Join the Fun!  54th Annual Parade of Homes Continues this Weekend

By Celeste M. Smucker – The best of the best of Charlottesville’s new construction is on display again this weekend—Saturday and Sunday, October 7 and 8 from noon to 5:00 p.m.—at the Blue Ridge Homebuilders Association’s (BRHBA) 54th Annual Parade of Homes, featuring  41 homes from 17 builders. Everyone is invited and even if you […]

Prison as psych ward: The cost of incarcerating the mentally ill

High-profile acts of violence tend to bring with them a spike in public awareness of mental illness, but the stigma associated with being mentally ill never subsides. The system still seems to favor locking people up rather than treating them. My wife and I lived five minutes away from the Safeway in Tucson, Arizona, where […]

Former Albemarle staff sue county to get their jobs back

Imagine your boss approaches you one day, takes you aside, thanks you for your many years of dedicated service to the company, and then offers you a chance to retire early with increased retirement pay. Doesn’t sound too bad, does it? Now imagine that you accept the offer, taking early retirement in reliance on the […]

Proposed Trump golf course runs afoul of conservation easement

Like my golf game, the proposed golf course that Eric Trump envisions for Albemarle County may never materialize. While Trump purchased the land encompassing the former estate of Patricia Kluge, the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF) holds a conservation easement on nearly 217 acres. After more than two years of correspondence between the VOF and Trump […]