As the stormclouds rolled in late on Thursday afternoon, June 24, commuters finishing work for the day may have planned on a wet ride home. They got a lot more than that as an intense three-minute storm commonly known as a “microburst” turned what should have been short drives into harrowing hours-long affairs plagued by downed trees and power lines. Unlike the much smaller June 3 microburst, however, most commuters’ nightmares didn’t end at their driveways, as 45,000 Dominion Virginia customers were rendered powerless by the storm, with some homes in the dark for as long as four days.

“This was worse than Hurricane Isabel,” says Charlottesville Fire Chief Charles Werner, noting that his department responded to 31 homes struck by trees– four more than during the remnants of Hurricane Isabel, a day-long storm event in September 2003. In the urban ring, another 15-20 houses were hit by trees, says Albemarle County Fire Chief Dan Eggleston, noting that the worst hit neighborhood was Bennington Road just off Barracks Road near Georgetown Road. (more)

Just a week after ACAC came to the rescue and announced it would fund the light bill for the Lane Babe Ruth League field on McIntire Road (after the County said it would no longer cover the expenditure), the Lane League was dealt another blow during the June 24 microburst. “During the storm one of the biggest oak trees on the hill uprooted,” writes League board member Robert Mullinax. “It fell into the light pole next to the concession stand, and both fell through the score booth/Board Room, over the fence, and down onto the field. The tree was around three feet in diameter and over one hundred feet tall. The damage is astounding.” Mullinax says that someone was in the score booth when the tree came down and narrowly escaped serious injury. Mullinax says the field was littered with parts of the oak tree, a utility pole, and broken lights. The fencing behind home plate will have to be replaced and the entire upstairs area over the concession stand will have to be rebuilt, as the score booth and file room are missing and the roof has been ripped off. The scoreboard controls, dugout phones, and sound system were also destroyed “There are pieces and parts of the building and its contents spread everywhere,” he says. The weekend after the storm the League was to begin 13-year-old All-Star games, but that has been canceled. However, the League, using other fields, was able to salvage the 14-year old Invitational and District Tournaments. According to League officials, County Parks & Rec director Tim Hughes has been to the field to assess the damage and begin filing an insurance claim. County crews will also be removing the tree. “The work will be prioritized, everyone will have a chance to help, and all will be put back in order,” says Mullinax. “And while we have always taken pride in the excellent facilities at Lane Babe Ruth, kids can play baseball without a Board Room.”

A group of local citizens staged a peaceful Sunday afternoon protest at one of Charlottesville’s BP-branded fuel stations. The group, numbering over 20 at the height of the Memorial Day event, lamented the disaster caused by BP, as crude oil continues to spew from a broken well that the mammoth company was operating in the Gulf of Mexico.

Organized by musician Brandon Collins, one half of the brash acoustic duo B.C., the protest took place at the Everyday Café at 241 Rolkin Court atop Pantops mountain.

Inside the convenience store, a clerk gave the phone number for a district manager for station owner Virginia Oil Company, but he declined comment. Outside, a customer who would give his name only as Gary took a dim view of BP— and of the protest.

“It won’t do a bit of good,” said Gary, noting that (more)

Monticello was designed for the pleasure and architectural curiosity of its owner, but as a new tour and exhibit will show, it was also designed for the enslaved workers who moved about the house relatively unseen, serving food, changing linens, and emptying chamber pots.

On Tuesday, May 25, Monticello boss Leslie Greene Bowman and staff gave the press a sneak peek at rooms that have never been opened to the public. It’s all part of a new “behind the scenes” tour that will launch June 11, accompanied by a new exhibit in the cellar level called “Crossroads,” all to shed light on the intersections between Jefferson, his family and guests, and the enslaved workers.

“We’re trying to make Monticello a more lively and entertaining experience,” says Susan Stein, Monticello’s senior curator.

Indeed, during Tuesday’s tour, reporters were led through the cellar complex to the to-be-restored “office,” a sort of staging area where food was carried before being served upstairs in the dining room.

For an additional $15 over the base tour rate of $22, visitors will now be able to climb as many as 75  very steep and narrow stairs to the third floor— definitely not recommended for the frail, the obese, or those carrying small children. The expanded tour opens the second and third floors, where various guest and family rooms are on display, as well as the restored Dome Room.

