4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Worst senior-year tragedy: Albemarle High lacrosse player Nolan Jenkins dies in a May 19 car crash in which police believe alcohol may have been a factor. Eleven teens at a nearby party are arrested for underage drinking.
Worst senior tragedy: Ednam Forest resident Mary E. May, 75, sideswipes a car, rear-ends a tractor trailer, and hits another car in front of Bellair Market on U.S. 250 May 16. May dies at the scene, and the main western artery is closed for more than an hour.
Biggest racketeering trial: Louis Antonio Bryant, leader of the Westside Crew, aka Project Crud, is convicted of attempted murder and conspiring to sell drugs May 21 at his second trial at U.S. District Court.
Most warrants: Albemarle County police launch Operation Spring Cleaning with a full-page ad in the May 21 Daily Progress listing almost 300 people wanted on outstanding warrants.
Worst porn charges: Albemarle High girls junior varsity soccer coach Raja Charles Jabbour, 39, is charged in U.S. District Court with one count of possessing child pornography, and more charges are possible, according to a Progress report.
Biggest peacenik: Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq and who camped outside President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, appears at a Charlottesville rally May 17. [See Photophile, page XX.]
Youngest graduate: Prodigy Greg Smith, 16, receives his master's degree in math from UVA, the youngest in the university's history to do so.
Most obtuse: New Journalism founder Tom "Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test" Wolfe leaves some audience members scratching their heads after his May 20 valedictory speech on the Lawn.
Most dramatic donation: Ruth Sacks Caplin and Mortimer Caplin give $4 million so UVA can add a 300-seat, "thrust-stage" theater to the Drama Building renovation.
Biggest bequest: Former legal secretary and wife of a coal company president, Kathleen Strunk, leaves $2.7 million to UVA Wise, its largest legacy ever.
Latest Virgil Goode challenger:Al Weed wins the Democratic nomination and his chance for a second run for the Fifth congressional district May 20 over consultant Bern Ewert. Bob Gibson has the story in the Progress.
Best flipping: D.C.-based Asset Capital Corporation, which bought 78 acres in Hollymead Town Center in August 2005 for $52.1 million, sells 41 acres for $42.6 million, according to the DP.
Newest addition to Moore's Creek waste treatment plant: The Rivanna Solid Waste Authority recommends that 47 million gallons of contaminated liquid be piped into town from the Ivy Landfill, Jessica Kitchin reports in the DP.
Worst cement truck accident: A mixer backing up a driveway in Mosby Mountain subdivision flips twice at a construction site when the ground gives way May 21, NBC29 reports. The driver has only minor injuries.
Latest Ralph Sampson travails: The former UVA basketball superstar pleads not guilty May 16 to four counts of lying to authorities about his finances to dodge child support payments.
Latest Patricia Kluge appointment: A decade after Kluge leaves the UVA Board of Visitors, governor Tim Kaine names the vintner-developer one of 23 members of his new Start Strong Pre-K Council.
Best press kit: City spokesman Ric Barrick slips into the Hook office wearing sunglasses and silently delivering an envelope marked "Top Secret" May 19. Inside, a CD marked "Mission Possible" announces Charlottesville's new website– and then promises to self-destruct.
Best girls tennis team: Western Albemarle High's Warriors take the Jefferson District tournament May 16 and head to the regionals.
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