The city of Richmond and its surrounding counties of Henrico, Hanover and Chesterfield are looking to increase public utility rates and fees in the coming year to pay for infrastructure upgrades and maintenance.
But in Richmond, a lack of space for new development means the city doesn't get as much revenue as the counties from the thousands of dollars in fees charged for connecting new utility service to a home or business.
That makes the Department of Public Utilities more dependent on rate and fee increases to meet federal requirements and to service older infrastructure, including some pipes nearing 100 years old and one of the commonwealth's oldest water plants.
For water and wastewater service most Richmond residents pay $47 a month in fees before using a single drop of water. That's compared with $22 in Chesterfield, $16.28 in Henrico and $14.03 in Hanover.
The city of Richmond, which bills customers monthly for water and gas, operates five utilities – water, wastewater, stormwater, gas and streetlights – that serve about 500,000 residential and commercial customers. Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover counties, which bill customers every two months, operate only water and wastewater utilities.
In the nearly $781 million budget the Richmond City Council will vote on in May, the administration has asked for increases in natural gas, water and wastewater fees and rates.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
A trial date has been set for the 30 women's rights activists arrested at the state Capitol in a March 3 protest against a bill requiring women to undergo an ultrasound before getting an abortion.
Judge David E. Cheek, at a hearing Friday morning in Richmond's Manchester General District Court, scheduled June 19 to try the 30. Each defendant faces one count apiece of misdemeanor trespassing and one of misdemeanor unlawful assembly.
Seventeen women and 13 men, ranging in age from 19 to 76, were charged in the nonviolent Capitol protest. Two-thirds of the protesters are in their 20s, and all but a handful are from the Richmond area. The others are from the Charlottesville area, Chesapeake or Winston-Salem, N.C.
Each misdemeanor carries a maximum penalty of 12 months in jail and a $2,500 fine.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Allowing backyard chickens, converting city properties to orchards and eliminating water fees for community gardens –they are all among ideas Richmond's Food Policy Task Force is bringing to the community this week.
Creating a food hub – a location where farmers can take their crops for wholesale – was also high on the list of some task force members. Restaurants and universities could purchase all their produce in a one-stop shop, instead of having to visit a number of locations around town. The food hub, which would be reachable by public transportation, could also feature a farmers market, a community co-op where residents could buy more and healthier food, and offer cooking classes.
The committee, which began meeting in July, also called for a two-year moratorium on opening fast-food restaurants in Richmond's “food deserts,” low-income neighborhoods that lack grocery stores.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Even expert storm chasers would have struggled to decipher the difference between the tornado warnings sent last May before severe weather hit Joplin and, a few days later, headed again toward downtown Kansas City.
The first tornado was a massive EF5 twister that killed 161 people as it wiped out a huge chunk of the southwest Missouri community. The second storm caused only minor damage when two weak tornadoes struck in the Kansas City suburbs.
In both cases, the warnings were harbingers of touchdowns. But 3 out of every 4 times the National Weather Service issues a formal tornado warning, there isn't one. The result is a “cry wolf” phenomenon that's dulled the effectiveness of tornado warnings, and one the weather service hopes to solve with what amounts to a scare tactic.
In a test that starts Monday, five weather service offices in Kansas and Missouri will use words such as “mass devastation,” “unsurvivable” and “catastrophic” in a new kind of warning that's based on the severity of a storm's expected impact. The goal is to more effectively communicate the dangers of an approaching storm so people understand the risks they're about to face.
The system being tested will create two tiers of warnings for thunderstorms and three tiers for tornadoes, each based on severity. A research team in North Carolina will analyze the results of the experiment, which runs through late fall, and help the weather service decide whether to expand the new warnings to other parts of the country.
Brief by the Associated Press
For the first time in history, the U.S. military hosted an event expressly for soldiers and others who don't believe in God, with a gathering like a county fair Saturday at one of the world's largest Army bases.
