In brief

Joint resolution Let’s start by putting it bluntly: On Friday, Virginia’s legislature voted to legalize marijuana, becoming the first state in the South to do so.  Some details of the bill still need to be hashed out, however. Retail sales of legal marijuana to Virginians 21 and up won’t begin until 2024, and the new […]

Eat up

Since the spring, Charlottesville City Schools has given out hundreds of free to-go breakfasts and lunches daily. But for many students, particularly those with special dietary needs, these meals have not been enough to alleviate food insecurity—now at an all-time high. “Families are struggling to put enough nutritious fresh foods on the table…and the meals […]

‘They were trying to kill me’

LaQuinn Gilmore felt sick to his stomach. He had not eaten enough before taking the antibiotics his doctor had prescribed him for a hand infection, and knew he needed to throw up. While driving down Monticello Avenue on the night of January 11, Gilmore pulled over, got out of his car, and leaned over next […]

In brief: Affordable apartments denied, vaccine clinic opened, and more

Nothing special Charlottesville’s fraught debates over how to address the city’s affordable housing crisis continue. At Monday night’s meeting, in a 3-2 vote, City Council denied a special use permit that would have allowed a modest number of new affordable units to be constructed in Belmont.  The proposed apartment complex at 1000 Monticello Rd. would […]

Feline fine

By Sam Baars One of the best things about my cat is that he can’t read a newspaper. Nearly half a million people have contracted COVID-19, and the body count of this global health crisis continues to climb. The planet is warming at an alarming rate. And a certain white supremacist ex-president staged a literal […]

Pressing on

By Lisa Provence Long before the pandemic further slashed advertising revenue, newspapers were in distress. Ad dollars are being sucked up by huge corporations like Google, which made $4.7 billion in digital advertising on news sites in 2018, almost as much as the $5.1 billion every single U.S. news outlet combined made that year. Add […]

Etched in stone

At UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, some people are remembered by name: Billy, Jane, Lewis. Others are remembered by occupation or relationship: Woodcutter, grandmother. And others still are represented by nothing more than gashes in the hard rock, denoting a life’s worth of details lost to history.  Standing in front of the wall, Myra Anderson’s […]

Burned out

Despite ample warnings from health experts, millions of people traveled across the country to visit family and friends for the holidays. Now, COVID cases have reached an all-time high—and health care workers are paying the price. “The ICU has been completely full or close to full for most of the surge period, which really kicked […]

In brief: No pipeline, Xzavier Hill, and more

Will the prez put awaythe pipelines? Joe Biden hit the ground running during his first few days on the job, including passing an executive order that has energy tycoons sweating over projects in Virginia. Last week, the new president canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial oil pipeline that would have carried fossil fuel from […]