Registration pros and cons: GOP sues to keep felons from voting

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 […]

Gallo aggrieved: Wine giant sues local kombucha maker

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 […]

On the move: County office relocation plan causes consternation

Squeezed-to-the gills Albemarle courthouses in downtown Charlottesville’s historic Court Square have long been an issue for the county. Last week, the Board of Supervisors ramped up its resolution by commissioning a study to look at moving the general district court to the County Office Building in the former Lane High School, and shipping the offices […]

Partners in arms: City, county and UVA cut ribbon on indoor firing range

While it’s not always smooth sailing between the city and county, collaboration was the word of the day as officers and officials from Albemarle, Charlottesville and the University of Virginia gathered May 12 to dedicate a long-in-the-works, state-of-the-art Regional Firearms Training Center. Albemarle County Police had been looking for a shooting range since the 1980s, […]

‘Citizen Lane’ dies at 89

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 […]

Soering documentary to premiere at Munich Film Festival

With the success of the podcast “Serial” and Netflix’s “Making a Murderer,” wrongful convictions are a hot topic. Joining the debate is a documentary about one of central Virginia’s most notorious double homicides—and the convicted murderer who has insisted he’s innocent for 30 years. The Promise: The Story of Jens Soering and Elizabeth Haysom heads […]

Reservoir reservations: Critics still question Ragged Mountain plan

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 […]

Downtown Charlottesville sees hotel boom

Between the Corner and downtown Charlottesville, five hotel projects are in the works—and that doesn’t include the recently opened Residence Inn on the corner of West Main Street and Ridge-McIntire Road, nor Graduate Charlottesville, which opened last year. City and tourism officials say this hotel-building frenzy is an economic windfall for the area and provides […]

Parking wars: City fires back in Water Street Garage death match

Despite concerns that the Water Street Garage could close should the company that manages it and Charlottesville not resolve their escalating legal battle, the city filed a counterclaim April 29 against Charlottesville Parking Center one day after owner Mark Brown sent a letter urging the city to sell the complicatedly owned garage to him. And […]