Clean slate: Mason Pickett cleared of two assault charges

  “Wes is a jackass” became a familiar slogan to those living in Charlottesville last summer, as it was scrawled on a giant cardboard sign carried by local retiree Mason Pickett, and its derivative, “Bellamy is a jackass,” was often chalked on the Downtown Mall’s Freedom of Speech Wall as well as several sidewalks. It’s […]

High school beat: Newspaper editors share the real stories

What’s it like to be a teenager in 2018? We figured nobody’s better plugged in than newspaper editors, so we checked in with the editors at Charlottesville High and Western Albemarle, as well as a CHS junior. Here’s what we learned about the differences between city and county schools—and what they have in common. Olivia […]

In brief: Some kids lobby, some get married and some listen to Drake

Mental health focus Lucas Johnson isn’t old enough to vote yet, but the 17-year-old Monticello High senior and his peers from two other county high schools—Choetsow Tenzin at Albemarle and Alex Moreno at Western Albemarle—didn’t let that stop them from demanding the General Assembly support more school instruction on mental health. “I had a best […]

Daily grind: Construction on city’s $2 million skate park ramps up

There aren’t many places to skateboard in Charlottesville. The city closed its skate park on McIntire Road during construction of the U.S. 250 Bypass and John Warner Parkway interchange in 2012 and moved it to McIntire Park. And last month, it closed the second location, too. Nineteen-year-old Piedmont Virginia Community College student David Juers says […]

Traumatized teens deal with aftermath of horrific events

Young people in Parkland, Florida, are dealing with an unspeakable act that killed 17 people and destroyed countless lives and feelings of safety in their daily routines, much like what students in Charlottesville had to cope with at the beginning of the school year after the August 12 white supremacist invasion left three dead and […]

Danger zone: Mom on a mission after soccer practice sends son to E.R.

Patrick Clancy, his brother Ryan and nine other teens went to an 8am soccer practice at Monticello High School on an artificial turf field July 21, the second day of a National Weather Service heat advisory. The two-hour practice ended around 10am, when the heat advisory officially kicked in. By 11:30am, Patrick was in the […]

Keeping out the militia: Law group says legal remedies exist to prevent another August 12

New research shows that all 50 states can legally restrict private militia and paramilitary activity at events such as the summer’s deadly Unite the Right rally, according to the University of Georgetown Law School’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. The legal organization, which filed a lawsuit on behalf of the city last October against […]