Gubernatorial grandson: Rape charges certified to grand jury

During a preliminary hearing in which the alleged victim burst into tears and ran out of the courtroom, a judge certified rape and forcible sodomy charges against a former UVA student. Stephen Dalton Baril, 20, is accused of pushing another student onto the bed of his Wertland Street apartment, taking her clothes off, performing oral […]

Park design experts start from the ground up

What should a public park contain? Swings and slides, shaded benches, a grassy picnic spot? Should there be gestures toward the region’s history, ecology and culture? Could a park be a place of encounter, of healing? In June, following their decision to remove statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson from park grounds, city […]

Feasibility project: New West2nd plan draws complaints

In 2014, the city had a public competition for plans to develop the municipal parking lot that was the longtime home to City Market. Keith Woodard won, and three years later, West2nd, his bold mixed-use project that will house the market, has gone back to the drawing board. Last month, Woodard announced a new development […]

‘Crying Nazi’: Judge dismisses two charges against Cantwell

Two of three felony charges were thrown out in a more than six-hour-long preliminary hearing November 9 for “Crying Nazi” Chris Cantwell, the New Hampshire man accused of pepper spraying multiple people at the violent August 11 tiki-torch march across the University of Virginia. Hundreds of white supremacists were in town that weekend for homegrown […]

Independent upset: Dems crush everywhere—except Charlottesville

  Election night 2017 in Charlottesville had quite a different feel from 2016. Democrats swept statewide offices, with Ralph Northam winning the governor’s race by an even wider margin—9 percent—than pundits had predicted. And no one saw it coming that Dems would dislodge the hefty 66-34 Republican majority in the House of Delegates, and, depending […]

Price hike: National park users asked to pay up

About 1.4 million nature enthusiasts from near and far flock to the Shenandoah National Park each year, but they may soon be greeted by a different type of hike than they’re seeking—a price hike. The National Park Service announced plans October 24 to increase entrance fees in 17 of the country’s most visited parks from […]

In brief: ‘Hit piece,’ the unshrouder and more

But her emails Independent City Council candidate Nikuyah Walker was the target of a November 4 story in the Daily Progress that she and her supporters called a “hit piece”—three days before the election—in which an anonymous source in City Hall questions her ability to “work collaboratively with city officials.” The story described her emails […]

Anonymous source: Progress story on Nikuyah Walker called a ‘hit piece’

Three days before the November 7 election, the Daily Progress ran a story on independent candidate Nikuyah Walker with the headline, “Emails show Walker’s aggressive approach.” Her supporters have gone ballistic on social media over the story. The article describes dozens of emails Walker has sent city officials as indicative of her style of communication: […]