Robert Tracci’s first job out of law school was in Congress as counsel to a House committee. He worked in the Justice Department in Washington in 2006, and was a federal prosecutor in Charlottesville two years later. Despite the glittery resume, some Democrats are asking if the Republican candidate for Albemarle commonwealth’s attorney, challenging incumbent […]
The darling of 21st-century community design is the “planned unit development,” which typically combines commercial and residential for high-density, pedestrian friendly living. So when the developer of the already controversial William Taylor Plaza PUD told City Council July 6 there was no requirement for a residential component, councilors put the brakes on a rezoning amendment […]
On Bastille Day in Charlottesville, the family of Mark Weiner didn’t storm the regional jail, but waited with excitement and disbelief outside its walls for him to emerge as a free man after two-and-a-half years. It was a stunning turn of events in a case that many have believed was a wrongful conviction since 2013, […]
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 […]