Legislator pleads guilty in hit and run

Albemarle’s favorite delegate with a rap sheet, Rustburg resident Matt Fariss, R-59th, pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run charge March 25 in Campbell County, and claims the incident that sent his Dodge Ram pickup airborne happened when he dropped a bottle of Mountain Dew and attempted to retrieve it. At the same hearing, Fariss was found […]

Alleged man with gun frightens Venable community

Imagine you’re a parent driving up to your child’s elementary school and seeing it swarming with police cars. That was the scene this morning for moms and dads dropping off their kids at Venable Elementary School after a school employee spotted a man walking down Gordon Avenue with what appeared to be a shotgun. Charlottesville Police […]

Plea deal: JADE snitch gets misdemeanor charge

A Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force confidential informant, who set up at least nine people on drug buys, had his own two felony drug charges reduced to one misdemeanor pot possession charge in Albemarle Circuit Court March 23. Taylor Magri, 23, was charged with possession of marijuana with intent to distribute and possession of cocaine […]

Paul Goodloe McIntire: Goodwill to all men?

The call to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee and to rename the park where it resides has also raised questions about the man who donated them to the city and the time in which he lived. Paul Goodloe McIntire’s gift of the Lee statue came in 1924, a time when Ku Klux […]

Good night, John-Boy: ‘Waltons’ creator Earl Hamner dies at 92

Schuyler native Earl Hamner Jr., who put Nelson County on the national map with his 1970s Emmy-winning series, “The Waltons,” died from cancer March 24 at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles listening to “Rocky Mountain High,” according to his son’s post on Facebook. He was 92. Best known for “The Waltons,” he also wrote episodes […]

‘Jackie’ balks: Wants subpoena quashed in Rolling Stone lawsuit

The young woman at the center of Rolling Stone’s now-retracted 2014 article, “A Rape on Campus,” filed a motion March 15 to quash her deposition subpoena in the defamation lawsuit filed by UVA Associate Dean Nicole Eramo against the magazine and its reporter. That same day, Eramo’s attorneys filed a motion to depose Jackie for […]

$84K assistant: Human rights office not being gutted, says Jones

Three years ago, local activist Walt Heinecke was elated when, after years of task forces on human rights, City Council finally approved a human rights commission with enforcement power and put $197,000 into funding an office. Today, Heinecke accuses City Manager Maurice Jones of “killing” the Office of Human Rights by cutting its staff while […]

Censorship or civility? Debate about new City Council procedures rages on

City Councilor Bob Fenwick could be in big trouble. He spoke to a C-VILLE reporter recently about his concerns with new council meeting procedures and didn’t “explicitly” state it was his individual opinion and that he was not representing council, as required by the new rules. “I really objected to this,” says Fenwick, who was […]

Trump truth meter

Following his March 8 wins in the Mississippi and Michigan Republican presidential primaries, Donald Trump held a press conference at the Trump National Golf Course in Jupiter, Florida, and talked about Trump Winery. He invited the press to check facts about whether he owns the winery, which he bought at a foreclosure auction in 2011, […]

Nightmare on Water Street

Utilities relocation for Market Plaza had already closed the eastbound lane on Water Street and detoured traffic to South Street and Second Street SE, and when Second Street was also closed last week, many who park in the Water Street Garage were trapped in an extraordinarily long exit line March 3. “Staff met with [contractors] […]