4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Most heinous: Nelson County retired teacher's aide and grandmother Opal Page, 73, is brutally stabbed to death in her Afton home early May 6. Arrested and charged May 11 are Christopher Meeks, 18, of Shipman, and Austin Griffin, 20, of Afton.
Worst love triangle: Lamont Jermaine Blakey, 26, is found guilty May 7 of second-degree murder for stabbing to death Joshua Lee Gibson, 20, September 30 at Friendship Court because of Gibson's alleged involvement with Blakey's then-fiancee, Tabitha Carter, according to Tasha Kates in the Daily Progress.
Most excessive sentence: Former UVA employee Daniel Wayne Widdowfield, 24, gets five years for soliciting a 14-year-old minor because he is more than seven years older than the girl, a General Assembly-mandated minimum that Circuit Court Judge James A. Luke calls too long but says he has no choice in imposing, Kates reports in the Progress.
Best question: Just how efficient was the city's $50K efficiency study? Rachana Dixit says in a DP story that Councilor David Brown questions the peer evaluation by city government insiders, "the same point of view that we generally come from." Julian Taliaferro wishes for more "hard data," Holly Edwards would have liked a tougher study, and Mayor Dave Norris says the city didn't pay for the study, done by UVA's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service, for them "to tell us how pretty we are."
Next best question: What will the city's $60,000 discussion on race pushed by Councilor Edwards accomplish? City Council named a 19-member steering committee last week.
Best cautionary tale for would-be shoplifters: Don't carry a pound of pot with you when stealing. When Karriem T. Lang, 38, is arrested for shoplifting May 2 from Target and Books-A-Million in Waynesboro, police allegedly find marijuana in individual packets inside a bowl in his car, the News Virginian reports.
Newest secretary: Susan G. Harris is named 19th secretary of the Board of Visitors at the University of Virginia– the first woman to hold the position first held by Thomas Jefferson– and special assistant to UVA President John Casteen. She succeeds Alexander "Sandy" Gilliam.
Best new Darden buddy: Amazon picks the biz school to test its Kindle DX.
Latest supervisor candidates: Madison Cummings wins the Albemarle Democratic caucus nomination May 11 over Lucia Phinney to run against indie John Lowry for Sally Thomas' Samuel Miller District seat, and Supes' chair David Slutzky announces he'll seek another term leading the Rio District.
Latest Arby's v. Albemarle: Beef-sandwich shop owner Tom Slonaker complains the county has made him take down signs– even one highlighting an award the store won, according to NBC29. The county says Slonaker didn't get the necessary permits. He and the county have sparred over signage and flags since 2003.
Wildest West Virginia: A new owner says the historic Greenbrier resort will get a $20 million casino by year's end.
Worst driving: Lawrence Jackson hits a bicyclist at Oak and Ridge streets and then crashes into a retaining wall May 9 while fleeing police after an alleged assault.
Highest-profile bad driving: State Senator/gubernatorial candidate Creigh Deeds rear-ends a car May 9 in Louisa on his way home to Bath County following a campaign event in Fredericksburg. Deeds was not injured, and the two occupants of the car he plowed into were treated at the hospital and released.
Biggest skinny-dipping scandal: UVA students use the steam tunnels to enter the Aquatics and Fitness Center pool before it opens May 8 and swim– gasp– with no lifeguard present, according to a Newsplex report.
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