Cover Stories
Lawsuits galore: Minor v. Danielson hearing Friday
Published on Nov 19th, 2009
16 comments Minor and Danielson during happier times at the groundbreaking of the Landmark. FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN Lawyers for formerly entwined hotel-makers Halsey Minor and Lee Danielson will be in court...
Missing pieces: Witnesses share their tales of Morgan sightings
Published on Nov 15th, 2009
606 comments Various witnesses reported awkward encounters with a blonde woman near the Arena. GRAPHIC BY ALLISON SOMMERS Amid a new police report that the woman who disappeared during the October 17 Metallica...
Hot pursuit: Dashcam video fuels Rugby Road chase debate
Published on Nov 12th, 2009
55 comments Across from Bayly Drive on Rugby Road, an alert motorist steers away from the chase. PHOTO BY CHARLOTTESVILLE P.D. There has been an arrest in the infamous case of a chase that resulted in a stolen...
COVER- Still filthy, still fun: The respectable John Waters
Published on Nov 5th, 2009
0 comments PUBLICITY PHOTOS In the 1970s, John Waters was the bad boy of fringe filmmaking with his cult-classic, X-rated Pink Flamingos. Flash forward more than 30 years, and he's the guest of honor at Mr....
Halsey Minor is misunderstood... Everything you've heard is wrong
Published on Nov 5th, 2009
39 comments Minor: "I am taking on these guys because I'm the only one who can." FILE PHOTO BY JAY KUHLMANN He has just lost another lawsuit–- this time a $21.6 million judgment for Merrill Lynch–-...
'Off the face of the earth': the hunt for Morgan Harrington
Published on Oct 29th, 2009
0 comments   It's the kind of national attention no town wants. A beautiful college student goes to a rock concert, somehow becomes separated from her friends, and ends up outside, alone. Unable to...
COVER- Launched: New businesses leave economic ruins behind
Published on Oct 22nd, 2009
0 comments Art of the deal: Schenck puts paintings online Matt SchenckJEN FARIELLO As a vice president of international language learning biz Rosetta Stone, Matt Schenck learned the art of business; now he's...
COVER- Eat fresh, vote local: Pick your own pols in 2009
Published on Oct 15th, 2009
0 comments Those who just turn out for the presidential elections every four years are sort of like the church goers who only show up at Christmas and Easter. It's easy to get election fatigue in Virginia,...
Alone on a mountain: the true story of Flight 349
Published on Oct 8th, 2009
33 comments An artist's rendition of how Flight #349 might have appeared before it flew into the southeastern flank of Bucks Elbow Mountain in Albemarle County, killing 26 of the 27 people aboard. –...
COVER- Welcome to town, but watch the traffic
Published on Oct 1st, 2009
3 comments U2 is playing just 20 times in North America. Populous states like Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Michigan got bypassed, and gigantic California got limited to a single show at the Rose Bowl. But what may...
Concert tipster: Why tix were as low as $19
Published on Sep 25th, 2009
16 comments Bono and bassist Adam Clayton perform September 16 in Toronto. Photo by MelicansMatkin Less than a week before the Charlottesville U2 show, the event hadn't sold out, and the prices appeared to be...
A DMB-U2 connection?
Published on Sep 25th, 2009
7 comments Dave Matthews and Mark Roebuck circa 1989. PHOTO BY TALMAGE COOLEY It may not be news to Daveheads, but one of Dave Matthews’ earliest recordings, one that pre-dates the Dave Matthews Band, features...
The husband, the wife and the hitman... who wouldn't
Published on Sep 17th, 2009
11 comments Happier times: Patrick Shemorry and his wife, Starla. He was later tape-recorded ordering her killed. FACEBOOK PHOTO It sounds like the plotline of a Lifetime television drama. A young married...
COVER- JADE junkie: the unlikeliest First Amendment warrior
Published on Sep 17th, 2009
41 comments Elisha Strom says she hates to be photographed, but the mugshot was mandatory. Love or hate? Similarly ambiguous are Elisha Strom's tattoos: Celtic knots with the word "revolting."I HeArTE JADE...
COVER- Over a barrel: As economy worsens, so do the scams
Published on Sep 10th, 2009
8 comments   John Cheatwood: "I kept thinking the bank would figure it out and pay me back." PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART In 1934, during one of his bank robberies, Chicago gangster John Dillinger...
