Critic Barbara Rich dies

Longtime local reviewer Barbara Rich did not mince words, even in death. “She did not ‘pass,’ she died,” reads her obituary, which did not note how old she was. Rich, who died December 8, wrote for most publications in town, and in the 1990s was a theater critic for C-VILLE Weekly. Her most notable review […]

Two young men killed in separate crashes

Albemarle High grad Riley M. Cole, 22, died Thursday afternoon, December 11, on Route 20 in Buckingham on his way home from his first semester at Longwood University, according to his obituary. Virginia State Police say Cole was traveling north in a 1997 Infiniti when he ran off the road, overcorrected and hit a southbound […]

Local energy nonprofit to start selling carbon credits

Charlottesville’s Local Energy Alliance Program (LEAP) announced this week that it’s entering the “voluntary carbon market,” and will be selling carbon credits generated by energy-saving weatherization projects to individuals and companies that want to buy their way to a smaller carbon footprint. According to a statement released Monday, LEAP’s Save a Ton Program will issue […]

Lockn’ license intact: ABC accepts cash to move on

Lockn’ Music Festival has settled with the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control, which had threatened to yank the festival’s alcohol license because some festivalgoers smoked pot and the lighting wasn’t bright enough at the 2013 event. In a compromise settlement dated December 5, the festival’s caterer, Best Beverage Catering, will pay the ABC $12,500 to make […]

Friends talk: Skeptical of Jackie’s account in Rolling Stone

In the horrific tale of a 2012 gang rape at UVA in Rolling Stone last month, aside from the alleged rapists, probably no one came off worse than the three callous friends of Jackie, who urged her not to report the alleged sexual assault and warned her it could affect her social status. Those friends have […]

City Council okays Market Plaza

City Market came one step closer to a permanent home by 2017 after City Council unanimously approved a permit for Market Plaza on December 1. The nine-story, L-shaped structure and plaza will occupy the parking lot used by City Market since 1993 and now owned by developer Keith Woodard. Market Plaza will house up to […]

The Hairstons on Yardley’s last list

Pulitzer Prize-winning book reviewer Jonathan Yardley bowed out this week after 33 years as a critic with The Washington Post. On his list of 30 favorite books, he included local author Henry Wiencek’s The Hairstons. Published in 2000, the nonfiction account of a Virginia family’s white and black sides “is a milestone in the history […]

Preschooler handcuffed and shackled in Greene

An allegedly out-of-control 4-year-old prompted a call to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in October, according to a report by Hawes Spencer on WVTF radio. The child apparently raised a ruckus in a pre-K classroom at Nathanael Greene Elementary School in Stanardsville when he allegedly threw blocks, climbed over desks, and hit, scratched and kicked […]

Two-hour shuffle: Biz group wants free street parking axed

As owner of the Charlottesville Parking Center, Mark Brown acknowledges right off the bat that his push to eliminate free street parking downtown raises an obvious question about whether he has the most to gain from such a move. Brown became the downtown parking czar in August when he bought for $13.8 million CPC, which […]