Albemarle County Police Department got its fifth police chief since the department was formed in 1983 (and second one from Fairfax County) when Ron Lantz was sworn in today at an SRO ceremony that included much of the county brass at the department headquarters . Lantz has been with Albemarle since 2012, and he succeeds […]
The Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville said in April it wasn’t taking sides in the parking wars fueled by litigation between the city and Mark Brown, owner of the Charlottesville Parking Center. That course changed when Violet Crown hired public relations firm Payne Ross, also a DBAC member, which circulated a petition calling for the […]
In the 1930s, electricity was common in the cities, but pretty much nonexistent elsewhere. If not for the Rural Electrification Act, some of us might still be sitting in the dark. It’s the same situation today for many in rural areas without Internet access. Jane Dittmar became aware of how dire the situation is in […]
As if a presidential election year weren’t exciting enough, about a month after Governor Terry McAuliffe signed his April 22 bombshell executive order restoring the voting rights of 206,000 felons, General Assembly Republican leaders filed a lawsuit to keep them out of the polls. Voter registration has skyrocketed in 2016 from this time a year […]
When we last checked in on Barefoot Bucha proprietors Kate and Ethan Zuckerman in November, their probiotic beverage business was going great guns, except for a little trouble with Gallo, which objected to their attempt to register a trademark. The wine goliath feared that drinkers of Barefoot wine would be confused and buy non-alcoholic kombucha […]
If a major event happened during the 20th century, attorney and civil rights legend Mark Lane likely was there. The man who wrote in 1966 Rush to Judgment, which disputed the Warren Commission conclusions and spawned a conspiracy-theory industry on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, died May 10 at his Charlottesville home at age […]
Perhaps nothing this century has shaken the Charlottesville area more than the drought of 2002, when carwashes closed, restaurants served on paper plates and the water supply was within 60 days of running out. And perhaps nothing has divided the community more than the multi-year battle waged over the plan to build a 129-foot-tall mega-dam […]
City Council unanimously approved a Blue Ribbon Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces May 2 after a Charlottesville High School student presented a petition to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee and rename Lee Park in March. The nine-member commission will look not only at Confederate monuments like Lee and Stonewall Jackson, […]
The participants at an upcoming April 28 panel likely would not cite Jackie’s unsubstantiated story of gang rape to Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely as the biggest issue facing journalists covering sexual assault. For ProPublica’s T. Christian Miller, it’s police not believing victims. His story, “An Unbelievable Case of Rape,” done in conjunction with […]
Bank of America is closing its location on the Downtown Mall February 17, branch customers learned by letter April 20. “What, we’re closing?” a teller there asked this morning when she heard a colleague inform a customer on the phone. Built in 1916, the structure was originally Peoples National Bank and has housed Virginia National Bank, Sovran […]