The sweetest thing

Charlottesville’s School Health Advisory Board (SHAB) is trying to improve nutrition in schools by limiting the amount of sugar, as well as sodium and hydrogenated oils, in students’ lunches and snacks. To that end, SHAB—a group that guides the School Board on matters of student health—has significantly revised the school district’s 2006 Wellness Policy, and […]

Election update: Dede Smith declares

Dede Smith, perhaps best known for her opposition to a new earthen dam at the Ragged Mountain Reservoir and her equally vocal advocacy for restoring Rivanna Reservoir capacity through dredging, officially announced her City Council candidacy on Monday at Forest Hills Park.

Donkeys on defense

We’ve made no secret of our utter befuddlement when it comes to Virginia’s completely complacent state Democratic party. Although the commonwealth has become increasingly competitive at the presidential and (last year notwithstanding) congressional level, you’d be hard-pressed to find a Democratic member of the General Assembly who seemed passionate (or even mildly optimistic) about the […]

Home delivery

Last month, Ruth Haske left the hospital to have her baby. She was a couple of weeks shy of her due date when she woke up feeling ill —back hurting, stomach hurting, fever. At UVA Medical Center, she underwent some tests and monitoring and was then sent home. Three days later, she still felt awful. […]

ICLEI is out

Ask the right Albemarle residents, and they will tell you that efforts by county government to reduce carbon emissions and promote sustainable development approach “a Big Brother mentality,” “socialism,” and “Soviet-style rule-by-committee.” Last week, they told their six supervisors the same thing. Jefferson Area Tea Party chair Carole Thorpe said that ICLEI, a nonprofit organization […]

Woodriff raises a racquet

Bob Sweeney doesn’t play squash. “Believe it or not,” says UVA’s Vice President for Development and Public Affairs, who oversees the school’s $3 billion capital campaign. 

Ruff competition

Boss, a lively Pomeranian owned, bred and handled by Christine Crane, won his first Best in Show on June 5 at the 57th annual Charlottesville-Albemarle Kennel Club All-Breed Dog Show, held at Foxfield race course. More than 750 dogs of all shapes, sizes and breeds competed in 90-degree weather. Those lucky enough to make it […]

K-12 comprehensive

How to understand that strange species called children? For nine months of the year, they’re quarantined in their classrooms, known to those of us not responsible for them as the creatures who emerge from the yellow buses while we wait impatiently. But school ends this week for public schools and some private schools, and now […]