On the second floor, (more)

Papa loved mama
Mama loved men
Mama’s in the graveyard
Papa’s in the pen

–Carl Sandburg

Why would a college athlete, a young man from a prominent family with everything going for him, attack and possibly— as police allege– brutally murder his former girlfriend? As shock gives way to grief, questions about drugs and sanity invariably arise over UVA student George Wesley Huguely V’s fatal altercation with 22-year-old Yeardley Love . Although Huguely has several alcohol-fueled incidents in his past, two doctors say in recent interviews that it’s unlikely that intoxicants alone could drive someone to kill.

“If intoxicated, the risk will increase,” says Dr. Bankole Johnson, (more)

Imagine the families. Chevy Chase, Maryland and Cockeysville, Maryland are only about an hour apart. George Huguely and Yeardley Love had been dating for some time. The families had to have met, right?

Now, in the wake of Yeardley Love’s death— allegedly at the hands of her boyfriend, George Huguely— imagine the interactions between the two families. If it hasn’t happened already, at some point, it will. They’ll cross paths, and familiar looks will be replaced with downward gazes, stifled emotions. Should they speak, think of the fumbled words, the tears, the heads shaking.

The Huguely family would likely want to apologize, and the Love family might want to forgive. But truthfully, nobody could (more)

George Wesley Huguely V is not the first UVA student to be charged with murder.

In 2003, Andrew Alston was charged with second degree murder for stabbing local firefighter Walker Sisk to death on the Corner, and many were stunned when a jury sentenced him to three years for voluntary manslaughter.

So what can a shocked community expect when Huguely eventually comes to trial?

The Hook checked with a couple of top gun defense lawyers to see how they’d defend the young man who made a statement to police that he’d had an altercation with victim Yeardley Love, kicked her door in, and shook her so hard that her head repeatedly hit a wall, and then took her laptop when he left.

Rule number one: Hire the best lawyer money can buy. (more)

A red-stained UVA lacrosse t-shirt and a letter to Yeardley Love are among the items taken by Charlottesville police from accused killer George Huguely’s apartment on May 3.

Police removed two white Apple laptop computers, a green spiral notebook, two white socks, a bathroom rug, a shower curtain, the apartment’s entryway rug, a pair of blue cargo shorts, and a Bobby Jones brand polo shirt, according to the Daily Progress.

The search warrant in the Charlottesville Circuit Court clerk’s office is now sealed, as is the judge’s order to seal that and subsequent search warrants.

“My recollection is that [Albemarle] Judge [Cheryl] Higgins signed it,” says Paul Garrett, clerk of court. That now-secret order was requested by the commonwealth’s attorney, adds Garrett.

Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Chapman did not (more)

Gil Harrington brought her murdered daughter Morgan’s ashes to Africa and brought an African stone back to Charlottesville, she told a group of reporters gathered on the Copeley Road Bridge on Wednesday afternoon, May 5, before she placed the stone among the memorabilia that covers the northeast corner of the Copeley Road bridge to commemorate the life of the 20-year-old killed after disappearing from a Metallica concert in October. “We’re trying to make something positive of this loss,” says Gil, who described the three-room wing in Morgan’s memory that will be added to a school in Zambia and talked about how Morgan had dreamed of traveling with her mother to the impoverished country. While construction won’t (more)

UVA President John Casteen deflected blame from the university by suggesting that a Rockbridge County court should have acted on the allegation that murder suspect George Wesley Huguely had earlier threatened to kill a Lexington police officer, but at the same press conference, Athletic Director Craig Littlepage admitted that he has yet to find out whether lacrosse coaches, including the head lacrosse coach knew about their player’s prior arrest.

“Nothing was reported to me,” said Littlepage, which prompted a New York Times reporter to press for clarification on whether that meant the coaches knew. “I can’t speak to what they had knowledge of,” Littlepage conceded.

It was the largest (more)

On May 23, 22-year-old Yeardley Love should have had every right to be celebrating her college graduation with her family and friends, her sorority sisters in Kappa Alpha Theta, and her UVA women’s lacrosse teammates.

Instead, sometime before then, those who knew Love will gather for a funeral of the young woman whose friends have described her as an “angel” and who achieved her dream of joining the UVA women’s lacrosse team—- playing in 15 games this season— only to have her life ended in what now appears to be a terrifying act of violence.

