The UVA Issue: Grounds for change

With a turbulent start to the school year, the University of Virginia undoubtedly looks a little different than it did last spring. Although outgoing President Teresa Sullivan and the UVA administration were criticized for not doing more to protect members of the university community from last summer’s white supremacist torch-lit march, the events of August […]

Sound check: Crozet resident not a big fan of vineyard noise

Wineries are often considered the local rural area’s crown jewels, but the living isn’t always easy for those with homes near one. The hum of a giant fan at a Crozet vineyard has one neighbor at his wit’s end. “It is truly an outrage that my wife and I are subjected to this while outside […]

Wegmans encounter: City clerk a victim of racial profiling

‘‘You gotta be kidding me, right?” That was Gwen Williams’ initial response when a manager at the local Wegmans approached her in her car on May 2, said he’d received a complaint that an African-American woman in an orange top was panhandling in the grocery store’s parking lot, and asked if it was her. Williams’ […]

Top choice: Charlottesville hires first female police chief

Two years ago, City Manager Maurice Jones announced the hiring of Al Thomas, Charlottesville’s first African-American police chief, who abruptly resigned 20 months later on December 18 following a scathing independent review of the handling of the violent events of August 11-12. Today, Jones introduced his latest police chief pick: former George Washington University chief […]

Bird watch: Intoxicated cedar waxwings slam into CHS

You can tell it’s spring when the birds return—and start crashing into the windows at Charlottesville High while drunk on Japanese pagoda tree berries. Avid birder Walker Catlett, 17, a junior at CHS, saw cedar waxwings flying into windows, and so far has documented at least eight dead and others stunned from soaring into the […]

Preston’s plea: Imperial wizard says no contest to firing gun

Baltimore’s imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the KKK did not appear in court wearing his shiny Klan robes. He didn’t wear the prison stripes from previous appearances, nor did he wear the bandana and tactical vest he sported August 12 when he was videoed firing a Ruger SR9 toward flamethrower-brandishing Corey Long. […]

Pantops gets new rescue station—finally

Growth area Pantops, with its increased density and worsening traffic, has long needed a fire and rescue station, and one has been on the books maybe dating back to Thomas Jefferson, joked Albemarle Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston at the official opening May 7 of Pantops Public Safety Station No. 16. Certainly the station has […]