Toil and trouble

For all the political bluster about how illegal labor hurts Americans and the economy, it’s extremely easy for undocumented workers to become victims in the employment system they’re supposedly milking. Think about it—to whom can they complain? Tim Freilich, legal director of the Virginia Justice Center, one of the only organizations that represents illegal workers […]

Drug prices on campus

The following prices and comments were obtained in an hour-long interview with four female sophomores and one male senior. All five frequently use at least some drugs. The male arrived about 20 minutes after the interview started with a quantity of marijuana, which was quickly loaded in an ornate glass water bong and smoked by […]

The other forbidden fruit

By some definitions, virtually everything you pick up on the black market could fall under the “entertainment” umbrella—isn’t that what those lines of coke and side-alley blowjobs are about? To narrow the frame, however, we let those mainstays of human misbehavior live on their own and instead focused on electronics and events, from the bootlegs […]

Coke is the real thing

Robin Williams, no stranger to nose candy, once said, “Cocaine is God’s way of telling you you’re making too much money.” Well, “there’s a lot of money in this town,” an inmate at our local jail told me. Now in his early 30s, he’s been selling coke in Charlottesville since he was 14. It turns […]

Supes struggle over tax rate

Supervisor Dennis Rooker had no problem getting his fellow supervisors to approve a 35 percent increase in the county’s automobile decals, raising them to $38.50 from $28.50. But at least three of them couldn’t stomach a real estate tax rate of 69 cents per $100 of assessed value. Pressure was on at the April 11 […]

Four, maybe more, Council candidates

“Holly [Edwards] became one of my teachers,” said retiring City Councilor Kendra Hamilton at a press conference April 12 announcing the candidacy of Holly Edwards for City Council. Hamilton addressed a crowd of 30 gathered in a multipurpose room in the public housing high-rise Crescent Halls. “She taught me what a privileged little buppie I […]

Charges false, says neo-Nazi

As Kevin Alfred Strom waited in U.S. District Court, he glanced over his shoulder around the courtroom—a meek smile girding his face—and nodded to whomever he made eye contact with. His demeanor

Breaking the substance abuse cycle

This month sees a changing of the guard for Region Ten, a local government agency providing mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse services to Charlottesville and its five area counties. Robert L. Johnson takes over as executive director, having worked extensively with drug treatment programs in Richmond and Washington, D.C. His experience should serve […]

Man admits to 1982 rape and murder

The man responsible for a decades-old Culpeper rape and murder pleaded guilty April 11, a local prosecutor announced. Kenneth Maurice Tinsley struck a plea deal that says he raped 19-year-old Rebecca Lynn Williams, and acknowledges there’s enough evidence to also convict him in her stabbing death. The case caused an innocent man—Earl Washington, Jr.—to spend […]