What do Johnny Depp, California Congressman Devin Nunes, and Confederate statue defender Edward Tayloe II all have in common? This year, they all filed defamation lawsuits in Virginia. Depp sued his ex-wife Amber Heard for allegedly defaming him in a Washington Post op-ed in which she wrote about being a victim of domestic violence. Nunes […]
By Alexis Gravely Christa Bennett is no stranger to community advocacy. After earning a master’s degree from King’s College London in international relations with a focus on human rights, she directed an organization focused on ending the genocide in Sudan. She’s worked on community development projects in Rwanda and lobbied the British Parliament. Since moving […]
Amy Brudin has always been a gamer. She grew up playing games like Myst and Doom, back when computers were “way less cool than they are now.” And today, she loves playing games on her phone. So when Brudin, director of educational technology at the Peabody School, first learned about esports—the world of team-based competitive […]
Making space: City Council approves land purchase for downtown parking lot Late Monday evening, City Council voted unanimously to purchase Albemarle County’s portion of the 701 E. Market St. lot, where it plans to build a new, 300-car parking garage. The $1.28 million purchase—half of the land’s appraised value—is part of an agreement between the city […]
On November 19, 2014, Rolling Stone magazine dropped a bombshell called “A Rape on Campus: A Brutal Assault and Struggle for Justice at UVA.” Written by Sabrina Rubin Erdely, the article alleged that a UVA student named Jackie was gang raped at a party by members of the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity in 2012, and […]
Today, the day after Thanksgiving, I am praying for Gladys the emu. A lapsed Catholic, I haven’t been a churchgoer for years. But praying to St. Francis for the safe return of Gladys, for her reunion with her brother Floyd and sister Mabel at their home 10 miles south of Charlottesville, and for the peace […]
The city of Charlottesville wasn’t incorporated until 1888, but people are recorded as living in the region as far back as 1612, when English explorer John Smith encountered a Monacan village and documented it on the very first map of Virginia. The Native Americans gradually left as European immigrants moved in, relying on the Three […]
“Finally.” That was the first word tweeted on a Twitter account for Jens Soering November 25, the day he learned he and former girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom had been granted parole, 34 years after the savage murders of her parents, Derek and Nancy Haysom. Upon their release, Soering, 53, and Haysom, 55, will be turned over […]
Untold stories “There’s a whole story of black Charlottesville that no one knows about,” Tanesha Hudson narrates over the opening sequence of her film A Legacy Unbroken: The Story of Black Charlottesville. The documentary premiered in front of a sold-out crowd at the Jefferson School African American Heritage Center on Saturday. Hudson has been working […]
The Charlottesville Department of Social Services oversees a broad array of programs; everything from Child Protective Services to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Medicaid, and more. In its November 18 annual report to City Council, the department’s advisory board highlighted some of the complicated challenges CDSS faces, along with its dedication to internal improvement. Medicaid […]
Rain check Planning Commission delays form-based code proposal After much debate, the City Planning Commission has decided to table its plans to introduce an alternative kind of zoning, called form-based code, to the city’s Strategic Investment Area south of downtown. Unlike conventional zoning, form-based code focuses on the physical form and scale of buildings in […]
For Lillian Mezey, installing solar panels on the roof of her family’s home wasn’t just about saving money—“We just care a lot about environmental issues,” Mezey says. That’s part of the reason Mezey was so frustrated when the homeowners association that governs her neighborhood rejected her request to install the panels. Mezey, a psychiatrist at […]
Rose Ann Abrahamson has seen nearly every depiction of her ancestor Sacajawea in the United States. “This statue in Charlottesville is the worst we have ever seen,” she told City Council at a meeting on November 15, referring to the statue of Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea on West Main Street. The imposing monument depicts the […]
On their own terms “If you have a dream, and you focus on it, and you work hard, your dream will come true one day,” Bushiri Salumu told a small crowd assembled at Piedmont Virginia Community College on Thursday, November 7. He spoke from experience: Salumu lost family members to the civil war in his […]
Before Bradley Shaun Dorman left his Charlottesville home the morning of October 25, he told his mother he was going to look for a job. He would be back in a few hours, in time to bathe their dog Gater. Several hours later, his mother, Annette Simmons, heard a knock at her door. She opened […]
By Alexis Gravely All of the nearly 50 students at the Renaissance School have their own mailbox in the front office. But as the teens walk into the Charlottesville private school every day, they’re not dropping papers into them—they’re dropping their cell phones. The students can check their phones between classes and have them at […]
Governor Ralph Northam declared Virginia “officially blue” following Tuesday’s election that gave Democrats control of both houses in the General Assembly for the first time in 26 years. And Dems swept Albemarle County, taking the Board of Supervisors, commonwealth’s attorney, and sheriff races. Yet the local House of Delegates races resulted in no upsets and […]
A new plan for Starr Hill Since last spring, the New Hill Development Corporation has been working on a Small Area Plan to guide development in the Starr Hill area, which runs from Preston Avenue to the CSX Railroad along West Main Street. On November 4, the African American-led nonprofit, which was awarded $500,000 to […]
By Ben Hitchcock “I feel like I’ve been training for this one job for 30 years,” said Coy Barefoot when he took over as executive director of the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society in April of 2018. In an interview with ilovecville.com, the local author and media personality expressed his desire to rebrand the organization and […]
Tamera Mason, an EMT working at Augusta Health’s emergency room in Staunton, lives with a life-threatening medical condition: In July 2015, a yellow jacket’s sting set off an extreme autoimmune reaction that devastated her hormonal systems and caused Addison’s disease, which affects the adrenal glands’ ability to produce cortisol. When Mason’s body goes into Addisonian […]
By Spencer Philps The opening of the Dairy Central apartment, retail, and office complex, slated for May 2020, is likely to bring more traffic to one of Charlottesville’s most confusing and dangerous intersections. According to development materials on the Dairy Central website, Preston Avenue, a primary link between US 29 and downtown, sees about 39,000 […]
By Ali Sullivan The story is all too familiar: Media corporation buys local newspaper, budget cuts ensue, and seasoned journalists lose their jobs. The staff at the Daily Progress doesn’t want to be next. Murmurs of unionizing began in January, and the formal announcement came on October 14. The Progress staff has formed a union—the […]
Nearly two years after appointing the initial Police Civilian Review Board, Charlottesville City Council inched closer to making a permanent oversight board a reality at their October 21 meeting, with a first reading of the CRB’s ordinance and bylaws. But members of the initial CRB were not pleased, saying councilors had severely weakened the proposal […]