Cover Stories


Live and outside: Festivals rock all summer Published on Apr 24th, 2013 1 comments What would summer be without outdoor music festivals? A lot less fun, that's what. You don't have to go far to find festivals large and small, and Charlottesville acts are on the bill at most of...
DIY music: Get out there and sing it! Published on Apr 24th, 2013 0 comments Think you've got what it takes to thrill an audience? Charlottesville has some fun ways that those with musical aspirations–– but without a back-up band or regular gig–– can take to the stage. Sam...
Full circle: Music Resource Center launches careers, collaboration Published on Apr 18th, 2013 0 comments It's a Thursday afternoon, and Music Resource Center Outreach Coordinator Damani Harrison is in the Center's state of the art sound studio with a group of high school boys recording a radio show. "...
Under fire: Is the Elks Lodge getting a bad rap? Published on Apr 18th, 2013 31 comments After working a long shift as a chef at the Main Street Arena on Friday, March 15, Kenny Jenkins headed over to the Elks Lodge on Second Street NW for a drink and a dance with his fiancée. A longtime...
Can Anyone Stop Ken Cuccinelli? Here's how Virginia's pro-life, pro-gun attorney general could take over the Governor's Mansion. Published on Apr 11th, 2013 31 comments by Peter GaluszkaIt is a wintry afternoon on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2014. Strutting against a cobalt blue sky, a fife and drum corps dressed in resplendent red and blue colonial garb plays martial airs...
Launching dreams: Nguyen's bringing the biz to small business Published on Apr 4th, 2013 3 comments When Toan Nguyen first conceived of a local microlending program similar to ones that have been successful in developing countries, people scoffed. "They said $5,000 is too little to start a business...
Fat secret: Peirce-Cottler seeks cures from saddlebags Published on Apr 4th, 2013 3 comments One doctor's trash is another's treasure– at least that's the case for UVA biomedical engineer Shayn Peirce-Cottler, whose use of liposuction leftovers in her research is helping improve...
Moves that bind: Katie Schetlick finds connections through dance Published on Apr 4th, 2013 0 comments We fidget as we sit, we walk, we run and dance—we’re all in constant motion. But how often do we think of it as something that we share with others, something that links us together? Katie Schetlick...
Animal matters: Sahar Akhtar on the morals of animal treatment Published on Apr 4th, 2013 4 comments UVA professor of philosophy Sahar Akhtar's class "Animals and Ethics" is a popular one. "Students now want to know what the justifications are for treating animals in certain ways," says Akhtar, "...
Love thy neighbor: Pastor Greg Thompson brings back the beloved community Published on Apr 4th, 2013 0 comments Greg Thompson wants us to learn to love each other, even if we have deep differences, and not just because he's a pastor at a local Presbyterian church and Jesus said love thy neighbor and all that,...
Likely to inspire: Bob Pianta innovates teacher quality Published on Apr 4th, 2013 2 comments Bob Pianta isn't afraid to say he has no idea what the classroom of the future will look like. Coming from the dean of UVA's Curry School of Education and a nationally-lauded builder of better...
Beyer's market: Innovation rules at Tom Tom Published on Apr 4th, 2013 0 comments Stopping by the Hook office two weeks before the second Tom Tom Founders Day Festival kicks off on April 11, it's clear festival organizer Paul Beyer is a busy man. In addition to putting the...
Rotunda to Rivanna: the future of our urban core Published on Mar 28th, 2013 15 comments Like the palm of your hand, our city, if you were to look at it from high in the sky, has a similar pattern of lines that time has carved out. One of those lines, running east to west from the...
Fiction contest winner: 'The Cliff' Published on Mar 21st, 2013 3 comments By Charles McRavenThey rode in as if they owned the place, and within five minutes, they did. Thirty Union soldiers, commanded by a captain, spreading out over the farm, posting sentries. ...
John Carlos: The silence heard round the world Published on Mar 21st, 2013 0 comments When John Carlos was a seven- or eight-year-old growing up in Harlem, he had a vision of that moment on the victory stand in Mexico City at the 1968 Olympics, even down to using his left hand rather...
The write stuff: Meet the winners! Published on Mar 21st, 2013 1 comments Writing takes discipline, to be sure– just ask the Hook's famed contest judge John Grisham, who spends hours every single day at the keyboard, and has more than two dozen best sellers to his...
Virginia is for book lovers: 10 hot book fest picks Published on Mar 14th, 2013 2 comments You can go seeking knowledge. You can go to gaze upon a literary idol. You can go desiring bons mots. Or maybe you just go to have fun– along with all that other stuff. Whatever your...
Opinion: Dumler bashing's out of control Published on Mar 7th, 2013 183 comments By Marlene Condon I don't know Chris Dumler. But I do know that the community's response to his sexual battery conviction could have come right out of Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter....
County in crisis: Dumler digs in as outrage mounts Published on Mar 6th, 2013 30 comments More than a month after Scottsville Supervisor Chris Dumler pleaded guilty to sexual battery and steadfastly refused to resign from the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, igniting a firestorm that's...
Tragedy on the tracks: Mystery surrounds death of Kimberly Welch Published on Feb 28th, 2013 21 comments Two weeks after 18-year-old Kimberly Welch was killed by a train on the tracks just east of Charlottesville city limits, details about the teen's tumultuous life on the streets are emerging as her...
Bell-wether: Will Rob be our next AG? Published on Feb 21st, 2013 15 comments Rob Bell is drinking a Slim-fast in his corner seventh-floor office in Richmond. It's 10:40am and the delegate has already been to two committee meetings. The Slimfast isn't a weight-loss solution...
We Love This Place: Let us count the ways Published on Feb 14th, 2013 24 comments We Love This PlaceWhether you arrived in Charlottesville by plane, train, or birth canal, or if you've been here just a few days, you know there are few places as rich in resources both natural and...
Rect-urrection: How will Dragas foes cope with her victory? Published on Feb 6th, 2013 74 comments Has there ever been a University of Virginia rector as reviled as Helen Dragas, the woman who united students, faculty, and alums in calling for her head following her failed ouster of President...
The Liar's Club: Keeping the wild history of White Hall alive Published on Jan 31st, 2013 6 comments Nazi POWs picking peaches in Crozet? Check. An Albemarle County farm boy surrounded by Ethiopian tribesmen carrying spears? Believe it. The Albemarle County area called White Hall might not look like...
The session: What local legislators are up to in Richmond Published on Jan 24th, 2013 4 comments The 2013 Session of the Virginia State Legislature kicked off on January 9, and if last year's focus was all about probing lady parts, this year's legislators will tangle over a variety of no less...
Luckily Local: Stomachs, get ready to rumble! Published on Jan 17th, 2013 0 comments There's a running joke here in the newsroom about using "fresh ingredients" in our stories, taken from the often-used phrase in restaurant promotions, which is basically code for meaningless...
Missing: Inside the Dashad Smith investigation Published on Jan 10th, 2013 21 comments At the Preston Avenue Shell Station, a few blocks from the apartment Dashad "Sage" Smith last occupied on Harris Street, his name is familiar and his disappearance is on people's minds. "He used to...
Timeline: Tracking the Dashad Smith case Published on Jan 10th, 2013 0 comments November 20, late afternoon: Smith talks to father, Dean Smith, for 37 minutes. November 20, after 5pm: Smith leaves home without sharing the evening's plan with...
Armed ed: Should teachers be packing heat? Published on Jan 2nd, 2013 55 comments "Schools should be places of safety and sanctuary and learning. When that sanctuary is violated, the impact is felt in every American classroom and every American community."– President George...
Cliffhanger: The best-- and worst-- of 2012 Published on Dec 19th, 2012 3 comments When Mark Warner was governor, he once told the Hook the most annoying thing about Charlottesville was its belief that it is the center of the universe. Guess what? In 2012, Charlottesville was the...