False imprisonment: County settles lawsuit against five cops

Benjamin Burruss sat in his car in the Comfort Inn parking lot surrounded by Albemarle police. His employer had asked police to check on him when he didn’t show up for work. Burruss told the officers he did not intend to harm himself or anyone else, and the 12-gauge shotgun in his backseat was for […]

Another name change? Albemarle school board confronts racist past

“White parents would not permit their children to receive instruction from inferior Negro teachers—and they were inferior.” These recently resurfaced words, which originally appeared in a July 1, 1956, article titled “Virginia’s Creeping Desegregation: Force of the Inevitable” in Commentary Magazine, were said by Dr. Paul Cale, the longest-serving Albemarle County schools superintendent, and the […]

Failing grade: Community responds to ProPublica/NYT piece on racial inequities in city schools

Last week, ProPublica and the New York Times published a scathing indictment of Charlottesville City Schools, pointing out persistent and widening achievement gaps between white and black students. The article also highlighted the overrepresentation of white students in the city schools’ gifted program, and made a general case that the needs of black students and […]

‘Middle ground’: Murphy pleads guilty to girlfriend slaying

  Trina Murphy has already sat through a long murder trial—that for the death of her niece, 17-year-old Alexis Murphy, in 2014. She did not want to do the same for her son. Xavier Murphy, 24, was charged with second-degree murder in the June 22 shooting of his girlfriend Tatiana Wells. Wells’ family also didn’t […]

Divide revives

West Main passersby were alarmed last week to see yellow caution tape stretched in front of Parallel 38 and Gus’ Custom Tailoring, and a sign declaring Continental Divide “unfit for human habitation or occupation.” Despite that dire warning, the problem (a collapsed ceiling) should be repaired and the restaurant up and running again next week, […]

Better access: Supes mull broadband deal

By Jonathan Haynes Lack of high-speed internet access has been a big issue for rural areas of Albemarle County in recent years. In January, the Central Virginia Electric Cooperative submitted a proposal to incorporate fiber optic broadband cables along its existing infrastructure in Albemarle, which could benefit about 3,600 county customers. CVEC says it can […]

Opportunity gap: How your city neighborhood defines your life

The neighborhoods where poor children grow up can have a huge impact on their future earnings, a new analysis of census data shows. Here in Charlottesville, children growing up in Westhaven, the public housing complex in the 10th and Page neighborhood, have the least chance of escaping poverty, while equally poor children who grow up […]