4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review

Published online 8:00am Thursday Mar 12th, 2009
and in print issue #0810 dated Thursday Mar 12th, 2009

Latest sordid Staunton sex crime: Garage-owner Wayne Gill, 39, is arrested for child porn and prostitution March 6 after he pays a 17-year-old girl $300 for oral sex and then films her in the back room of Gill's Auto Repair, according to the Staunton News-Leader. Among the items confiscated by police: 73 porno videos and DVDs and a blow-up doll.

Biggest eewww factor: See above.

Biggest pork: Charlottesville Transit Service breaks ground March 9 on its new $15.5 million green garage, pulling in $9.6 million in federal funds, $4.5 million from the state and $1.2 million from City taxpayers to house buses.

Oddest addiction: The man who went on a robbery rampage in June, Brian Eugene Brubaker, 41, tells a Harrisonburg police officer, "I was addicted to it," Tasha Kates reports in the Daily Progress. Brubaker is looking at 11 years for holding up Boot'Vil, Crawford Saddlery, and Food Lion with a knife in Greene County. He still faces charges in Charlottesville, Harrisonburg, Staunton and Augusta County.

Deepest mystery: Reginal Cody Bowles, who had been missing for at least two years, is found in the bottom of a 25-foot well on his property in Louisa County March 6. His live-in girlfriend, Ulisa Marie Chavers, is charged with concealing a body, identity theft, credit card fraud and possession of a sawed-off-rifle.

Worst accident: A Honda CR-V flips March 5 around 7:40pm 14 miles south of Charlottesville on U.S. 29, killing the driver, Cathy Michele-Dalton Eppes, 45, of Forest, Virginia.

Worst strong-arm robbery: A UVA student is punched in the face around 10pm March 7 near the amphitheater and relieved of money and an iPod, according to a University Police release.

Most international: Center for Politics founder Larry Sabato goes to London, hangs with Parliament, and announces a Global Perspective on Democracy initiative.

Most retro: Local moms have a chicken pox party March 6 to infect their young in lieu of a state-mandated vaccine, the Newsplex reports.

Best value: Charlottesville-Albemarle Rescue Squad members put in nearly 91,000 hours of volunteer time in 2008, saving the equivalent of $1.7 million or 43 full-time employees, according to a CARS release.

Best local-boy-makes-dirty-movie story: Comic Trevor Moore, who got his start on local public access TV and created The Whitest Kids U Know, is director, writer and actor in the movie Miss March, which opens March 13.

Best free free-speech triumverate: Public Citizen, the ACLU, and the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Speech contend that blogger Waldo Jaquith should not have to turn over his notes or the identities of anonymous posters on his website, cvillenews.com. Jaquith was subpoenaed to do so by Tommy Garrett after Jaquith wrote about Garrett's defamation suit against the Hook.

Best get– UVA library: UVA acquires a rare letter from Edgar Allan Poe, who apologizes for his drunkenness to his publisher, blaming his behavior on too many juleps. The university library unveils a Poe exhibit March 7 as part of his 200th birthday commemoration.

Best get– UVA Class 0f 2009: Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (and an alum and former law prof) will deliver the commencement address May 17.

Best get– Charlottesville: An Irish band called U-2 will play here this fall, and unconfirmed buzz at press time is that will happen at Scott Stadium.

Biggest buzz kill: Police in Hampton arrest nearly 200 Phish fans and take their money and their stash. [See concert photos, page xx].