Data dive: Tracking untapped business tax revenue in Charlottesville

Earlier this month, news outlets around the state picked up a story about a local government data crusader who hit on a potential treasure trove of untapped municipal tax revenue. Waldo Jaquith, who founded the nonprofit U.S. Open Data, had paid for access to the State Corporation Commission’s (SCC) list of more than 1.1 million […]

Dominion proposes alternative pipeline routes through Nelson

Dominion has announced that it is exploring several alternative routes for its planned Atlantic Coast Pipeline through Nelson County. The 550-mile natural gas pipeline, which the company hopes to have online by the end of 2018, would be routed through West Virginia, Virginia and North Carolina, and has seen significant opposition in Nelson, where many […]

Midwestern investment firm buys Wintergreen

A Missouri real estate investment trust, EPR Properties, has picked up Wintergreen Resort for an undisclosed price, it announced last week. Coal and resort baron Jim Justice, who bought Wintergreen for $16.5 million in June 2012, poured millions into infrastructure before putting the Nelson ski resort on the market a year ago. “Wintergreen is an […]

Hire or be hired: Moonlighting app taps ‘sharing economy’

First there was Airbnb, which helped people rent out their abodes for extra cash. Then Uber made it possible to earn money using your car. Those businesses are examples of what’s known as a “sharing economy,” and the latest entrant is the Charlottesville-based Moonlighting mobile phone app, which helps people hire or be hired and […]

Second Street closure irks restaurant owners

About 20 years ago, the plan to open Second Street and have traffic cross the Downtown Mall brought dire predictions the pedestrian mall would be ruined. Two weeks ago, the street closed with virtually no notice, and restaurant owners are making dire predictions that they’ll be ruined. Martin Horn Construction got a permit to close […]

Dominion withdraws some suits, but forges ahead with pipeline plans

Dominion Resources has dropped 14 lawsuits against Nelson County landowners it says it sued in error, but dozens more suits over the company’s right to survey land for its proposed 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline are going ahead as many residents continue to voice their opposition. Dominion spokesman Jim Norvelle said Friday, January 16, that the […]

Landowners respond to Dominion pipeline survey lawsuits

This updated and expanded story includes reporting from a previous, shorter piece on Dominion’s pipeline lawsuits posted late last month. This week, courts in Nelson and Augusta counties are expected to start delivering Dominion Resource’s Christmas present to landowners there: the first of dozens of lawsuits, announced last month, against holdout residents who since May […]

Dominion sues landowners for pipeline survey access

Dominion has filed suit against holdout landowners in Nelson and Augusta counties who since May have refused to let the energy company survey their land for its proposed 550-mile natural gas pipeline. According to Dominion spokesman Jim Norvelle, the company filed 20 suits in Nelson County and 27 more in Augusta County last Thursday and […]

As Dominion makes the case for its pipeline to feds, locals say they’ll keep fighting it

Dominion’s plans for a 550-mile natural gas pipeline through Virginia are marching ahead, and with the release of the company’s first reports to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), anti-pipeline activists in Nelson County are finding more reasons to rally opposition to the multi-billion-dollar project. The federal approval process requires companies to file a dozen […]