Cover Stories
COVER- Vive LeRoi: 1961-2008
Published on Sep 4th, 2008
18 comments   LeRoi Moore's memory continues to loom large over Dave Matthews Band FILE PHOTO BY H. MITCHELL JARRETT As a soft but steady rain– the first in more than a month– fell on his...
COVER- The diplomat: Piecing together Casteen's longevity
Published on Aug 28th, 2008
0 comments John CasteenPHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY GABRIEL ROBINS It's a wonder the offices of college presidents aren't outfitted with revolving doors. Among U.S. News and World Report's top 50 universities, the...
COVER- Obscene! (sort of)- Staunton porn trial bizarre from start to finish
Published on Aug 21st, 2008
0 comments   PHOTO BY LINDSAY BARNES STAUNTON–- It was a scene straight out of The Andy Griffith Show's fictitious town of Mayberry. On Tuesday, August 12, just before the judge gaveled Staunton...
Painful puzzle: Abshire talks about the fatal night
Published on Aug 14th, 2008
0 comments ABC NEWS It was first considered a tragic but straight-forward incident of hit and run on a winding, moonlit country road in Barboursville. But the 2006 death of Justine Swartz Abshire, a 27-year...
COVER- ANNUAL MANUAL- I heart Charlottesville: Has our town become the Little Apple?
Published on Aug 7th, 2008
12 comments Dine at Ten, catch Wilco at the Charlottesville Pavillion, and cap the night at X-Lounge with a $10 martini or two. The next morning, take a class in Bikram Yoga, visit the Miller Center for a talk...
COVER- Seven wonders: Charlottesville athletes go from Rt. 29 to the 29th Olympiad
Published on Jul 31st, 2008
2 comments   Adam Nelson has won the silver medal in the shot put in both of the last two Olympics. REUTERS Though they may look like ordinary Charlottesville citizens and UVA students, seven of the world...
COVER- Not by-passed: Living in limbo in targeted Squirrel Ridge
Published on Jul 24th, 2008
0 comments PHOTO BY WILL WALKER A few months after Bill Massie moved to 312 Squirrel Path in the 1980s, he picked up the daily newspaper and was stunned by what he saw: a four-lane highway was planned to roll...
COVER- Single streamin', comminglin': Whatever it's called, it's tasty, less (land) filling
Published on Jul 17th, 2008
0 comments Steve Lawson, head of Charlottesville's public service, says since recyclables started going to Chester, the amount of recycling has increased 26 percent. PHOTO BY WILL WALKER The desire to recycle...
COVER- Alarming: Most smoke detectors don't detect deadly smoke
Published on Jul 10th, 2008
0 comments The charred living room at 2208-B North Berkshire Road shows the horrifying damage inflicted by a housefire. PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART Imagine a room filling with smoke billowing from a smoldering...
COVER- Strike three? Has McIntire softball been benched?
Published on Jul 3rd, 2008
4 comments An early 1990s upgrade lit the softball fields at McIntire Park, but players have now been told that their days here are numbered.PHOTO BY RYAN HOOVER "It takes three hours to play softball–...
COVER- Downtown showdown: Councilors, planners in Mall square off
Published on Jun 26th, 2008
0 comments In the mid-1970s, the City made the controversial decision to brick over five blocks of Main Street to create a pedestrian Mall. Now the City faces an equally controversial decision– whether...
COVER- Downtown showdown: Councilors, planners in Mall square off
Published on Jun 26th, 2008
11 comments In the mid-1970s, the City made the controversial decision to brick over five blocks of Main Street to create a pedestrian Mall. Now the City faces an equally controversial decision– whether...
COVER- 'I'm incredibly competitive': How a once obscure law gave local women their turn
Published on Jun 19th, 2008
0 comments Maizie OsteenPHOTO BY WILL WALKERHofstra goalie Maizie Osteen makes a save.HOTSTRA UNIVERERSITY/BRIAN BALLWEG The two Ashlin Smiths get a smile from the younger's old lacrosse stick.PHOTO BY GARRETT...
COVER- The war comes home: Iraq, Afghanistan, and Charlottesville connect
Published on Jun 12th, 2008
0 comments PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO If war breaks out in the Middle East, and nobody's there to hear it, does it make a noise? According to a poll conducted by the Pew Research Center during the week of May 26-...
COVER- Red state blue: Warner takes 'radical centrist' campaign statewide
Published on Jun 5th, 2008
3 comments Mark Warner (D) is back and hoping to ride the wave of popularity that followed him out of the Governor's Mansion three years ago all the way to the U.S. Senate.PHOTO BY SCOTT ELMQUIST Landmark...
COVER- What happened to Buzzy? A sister wants answers about her brother's death
Published on May 29th, 2008
0 comments   Despite his mental illness, Buzzy Ennis– pictured here with his youngest daughter– was a loving father, says his sister, Mary Nalley. PHOTO COURTESY MARY NALLEY He was a quiet...
COVER- Summer savings! Cutting cost without cutting the fun
Published on May 22nd, 2008
4 comments We had high-flying plans for this year's summer issue. We were going to shell out big bucks to jet Dave Matthews to Charlottesville to show us his favorite summer spots. Bearing in mind the rocker's...
COVER- Tornado-monium! Weather scare rocks town
Published on May 15th, 2008
0 comments . PHOTO BY COURTENEY STUART Maybe it was the devastation wrought just two weeks earlier in Suffolk. Maybe it was the red-jacket-clad Storm Team newscasters who preempted the Scrubs finale to give...
COVER- Under the radar and dreaming: Who's the next big band from Charlottesville?
Published on May 8th, 2008
14 comments   6 Day Bender PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO In March 2007, the Hook asked a few veterans of the local music scene to predict which up-and-coming artists might break into the big time and become the...
COVER- Virginia is for... puritans: The fight over sex, nudity, and the First Amendment
Published on May 1st, 2008
0 comments All over Virginia, there are women hanging around government buildings brazenly baring their breasts. In libraries, assembly halls, even inside the DMV, the naked bosoms are downright unavoidable....
Look busy, the Boss is coming: Bruce Springsteen at JPJ
Published on Apr 24th, 2008
0 comments A Boss glossary: Or how to smarm your way backstage 39 1/2 Institute Street: The address in Freehold, New Jersey where Adele and Douglas Springsteen raise their son Bruce and his younger sister,...
COVER- Smoldering truth: Ashley Mauter's fight and a shocking fact about smoke detectors
Published on Apr 17th, 2008
12 comments   PHOTO BY JEN FARIELLO A year after a fatal blaze on Lewis Mountain Road killed a young man and critically injured his girlfriend, the fire's other survivor has dropped a bombshell. Contrary...
COVER- The Norfolk Four: Clemency petition sits on Kaine's desk
Published on Apr 10th, 2008
11 comments It was a curious time for Danial Williams to commit murder.  On that fateful Tuesday, the 25-year-old Norfolk sailor had been married to his longtime girlfriend for less than two weeks, and...
COVER- Failure's brink: How MLK snatched success in Charlottesville
Published on Apr 3rd, 2008
0 comments Forty-five years ago last month, a young preacher and activist named Martin Luther King Jr. came to Charlottesville to speak at the University of Virginia. He and his hosts– a professor and his...
COVER- Unhappy grandpa: the rough retirement of Thomas Jefferson
Published on Mar 27th, 2008
12 comments   It was March of 1809 when the third president, then 65 years old, was leaving Washington. "Within two or three days," he wrote, "I retire from scenes of difficulty, anxiety...
COVER- Bringing sexy back: The <i>Hook</i>'s hot lit picks at the Book Fest
Published on Mar 20th, 2008
1 comments The Virginia Festival of the Book has always been a ground breaker, and this year it ups the ante with a Tantric sex workshop.   "We've had sex several years in a row," says Festival...
COVER- Trickling away: A dam develops amid missed chances
Published on Mar 13th, 2008
0 comments   The rush for a new dam was prompted by the lower Ragged Mountain dam's spillway, a structure whose vulnerability in a big flood could be fixed for $2.8-4.6 million. PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER...
COVER- Stacking the decks: Will new parking decks cure parking woes?
Published on Mar 6th, 2008
0 comments Ahead of the curve: Built in 1976, the Market Street parking garage– with 450 public and 50 private spaces (city police mostly)– is nearly unrecognizable as a deck from a distance and...
Reservoir dogged: A $142 million boondoggle?
Published on Feb 28th, 2008
0 comments Dam critics: Five of the six members of Citizens for a Sustainable Water Plan (clockwise), Rich Collins (in cap), Francis Fife, Kevin Lynch, Betty Mooney, and Joe Mooney, gather at the South Fork...
COVER- Kathleen's crusade
Published on Feb 21st, 2008
8 comments For years, Kathleen Willey fought off media glare. But at 61, the one-time loyal Democrat is back with a book, concerned that a Hillary Clinton presidency could damage the country and the cause of...