that this might just end up on my blog, at 11/16/07 02:27 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

The stuff (above) was not about [me] and Tom.

At 11/16/07 05:44 PM, from “Burqajoint”:

HERE’S A BIG BURQA SHOUT OUT TO THE FANS, LURKERS AND OTHERS WATCHING THE FORUM!

  • Y’all down at the Caroline and Westmoreland County libraries, especially my fellow sailors at C.P. and Kinsale!
  • The Compte and his little chicadees, warblers, and mockingbirds!
  • The Corner Table Gang – you know who you are!
  • The RitchBitch Bunch – charmed, I’m sure!
  • The Lady in Red – for your grace and elegance – enchante!
  • The gals at Union Bank!

Looks like you’re running a real tight ship there Billy Beale!

In a private message (PM) to a third party, from “Burqajoint”:

Now [redacted], you just settle right on down now and relax.

If I am lying a dozen or so others are behind each thing I have posted.

You shoulda seen all the new users who sent me pms and signed on just to do so.

The phone lines across Caroline and Westmoreland have been afire and I bet it’ll be that way through the weekend.

Really? I don’t know a soul in Westmoreland County. Wait, isn’t Robert Wittman from Westmoreland County? I do believe he is. He used to be on the Westmoreland County Board of Supervisors, didn’t he?

Another PM, from “Burqajoint”:

Word to the wise – better lawyer up………..

I’m shaking in my boots! Bring. It. On.

So, is this Robert Wittman’s and Jeff Sili’s doing?

And for the record, I have no less than two people that were with me on election day all day (when I was supposedly doing stealth infiltration of the courthouse) along with several more witnesses at the three victory parties I went to.

I also have a person that was with me all day during the Republican Convention and several law enforcement officers that I was also around.

It’s amazing that someone is going to so much trouble to try to discredit me.

Admittedly, it’s a nice ego trip!

UPDATE: Some posts that I missed:

At 11/12/07 07:50 AM, from “oharascarlett” (also uses the name “nativetxlady”):

Recently James obtained a video of the 13 year old daughter of a public figure at a basketball game. He sent it as a link to her mother at home with no explanation. the family thought and rightly so that she was being stalked until they realized it was taken by a news station and just obtained by James as a sick joke. There is no one exempt from his hatred, murder victim’s families or people’s kids. Eventually Lippa will have to step in to this.

“oharascarlett” is the alias of Jeff Sili’s wife Susan Sili.

At 11/18/07 10:54 AM, from “Burqajoint”:

I bet Lucky [Narain] doesn’t like those who collect videos of 13 year-old girls…

If anyone wants a complete copy of her lies (including several about George Spaulding) let me know at CorranH96@gmail.com.

A third choice for people in the 1st congressional district?

From the Richmond Times-Dispatch: 3rd candidate for 1st District seat:

A third candidate has qualified for the ballot in the special congressional election in the 1st District.

The State Board of Elections said Lucky R. Narain of Yorktown, an independent, filed about 1,500 signatures of registered voters. A total of 1,000 are required.

Narain said he will announce his candidacy next week. He described himself as a conservative.

You just got my attention!

Also running are Democrat Philip Forgit of Williamsburg and Del. Robert J. Wittman, R-Westmoreland.

Someone I disagree with on every issue (who has to be a better person than Wittman) and a complete freakin’ mook.

They are vying for the seat of Republican Rep. Jo Ann Davis, who died Oct. 6.

The special election will be held Dec. 11.

The district reaches through 23 counties and cities from the eastern end of Fauquier County through the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula to Newport News.