“I remember when you were my counselor a few years ago, that smile was absolutely contagious,” wrote one poster on a memorial Facebook site, which had gathered more than 12,000 fans one day after her May 3 death.

“She was truly an angel on earth,” writes Jennifer Blair, who (more)

Just three weeks after the father of murder victim Morgan Harrington spoke publicly of the need for safety in Charlottesville, UVA women’s lacrosse player Yeardley Love, another young woman with a promising future, is dead from what appears to be a homicide.

“I am so sick about this,” says Morgan’s mother, Gil Harrington. “It’s devastating.”

Morgan Harrington disappeared from outside a Metallica concert at UVA’s John Paul Jones Arena on October 17, and her remains were discovered January 26 on a remote area of a 740-acre farm in southern Albemarle County. No arrests have been made, and the Harringtons have repeatedly warned of what they believe to be a continued menace to women in Charlottesville.

“A killer walks among you,” Gil Harrington has said.

While the State Police spokesperson discounts the (more)

In 1912, George W. Huguely Sr. co-founded the building supply company that built Washington, D.C.; and four generations have been involved in that business, according to the company website. Nearly 100 years later, the fifth generation, George Wesley Huguely V, is accused of the brutal murder of his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love.

Huguely, 22, now held in Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, grew up in affluent Chevy Chase, Maryland, son of Marta Murphy and George Huguely IV. Huguely IV has been described as having real estate interests with a property on the Outer Banks of North Carolina as well as a $2.5 million home in Palm Beach County, Florida.

Huguely V attended the private, all-boys Landon School in Bethesda, where he (more)

“The door to Love’s bedroom had been forced open and had a hole in it that appeared to have been made by a fist.” “Hairs were visible in the hole.”

The chilling words appear in the affidavit for a warrant to search the apartment of University of Virginia men’s lacrosse player George Wesley Huguely V, the scion of the prominent Washington-area family who now stands accused of killing his former girlfriend, Yeardley Love, a noted UVA lacrosse player in her own right.

According to the affadavit, obtained from a Charlottesville court file, Love’s roommates discovered her early May 3 face down on her pillow in her bedroom at 222 14th Street. The affidavit notes that officers found the about-to-graduate young woman with chin scrapes, a large facial bruise, and an eye swollen shut— as she lay in (more)

The attorney for George Wesley Huguely V, the UVA lacrosse player who stands accused of killing a female lacrosse player, seems to be taking a cue from the the so-called 1986 Preppie murder. “Ms. [Yeardley] Love’s death,” said lawyer Fran Lawrence, “was not intended but an accident with a tragic outcome.”

Lawrence’s prepared statement came after a Tuesday morning, May 4 appearance in Charlottesville General District Court, where Lawrence declined to seek a bonded release for his high-profile client.

Twenty-four years ago, a similar tragic-accident line of reasoning may have been enough to sow doubt in the minds of New York jurors, who deadlocked for a reported nine days, before Preppie Killer Robert Chambers struck a deal to plea to an old burglary charge and a manslaughter rap for the strangling death of 18-year-old Jennifer Levin.

In court Tuesday, Huguely appeared on video feed from the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail, where he has been held since Monday. He appeared in black and white prison garb and was asked no questions by judge Robert Downer or his lawyer. The judge set a June 10 date for setting a preliminary hearing.

A Hook reporter has seen a court document which alleges that Huguely admits swinging the victim’s neck and shaking it violently and pounding her head against a wall. Also in the court document was confirmation that Huguely and Love had a relationship which had ended.

Huguely’s parents sat in the back of the courtroom and left without comment to reporters. Lawrence was not immediately available for comment.

–last updated 11:41am Tuesday, May 4

Police have arrested 22-year-old UVA men’s lacrosse player George Huguely and charged him with first degree murder in the death of Yeardley Love, a fellow UVA fourth year and a member of the women’s lacrosse team. Love was discovered in her apartment at 222 14th Street on May 3 at around 2:15am by one of her two roommates, who called 911.

Speaking at a press conference Monday afternoon, Police Chief Tim Longo says that while emergency responders initially believed they would be dealing with an alcohol overdose, upon arrival they realized the situation was more serious.

