The skinny:  2008 saw essentially the same amount of overall violent and property crimes as 2008.  Violent crime was down slightly by 11%, but Charlottesville saw 5 murders in 2008 as opposed to 3 in 2007.  While the data is hard to really analyze, we highlight the following key changes from the 2007 to 2008 Charlottesville crime statistics:

• burglary and breaking and entering decreased 30%, from 273 to 191 incidents
• vehicle theft increased from 163 to 191 incidents or an increase of 19%
• theft from building increased 17%, from 163 to 191 incident

One wonders if the economic crisis will increase crime in 2009.  Full statistics are after the break…

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We couldn’t find any good source for Central Virginia/5th District/Charlottesville ballot information, so we went ahead and summarized the info from the Virginia website and found all the candidates for you.  The site is really slow, so we hope this helps.

President and Vice President

Democrat:  Barack Obama and Joe Biden
Republican: John McCain and Sarah Palin
Independent Green: Chuck Baldwin and Darrell L. Castle
Libertarian: Bob Barr and Wayne A. Root
Green: Cynthia McKinney and Rosa Clemente
Independent: Ralph Nader and Matt Gonzalez

Office Title : United States Senate

Democrat: Mark R. Warner
Republican: James S. ”Jim” Gilmore III
Independent Green: Glenda Gail Parker
Libertarian: William B. Redpath
Office Title : Member House of Representatives

Democrat Tom S. P. Perriello
Republican: Virgil H. Goode, Jr.

Virgil Goode Did Not Respond

Tom Perriello Did Respond

Thanks for submitting questions for Perriello and Goode. Originally, we had told both campaigns that we wouldn’t publish their responses unless the other candidate also submitted responses in order to maintain our neutral political position.

After a phone call with a very unreceptive and unhelpful representative from the Goode office who explained to me that “maybe, we would look at the questions, but we get a lot of requests and Virgil is very busy” I realized that there was no way Virgil would answer the questions. Do you remember the TV debate cancellation?  The point is Virgil Goode’s lack of response indicates he  doesn’t care about speaking to the 5th district, and certainly, given our demographic, doesn’t care about speaking to the younger members of the 5th district.  I changed my mind about requiring responses from both candidates.

In case you didn’t know, Perriello is challenging six-term Republican congressman Virgil Goode. According to wikipedia, Perriello is calling for a restoration of America’s commitment to the “common good.” He has twice broken fundraising records for the district and out-raised Virgil Goode in 2007 and the first quarter of 2008.

The Perriello campaign was very willing to answer these questions and I’m happy to publish them. The questions were reader-submitted for the most part.  Thank you for submitting questions if you did.  I think we got all of them.  We asked the questions via email, gave each candidate 5 days to respond and told them to keep their answers short and to the point.

We’ve asked Tom and Virgil about national security, the economic crisis and most least importantly, tartare and aioli.  We made minor edits to the original questions and added a few of our own.  Tom’s responses are all his own and are unedited.  You can find them after the break.

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We put together a list of resources for you to watch live online streams of the presidential debate.

Some people don’t have television and still want to watch a live version of the debates on the internet.  These were not easy to find people.  If you have more resources, let us know in the comments and we’ll add them to the list.  The debates always start at 9PM EST!

The list…

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Tomorrow C-VILLE will publish its 2008 Best Of Awards for Charlottesville, so I’ve decided to publish our food winners list as well as analyze some of the winners from Daily Progress’s Reader’s Choice (which was published about 3 weeks ago) in one fell swoop.  Last year we did our own superlatives which we think are much more accurate (although biased and not democratically chosen).  As seems to be the case with any reader driven contest, the larger the place, the larger the voting power of their customer base/employees. Oh well.. that’s why you have snarkers like us.  Feel free to critique!

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Here are the photos of our wildly successful space party. Final tallies are still being made, but we raised over $1,000.00 for Computers 4 Kids!

We all had a blast and hope you guys did too! Here are some photos — to help remind you just how much fun you really had. Please send us your photos and we will post them as well.

Thanks for making the night such a hit!

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Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s here! We have all the details for Space Party 2008. Before we begin, we would like to thank everyone who is involved. Thanks to X-Lounge for hosting the event and doing “special things.” Thanks to Charlottesville Sports and Social Club and 106.1 The Corner for being our media partners. Thanks to Music Today for managing our ticket sales. Thanks to Belmont Yo for doing an amazing job with the artwork! And, thank you to all of you loyal readers and voters for getting excited about giving all of our proceeds to your charity of choice. Without your support we couldn’t do this.

This time around, the details are sweeter, we have T-Shirts and will have more fun. Details after the break…

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It seems like almost every year the police make a huge deal about how this year is going to be different, about how Foxfield will ruin your career if you break the law.  Well, unless I have been living blind, in a shelter, veiled in secrecy, a huge number of people break the law at Foxfield.

Of the 24,000 people who visit Foxfield each spring, only 85 people were arrested.  If anyone does the math on that means that less than 0.4% of the people out there were caught breaking the law.  84 of those people were in the student section.  So, let’s figure this one out.

Let’s say half of the 24,000 are in the Foxfield section, and about half of those are underage.  That means about 6,000 people will be illegally drinking at Foxfield.  If 84 of 6,000 arrests were made,  that means about 1.5% of those breaking the law were caught. This doesn’t include people who are DUIing or people who are doing public intoxication type things.

Hmmmmm….seriously?!

So, if you get arrested, please note: you are REALLY unlucky.   Breakdown of those trying to arrest you:

81 Albemarle County Police

31 ABC Agents

17 Officers from the Sheriff Department

3 Bicycle Offices

110 RMC Private Security Officials

_____________

Grand Total: 242 People Trying to Get You

On another note, don’t resist arrest like this guy!  People, the bottomline is this:  We know you are going to break the law, but don’t drink and drive, don’t act like an asshole and you will be alright.  Remember to read our great Foxfield preview!

[via InRich. Pic.]

DISCLAIMER: We don’t encourage or support any illegal activities during Foxfield. 

Many of you are Foxfield Races veterans, but perhaps many of you have never been. It’s a huge thing in Charlottesville. But not only does Foxfield appeal to local college students, young professionals and the families that have been doing it for years, it also brings back many UVA Alums, former townies and just those who like to party.

The ongoing joke about Foxfield is that you go to horse races, but you never see the horses. That’s a college joke. If you are out of college, you should see the horses. If you are in college, you need to be too plastered to see the horses, otherwise you haven’t really been to Foxfield.

Foxfield is such a monumental drinking even that people have even written studies about Foxfield and drinking. This study in particular found that 68% of Foxfield drinkers did something negative. Big surprise? I hope not. »Read More

Well, I know that we are all going to pray for the continuation of this weather, but here are the events which I think are pretty sweet and unique.

Wine tastings @ Market Street, Crush and Beer Run.

Starting at 8PM on Friday, dance party at OURSPACE (414 e. main st. beneath the twisted branch tea bazaar) with oodles of DJs…. DJ’s John Midyette, Bristol, Boyd 80, Loki, and DJ Red Lab. Visuals by Colourboy.

If things get rainy, you can see the 7th Annual Ballroom Dance Spring Showcase at 8PM Tonight. Tickets are $7. Hopefully they can think of a shorter name in the future.

Oh ya, see OK GO at the UVA’s Spring Fest on Saturday. Remember it’s FREE! [more info]

And, as always, check out cvilleMUSE for a full preview of all of Charlottesville’s arts and music events.