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(11/05/08 10:03am)
In a surprising twist to the Virginia 5th District House of Representative’s race last night, Democratic challenger Tom Perriello came to a standoff with Republican incumbent Virgil Goode, who has served six terms.As of 3 a.m. the Virginia State Board of Elections Web site reported that Perriello had received 50.31 percent of the votes compared to Goode’s 49.63 percent, with 241 of 244 precincts reporting. Goode, however, had not yet conceded victory as of that time. This outcome came as a surprise to many experts; The Associated Press called the election in Goode’s favor before 9:30 p.m., and many Goode supporters at an election night event for the incumbent House member cheered the supposed victory. “This is a victory for Republicans to keep Virgil in office even if we don’t get McCain,” said Deedee Vidurant, president of Smith Mountain Lake Republican Women’s Club, when the announcement was made.To The Associated Press’ news, however, Cordel Faulk, University Center for Politics director of communications, said in an interview with NBC 29 that The Associated Press is “bolder than I am.”Perriello and his team “are confident at the end of the day that we are going to win this thing,” Perriello said at his election party at the Gravity Lounge in downtown Charlottesville. In the City of Charlottesville, Perriello, an Albemarle County native, received about 80.77 percent of votes, according to the State Board of Elections. Charlottesville voter Michelle Taylor demonstrated her support for Perriello, noting, “I know Perriello’s going to win — this is unreal because normally Goode blows [his opponent] out, now he has a contender who’s doing very well, and voters are voting what they feel.”Still, other voters believe Goode has a better chance of winning when all the votes are tallied. Phil Hager said Goode embodies what his community stands for.Regardless of the eventual outcome, Perriello put up a surprising fight. His success did not come without help, though, explained Dan Keyserling, deputy director of communications at the Center for Politics and former Cavalier Daily executive editor.“Tom owes the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee a lot,” he said. “A couple of months ago they put him in their Red to Blue program,” in which “DCCC infuses money into districts they think are competitive.”A strong turnout by youth voters also may have played an important role in the 5th District and the nation at large.State Sen. Creigh Deeds (D), who plans to run for governor in 2009, commented, “I think the college vote made a difference, maybe the difference.”Many students contacted by The Cavalier Daily said they were excited by Perriello’s success in the race. First-year College student Marvin Richards, a member of University Democrats and Hoos for Obama, noted, “I wasn’t surprised but I’m really happy for Tom Perriello,” emphasizing the fact that Perriello “came from really low and worked so diligently — he’s really good.” The outcome of this election will have a significant impact on the nation as a whole, Keyserling added. “One way or another it shows to Charlottesville and to the national Democratic Party that this seat is poachable,” Keyserling said, adding that if the election does not go in Perriello’s favor, “a candidate might be able to unseat Goode in two years.” Other House races across the country were not as closely contested. The number of Democrats in the House increased from 236 to 259, election results show as of press time, and the number of Republicans decreased from 199 to 176. These changes will aid the Democrats when it comes time to pass their agenda through Congress, Keyserling noted.Samantha Koon and Kelly Morenus contributed to this article.
