News

Turning up the heat: Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci faces a progressive challenger with deep pockets

Political races in Albemarle County are usually pretty staid compared to Charlottesville’s—except for the commonwealth’s attorney race. Prosecutors Jim Camblos (in 2007) and Denise Lunsford (in 2015) were both ousted after controversial, high-profile cases. And 2019 has promised to be another closely watched contest—even before incumbent Robert Tracci’s opponent received an unheard-of $50,000 donation. Republican […]

Lisa Provence | October 2, 2019

News

30 years and counting

In 1989, Bill Chapman was a senior at Hampden-Sydney College and Hawes Spencer, a former student, was working in the communications office. Chapman had just completed a summer internship at Richmond’s Style Weekly, and “It seemed like Charlottesville needed a smarter, less reverent paper than The Daily Progress,” he says.   The two founded C-VILLE […]

C-VILLE Writers | September 25, 2019

News

In brief: New Hogwaller project, march on, cyberstalking arrest, and more

Hogwaller reset After City Council’s rejection of his zoning and permit requests earlier this year, Justin Shimp, developer of the embattled Hogwaller Farms project in Belmont, is back with fresh plans for a newly acquired parcel partially overlapping the site of his previous proposal. The name of the new project—Rootstock Farm Apartments—should be better received […]

C-VILLE Writers | September 25, 2019

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Slow going: Water Street coal tower restoration project at a standstill

Charlottesville’s C&O train station closed its doors in 1986, but that hasn’t kept the building and its adjacent coal tower out of headlines in the three decades since. The site of both a double homicide and an apparent suicide, the abandoned tower became a popular hangout spot for drug users and the homeless in the […]

mattweyrich | September 25, 2019

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Vape escape: Raising the vaping age hasn’t deterred teens

Bathrooms. Locker rooms. Cars. Check any of these places on a typical school day, and you’re likely to find students taking part in the latest teen trend: vaping. “It’s pretty common around my crowd,” says one Charlottesville High School senior, who estimates about 25 percent of his classmates vape. “Kids will duck out of class […]

bje2cb | September 25, 2019

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Putting up a fight: Rural Dems band together in deep-red districts

Ten Dems running in solidly red General Assembly districts—like the ones that dissect Albemarle County—are doing what rural folk have always done: banding together to help each other out. They’ve formed a coalition called Rural Groundgame, hired a few staffers, and are sharing resources on how to reach the voters who face the same rural […]

Lisa Provence | September 25, 2019

News

What’s in a name?: Behind the recommendation to rename Cale Elementary

By Ali Sullivan The final meeting lasted just a few minutes.  After months of investigation, an advisory committee determined that Paul H. Cale Elementary School—named after a former Albemarle County Public Schools superintendent—should change its name. The recommendation comes nearly four months after the Cale Advisory Committee’s first meeting and almost a year since Lorenzo […]

C-VILLE Writers | September 18, 2019

News

In brief: UVA hospital makes amends, a yak on the run, and more

Kinder, gentler health care UVA Health System says it will revamp its financial aid guidelines and sue fewer patients after facing a massive backlash from a Washington Post story about the university’s proclivity to go after nonpaying patients. A Kaiser Health News report revealed that from 2013 to June 2018, the state-owned health system sued […]

C-VILLE Writers | September 18, 2019