Election e-mail: Watching the race via inbox

There’s no better reminder that we’re in the throes of election season than my inbox. The number of campaign e-mails I get on a daily basis—buildup from years of C-VILLE news editors getting added to the media lists of one flak or another, by request or otherwise—is astounding. And amusing, considering most of them are […]

Albemarle residents fight against rural school closures

A recent cost study by a county schools committee has reignited an argument over the value of keeping small rural schools open, and parents are outraged that the Albemarle County School Board might consider closing Yancey and Red Hill elementary schools, forcing kids to commute to Scottsville. At the July 12 Albemarle County School Board meeting, […]

McDonnell operating below the radar on abortion

Trying to pin down Bob McDonnell’s true agenda is, as the old saying goes, like trying to nail Jell-O to a wall. Since the day he was elected, our helmet-haired governor has consistently portrayed himself as a conservative straight shooter focused on righting Virginia’s economy, with little time for social-issue warfare or backstabbing political gamesmanship. […]

UVA to fight pair of wrongful death suits

UVA has been named as a defendant in two separate wrongful death suits in three months, fallout from a tragic year at the University. But how much blame lies at school’s doorstep in the unrelated 2010 deaths of lacrosse star Yeardley Love and Virginia Quarterly Review managing editor Kevin Morrissey? Love’s mother filed a $30 […]

Romney and Obama campaigns rally local volunteers

Americans go to the polls to pick a president in three months, and the battle is on in Virginia. New campaign offices for both candidates are springing up on a weekly basis across the state, and in the Charlottesville-Albemarle area, three local campaign offices are currently running at full steam. Obama organizers have a Downtown […]

The other border: Immigration policy divides Latino community

I arrived at Southwood Mobile Home Park through the back entrance, an unmarked driveway off Old Lynchburg Road just past the Albemarle County Police Department offices. It’s so easy to miss that, even though I’d been there before, I drove past the turn and had to double back to catch the narrow access road, which leads […]

Fluvanna women’s prison sued over medical care

Charlottesville’s Legal Aid Justice Center is suing the state Department of Corrections on behalf of inmates at the Fluvanna Correctional Center for Women, claiming poor medical care at the prison has exposed them to cruel and unusual punishment and even resulted in deaths from untreated conditions. The LAJC filed the class-action suit against officials at […]

Environmentalists warn federal bills could threaten public land

In the latest chapter of the debate between resource extraction and conservation, Virginia environmentalists are taking aim at a crop of legislation moving through the U.S. House of Representatives that they say would damage protected wilderness areas in Virginia and around the country. Advocacy group Environment Virginia held a press event Wednesday at Darden Towe […]

Albemarle approves visitors bureau marketing plan

The Albemarle County Board of Supervisors has backed off its threat to yank hundreds of thousands of dollars in accumulated tax revenue from the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau, instead agreeing to spend the money on a marketing push to draw tourists to the area. The CACVB is funded by both county and city, […]