(10/29/08 6:05am)
The Advancement Project of the NAACP sued the Virginia State Board of Elections, Gov. Tim Kaine and the electoral boards and general registrars of Richmond, Norfolk and Virginia Beach Monday for inadequate preparation for the large voter turnout expected at polls next week.According to the complaint submitted to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Richmond Division, despite “record registration numbers, and the Commonwealth’s acknowledgement of the increased turnout on November 4th, the Commonwealth and its jurisdictions are inadequately prepared.”This same complaint also states, “the allocation of polling place resources is plainly irrational, non-uniform and likely discriminatory.”This lawsuit against Virginia governmental institutions springs from Advancement Project analyses that show “all localities are under-resourced, and in the three localities of the lawsuit, under-allocation had a disparate effect in precincts with high percents of voters of color,” Advancement Project staff attorney Francisco Maldonado-Ramírez said.State Board of Elections Chair Jean Cunningham contradicted the claim of any racial discrimination in polling place resource allocation, saying that if long lines occur, they will be long “for all Virginians, not just minorities.” Cunningham added that, Virginia will have far more poll workers than ever before for the upcoming election and twice the amount of equipment as in 2004. Susan Pollard, director of communications for the State Board of Elections agreed, noting the Board has been preparing for the influx of voters. This year, the board “launched a campaign called ‘Ensure the vote’ to get 10,000 new officers of election and alternates,” Pollard said. “This year 30,000 people are serving as officers of election.” As a result, she noted, the commonwealth has 10,000 more election officers now than in 2004.In correlation with the increase in the number of election workers, there has been a 77-percent increase in polling machines statewide versus what was available in the 2004 election, Pollard said. The Board allocates polling machines according to Virginia law, which “requires one machine per 750 registered voters and one privacy booth for every 425 registered voters.” Pollard explained. “Any additional machines are determined by locality.”The Advancement Project does not dispute that each Virginia locality upholds these standards but instead claims that this minimum requirement is an unreasonable ratio, Maldonado-Ramírez explained. “A touch-screen voting machine can’t handle 750 people in a day — not even close,” Maldonado-Ramirez said. “A touch screen can’t be expected to handle more than a few hundred people in a day. They’re just not fast enough [with the] time it takes people to vote, check in, and show ID.” He added that the current standard is a “recipe for bottlenecks.”While the NAACP believes that areas such as Richmond, Norfolk and Virginia Beach are not prepared for the mass voter turnout expected Nov. 4, Charlottesville General Registrar Sheri Iachetta does not foresee major problems for city residents on Election Day.“We have extra machines, brand new electronic pollbooks and different parking arrangements,” Iachetta said, noting that the city’s decision to double the number of available voting machines and to purchase a new voting system stems from the reality that many citizens have registered to vote for the first time.The office is also working to encourage people to carpool or walk to the polls, she noted. The city also has established Nov. 4 as a fare-free transit bus day.
(10/08/08 6:44am)
Two University researchers recently obtained exclusive commercial rights to a biotech startup company created to support and commercialize their research in preventing the growth of solid tumors.Since the 1990s, Pharmacology Prof. Kevin Lynch and his research partner, Chemistry Prof. Timothy Macdonald have been researching lysophosphatidic acid, a chemical that “promotes the growth of blood vessels, the sprouting of new capillaries,” Lynch said.This characteristic of LPA is especially pertinent to cancer research.“When solid tumors grow, they must attract blood vessels, so no blood supply [means that a] tumor will die at a very small size or won’t grow,” Lynch said. He explained that an anti-cancer strategy to block the growth of blood vessels to the tumor has been considered for a long time. Lynch said the company, Catena Pharmaceuticals Inc., wants to “develop drugs that interrupt LPA signaling in the body.” These drugs would “block [LPA’s] synthesis and block the ability of cells to sense LPA,” he explained.Lynch and Macdonald accumulated a number of molecules that either block or mimic LPA synthesizing, then considered how those molecules could be used in a clinical setting, Lynch said.“It was this year that we got together with the venture capital group to form Catena to do that,” he said, noting also that “the most important thing is that this venture is going to allow us to establish whether LPA signaling is a valid therapeutic target.”In addition to establishing the company, the two scientists have submitted numerous patent applications for their research on lysophosphatidic acid during the past 10 years.This patent is the first to grant commercial rights to Catena, allowing the researchers to reproduce and sell their clinical product through their corporation, rather than granting all rights solely to the University, said Marie Kerbeshian, associate director of the University’s Patent Foundation.“At U.Va. if faculty members come up with an invention that is owned by the University, and they send it over to our office to manage,” Kerbeshian said. “We evaluate them and look for companies interested in taking the technology.”Lynch noted that, in the case of Catena, the University has been granted exclusive rights only to the academic information produced by his and Macdonald’s research.The University currently has three patents that relate to Catena’s research “on actual formula of the drug, on chemical synthetic pathways to make the drug and on the method of using it to treat diseases,” Kerbeshian said.Looking optimistically into the future, “the exciting thing is that researchers will get to see the basic science work here at U.Va. actually turn into products and help people,” Kerbeshian predicted.This treatment could potentially help many people, including cancer patients — particularly those with ovarian cancer — and also patients with pulmonary fibrosis and neuropathic pain, Lynch said.