The Rock Beyond Belief event at Fort Bragg, organized by soldiers here after a 2010 evangelical Christian event at the base, is the most visible sign so far of a growing desire by military personnel with atheist or other secular beliefs to get the same recognition as their religious counterparts.
“I love the military,” said Sgt. Justin Griffith, main organizer of the event and the military director of American Atheists.
Griffith said non-religious soldiers are not permitted to hold atheist meetings at the base and so far have been rebuffed in efforts to change that. They feel their beliefs marginalize them.
Organizers said the goal was not to disparage religious soldiers, but to celebrate the beliefs of secular members of the military and their families.
Brief by the Associated Press
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez traveled to Cuba on Saturday for another round of cancer treatment, saying he will be in Havana for several days and then return home.
He said during an earlier speech to supporters that he was traveling to Havana for a second round of radiation after recent surgery to extract a second cancerous tumor in his pelvic area. Chavez had another tumor removed from the same place in June.
The 57-year-old leftist president, in office since 1999, has vowed to overcome cancer to win another six-year term in the Oct. 7 election.
Brief by the Associated Press
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More than 40,000 people participated in this year's Ukrop's Monument Avenue 10k race.Photo
by Chris Conway
More than 40,000 people participated in the 13th annual Ukrop’s Monument Avenue 10k race this past Saturday.
Named one of the best races in the country according to USA Today, this 6.21-mile race has grown to be the fourth largest 10k in the country.
The Monument Avenue 10k began in 2000 when executive director Jon Lugbill had the idea of creating an event on Monument Avenue.
“Monument Avenue is such a beautiful street, and it’s actually the only street listed on the National Historic Register,” said Jackie Holt, communications manager for Sports Backers, an integral sponsor and organizer for the Monument 10k.
Ukrop's was already organizing the Richmond Marathon but didn't want to host a traditional 26.2 mile marathon because they believed too small of a population of runners could complete it. They wanted to create an event that the entire community could take part in.
“It’s an event that the entire community celebrates. It’s a staple of fitness for our region,” Holt said.
Throughout the race, there were non-stop live music, cheering competitions and costume contests. Various bands were conveniently located at places where runners would need some extra energy.
“I loved all the entertainment around me; it was so helpful at keeping my mind off of running, and most of the bands were really energetic and great to listen to,” said VCU freshman 10k participant Carrie Dawkins.
Dawkins' favorite part of being in the race was being able to go back and cheer on the remaining runners after she finished.
“It felt great to see someone smile and speed up because we cheered them on,” Dawkins said. CT
Students will soon have more choices than ever when it comes to convenience-store shopping when a new 7-Eleven opens on Broad Street. But a new store opening in the area brings some problems to local store owners.
Goshen Market owner Tony, who requested his last name not be printed due to pending lawsuits, is worried about the impact the incorporated store will have on his own customers.
Goshen Market has been open since October 2010 at the corner of Goshen and Broad streets. Tony, who has owned convenience stores since 1993, doesn't plan on closing Goshen Market any time soon.
After his first store in Henrico, Crestview Food Store, closed, Tony moved to downtown Richmond for a change of pace.
But with the opening of the new 7-Eleven only paces away from Tony's store, he's worried he may not be able to stay in business.
“I don't want the 7-Eleven there at all,” Tony said. “The small business is the backbone of the nation,” he said. “I work 120 hours a week, as well as my wife ... just to make a living, to keep food on the table, roof over (our) head to make a family at the same time,” he said. “We work hard to keep up.”
Tony's success relies heavily on loyal customers, who still choose to shop at the Goshen Market despite numerous other options. The new 7-Eleven, he thinks, will make that choice even harder.
Student Annie Greene, a loyal Goshen Market customer who has created a Facebook page in support of the protest, is planning a boycott of the new 7-Eleven.
