Human Rights Commission under scrutiny after staffer’s resignation
The abrupt departure of the staffer in charge of implementing Charlottesville’s 2-year-old civil rights ordinance has set the volunteer Human Rights Commission (HRC) that worked with her office on the defensive, but some involved with the creation and oversight of the city’s anti-discrimination efforts say there’s reason to be optimistic. Zan Tewksbury resigned from her […]
Eramo v. Rolling Stone: UVA dean takes magazine to court over rape story
Ever since Rolling Stone’s shocking November 2014 story on an alleged gang rape at UVA began to fall apart, media watchers have speculated whether the magazine would end up the defendant in a defamation suit. The local chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, where the story’s key figure, a student named Jackie, claimed to have been […]
Impact drivers: Your new car is less likely to kill you today than 20 years ago, and you have local research to thank
The gunmetal gray 2013 Toyota RAV-4 sitting on a rotating platform under studio lights at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s Vehicle Research Center north of Ruckersville last Thursday afternoon had not had a good day. A few hours earlier, it had been hurtled at 40 miles per hour at a semi-rigid barrier, which struck […]
Inside the mistrial in the case of Kevin Quick’s accused killers
The trial for the accused murderers of Waynesboro reserve police officer Kevin Quick was already one for the record books when it began May 4: Six defendants, 10 defense attorneys, three prosecutors, a jury panel of 134 and six weeks set aside for arguments in front of the Honorable Glen E. Conrad, chief U.S. District […]
Panhandling payout: City to settle suit over anti-begging ordinance
The final chapter in a 4-year-old legal battle over a Charlottesville ordinance banning solicitation in certain areas of the Downtown Mall is playing out in favor of the free-speech advocates who challenged the rule. Last week, the City Council approved a nearly $126,000 settlement to the plaintiffs in the case, Albert Clatterbuck and Christopher Martin, […]
Terry’s track record: Five years in, how should we measure Sullivan’s success?
As the class of 2015 prepares to walk away from UVA, the University’s Board of Visitors is weighing whether President Teresa Sullivan will stay. Sullivan’s current contract ends next summer, and Rector George K. Martin has said the governing board will likely determine whether to extend it by the end of next month. Martin has […]
Grave matters: At Ridge and Cherry, new development plans and an old battle
On May 12, the Charlottesville Planning Commission will chew over the next chapter in a decades-old development story as Charlie Armstrong, vice president of Southern Development, pitches the latest zoning amendment request for the company’s property at the corner of Ridge Street and Cherry Avenue at a public hearing. Plans for the still-vacant corner, eventually […]
Capital case: Jesse Matthew to face death penalty for Hannah Graham’s murder
Tuesday afternoon brought a major development in a local case that continues to grab national headlines: Albemarle County Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford announced that she would charge Jesse Matthew with capital murder in the death of UVA second-year Hannah Graham. That means Matthew, who was in court for a hearing to set his trial date on first-degree […]
Faculty jumps into Sweet Briar legal fray as school remains defiant
A group of 55 Sweet Briar faculty members has filed yet another lawsuit attempting to block the planned closure of the 114-year-old college, claiming breach of contract. But the school’s leaders have fired back with a legal memorandum opposing the suit—the third filed against the school in a month—and have accused the faculty of trying […]
Trump to turn Albemarle House into luxe bed and breakfast
When Donald Trump and his son Eric bought former billionaire Patricia Kluge’s 45-room mansion in 2012, completing a $12.7 million takeover of her 776-acre county estate, the younger mogul hinted it could become a boutique inn for the adjacent Trump Winery. Now those plans are coming to fruition as the Trump Hotel Collection prepares to […]
UVA’s Nicole Eramo blasts Rolling Stone in letter sent via attorneys
A UVA dean dragged into the national spotlight by Rolling Stone’s retracted story about rape at the University is speaking out about what she says is a failure by the magazine to own up to and remedy damage inflicted on her and the school. Nicole Eramo, an associate dean of students and UVA’s point person […]
Supe questions sustainability as red light camera program expands
A second Albemarle County intersection is set to be equipped with red light cameras after years of discussion and studies, and while the expansion of the photo ticketing program enjoys wide support on the Board of Supervisors, not everyone is happy about it. Police and county officials have enthusiastically announced the installation of cameras at the […]
Who sues? Parsing a possible Phi Kappa Psi v. Rolling Stone suit
The Columbia Journalism Review’s 13,000-word report dismantling Rolling Stone’s retracted account of a violent gang rape at UVA was less than 24 hours old when the UVA chapter of Phi Kappa Psi, whose unnamed members the magazine’s story accused of a heinous crime, announced via press release it would sue for defamation. The suits may […]
Appraisals offer closer look at Mark Brown’s parking garage legal battle
