Earl Smith’s best-known foray into civic engagement came in 2013 when former Scottsville supervisor Chris Dumler was convicted of misdemeanor sexual battery—and refused to resign from the Board of Supervisors while spending weekends in jail. Smith decided to do something about it. “We have so many Facebook warriors who yell and scream about it,” says […]
For as much legislation passed that demands identification to vote, voter fraud is still a pretty rare crime. That’s why it was eyebrow-raising last month that not one, but two people were arrested in Albemarle County for election fraud for allegedly making false statements, and one of them is a former minister who made news […]
A Student Services Moving and Storage truck became the latest victim of the 14th Street bridge and its unyielding 10-foot clearance. The truck heading westbound on University Avenue was jammed under the bridge around 8:45am Thursday. A woman who answered the phone at Student Services says no one was injured and it’s not the first […]
The day before this story went to press, 444 local properties were listed on popular short-term rental site Airbnb. The amount of lodging tax collected by Charlottesville? Very little. To be fair, some of those listings are in Albemarle County, and the numbers available on the website vary from day to day. City officials estimate […]
Albemarle County Police announced increased enforcement on the James River this summer, including cops in kayaks, and C-VILLE immediately asked the question on the minds of potential tubers: If I have a beer while floating down the James, am I going to be busted? “My police officers aren’t going down there to arrest you for having […]
Albemarle Circuit Court Judge Cheryl Higgins rebuffed the arguments of Jesse Matthew’s attorney that she recuse herself from Matthew’s capital murder trial for the slaying of University of Virginia student Hannah Graham because she has a daughter who was a second-year student at UVA like Graham. Defense attorney Doug Ramseur also said because Higgins signed 25 out of approximately […]
Even the prosecutor admitted respected journalist, writer and humanitarian Donovan Webster, 56, “presents as a good and decent man who made a horrible, horrible choice.” Then he asked for a sentence in years, not months, for the drunk driving crash that killed Waynesboro patriarch Wayne Thomas White Sr., 75, last August. More than 20 of White’s family […]
Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman spent nearly three hours June 17 presenting almost every scrap of information about Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control agents’ March 18 takedown of UVA student Martese Johnson that left him with 10 stitches on his forehead. The prosecutor, who dropped charges against Johnson June 12, was sympathetic toward both the student […]
When C-VILLE reported last week about how much money was raised and spent in the June 9 Democratic primary, “Big money: Dede Smith voted out in high-dollars primary,” the article didn’t make clear that the numbers used were from a May 27 filing and the final numbers won’t be in until July 15. C-VILLE has […]
In Charlottesville, incumbency is no guarantee of retaining a seat on City Council, even if you’re vice mayor. Just ask Meredith Richards, ousted by her own party in 2004, or Julian Taliaferro, who didn’t get the Dems’ nod in 2009. It happened again June 9, when Vice Mayor Dede Smith was edged out by Wes […]