The week in review
Most double-shotted endorsement: The Daily Progress picks two pro-dam candidates for the three open seats on City Council– incumbent Satyendra Huja and Kathy Galvin– and opines that of the other five people running, "No clearly superior candidate emerges to potentially fill the third spot on Council..."
Most like Lord of the Flies? Occupy Charlottesville's occupation of Lee Park brings more homeless, more arrests, and more concerns about public safety from Jefferson Area Tea Party chairwoman Carol Thorpe, who notes that "100 rape whistles" are on the list of requested donations.
Most burglary arrests: Four Crozet young males are nabbed for a series of burglary and larcenies at Crozet Park and Fisher's Auto. Matthew Marrs, 20, is charged with three counts of B&E and one count grand larceny; Matthew Jeffrey, 18, and Christopher Martin, 20, each have a B&E and a petit larceny charge, and Jonathan Shifflett, 18, is charged with two counts B&E and one grand larceny.
Top killer of college students: Suicide, according to a study commissioned by UVA health services executive director James C. Turner.
Most tragic local example: Sean Bryant, a Jefferson and Echols Scholar, as well as the student representative on the Board of Visitors, hung himself in his Lawn room December 12, 1996.
Largest round-up of boozing teenagers: Fourteen are charged with underage drinking when a complaint tips off police to an Earlysville Forest Drive shindig November 4, and they join 172 youths Albemarle police have busted so far this year.
Latest alleged sexual offense involving teenagers: Cordell Lynmar Long, 18, is charged with felony carnal knowledge of a minor between the ages of 13 and 15, WINA reports.
Latest school bus crash: A red Ford Ranger pickup truck rear-ends a bus carrying Sutherland Middle School students on Austin Drive November 3, NBC29 reports. No one is injured, and the truck's driver is charged with reckless driving.
Closest call: A car hits a seven-year-old boy who allegedly darts into a street near the Hardy Drive Recreation Center November 3. The child's injuries are not life threatening, and the driver is not charged.
Next closest call: A Norfolk Southern train going 55mph slams into a Lincoln Town car driven by an unidentified man who says he was blinded by the sun when he crossed the tracks south of town on November 7, according to Albemarle police. The man suffers minor injuries, say police.
Third case of tragedy avoided: A 24-year-old woman steps into the path of a GMC pickup turning onto 13th Street NW from West Main November 4, according to the Progress. The woman has non-life-threatening injuries, and the driver, Thomas M. Castellanos, 39, of Palmyra, has not been charged.
Bleakest court decision for college papers: The Supreme Court of Virginia rules against the Cav Daily and Virginia Tech's Collegiate Times, which filed a lawsuit to run booze ads. The court claims that even if a majority of the papers' readers are over 21, the fact that some readers are under 21 means that the state's ABC and its arcane rules, rather than the First Amendment, govern university papers, according to the CD. The suit now heads to federal court.
Latest spate of granny scams: A 70-year-old Waynesboro woman wires $17,682 to Madrid, Spain, after receiving a phone call from a man claiming to be her grandson who says he's in jail there, the News Leader reports. (In May, a Craigsville woman was bilked out of $2,350 when she fell for a false report that her grandson had been run over by a diplomat's car.) Police say people should talk to family, friends and law enforcement before wiring money out of the country.
Crankiest deceased essayist: CBS 60 Minutes' Andy Rooney dies November 4 at age 92. He was UVA's valedictory speaker in 2000.
Best change of heart: FEMA decides that Louisa County, hit by a 5.8 earthquake August 23, is eligible for federal aid after all.