Red dirt alert!

Amid the great swatch of red dirt, five houses are springing up in Belvedere. The 675-unit development, which has billed itself as a green project, is beginning a five- to six-year build-out. Cass Kawecki of Stonehaus, Belvedere’s developer, says the initial five houses will be move-in ready by June. The village green will be opening […]

What happened to a cherished water supply plan?

Flashback to 2005: After the worst drought on record and a whole lot of talk (and some misguided action) going back 30 years, it looked like there was a plan to expand the water supply that actually would work and satisfy a host of interests—developers who wanted water for the future, advocates who wanted better streamflows for aquatic critters, regulators who needed laws upheld, and ethicists and environmentalists who thought it best to use water from our watershed instead of drinking from the James River.

Would you give this man a job?

Former Democratic governor Mark Warner rolled into town May 6 as he kicked off his campaign for U.S. Senate. After being introduced by a triumvirate of local Dems named Dave—Charlottesville Mayor Dave Norris, Councilor David Brown and state Delegate David Toscano—Warner took the stage. He wasted no time in trumpeting his record as governor: turning […]

Can you dig it?

Dear Ace: Is it O.K. if I bury my dead pet in my backyard?—Digger Upgraves Digger: Ace would be happy to give his own seal of approval, if only this question didn’t concern him so. He realizes, in his infinite wisdom, that you may be one of those “Type A” people, and you’re simply always overly […]

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band

In a 1978 video of Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band performing “Rosalita,” security guards peel three or four rabid girls off of The Boss as the song comes to a close, but not before one of them manages to give him a nice, long French kiss. Catching his breath, Bruce stumbles back to […]

Hard Candy

“My sugar is raw,” she pants. I have no doubt, but on this, her final record for Warner Bros., Madonna’s goodies are as highly processed as Laffy Taffy. Let’s be clear—and this is happy news for Madonna music fans—Hard Candy, her 11th studio album, is a good dance record, possibly even a great dance record. […]

Green Lantern: The Sinestro Corps War Vol. 1

Geoff Johns is an evil genius. Or possibly a wizard. Or maybe some kind of cyborg from an alternate dimension. He’s clearly not human, since he possesses the alchemical ability to take even the most exhausted, clichéd comic concepts and transform their leaden histories into storytelling gold. Over the past 10 years, he’s taken the […]

Area lacks in fingerprinting tech

When someone perched near I-64 and fired into several vehicles one night in late March, local police shot into action. Area schools were canceled as law enforcement frantically searched for evidence. By the next day, they had arrested two suspects, and charged both with 10 felonies apiece in Albemarle County. “That was a priority,” says […]

Missing girl turns up in Chicago

A missing Charlottesville 12-year-old was safely located in Chicago by federal and local authorities less than two weeks after she went missing. Lorena Sanchez-Toledo had been gone since April 15, after she came home from Buford Middle School. She was last seen near her home in the Meadows Neighborhood. Three days later, an abandoned red […]

Lawsuit of the week

Plaintiff: Gregory Scott Sampson Defendants: Kroger Limited PartnershipCourt: United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia—Charlottesville DivisionWhat’s at issue: Whether Kroger is responsible for a power jack that “behaved in a very erratic and unpredictable fashion” and crushed Sampson’s thumb. On September 6, 2005, the Frito-Lay route sales rep says he was asked […]