The DTM

Local newspapers, journalists honored at Virginia Press Association Awards

David McNair — Thu, 16 Apr 2026 18:30:41 GMT

Journalists and media professionals gathered at the Virginia Press Association’s annual gala on April 11 in Lynchburg.

Journalists and media professionals across the state of Virginia were honored at the Virginia Press Association’s annual gala on April 11 in Lynchburg, an occasion that shines a light on the fine work that is still getting produced despite considerable challenges. Publications tend to tout only their own awards, and the various categories and competing divisions are so confusing that it’s hard to get a good view of how our local media performed collectively. So I created a list of local winners below. It’s also a chance to review all the important stories that were covered over the last year.

For the third year in a row, The Daily Progress was selected as the best daily newspaper of its size in Virginia, taking home 33 awards at the Virginia Press Association’s annual gala on April 11, including 14 first-place awards, eight second-place prizes and 11 third-place honors for its newsroom reporters. The contest was judged by members of the South Carolina Press Association and the National Newspaper Association. Locally, The Cavalier Daily, Cville Weekly, Nelson County Times, The Crozet Gazette, Charlottesville Tomorrow, and The Central Virginian also collected awards.

Online news website Cardinal News won big this year, taking home the Integrity in News Reporting prize, and the Fauquier Times took home the prize for investigative journalism. Locally, the only investigative journalism prize was taken home by The Cavalier Daily!

Congratulations to all the winners. Local media takes a lot of criticism, but there are still dedicated journalists doing great work.

A list of the most award-winning newspapers and news websites in Virginia.

The Daily Progress

Breaking News Writing ( Daily Group 1): Second Place: Emily Hemphill / Lawmakers, UVa faculty blame Trump admin’s ‘gross overreach’ for Ryan resignation / Third Place: David Velazquez / Scott Beardsley named UVa’s 10th president

Business and Financial Writing ( Daily Group 1): : First Place: Heather Price Ives / Judge Comment: “Strong writing and choice of topics, detailed and comprehensive reporting.” / Second Place: Emily Hemphill

Column Writing ( Daily Group 1): First Place / The Reeducation of Charlottesville / Reporter: Price Thomas / Judge Comment: “These columns on education were conversational, engaging and persuasive.”

Critical Writing ( Daily Group 1): First Place / Dinner With Simon / Simon Davidson

Judge Comment: “I’m sitting here at my desk hungry after reading these reviews. I need to make a trip to your community. Great use of words to describe the flavors, smells and presentation of food, along with the stories of the people behind it.”

Editorial Writing ( Daily Group 1,Daily Group 3): Second Place: Reynolds Hutchins

Judge Comment: Really liked the various viewpoints on myriad of topics. Interesting and appealing.

Education Writing ( Daily Group 1): First Place: Dmitry Martiroso

Feature Profile Writing - (including News Obituaries) ( Daily Group 1): Second Place: Hawes Spencer / Late Charlottesville mayor, planner Satyendra Huja remembered as the ‘Urban Turban’/ Third Place: Hawes Spencer / Eugene Williams, Charlottesville civil rights leader and housing reformer, dies at 97

Feature Series or Continuing Story -‘( Daily Group 1): First Place / Pride in their Union / Emily Hemphill

Judge Comment: Unique and well-written series. I enjoyed reading the obstacles each couple had to overcome to be where they are now. Great job.

Feature Story Writing - (excluding Obituaries) ( Daily Group 1): Third Place: Heather Price Ives / These Greene County witches are more about welfare than wickedness / Judge Comment: “Well done explanation of a sensitive subject.”

Feature Writing Portfolio ( Daily Group 1): First Place: Jane Sathe feature writing portfolio /Judge Comment: “Compelling work. The hand of a pro is evident.” / Second Place: Joana Suleiman feature writing portfolio / Judge Comment: “Well done. Interesting range of good topics done quite well.”

Government Writing ( Daily Group 1): First Place: Dmitry Martirosov / Judge Comment: “Very compelling writing and genuinely enjoyable to read.” / Third Place: Heather Price Ives / Judge Comment: “A very strong package that stood out in a field of skilled writers.”

Government Writing (OPEN): Third Place: David Velazquez / Judge Comment: “Engaging, well-written and varied coverage.”

Health, Science and Environmental Writing ( Daily Group 1): Third Place: Caroline King / Judge Comment: “Good articles that provide a good understanding of the science behind groundbreaking health and science research.”