When she found out about the new 7-Eleven being built so near to Goshen
The Cary Street Gym has been hard at work providing classes, ellipticals, recreational and intramural sports and, of course, zumba. Like the exercise it provides to students, the work produces results.
Most recently, the gym received an award for “Outstanding Sports Facilities.”
VCU’s Cary Street Gym has been listed as one of nine outstanding sports facilities in the nation by the National Intramural-Recreational Sports Association. In the past, other schools that have won the distinction with their
facilities include Drexel and Virginia Tech.
The award is given out at the NIRSA Annual Conference and Recreational Exposition, this year in Tampa, Fla. The award “is presented to facilities NIRSA considers to be functional and architectural standards or models by which other collegiate recreational facilities should be measured and from which others can benefit.”
“NIRSA is what recreational sports strive to be the best in,” said Tom Diehl, director of VCU Recreational Sports.
“We received this award because of both our excellent design and programming.”
According to Diehl, the complex has a significant amount of students in-
volved in recreational sports programs. Since the renovation, student membership in recreational sports has jumped from 40 percent to 75 percent.
The Cary Street Gym is the center for VCU’s multifaceted recreational sports program, which include club sports, intramurals, exercise classes and several other services provided to students through the program.
“One of the best things about Cary Street Gym is that it is a dedicated recreation facility,” Diehl said. “The students can come every day, and they know it will always be there because it is for them.”
The award rates facilities that have been constructed or renovated within
Market, Greene decided to do something.
“I kind of realized that it will actually make a bigger impact than I thought,” said Greene. “It was kind of a little obvious that they had placed it in that location in order to compete with (Goshen Market) because they do have a little bit of higher prices because they're an independent business,” she said. “They obviously know that they can get more customers.”
Greene created the Facebook page event “Boycott the New 7-11 on Broad St., Keep Goshen Market in Business!” to bring awareness to the effect the new 7-Eleven may have on one of her favorite businesses.
“I kind of wanted to bring the other side of it, with more of the ethics of it,” she said. “You know you'll save money, but at the end of the day, if you shop at (Goshen Market) you're helping this particular family and you're … helping to support an independent business which I think is more important than saving a dollar,” Greene said.
Within 48 hours of creating the event, more than 700 people joined the group.
Greene said she hopes the people involved, especially on the Facebook page, will shop more cautiously.
“They'll have the decision to go to one place or the other and maybe they'll go to (Goshen Market). … that much more support would over time eventually help them and keep them in business,” she said.
The new 7-Eleven is available for franchise, and does not currently have a franchisee but will be staffed by 7-Eleven, Inc. employees until one emerges.
The store is being built on Broad Street to be a “convenient destination for college students of VCU,” 7-Eleven representative Margaret Chabris said. CT
the past two years and dedicate a large portion of its square-footage to recreational sports.
The criteria on which it is judged include unique aesthetic of architectural features, relationship between facility design and staffing, innovative construction methods and sustainable features.
The Cary Street Gym opened at 101 S. Linden St. for the spring 2010 semester. The former city auditorium building underwent a $47 million renovation and was constructed to meet LEED Silver standard, a measure for sustainability in buildings. Several parts of the original auditorium can still be seen in places like the entrance and outside walls. CT
Eight new bicycles are now available for VCU students and faculty to rent, free of charge, at one of the university's libraries.
The new RamBikes are a bicycle pilot program that is a part of a joint initiative sponsored by VCU Goes Green and VCU Libraries. The purpose of the bicycles is to help provide an eco-friendly alternative mode of transportation for the university.
“VCU Sustainability sees bikes as an integral component of its Climate Action Plan – its goals and methods for reducing greenhouse gas emissions to limit and mitigate the university’s impact on the environment,” said Brantley Tyndall, alternative transportation coordinator at VCU’s Office of Sustainability.
Students and faculty may borrow one of the four bicycles located at specific bike racks at Cabell Library and MCV’s Tompkins-McCaw Library.
