Charlotte Rene Woods updates us on an idea to create a mobile crisis unit to respond to 911 calls when there’s a mental health concern. And we talk to Kaymin Hester, a Charlottesville High School student, whose essay about the twelve African-American students who integrated Charlottesville City Schools was awarded in the Jefferson School’s Liberation and Freedom Days essay contest.

Albemarle County has unanimously voted to take down it’s confederate statue on the Courthouse lawn. We revisit the history and meanings of the statue. Plus Billy Jean Louis updates us on how local schools are coping with the ongoing threat of COVID-19. Speaking of pandemics, in the last segment we look back in time to the 1918 Flu here in Charlottesville and think about what has and has not changed about public health in the last 102 years.

The Freedom of Information Act is one of the primary tools that we as citizens have to hold our governments accountable. This week we meet Jessie Higgins, the newest reporter at Charlottesville Tomorrow, and talk about why Albemarle county says it no longer needs to fulfill Freedom of Information Act requests in a timely manner. Plus we talk to pipeline activists from Buckingham about the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and environmental racism.

This week we talk to Charlotte Rene Woods about her search to find out what’s actually in the Charlottesville Police Budget. Plus stay tuned to hear voices from the Tretter Transgender Oral History Project. Listen to their new podcast, Transcripts here: https://anchor.fm/transcripts-podcast.

This week we talk to Billy Jean Louis about School Resource Officers and his article on mental health in the Black community. Plus an update on Charlottesville’s confederate monuments and a new audio drama from Leslie Scott Jones about what it’s like to be a Black academic. Listen to Grounds here: https://soundcloud.com/eugene-martin-543168643/grounds-episode-1-part-1-we-got-you-bruh

This week we focus on the local demonstrations in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. First we’ll catch up with Charlottesville Tomorrow about what they saw on the ground at the Charlottesville protests. We’ll also talk to Sarad Davenport of Vinegar Hill Magazine about how the same systemic inequities fueling worldwide demonstrations exacerbate the impact of COVID-19 in communities of color. And stay tuned to hear some of the conversations about police brutality happening in the rural parts of our area.

It’s been a while since we got back to our usual topics of conversation like housing, education, and climate. Charlotte Rene Woods and Billy Jean Louis fill us in on the school budget, businesses as they start to reopen, and the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

This week we’re talking with Sarad Davenport and Jordy Yager about their series with Charlottesville Tomorrow, Determined. Determined explores how Charlottesville’s history of racial injustice has left many people of color in our community particularly vulnerable to the pandemic and the economic distress in the region. Plus stay tuned for a conversation with Sin Barreras about how the immigrant community is affected by COVID 19.

This week we talk to Jodean Chisholm and Kendall Barger. Kendall is a nurse in UVA’s Medical Intensive Care Unit and Jodean is a Nurse Manager on 3 Central. They’re both working on the frontline and have treated some of those in our community who have been hospitalized with COVID-19. Stay tuned to catch up with Charlottesville Tomorrow and hear from a lawyer representing folks who have been detained by ICE in our area and are especially vulnerable to COVID 19.

Forty one of forty six patients at the Envoy skilled nursing facility in Fluvanna County have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Central Virginia Health Services’ Paula Tomko. We talk about how rural areas are coping with COVID-19 and the non-profit community health clinic’s mission to provide high quality primary health care to anyone who needs it.