Bowers set to appeal

Following a March 16 opinion by U.S. District Court Judge Norman K. Moon, Dena Bowers’ attorney was left with only one argument: that Bowers was denied a right to be heard before she was fired from UVA, a violation of her due process rights under the 14th Amendment. In October 2005, Bowers sent an e-mail […]

Freedom behind bars

The Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women is located on an isolated piece of land off U.S. Route 250 in Troy, Virginia. Its cinderblock walls are white and clean, the staff are friendly as officers pass through a metal detector, raise their arms and get patted down. A series of heavy doors, painted government green, lead […]

Forty years of interracial marriage

Mildred Jeter married Richard Loving in June of 1958, expecting an ordinary life in Tidewater, Virginia, the community where they had grown up. Instead, they spent the next nine years in separation and effective exile from their home state. Mildred was black, Richard was white, and the “Racial Integrity Act” rendered their marriage a crime. […]

Does city need its own ambulances?

Nestled within the city’s $140 million proposed budget is a line that provides $966,122 for an ambulance service for the city fire department. Officials say the new service will supplement the 47-year-old volunteer rescue

City Council hears tax woes

It could have been that the city’s budget and tax rate are of extreme importance to many citizens, especially middle-class homeowners getting squeezed by rising assessments. Or, it could have been that teachers at Charlottesville High School picked March 19’s City Council meeting as required attendance for dozens of yawning students scribbling on meeting worksheets. […]

Disaster: not “if” but “when”

Attendees of the Community Forum on Emergency Preparedness on March 21 were unprepared for the onslaught of information and material offered to them. Out in the lobby of Burley Middle School, city staff stood by tables covered in handouts that said things like “What is the Pandemic Flu? When will it happen here?” There was […]

Region Ten gets new director

Later in April, the public will have a chance to meet Robert L. Johnson, whose expertise in managing substance abuse programs will be parlayed into his new job as executive director of Region Ten Community Services Board, the mental health, mental retardation and substance abuse service provider that serves five area counties and the city […]

Marked Man

Dr. Jeff Lee had often found the names of sweethearts and mothers tattooed on dead mens’ biceps, but on October 26, 1998 he found something unusual. While performing an autopsy on a Charlottesville man that morning, Lee, a pathologist at the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Richmond, noted the mark on the dead man’s left […]

Mission impossible

By the time you read this, America will have entered its fifth year of occupation in Iraq. And for what? In the last four years of occupation, Iraq has devolved into one of the most violent places on Earth. Some 3,000 or more Iraqi civilians die violent deaths every month, victims of the insurgency and […]