There was “obvious” trauma to Love’s body, Longo says, and efforts to revive her failed. Longo says he doesn’t believe a weapon was involved, and says a cause of death will be determined following an autopsy.

Love and Huguely had been in a relationship, Longo says, however the nature of that relationship and its status as of the fateful night are focal points of the investigation. Longo said he did not believe Huguely has a criminal record and says Love had not sought a restraining order against Huguely— nor had police been called to the apartment for previous domestic disturbances.

The crime has stunned the university community, which for the past week had been celebrating the men’s lacrosse team’s ACC Championship victory. (more)

Last fall, word that a famous Szechuan chef had quietly set up in Charlottesville had foodies salivating. There was a small newspaper mention and online chatter from groupies who track his every move, but after a March 1 story in the New Yorker, diners went into a feeding frenzy.

“We were surprised that it became so popular so fast,” says restaurant co-owner John Rong during a lunch time interview last week. “We noticed business going up after the story in the Hook, too, but when that story in the New Yorker come out…”

Indeed, sophisticated palates from Richmond and D.C. began making pilgrimages to Taste of China, where— even on cold winter evenings— lines could be seen snaking out onto the sidewalk of the north wing of Albemarle Square Shopping Center.

What was happening? Ever since the New York Times discovered the C&O back in 1976, Charlottesville restaurants have been making headlines. But this crossed some lines. For weeks, “Have you eaten at Taste of China yet?” was a popular refrain.

“I’ve been there at least 12 times since December,” says lawyer Ellen Teplitzky. “One week, I went there three times. And I’m not alone.”

Rong smiles and shakes his head, free to (more)

After a 119-year run, Corks & Curls, the student yearbook first published in 1888, disappeared without anyone really noticing. On Thursday, January 21, following up on rumor that the storied yearbook had been nixed, the Hook asked UVA Dean of Students Allen Groves if it were true. Groves passed the inquiry on to Karen Shaffer, UVA’s director of Student Activities.

“The Corks & Curls yearbook is traditionally published by UVA students, but the group is currently not active,” said Shaffer. “While they may choose to regroup and publish a yearbook in the future, there is no plan to do so in the 2009-10 academic year.”

Yikes! How could a University steeped in history allow one of its oldest traditions to perish? Was it a funding issue?

“Not so much a funding issue, as a sign of the times,” said UVA spokesperson Carol Wood the next day. “Apparently, there was little interest on the part of students to want a yearbook, as more and more students (more)

“There may be something like horse hair on the body, which would mean that she got there by horseback,” offered a private investigator on a recent episode of TV crime show Nancy Grace . “Perhaps,” he then suggested, “the body was even dropped out of [a] plane into this remote area.”

Such wild speculation brought immediate jeers from Grace, but the remoteness of the location of the remains of 20-year-old Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington is leading to flights of fancy and incessant speculation.

“I’m mystified,” says Dave Bass, owner of 742-acre Anchorage Farm in southern Albemarle County and the man who discovered the skeletonized remains as he checked fences on his property on Tuesday, January 26.

The mystery of Morgan’s final resting place isn’t just about who put her there; it’s about how anyone could have reached such a remote location in the first place. (more)

“Our sorrow is etched in our faces; our pain has been carved in our hearts.” So said the mother of Morgan Dana Harrington, a day after her 20-year-old daughter’s body was found in a cowfield south of Charlottesville.

“I can tell you, having seen them,” continued Gil Harrington, “that girl even had some lovely bones.”

The attractiveness of the blonde, blue-eyed victim and the sudden, heart-breaking mystery following her unexplained departure from a long-anticipated concert combined to make the case a top national news story.

At the emotional January 27 press conference for approximately 30 journalists, the family— including the victim’s silently grieving brother, Alex— tied a black ribbon to a pole on the Copeley Road bridge, the last place where the Virginia Tech education major was positively spotted after leaving the October 17 Metallica concert at nearby John Paul Jones Arena.

Clad only in a t-shirt, tights, skirt, and knee-high boots on a misty 42-degree night— she was, police believe, trying to hitch a ride on the bridge.