Public Safety Writing ( Daily Group 10: : First Place: Hawes Spencer / Judge Comment: “From a mass shooting, to a guru, to a crosswalk painter, these pieces are concise and informative.”

Second Place: Heather Price Ives / Judge Comment: “Solid reporting on public institutions dropping the ball.”

Third Place: David Velazquez / Judge Comment: “Clear writing on important issues.”

Sports Writing Portfolio ( Daily Group 1): First Place: : Chris Gionta Sports Writing Portfolio

Judge Comment: “Chris tells these stories so well and effortlessly. He includes many important details, and kept my attention from beginning to end. Engaging sports writing. Great job.”

The Cavalier Daily

In-depth or Investigative Reporting ( Non-Daily Group 3): Second Place: Ford McCracken / An in-depth look at why the DOJ accused U.Va. of mishandling antisemitism

Judge Comment: “An important accountability story. It took a deeper look at an incident that had involved federal officials, trying to shed light on whether the allegations were true and how the process could be more transparent, by speaking with witnesses and obtaining public record.”

Breaking News Writing ( Non-Daily Group 3): Second Place / Ryan and Sheridan provide full accounts of Ryan’s resignation. They differ significantly / Reporters: Ford McCracken, Cecilia Mould /

Judge Comment: “A story that covers several months of wrangling concludes with university’s president resigning. The resignation is immediate and timely; the rest of the story details what led to this final moment. Well resourced and very well written.”

Editorial Writing ( Non-Daily Group 3): Second Place: The University of Virginia presidency and the question of institutional transparency / Scarlett Sullivan, Naima Sawaya, Wylie Brunman, Farah Eljazzar, Michael King, Ryan Cohen /

Third Place: Former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan’s Resignation, administrative silence and shared governance / Naima Sawaya, Scarlett Sullivan, Wylie Brunman, Farah Eljazzar, Nathaniel Carter, Paul Kurtzwei

Feature Series or Continuing Story ( Non-Daily Group 3): : First Place: Artificial Intelligence at the University of Virginia / Lidia Zur Muhlen, Lucia Gambacini / Judge Comment: “A cautionary tale about a technology being ballyhooed at every turn in the road”

Second Place: Black History Month at the University of Virginia / Cecilia Mould, Emory Huffman, Mia Tan, Peter Kratz, Sophie Hay, Sophie Long / Judge Comment: “Straight forward and clear, a timely perspective with a message of acceptance and healing.”

General News Writing ( Non-Daily Group 3): : First Place: The aftermath of former University of Virginia President Jim Ryan’s resignation / Cecilia Mould, Ford McCracken, Brendon Bordwine, Grace Little, Mia Tan, Naima Saway

Judge Comment: “Extremely thorough, well-balanced analysis of an ongoing issue that rocked UVA to its core. Piece detailing political donations by board members was a real eye-opener.”

Second Place: : The University of Virginia and the Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education / Brendon Bordwine, Cecilia Mould, Grace Little, Lucia Gambacini, Lauren Seeliger, Brandon Kile

Judge Comment: “Great job tracking this story. Good use of quotes throughout with making story dense. Love the illustrative use of the schools seal “Sic Semper Tyrannus” Well done”

Third Place: : From threats to an agreement: The Department of Justice and the University of Virginia / Nicolas Biernacki, Cecilia Mould, Grace Little, Nina Broderick, Ford McCracken, Abigail Larkin

Judge Comment: “Deep dive into the DOJ prosecutor’s background was enlightening. Side-by-side comparison of The Compact and The Agreement was useful and educational.”

Podcast ( Non-Daily Group 3,Non-Daily Group 4): : Second Place: On Record / t: Evelyn Lewis, Gabriella Oakes, Tess Wolf, Anniston Li

Judge Comment: “The Cavalier Daily earns second place for its exceptional ability to look beyond the university gates. By featuring deep dives into Charlottesville’s ‘Loaves and Fishes’ food distribution and the cultural significance of the OAAA’s Black History Month theme, this podcast serves as a vital bridge between students and the broader community. It is a sophisticated example of how student media can foster civic empathy and local awareness.”

Cville Weekly

Critical Writing ( Non-Daily Group 4): Second Place: Sarah Lawson / Pages column / Judge Comment: “A compendium of terrific stories of colorful stories. Very fine work.”

Feature Profile Writing (including News Obituaries) ( Non-Daily Group 4): : First Place: James Sanford / “Waive of kindness” / Judge Comment: “A pretty good obit. What makes it stand out are its non-standard lead for an obit and its use of multiple sources.”