The bikes are available for 24 hours and can be renewed once for another 24 hours and must be returned at the same location they were borrowed. After a li-
ability waiver is signed, bike renters will receive a key for the bikes’ U-lock and a helmet.
There are about 15,000 to 18,000 cyclists at VCU, according to a 2010 VCU state of cycling report and VCU Wellness Resource Center student survey.
With such a high number of cyclists at VCU, the RamBikes would give nonbicycle owners the opportunity to learn about the many benefits of biking.
“Bikes are a convenient option for students without other transportation on campus,” said Teresa Doherty, head of Circulation and Information Services at VCU Libraries. “We hope that students will be able to explore the city on these bikes and enjoy the many offerings this city has.”
The bicycle-loan program is still in its early stages, and VCU Libraries is finalizing the information about the program and is in the process of adding a key ring to hold the U-lock and an Allen wrench to adjust the height of the bike seat.
“We have a lot in the works for adding to and expanding the overall bike program at VCU; this is just the beginning,” Tyndall said. CT
In this section:
Men's basketball could land spot in preseason Top 25 • 7 Burgess has strong showing in NABC All-Star Game • 8
Jim Swing Sports Editor
The spring schedule is regularly just an opportunity to evaluate positions and give players extra playing time.
But the VCU women’s soccer team has used that time to go a little bit above and beyond. Three games into the spring exhibition schedule, the Rams remain a perfect 3-0 with their latest win coming in a 2-0 trounce of American University.
A year after falling just short of a CAA championship at William & Mary, VCU is picking up right where it left off in preparation for the upcoming fall season.
“This spring our roster is deep so it's been really nice to give a lot of players that didn't get a lot of time in the fall exposure,” co-head coach Tiffany Roberts-Sahaydak said. “It's just been really good for players to get experience and play in new positions and try different lineups and give a lot of people a lot of playing time.”
So has been the case at the goaltending position. With usual starter Kristen Carden, a transfer from Virginia Tech, out with an injury, backups Emma Cruz and Megan Lynch have received the nod in the spring. And they’ve put on quite a show in the process. The pair of underclassmen has combined for two shutouts and three wins in just over a week of play.
“It's a time for coaches to evaluate players,” Roberts-Sahaydak said. “We're really using this time to see who's going to help us really make an impact in the fall.”
And having a pair of co-head coaches has been nothing short of a luxury for Tim and Tiffany Sahaydak. While one will remain with the team coaching the spring exhibition schedule, the other spends time on the recruiting trail. While Tim was recruiting in San Diego this weekend, Tiffany coached the Rams to yet another victory. Roberts-Sahaydak said she hates to sound political, but the team’s success has been a complete group effort.
“All in all every game we've had different players step up,” she said. “We're rotating people around so much it's really been a fond team effort.”
VCU has picked up wins over Richmond, Longwood and now American with three games remaining on the schedule.
Once the Rams conclude their exhibition slate, coaches will spend more time recruiting during the summer while players spend more time preparing for the fall season.
VCU loses six seniors from last fall when it fell to William & Mary in the CAA championship game. CT
in Jordan Burgess, which makes the 2012-2013 Rams, on paper, the most intriguing VCU team in many years.
At the start of the 2011-2012 college basketball season, only three teams (Memphis, Gonzaga and Xavier) residing outside the power six conferences were believed worthy of AP Top 25 honors. By the end of the regular season, that number ballooned to six (Murray State, Wichita State, Creighton, San Diego State, UNLV and St. Mary’s).
Interestingly enough, none of those final six were among the three included at the beginning of the year. However, all three of those teams found themselves in the NCAA Tournament, two with single-digit seeds, showing the significance of the preseason poll.
High-major teams feel the significance of the poll as well – every team that reached New Orleans for the Final Four was high up in the preseason rankings, with Kansas being the lowestranked of the bunch coming in at No. 13, proving even further that the rankings hold meaning.