On that same bridge Wednesday, her father expressed (more)

After all the rain and high winds in recent days, 68-year-old North Garden area cattle farmer Dave Bass says he went out Tuesday morning, January 26, to check his fences. Around 8:30am, in an area he describes as far from Route 29 South, which fronts his farm, he spotted what he initially thought might be a deer carcass.

“I was on my tractor feeding cows on a remote part of the farm I don’t normally go to,” says Bass, who quickly realized he had spotted a body.

“It’s a shock,” says Bass.

State Police Colonel W. Steven Flaherty convened a press conference in Charlottesville at 5 o’clock that evening where he said that, due to “significant items of evidence,” investigators believe the body was indeed Morgan Dana Harrington, the 20-year-old who disappeared October 17 from a Metallica concert in Charlottesville.

And so the search for Morgan Harrington switches from the case of a missing person to a homicide case, as Albemarle’s top prosecutor, Denise Lunsford, arrived mid-morning to inspect the scene.

State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller revealed that what farmer Bass found was “skeletal remains” and that the remains and scene were evaluated by forensic technicians, who will make the positive identification. Her colleague Lt. Joe Rader said the body was found in a hay field that had been cut in August, so that when the body arrived it may have been hidden in waist-high grass.

“We have a perpetrator or perpetrators at large that we certainly intend to catch and to prosecute,” Rader said at the press conference.

The search for Morgan Harrington was arguably the biggest story of 2009, with the photogenic Virginia Tech education major’s face appearing on everything from pizza boxes to the cover of People magazine. The plight of her parents, an everycouple consisting of a high level hospital physician administrator and a nurse with a tendency to make humanitarian trips to developing nations, drew the attention of the father of abducted teen Elizabeth Smart.

“One of our fans is missing,” read a message from the band members of Metallica, which contributed $50,000 toward an eventual $150,000 reward. And when a professional search organization announced a chance for the public to join the search, 1,600 volunteers leapt from armchair to outdoors to scour the areas around the John Paul Jones Arena.

As it turned out, that search– like many conducted by police– turned up nothing in the way of hard evidence, so parents Dan and Gil Harrington had to face the prospect of Christmas without their daughter as well as a new life as just (more)

It appeared to be a trash match made in heaven…

In December 2008, as the Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, formed in 1990 to manage the disposal of Charlottesville and Albemarle trash, began seriously struggling financially to fulfill its duties and promote recycling in our area, dumpster king Peter Van der Linde opened an $11 million state-of-the-art Materials Recovery Facility [MRF] now capable of recycling both construction/demolition debris and household trash.

Problem solved, right? With the RSWA’s expertise, and Van der Linde’s new facility, surely we could create one of the greenest waste disposal and recycling models in the State.

If only that were so.

Instead of working together, the two trash titans have been locked in a legal battle that has cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and brought the community no closer to solving its waste disposal and recycling woes. As the two sides careen toward a jury trial this summer,  the Hook felt it was time to distill some of what we’ve learned about the complicated lawsuit over the last year. Consider this latest offering a busy citizen’s guide to better understanding the lawsuit. It might also give (more)

It’s official: The snowfall that began wreaking havoc on Charlottesville and Albemarle County December 18-19 measures 20.5 inches and ranks as the area’s fourth deepest since McCormick Observatory began keeping records in 1894.

“This is the biggest single snowfall event that has occurred before the end of December,” says Jerry Stenger, director of UVA’s climatology office. “It should guarantee a white Christmas.” Just a few weeks ago Stenger put the odds of a white Christmas at one in three.

The recent storm comes in first on the list for this millennium and would have been number three overall were it not barely edged out by the 21-incher that launched the brutal winter of ‘96 and brought 14 more inches of snow a month later. (more)

“Wouldn’t it be great,” says pedestrian advocate Kevin Cox, “if people could say, ‘I got to work because the sidewalks are clear and the buses are running.”

Alas, what’s bad for Cox is good news for those who got a pass from the Charlottesville ordinance that normally punishes those who haven’t cleared the sidewalks along their property.

The list of apparent no-shovelers included such notables as film director and homeless center creator Tom Shadyac, Albemarle Administrator Bob Tucker, whose County Office Building sidewalks were strewn with snow, City Public Works Director Judy Mueller, who oversees the snow-blocked city streets and medians, and even the artists of McGuffey Art Center— originally lauded online but who left their Market Street sidewalk untouched.

