At 10 months old, India Sims was sent to the hospital for a chronic ear infection. A doctor decided to give Sims a spinal tap to help diagnose the infection—but inserted the needle into the wrong part of her back. She soon became partially paralyzed, and suffered from constant fevers and seizures. Over the next […]
After firing former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney last year, the City of Charlottesville has finally begun looking for her replacement. In July, it paid D.C. executive search firm POLIHIRE $35,000 to assist interim City Manager Michael Rogers with recruitment, interviews, and other aspects of the selection process. The firm launched an online survey August […]
After her husband, Damien Banks, founded the Banks Collage Basketball Association, a men’s summer basketball league, in Charlottesville in 2010, Shawna Banks was inspired to create an all-women hip-hop team to perform during halftime at the league’s games in 2014. Receiving an overwhelming amount of interest, Banks also started a BCBA hip-hop team for young […]
After having multiple traumatic experiences with the local mental health care system, activist Myra Anderson founded Brave Souls on Fire in 2015, creating a supportive and affirming space for Black individuals with mental health conditions. In addition to discussing the impact that systemic racism, cultural stigma, and other issues have on Black mental health, the […]
While ax throwing has grown increasingly popular in recent years, it has long been part of the world of lumbersports. In April, Devils Backbone brought lumbersports back to the Charlottesville area with its second Lumberjack Classic, during which 24 lumberjacks and 12 lumberjills from across the country used razor-sharp axes and saws to compete for […]
In 2011, the Jefferson Area Board for Aging—a nonprofit serving older adults, disabled individuals, and caregivers in the Charlottesville area—was inspired to create its own preschool, after a Montessori school that had been using some of its space moved to a new location. Located just down the hall from its Adult Care Center, JABA’s Shining […]
In honor of her late husband Ray “Junior” Arroyo, who loved to garden, local resident Terri Arroyo teamed up with her daughters to open Plant Studio last fall. The Downtown Mall shop offers walk-in build-your-own terrariums—miniature gardens inside a glass container—workshops, wine and craft nights, and other creative activities, as well as hosts private events […]
In 2020, the Virginia General Assembly overturned the state’s decades-long ban on collective bargaining in the public sector, allowing municipal employees to unionize. Since then, some Charlottesville employees have urged City Council to pass a collective bargaining ordinance. Frustrated with the city’s slow response, the Charlottesville Professional Firefighters Association and Amalgamated Transit Union (representing Charlottesville […]
During the now-infamous tiki torch rally at the University of Virginia, hundreds of white supremacists marched across Grounds on the evening of August 11, 2017. Shouting racist and anti-Semitic chants like “White lives matter” and “Jews will not replace us,” the group later surrounded and attacked student counterprotesters at the Thomas Jefferson statue in front […]
Less than two weeks before the fifth anniversary of the deadly Unite the Right rally, the City of Charlottesville announced it would not be terminating an employee who participated in the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. After former Charlottesville police chief RaShall Brackney accused the city of refusing to discipline the employee—IT […]