The battle over Charlottesville City Council’s vote to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee continued in a packed courtroom September 1, with the lines pretty clearly drawn between statue supporters and those who want Lee to make a final retreat. The hearing was to argue the city’s demurrer, which alleges that even if […]
The battle over Charlottesville City Council’s vote to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee continued in a packed courtroom September 1, with the lines pretty clearly drawn between statue supporters and those who want Lee to make a final retreat. The hearing was to argue the city’s demurrer, which alleges that even if […]
One year after the arrest of former UVA film studies professor Walter Korte for the possession of child pornography sent the local cinephile community reeling, he appeared in court August 8 ready to enter a plea—and the judge asked for more information before okaying the agreement. During his 46-year-career, Korte, 73, advised the fledgling […]
Charlottesville City Council now has a mayor on restriction. Council is made up of five elected equals, with the mayor playing a largely symbolic role, and that was a lesson Mayor Mike Signer appears to have forgotten. On August 30, his fellow councilors held a three-hour closed door meeting to discuss the “performance and discipline […]
Christopher Cantwell, who has been dubbed the “Crying Nazi” by critics of his teary Youtube video made after the August 12 alt-right rally and before he turned himself into police August 24, was denied bond today by a judge who cited a widely seen Vice interview that she said showed Cantwell’s approval of the violence […]
Crystal Johnson chose to have her youngest child, Olivia, at home. Johnson lost a baby between the births of her fourth and fifth children, and she says her doctor at UVA kept telling her not to worry about her high blood pressure during the pregnancy. When she was at a doctor’s visit while pregnant with […]
Charlottesville civics 101 At last week’s tumultuous City Council meeting, many citizens asked questions that suggest Charlottesville’s form of government is not well understood. Here are a few basics. City Council: Five elected members choose a mayor and vice-mayor. The mayor is one among equals who represents the city at ribbon cuttings and who sets the […]
Neo-Nazis and affordable housing may not seem directly connected, but in the wake of the white supremacist rally on August 12, a new coalition of grassroots activists and nonprofit groups is linking the two in a push for more homes for poorer Charlottesville residents. The Charlottesville Coalition for Low-Income Housing, formed earlier this year, has […]
When then 84-year-old Donald Short shot his mentally ill son to death last November, he said he was defending himself and his family. The former University of Virginia cop entered an Alford plea to involuntary manslaughter in Albemarle Circuit Court on August 25, which is not an admission of guilt, but means he believed the […]
Usually it’s hard to squeeze personnel matters discussed in closed session out of city councilors. That’s why the August 25 leaking of a confidential Mayor Mike Signer-written memo to City Manager Maurice Jones demanding explanations of the events leading up to the August 12 hate rally was such a shocker—as was Jones firing back a […]
People in Charlottesville like to talk about the UVA bubble. We can’t argue with that—between classes and clubs and activities and jobs, not all university students get off Grounds and out into the city. Some do, though, and plenty of faculty and staff are active members of the Charlottesville community, too. But after Friday, August […]