Nelson County Times

Education Writing ( Non-Daily Group 1): Third Place: Madi Kirkma / Nelson schools see improvement; Nelson high school earns distinguished; Nelson schools had decrease in chronic absenteeism

Health, Science and Environmental Writing ( Non-Daily Group 1): First Place: Justin Faulconer / : Assessment seeks ways to improve health of residents; Nelson residents learning of impacts to SNAP, Medicaid cuts; Forum tackles federal funding cut

Judge Comment: “Justin Faulconer breaks some serious topics such MAPP2Health assessment or funding changes for Medicaid and food assistance programs for readers. He doesn’t overwhelm them with jargon but explains clearly what is happening to Nelson County and why it matters”

Picture Story or Essay ( Non-Daily Group 1,Non-Daily Group 2): First Place: Lee Luther Jr. / Nelson rodeo / Judge Comment: “First place is an outstanding picture story with several individual photos that could be prize winners on their own. Great work.”

The Crozet Gazette

Feature Photo ( Non-Daily Group 3): : Third Place: Malcolm Andrew/ The Woodturner / Judge Comment: “I liked how the different wooden bowls were used to add interest to this feature photo.”

Health, Science and Environmental Writing ( Non-Daily Group 3): Second Place: Lisa Martin: Health, Science and Environmental Writing Portfolio

Public Safety Writing ( Non-Daily Group 3): First Place: Theresa Curry

Judge Comment: “A grand series of personality and informational features that personify community emergency services! The “feature” style uses human sources to provide context. And readers should get the delivered messages. Well written, well sourced.”

Charlottesville Tomorrow

Government Writing ( Online): Second Place: Erin O’Hare / A camping ban, low-barrier shelter and ‘million-dollar clean team’: local impact on unhoused residents / Judge Comment: “Thorough coverage of the issues and very readable.”

Health, Science and Environmental Writing ( Online): Third Place: Anastasiia Carrier / Gaps in care: Youth mental health in central Virginia / Judge Comment: “Puts a compelling human face on health care policy”

The Central Virginian

Social Media ( Non-Daily Group 2): : First Place: John Hajduk II / Explosive Hydrilla at Lake Anna / Judge Comment: “Nice story told with boater interview, residents and many examples of problem. Stating problem with map at start was excellent.”

FULL LIST OF 2025 WINNERS

Who knew The Blue Ridge Tunnel was being used to help men become "alpha males"?

David McNair — Thu, 09 Apr 2026 20:37:07 GMT

Photograph by Jason Andrew for The New Yorker

A recent story in the New Yorker by journalist Charles Bethea [“The Camps Promising to Turn You—or Your Son—Into an Alpha Male”] caught our attention because of the setting.

“On a hot morning last August, I tailed a van speeding through the countryside of central Virginia. The vehicle contained nine blindfolded men wearing black, as they had been instructed to do. Each had paid three thousand dollars to take part in a three-day program called RISE, which stands for Ruthless Integrity and Simple Execution. It offers men an opportunity to crawl through mud, carry heavy objects, and, as its website puts it, “change your story & unf**k your life.” The van’s speakers played a high-volume mashup of construction sounds, Jordan Peterson lectures, Marine Corps drills, and mumbling voices. “All designed to keep them in the present moment and separate them from the life they were coming from,” Brendan King, rise’s founder, told me.

Then it got more spec…

The Enemy coming to the Downtown Mall

David McNair — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 15:28:00 GMT

It’s an odd name for a restaurant. But the owners of Cumbre Bakery, who are planning to open The Enemy in April in York Place on the Downtown Mall, say it stems from a simple idea.

“Often, our greatest enemy isn’t outside, but within ourselves,” says Augusto Rodriguez Araoz, who, with his partner Juan Brandan, transformed a barber shop on East Jefferson Street into an Argentine bakery and cafe in 2023, then opened a second location in the Dairy Market. “Fear, doubt, and the limits we sometimes set for ourselves. We wanted the restaurant to have a strong identity and a name with meaning.”

Cumbre, too, served as a metaphor, meaning in Spanish the highest point of something, like the summit of a mountain, or the greatness of something.

“The idea is to create a place that feels special, warm, and memorable from start to finish,” says Araoz.

As for the food, Araoz…

Finalists will present their designs for recasting the melted down fragments of Charlottesville’s Robert E. Lee statue

David McNair — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:56:16 GMT

This man spent about 15 minutes walking around the Lee statue venting his frustration during a KKK rally held the month before the infamous Unite the Right rally in 2017. “No KKK in my town, not where my kids live,” he shouted. “I see you all looking, I’m not crazy. This ain’t acceptable in 2017.”

