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 […]
Rob Jiranek out as Daily Progress publisher
A little more than two years ago, former C-VILLE Weekly co-owner Rob Jiranek was named publisher of the Daily Progress. Today, the announcement of a new publisher and Jiranek’s abrupt departure “to pursue other opportunities” caught many at the Progress by surprise. “I don’t have any comment,” says BH Media Regional Vice President Terry Jamerson […]
Artists interrupted: Canceled re-enactment reopens slavery’s wounds
When the student-run UVA Studio Arts Board asked New York artist Ed Woodham to bring his Art in Odd Places to the university, he wanted local artists to take part in the public visual and performance art, and the centerpiece of the two-day April event featured local theater artists Leslie Scott-Jones and Brandon Lee. Two […]
Paranormal studies: John Cleese moderates UVA panel
For years, what’s now known as the Division of Perceptual Studies at UVA kept a pretty low profile under its reincarnation researcher and founder Ian Stevenson, who was notoriously publicity shy. That seems to have changed in the department’s current incarnation, which sponsored the appearance of Monty Pythoner John Cleese at last week’s Tom Tom […]
Malicious wounding charge against ‘Boonie Hat’ goes to grand jury
A Florida man charged with malicious wounding in the August 12 Market Street Parking Garage attack on DeAndre Harris can thank the attorney of another man for his arrest—and for dubbing him “Boonie Hat.” Tyler Watkins Davis, 50, of Middleburg, Florida, was in Charlottesville General District Court April 12 for a preliminary hearing, and his […]
Statue hearing: Councilors immunity still being argued
So far, Judge Rick Moore has accumulated six files pertaining to the lawsuit filed a year ago against Charlottesville and its city councilors for voting to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee—and that doesn’t include the transcripts, he told lawyers in Charlottesville Circuit Court April 11. At the latest hearing, the city […]
Trash talk: Highway adopters say littering worse than ever
There’s a famous scene from “Mad Men” in which the Draper family goes on a picnic. Afterward, Don tosses his beer can on the ground and Betty shakes the tablecloth out and leaves the trash from their outing, a not uncommon occurrence in that era before Lady Bird Johnson joined the Keep America Beautiful campaign […]
Re-righting history: Katie Couric documents what divides us
During her 15-year tenure as NBC “Today Show” co-anchor, UVA alum and journalist Katie Couric was known as America’s Sweetheart. These days, she’s way past that chipper morning news persona, and having finished a six-part series delving into the most contentious issues facing the country today, she says she’s exhausted. Couric was in Charlottesville April […]
Dan Rather talks civil rights coverage then and now and the ‘fake news’ era
Baby boomers grew up with news correspondent Dan Rather covering the civil rights movement, the assassination of President John Kennedy and the Vietnam War. They raised families while Rather anchored “CBS Evening News,” a coveted position he took in 1981 and held for 24 years. Now a whole new generation knows Rather from YouTube’s The […]
Tracci’s motion: Asks judge to vacate Kessler dismissal
Two weeks ago a judge dismissed a perjury charge against whites-righter Jason Kessler because the prosecution didn’t establish that the alleged crime took place in Albemarle. Legal pundits decried the misstep as a rookie move. Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert Tracci filed a motion to vacate that decision April 3, claiming that Judge Cheryl Higgins erred twice […]
City Council approves bigger West2nd
During yet another out-of-control City Council meeting on April 2, Mayor Nikuyah Walker cleared the chamber and councilors reconvened after a closed session to seek legal advice on how to maintain order. Nearly two hours into the meeting, councilors began to address the city’s business, and by 10pm approved by a 4-1 vote a special […]
Kessler subpoenaed C-VILLE reporter
Two business days before Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler was scheduled to stand trial on a felony perjury charge March 20 in Albemarle Circuit Court, C-VILLE Weekly reporter Samantha Baars was in Charlottesville General District Court, where a deputy handed her a subpoena to appear as a witness for Kessler. Aside from First Amendment […]
Double negative: Judge dismisses racial profiling suit against Albemarle cop
On the second day of a jury trial against Detective Andrew Holmes for racial profiling in his stops of black motorists—the first of five such suits—plaintiffs’ attorney Jeff Fogel rested his case around noon March 22, and Judge Norman Moon ordered it tossed because Fogel did not prove Holmes treated white people differently. “There is […]
Hitting the books with incoming UVA President Jim Ryan
You can tell a lot about a man from the books he reads. C-VILLE checked in with UVA’s President-elect Jim Ryan to get a peek at his bookshelf ahead of his sold-out Virginia Festival of the Book talk on Saturday, “Life’s Essential Questions: A Conversation with Jim Ryan.” Let’s just say that Thomas Jefferson figured […]
