Tom Sox players hope to move up to the majors

Justin Novak’s fingers were bleeding. A Band-Aid flapped uselessly from one of the cuts that had been pummeled for nine innings by balls thrown and hit hard to third base. The white knickerbocker-style pants of his UVA uniform were streaked with dirt. The stadium was almost empty and the lights were shutting off. He walked […]

Darden program helps inmates plan for life after prison

Thirty-five-year-old Russell Matthews, dressed in a denim shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers, enters a small classroom in the Dillwyn Correctional Center in central Virginia and shakes his instructor’s hand. He’s the first of about 15 prisoners to arrive to class on this mid-April day. “Good evening,” Matthews says to Jonathan Jones, the class instructor […]

The Great Outdoors

Going with the flow Rivanna River Company will launch Charlottesville’s first outfitter By Jessica Luck editor@c-ville.com When Gabe and Sonya Silver moved back to Charlottesville three years ago after various stints in other places working in the outdoor recreation field, they settled in the Woolen Mills neighborhood. The house they bought was a fixer-upper with […]

Tom Tom Festival is all grown up

As Tom Tom Founders Festival Director Paul Beyer sits in the audience during Founders Summit talks and hears fellow entrepreneurs and creative visionaries speak about the early days of their startups, the successes they celebrated and obstacles they faced, he can’t help but draw a parallel to the festival itself. The ideas for the festival […]

Bern notice: Can a grassroots effort have an effect on the election?

Bernie Sanders is standing in Nour Sulaiman’s living room. That is, a life-sized cardboard cutout of the senator dressed in a suit and tie has taken up residence in the far corner of the UVA fourth-year’s home. A friend dropped off the likeness for the February 27 Sanders rally that was held—where else?—near the Free […]

13 years later: Robert Davis’ new life as a free man

Two months ago, Robert Davis was getting ready to set up chairs for Bible study when he received some life-altering news: Within hours, he’d be walking out of Coffeewood Correctional Center, a free man for the first time in nearly 13 years. Davis, 31, stepped out of prison December 21 to face television cameras, probably […]

History lessons: Former presidents’ homes aren’t shying away from their past with slavery

In his recollections, Israel Gillette, born into slavery on the Monticello plantation in 1800, recalled a striking conversation in 1824 between his master, Thomas Jefferson, and the visiting Marquis de Lafayette. Lafayette, who had served in the Revolutionary War as an extremely young American major general, was visiting the property with his son, George Washington […]

Big Ideas: Local doctors and scientists pursue innovation

Innovations surrounding our health—both personal and global—are happening every day. Whether it’s the invention of a new technology or the discovery of how a disease works on a molecular level, every advancement puts us one step closer toward enjoying a collective healthier life. In this issue you’ll meet a scientist who is working to understand […]

It takes a Village

It took two men with a vision to create an all-girls village On the Tuesday before winter break, a spirited debate has broken out in Jamie Knorr’s sixth-grade history class at Village School, the all-girls middle school he and Proal Heartwell founded two decades ago. A few of Knorr’s students have just delivered their soliloquy, […]

Put on ice: The General Assembly is in session

State Senator Creigh Deeds compares the 2016 General Assembly session, which starts January 13, to a Talking Heads lyric: “Same as it ever was.” Says Charlottesville’s senior legislator, “It’ll be about money and health care.” Virginia’s part-time legislature passes a balanced budget every two years, and the 60-day session has been known to drag into […]