Middle East questions for David Waldner

We recently sat down with David Waldner, a UVA professor of comparative politics and the author of the book State Building and Late Development, to try and make sense of the current dust-up between Israel and Lebanon. Hostilities in the region exploded when members of the Lebanon-based group Hezbollah kidnapped two Israeli soldiers on July […]

Cetta on affordable housing

Local developer (and UVA graduate) Vito Cetta has been building in Albemarle and Charlottesville for 16 years. His company, Weather Hill Homes, has developed many properties, including Wickham Pond in Crozet and White Gables near Farmington. As the County has established an affordable housing policy, Cetta, who serves on the County housing committee, has responded.

ACLU joins fight for Region Ten info

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote a letter on Monday, July 17, to the Region Ten Community Services Board requesting they provide a list of things discussed at a closed meeting that took place on February 13. The meeting concerned The Mews at Little High project, a much-contested residential community for people with mental […]

Fifeville project raises questions about infill

The recent rejection of a Fifeville development by the City Planning Commission highlights ambiguities about the urban planning concept of infill, which focuses development on filling vacant city lots rather than building outwards on undeveloped land. Mark Saunders, who is developing 1000 and 1002 Grove St. with V.G. Sullivan, thinks the rejection concerns more than […]

UVA snuggles up to HealthSouth

The UVA Medical Center is planning to create a new long-term acute care hospital somewhere in Albemarle County. The venture will be a 50/50 partnership with Alabama-based HealthSouth Corporation, one of the largest health care service providers in the United States. The new 40-bed facility will serve the clinical needs of acute patients who require […]

School of rock

O.K., Professor Nick Rubin might not be a slovenly, hard-rocking and somewhat deranged substitute teacher at a private school—and his students probably won’t end up competing in a local battle of the bands—but we still can’t resist a course titled “History of Rock and Roll.”    In Rubin’s class, connoisseurs of this thing we call “rock” […]

Former Pastor faces child porn charges

A former Lutheran pastor charged with 20 counts of possession of child pornography, as well as two counts of videotaping non-consenting adults, has been released on $100,000 conditional bond following a July 19 hearing. Gregory Briehl—who, until this spring, was an associate pastor at the Peace Lutheran Church as well as counselor at First Stone Counseling Center-urned himself into Albemarle authorities July 18 after they issued a warrant for his arrest.

Public swearing arrests

Ah, summer in Charlottesville. A perfect time for outdoor concerts, evening strolls on the Mall and the sort of public profanity that causes bystanders to ask, “You kiss your mother with that mouth?”    Public swearing/intoxication arrests totaled 22 in the city two weekends ago. But Charlottesville Police Captain Bryant Bibb says those arrests were mainly […]

Corner killer sued for wrongful death

The family of Walker Sisk, who was stabbed to death in November 2003, has served his killer, Andrew Alston, with a $3 million lawsuit.    Alston was convicted of voluntary manslaughter for stabbing Sisk, a 22-year-old volunteer firefighter, 18 times in a drunken altercation at the corner of 14th and Wertland streets. He was released from […]

Parking-meter thief hits jackpot, then jail

David Robert Brown, 35, was charged with grand larceny for stealing more than $1,000 from parking meters in the Water Street lot. Police caught him on camera around 1:45am Monday, July 17, tampering with meters.    Meters were checked and cleared out by the City on June 13. When they were checked again June 30, about […]