Following VCU’s loss to Indiana in the NCAA Tournament, I reeled off the royalty of the mid-major hierarchy like Memphis and Gonzaga for Darius Theus, and asked him if he thought VCU had established itself in that class. The first words out of his mouth were, “Most definitely.”
“I think we’ve shown we belong in the NCAA Tournament,” he added. “I feel like we can play with anyone.”
Coaches and media around the country have voiced the same opinion as Theus, and for the first time in school history, VCU has a real chance to find itself in the preseason Top 25 poll. Jon Rothstein, a senior college basketball writer for CBS Sports, recently said on Twitter that he had both Drexel and VCU in the mix for preseason Top 25 spots, which would be a first for the CAA.
Coming off a conference championship and back-to-back NCAA Tournament runs, all while retaining the most sought-after coach in the nation and returning 12 of 13 players, VCU has the traits of a team poised for another big year. Shaka Smart also landed the school’s first-ever ESPN Top 100 recruit
VCU found itself on a steady incline in terms of Top 25 votes throughout this season, eventually reaching 12 votes in the last AP Poll of the regular season and 13 in the ESPN/USA Today Coaches Poll. They had received at least two votes in the Coaches Poll since the Week 14 poll on Feb. 6, and by Week 15 were getting consistent votes in the AP Poll as well. Even if VCU doesn’t reach the Top 25 by the beginning of next season, the progress it has made over the past two seasons has been enough to assure it the opportunity to reach the plateau much faster than in recent years. Shaka Smart brought even more good publicity to the program after the season by turning down the head coaching job at Illinois, which undoubtedly caught the attention of voters around the country.
Xavier, Memphis and Gonzaga are the only mid-majors in the country to have garnered enough respect to receive preseason Top 25 credentials on a yearto-year basis, but VCU is on the verge of being on that short list as well and the benefits will run deep. CT
Bradford Burgess was in New Orleans this weekend for the college basketball version of NBA All-Star Weekend, participating in the three-point contest and starting for the West in the all-star game devoted to seniors with hopes of professional careers.
Burgess scored 10 points and had six rebounds in 23 minutes as the West fell to the East 103-99 on Friday night at the Louisiana Superdome, the site of the Final Four. He was one of 11 players to record double figures in the contest, five
of whom were on his team.
On Thursday at the skills competition, Burgess was eliminated in the first round of the three-point contest after picking up 12 of 30 possible points. After a slow start to the round, Burgess gained steam but was unable to complete the final rack of balls before the alotted 60 seconds was up. He was one point short of advancing to the second round. John Shurma of Northwestern won the event with 21 points in the final round. CT
In this section:
Interesting People: on running en masse • 11 CT Horoscopes for April: What do you want from me? • 12
Album review: Rusko’s new album “Songs” • 13
Nick Bonadies Spectrum Editor
This past Tuesday and Thursday, passersby in the Compass have borne witness to a dashing, mysterious figure in a red cape and eyemask, wielding a giant wooden gold-painted uterus.
Mystifying onlookers with a majestic dance and reverberant strains of Bonnie Tyler’s “I Need a Hero,” the masked stranger – who identifies himself as “Super Uterus” – then proceeds to engage bystanders in conversation.
“I tell them I’m a super hero – but I also want them to be a super hero,” Uterus, who requested that his supersecret identity not appear in print, said.
“Super Uterus emerged from the tepid waters of Belle Isle in the dead of night,” Uterus said of himself in the third person. “His parents were swamp people.”
“He looked around and saw the reality of Richmond’s poverty,” he said. “And he thought to himself: ‘How can I help these people in need – the most marginalized of the marginalized?’”
The rest, as they say, is history. Super Uterus now directs his Compass fans to the nearby fundraising sale for the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, offering screenprinted patches, bags, T-shirts and other articles.
For a $1 donation, he will pose for a photo.
