Essays


A Virginia DUI story: Know your rights Published on Mar 4th, 2013 28 comments By André HakesCHAPTER ONE: It's 11:00pm and you're on your way back from dinner. You are pulled over for a check point, speeding, or a taillight out. The officer walks up to your car shining the...
Children: Adorable environmental disasters Published on Feb 21st, 2013 53 comments By Jeff Feldman On March 25, 2012 my wife Kristin and I made a lifestyle choice, which, by all accounts, will have the most egregious...
Self-reflection: Are you a workplace bully? Published on Feb 14th, 2013 22 comments By Hilary HolladayOver the past five years, I’ve given a lot of thought to workplace bullying. I moved 650 miles, back home to Virginia, to escape a bully at my old job. I have friends who have been...
Up and armed: A day at the gun show Published on Feb 7th, 2013 23 comments By Wick Hunt I anticipate that a trip to the Fishersville Gun and Knife show on January 27 at the Augusta Expo will be a visual, and therefore photographic, cornucopia so I arrive armed with my Nikon...
Road to nowhere: Western Bypass must be stopped Published on Feb 6th, 2013 15 comments By James E. Rich The General Assembly is currently considering proposals to raise significant new revenues for transportation in the Commonwealth. Many hardworking Virginians live paycheck to...
Senator Henry Marsh's big day Published on Jan 31st, 2013 6 comments Blogger Waldo Jaquith was at the Virginia State Capitol on Monday, January 21, when Republican senators passed a controversial redistricting bill. This is his account of the day. Today was a big day...
Surgeon's decree: Gun control a public health issue Published on Jan 24th, 2013 205 comments By Sara K. Rasmussen Last month, our country endured an unspeakable horror when elementary school students in Newtown, Connecticut, became the victims of one of the most heinous gun rampages that our...
Road to ruin: Cutting gas tax a disastrous plan Published on Jan 18th, 2013 11 comments The first rule of holes is when you find yourself in one, quit digging. Virginia Governor Robert McDonnell’s response to flagging revenues for transportation, however, is to grab a jack hammer. His...
View, interrupted: It's unneighborly to start a row Published on Jan 10th, 2013 59 comments Oh, you should have seen me. It was a double-take right out of vaudeville. (Had I been drinking from my water bottle, I guarantee it would have been a spit-take.) As I skidded to a flailing stop on...
Somewhere in America Published on Dec 28th, 2012 14 comments By Hilary Holladay Somewhere in America, as I write this, you sit hunched over a laptop in your family’s basement planning a rampage. You are male and young—eighteen, nineteen, maybe twenty. You are...
Skipping town: Where should I put all my stuff? Published on Dec 20th, 2012 18 comments By Lucy Sankey Russell It is hard to leave Charlottesville after living here with my family for over 18 years. Friends and teachers, colleagues and classmates, neighbors and students, doctors...
Old bizes: The other people of the year Published on Dec 11th, 2012 2 comments It would be easy to say that Monticello is the oldest business in town. Easy, but wrong if continuous operation counts. From 1831-1923, the place was more of a private dwelling than it was...
Let there be light: How I conquered the dark days Published on Dec 3rd, 2012 11 comments Can money buy happiness, a sense of self-worth, optimism? I was counting on it, looking for happiness in a box, the one that had just landed on my back porch. It was late November, and my joie de...
Seeking mom: In the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy Published on Nov 28th, 2012 5 comments By Cora Schenberg Every day for two weeks following Hurricane Sandy, I try and fail to get a call through to my eighty-two-year-old mother, who lives on Long Island with her eighty-four-year old...
Survey says: What if money can buy happiness? Published on Nov 15th, 2012 12 comments "Everybody wants more cash!" declares Capital One bankcard TV pitchman Jimmy Fallon. Except for the cute baby, that is, who throws Cheerios at Fallon when he offers 50 percent more cash back. Perhaps...