The Jefferson School African American Heritage Center has announced that three design firms competing to recast the two tons of bronze ingots that remain after Charlottesville’s monument of Robert E. Lee was melted down will present their proposal to the public on Saturday, March 14, at the center.

The three finalists were selected among 32 entries in the “Swords into Plowshares” project, launched after the 2021 removal of Charlottesville’s Confederate statues, which is “devoted to creating new public art in the city of Charlottesville to advance multiracial democracy in relation to global sites of memory.”

Remembering the lives lost and the trauma of gun violence

David McNair — Wed, 11 Feb 2026 15:12:06 GMT

The Charlottesville Police Department released a report Monday congratulating itself on “reducing gun-related incidents” in 2025, saying they decreased by 51% from 2024 to 2025, “marking one of the most substantial public safety improvements in recent years,” the report said.

“Reducing gun violence remains one of our highest priorities,” said Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis. “A 51% reduction in gun-related incidents represents real lives impacted and real harm prevented. This progress is the result of our dedicated staff, strong partnerships with our community, and data-driven strategies that focus on both accountability and prevention.”

Of course, while those are stats to be happy about, they can be an abstraction that really doesn’t allow for reflection on the trauma that gun violence has caused over the last year. And the many ways and places t…

Country braces for biggest snow storm in years. How will we be impacted locally?

David McNair — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:41:00 GMT

From the Washington Post: Snow and ice will start on Friday across the Rockies and Plains, push into the South, Midwest and Appalachians on Saturday, then reach the East Coast on Sunday. To make matters worse, the storm will usher in record-breaking cold, with frigid temperatures lingering at least a week…

Impact on Southeast and Mid-Atlantic

Winter storm-impact rating: 9 out of 10.

Cities that will be hit hardest: Athens in Georgia; Columbia in South Carolina; Charlotte, Raleigh and Durham in North Carolina; Richmond, Charlottesville and Fredericksburg in Virginia; D.C. and Baltimore.

Worst of the storm: Saturday night through Sunday.

The Southeast and Mid-Atlantic will be blitzed by heavy snow, sleet and freezing rain from late Saturday through Sunday.

Freezing rain and sleet is forecast to break out across the Carolinas, northeast Georgia and southern Virgini…

Retail Revolt: Why local thrift stores are thriving

David McNair — Fri, 09 Jan 2026 16:39:42 GMT

When Shirley Ehrhardt took over her sister’s little thrift store on Preston Avenue in the late 1980s, changing its name from Yesterday’s Clothes to Twice is Nice, she likely never imagined it would one day be generating over $1.5 million in annual revenue or moving into a new $5.5 million building.

But thrifting has changed dramatically.

In 2001, Ehrhardt brought in $122,000 at Twice is Nice, enough to cover her $29,000 salary and $31,000 to her favorite charity, the Jefferson Area Board on Aging, or JABA. At that time, the store was basically operating as a non-profit serving JABA, which serves area seniors, and after several more years of expenses exceeding revenues, JABA took a more active role in its operation. In 2015, Ehrhardt finally retired and handed the store over to JABA, which used revenues to support its affordable senior living facility in Croze…

Hook newspaper archive restored...again.

David McNair — Sun, 04 Jan 2026 16:27:27 GMT

As you might recall, an attempt to find out what happened to The Hook newspaper’s online archives was featured in a 2022 Washington Post story, “A newspaper vanished from the internet. Did someone pay to kill it?.” After that story ran, an anonymous benefactor restored the website, but eventually that disappeared as well, along with the anonymous benefactor. Links to Hook stories have always existed on the Internet Archive, though they aren’t searchable and don’t appear in web searches, and so I took the time over the last few months to create a website that links to those archives at hooknewsarhive.com.

Billionaire steps in to save the Daily Progress

David McNair — Wed, 31 Dec 2025 15:56:50 GMT

David Hoffmann, a Florida-based billionaire, says he wants to save local newspapers. We’re about to find out if that’s true.

You won’t be hearing much about it — because local media companies are reluctant to report on each other — but there’s been some pretty big news concerning the Daily Progress.

