In brief: Rotunda breakage, budget burdens, alleged perv and more

Breaking news On the first of the month, UVA students rallied outside of the Rotunda, where the Board of Visitors was set to discuss living wage for university employees. While it’s currently $13.79, students would like to see it set at $16, and demanded so by slapping their hands against Rotunda windows until one broke. […]

#MeToo effect: Movement brings local victims forward

Since 2017, when the #MeToo movement galvanized women across the country to speak out about sexual abuse and assault, local support agencies have seen a dramatic increase in requests for help. Calls to the Sexual Assault Resource Agency to accompany victims to the emergency room increased by 42 percent from fiscal year 2017 to 2018, […]

Coming soon: Hundreds of new workers and only 74 parking spaces

The Center of Developing Entrepreneurs, now under construction on the west end of the Downtown Mall, will provide office space for more than 600 workers. But it will include only 74 parking spaces. That drew the ire of a couple members of the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, who grilled builders about a potential parking […]

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 […]

Neo-Nazi group admits A12 liability and Kessler drops suit

The National Socialist Movement, a defendant in a post-Unite the Right lawsuit, made a bizarre shift when its former leader signed over the organization to black civil rights activist James Hart Stern, who then filed a motion admitting liability for the neo-Nazi group. The complaint, Sines v. Kessler, alleges that the 25 white supremacist defendants […]

Gray buys NBC29 for $12 million, sells CBS19 for $25 million

The local broadcast landscape underwent a major shift Monday when Gray Television announced it was buying legacy station NBC29 for $12 million—and unloading the stations it started here as the Newsplex 15 years ago. Gray, the third largest broadcast group in the country, has had its eye on NBC29 “forever,” says Gray VP Kevin Latek. […]

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. […]

Not immune: Vaccine-preventable diseases are coming back

As measles make a comeback in pockets of the United States, a resurgence of vaccine-preventable diseases in Charlottesville in recent years has some local health experts worried that messages about the importance of immunization are not sinking in. In just the first two months of 2019, the U.S. has seen five outbreaks of measles–a highly […]

Testimony/cross-examination questioned in rape cases

An Albemarle County physician facing 11 charges related to sexually assaulting 10 female patients was in court February 19 for a motions hearing. Mark Hormuz Dean will be tried on multiple counts of rape, object sexual penetration, aggravated sexual battery, sexual battery, forcible sodomy, and abduction, all from his time as a doctor of osteopathic […]