VCU President Eugene Trani may have more problems to worry about than his heart

While the 68-year-old University President is still recovering from quintuple heart bypass surgery, local news outlet CBS 6 is reporting the resignation of four of VCU's top administrators:

Four of Virginia Commonwealth University's top administrators - including a well-known dean seen by many faculty members as the second most powerful figure at the school - have resigned their administrative positions, VCU announced Tuesday afternoon.

The news comes in the wake of twin controversies that have brought negative national attention to the 30,000-student university - the improper granting of a degree to former Richmond police chief Rodney Monroe and the university's acceptance of research grant money from the tobacco industry.

Two of the officials whose resignations were announced today, Dr. Robert D. Holsworth and Dr. S. Jon Steingass, have links to the degree investigation, documents obtained by CBS 6 show.

As disturbing as these serious allegations against the university are, let's hope they do give Trani a little more time to recover before pummeling him for answers.

Sale Alert: Nordstrom Anniversary Sale

Time is running out! You have less than a week to take advantage of some of the wonderful deals Nordstrom is offering during it's annual Anniversary Sale. The best part about the sale is that the merchandise isn't clearance stuff that the store is trying to free its hands of. Rather, new Fall merchandise is being marked down for a limited time and then the price goes back up. So why pay $320 next week for these amazing Stuart Weitzman pumps when you can get them now for only $200!

Here are some of my favorite picks from the sale:

• Victorinox Swiss Army Watch: $299.90 from $450
• Alice + Olivia Block Knit Dress: $149 from $245
• UGG Australia Cardy Classic Boot: $99.90 from $139.95
  

S/S 2009 Fashion Week is Approaching

Yes, folks, it's that time again. Before the Fall/Winter 2008 collections have even hit stores, designers are preparing to show for Spring/Summer 2009. The Mercedes Benz Fashion Week schedule has already been leaked online, and while many of the shows are guaranteed to be great (Marc Jacobs, BCBG, Chris Benz, Phillip Lim, and Peter Som), my favorite day so far looks to be Saturday, September 6 with showings by: Band of Outsiders, Alexander Wang, Obedient Sons, and more!

Check 'em Out: RACE THE SUN

Hey guys. If you're ANYWHERE near Norfolk tonight I'd suggest you stop by The Norva to check out local Richmond band Race the Sun performing. After a brief hiatus and separate side projects, the group is reuniting and has even released a few new demos...maybe they'll perform those tonight, too?

Anyway, the band is awesome. If you can't make it to the show, though, I guess you can settle for checking out their myspace page and jamming out by yourself: http://www.myspace.com/racethesun

"The Hills: Season 4" Trailer....looks can be deceiving

So, MTV just recently released the trailer for Season 4 of "The Hills" which premieres Monday August 18th at 10 PM!!! How exciting! However, the previous exclamation marks aside, I am a bit reluctant to get my hopes up too high for this coming season after being so let down by Season 3. I'm willing to overlook (a) Lauren's bogus FIDM classes (believe me, my "Computers For Fashion" class was NOTHING like hers. Not only did we have to provide our own computers, but there was also minimal chit-chatting allowed. Oh, yeah, and my professor's overhead projection screen wasn't nearly as nice as theirs), (b) Audrina's pouty demeanor, and (c) Stephanie Pratt's bangs, if the first episode doesn't disappoint. After dissecting the trailer frame-by-frame (why can't I have one of those fancy slow motion devices they use to review clips in the NFL? I could've watched Lauren's mascara run down her face all day long...), here's what I think you can expect to find:
Love is in the air. The Hills has chosen to transform itself into a picturesque, fairy tale novel featuring three beautiful, yet somewhat pathetic, damsels that goes something like this: girl meets boy. boy likes girl, at first. boy meets girl's conniving friends. drama ensues. Lauren meets this guy named Doug who plays some sort of sport for a profession and owns his own private jet. She thinks this is super attractive...and so does Stephanie Pratt. Whitney meets a guy named Alex who's apparently a model that went to USC (just like Whitney) but currently lives in New York City. Audrina meets this dude Colin. We don't know too much about Colin from the trailer, but I think Colin had better watch his back because Justin Bobby did not look too happy when Audrina told him about their date and, although I couldn't quite see it before, now that J.B's got a haircut he doesn't look like a guy I'd wanna mess with!
Shakespeare meets soCal. Even William himself couldn't make this type of stuff up! The tension in fair Verona gets higher when Stephanie invites both the Montagues and the Capulets to her birthday party (pun was definitely intended there...did you catch it!?!?) and big bro Spencer declares that he "will never speak to her again" during a conversation with Heidi in their super-secretive lair...in the middle of a super-secretive restaurant. And after the two are done disowning Spencer's sister they decide it's time to move on to weaker, more fashion-challenged prey: Heidi's own chubbier and less attractive (yes, that is possible) sister.
Already failing friendships are put to the test. The moment we've all been waiting for has arrived: the showdown between Lo and Audrina. As a former Laguna Beach watcher myself, I'm naturally Team Lo. My induction to the dark side was cemented last season when Lauren and Lo got a dog together (Chloe was her name?) and Lo waited for Audrina to come home before saying "Now, when she goes to doggy daycare she's going to say 'I have two mommies!'" Muaaaha-ha-ha-ha. However, from the looks of the new trailer it seems as though Audrina finally gets a back bone when Lo argues that she had nothing to do with her rocky friendship with L.C and Audrina snaps back "I. Don't. Care." Although I had to subtract a little bit for the tweeny-bopper tone and head movement, she definitely scored some solid points in my book.

Super exciting, right? We will have to wait until August to see exactly how it all plays out but in the meantime feel free to check out the trailer for yourself by clicking the title of this post. Enjoy!