4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Biggest invasion: Marines raid the old Blue Ridge Hospital on Route 20 south in a training exercise over the weekend.
Biggest losers: The Cavs lose their ticket to the College World Series in an 11-0 shutout to the Oklahoma Sooners June 14 at sold-out Davenport Field.
Biggest winner: State Senator Robert Hurt snares 48 percent of the vote out of a field of seven in the June 8 Republican primary.
Least enthusiastic: The Lynchburg Tea Party, which had endorsed candidate Jim McKelvey, declines to back Hurt, and second-place McKelvey starts his own PAC. Meanwhile, Danville businessman Jeff Clark files papers to run as a independent.
Most expensive votes: $345 for each of Albemarle resident Laurence Verga's 802 votes. Verga donated and lent his campaign a total of $276,579, according to the Federal Election Commission, and he came in sixth in the seven-way race.
Biggest hit to the profit margin: Former employees of Edgar Bronfman's Georgetown Farms, Michael Nemeyer of Free Union and Joanne Thompson of Palmyra, are charged with embezzling over $200,000 from January 2007 to April 2010.
Most thwarted: The proposed Re-Store'n Station on U.S. 250 in Crozet near the I-64 interchange fails to please the Architectural Review Board and more recently, Albemarle's Planning Commission, which denies the whopper 5,750-square-foot station a special use permit to put in a well. Charlottesville Tomorrow has the story.
Worst driving: Fluvanna man Courtney Holmes, 20, allegedly tries to pass on a double-yellow line on Proffit Road June 14 and collides with Ronda Gwin, 47, of Ruckersville. Three people are taken to UVA Medical Center, and Holmes is charged with reckless driving.
Worst motorcycle accident: Aaron Emerson Boyd, 29, is killed around 5:30pm June 12 merging onto I-64 from U.S. 29 when he loses control of his Honda.
Worst news for new hires: Albemarle will no longer pay the retirement contribution for new employees after July 1, although last time we looked, the county wasn't hiring.
Worst Tasing: Waynesboro woman Robin S. Brown, upset because her friend had been in a crash June 8, is zapped by Officer Jessie H. Shaver and charged with obstruction of justice when she refuses to step back from the accident scene, the News Virginian reports. Waynesboro police defend the high-voltage crowd control method.
Best get for UVA students: The university's $21.9 million in federal stimulus funding will go to financial aid, Brian McNeill reports in the Progress.
Best get for the un- and under-employed: The Stultz Center for Business and Career Development opens June 14 in the former Route 20 visitor center, thanks to a $500K donation from Jim and Cynthia Stultz to Piedmont Virginia Community College, which now owns the facility.
Best get for Walnut Creek Park: A $60,000 grant from the R. K. Mellon Family Foundation will pay for a playground at the county park this summer.
Best pick-up artists: Pick Up America, a volunteer team that intends to pick up trash across America, comes to this area June 18. Those who'd like to help out should be at the Amtrak station on West Main at 10am June 19-20.
Loopiest: The 50-mile Nelson Scenic Loop officially opens June 12, and includes four scenic byways and touches on the Blue Ridge Parkway and Crabtree Falls.
Most embarrassing charge: VMI assistant athletic director John Christian Hoffman resigns June 15 after being charged with stealing the underwear of two Washington and Lee students, according to WBDJ in Roanoke.
Second-most: Dentist George Tisdelle, 51, is arrested in his office June 9 and charged with sexual battery, the Newsplex reports. A Ruckersville woman who is not a patient alleges Tisdelle asked for a hug and grabbed her buttocks. He's scheduled to appear in court June 23.
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