“Super Uterus is our team mascot,” said Safiya Bridgewater, a student in VCU’s nonprofit management postbaccalaureate graduate program, and one of nine members that make up their sub-group in the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project fundraising effort.
The sub-group, named “Team GSEX” after the VCU department of gender, sexuality and women’s studies, is one of 30 “teams” raising money for the Project, which “(engages) in grassroots advocacy for the full spectrum of reproductive rights.”
“What our team is doing is fundraising,” Bridgewater said. “But it’s also a good way of doing outreach at the same time. More people know about Richmond Reproductive Freedom
Project because (Super Uterus) is out there talking to everyone about it.”
Team GSEX, as of press time, has raised a little more than $2,100 of their $3,000 fundraising goal. The greater Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project’s goal is $25,000, of which it has raised almost $20,000.
“I foresee that we’re totally going to exceed that goal,” Bridgewater said.
Team GSEX member Brianna Gribben, senior sculpture major with a minor in gender, sexuality and women’s studies, said the team’s efforts have been met with a mostly positive response.
“A lot of people are like, ‘Why do you have a giant uterus?’” she said. “We’ve had some curious people, definitely, but nothing negative. ... Some people have said, ‘Well, I’m opposed to that,’ but ... we explain that we’re not really out in the Compass to debate; we’re there to fundraise.”
“We’re not about ethics, religion or politics or anything like that – that’s not the conversation we want to have while we’re in the act of fundraising,” Uterus said. “What we want is action. What we
want is people getting involved, people helping out other people.”
Super Uterus’ next appearance is scheduled for this Tuesday, April 3, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. He also plans to attend Team GSEX’s “Dance for Reproductive Rights” at Babe’s of Carytown this Thursday, April 5 at 10 p.m., and “Real Talk,” a poetry reading and open-mic night at The Camel from 5 to 8 p.m. on April 12. Bridgewater stressed that all types of performance are welcome, and need not utilize reproductive rights as subject matter: “It can be about, like, pickles,” she said.
As for Super Uterus himself, the future after the fundraiser is unclear. He hopes to win the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project’s “team spirit” award, he says, and after that, possibly, to “fly away to Brazil.” CT
For more information on the Richmond Reproductive Freedom Project, visit their website at http://rrfp.net/. Team GSEX’s team page at http://bowlathon.nnaf.org/ contains information on donations or getting involved.
“I didn’t see much of the race. It was really loud, but my aunt was running in it.”
“I ran in the race. I did well, mostly because I finished the whole thing.”
“I did a lot better than I thought I would. I definitely want to keep running the race for the next three years that I’m here.”
“I enjoyed the race. I didn’t train as much as I wanted to, but there were bands and people cheering. My favorite part was seeing the historic houses along Monument Avenue.”
“I did pretty well in the race, a lot better than I thought I would. It’s a good experience because there’s so many people out there as well.”
“I did have fun, and I did better than I thought I would since I didn’t train for the race.”
“I ran the race in a little over an hour. I had fun, but now I’m in covered in powdered sugar from fried Oreos. It’s my treat for after the race.”
“I didn’t know this was happening till yesterday. I came out to cheer on my friend and her mom.”
AQUARIUS – Jan. 20 – Feb. 18
You ought to be ashamed.
CANCER – June 21 – July 22
Try to exercise a little diplomancy this month, as you are the U.S. ambassador to Botswana.
VIRGO – Aug. 23 – Sept. 22
You begin to show signs of a natural talent for watercolors, which is too bad, because watercolors are for pansies and dillweeds.
PISCES – Feb. 19 – March 20
Console yourself before your big performance/critique/examination/interview this month by remembering: Fifty or so years from now, for all intents and purposes, it’ll be the same as if you’d never existed.
ARIES – March 21 – April 19
Minutes and perhaps hours of your life will continue to vanish this month while listening to grown adults discuss Hollywood films based on literature for preteens.
