Charlottesville bird club gears up for fall migrations

As summer winds down, Charlottesville bird-lover Peggy Cornett gears up for the fall birding season, a rush of avian activity after the relative lull of June and July. Our sky will fill with migrating birds heading for warmer climates, and Cornett will be here, binoculars in hand, to count their numbers. “There are some good […]

UVA: Room for improvement despite high rankings

The University of Virginia has received high marks from Forbes Magazine and U.S. News & World Report on both magazines’ annual list of top U.S. colleges. Despite differing methodologies, the two publications ranked UVA similarly: The University came in at 36 on Forbes’ top 100 and 25 on U.S. News’. While they acknowledge that the […]

Charlottesville Sikhs reflect on Wisconsin massacre

One wall in Charlottesville Mayor Satyendra Huja’s dining room is occupied by floor-to-ceiling built-in shelves packed with teapots of every shape and size. “You have to work for your tea,” he said, chuckling, as he and his friend Dr. Narinder Arora settled at the table. “Pick a pot.” The array and the invitation are evidence […]

Was UVA COO Strine’s position untenable after failed Sullivan ouster?

Leonard Sandridge spent 44 years as chief operating officer of UVA. His successor, Michael Strine, was on the job for 13 months. Initially hailed as an effective leader whose experience as chief financial officer at Johns Hopkins could put the University and its medical center on firm financial footing, Strine’s brief tenure serves as a […]

Election e-mail: Watching the race via inbox

There’s no better reminder that we’re in the throes of election season than my inbox. The number of campaign e-mails I get on a daily basis—buildup from years of C-VILLE news editors getting added to the media lists of one flak or another, by request or otherwise—is astounding. And amusing, considering most of them are […]

Albemarle residents fight against rural school closures

A recent cost study by a county schools committee has reignited an argument over the value of keeping small rural schools open, and parents are outraged that the Albemarle County School Board might consider closing Yancey and Red Hill elementary schools, forcing kids to commute to Scottsville. At the July 12 Albemarle County School Board meeting, […]

Will Wegmans’ arrival spell trouble for existing groceries?

Charlottesville is buzzing about the arrival of a Wegmans grocery store in the planned Fifth Street Station shopping center, which won rezoning approval from the Albemarle County Planning Commission last week. But the chain’s arrival in town could shake up the grocery scene in surrounding neighborhoods, already home to two Food Lion stores. Riverbend Management, […]

McDonnell operating below the radar on abortion

Trying to pin down Bob McDonnell’s true agenda is, as the old saying goes, like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Since the day he was elected, our helmet-haired governor has consistently portrayed himself as a conservative straight shooter focused on righting Virginia’s economy, with little time for social-issue warfare or backstabbing political gamesmanship. […]

UVA to fight pair of wrongful death suits

UVA has been named as a defendant in two separate wrongful death suits in three months, fallout from a tragic year at the University. But how much blame lies at school’s doorstep in the unrelated 2010 deaths of lacrosse star Yeardley Love and Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey? Love’s mother filed a $30 […]