After reporting a net loss of $36 million this year, including $4 million for restoration services after a cyber attack/ransom in February by Russian hackers, which prevented them from printing newspapers for a time and compromised the personal information of approximately 40,000 people, the parent company of the The Daily Progress, Lee Enterpises, finally gave into Florida billionaire David Hoffmann, who inked a deal on Tuesday that will give him a controlling stake in the newspaper chain. As part of the deal, Lee CEO Kevin Mowbray, who has been at the helm for 39 years, will be retiring and collecting a $1.5 million payout.

City parking garages now using surveillance tech to collect fees

David McNair — Wed, 17 Dec 2025 16:18:09 GMT

A new video license plate reading system to collect parking fees went live at the city’s Market and Water Street parking garages on Tuesday.

Late Friday, Charlottesville announced that its downtown parking garages on Market and Water Street would be switching on Tuesday to a video license plate reading system to collect parking fees.

Wait, what? Didn’t the city just decide not to move forward with the Flock camera system over concerns about data collection?

“There are really two companies, one’s Palantir and the other Peregrine, which is an offshoot of Palantir, that seem to be developing techniques for synthesizing literally millions of data points about millions of people,” Councilor Lloyd Snook told WINA news radio. “We don’t need that kind of centralization of the data.”

However, a company called Metropolis Technology, which uses AI technology to collect da…

Can a radio station website save local news?

David McNair — Mon, 15 Dec 2025 15:16:15 GMT

Saga Communications launched their branded local news websites last year.

When Christopher Darnell Jones, Jr. was sentenced in the evening on Friday, November 21 for killing three UVA students and wounding two others in 2022, the Washington Post didn’t turn to our 133-year old daily newspaper, our 36-year old local weekly, or our 20-year old non-profit news website — they turned to a news feed that was launched on a local radio station’s website only a year ago.

Perry’s sister said the killing “shattered” their lives. “Accountability matters,” D’Shandra Perry said, according to Cville Right Now. “My brother’s life matters.”

Oh, USAToday, ESPN, and the Virginian-Pilot also used Cville Right Now for coverage of the sentencing.

Cville Right Now editor Mike Barber admits that his experience writing for the Post, ESPN, and the Virginian-Pilot might have helped, a…

CVILLE's ASK

David McNair — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:14:24 GMT

C-VILLE Weekly, which has been a free, for-profit newspaper for 36 years, recently began asking for donations. It started during the pandemic and last year they launched an official fundraising campaign called Save the Free Word. As the campaign reveals, its cost $26,245 to produce a single issue of the paper, and while the $20K they raised last year was a good start, they’ve got a long way to go. By comparison, the non-profit news website Charlottesville Tomorrow raised over $1 million through donations and grants in 2023, according to tax filings, and CEO and Editor-in-Chief Angilee Shah says they are on track to continue that trajectory.

Still, it’s remarkable that so many people having been willing to donate to C-VILLE Weekly. So far this year, they have raised just over $26K from 381 donors, including one personal donation from Shah.

“I think it is vit…

Love and drugs: Remembering the Elvis Gene Shifflett manhunt

David McNair — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 14:19:19 GMT

Elvis Gene Shifflett and Jeffery Wayne Shifflett after their arrests in October 2006.

Local news outlets dutifully reported that Jeffery Wayne Shifflett, 58, was arrested following a brief police chase on Saturday, according to a release from the Albemarle County police department. The pursuit ended somewhere in Earlysville shortly after Shifflett lept from his moving vehicle and tried to flee on foot. Shifflett was wanted for shoplifting and eluding police, which he had already done twice before on September 3 and October 13. He now faces multiple felony charges.

Why, I thought, did this sound familiar? And then it hit me. I’d written about Shifflett and his brother running from the police nearly two decades ago.

Nineteen years ago today, Shifflett’s younger brother, Elvis Gene Shifflett, then 38, was shot by police following an intense, military-style manhu…

Lawsuit accuses UVA Health leaders of operating a criminal enterprise

David McNair — Sun, 12 Oct 2025 22:22:03 GMT

Former UVA Health System CEO Craig Kent and former UVA medical school dean Dr. Melina Kibbe.

Oddly enough, the best local reporting so far on this lawsuit announcement comes from this Houston Chronicle story about former UVA medical school dean Dr. Melina Kibbe, who took over as president of UTHealth Houston just last month. Kibbe was among the former UVA medical school leaders named in a page-turner of a lawsuit filed last week in a Virginia federal court by four former UVA doctors and the families of two people who died after being treated at UVA.

“This case arises out of a hostile takeover of a revered medical system,” the complaint begins, “ by a cadre of individuals determined to maximize revenues and rankings, thereby inflating their own career prospects and financial gain, through concerted, repeated, and consistent illegal acts.”

