UPDATED: Anniversary prep: City on lockdown

During the weekend of August 10-12, the anniversary of last summer’s violent and fatal clashes, the city will be on lockdown—and Governor Ralph Northam has already declared a proactive state of emergency. At an August 8 press conference attended by more than a dozen law enforcement and public safety officials, city spokesman Brian Wheeler said […]

Anniversary prep: City on lockdown

During the weekend of August 10-12, the anniversary of last summer’s violent and fatal clashes, the city will be on lockdown—or so it seems. Interim City Manager Mike Murphy today announced additional measures that will affect many people in the downtown Charlottesville area during the Unite the Right anniversary weekend, including closing city parks and […]

No. 9: New UVA president ready to question and listen

  Jim Ryan, the University of Virginia’s ninth president, took office August 1 and immediately began to re-introduce himself to the university where he was both a graduate of the School of Law and served on the law school’s faculty. Ryan, 51, became a YouTube sensation when a commencement speech he gave at Harvard School […]

In brief: Bigfoot erotica, council infighting (again), white supremacist infighting and more

Bigfoot erotica Fifth District Democratic candidate Leslie Cockburn called opponent Denver Riggleman a devotee of “Bigfoot erotica” because of images of Bigfoot with a black bar over its genitals on Riggleman’s Instagram account. Riggleman, who co-authored a book on the legendary ape-like creature, said the images are a joke from his friends, and returned fire […]

Builder fined in elevator shaft fatality

Early July 25, Albemarle police responded to an industrial accident at Yancey Lumber in Crozet, where employee Floriberta Macedo-Diaz, 46, of Waynesboro, died of her injuries. Macedo-Diaz isn’t the only workplace fatality in the region. In June, the Virginia Department of Labor and Industry finished its investigation into a job-related death last fall, and fined […]

Philanthropic windfall: Library gets $1 million bequest 

By Jonathan Haynes The Jefferson-Madison Regional Library was the unexpected beneficiary of a nearly $1 million bequest from one of its Friends of the Library Endowment Fund patrons earlier this year. The donation came from the estate of Nancy Swygert. Despite the large sum, Swygert and her husband lived a frugal life, never having children […]

Fenced out: Neighbors complain about closed shortcut

In the North Downtown neighborhood, a new fence is causing a fuss. Where some Second Street NE residents have long walked down their dead-end lane to an unlocked gate that led to the backyard of the Park Street First Baptist Church, they’ve recently been faced with an obstruction to the beaten path. It’s a fence—a […]

Mike Murphy named interim city manager

After more than a week of heated exchanges between city councilors and Mayor Nikuyah Walker over the hiring of an interim city manager,  there was 10 minutes of public notice before a 3-0 vote in closed session at 1:15pm resulted in Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy taking the job effective 5pm today, just hours before […]

Leaky-gate, part 2: RWSA responds to cover-up accusations

It was late June when a whistleblower, who recently resigned from the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority to protest an $80-million water pipeline it wants to build between two reservoirs, went before its board of directors to denounce it. Rich Gullick, the authority’s former director of operations, handed over several pages of in-depth analysis on […]