The week in review

Worst rash of muggings: A 21-year-old man is robbed around 2am August 15 at 15th Street NW and Sadler Street, according to a release. The suspects are described as two black males about six feet tall in their 20s. The Newsplex reports that two men are robbed at gunpoint around 9:45pm August 18 in the 200-block of West Main by a suspect described as a black male, 5'9" tall, wearing dark clothing. Those follow three muggings over the previous weekend downtown.

Worst first day of school for a new principal: Fluvanna County Middle School's Yardley Farquharson ignites a firestorm when her new charges accuse her of yelling at them. Angry parents leap into the fray with accusations of bullying and an online petition demanding her head. By an August 15 meeting with parents, the outrage simmers down and most agree to move on, the Daily Progress reports.

Most armed robbery arrests: Shaquille Webb, 19, Anthony Milton, 23, and Dandre Tinsley, 24, are arrested for the August 9 robbery of the BP station on Fontaine Avenue, the Newsplex reports.

Most confused competency: A judge delays deciding whether accused triple slayer Rashad Riddick is competent to stand trial for the February 11, 2011, shootings of three relatives. In court August 15, a year after Riddick punched him in the face, his attorney, Joseph Flood, tearfully pleads with Judge Daniel Bouton to not find his client competent, K. Burnell Evans reports in the Progress. Bouton postpones a decision until September 9.

Most unheard of election news: Fluvanna Board of Supervisors candidate Elizabeth Franklin refuses money from the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors and says she won't accept donations from special interest groups, the Fluvanna Review reports.

Least surprising Edward Snowden support: The Albemarle-based Rutherford Institute offers assistance to the NSA leaker's family and his attorney, Bruce Fein, who sits on the Rutherford board of directors.

Biggest UVA departure: Nationally known addiction researcher Bankole Johnson, head of Psych and Neurobehavioral Sciences, quits after a fired whistle-blowing researcher prevails in a suit against him. According to the Progress, Johnson will chair the psychiatry department at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.

Worst hit on health research: Sequestration threatens labs all over the country, and UVA's Dr. Anindya Dutta's promising research on the formation of muscle tissue, which could affect diseases like muscular dystrophy, is in "deep sh*t," Dutta tells the Huffington Post.

Latest police surveillance: Virginia State Police have recorded license plates at political rallies and President Barack Obama's inauguration, and by 2010, had stored about 8 million images of plates for as long as three years, until Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli advised in February that was a big no-no, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports.

Latest in the McDonnell scandal: First Lady Maureen bought shares of Star Scientific— twice— without her husband-the-governor's knowledge, the AP reports. And as Bob McDonnell touts the state's $585 million surplus, the couple's attorneys prepare to meet with federal prosecutors and argue why they should not be charged, according to the Washington Post.

Loss: UVA emeritus professor James Sterling Young, who founded the Miller Center's oral history program of the American presidency, dies August 8.

Biggest alleged embezzlement: Former Hollymead homeowners association treasurer Patricia Anne Cuthbert, 43, is arrested August 12 and is accused of stealing more than $73,000 from the association between 2008 and 2012, according to J. Reynolds Hutchins at the DP.

Second biggest embezzlement: The former marketing and sales director at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Michael L. Sutton, 41, pleads guilty to 18 counts of using a state-issued credit card for $34,000 in personal purchases, the News Virginian reports.

Creepiest: Brian Patrick Aronhalt, 32, of Winchester, pleads guilty to seven child-porn-related charges and one of enticing minors to engage in sexually explicit conduct. According to the U.S. Attorney's office, Aronhalt admitted posing as a minor female online. He used a pre-recorded video of a young woman to entice 19 minor boys to masturbate for him via webcam, which he recorded. He faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison.