Cover Stories


Blair Williamson Published on Jun 13th, 2002 0 comments Blair Williamson, 36Vice President, S.L. Williamson How does a woman end up running a paving company? “It’s a family business. I think that’s the only way someone gets into paving,” says...
Greer Wilson Published on Jun 13th, 2002 0 comments Greer Wilson, 59President, Greer and Company Ask Greer Wilson if she’s ever been discriminated against. “Oh God, yeah, everyday,” she responds. “It’s either gender or race.”Of course, Wilson is in...
Cracking the glass ceiling Published on Jun 13th, 2002 0 comments You’ve come a long way, baby– at least since Virginia Slims built an ad campaign around the notion that having their own brand of cigarettes gave women a step toward equality with men. True,...
Who's watching the kids? Published on Jun 6th, 2002 0 comments The blonde, blue-eyed middle school student arrives home from school, says hi to her mom, and then disappears in front of the computer.She seems like a typical 14-year-old who likes ‘N Sync and 98...
Track marks: These lines change lives Published on May 30th, 2002 0 comments By Wesley Hottot It is an atypically warm spring afternoon on Water Street downtown. Noise hums from the C&O Restaurant in front of the old C&O line, now part of the CSX train empire. For...
Lie down: Expert reluctantly offers safety tip Published on May 30th, 2002 0 comments You're not supposed to walk on railroad tracks, but if you’re on a high bridge and you're about to get hit by a train, safety expert Danny Gilbert advises lying very low between the rails. "It's not...
Rocky road in the valley of the bomb pop Published on May 23rd, 2002 0 comments By Eddie Dean I was coughing up dust, and so was my truck as we climbed the long gravel driveway to the sturdy white frame house high on a hill in Greene County. We had traveled many miles to get...
How'd a Dem lose? Searls speaks out Published on May 16th, 2002 0 comments Within hours of the Democrats’ first City Council defeat in 16 years, a lot of finger-pointing, self-flagellation, and speculation was going on. So why was Alexandria Searls the first local Democrat...
Did the Progress Cheat? Critics blame paper for Schilling victory Published on May 16th, 2002 0 comments Can a single newspaper article swing an entire election?Yes, according to some local critics who blame an election-day piece for Republican Rob Schilling’s City Council victory. A May 7 Daily...
Surprise indeed Published on May 16th, 2002 0 comments On election day, Republican Rob Schilling found himself getting support from unexpected quarters.As he worked the polls, a 60-something male supporter came up to him and stuffed a check in his hand,...
Kathy & Meghan Bambrey Published on May 9th, 2002 0 comments “I spent eight or nine years grieving,” says Kathy Bambrey, recalling the period following her 18-month-old daughter Meghan’s diagnosis with mental retardation. It wasn’t until doctors finally...
Jackie Shifflett & Brian Edwards Published on May 9th, 2002 0 comments It was a parent’s worst nightmare. Jackie Shifflett got up early one morning and went in to wake her six-month-old son, Brian. But she could not rouse him.“I was in total denial,” Shifflett recalls...
Emily Dreyfus & Max Walters Published on May 9th, 2002 0 comments It’s 11:30am on a recent Friday, and the tables in the Venable Elementary School cafeteria are packed tight with kindergartners having lunch. Sitting amid the happy chaos, a small brown-eyed blonde...
Farewell to furry friends Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments The idea struck Melba Atkinson in 1998, when it came time to euthanize her 15-year-old Yellow Lab, Daisy. “It was our second pet to die in a year, and we had three more that were coming along,”...
Confessions of a law-abiding dog owner Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments I’ll admit it: when the city passed a leash law, I was as frustrated as all the other dog owners who’d enjoyed regular off-leash walks or runs down the Rivanna Greenbelt. Taking a well-behaved but...
Snack attack Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments Local dogs have never had it so good when it comes to dining. Sammy Snacks, a natural pet food and biscuit company run by Pamela Peterson since 1999, operates right here in town in a six-month-old...
All things pawssible Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments When Ann Suddarth adopted her dog Zoe from the SPCA last summer, she had no idea the trial she was in for. “She’s the most difficult dog I’ve ever had,” Suddarth says of the 50-...
New leash on life Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments The issue was almost too hot for local authorities to handle, pitting neighbor against neighbor and drawing throngs of angry citizens to City Council meetings. What had people so fired up? Taxes?...
New leash on life: Dog walkers learn to live with the law Published on Apr 25th, 2002 0 comments PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO The issue was almost too hot for local authorities to handle, pitting neighbor against neighbor and drawing throngs of angry citizens to City Council meetings. What had people...
Explosive words Published on Apr 18th, 2002 0 comments By Hawes Spencer and Barbara Nordin When the indictment was handed down last week by a Charlottesville grand jury in the 1996 murders of two women in Shenandoah National Park, a fearful period in...
Spinning trouble Published on Apr 11th, 2002 0 comments By Bill Ramsey Try to remember a time when commercial radio stations didn’t sound the same, from town to town, up and down the dial. If you long for the days when deejays played requests and when...
Waiting for Bodo Published on Mar 28th, 2002 0 comments 1995 was a big year for Charlottesville. Emily Couric won her first State Senate election. Christopher Reeve became UVA Hospital’s star patient. Our beloved Wahoos toppled #2 Florida State in an epic...
FICTION WINNER- 'Neighbors' Published on Mar 21st, 2002 1 comments By Murray Dunlap The apartment door clicking shut wakes me. Charlotte walks in, smoking. She drops her cigarette into a beer bottle on the nightstand and lifts her gray sweater up and over her...
Work at home Published on Mar 7th, 2002 0 comments Who hasn’t seen those signs? At 29 North and Hydraulic one tantalizingly offers: “Work at home. Part time $1,500, full time $5,000.” The bait is even tastier over near Foods of All Nations, this one...
Mark Linkous sparkles: The life (and short death) of a legend Published on Feb 28th, 2002 0 comments Mark Linkous is somewhere in the darkened recording booth, but the only thing I can see in the blackness is my own shadow, cast by the light streaming in the entrance. “Could you shut the door...
6 Democrats, 2 City Council Seats Published on Feb 21st, 2002 0 comments The Democratic Nominating Convention meets on Saturday, February 23, to elect two candidates to run for City Council in May. Who are the men and women who have thrown their hats into the ring, and...
Unloaded: What a long strange trip it's been Published on Feb 2nd, 2002 0 comments If we told you that not too far from here, in a typical Albemarle County farmhouse on a typical small-town street, with a wife and two kids, four dogs, a spreadwing American eagle over the garage...
COVER- Where's the pork? The rise and fall of the Hogwaller name Published on Jan 1st, 2020 0 comments PHOTO BY WILLIAM WALKER "Fifty-five dollars, 55, 55," the auctioneer barks, "54, 53, 52, 51– do I have 50?" Pipe smoke occasionally drifts through the thick...
COVER- SAVE McIntire... from what? Published on Jan 1st, 2020 11 comments Unofficial McIntire golf course groundskeeper Sandy Gray insists the golf community welcomes sharing the 74-acre course with any interested party– as long as golf can remain.PHOTO BY WILL...