John Hall has run for City Council before. He’s also been banned from City Hall back in the early aughts because of behavior that caused then-city manager Gary O’Connell concern, such as showing up at City Council wrapped in foil, according to former councilor Rob Schilling. Hall plans to launch another run for council February […]
Around 100 of Charlottesville’s Democratic establishment packed Bashir’s January 15 for defense attorney Lloyd Snook’s launch into the race for City Council. Snook cited “dysfunction at the top” of city government as the impetus for joining the race. “There are things that are going on in the city that I want to be a part […]
New birds on the block A red-breasted nuthatch in central Virginia? You gotta be kidding! Turns out that an unusually large number of irruptive bird species—or species that normally breed in northern boreal forests and sometimes migrate south when their food supply runs out—are wintering in our neck of the woods this year, according to […]
It wasn’t your typical launch party. Supporters of local activists Don Gathers and Michael Payne gathered at Kardinal Hall January 8 for the official tossing of the hats into this year’s City Council races. But Gathers made a different kind of announcement: A doctor’s visit three hours earlier [...]
Perriello’s Sierra Leone rescue A desperate mother needed to get her 5-year-old daughter out of Sierra Leone in 2003, and asked a stranger at the airport to take her child to her grandmother in the U.S. Fifteen years later, Zee Sesay learned that the man who brought her daughter to safety was [...]
In the wake of recent U.N. and U.S. government reports on the catastrophic environmental damage already attributable to climate change, the City of Charlottesville has been challenged to divest from investments in the fossil fuels industry. Local activist Michael Payne proposed several steps [...]
Using ACA insurance? Read this first Yes, the Affordable Care Marketplace is still here, and sign-up ends December 15. Counselors at the Jefferson Area Board for Aging have seen a few surprises in the process, and want residents to be aware they could face some unpleasant results if they simply [...]
County boots Trump chicken Albemarle County said the state of emergency declared for the August 11-12 weekend was still in effect after Indivisible Charlottesville brought an inflatable chicken with a Trump-like coif to its August 28 Flip the 5th demonstration in front of the County Office [...]
In sharp contrast to an August 13 press conference, in which 18 officials representing public safety agencies thanked and congratulated each other for a job well done over the August 12 anniversary weekend, city councilors heard a different assessment the next night. Around three dozen citizens [...]
After more than a week of heated exchanges between city councilors and Mayor Nikuyah Walker over the hiring of an interim city manager, there was 10 minutes of public notice before a 3-0 vote in closed session at 1:15pm resulted in Assistant City Manager Mike Murphy taking the job effective [...]
New chief takes oath As the city’s first-ever female police chief RaShall Brackney was sworn in June 18, she said we should all be saddened “in 2018, that my gender is a topic of conversation.” The former George Washington University chief and Pittsburgh police commander of 35 years said on her [...]
Mayor Nikuyah Walker announced this afternoon that the city will not renew City Manager Maurice Jones’ contract, which ends December 7. She said an earlier separation date could be mutually agreed on. “In the life of any healthy organization, it is important to be able to recognize [...]
And stay out! Six militia groups and their leaders named in a lawsuit aimed at preventing white supremacist and paramilitary organizations from showing their mugs around Charlottesville again have settled, agreeing they won’t engage in coordinated armed activity in any of the city’s future [...]
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 [...]
Out of order Everyone was ordered out of City Council chambers when the April 2 meeting spiraled out of control following public comments from Unite the Right organizer Jason Kessler and Confederate statue shroud-rippers Brian Lambert and Chris Wayne. In a closed session, councilors sought [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Over the weekend, unknown persons three times did what plaintiffs in a lawsuit against City Council want done: removed the tarps covering statues of Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson. Almost exactly a year after City Council voted 3-2 to remove the statues on February 6, [...]
The second City Council meeting of the new year on January 16 was markedly different from council meetings of the past year: no interruptions, no yelling and no profanities, behavior that suspended 2018’s first meeting two weeks ago. Newly elected Vice-Mayor Heather Hill ran the meeting in the [...]
The Downtown Mall is not faring well, at least according to the Downtown Business Association of Charlottesville, which wants the city to pump up the maintenance and provide DBAC with $250,000 for advertising, staff, rent and holiday lighting. Business in the entire city of Charlottesville [...]
The first meeting of the new City Council January 2 went into uncharted territory with formerly behind-the-scenes decisions—the new mayor and vice mayor—made publicly, and for some on the dais, uncomfortably. New councilors Nikuyah Walker and Heather Hill were elected mayor and vice [...]
Three days before the November 7 election, the Daily Progress ran a story on independent candidate Nikuyah Walker with the headline, “Emails show Walker’s aggressive approach.” Her supporters have gone ballistic on social media over the story. The article describes dozens of emails Walker has [...]
Big John’s run Fewer than two weeks before the November 7 election, veterans advocate John Miska launched a write-in campaign for Albemarle supervisor in the Rio District, where Dem Ned Gallaway is uncontested. Miska says he’s running as a conservative because he hates to see just one person on [...]