Tracking down the homeless

Once every year, for the last six years, the Thomas Jefferson Coalition Against the Homeless (TJACH) has undertaken a three-day census of the area’s least fortunate, to find out things like how long it’s been since they last had a place to live, or whether they’ve ever felt like they needed mental health services. “HUD […]

Assembly can’t kill HPV vaccine

Last year, Virginia joined Texas as the only states to require sixth-grade girls to be vaccinated for the human papillomavirus (HPV), a move that outraged social conservatives in both places. Now Texas has backed out of its requirement, and in Virginia, legislators are trying to push back requirement’s start date, or kill it altogether. According […]

Your tax dollars, at work

Worked for Albemarle County for: 3.5 years Resides in: Albemarle CountyJob title: Organizational development specialist. She started in community development enforcing zoning laws, and now she teaches classes through the Human Resources department. She doesn’t “teach the firemen how to put out fires or the cops how to shoot,” but she does get a view […]

Correction from January 29 issue

Due to a reporting error, last week’s Curtain Calls column incorrectly stated that Jack Fisk was nominated for an Academy Award for Art Direction for his work on No Country for Old Men. Fisk was actually nominated for There Will Be Blood. Curtain Calls loved both films and regrets the error.

Sympathy for the doofus

We admit it: We’ve been more than a little harsh on U.S. Representative Thomas M. Davis III. We’ve criticized his lax oversight of the Bush Administration,

Hospital starts hunt for redeveloper

Bert Brown has watched his wife decline since 2001 with advanced dementia. He likes living on Locust Avenue near the Martha Jefferson Hospital, as his wife has had extended stays there. So with the hospital’s relocation imminent—all activities will be moved from the Locust/High Street location to Pantops by 2012—he would like to see an […]

City assessments level out…for some

Well, assessments are out once again, though this year, city and county residents may not need their real estate-related defibrillators. Assessments have finally caught up with the market, rising only 4.2 percent in the city and less than 1 percent in the county—three county districts actually saw assessments fall. All of this comes after years […]

Homeless day shelter still in works

As the story goes, UVA grad and Hollywood director Tom Shadyac returned to the area after years away to film his most recent movie, Evan Almighty. “It was really neat to see how the town had grown, how the Downtown corridor had come alive,” he says. “Then I also became aware that a segment of […]

Projects before the planners

Montalto “Scholar Housing” The skinny: The Thomas Jefferson Foundation, which owns and operates Monticello, bought neighboring “Montalto” (a.k.a. Brown’s Mountain) in 2004 for $15 million. It’s already torn down apartments formerly filled with mostly law dogs—now it wants to convert the house, barn and tower that remain on the property into eight to 10 apartments […]