Crozet residents will soon have easier access to a piping hot piece of pizza pie from Charlottesville’s Anna’s Pizza.

ORANGE — Officials locked down Prospect Heights Middle School on Wednesday after a student reported seeing a suspicious person inside the school.

SYRIA — A couple days of rain, thousands of freeze-thaw cycles and a steady dose of gravity wreaked havoc on the Virginia Department of Transportation on Wednes-day, creating an Orange County sinkhole and pulling down a chunk of rock outcropping near this Madison County town.

A University of Virginia researcher believes he has found a way to curtail automobile fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.
The answer, according to engineering professor Byungkyu “Brian” Park, is relatively simple — tweak the timing of traffic signals.

After about 90 minutes of deliberation Wednesday evening, an Albemarle County jury found Oscar Robert Lemen guilty of both forcible sodomy and object penetration.
The jury suggested the Madison man spend 35 years in prison — 15 on the sodomy count and 20 on the penetration charge. Lemen was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs after his bond was revoked.

The executive committee of UVa’s Board of Visitors on Wednesday set undergraduate tuition rates for the 2008-09 academic year.

The Orange County Sheriff’s Department is investigating a suspicious person on the premises, school officials said.

The executive committee of UVa’s Board of Visitors is meeting today to set undergraduate tuition rates for the 2008-09 academic year.

Former university president arrested again for DUI

If it’s Wednesday morning, it’s a rush.

A public presentation of the “This is My Story” student project will be held at 6 tonight at the Martin Luther King Performing Arts Center.

A stuffed bunny in a black jacket and pink tutu. An iPod. A worn copy of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged.” A Madonna CD. A Winnie the Pooh figurine. And a package of birth control pills. These were a few of the objects that University of Virginia students, professors and community members brought to a massive session of “show and tell” on Tuesday in front of the UVa Art Museum.

Heavy rain from the past few days has forced the closure of Route 651 in Louisa County because of high water, according to the Virginia Department of Transportation.

A former Madison County school bus mechanic and fill-in bus driver started his third trial Tuesday on sex-related charges involving a then-13-year-old friend of his daughter.

ZION CROSSROADS — Lachelle Johnson scrapped plans to throw a going-away party for her brother — a soldier being deployed to Iraq — after receiving a letter Friday notifying her that she and her mother were being evicted from her mobile home.

Authorities announced this evening that they have found 12-year-old Lorena Sanchez-Toledo, who went missing from her Charlottesville home April 15 after returning home from school.

States short of farm workers, arranging to bring in immigrant labor

Tuesday rush in the rain and the clouds

For two years, Miruna Dumitria, a junior at Albemarle High School, has volunteered at the Sexual Assault Resource Agency. She is part of a group that goes to high schools performing a play about healthy and unhealthy teenage relationships.

Albemarle, Charlottesville, Monticello and Western Albemarle high schools have begun campaigns to raise money to purchase synthetic turf athletics fields.

The Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority will pay a consulting firm up to $12,000 to answer questions from residents and come up with a presentation for the City Council on May 6.

A longtime University of Virginia English professor has been named director of the Carter G. Woodson Institute for African-American and African Studies at UVa.

Two months after a drug bust on Peyton Drive nabbed several suspects, a federal grand jury has handed down indictments charging three Charlottesville men in connection with a cocaine operation.

Monday morning rush hour

Fire investigators have determined a faulty forklift was the cause of a Friday fire that caused $500,000 of damage to a building in The Square industrial center in Crozet.

A bolt of lightning was responsible for a fire Saturday that seriously damaged the Crozet trailer where a volunteer firefighter lived.

“Some dumb schmuck that broke into this car isn’t going to be too computer savvy,” said Lt. Todd Hopwood of the Albemarle County Police Department. “That’s what we hope for anyway.”
The majority of vehicle break-ins are rarely planned out ahead of time, Hopwood said, suggesting that the thief was not targeting the sensitive information stored on the laptop.

John Martin says he’s seen it all before.
As criticism of Charlottesville and Albemarle County’s long-term water supply plan is now seeing once-united environmentalists pitted against one another, Martin says all the new arguments are actually old ones.

Lucas Wright, 22, is a staff member at the Ragged Mountain Home, a therapeutic group home for teenage boys in Albemarle County.
Wright works to help residents turn their lives around and become productive members of society. He leads recreational activities, such as runs through Charlottesville or basketball games. Recently, he took residents of the home on a trip to Busch Gardens.

Photos from the celebration of Ash Lawn - Highland’s 250th birthday celebration