In brief: DMV’s court order, Brown’s abrupt closing, Murray’s lump of coal and more

Driver’s license suspensions under siege A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction December 21 and ordered Department of Motor Vehicles Commissioner Richard Holcomb to reinstate the driver’s licenses of three plaintiffs who automatically lost their licenses when they were unable to pay court costs and fines. The judge said they are likely to prevail in […]

Can Leslie Cockburn beat Tom Garrett in the red 5th District?

She frequently wears a green quilted vest—and her campaign has high production values, perhaps fitting for a former “60 Minutes” producer. Two weeks before the 5th District Democratic convention May 5 in Farmville, and after 23 caucuses, Leslie Cockburn amassed the most delegates in a field of four candidates to be the presumptive nominee. The […]

In brief: Trashy people, rash of convictions, UVA’s warning and more

Spring cleaning As the weather warms, more people are outside and noticing just how trashy our scenic highways are. That’s when local groups that have adopted a highway under the Virginia Department of Transportation don their orange blaze vests and go clean up after their filthy neighbors. Groups that volunteer are asked to take care […]

‘No more silence:’ Area students demand gun control—again

“Are we next?” That was the question on the minds and T-shirts of several local students who participated in today’s National School Walkout, on the anniversary of the 1999 shootings at Columbine High School that left 15 people dead. More than 100 students from Charlottesville, Albemarle and Monticello high schools, Tandem Friends School and the […]

In brief: A lost neighborhood, a plane crash and C-VILLE wins big

Vinegar Hill reimagined The winners of a Bushman Dreyfus Architects and Tom Tom Founders Festival competition to use public spaces to create constructive dialogue and to reimagine Vinegar Hill, the city’s historic and predominantly African-American neighborhood, proposed an 80-foot wall made of layers of metal maps of the lost neighborhood on the west side of […]

And many happy returns

Indivisible Charlottesville threw an early retirement party January 11 for Republican Congressman Tom Garrett, who has not been popular with many of his Democratic constituents here. Ken Horne had a card for Garrett that listed the top five reasons he should retire, including the prediction that he would be fired anyway in this year’s midterm […]

Unfriended: Garrett staffer calls cops on constituent

Craig DuBose likes to let his 5th District congressman know how he feels about issues, and he regularly posts comments on Tom Garrett’s Facebook page—until he discovered he’d been blocked December 7. DuBose says he called Garrett’s Washington office the next day, and was transferred to communications director Matt Missen, who told him he’d violated […]