By Ken Wilson – Not so long ago, hard cider was stuff you bought at the grocery store and let sit around too long. Or maybe you’d put it out on the porch to ferment on purpose, checking it every once in a while as it developed that tang and that slightly alcoholic edge. Either […]
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 […]
‘‘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’ […]
Hall of fame It’s never the right time to say goodbye, but loyal patrons of the University of Virginia’s iconic, clamshell-roofed venue with notoriously bad sound quality don’t have much longer—the dumping of more than 40 years’ worth of stuff from University Hall has begun, with a complete demolition scheduled by 2020. To help you […]
The lynching of John Henry James in Albemarle in 1898 for allegedly assaulting a white woman was both horrific—and all too common in the era of Jim Crow. More than 4,400 black men and women were the victims of domestic racial terrorism between 1877 and 1950, according to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, […]
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 […]
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 […]
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. […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – A close-in Albemarle location, gorgeous views, convenience and lots of options: Pantops has it all. And thanks to Thomas Jefferson the area also enjoys a captivating and unusual name. One of Pantops’ earliest property owners, Jefferson is believed to have called the area Pant-Ops, Greek for all seeing. Was this […]
By Marilyn Pribus – Habitat for Humanity® of Greater Charlottesville is all about having a home. In more than 25 years of local action, this remarkable effort has constructed more than 200 dwellings, living up to Habitat’s vision of eliminating homelessness and substandard housing by making adequate, affordable shelter a matter of conscience and action. […]