‘Big deal’: Nearly 5,000 locals eligible for coverage with Medicaid expansion
Mary Linn Bergstrom was in Boston over Memorial Day when she got a really bad, eyes-swollen-shut case of poison ivy. “I had to wait to go to the doctor until I had enough money in the bank,” says the 38-year-old Nia instructor. Bergstrom is one of almost 5,000 people in Charlottesville and Albemarle who will […]
Free swim—pool scholarships get kids in water
Darnell Lamont Walker was surprised when he went to Washington Park Pool in 2013 and it cost $6 to get in. “I remember when it was 50 cents,” he says. Since then, Walker, who now lives in New York and is a writer for “Sesame Street,” has been raising money to send kids to Charlottesville’s […]
Pipeline parallels? Eminent domain: the movie
One of the least popular Supreme Court decisions this century would have to be Kelo v. New London, a case that resulted in 45 states, including Virginia, passing laws or, in the Old Dominion’s case, constitutional amendments to prevent the seizing of private property to benefit other private owners under the guise of economic development. […]
Warrant required: Supreme Court ruling in Albemarle case bolsters Fourth Amendment
Ryan Collins already was on the radar of Albemarle police in 2013 after he eluded officers on two separate occasions on a flashy orange and black motorcycle. Five years later on May 29, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld his argument 8-1 that police needed a warrant to search for the bike outside his girlfriend’s house […]
The taxman cometh—and wants list of stored vehicles
Personal property taxes are due June 5, and the city has stepped up its efforts to locate vehicles that reside in Charlottesville, even if their owners don’t. Woolen Mills Storage received a request from Commissioner of the Revenue Todd Divers to provide a list of vehicles stored there. “If a vehicle is parked here on […]
Confronting a shameful past: Search for 1898 lynching site narrows
As big a role as history plays in Charlottesville’s identity, some events, like an 1898 lynching, were pretty much buried or forgotten until Jane Smith was doing historical research and going through old issues of the Daily Progress in 2013. She happened upon this July 12, 1898, headline: “He paid the awful penalty: John Henry […]
Tinsley ouster: DMB claims it didn’t know about alleged predatory behavior
In a move that has Charlottesville and the music world reeling, the Dave Matthews Band parted ways with longtime violinist Boyd Tinsley, 54, late May 17 following an explosive story that detailed a lawsuit against Tinsley for alleged sexual assault, harassment and long-term grooming. Tinsley has denied the allegations in an online music news site […]
UPDATED: Tinsley denies sexual harassment allegations that led to DMB firing
Original headline Tinsley fired: DMB claims it didn’t know about alleged predatory behavior In a move that has Charlottesville and the music world reeling, the Dave Matthews Band fired longtime violinist Boyd Tinsley, 54, late last night following an explosive story in online music news site Consequence of Sound that detailed a lawsuit against Tinsley […]
‘Complicit’: Pilgrimage acknowledges Charlottesville’s legacy of lynching
The lynching of John Henry James in Albemarle in 1898 for allegedly assaulting a white woman was both horrific—and all too common in the era of Jim Crow. More than 4,400 black men and women were the victims of domestic racial terrorism between 1877 and 1950, according to the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, […]
Top choice: Charlottesville hires first female police chief
Two years ago, City Manager Maurice Jones announced the hiring of Al Thomas, Charlottesville’s first African-American police chief, who abruptly resigned 20 months later on December 18 following a scathing independent review of the handling of the violent events of August 11-12. Today, Jones introduced his latest police chief pick: former George Washington University chief […]
Bird watch: Intoxicated cedar waxwings slam into CHS
You can tell it’s spring when the birds return—and start crashing into the windows at Charlottesville High while drunk on Japanese pagoda tree berries. Avid birder Walker Catlett, 17, a junior at CHS, saw cedar waxwings flying into windows, and so far has documented at least eight dead and others stunned from soaring into the […]
Preston’s plea: Imperial wizard says no contest to firing gun
Baltimore’s imperial wizard of the Confederate White Knights of the KKK did not appear in court wearing his shiny Klan robes. He didn’t wear the prison stripes from previous appearances, nor did he wear the bandana and tactical vest he sported August 12 when he was videoed firing a Ruger SR9 toward flamethrower-brandishing Corey Long. […]
Pantops gets new rescue station—finally
Growth area Pantops, with its increased density and worsening traffic, has long needed a fire and rescue station, and one has been on the books maybe dating back to Thomas Jefferson, joked Albemarle Fire Rescue Chief Dan Eggleston at the official opening May 7 of Pantops Public Safety Station No. 16. Certainly the station has […]
Guilty again: Ramos second person convicted in garage assault
In the second trial of the week for the brutal August 12 attack on DeAndre Harris, a jury deliberated 35 minutes before entering a second guilty verdict May 3 for an out-of-towner here for the Unite the Right rally. Georgia resident Alex Michael Ramos, 34, sat expressionless through most of the two-day trial […]
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 […]