The guy had his problems, but Michael Jackson’s undoubtedly the king of pop music. Yesterday, Jackson collapsed in his rented LA home and his physician attempted to resuscitate him.  Jackson reportedly slipped into cardiac arrest.  Medics attempted CPR in an attempt to revive him as they rushed him to the hospital.  He was pronounced dead at 2:26 local time.

Rest in peace, Michael.

My favorite song after the break…

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With the recent furloughs and layoffs, newspaper advertising dropping an unprecedented 29% in the first quarter ($2.6 billion in lost revenue), an attempt to sell Daily Progress HQ, and a website redesign that the majority of you thought was “worse than before,” things aren’t looking good for Charlottesville’s only daily paper. But who are they looking good for?

Janis Jaquith, in an opinion piece published in the Hook, thinks its the local weeklies.  She also names daily newspapers like the Daily Progress lumbering dinosaurs and cockroaches.  BURN. Take this passage:

Unlike the lumbering Daily Progress– which is owned by somebody in a galaxy far, far away, and is now mostly a printer of those press releases and wire service reports, not to mention editorials that are devoid of any connection to the community– these newsweeklies are small and locally-owned, which allows them the flexibility to adapt to a changing landscape.

It’s all the same, right?  Janis forgets that publishing a weekly paper that’s free is a whole lot easier than publishing a daily paper and making people pay for it.  It’s easy to fill a paper with only local stuff when you fill 75% of it with ads and wait a week for local news to happen.  The Daily Progress has a harder, more expensive job than the weeklies because the DP has already dug its own grave without realizing it.  Getting out of AP-filled, daily publishing is basically impossible. Also, anyone ever look how much it costs to advertise in the DP? Holy Moly.  How do you change a sinking ship?

We’re also obviously jealous that Janis has her eye on the “locally-owned independent newspapers– these shapers of local opinion, keepers of the flame of investigative journalism.“  She forgot things like cvillenews, COUGH COUGH cVillain, the Charlottesville twitter community, and the multitude of opinionated independent publishing sites (e.g. realcentralvirginia, velvut rut) which drive more opinion than any “newspaper” can or will.

I hate to tell this to the Daily Progress and the “independents,” but the truth is that PEOPLE shape the opinion and keep the check on investigative journalism.  People comment on blogs, discuss things with their friends and they are the ones who ultimately shape opinion, which is, after all, all news is. The Daily Progress and newspapers are dying. Whether it’s driven by an old news model and the internet, corporate culture and/or people resistant to change, who cares.  It’s an uprising, by the people, for the people and of the people.  Things will look way different in 3 years and not everyone will be alive (For the record, cVillain has the lowest life expectancy due to its drug-filled rockstar blogstyle).

Colbert interviews the newspaper lobby after the break…

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Alan Scherr, 58, and daughter Naomi, 13 died in the Mumbai terrorist attacks.  They were visiting India as part of a spiritual program associated with the Synchronicity Sanctuary which is about 15 miles away from Charlottesville.  Alan and Naomi are survived by their mother and two sons.

You can leave tributes to Alan and Naomi at this website.

Picture from tribute website.

It’s sad to hear about events like this.  About an hour away at Skydive Orange, two skydivers came in contact about 200 feet from the ground, causing their parachutes to be tangled and them to fall to the ground.

Francis Wootten III of Ruckersville, Va., 54, was taken to the University of Virginia’s hospital in Charlottesville, where he died of his injuries yesterday morning.  Robert G. Kotenko, 29, of Washington, DC, was also taken to the U-Va. hospital, police said.

The United States Parachute Association explains that skydiving is a relatively safe sport citing only 821 injuries and 18 fatalities, out of nearly 2.2 million jumps in 2007.

[via Washington Post]

We just got big news from a little birdie…

25 People Have Been Laid Off at The Daily Progress.  

Media General, the Daily Progress’ parent company decided to move printing operations to Richmond to save on printing costs.  The employees who used to work for the printing press no longer have jobs, but they will get severance packages.

[via Daily Progress] [pic]

We learned early this morning that an 11 year old boy was killed during a shooting around 6 1/2 Street early this morning.

If you recall, there have been what seems like a lot of shootings recently. There will be a Noon press release with more details.

Update #1: 10:50AM Press Release from the City

This morning around 12:15 Charlottesville Police responded to reports of shots fired in the 300 block of 6 and a Half Street SW. Officers located Rueben Lewis III, 23(yoa), who had suffered a gunshot wound. Lewis directed police to an adjacent house where they found an 11 year old in the kitchen with a fatal gunshot wound. Aziz Damar Booth was declared deceased at the scene. Booth is a former 6th grade student at Walker Upper Elementary School. School officials have implemented their crisis control plan to afford more counseling resources for students and staff.

The 23 year old victim was transported to UVa Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. Police believe that robbery was a motive in this incident but continue to investigate the circumstances.

Later that morning at Police Headquarters, Waverly “Eddie” Whitlock, 27 year old from the 300 block of 6 and a Half Street, reported to the police department in connection with this case. He is being held without bond at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail. A preliminary hearing has is scheduled for June 25th in Charlottesville General District Court. Whitlock has been charged with capital murder (F), robbery (F), malicious wounding (F) and other related charges.

Picture of Waverly Eddie Whitlock after the break….

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Our little baby sister, StreakTheLawn has shut down after an editorial in the Cav Daily and our recent post about “Gossip sites ruining UVA.”

Cloudbrain’s blog reads:

A recent post on the CVillain blog mentioned us at being behind a new UVA blogging site gaining some recent press. Several UVA students, with help from Cloudbrain, launched a “gossip”-focused blog at UVA a few weeks ago. The desire was to explore social media and the changing face of publishing on the Internet – as well as to celebrate fun and social life at UVA. Thanks to some other, more scandalous, sites the blog has found itself in the middle of an interesting conversation regarding publishing, anonymity, privacy and appropriateness. We have taken the site down.

But, why? Strength in NUMBERS!!