It’s recall (or not) day in Portsmouth. Who’s voting?

Voting begins in Holley recall election

Ok, Portsmouth, time to vote. It’ll be interesting to see who comes out to play in today’s recall election. Certainly the Holley-nots will be rushing to cast their ballots to throw him out as soon as possible. The question is, who will defend him? Is anyone willing to come out and save this man from ignominy. I’m not suggesting that he deserves it. I’m just wondering…

Also, apparently there’s a question of conflict of interest regarding one of the election board members. This is not as interesting as the overall question of whether Holley will survive today or not, of course, but if you want to read about it, here it is

Cyclist hit by car in Norfolk, taken to hospital

A cyclist was hit at the intersection of Tidewater Drive and Virginia Beach Boulevard this morning. He was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, although he is now “expected to recover.” No word yet on who or how. Damn, I hate cycling accidents.

UFL franchise in Hampton Roads is cleared for 2011 kickoff

I just hope we call them the Norfolk Mermaids. I also hope they don’t pull fans from ODU games. Is anyone excited about this?

Death of Harvey Pekar 1939-2010

The man who gave us American Splendor, and who will forever be remembered as looking like Paul Giamotti, is dead at age 70. Suddenly I’m interested in picking up some of his books…

Va. Beach ‘green’ store red-faced over discharge

Giving a pile of ammunition to the haters, the Pilot covers an accidental discharge at The Heritage store in Virginia Beach, where a sink used for dumping cleaners and chemicals had been incorrectly tied to a stormsewer outflow, instead of a sanitary sewer line. Comments? Oh yes. It’s the 4th most-commented story at the moment on Pilotonline. Interestingly, however, it’s not quite as vitriolic as I would have expected. There are a lot of Heritage defenders out there, beating back the bullies.

Chesapeake, Suffolk make Best Places to Live list

I spent the weekend in Overland Park, KS, visiting my family. It’s a far-reaching car-scape of single family homes and strip malls set among rolling prairie hills. The houses are fearsomely identical, the street layout, frighteningly rectangular. In spite of the wonderful oak trees that line many of the residential streets, it manifests itself, to me, as more of an absence than a presence. And yet, according to Money magazine, Overland Park is the seventh “Best” small town in America. According to the same list, our own cities of Chesapeake and Suffolk rank as 85th and 91st in Money magazine’s 2010 list of Best Places to Live. Norfolk? Not on the list. Still, I’d rather live here. I don’t think they factored “quirky” into the evaluation formula. We’ve got that, in spades.