Thirty years ago, it was more common to arrange sexual favors through a direct trade for narcotics, according to an inmate at the Charlottesville-Albemarle Regional Jail. But Charlottesville’s finest don’t deal with direct trades; rather, undercover officers such as the Charlottesville Police Department’s Joe Brown need to ensure that suspected prostitutes agree to a specific […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
More than a month after the city announced it would spend nearly $1 million on two new ambulances and staff for its own emergency-rescue system, city officials are saying the money may instead
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 […]
“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 […]
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
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 […]