Tuesday, April 27 General Assembly raises taxes The Virginia House and Senate today agreed to a package of tax increases, more than six weeks after the March 13 scheduled conclusion of the General Assembly. Albemarle Del. Rob Bell, a Republican, voted against the plan, which will boost Virginia’s two-year, $60 billion budget by about $1.6 […]
Blood on the tracks Are the CSX tracks the most crime-friendly spot in Charlottesville? Every community has its proverbial “dark alleys,” mysterious places where boogiemen live. One of UVA’s scary spots is a half-mile leg of CSX railroad that arcs northeast from University Avenue to Rugby Road. The tracks form a popular, but potentially dangerous, […]
George Bush strides confidently in the background, looking strong and presidential. As the images taken from his campaign ads referring to the September 11 attacks scroll across the screen, a voiceover intones, “George Bush shamelessly exploited 9/11 in his campaign commercials.” Soon after, we hear the voice of Bush’s former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke: “Frankly […]
Blood on the tracks Are the CSX tracks the most crime-friendly spot in Charlottesville? Every community has its proverbial “dark alleys,” mysterious places where boogiemen live. One of UVA’s scary spots is a half-mile leg of CSX railroad that arcs northeast from University Avenue to Rugby Road. The tracks form a popular, but potentially dangerous, […]
Tuesday, April 6 – Heckling the ambassador Rich Felker, a UVA grad student, spent a night in the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail for his role in a Students for Free Tibet protest of a campus appearance by Yang Jiechi, the Chinese ambassador to the United States. Felker, who was released this morning, was arrested while attempting […]
Tuesday, March 30 We’re No. 61! In addition to scoring big in the much ballyhooed “best places to live” ranking, our area was rated in today’s release of an annual toxic chemical survey from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. First place was definitely not desirable in this list, which tallied the amount of toxic […]
Second only perhaps to God, nothing has been more eulogized in recent decades than Art. Commercial concerns have killed it, we hear. TV is its poison. Vulgarity and an overriding concern for celebrity have castrated painting, poetry, music, theater and literature. Pop is pap. Funders don’t understand art’s Significance. And so on. Yet an inevitable […]
Attention, Giant shoppers Wal-Mart-fueled benefits dispute comes to local groceries Checkout lines might not be the only lines Giant Food shoppers spot during visits to the two Charlottesville stores this week. Workers from the region’s Giant and Safeway grocery stores will vote on a new contract on March 30, and signs are pointing to a […]
“Pray for me in return,” implores Larry Wyler, prodigal Minnesotan, lapsed author, celebrated advice columnist and aging narrator of Garrison Keillor’s most recent novel, Love Me. He’s preparing to confess his life, remarking on his drab St. Paul neighborhood and sketching passers-by in hypothetical missives to Mr. Blue, his writerly Dear Abby persona. He spots […]
The home front Foster parents open their doors while localities search for cash Evelyn and George Riner want more kids. From the prodigious amount of laundry flapping from sagging clotheslines in their backyard, it would seem their household is already overflowing. In fact, 11 people, nine dogs and eight cats live in the Riners’ house […]