Meet Charles, the Norfolk, Va.-based “Lab-a-lion” whose owner-cut mane (in honor of Old Dominion University’s mascot) was so convincing, that people called 911, freaked out that it might be an actual lion. (In case you need some spelling out, it’s a dog.) Try topping that, other weird news stories today.
Mitt Romney chooses Paul Ryan as running mate
Mitt Romney has chosen Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan to be his vice presidential running mate.
Sourced reports of the news emerged late last night, and Romney’s “Mitt’s VP” mobile app confirmed the choice this morning. Romney is holding an event in Norfolk, Virginia, at 9 a.m. EDT today to make the formal announcement. More updates on BreakingNews.com.
Photo: Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 10, 2012. (J. Scott Applewhite / AP)
Of course they would leapfrog the official announcement with the app. Of course.
Weekend music recommendation: Just wanted to give a little appreciation to Norfolk, Virginia’s very own Skye Zentz, an acoustic singer-songwriter perfect for summery vibes and cheery times. She just released her second album, “Bird Heart,” a week or two ago, and she’s pretty awesome in person. Highly recommend you give her a listen. (Disclosure: When I spent my days as an acoustic troubadour in the style of watered-over Elliott “Leonard ‘Nick Drake’ Cohen” Smith, I once played a show with her. — Ed)
Many, including news organizations around the country, are assuming and making judgments based on information they do not have. That’s a shame, it makes us look bad.
We did not cover up anything. We bend over backwards to treat ourselves the same way we would treat any other member of the community. In fact, we go overboard at times to make sure there is no perception that we have treated ourselves favorably because of our position.
Did we go too far here in holding to this standard? I don’t know, I will always ask myself that question. But we made our decision based on the facts we had. That’s all we can do. As journalists, we report facts, not assumptions.
The story notes specifically that if people who were not employees of the paper were attacked in a similar way, based on the “simple assault” police report, the paper would not have covered it. The reporters, Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, each missed a week of work following the incident, which Michelle Washington’s column hinted may have had at least perceived racial overtones. (Denis Finley, the editor, makes it clear that they don’t know for sure, and that was merely speculation captured on Twitter.) The reporters initially did not want to go public with what happened, at least initially.
Here’s why their story is in the paper today. We cannot allow such callousness to continue unremarked, from the irrational, senseless teenagers who attacked two people just trying to go home, from the police officer whose conduct may have been typical but certainly seems cold, from the tweeting nitwits who think beating a man in Norfolk will change the death of Trayvon Martin. How can we change it if we don’t know about it? How can we make it better if we look away? Are we really no better than this?Virginian-Pilot columnist Michelle Washington • Writing on the attack of two of her co-workers, reporters Dave Forster and Marjon Rostami, on the streets of Norfolk a few weeks ago. A large crowd swarmed around the duo, who were in their car, with Forster getting out after someone threw a rock at the vehicle, which led to the attacks. Both suffered injuries severe enough that they were out of work for a week. But the kicker was a series of tweets about the incident which Forster discovered. “I feel for the white man who got beat up at the light,” a person wrote. “I don’t,” another responded. “(do it for trayvon martin).” The police were unresponsive to concerns about the incident, saying teenagers in nearby public housing commonly look for trouble on the weekends. Read this story — it’s full of small truths and big questions.
obijohnkenobi says: wait. what? i had no idea shortformblog was local! awesome! but sad about elliot.
» SFB says: Well, sorta local. I started the blog there — and went to FG every day for nearly three years — but eventually I high-tailed it up to DC. Though at the time, I wanted to stay in town. There’s a long story about how SFB started. (There’s a photo of me slinging a guitar in FG in that story.) Since you’re local, if you lived in Hampton Roads long enough to remember when the Virginian-Pilot did Link, its closing was kind of the seed that led to the blog. True story. Diana, the girl in the story, is a good friend of mine. — Ernie @ SFB
This is a tunnel that cars drive through: ”Virginia Dept. of Transportation workers place hose to pump out floodwater at the entrance of Midtown Tunnel prior to its scheduled opening in Norfolk, Va. Sunday morning, Aug. 28, 2011. The flood gate of Midtown Tunnel was closed Saturday morning due to poor weather conditions in advance of Hurricane Irene. During Hurricane Isabel, malfunction of the gate caused flooding of entire Midtown Tunnel.” The Virginian-Pilot now reports that all tunnels in Hampton Roads are open. Even this one. Read more here. (AP Photo/The Virginia-Pilot, Hyunsoo Leo Kim)
More from Hampton Roads: This clip, from a YouTube duo named Jacqui and James, shows a couple of interesting scenes from the Port Norfolk and West Norfolk areas. In the first half of the clip, some deep floodwaters. In the second, some fast winds.
Looking to get some gas in Norfolk? This probably isn’t where you want to go. Yikes. (via AP reporter Brock Vergakis)
Rainfall from Hurricane Irene is causing the Hague River in Norfolk, Virginia, to begin to overflow its banks.
Fun fact: I used to live three blocks from here. I’ve sat on this particular bench many times. The Hague is a beautiful part of Norfolk (Ghent in particular), one I have many fond memories of, but one especially prone to flooding. If I still lived in the really cool Victorian-era apartment near this river, I would have faced a mandatory evacuation by now. — Ernie @ SFB
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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From MSNBC’s photoblog: “One of two people rescued from a sailboat, right, uses a line to make their way onto the beach on Willoughby Spit in Norfolk, Va., Aug. 27, after they and another person were rescued from the boat that foundered in the waters of the Chesapeake Bay. A rescuer, left, waits for the second person to exit the boat.” Amazing shot, can’t believe they got that. (photo by Bill Tiernan / The Virginian-Pilot via AP)
Calm before the storm: Via our friends at AltDaily comes a video from Norfolk resident and AltDaily writer Keegan Morrison, who put a camera outside of his condo, then threw it on a timelapse. Look at those results. Yes, the storm is scary, but beauty comes from chaos sometimes. (Editor’s note: I briefly helped with the Norfolk-based AltDaily in its embryonic stage. — Ernie @ SFB)
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