A standing room only crowd of dozens of supporters packed Charlottesville General District Court Thursday morning for Martese Johnson, the 20-year-old UVA student bloodied by Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control agents early March 18. Johnson, accompanied by his attorney, UVA Law School grad Daniel Watkins, stood before Judge Robert Downer for fewer than two […]
Orange is the new Black History Month flashpoint following a March 12 high school program titled “Black Lives Matter.” An anonymous deputy called the event “anti-police” and “political” in a Facebook message that went viral, and by Monday, March 16, parents were keeping their children home because of alleged threats of violence. Students at Orange […]
Nearly four years after architect Bill Atwood completed a mixed-use building on Water Street to house the educational travel agency WorldStrides, the 17 deluxe condos on the top floors have finally gone on the market as some of the most expensive real estate downtown. The problem, said Atwood, was trying to add a ninth floor […]
A group concerned with local growth is distributing a seven-pound, 300-page coffee table book on overpopulation. Advocates for Sustainable Albemarle Population (ASAP) presented copies of Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot to the Board of Supervisors March 11, and made a similar back-breaking delivery to City Council. (C-VILLE received its own copy—one of the 70 ASAP gave out.) […]
Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman has requested the Virginia State Police to launch a criminal investigation into ABC agents’ arrest of UVA student Martese Johnson early March 18. Governor Terry McAuliffe had already asked state police to investigate the arrest of the 20-year-old student who, in a photo that went viral, was photographed handcuffed on the […]
The image of bloodied third-year University of Virginia student Martese Johnson on the ground being arrested by a uniformed ABC agent has put UVA—and the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control—in the national spotlight again, with Governor Terry McAuliffe calling for an independent investigation on the arrest and the use of force. Reaction to the early March […]
Who is the city spying on? Charlottesville’s use of hidden cameras to monitor city employees became news in the recent case of Charlottesville Fire Department mechanic J.R. Harris, who was fired after city police put a camera in his office to find the perp who hid a bottle alleged to be alcohol in his desk. […]
For the second year in a row, Albemarle County’s property tax rate could go up. When County Executive Tom Foley presented his $371-million budget to the Board of Supervisors, he based it on increasing the property tax rate by one penny to 80.9 cents per $100 of assessed value. The board went 1.5 cents better, […]
A personnel appeals board gave Charlottesville Fire Department mechanic J.R. Harris the job back from which he was fired last October, along with back pay and benefits. The city declined, however, to cover the $16,000 he spent on attorney fees to get reinstated. Human Resources Director Galloway Beck said that’s because there’s no legal authority […]
The Birdwood neighborhood off the Route 250 Bypass bore the brunt of inconvenience during McIntire interchange construction, with backed-up traffic making it difficult to exit and no easy way to head west. Now the residents say traffic engineers’ refusal to reopen Birdwood Road has had them sliding down a steep and icy Hillcrest Road into […]