4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review

Published online 8:00am Thursday Sep 27th, 2007
and in print issue #0639 dated Thursday Sep 27th, 2007

Latest water woes: A major repair of the water supply's aging infrastructure during a severe drought would be "catastrophic," says Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority director Tom Frederick, who's still looking for $142 million to expand the Ragged Mountain Reservoir, Jeremy Borden reports in the Daily Progress. Meanwhile, the water restrictions imposed August 15 have cut usage by five percent, and a drought emergency this year is unlikely.

Latest Cav Daily flap: Four cartoonists– Ellisha Marongelli, Joe Shaver, Chen Song, and Laura Lin– resign to protest the firing of Grant Woolard, whose "Ethiopian Food Fight" cartoon sparked a 100- to 200-person sit-in at the paper as well as demands for his resignation, to which the paper capitulated. Brian McNeill has the story in the DP.

Worst news for Fluvanna: Furniture Brands will close its Carysbrook plant November 23, the county's largest employer, according to Kate Harmon in the Progress.

Better than winning the lottery: Bluesman Corey Harris finds himself on the 2007 MacArthur Foundation "genius" list, which will award him $500,000 over five years to do whatever the heck he wants with it.

Best local largesse: The Charlottesville Area Community Foundation awards $143,200 in grants to 19 nonprofits, including to $20,000 to the Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority, $10,000 to Habitat for Humanity for the makeover of Sunrise Trailer Park, and $10,000 to the Rockfish Valley Community Center to replace an anitquated steam heating system.

Worst threat to voting rights: A DMV snafu may keep 5,200 Virginia citizens from the polls because of an incorrectly checked box regarding U.S. citizenship.

Oddest affirmation: Albemarle County defends its citizen satisfaction survey with a letter from Center for Survey Research director Tom Guterbock, who explains why the county's survey reports Albemarleans are more satisfied than does the survey performed by nonprofit Charlottesville Tomorrow.

Easiest money: Hillary Clinton pulls in $200,000 from a chat with John Grisham September 23 at the Paramount. [See pix on p. xx.]

Bigger and better bust: The Jefferson Area Drug Enforcement Task Force seizes 1/2 kilo of coke valued at $50,000 and arrests Jose Luis Lopez-Rodriguez, German Reyes, and Pedro Jimenez-Lopez September 20.

Quietest departure: Mime Marcel Marceau dies September 22 at age 84.

Best deal on riparian buffers: Albemarle property owners who have a stream in an impaired watershed running through their land can get the county to spring for 50 percent of the cost of plantings, thanks to grants funded by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Best deal on green light bulbs– if you live near Home Depot: Dominion Virginia Power will offer 1.4 million energy-saving compact fluorescent light bulbs, or CFLs, at discounted prices this fall through 2009, according to a release.

Best sign fall is in the air: Albemarle County's Bulky Waste Amnesty Days at the Ivy landfill, this time in conjunction with the city. Thrill to hazardous waste day October 6, tingle at the furniture and mattress dump October 13, say adios to large appliances October 20, and toss the tires October 27.

Best Sunday Times press: UVA English prof Mark Edmundson gets a positive review of his new book, The Death of Sigmund Freud: The Legacy of his Last Days, in the Los Angeles Times September 23 and writes an op-ed piece about Freud that appears the same day in the New York Times.

Best photo that got away: A new sculpture of TJ hangs by a red rope around his neck September 19 during his installation at Darden's Thomas Jefferson Sculpture and Garden, the Class of '74's gift to the business school.