NBC-29 is doing something awfully unusual for any local news station these days: sending Henry Graff to Haiti. #
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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From the perspective of 55 years evaluating Charlottesville’s news feeds, I’m deeply impressed by this stroke by Channel 29. It’s news coverage unequalled in my time here, almost certainly unequalled ever in this town.
In the past there were stories in the Daily Progress written by local people who accompanied groups to foreign soil, but they were members of the group that went, not newspaper staffers, and the coverage showed it.
Imagined if 29 News had been there when area Mennonites went to Costa Rica to scout out the potential for a new promised land. That was a series with national award potential, as in Pulitzer, but the Prog didn’t care to send a reporter.
Only sports reporters ever crossed the state line.
Thanks, 29 News, for raising the level of local news professionalism to an all-time high here.
We’re all familiar with the revolving door of low-paid new reporters hired by local newsrooms who move on to better jobs when they learn their trade. That’s the curse of nearly every small market.
But with this stroke, 29 News showed there are ways a small market can play up there with the big boys. Kudos.
I’m with you, Hildy. This sort of thing was commonplace 60, 80 years ago, although for slightly larger markets—the Times Dispatch, for instance. Now the foreign desks are being shut down for all of the major outlets, and non-national outlets rarely send anybody outside of their own market. This is quite a throwback.