Bryan Silva set to plead guilty

The 25-year-old social media celebrity charged with abducting his girlfriend and brandishing and possessing a firearm while being a convicted felon is set to enter a guilty plea April 11 at 1pm in Charlottesville Circuit Court, according to the court docket. SWAT teams and local police blocked off Bryan Silva’s Jefferson Park Avenue apartment during […]

Graduation day: Albemarle will continue drug court

“I’m tired of being addicted to crack cocaine,” announced a heavy-set man in his early 60s from the front of the courtroom. “I’m free. I can pay my bills on time. I can truly be with my wife.” The Charlottesville/Albemarle Drug Treatment Court celebrated the graduation of two participants on March 31 from the program […]

Brown’s break-in: Perp in notorious gay-bashing case arrested again

Nineteen years ago, Charlottesville was horrified by the brutal assault on Evan Kittredge by assailants who beat, tortured and urinated on him, then left him to die in the trunk of his 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix. Kittredge survived, and the men who attacked him—Chad DePasquale, then 22, Billy Ray McKethan, who was 18, and Joseph […]

Downtown parking meters are a go

At an April 4 City Council meeting, councilors voted 4-1 to move forward with a plan to install parking meters at 157 parking spaces around the Downtown Mall, as part of a six-month pilot program. Those spaces, which are currently free, will cost $2 an hour, in 15-minute increments, with the first 30 minutes free, […]

President Clinton: Get used to it, folks

Okay, we’re calling it. As of this moment, it is virtually guaranteed that Hillary Clinton will be the 45th president of the United States. She has an almost insurmountable delegate lead over her Democratic opponent Bernie Sanders, and even if she should lose every remaining primary and caucus, the Dems’ lack of winner-take-all states makes […]

Can the statue be moved? Not just a local issue

The Charlottesville park bounded by Jefferson, North First, Market and North Second streets isn’t the only Lee Park under heavy scrutiny. Last July, a group of folks in Dallas led a demonstration at Oak Lawn’s Lee Park to demand that a General Robert E. Lee statue be removed and the park renamed. Activists felt called […]

Noisy neighbors: Residents ask Allied Concrete to quiet down

North Downtowners have long complained about the noise from Allied Concrete, which was established on industrially zoned Harris Street in 1945—just on the outskirts of a residential neighborhood. Colette Hall, who has lived in downtown Charlottesville for 16 years and served on the North Downtown Residents Association board for 12, five as president, says the […]

$84K assistant: Human rights office not being gutted, says Jones

Three years ago, local activist Walt Heinecke was elated when, after years of task forces on human rights, City Council finally approved a human rights commission with enforcement power and put $197,000 into funding an office. Today, Heinecke accuses City Manager Maurice Jones of “killing” the Office of Human Rights by cutting its staff while […]

Power play: General Assembly Republicans do that thing they do

So here’s the thing: For many who don’t pay close attention, Virginia’s legislature still tends to be viewed through a prism of bipartisan compromise. It is still considered, by some, as an exemplar of the fabled Virginia way, in which all arguments are settled through convivial relations and principled debate, and all members of the […]