TAURUS – April 20 – May 20
The gravity of the situation will fail to occur to you until you’re already plummeting past the seventh story.
GEMINI – May 21 – June 20
The stars assure you that, with time, people will forget all about it – or at least they’ll stop referring to you as Urine Boy to your face.
LEO – July 23 – Aug. 22
A whirlwind depression is yours this month when Facebook evidence of your homemade pesto fails to garner even a cursory number of ‘likes.’
LIBRA – Sep. 23 – Oct. 22
Earth ascendant in the constellation Taurus this month indicates a long journey, possible romance and that you’re somehow standing on the surface of another planet.
SCORPIO – Oct. 23 – Nov. 21
You realize you are completely incapable of feeling anything like joy, compassion or love, making it much easier for you to major in print journalism.
SAGITTARIUS – Nov. 22 – Dec. 21
You will lie through your teeth to a homeless person this month.
CAPRICORN – Dec. 22 – Jan. 19
The truest advice the stars can give you this month is that people change over time. The events of this month, in particular, will demonstrate how you can change from someone without polio to someone with it.
Rusko puts the dub back in dub step with his new album, “Songs.”
Rusko, also known as Chris Mercer, earned his degree in Music Performance from Leeds College of Music before dripping his his first EP, “Babylon, Vol. 1,” in 2007. Rusko continued producing numerous singles and remixes until March of 2010 when he released his first album, “O.M.G.!”
Rusko has performed at Ultra Music Festival, Electric Zoo, and Electric Daisy Carnival.
This past Feb. 6 Rusko stopped at The National as part of his collegeinvasion tour. He performed most of his popular songs and even took back the stage for an encore. He embarks on a spring tour on April 20 kicking off in Boulder, Colo.
Rusko’s sophomore album outdoes the original. This album has much more of a reggae feel while still staying true to Rusko’s electronic sound. It is an upbeat album that must be listened to from
start to finish to be fully appreciated.
The second song, “Somebody to Love,” is the single for the album. It’s a catchy electronic song, but a little too mainstream for Rusko’s sound. This is Rusko’s attempt to appeal to a mass audience.
The song “Skanker” is set to a fast reggae beat with bass dropping throughout the entire track. “Love No More” plays out like a reggae ballad without an electronic feel to it. “Opium” sticks to Rusko’s original bass blaring pulse: a good dance song sure to be played at raves this summer.
Set to an old-school reggae beat, “Be Free” is a good mix between reggae and dub. “Thunder” is an upbeat dance song with a crazy beat. A Rasta-infused dub song “Mek More Green” is a mellow tune with an encouraging message: “Strive for positive every day in life.”
Rusko is currently working on a collaboration project with Cypress Hill. The EP “Cyprus X Rusko” is set to be released sometime this April. CT
In this section:
General Assembly plan could spur corporate responsibility • 14 Politicizing gas prices exposes ugly divide • 15
Want to rename your street? Soon, you might be able to do that.
Virginia’s General Assembly has approved a plan to allow the state to sell off the naming rights to bridges and roads. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the move could generate up to $27.3 million in the first five years, and $273 million over 20 years as companies vie to pay thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars to place their name on area names.
It’s a novel and grand idea and could provide some much needed revenue to the cash strapped Department of Transportation. It’s easy to bemoan the state of the roads – and every Richmond citizen likely has and rightfully so. We want to see the potholes filled and our bumpy, car-destroying roads be smooth once again.
But in no way do we want to pay for it: higher gas tax? No thanks. More toll roads? No way. We want our cake and be able to eat it, too.
Which is why this idea is both ridiculous and awesome.
Not only can VDOT channel the funds raised by this plan to fix some of our roads, it may instill a sense of responsibility in corporate sponsors. No corporate sponsor would want its company name to be associated with a road covered in litter or prone to causing accidents.
