Special Edition: 2009 Predictions
-4 Feb. 16: With Gov. Tim Kaine on his way out, L. Douglas Wilder declares his surprise candidacy for the office again, saying he’s bored of screwing up things at the local level and wants to take his operation statewide.
+3 May 25: As part of its Web 3.0 strategy, the Richmond Times-Dispatch launches a fourth Web site, TDsuspendersandbowties.com, where it will post articles written by the company’s laid-off journalists. The site scoops most of the paper’s own stories.
+6 Sept. 6: After a week of little sleep, Mayor Dwight Jones confuses his dual roles as pastor and politician, offering City Council a sermon about redemption and promising “openness and transparency” of his church’s financial and property records.
+5 Oct. 14: After years of trying, CenterStage finally opens. It’s such a success the city decides it doesn’t really need to fix roads, schools and public housing after all, and diverts all its tax revenues to the project’s new executive director, Robert Grey.
-5 Dec. 30: Philip Morris USA steps in to save Carytown New Year’s Eve, but the deal falls apart when the man who designs the lighted ball, Byrd Theatre manager Todd Schall-Vass, refuses to add a smoke machine that sets off a menthol-flavored fog.