Mission-driven: Khizr Khan sticks to his principles
It was love at first sight. Khizr Khan remembers the moment he discovered America’s founding documents as a 22-year-old law student in Pakistan. A shaft of sunlight flooded his room as he read the Declaration of Independence in its entirety, not even bothering to sit down. Little did the law student in Lahore dream he […]
Wrongful delay: Virginia continues to victimize Robert Davis
It wasn’t enough that a wrongful conviction took nearly 13 years of Robert Davis’ life. Now, two years after he was released from prison and more than a year after then-Governor Terry McAuliffe granted him a full pardon, the General Assembly is stalled in a budget war that threatens to hose Davis’ state-mandated compensation. Delegate […]
Goodwin motions denied in DeAndre Harris attacks
An Arkansas man whose own attorney admits he kicked DeAndre Harris in the Market Street Garage August 12 filed two motions to exclude evidence of the brutal beating because he claimed the serious injuries to Harris happened before the kicks. Jacob Goodwin, 23, of Ward, Arkansas, was arrested in November and charged with malicious wounding, […]
Budget boon: Part-time councilors want full-time staffers
One sign of a healthy economy is when local government adds new positions, and Charlottesville City Manager Maurice Jones has several in his proposed $179 million budget for fiscal year 2019, including 2.5 full-time positions to help city councilors with policy and communications. That $225,000 allocation adds a new research and policy employee and gives […]
Tarps off: Statue lawsuit looks headed to trial
In the latest court hearing on the lawsuit stemming from City Council’s vote a year ago to remove the statue of General Robert E. Lee, the tarps covering Lee and his Confederate general buddy, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, weren’t the main reason for the court date. But the judge’s ruling that the shrouds must come down […]
Punitive damages: Huguely must reveal trust funds to estate of Yeardley Love
Nearly eight years after a UVA fourth-year died at the hands of her on-again off-again boyfriend a couple of weeks before graduation in 2010, lawyers representing the family of Yeardley Love were back in court February 22, and a judge granted their motion to compel George Huguely to reveal any trust funds to which he’s […]
DOA: Gun safety bills die in subcommittee
Andy Goddard has been going to the General Assembly since 2008, the year after his son was shot four times in the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre. In his 11th year monitoring the legislature and how it deals with mass murders and guns, not much has changed. “It’s the same old thing,” says Goddard, who’s the […]
Steven Meeks has left the building
The controversial president of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society abruptly resigned February 11 after cleaning out his office in the city-owned McIntire Building. In a “hastily written note,” says Will Lyster, a historical society director, Steven G. Meeks resigned from the organization he’s headed for about a decade. The board asked Lyster to step in […]
First brush with the law: Know your rights when encountering police
Let’s just go ahead and get the obligatory warning out of the way: Don’t do illegal stuff. But we know that some of you will, and when you encounter police, at least be aware of your rights so you don’t get yourself in more trouble than you’re already in. For legal advice, we consulted attorney […]
High school beat: Newspaper editors share the real stories
What’s it like to be a teenager in 2018? We figured nobody’s better plugged in than newspaper editors, so we checked in with the editors at Charlottesville High and Western Albemarle, as well as a CHS junior. Here’s what we learned about the differences between city and county schools—and what they have in common. Olivia […]
Traumatized teens deal with aftermath of horrific events
Young people in Parkland, Florida, are dealing with an unspeakable act that killed 17 people and destroyed countless lives and feelings of safety in their daily routines, much like what students in Charlottesville had to cope with at the beginning of the school year after the August 12 white supremacist invasion left three dead and […]
Danger zone: Mom on a mission after soccer practice sends son to E.R.
Patrick Clancy, his brother Ryan and nine other teens went to an 8am soccer practice at Monticello High School on an artificial turf field July 21, the second day of a National Weather Service heat advisory. The two-hour practice ended around 10am, when the heat advisory officially kicked in. By 11:30am, Patrick was in the […]
West2nd smackdown: Council rejects permit despite meeting city requirements
When Mayor Nikuyah Walker chaired her first City Council meeting February 5, citizens got to see how previously out-of-control meetings would be run under a new regime—and learned that the heckling continues both for councilors and for the West2nd developer seeking a special use permit that was rejected for reasons that had little to do […]