(10/01/08 10:04am)
The University tested a new emergency siren system at six locations across Grounds between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m..“It was exactly as we had anticipated,” Director of Emergency Preparedness Marge Sidebottom said. “All of the sirens worked, and all of the public address capabilities worked.”The system is an exterior notification system, which means it is designed “primarily for people who are outside at the time,” Sidebottom explained, noting the system is meant to be used in situations “when we have verified that there is imminent danger.” Such events could include a sudden weather emergency like a tornado, a spill of hazardous material, or a threat of violence, Sidebottom explained.The system was designed by the vendor, Communication Specialists of Virginia, Inc., to meet University-specific needs. “We have a very different topography, which requires some additional work and expertise to determine how all the areas on Grounds are covered,” Sidebottom said, noting that the hilly nature and size of Grounds requires that the University use “six different sirens, which cover everything from North Grounds through the [Academical] Village.”While the Office of Emergency Preparedness is primarily responsible for the implementation of the system, students were also involved in its implementation through the student group Hoos Ready.“We handle feedback,” Hoos Ready President Colin Hood said. “A lot of people do communicate with us, and we in turn talk to the Office of Emergency Preparedness.”Hood added that the organization is currently evaluating student, faculty and staff responses to the drill with the hopes of improving the system.Efforts to improve emergency preparedness systems in general, Hood said, have been influenced significantly by the April 2007 Virginia Tech shootings. “I think the tragedy set a tone of university emergency preparedness for every university in the country, the world and especially at U.Va.,” Hood said. “It initiated major projects.”Virginia Tech has had a siren system in place for several years, according to Virginia Tech Police Officer Geof Allen, who said the system was used in April 2007.Virginia Tech’s siren system differs from the University’s in that Virginia Tech uses a voice-driven system, in which “you can actually speak from a consul in [a] dispatch center,” Allen explained. The University, meanwhile, employs standardized messages approved about a year ago, Sidebottom said. “All the devices [at the University] have the same messages,” Sidebottom explained, noting these scripted messages can be used during emergencies specific to a particular location on Grounds.
(09/24/08 5:12am)
The Federal Pell Grant Program recently predicted it will need an additional $5.9 billion in 2009, as compared to 2008, to support the financial needs of college and university students.Pell grants are need-based grants that promote access to postsecondary education for low-income undergraduate and some post-baccalaureate students. These grants, which are limited in value and come from government funds, comprise an important part of the University’s AccessUVa financial aid program, explained Yvonne Hubbard, University Student Financial Services director.“We’re standing at 1,150 [students using Pell grants], but I expect that to go up,” Hubbard said.Hubbard said this figure translates to $3.5 million from the Federal Pell Grant Program, which the University allocates to students according to their Free Application for Federal Student Aid reports.Currently the available institutional money, or “how much the University puts into financial aid every year,” is $24 million, Hubbard said. This money comes from tuition and endowments to the University and goes toward supporting students financially along with federal aid.While there is “more money available in the Pell than ever before ... it’s not kept pace with the cost of living by any means,” said Claude Pressnell, Jr., vice chairperson of the Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance at the U.S. Department of Education.Consequently, the Department of Education must continue to request increased funding from the federal government.“If there is a shortfall in funds appropriated by Congress, then Congress will fund a supplemental appropriation to ensure that there is enough money in the program for all students who qualify for the grant,” a Department of Education spokesperson said.Nevertheless, funding could fall short of providing all the benefits the Pell program would like to offer. In 2007, Congress passed the College Cost Reduction Access Act, which “established a new ‘mandatory’ additional appropriation of up to $490 for each Pell grant recipient,” but these funds are to be cut should funding prove insufficient, according to a report released by the Department of Education. This cut, should it be made, would affect the awards for as many as six million students, the report states.Even if Pell grants are fully funded, a large discrepancy still exists between readily available federal aid and the cost of a University education.“The maximum that you can get in Pell is about $4,400, which is about half of our in-state tuition, so we would like to see it be more than that,” Hubbard said.As the economy’s growth declines, Hubbard explained, fewer students are attending universities in favor of staying at home to help support their families, but more students who are opting to attend school are in need of aid.Over the past year the percentage of University students requiring financial aid increased from 25 percent to 26 percent, Hubbard noted.
