Follow the Money in Charlottesville and Albemarle Politics

Once again, Charlottesville Tomorrow is leading the pack with its thorough reporting … if you want to get insight into how a candidate is likely to vote, take a look at the sources of their donations. It’s a shame that $150k is being spent on politics rather than something more worthwhile. While Labor Day marks the traditional start of the local campaign season, the race…

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How Do You Suggest Albemarle Pay for Infrastructure?

Pantops wants sidewalks. But apparently Albemarle doesn’t have money for much of anything right now. What are the solutions? Gas tax? Local tax district with guaranteed dedicated funding to infrastructure? We know that if we don’t specify up front how taxpayers’ money will be used, it will be frittered away elsewhere … would you be willing to pay a gas tax or sales tax that…

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Twitter Week in Review

Maybe it's time for UVa to renew its rivalry w/ VMI; it's liable to be competitive. #fb # Just got back and am watching the UVA tweets – http://bit.ly/16s1p4 – apparently, UVA's football team isn't so great. # RT @morganb: RT @Jesse: Want an Unpaid Internship So You Can Get Valuable Experience ? – Screw You ! (by @mcuban) http://bit.ly/4kPpe1 # RT @pauljacobson: Self-hosted WordPress…

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Google Real Estate Trends

Google Trends for Finance … this is for real estate. A few years ago I wrote a story titled What if Zillow is Right?.  Replace "Zillow" with "Google". Yet I have been wondering – what if Zillow’s reach becomes so great, their data become so vast and inclusive, that their Zestimates significantly impact what is fair market value? What if the purchasing and selling population refer to…

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