In brief: School funding bill killed, IX for sale-or not

School (funding’s) out A Virginia House of Delegates subcommittee killed school funding bills Friday that would’ve allowed localities to raise money for school construction, voting 5-3 on all three bills. Similar legislation was passed by the state Senate. The Republican-controlled House’s action looms large in Charlottesville: City Council has expressed that finding new revenue streams […]

Out of control

For nearly two years, the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail has been hit hard by the pandemic. While the virus shakes up life outside the jail’s walls, those incarcerated at ACRJ have reported poor COVID containment procedures and unhygienic living conditions. Now, with the highly-contagious omicron variant spreading across the country, coronavirus cases have reached an all-time […]

Limited choices

Between about 1944 and 1953, Mable Wall Jones was a major figure in the lives of Emily Abel and Margaret Nelson. In addition to cooking and cleaning for their family, Jones cared for the sisters and their three siblings at their home in New York. Until one day, she left. “We didn’t know much about […]

Future fuel

Eye of the Tiger When attorney David Sutton purchased a small Charlottesville oil supplier on the verge of going out of business in 1982, the company had just two trucks to its name—and one had dry-rotted tires. But over the past four decades, Tiger Fuel Company has grown to become one of the largest petroleum […]

In brief: Signer’s anti-snow day, Majors killers sentenced

Signer’s snow day dust up Last week, after Charlottesville City Schools called off school on Tuesday due to lingering hazards from the weekend’s snowstorm, former mayor Mike Signer took to Twitter to voice his opposition. He was met with derision—who could possibly be anti-snow day? But Signer doubled down, and published an op-ed in Time […]

‘They’re my people’

“You’re in Bills Country,” announced a blue-red-and-white banner hanging near the entrance to Champion Grill. Geographically, I was nowhere near Bills Country. I was here in Charlottesville, more than 400 miles from the cold and snowy home of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. And yet, just as the banner promised, the bar was packed with Bills […]

Moving in

From redlining to racial covenants, Charlottesville’s long history of racism and segregation has created the affordable housing crisis the city now faces. Over the years, the city’s largest employer, the University of Virginia, has contributed to the problem. As UVA continues to grow and expand, more and more students have signed leases at apartments and […]

New face

In November, newly appointed Charlottesville City Manager Marc Woolley quit the job—the day before he was supposed to start work. It was the low point in a three-year period that had seen five people, not counting Woolley, serve as the city government’s lead executive. In response, City Council addressed the desperate situation by hiring a […]

In brief: Youngkin’s executive orders

Glenn Youngkin’s First Day Glenn Youngkin was sworn in as governor over the weekend, and right away he signed nine executive orders. Number one is entitled “Ending the Use of Inherently Divisive Concepts, Including Critical Race Theory, and Restoring Excellence in K-12 Education in the Commonwealth.” Though educators say that critical race theory, an advanced […]

Uncivil review board

The Charlottesville Police Civilian Review Board was among the key criminal justice reforms put in place following the 2017 Unite the Right rally. More than four years later, the board remains mired in controversy, with conflict between its appointed members and persistent legal questions about its powers hampering the board’s ability to keep law enforcement […]