See Jane run

Albemarle Board of Supervisors Chair Jane Dittmar chose the front of the County Office Building to announce her run for Congress September 17 because “this was where I began my public service and where I was sworn in,” she said. That was not quite two years ago after she won a special election, and now […]

Sage’s grandmother beseeches City Council

A couple of grim anniversaries were noted on September 13: the one-year anniversary of the disappearance of 18-year-old UVA student Hannah Graham, and five years since 19-year-old Orange resident Samantha Clarke vanished. Her last known contact was with Randy Taylor, the man convicted in 2014 for the murder of missing teen Alexis Murphy. The grandmother […]

FOIA suit fails: Judge rules police don’t have to release stop-and-frisk records

  After Charlottesville Police Chief Tim Longo’s report to City Council stated that 70 percent of the people police stopped were African-American, the Public Housing Association of Residents and the local NAACP filed a lawsuit seeking police records under the Freedom of Information Act, according to their lawyer, Jeff Fogel. Judge Rick Moore ruled September 11 that […]

Supes not swayed: Board poised to expand southern growth area boundary

Story updated September 16 More than 30 citizens voiced their opposition to a change to the county’s comprehensive plan that would expand its southern growth area at the Interstate 64/U.S. 29 interchange, with a couple quoting the lyrics of Simon and Garfunkel (“People hearing without listening”)  and Grandmaster Flash (“Don’t push me ’cause I’m close […]

Residents petition BOS to slow comp plan amendment

People living around the property at the Interstate 64/U.S. 29 interchange, which the Albemarle Board of Supervisors is considering adding to the growth area to attract a West Coast brewery, are circulating a petition to slow the process. “We started being concerned about a factory across the street surrounded by a rural and residential area,” […]

Legendary attorney, Foxfield president Benjamin Dick dies

Stetson-wearing James Benjamin Dick, longtime Charlottesville attorney and colorful president of the Foxfield Racing Association, died August 29 at age 67 in Winchester, the town where he was born. Dick graduated from Virginia Military Institute and served in the Army during the Vietnam War. His penchant for Stetsons started at Fort Leavenworth, where he once […]

#MarteseJohnson: Scarred, still alive and seizing the moment

March 17—St. Patrick’s Day—was a pretty typical day for third-year Martese Johnson at the University of Virginia. A Tuesday, it was one of the heaviest academic days for the media studies and Italian major, and he was in class until mid-afternoon. That evening, “I hung out with friends on the Lawn for a time,” he […]

Where’s the fire, chiefs?

Local fire chiefs were in the news last week. The city hired Henrico County Assistant Chief Andrew Baxter to head the Charlottesville Fire Department, succeeding Charles Werner, who retired after 37 years in the department. Although he’s worked in Henrico since 1995, Baxter has lived in the Charlottesville area for 25 years, and he has […]