Sullivan's extension: And other things out of Dragas' control Published on Nov 13th, 2012 75 comments After a student protest of its Board of Visitors was quashed last week, people across America are wondering what the heck is wrong with the University of Virginia. Related: Transparency now:...
Flex time: Raise (and lower) the speed limits Published on Nov 5th, 2012 6 comments By Greg Beato In the wide open plains of central Texas, a new addition to State Highway 130 has just opened for business with a compelling marketing hook: Its speed limit of 85 MPH is the highest in...
Photo attachment: Have memories slipped away with pictures? Published on Nov 1st, 2012 12 comments I’ve been dreading the phone call. It came this morning. Not good news. I have to keep reminding myself: Nobody has a tumor. Nobody’s sick. There’s no funeral to attend.And still, I want to howl. I...
25th time's the charm: An exuberant eye for the Film Festival Published on Oct 25th, 2012 0 comments The 25th annual Virginia Film Festival will take place November 1-4. I have been blessed to watch it from the beginning. On October 27th, 1988, The Virginia Festival of American Film opened in...
Spiraling down: Why the Bypass will wreck Albemarle Published on Oct 19th, 2012 18 comments The Taxpayers for Common Sense, in an October report subtitled "Two trillion in common sense cuts to avoid the fiscal cliff," calls the Charlottesville Western Bypass a financial boondoggle: ...
Power viewing: The 10 best political movies Published on Oct 9th, 2012 7 comments By Nathan Spicer Note: We picked this week's essay because Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are coming to the Virginia Film Festival to introduce the film of their Watergate scoops, All the President...
E pluribus me: I harbor hidden hordes Published on Oct 2nd, 2012 4 comments I thought I was a rugged individualist. Turns out, I’m not even an individual. And any ruggedness I may possess doesn’t arise from me. While browsing around on science news websites a few days ago, I...
UVA June: Dragas just a tool in right-wing 'reform' Published on Sep 26th, 2012 97 comments By Peter Gunter Three months after Teresa Sullivan was fired and rehired as President of the University of Virginia, concerned people are still searching for an explanation to what seemed like a rash...
Freezing eggs: The path to female reproductive equality Published on Sep 14th, 2012 3 comments More and more women are waiting until they are older to have children. Why? Because they are building their careers and waiting for Mr. Right. But what if Mr. Right fails to come along before they...
Ayn Rand: Her detractors miss her stellar vision Published on Sep 7th, 2012 31 comments Ayn Rand, the Russian-born writer and self-styled philosopher who died three decades ago, is back in the news as a favorite author of Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan.   In recent...
R-E-S-P-E-C-T, Find out what it means to me Published on Aug 31st, 2012 32 comments Girlfriend, we need to talk. These guys in your life– they’re no good for you. It’s time to cut them loose. Remember what Maya Angelou said about people like this? “When a man tells you who he...
Disturbing legacy: Race still affects Virginia's death penalty Published on Aug 26th, 2012 7 comments By King Salim Khalfani and Stephen A. Northup According to the most recent polling data, public support for the death penalty is at its lowest level in decades. Four states have ended capital...
President Sullivan: Still getting bullied by Dragas Published on Aug 21st, 2012 47 comments By J. Anderson Thomson University of Virginia president Teresa Sullivan has broken her silence on the controversy that consumed most of June and which continues to pervade the institution. She may...
Saving themselves: Teens practice abstinence... on driver's licenses Published on Aug 14th, 2012 10 comments By Jim Motavalli The evidence is in, and it's not just my license-free 18-year-old daughter. The percentage of young people with licenses is definitely going down. Previous essays by this author...
Post derecho: I realize I'm the eco-catastrophe Published on Aug 3rd, 2012 17 comments My name is Janis, and I’m an addict. No, not heroin or cocaine or meth. This is worse than a drug. With a drug addiction, you can tell yourself that the only person you’re putting in peril is...