City Council approves Downtown Ambassadors program to improve Mall safety

Two months after removing fountain-side benches in an effort to curb panhandling and alleged inappropriate behavior on the Downtown Mall, city officials say they are taking another step toward making Charlottesville a safe, welcoming place. City Councilors recently voted to adopt a Downtown Ambassadors pilot program, which is intended to address problematic areas on the […]

On reporting and remembering 9/11

On September 11, 2001, I had been a New Jersey schoolkid for all of a couple of weeks. I was barely 16 and the shy new girl in a small town outside Princeton where lots of parents took the train into lower Manhattan each day. When a jet slammed into the North Tower of the […]

UVA rallies, escapes with wild 17-16 win over Penn State

It never had a chance. Sam Ficken’s fourth missed field goal sailed wide left and gave Virginia an improbable 17-16 win over Penn State on Saturday at Scott Stadium. “I understand there’s a lot of pressure on kickers,” UVA coach Mike London said. “But I also understand the pressure that can be applied on the […]

This week in Charlottesville: What’s coming up the week of 9/10

Each week, the news team will be taking a look at upcoming meetings and events in Charlottesville and Albemarle we think you should know about. Consider it a look into our datebook, and be sure to share newsworthy happenings, too. Both the city and county Planning Commissions meet Tuesday at 6 p.m. The city‘s got […]

DNC Postmortem: A week of eloquence and urban survivalism

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I came to Charlotte in search of rebuttals to the previous week’s nonsense in Tampa, as well as a bit of inspiration after four years of patience-testing political reality. This year’s convention lacked some of the drama and mystique of Denver ’08, which was to be expected. But […]

Soundboard 9/7: The week’s top news in a live radio format

Each week, the C-VILLE news team joins reporters from Charlottesville Tomorrow at WTJU 91.1 FM’s on-Grounds radio station for Soundboard, an hour-long, straight-from-the-source news show that touches on the big stories of the week. This week’s program included an interview with the organizer of an upcoming panel discussion about the future of UVA in the […]

Penn State travels to Charlottesville for first road game since scandal

UVA dispatched Richmond last weekend in most ordinary fashion. This Saturday’s contest against Penn State will be anything but ordinary, no matter the outcome. The NCAA imposed unprecedented sanctions on PSU in the wake of Jerry Sandusky’s conviction on 45 counts of child sex abuse and a subsequent report that accused school officials of concealing […]

Live From the DNC: The Grand Finale

I’m going to save more in-depth analysis of the convention as a whole for a later post after I’ve had some sleep. But briefly, my impression of Obama’s speech is that he made a compelling case against the Romney-Ryan worldview. It had more substance than Romney’s soft-focus slice of apple pie, to say the least. […]

Live from the DNC: A chat with VA delegate Chris Dumler

I caught up with local delegate and Albemarle County Supervisor Chris Dumler today in the convention hall. This is the first national political convention for Dumler, a 2009 U.Va Law School grad who just turned 27. Dumler, who hails from Scottsville,  says the Virginia contingent has been treated very well at the convention. “They have […]