The former UVA police officer who killed his mentally ill son while defending his family last year won’t serve any additional jail time, an Albemarle County judge ruled December 5. On November 9, 2016, then-84-year-old Donald Short shot his 47-year-old son, Matthew, in the leg and abdomen after Matthew started a violent fight with Short’s […]
By Celeste M. Smucker – Is the stress of urban life taking its toll? Fighting traffic getting old? Do you yearn for a time when neighbors called to each other from their front porches and shared good news or were there for each other when times were tough? Or perhaps your family prefers the privacy […]
By Ken Wilson – “How ya gonna keep ’em down on the farm (after they’ve seen Paree)?” some people still say, but they’re just showing their age. Cities have their charm (and suburbs have their convenience), but they’ve never been places to see the stars and they’re no longer where all the action is. If […]
Whether you’re streaming cat videos or brushing up on the Rohingya Muslim crackdown in Myanmar, net neutrality requires an internet service provider that allows consumers to do both at the same speed. On December 14, the five people who make up the Federal Communications Commission will vote on whether to end net neutrality, giving ISPs […]
For years, two out-of-town public television stations fought to claim status as Charlottesville’s “local” PBS station. Now they both can say that. Harrisonburg’s WVPT is being consolidated into Commonwealth Public Broadcasting Corporation, the parent company of Richmond-based WHTJ, and the merger will offer local viewers two additional stations. Instead of duplicate offerings of “Nova” or […]
Case study Cities are always involved in one sort of minor litigation or another, typically for unpaid taxes, but over the past two years, Charlottesville has been embroiled in a lot of high-profile cases, mostly as a defendant. Having a hard time keeping up? We are, too. Let’s review. Militias The city, downtown businesses and […]
Emotions ran high at the December 4 City Council meeting that began at 7pm when Councilor Kristin Szakos placed two paper plates piled with homemade cookies at the podium and ended at midnight. Mayor Mike Signer opened the meeting, during which former federal prosecutor Tim Heaphy presented his $350,000 independent review of the summer’s white […]
Since the August 12 Unite the Right rally that left three people dead, Charlottesville residents have asked where the police were that day and why Fourth Street was open so that a neo-Nazi from Ohio could plow into a group of counterprotesters, injuring dozens and killing Heather Heyer. The release of former U.S. attorney […]
Sharon Jones’ childhood home no longer exists. It was in an area of Charlottesville called Gospel Hill, which also no longer exists. “My two brothers and I were born there,” says Jones, who was born in 1962. Around that time the rapidly expanding University of Virginia bought the dozen or so houses in the predominantly […]
New Dominion Bookshop owner Carol Troxell’s sudden death in January sent shock waves through Charlottesville’s literary community—and left some wondering what would become of the downtown institution. Established in 1924, one of the oldest businesses on the mall is now in the hands of a new generation. Charlottesville native Julia Kudravetz signed the papers November […]