(09/17/08 7:22am)
The University Medical Center announced Monday that it saved nearly 1.8 tons of plastic this summer that had previously never been considered recyclable.The conservation was achieved through a demonstration project in June and July for recycling in clinical use. The Medical Center tested the project in one operating unit, two adult acute-care units and one intensive care unit, said Registered Nurse Kathleen Rea, president-elect of the University’s Professional Nursing Staff Organization.“Nurses across the health system are very invested in [ensuring] that our clinical outcomes and work environment continue to meet ... standards of excellence,” Rea explained. “This year, they felt strongly that a healing environment starts with a healthy planet.”University nurses, along with outside supporters, collaborated with the University recycling team, the University Health System and others in the University community to save 1.8 tons of plastic. This material came from products used while caring for patients, such as plastic pouches for IVs, Rea said.The program, which is among the most recent of the center’s green initiatives, is currently in the evaluation stage to determine how it could be regularly implemented, Rea noted.The University’s Facilities Management Department “worked with us to handle the increased volume during that time period without additional infrastructure,” Rea said. “They did a great job.”In addition to its summer efforts, the Medical Center is pursuing other green initiatives. Rea noted the Medical Center has made a “big effort to use green cleaning products that meet hospital standards for disinfectants and infection control that are better for those who are cleaning and those indoors.”The center also has implemented the NightWatchman program for reducing energy use among non-clinical computers. This program “automatically shuts down and wakes up PCs at predetermined times between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m,” Rea said, noting that this program can reduce emissions by over 800 metric tons per year. While the new Emily Couric Clinical Cancer Center will be LEED certified — meaning it will be constructed according to federal environmental standards — the University has also increased its emphasis on retro-comissioning buildings. “You go through a building and make sure systems are running as efficiently as possible,” said Lindsey Daniels, sustainability outreach coordinator in Facilities Management, of the process.Medical research building number 4 is one retro-commissioned building that has recently saved 23 percent of its energy output, Daniels said.All new buildings are also making effort to be environmentally friendly; each must have “dedicated floor space for recycling for each floor” as a part of official University policy, said Bruce Frazer, University recycling department operations supervisor. “There must be space for a recycling shelf and bottle and can containers in the contract,” Frazer said. Efforts to improve environmental awareness in buildings both old and new have helped the University financially, Daniels said, noting that during the last two years, the University has saved $47 per ton on average by recycling instead of trashing material, which has resulted in $415,000 in cost avoidance.As a whole, the University has made great strides towards becoming green, Daniels said.“In the last four years there has been a complete turnover,” she said. “It’s amazing how much sustainability awareness has increased at U.Va. since 2004.”
