Plowshare Peace and Justice Center had used the space for six years for monthly silent antiwar vigils. Although the city owns the building and sidewalks, it has been leased to the foundation for 40 years for renovation tax credits. The board's chairman said the ban was to reserve the space for restaurants and businesses inside.
The ACLU of Virginia isn't happy. The Roanoke Times reported Saturday that the group sent the building foundation a letter last week warning them that such a policy violates the First Amendment. "The First Amendment allows for reasonable time, place and manner regulations of speech, but an outright ban on assemblies on the sidewalk is not permissible," the ACLU wrote. Simply because the property is being leased doesn't mean it is exempt from free speech and assembly protections, the ACLU argued, citing precedent.
Meanwhile, Plowshare's director said he is looking for a "win-win" resolution with the foundation so both businesses and vigil attendees can share the sidewalk space. Here's hoping the foundation's board is listening.
"When I was in charge of the Christian Coalition, I was available to mobilize grassroots support for somebody," Marion told The Associated Press for a Sunday story. "I don't have any army right now. It's just an opinion, and that isn't quite as good as it used to be."
But he's not leaving the political scene without a parting shot at Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney: "He said he considers the Mormon candidate 'an outstanding Christian,'" AP reported, "but declined to say whether he would be OK with a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the White House. Both Romney and former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman are Mormons seeking the GOP nomination."
Marion told the AP, "I've been there, done that. The truth of the matter is, politics is not going to change our world. It's really not going to make that much of a difference." Marion, you just realized this now and not 50 years ago?
The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last month that Woody has hired at least 10 family members since taking office in January 2006, including two sisters, a brother-in-law, a son, a daughter, a niece, a nephew, and three granddaughters, totally $440,000 in annual salaries.
Woody is a constitutional officer, meaning that he is elected and not bound by city ethics policies. He did say, however, that he would conform to Richmond's nepotism policy of supervisor-subordinate relationships if the City Council formally asked him to. But it is unclear if Woody would fire any of his relatives.
He has stayed generally mum on the issue since a press conference last week, but the Times-Dispatch reported Sunday that his nephew's marriage to a deputy whose daughter also works at the sheriffs office brings the total number of Woodys at the Sheriff's Office to 11. Ironically, Woody criticized his predecessor for nepotism, but she only hired four relatives.
That's C.T. Woody of the Woody Family Sheriff's Office, today's Worst Virginian in the World!
