John Wayne Jordan, 50, a trustee at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail, disappeared on a John Deere Gator and was on the lam for about 11 minutes from the time he was reported missing until he was captured November 24. Jordan was working for the Virginia Department of Forestry on Natural Resources Drive and was […]
In the week since terrorists waged the largest attack in Paris since World War II, sympathy to the French has been pretty much universal. To Syrians fleeing slaughter in their country, not so much. On the evening of November 20, two Syrian refugees flew into Charlottesville after Kansas Governor Sam Brownback uninvited them. “That’s so […]
As Thanksgiving approaches, the family of Dashad “Sage” Smith grapples with the third anniversary of the disappearance of the transgender teen, who was last seen on West Main Street. And they don’t agree with the latest police assessment of a person of interest. Smith, 19, was on her way to meet Erik McFadden on November […]
High-end real estate agent Andrew Middleditch’s charges for driving under the influence for the second time and for involuntary manslaughter stemming from a Memorial Day crash that killed 78-year-old Lonnie Branham were certified to the grand jury in a November 19 preliminary hearing. Witness Victor Schiller was driving behind Middleditch’s silver SUV and Lonnie […]
Former UVA student/convicted murderer Jens Soering has been in prison for 29 years for the stabbing deaths of his girlfriend’s parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom, in 1985. During that time, his case has become an international cause célèbre, and a request to repatriate him to Germany is again before a Virginia governor. In 2010, outgoing […]
Delegate David Toscano made two surprise announcements within two days. On November 12, he sent an e-mail to the Democratic caucus in the House of Delegates saying he was stepping down as minority leader. One day later, he says he changed his mind “when my cell phone blew up with caucus members and federal and […]
Around two dozen people chanting “We can’t survive on $7.25” gathered at City Hall today as part of a nationwide, 500-city protest. Nearly 64 million people live on less than a $15 hourly wage, say organizers, who intend to use that voting bloc in the upcoming 2016 elections. “I can’t survive,” says Latasha Matthew, who […]
Unlike Charlottesville, where it was a given that Democratic candidates for City Council would win, Albemarle had several contested races, including two for board of supervisors and four candidates vying for clerk of court. But the race everyone was watching: Whether Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford could hold onto her seat for a third term against […]
When Manuel Lerdau heard from his seventh-grader a couple of weeks ago that a Christian youth organization was recruiting at Buford Middle School under the guise of a party, he became concerned. “Representatives from WyldLife were at Buford during lunch recruiting students to attend WyldLife events, and doing it in a way that was not […]
Incumbent Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford lost to Republican challenger Robert Tracci by 515 votes in a closely watched race, while other county Democratic candidates sailed to victory. Lunsford received nearly 49 percent of the vote to Tracci’s 51 percent. Another constitutional officer, incumbent Clerk of Court Debbie Shipp, running as an independent, lost by an even bigger margin. Shipp took 26 percent of […]