‘It’s a relief:’ Fields pleads guilty to federal charges

Some victims of the August 12, 2017, car attack are breathing a sigh of relief that they won’t have to endure a second trial, after the white supremacist who murdered Heather Heyer pleaded guilty to 29 federal hate crimes on March 27. In a state trial in December, James Alex Fields, Jr., a 21-year-old from […]

Racist threat reverberates: Schools closed, teens arrested, students protest

As thousands were celebrating literature at the Virginia Festival of the Book in Charlottesville, a less-exalted missive from the nether regions of the internet, threatening “ethnic cleansing” at Charlottesville High, closed all city schools last Thursday and Friday. It also prompted CHS’ Black Student Union to lead a walkout for racial justice on Monday. More […]

Stress center: Abrupt resignation further dismays dispatchers

When the executive director of the city, county, and university’s troubled Emergency Communications Center abruptly resigned last week, questions and concerns started circulating among the center’s employees. “Barry [Neulen] was doing so many good things for us, and we were singing his praises to anybody and everybody,” says one employee. “I wholeheartedly believe Barry did […]

Monument motions: Another stall for the statues

It was the same old, same old in Charlottesville Circuit Court on March 13, when attorneys involved in a lawsuit to keep the town’s Confederate monuments in place hashed out all-too-familiar arguments. It’s been two years since the Monument Fund and a dozen other plaintiffs filed suit in response to City Council’s vote to remove […]

Rutherford Institute weighs in on county schools’ hate imagery ban

Anti-racist activists have spent more than a year advocating for a ban of hate symbols in Albemarle county schools, and after months of the school board deferring an official vote, the superintendent took matters into his own hands last week to prohibit such imagery in the dress code. Now, a constitutional attorney says he better […]

Not guilty: Trash truck driver acquitted in fatal train crash

Garbage truck driver Dana Naylor was found not guilty for his involvement in a crash that made headlines last year, when an Amtrak train carrying GOP congressmen smashed into his truck in Crozet. The crash killed Naylor’s friend and coworker, Christopher Foley, who was one of two passengers. The other, Dennis Eddy, was severely injured. […]