Good judgment: Hogshire awarded first-ever Gideon award

On Thursday, Judge Eward L. Hogshire addressed a packed Charlottesville Circuit courtroom—not an unusual occurrence. But he didn’t do it from the bench. Hogshire, dressed in his usual bowtie but not his usual robes, offered a few words from a lectern, the guest of honor at a ceremony held by the Citizens Advisory Committee for […]

As Halsey Minor files for personal bankruptcy, former Landmark creditors get long-awaited payout

Former CNET CEO and would-be hotelier Halsey Minor filed for personal bankruptcy in Los Angeles County last week, just days after a federal judge’s order in a Virginia bankruptcy court ended a long battle over debts owed to Minor’s former Landmark Hotel contractors. Minor, a Charlottesville native who has faced escalating financial troubles since selling […]

The cost of living: At least a third of residents pay more than they can afford for their homes. What next?

Most charming. Most walkable. Healthiest. Number one place to retire. Charlottesville loves its accolades. But there’s one distinction it could do without: Least affordable. The city’s high housing costs are not a new phenomenon, and neither are efforts to correct them. In 2010, the City Council adopted the goal of increasing its proportion of supported […]

Council approves Human Rights Commission with enforcement powers

After two years of study and debate, Charlottesville has a blueprint for a Human Rights Commission. The City Council voted 3-1 last Monday to adopt an anti-discrimination ordinance and an agency to enforce it. For months, the discussion over what to do with recommendations to form a commission—first from the Dialogue on Race, and later […]

A bug’s life: Cicada emergence is a mysterious, massive phenomenon

Sachin Gadani and a few friends recently spent a weekend combing Charlottesville for cicadas. The UVA MD-PhD graduate student is head of the University’s entomology club, and he and several fellow amateur bug lovers haven’t had to look hard to find the first local representatives of one of the greatest spectacles of the insect world: […]

Fake ID trio remanded; feds say Rugby house held $1.3 million in cash

All three Charlottesville residents arrested last week for allegedly manufacturing thousands of fake IDs will remain in jail for the foreseeable future after each waived the right to a bail hearing in federal court Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, details continue to emerge about the raid on a Rugby Road house that led to their arrests, including […]

As dome nears completion, a new chapter begins for Rotunda

Jody Lahendro has led a lot of curious locals up the 61′ of creaking scaffolding that has surrounded UVA’s Rotunda for a year. Most recently, it was a group that had won a private tour at an auction to raise money for the iconic structure’s ongoing renovation. Once the visitors emerged at the lip of […]

Saying goodbye

Whenever I hear anyone make a snide remark about a “townie,” I glare and then I puff out my chest. Who do these students think they are? They are the ones here temporarily, taking advantage of our turf. I moved to Charlottesville in seventh grade, and came to UVA as a first-year in 2009. My […]

Bright young things: UVA’s self-directed synthetic biology stars

Ask some of the newest members of UVA’s International Genetically Engineered Machine Competition team why they plan to spend the summer in a lab on Grounds splicing DNA, and they have a tendency to talk over one another in their eagerness to explain. “It’s undergraduate research, but we’re not treated like undergraduates,” said 19-year-old Josh […]