COVER- Off-campus and at risk: The hidden fire danger for students
Published on Sep 3rd, 2009
0 comments   "She could brighten a room just by entering it," says Doug Turnbull of his daughter Julie, who died in a house fire in Oxford, Ohio in April 2005, one month before her graduation....
COVER STORY- Undaunted mystery: New push for answers 200 years after death of Meriwether Lewis
Published on Aug 27th, 2009
0 comments   "I could have no hesitation in confiding the enterprise to him," Thomas Jefferson wrote of his neighbor, friend, and former aide before the exploration. After Lewis died, Jefferson...
COVER- Cataclysmic Camille: After 40 years, Nelson County's wounds still fresh
Published on Aug 20th, 2009
0 comments It was as bright as day the night Warren Raines was orphaned. "If it wasn't for the lightning..." he pauses. "I didn't know what move I'd have to make next. You had to watch your back...
COVER- Survival of the fittest: Adapting, evolving, <i>thriving</i> in a rough housing market
Published on Aug 13th, 2009
1 comments The past 18 months haven't been pretty in the housing market. The mortgage crisis spawned ballooning listings, foreclosures, bank collapses, job losses– in a word, it's been rough. Rough for...
COVER- The Fast and the furious: New gym says slashing your workout time can make you fitter
Published on Jul 30th, 2009
4 comments   When Kwame Burroughs opened Quick Gym on Water Street in 2007, some people laughed at his claims of  fitness in just four minutes a day using his specialized equipment, a machine called...
COVER- Tainted love: Behind the Morris Murder Trial
Published on Jul 16th, 2009
0 comments Roger Lee Shifflett was 38 years old and had five children when he was murdered.PHOTO COURTESY JODY SHIFFLETT Butch Morris says he felt like he got a second chance when he married Barbara Shifflett a...
COVER- Stepping up to the plate: Local chefs take on the challenge of Restaurant Week
Published on Jul 9th, 2009
0 comments The chefs of Restaurant WeekPHOTO BY WILL WALKER Stepping up to the plate BY HAWES SPENCER My lovely wife and I slipped out of town for a romantic getaway to New York in late January. Our first...
COVER- Dog wars: Does bark law need more bite?
Published on Jul 2nd, 2009
2 comments Fancy goats– Angoras– are raised on Peavine Hollow Farm.PHOTO BY WILL WALKER Kristina Lawwill has won awards for her goats, and she plans to increase her herd and mohair production now...
COVER- Limbaugh, Hannity... Schilling? Is the former councilor the next radio talk star?
Published on Jun 25th, 2009
13 comments Rob Schilling at workPHOTO BY TOM DALY On Friday, June 19, he opened his noon radio show by dubbing Congressman Tom Perriello (D-Ivy) "a boy doing a man's job" and a "lapdog" of House Speaker Nancy...
COVER- AC/CD (A Coup for Creigh Deeds): How Deeds got it done dirt cheap
Published on Jun 18th, 2009
0 comments State Senator Creigh DeedsPHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES Less than an hour after the polls closed, it was clear to at least one person inside the ballroom of the Omni Hotel who had won. At around 7:30pm,...
COVER- The Tao of poo: Can Worrell's green sewage system save water and planet?
Published on Jun 11th, 2009
7 comments Since 2003, around 100 million gallons of untreated sewage have flowed from this RWSA facility into Moore's Creek, a tributary of the Rivanna River. Local water users and state taxpayers will split...
COVER- No option? Possible death pact tied to financial losses
Published on Jun 4th, 2009
28 comments Don Slater, right, was a groomsman in Erin and Charles Keiningham's 2005 wedding. PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO It was a bitterly cold January night when Charles Keiningham went over to check on his friends...
COVER- Some off the beaten path roadtrips
Published on May 21st, 2009
1 comments     When life was tougher: Humpback Rocks farm museum   Experience subsistence living at its best at the outdoors farm museum at the Humpback Visitors Center. PHOTO COURTESY BLUE...
COVER- Under the radar and dreaming: Who's next to break out of the Charlottesville scene?
Published on May 14th, 2009
0 comments   The Hill and Wood PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO It's been more than 14 years since Charlottesville began its upward trajectory in the music world from sleepy college town to music industry hot spot....
COVER- Racing for Richmond: Three Dems are neck-and-neck, but can they run all the way to the governor's mansion?
Published on May 7th, 2009
0 comments And they're off in the 2009 running of the Democratic gubernatorial primary! At first it was supposed to be a two-horse race between Delegate Brian Moran of Alexandria and State Senator Creigh Deeds...