Documents acquired from the city via a Freedom of Information Act request are shedding more light on the possible grounds for downtown developer Mark Brown’s lawsuit against property appraiser Ivo Romenesko. Last August, Brown bought the Charlottesville Parking Center, LLC (CPC), which owns the land under the Water Street parking garage and has a stake, […]
Debate over Charlottesville meals tax increase goes down to the wire
Charlottesville’s proposed city budget is still leaning heavily on a hotly contested one-penny increase in the city’s meals tax, a hike that would generate $2.1 million. That’s money supporters—including an apparent majority of City Councilors—say is necessary to close a school funding gap and pay for additional police. But at a public hearing on the […]
UPDATED: Announcement of lawsuit among reactions to review of retracted Rolling Stone story
This is an updated story. The original is included below. On Sunday, just shy of five months after Rolling Stone posted its explosive and flawed report on an alleged gang rape at UVA online, The Columbia Journalism Review made public a 13,000-word analysis of the reporting and editing failures that led to the publication of […]
Charlottesville AIDS care center announces closure
Charlottesville’s only AIDS services organization (ASO) is permanently closing, the 29-year-old nonprofit announced this week. Thrive, formerly known as AIDS Services Group, sent media outlets a press release late Thursday explaining that the group’s board made the unanimous decision to shut down Wednesday night. “This was not an easy decision,” reads a statement from the […]
Downtown developer files suit over Water Street garage land appraisal
Developer and businessman Mark Brown’s takeover of the company that controls most of the public parking in downtown Charlottesville last August was the sale of the summer, but the saga of the Charlottesville Parking Center acquisition isn’t over. Last week, Brown filed suit against appraiser Ivo Romenesko, who valued one of the company’s key holdings—the […]
Tuition spike: Sudden increase in UVA’s sticker price sparks protest
Last week, the University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors approved a plan to increase tuition and fees for incoming first-years by 11 percent, a hike that will largely go to pay for grants to lower-income students. The plan’s engineers say it aims to put a UVA education within reach of those Virginians who can least […]
Police: No evidence to support Jackie’s claims in Rolling Stone rape story
Charlottesville Police Chief Timothy Longo said in a press conference Monday, March 23 that investigators have found no evidence to support the claims of a 2012 gang rape at UVA’s Phi Kappa Psi fraternity detailed in an explosive Rolling Stone story and attributed to a University student referred to only by her first name, “Jackie.” […]
UVA students express anger at forum with police, march out in protest
Tensions ran high in UVA’s Newcomb Hall Theater Friday afternoon as students confronted police and other public officials at a forum organized by the University’s Student Council in response to the arrest of Martese Johnson, the African-American third-year student involved in a bloody confrontation with Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) officers on the Corner early […]
Martese Johnson: ‘How could this happen?’
At a Thursday evening press conference on Charlottesville’s Downtown Mall, Martese Johnson’s lawyer told reporters his client, the 20-year-old African-American UVA student whose bloody arrest by ABC officers on the Corner early Wednesday morning has sparked outrage, would “fight the criminal charges against him with the utmost vigor.” Johnson, who was joined at the press conference […]
Democracy U: Nonprofit unites schools, presidential homes to support global development
On the day that this paper hits stands, a small Charlottesville nonprofit is stepping out on an international stage. The Presidential Precinct, a consortium that brings together UVA, William & Mary and four historic properties in Central Virginia with the lofty goal of advancing democracy on a global scale, is hosting the Magna Carta forum, […]
Fight over deer cull highlights heavy use of kill permits in suburban Albemarle
When Fieldbrook resident Kathleen Manuel found a letter in her mailbox last month informing her a neighbor on her quiet cul-de-sac off Rio Road was planning to bring in bow hunters to kill deer on nearby quarter- to half-acre lots, she was incredulous. “It just seems ridiculous to me,” she said. A bitter argument ensued. […]
Proposed 13-cent tax on downtown properties is a no-go—for now
Plans for a downtown business district funded by a 13-cent tax on properties on and near the Downtown Mall have been put on hold after numerous property owners objected. But proponents of a Community Improvement District (CID), researched and proposed by a committee of Downtown Business Association (DBA) members, hope there’s still a future for […]
Lena Seville enters City Council Democratic primary
Lena Seville first came to Charlottesville more than a decade ago when she transferred to UVA from Virginia Tech to study environmental science and the application of environmental thinking to planning and design. She said she grew to love the community and stayed, and for the last several years, she’s been a full-time activist and […]
Fork it over: Parsing the arguments in the meals tax debate
As Charlottesville grapples with its proposed 2016 budget, one line item has garnered much of the attention: A proposal to increase the city’s meals tax from 4 to 5 percent. The penny-on-the-dollar hike is actually a 25 percent increase in the rate, and would generate an estimated $2.1 million in new revenue for the city’s […]