4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Most disastrous weekend: Hurricane Ike slams the east coast of Texas and takes out Galveston, while Wall Street reels from the bankruptcy of venerable banking house Lehman Brothers, sending the Dow down more than 500 points September 15.
Worst sticker shock: Gas that could be found for $3.55 a gallon last week skyrockets to nearly $4 over the weekend in the wake of Ike.
Worst trend: Moped thefts are increasing, according to Charlottesville police.
Worst moped hit and run: A scooter driver slams into a Toyota Camry early September 15 and flees, NBC29 reports.
Latest foray into diplomacy: City Council adopts a resolution September 15 to not do business with Sudan because of the genocide in Darfur, although the city has no investments in Sudan. The city passed a similar resolution to divest from South Africa during the 1980s.
Biggest mistrial: A jury deadlocks on whether Jemel Walon Ross is guilty of manslaughter when he shot Gerald Everett Washington II seven times March 14, 2006. The jury deliberated until 2am September 16 when Judge Paul Peatross declared a mistrial. Scott Shenk has the story in the Progress.
Best news for generating your own: Albemarle considers allowing homeowners to have wind turbines in their yards, according to Brandon Shulleeta in the Progress.
Worst news for growing your own: Melvin Michael Lee, 57, is arrested with 72 marijuana plants growing in his Wayland Drive home in Crozet September 8, as well as two pounds of pot, $8,812 in cash, and three guns.
Best chance for low-income housing: Subsidized housing for Section 8 vouchers opens its wait list again after it was closed for five years, Rachana Dixit reports in the DP.
Oddest fire and water story: The motor in a water fountain at Red Hill Elementary ignites around 3pm September 9. Damage was minimal, and most of the students were gone for the day.
Biggest conundrum, week 2: Murray Elementary School is named a Blue Ribbon School– one of seven public schools in Virginia– for its No Child Left Behind Act acumen in making adequate yearly progress, according to a county release. Yet Henley Middle School, where Murray students go next in the county school system, failed to make the highly desired adequate yearly progress.
Biggest shortfall: Albemarle's looking at a $4.1 million deficit.
Quickest shortfall: Albemarle's only two months into its budget year.
Saddest backup: A two-car crash early September 11 seriously injures a 17-year-old girl who was passenger in a car struck while turning left from U.S. 29 into the UVA Research Park and shuts down both southbound lanes for nearly two hours, stalling traffic into Greene County.
Lovin'-est law school: University of Virginia Law School has 11 married couples on its faculty, according to the National Law Journal, and many schools no longer shy away from hiring husband-and-wife professors.
Least lucky in love: Eighteen-year-old Dillon Lee Shifflett pleads guilty to carnal knowledge of a 14-year-old girl September 9 in Albemarle Circuit Court, but maintains the June 5 interlude was consensual, Tasha Kates reports in the Progress. The former Monticello High student originally was charged with rape, and he could be sentenced to up to five years.
Least lucky in dodging bullets: Jonathan Lee Barber, 26, is wounded early September 14 in a Water Street parking lot and taken to University of Virginia Medical Center. According to a release, Barber also was the victim of a gunshot wound March 2 that took place in Albemarle County. That incident happened in the parking lot of a private party being held at a dance studio on Seminole Trail.
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