And that’s just what was obvious Tuesday, December 22 on a jaunt from the Downtown Mall to Bodo’s Bagel Bakery, which also seems to belong on the list.

City code requires all property owners to shovel adjoining sidewalks by noon after a snowfall, and Cox— well-known for (more)

It’s been quite a year for Joel Salatin. The Shenandoah Valley farmer starred as himself in two popular food documentary films and  received a $100,000 award from the Heinz Family Foundation for his creative, eco-friendly practices.

“The big corporate farms can no longer tell us that pollution will always come with farming,” said Foundation leader Teresa Heinz. “Mr. Salatin’s work shows us that is not true, because on his lands, farming is no longer part of the problem; it is part of the solution to a better environment.”

While Salatin’s solutions have long been known in Central Virginia, he received a bumper crop of publicity in Michael Pollan’s 2006 best seller, The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In turn, the producers of the documentaries Food, Inc. and Fresh helped make him America’s most famous  farmer since George Washington Carver.

“I first experienced him in the 1980s when he premiered his idea of an ‘eggmobile’ at the first  [Virginia Association for Biological Farming] conference,” says Tanya Denckla Cobb, associate director of UVA’s Institute for Environmental Negotiation. “He was a firebrand and electrified the crowd, receiving a standing ovation. Nobody had ever seen the likes of him. Now the rest of the world is starting to catch up.”

46 restaurants and stores
Since Salatin declines to ship his food and discourages everyone else from buying food from sources more than 100 miles from home, his success has become Central Virginia’s good fortune.

Of the 46 restaurants and food stores in Virginia where Salatin’s salad bar beef, pork, chickens, turkeys, and rabbits are available, half are in the Charlottesville area. Last year, gourmet burrito chain Chipotle, which has 900 locations in the U.S. and Canada, chose its Charlottesville store to begin sourcing local pork because of its proximity to Salatin’s Polyface Farms. Today, 100 percent of the Charlottesville Chipotle’s pork is supplied by Polyface.

According to the 53-year-old Salatin, it all started with his late father. William Salatin, an accountant, had tried to start a sustainable farm in (more)

“The truth is out there,” said the lawyer fighting for a right to re-file the high-profile hotel collusion lawsuit by internet millionaire Halsey Minor against developer Lee Danielson.

“Well, whatever the truth is,” responded Judge Edward Hogshire, “right now it’s just a broad brush of allegations.”

“We need more time to flesh all this out,” explained Minor’s lawyer, Ryan C. Berry. “Give us leave to amend.”

And so the judge did. But in the case of the former colleagues now dueling over development of a posh hotel for the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, this would be Minor’s only victory on Friday, November 20.

Judge Hogshire dismissed most of Minor’s claims including his allegation that (more)

Lawyers for formerly entwined hotel-makers Halsey Minor and Lee Danielson will be in court Friday in a case that puts the troubled Landmark Hotel project back in the spotlight. In a follow-up to a recent story about hotel owner Minor, here is a look at most if not all of the litigation in which Minor has recently been involved.

The Landmark Hotel

Minor v. Danielson & SFG
Filed: February 11, 2009, Charlottesville Circuit Court
Alleging: That Danielson’s company, Hotel Charlottesville LLC, intentionally hid $5.2 million in expenses for such “ordinary and customary” costs as elevators, (more)

Amid a new police report that the woman who disappeared during the October 17 Metallica concert was seen hitchhiking shortly before she vanished, various witnesses in and around John Paul Jones Arena say a young, blond woman was causing concern before they ever heard that 20-year-old Morgan Harrington was missing.

Among the several witnesses who reported seeing Morgan injured both inside and outside the Arena, one Metallica fan inside says she seemed “upset” with blood on her chin but declined his offer to help.

Outside the Arena, another concertgoer says, he was on the southeast side of the building waiting for late-arriving friends to meet him around 9pm when he heard a “commotion” at an entrance.

“It was some shouting,” says the 44-year-old man (more)

There has been an arrest in the infamous case of a chase that resulted in a stolen car going around 85mph on Rugby Road and causing over $100,000 in damage by scalping an occupied house. About two months after the August 7 incident, which captured widespread attention after the car’s driver somehow disappeared from a seemingly fatal wreck, a 17-year-old city student was arrested in mid-October, according to Charlottesville spokesperson Ric Barrick, who— in response to a reporter’s request— released a tape of the chase, a 112-second video in which even the police car hits 85mph on the residential road.

