4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Most offended by a college newspaper: UVA gets several thousand messages protesting three "blasphemous" cartoons depicting Jesus in the Cavalier Daily August 23-24. Bill O'Reilly also chimes in on his Fox television program. After initially refusing to apologize, the CD eventually caves and pulls the offending cartoons at the request of artist Grant Woolard, who does apologize.
Worst week for auto fatalities: James Frazier, 53, is charged with driving under the influence after he crashes his pickup September 15, seriously injuring himself and killing his son, Christopher Frazier, 22. And Jessie Allen Gibson, 23, dies in a September 12 accident near Scottsville.
Biggest murder trial: James Henry Long, 37, is found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder September 13 in Orange County. Long is convicted of shooting William E. Browning and his girlfriend, Vickie Truax, March 18, 2005, Rob Seal reports in the Progress. Browning had been married to Long's girlfriend, Robin Browning.
Biggest rash of burglaries: Four suites at Lambeth Field Apartments are robbed early September 12, and East Lawn and West Range rooms have been burglarized in the past two weeks, the Cav Daily reports.
Latest Carmike heist: The cinema is hit for the third time in four months September 16 when a dark-clothed man absconds with cash around 11:10pm. The Gardens Boulevard theater was also robbed June 19 and July 15. No arrests have been made.
Worst grave tampering: Elaine Smith's husband finds her gravesite disturbed at Fairview Christian Church in Madison County, according to NBC29. Investigators discover two shovels in nearby woods.
Biggest map-tampering fine: Former Greene County resident Julius Lee Morris is ordered to pay a $1,000 fine for whiting out portions of a county site plan for a property he owns, according to a Liesel Nowack story in the DP.
Biggest award: The Chandler Law Group wins $1.75 million for its client in an Augusta County hit-and-run civil suit, the largest award in that county, according to a release.
Third most clerks: Four UVA law grads will be clerking for the U.S. Supreme Court, outnumbered only by Harvard and Yale in number of clerks.
Best way to save on tuition: David Banh, 18, earns an undergraduate degree in math and physics at UVA in just three semesters, the first person to do so, Aaron Kessler reports in the Progress. Banh is now a doctoral candidate in math and still lives in the same dorm.
Leakiest fraternity: Sigma Chi at Roanoke College is evacuated early September 16 after a carbon monoxide detector goes off. An elderly man was killed July 14 and 114 people were sickened from a carbon monoxide leak in one of the college's dormitories.
Worst eat-your-vegetables setback: Spinach is pulled from shelves after 109 cases of E. coli– one in Virginia– are reported as of September 17
Hottest papal waters: Pope Benedict XVI apologizes for offending Muslims after referring to jihad as "evil and inhuman" in a speech.
Latest entry into modern rock radio: Saga Communications launches 106.1 FM "The Corner."
Best appearance of a local author in the TomKat/Suri issue of Vanity Fair: An excerpt from John Grisham's new, nonfiction book, The Innocent Man, in the October issue features the cigar-and-baseball-bat-wielding writer photographed at Albemarle's Cove Creek Park.
Most likely to rent The Unbearable Lightness of Being: Charlottesvillians lean toward foreign dramas, according to Netflix in USA Weekend, which tracks the tastes of Santa Barbara, California, Yakima, Washington, and Kingsport, Tennessee, the latter being more of a Big Momma's House 2 kind of town.
Most intriguing event: Culpeper hosts a Punkin Chunkin' September 23 at the Fourth Annual Howlin' Hoedown.
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