Unfortunately, Daily …

City will spend $600K a year for Downtown Mall cleaning crew

David McNair — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 20:15:00 GMT

Haves and have nots: The Downtown Mall near Third Street several years ago.

Last July, Friends of Cville Downtown had to do some damage control after launching a petition that one critic said amounted to “not very subtle dog whistles about making sure the unsightly unhoused people were not to be seen on the Downtown Mall." Friends of Cville Downtown quickly changed the language of the petition and added some thoughtful suggestions for the Downtown Mall, including “a Downtown ambassador program such as Block by Block to take over cleanliness and maintenance for the Downtown district.”

Recently, Friends of Cville Downtown again found itself the target of critics, this time for their support of a hastily introduced “camping ban” ordinance, which those critics called “inhumane,” a “boot to the face” of homeless people, and an “abomination.” City Council quickly voted 5-0 to table the idea indefinitely.

Local Latino community celebrates under "challenging" circumstances

David McNair — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 20:33:14 GMT

On September 20, the local Latino community hopes to showcase their cultural heritage without incident. Photo from Cville Sabroso Facebook page.

In 2024, over 4,000 people came downtown for Cville Sabroso, the local Latin American cultural festival now in its 13th year, and organizers are hoping this year’s September 20 celebration will be even bigger.

But they are also a little worried.

“For sure, the current climate is challenging for the Latino community," says Dan Doernberg, a board member and spokesperson for Sin Barreras / Without Barriers, an immigrant advocacy group, "and we're certainly watching developments carefully."

Recently, the Supreme Court gave federal agents the power to detain people in Los Angeles for speaking Spanish or appearing to be Latino, which critics of the ruling are calling legalized racial profiling. Last weekend, a Mexican Ind…

Camping ban ordinance DOA

David McNair — Thu, 04 Sep 2025 16:48:50 GMT

Rosia Parker, a longtime civil rights activist in Charlottesville, talks about her time experiencing homelessness and her objection to the "camping ban" ordinance.

According to Charlottesville Police Chief Michael Kochis, the process of coming up with a "camping ban" ordinance began in April with individual conversations with city councilors, the formation of a working group of city officials, and a directive for the city attorneys office to draft the ordinance, but as Councilor Lloyd Snook said during a reading of the new ordinance before City Council on Tuesday evening, he'd only seen it for the first time over the Labor Day weekend. Indeed, there was no public announcement about the proposed ordinance, and the first local news report about it appeared on Saturday. Still, that was enough time for opposition to the proposal to gather steam, and City Hall chambers was packed with people almost entirely opposed to the new ordinance.

"The way this proposal came about was incredibly disres…

Report: Over 75 percent of gun-related deaths in our area are suicides

David McNair — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 16:36:02 GMT

While community concern about gun violence continues, especially after a July 4th shootout on Orangedale Avenue in Charlottesville’s Fifeville neighborhood, which left five bystanders wounded, including a 9-year-old boy and an 11-year-old girl, I think its important to recognize a little publicized project from UVA’s Center for Community Partnerships (formerly known as The Equity Center), which offers data-driven research on gun violence in our area.

First published in 2024 as part of UVA’s Gun Violence Solutions Project, the report includes policy briefs that continue to be updated as new data is collected.

“The goal is to create a foundation for informed discussion, shared understanding, and stronger decision-making,” says Samantha Toet, the project’s data manager. So far, Toet says, the information has only been shared at smaller, community events like th…

Militarized neighborhood search alarms neighbors

David McNair — Sat, 28 Jun 2025 16:14:47 GMT

Charlottesville and Albemarle County police use an armored vehicle and heavily armed officers to execute multiple search warrants in the Westhaven neighborhood in the early morning hours on June 17.

While you probably won't see photos like this on the Charlottesville Police Department’s social media pages, this is what residents of Westhaven woke up to Tuesday morning last week — an armored vehicle with a heavily armed officer in the turret being used to execute multiple search warrants in connection with shooting investigations.

Both CBS19 and 29News reported on the June 17 joint operation between the Charlottesville and Albemarle County police departments, but those reports didn’t include images of an armored vehicle.

The above image was posted by activist Tanesha Hudson, who expressed concern on social media about the militarized approach to executing s…

Local Virginia State Trooper arrested for leaving threatening notes on woman's front door

David McNair — Thu, 05 Jun 2025 17:48:26 GMT