Planners hope for earlier bedtimes

As anyone can attest who’s attended an entire session, City Planning Commission meetings can be drawn-out affairs. After all the staff comments, applicant comments, public comments, commissioner comments and commissioner comments on the other commissioners’ comments—the hour often creeps past 12am. So in order to cut back on the midnight madness, the Planning Commission recently […]

More cases for the new year

Keeping up with these court cases is an endeavor that never lets you down—there’s always an update, an appeal or a motion. Here’s to folks who make their way in the court system, month after month, year after year. The Ivy Landfill deathIn April 2003, Patricia Stephens’ husband, Wayne, was killed in an accident involving […]

Higher level

Freshman phenom Monica Wright, a starting guard for the UVA women’s basketball team, shoots a fadeaway over a helpless Wake Forest player during the Cav’s 77-70 home victory on January 11.

County planners to glimpse Places29 draft

After a postponed deadline, officials behind Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s massive transit/land-use master plan dubbed “Places29” (www.albemarle.org) say that the process turned out to be just as complex—if not more—than they anticipated. It’s called Places29, after all, not Place29.  Places29 covers a 10-mile stretch of Route 29 between Route 250 and Greene County, encompassing the […]

Legislative help for small wineries

Last July, the landscape changed radically for small Virginia wineries. No, the rolling hills didn’t flatten. Instead, the wineries lost the right to put cases of their own Viognier in their own trucks and drive them down to the local grocery store. Now State Delegate Chris Saxman of Staunton wants to reinstate that right for […]

Little Big Minds

words  At a certain point in my adult life, I decided to give myself a crash course in philosophy. Sure, I’d learned plenty of details in college, but they had gotten lost in the day-to-day drama of making a living. It was time to start over completely. The process went something like this: 1) severe […]

Captain Tunes and His Fabulous Noteguns

music During a break midway through Saturday night’s sold-out show at Starr Hill, an audience member suddenly reached for singer Bob Girard’s head. As Girard instinctively leaned forward, she grabbed a thatch of his hair and he beamed in response. Captain Tunes and His Fabulous Noteguns keep on rockin’ in the modern world—no geezers allowed. […]

Getting schooled

Dear Ace: From what I hear, we have some really good primary and secondary teachers in our town. What can you tell me about them?—Ed U. Kator Dear Ed: It’s no coincidence that Charlottesville has turned out some pretty high-profile people—think of Rob Lowe or DMB or the kids of any of the celebrities who have […]

Does dual enrollment work?

Educators may lament the hurdles that the No Child Left Behind Act creates for public schools, but one part of the act is almost universally beloved: emphasis on dual enrollment (DE) programs. In such programs, high school students receive both high school and college credit, a tactic that arguably helps equip the economically disadvantaged and […]