The video has touched off a whole new controversy because the chase appears to have violated a policy and, contrary to an initial media report, didn’t appear to have been called off. And the pursuing officer, according to the police chief, wasn’t even aware that he was chasing a stolen car.

“It was just senseless,” says former Charlottesville Deputy Sheriff Steven W. Shifflett. “No car (more)

He has just lost another lawsuit— this time a $21.6 million judgment for Merrill Lynch— but Halsey Minor vows that legal setbacks won’t deter his quest to complete the Landmark Hotel, an incomplete eyesore that holds the promise of topping the Omni as the most luxurious lodging on the Downtown Mall.

In a recent series of telephone interviews, the man who founded internet giant CNet and whose riches soared to $355 million around the turn of the century alleges that everything the public has been told about him in recent days is wrong.

Minor says he’s not to blame for the Landmark mess, he’s not broke, and he’s not going to let go of the hotel without (more)

Less than a week before the Charlottesville U2 show, the event hadn’t sold out, and the prices appeared to be dropping. Some $30 tickets were offered for $19, the $95 tickets for as little as $71, and the $250s appeared as low as $130. And with just six days before Charlottesville’s own U2 concert, the head of the world’s biggest ticket reseller was advising would-be concert-goers to hold off a little longer.

“Wait out the weekend, and see where ticket prices fall,” said Joellen Ferrer, the communications director for StubHub, the eBay-owned service that links ticket buyers and sellers.

As of Friday, September 25, StubHub members were advertising nearly 1,800 tickets for the October 1 show at Scott Stadium. If the venue holds 60,000, that’s about three percent of all seats.

“That’s actually quite a high amount,” says Ferrer, and that’s why she was predicting (more)

It may not be news to Daveheads, but one of Dave Matthews’ earliest recordings, one that pre-dates the Dave Matthews Band, features Matthews singing U2’s “In God’s Country.” The song appears on Tribe of Heaven, a self-released album that Matthews and Mark Roebuck (who sings with Matthews) recorded in local Chapman stick player Greg Howard’s Scottsville home in 1989. You can listen to a sample, as Roebuck finally released the album on CD Baby in 2005. “I brought it to the table,” recalls Roebuck, who enjoyed some success with his own band, The Deal, in the 1980s, ” but Dave really channeled Bono… he really teared into it. He loved that song.” Five years later, Steve Lillywhite, (more)

It sounds like the plotline of a Lifetime television drama. A young married couple’s relationship hits the rocks, they split up bitterly, the husband hires a hitman to kill his former beloved. Don’t check your TV Guide just yet, and put that popcorn away; it’s the story of Patrick S. Shemorry, a Charlottesville realtor who— to the shock of those who knew him— pleaded guilty to murder-for-hire on September 22 in federal court.

“He was personable, charming, witty,” says Ellen Pratt, who worked with Shemorry at Keller Williams Realty, where the 28-year-old Shemorry was employed for a year in 2008.

“I can’t make it fit with the Patrick I knew,” says Pratt, recalling a workplace sense of humor that once led Shemorry to enter his fluffy cat into an office “cutest dog” competition.

Indeed, Shemorry— with his round, bearded face, dark brown hair, and glasses— looks more scholar than villain. His Facebook page is peppered with seemingly happy pictures of him and his wife, the woman he now acknowledges he wanted to die.

His wife, Starla Knight, appears with him on Facebook, smiling and hugging. Among the latest (more)

The sudden withdrawal of would-be Obama Administration member Jon Cannon, a UVA law professor and Albemarle Planning Commissioner, has left colleagues stunned and left the Environmental Protection Agency without the services of a “straight arrow” in its #2 spot. How did it happen that mere weeks after President Obama had heralded him as a “distinguished American,” Cannon withdrew, citing “scrutiny” from the EPA Inspector General.

It turns out the scrutiny wasn’t on Cannon per se, but on a foundation on whose board he had served as a volunteer and which, coincidentally, was chaired by another prominent Central Virginian.

Cannon’s sudden exit has reignited a debate about whether the best and brightest public servants get unfairly sabotaged by (more)