“Communism and socialism are alive and well in the Board of Supervisors,” shouted Clara Belle Wheeler in the hallway on her way out of the County Office Building from the February 6 Board of Supervisors meeting. Just a few minutes earlier, the newly reconstituted Board—with Democrat Ann Mallek replacing Republican David Wyant—had voted for three […]
Billy Sites and Anthony Ray Shifflett have known each other since they were kids. Their lives have also intersected in that they both share the same ex-wife, Whitney. And now they have been in court together, after one allegedly threw a cinder block at the other. The following accounts are from testimony at a preliminary […]
One day after appearing on CBS’ “60 Minutes” with Katie Couric—one of UVA politics professor Larry Sabato’s first students—Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton sat before a whole class of Sabato’s, in a nearly full auditorium at Old Cabell Hall. With only a day to go until Virginia’s primary the New York senator was here to rally the college vote.
Once every year, for the last six years, the Thomas Jefferson Coalition Against the Homeless (TJACH) has undertaken a three-day census of the area’s least fortunate, to find out things like how long it’s been since they last had a place to live, or whether they’ve ever felt like they needed mental health services. “HUD […]
As the story goes, UVA grad and Hollywood director Tom Shadyac returned to the area after years away to film his most recent movie, Evan Almighty. “It was really neat to see how the town had grown, how the Downtown corridor had come alive,” he says. “Then I also became aware that a segment of […]
Kyle Lewis, manager and bartender at Coupe DeVille’s on Elliewood Avenue, was talking with a friend outside the entrance on the night of June 30 when he noticed the awning at the top of the brick stairs shaking. Peering up, he saw a scuffle in progress. He grabbed his friend John Minturn, a former bouncer, […]
On January 17, Michael Pudhorodsky, who says he’s the president of a group called Generation Y, sent an e-mail to members of the Charlottesville media in anticipation of that night’s School Board meeting. “A member of Generation Y will be at every public meeting,” the press release stated, “calling for Dr. [Alvin] Edwards’ resignation until […]
I saw Richie Havens perform in the early ’90s in a small club in Alexandria, and arrived early enough to sit in the front row and watch him play guitar up close.
Jackson-Via Elementary School was the last of the city’s elementary schools to be built. Named after two eminent educators, Nannie Cox Jackson and Betty Davis Via, the school off Harris Street in southern Charlottesville opened in 1970. Like most of the city’s elementary schools, it is the centerpiece of its small neighborhood—in this case, one […]
Ten years ago, author Greg Bottoms and I worked together at a local arts and culture magazine called “Gadfly” in an office on the middle level of The Rutherford Institute (which bankrolled the mag). Upstairs, my dad was busy suing Bill Clinton, but down in our purgatory, Greg and I would talk of fringe religious […]