(09/10/08 4:52am)
For the second year in a row, The Hartwell Foundation has named the University one of the Top 10 Centers of Biomedical Research.This distinction continues to place the University biomedical department in league with institutions such as Cornell University, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and Johns Hopkins University. All 10 institutions selected last year maintained their place on the list in 2008.In choosing the top 10 institutions, “The Hartwell Foundation takes into account the shared values the institution has with the Foundation relating to children’s health, the presence of an associated medical school and biomedical engineering program, and the quality and scope of ongoing biomedical research,” according to the Foundation’s Web site.Being named to this list qualifies the University to nominate four applicants to receive the Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award and allows the University to “choose an individual to receive a Hartwell Fellowship,” the Web site stated.Narrowing the field to four nominees involves an extensive application process. An application comes from Vice President for Research Thomas Skalak, which goes out to all faculty, said Cheryl Wagner, the University’s executive coordinator to the vice president for research. Interested researchers then submit their applications back for internal review, and interviews will be held Sept. 15 to narrow the field to four. Finally, the president of The Hartwell Foundation comes to interview the four eligible candidates for a grant, she said.Last year, Biomedical Engineering Assoc. Prof. Richard Price received the Hartwell Individual Biomedical Research Award of $300,000 to pursue his research in juvenile brain development in relation to brain tumor treatments. Price said his continuing research centers on the fact that the use of a gamma knife, a form of radiation, can effectively treat adults’ brain tumors, yet in children, can lead to “deficits in cognitive abilities and learning disabilities.” Instead of using radiation, Price is exploring the use of ultrasound to destroy tumors.“Ultrasound can cause heating of tumor cells to a point where they can be ablated [or] destroyed,” Price said.Price’s research is still in the early stages, a fact that attracted The Hartwell Foundation to his work. The foundation wants to support “very early stage, cutting edge ideas” — which are a risk to invest in because they are “projects that have a high chance of failing” — in the hope that, with funding, some of them will be successful, Price said. In 2007, the University also selected Cynthia Grimsley-Meyers, a post-doctorate research associate in the department of cell biology, as the recipient of the University’s Hartwell Fellowship, worth $100,000 over a two-year period.“Our lab looks at how cells develop before birth, during embryo genesis,” Meyers said, adding that they examine “proteins that are involved in development of those hair cells,” which detect sound waves and different frequencies within the inner ear, or cochlea.Meyers is currently involved in the process of identifying “components of the cells that are involved with the normal development of the cells” to get an idea of “what to look at in terms of what may be causing deafness.”The research of both Price and Meyers has intimate connections with the values of The Hartwell Foundation. “Most of the people who received funding are pursuing research that would benefit children’s health,” explained Amy Karr, senior director of development at the University’s Health System Development office.As many members of the University apply in the coming weeks for the 2008 grants and fellowships sponsored by The Hartwell Foundation, faculty and researchers can reflect on past and present accomplishments.“This is really a continuation of the strengths — last year we were able to show that we fit with [The Hartwell Foundation’s] values, and their inclusion of us again builds on what we did last year,” Karr said.
(09/03/08 7:30am)
In response to the April 2007 Virginia Tech shootings, University Police have recently purchased an instructional video that has been prepared to inform University students and staff about how to respond in emergency situations on Grounds.While the video, titled “Shots Fired,” is a new means of preparing for an emergency, discussions concerning emergency training have been an ongoing process.“We’ve been working on appropriate training for months,” Director of Emergency Preparedness Marge Sidebottom said. “We make sure what we choose is appropriate and available for the entire University.”More than a clear-cut guide for every possible emergency, Gibson said, the tape “creates an opportunity for people to think about what they would do in those situations so they can rehearse what they would do.”The tape is still in the evaluation stage and has not yet been implemented at the University, Gibson said, adding that University Police currently are considering how best to make the information accessible to students.One possible plan is to show the video in a setting where questions could immediately be answered. This presentation might take a similar form to the first-year Safety, Security and Sexual Assault talks, which have been occurring this week. Another alternative is to post the video online, which would allow the information to reach a larger audience, but would restrict the possibility of having questions answered, Gibson said. Some Virginia schools have opted to educate students online, such as James Madison University, which has placed an instructional slideshow on its Web site detailing emergency procedures.To determine the best means of implementation and to address other issues of emergency preparedness, police are cooperating in an ongoing effort with many University departments including mental health, law enforcement and emergency preparedness, as well as listening to students’ perspectives, Gibson said. “When we train here we have to train students, faculty and staff,” Sidebottom detailed. “In an emergency we’re all in it together.”