Street heat: Downtown storefront owner battles vendors

In a progressive town like Charlottesville, the owner of a 31-year-old business on the Downtown Mall says it’s time that equivalent rules and regulations are imposed on downtown storefronts and street vendors alike. His request comes in the form of a petition. “We’re a fast city, man,” says Tony LaBua, the owner of Chaps Ice […]

Bryan Silva’s sentencing delayed

  Bryan Silva appeared in Charlottesville Circuit Court August 17 for sentencing on charges related to a January 3 SWAT standoff, in which the 25-year-old Facebook celebrity barricaded himself inside his Jefferson Park Avenue home for several hours while posting videos of the incident on his social media pages for his thousands of fans to […]

Trump is toast: Will the House and Senate follow?

If there’s one thing we love about penning this column, it’s making ridiculously premature predictions. And though we’ve whiffed a few (like that time we opined that Bernie Sanders would “be out of the [primary] race by May at the very latest”), all in all our batting average is enviably high. And so, as we […]

Let the 5th District debates begin

Congressional candidates Jane Dittmar and Tom Garrett met August 10 for the first of four forums, and the two agreed on several issues—and disagreed on many more. Around 200 people crammed into the Senior Center for the event sponsored by the Senior Statesmen of Virginia (no relation to the center). Democrat Dittmar, a mediator, is […]

Gene Washington’s lawyers want grand jury records

Attorneys for the man charged with the capital murders of a beloved teacher and her daughter in 2014 asked a judge for the grand jury records for the past four years in Charlottesville Circuit Court today. The slayings of Robin Aldridge, 58, a special education teacher with Albemarle County, and 17-year-old Mani, a junior at […]

Rescinded: Felons who registered to vote do not pass go

For DeShon Langston, having his right to vote restored—and then unrestored—was like having a really nice dream and waking up to reality. That’s his reaction to a 4-3 Supreme Court of Virginia decision July 22 that the state constitution did not give Governor Terry McAuliffe the authority to restore voting rights en masse, as he […]

CPC floats four parking scenarios

The parking wars have quieted since a judge rejected the Charlottesville Parking Center’s petition for an emergency receiver June 27 and CPC owner Mark Brown decamped to Greece. But here in the dog days of August, CPC general manager Dave Norris, whose June 24 proposal was rebuffed by the city, offers four scenarios for settling […]

Resident won’t take alleged constitutional rights violation lying down

The man who lay down in front of the dais and was dragged out of a City Council meeting June 20 after calling Muslims “monstrous maniacs” has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming his constitutional rights were violated. Albemarle resident Joe Draego, 64, has been a regular at Charlottesville City Council meetings, voicing his […]

VP candidate and convicted murderer in spotlight again

Former UVA student Jens Soering has spent more than 30 years in prison while protesting his innocence. And Tim Kaine, shortly before he left the Governor’s Mansion in 2010, agreed to repatriate Soering to Germany, a move that was immediately overturned by his successor, Bob McDonnell. Now Kaine has been tapped to be the Democratic […]