The party of “change,” as it turns out, has done little to advance the cause of reform when it comes to military earmarks and political back-scratching.

As columnist Bob Gibson so rightly points out in today’s Commentary, mud-slinging may help a politician get elected but it doesn’t help him govern.

A suburban Pittsburgh man slept through a house fire, and not even the sirens of firetrucks or the sounds of firefighters served to wake him up.

Maxi Sopo was a fugitive from a federal bank fraud investigation who apparently had successfully eluded authorities by slipping into Mexico and out of sight.

“Possibility City” is a great catchphrase. But a new round of ads asking folks to consider the possibilities has some officials squirming with embarrassment.

If a word is in public use, it ought to remain in common use. Nobody should be able to own it.

Once again, our area is at the center of dispute between prison officials and free speech advocates.

Say hello to the four-day workweek. And, no, it’s not a move designed to expand the worker’s leisure time.

Well-wishers lavished fond accolades on former Mayor A, Raymon Thacker amid a memory-laden celebration Sunday in Scottsville.

In view of the hopes pinned on the expanded Amtrak service to Charlottesville, it is with regret that we learn of a decline in Amtrak ridership.

If we thought Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford would actually stop prosecuting high-profile misdemeanors such as domestic assault and drunken driving — and so put her job at risk in the next election — we would be raising the roof in wrath.

Hooded tribunals? Nameless, nonaccountable jurors? No, we’re not talking about “justice” in some Third World autocracy.

On the same day, two groups, working independently, memorialized the deaths of two Virginia — and American — legends.

Virginia placed three sites on three national lists of Top 10 Great Places in America.

Amid the gathering malaise of the post-euphoria era of Barack Obama’s presidency, trouble is afoot in Afghanistan.

Electronic medical records are supposed to cut costs and simultaneously improve care. But there are problems with both those goals.

Charlottesville City Council apologized for the conspiracy that had kept 12 city youths from their rightful place in the classroom.

The election for Virginia’s Seventh Congressional District seat held by Eric Cantor, minority whip in the U.S. House of Representatives, is more than a year away. But already the campaign is heating up.

In a fascinating — and much needed — project, University of Virginia students are “updating” advice from the Father of our Country with guidance from etiquette maven Miss Manners.

A school pool in San Antonio was inadvertently catapulted back more than 100 years when it flew a U.S. flag with just 43 stars.

President Bush the elder may have celebrated his 85th birthday with a skydive, but Jane Bockstruck has gone him one better.

The University of Florida has removed a link to its zombie emergency plan from its Web site.

Neither leaders nor residents endorsed a state suggestion

Transparency in government was one of Barack Obama’s “yes we can” calls to a new and better government. The new president’s first public act was to order more federal openness.

Our hearts go out to the family in Orange County whose toddler was killed by their dog.

So, alaw stops you from texting while driving your car but allows the driver of that mammoth 18-wheeler to type onto a computer keyboard?

In a surprising move, school Superintendent Pam Moran recommended that Albemarle County keep three small southern elementary schools open.

If President Barack Obama wants to make good on his promise of transparency, now is the time.

Sponsored by the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area and named in memory of local media figure and community leader Laurence E. Richardson, the Day of Caring is in its 18th year of looking out for people.

Anyone who thinks that a potato is a potato is a potato should think again.