Instead of just naming the road, the sponsors can fully adopt the road and help cover the maintenance costs. We already see this happening to stretches of roads, with organizations being in charge of its upkeep in terms of litter. With corporate brand equity on the line, many organizations will spare little expense.
Critics have come out against the plan and not without merit. The revenue that could be raised through this initiative is minimal when compared to VDOT’s annual budget, which is a massive $4.76 billion for 2012.
There are also questions of
how desirable some of Richmond’s roads truly are: Will companies pony up cash to be associated with congestion? Others have argued that while VDOT is underfunded, this program only distracts from the real problem of finding proper funding.
There’s also the issue of normalization – that is, a name being attached to a road absent the company. How long will it take us to think of a potential
“Walmart Way” as a road without even considering the considering the company behind it? Will we even pay attention to new road names? What about updating our GPSes and maps?
There are a lot of unanswered questions. Regardless, the state should go through with it.
The plan highlights the initiative and innovation of Virginia.
Every state has faced budget issues
over the past several years, and it takes some creativity to make ends meet. This is a creative solution and could blaze a trail to more novel money-making initiatives.
Maybe it’s not the optimal solution, but with enough legislation getting tied down in the General Assembly, it’s still a step forward. It may fail, but it will have been worth the effort because every little bit helps.
prices bemoans less about the president and more about the people.
Critics would suggest that the president could have decreased gas prices by signing the Keystone pipeline this year. But that’s clearly bunk because a pipeline of that magnitude would have taken years to build.
Offshore drilling? Remember how well that went in the Gulf of Mexico back in 2010?
This issue goes beyond just the price of gas, conspiracies about oil speculation, overseas markets, geopolitical tension, American dependence on foreign oil or the need to switch to alternative fuel sources.
There is a serious disconnect occurring when presidential candidates can go on stage and outright lie to both American citizens and themselves and
It seems far-fetched and ridiculous; it’s so far from the norm that we have grown used to – which is precisely why this might work.
I know I look forward to cruising down “Altria Avenue” and “Dominion Drive.” CT
Shane Wade Opinion EditorThe signs of an oncoming summer are abundant, even as we just begin to enter spring: Beach wear is back on sale, honeysuckles are beginning to bloom, and gasoline prices are stretching into the $4 per gallon range.
What used to be a record is now a landmark. Although we all expect to see fuel pries to rise to such a summit, without fail, we continuously lament the rise and blame it on our politicians, particularly the president. After all, he’s head honcho, leader of the Free World and all. His hands lie upon the levers driving the domestic economy, fuel prices, and a multitude of our issues. Right? Wrong.
The President cannot directly raise or lower the price of gas, only the taxes associated with those costs.
Politicians have little power over the price of gasoline. Any seasoned and mainstream economist will tell you that. Presidential candidates that promise to bring fuel prices back down to $2 are
lying to you. Presidents that blame their opposing party for the high price of gas are lying to you. They want your anger, and they want your vote.
The price of gas is dependent upon the price of crude oil, which is likewise linked to the seemingly infinite number of external global geopolitical and economic factors. Factors largely unaltered by the words and actions of the president of the United States, no matter whom it is. That’s the uncolored fact that our politicians neglect to inform you.
Our politics are littered with such ill discourse: Elected officials overestimate the powers associated with the office of the presidency and underestimate the power of externalities, though not entirely out of malice or corruption. It is unnerving and unsatisfying to hear, but some things are out of our control. Pandering politicians prostituting themselves for our votes distort an otherwise obvious issue.
The fact that 68 percent of Americans disapprove of the way President Barack Obama is dealing with high gas
get away with it. When a lie of this proportion and importance is being perpetuated on the political stage, persons of authority have the responsibility to challenge it.
The trait of honesty has never been associated with politics, and I readily expect such behavior from politicians. But it’s quite another matter for us to be complacent with such distortions.
Acceptance of a fact does not nullify the need to act upon it. CT
