4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Biggest surprise: After years of paying Republic Services to landfill the stuff and after at least one member of City Council publicly supported a RICO lawsuit against Van der Linde Recycling, Charlottesville agrees to hire Van der Linde to process local residents' trash.
Worst driving: The guy who was Tased while handcuffed and fleeing last fall attempts to flee again June 19, this time driving the wrong way on I-64. Michael Hogberg, 26, is charged with attempted capital murder and a handful of other charges.
Next worst driving: Three people are injured in an early morning June 19 crash on Seminole Trail. Guadalupe Q. Dominquez, 24, was traveling south and crossed into northbound lanes, colliding with a Suburban, according to police. Charges are pending against Dominquez.
Worst driving in a parking lot: A truck creams the side of Integral Yoga June 16.
Biggest local plank-walking: Pink slips are delivered to 26 employees at the Northrop Grumman Sperry Marine facility on Seminole Trail, effective June 30.
Biggest blaze at a discount retailer: Combusting pallets outside Kmart cause a June 17 store evacuation, and fire officials say they believe it was deliberately set.
Most debatable moment: Republican 5th District candidate Robert Hurt tells the Daily Progress June 12 that he "absolutely" is willing to debate independent Jeff Clark along with incumbent Tom Perriello. In a June 16 statement, however, Hurt says he's not debating Clark.
Worst loss of a basketball legend: Manute Bol, 47, the tallest men to play NBA basketball upon his 1985 hiring, dies of kidney failure June 19 at UVA Medical Center. The Sudan native was transferred there to deal with his rare skin disease, Stevens–Johnson syndrome.
Worst beating: David Harold Matthews, 45, is charged with malicious wounding and robbery after a 54-year-old man is dragged from the bed he shared with a 46-year-old woman on First Street, beaten with a claw hammer, and left naked on Elliot Avenue around 3:30am June 12, according to the Progress. The robbery charge stems from the victim's pants being thrown in a trash can, and the woman knows Matthews.
Most 0verwhelming feeling there's more to a story: See above.
Most sudden loss of a tax commissioner: Charlottesville native Janie Bowen, 56, who headed the Virginia Department of Taxation and had just been elected president of the national tax administrators group, dies unexpectedly in her home June 15, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports. Bowen had been in a car accident earlier that day.
Most game: Defense attorney Rhonda Quagliana bets $1,000 that a controversial deer reduction plan using bow hunters in the Dunlora subdivision won't work, according to the DP.
Least successful tax evasion strategy: Car salesman John H. Gordon pleads guilty to two counts of failure to file tax returns for 2004 and 2005 after heeding advice from the tax-defying Joy Foundation in Florida, according to an IRS release. Gordon faces one year in prison on each count, and still owes the back taxes.
Worst graduation brawl: Police use pepper spray to break up a ruckus after dozens of people are shut out of Dinwiddie High School's graduation ceremony held at the Ettrick campus of Virginia State University, the Newsplex reports. About 20 people are involved in the brawl, and high school officials apologize for how the event was organized.
Worst time to have one too many: Sean Stantonis arrives in Augusta County court June 16 to plead guilty for driving drunk and seriously injuring four motorcyclists when a deputy speaks to the judge, who orders a breathalyzer. Stanton blows .25, more than three times the .08 legal limit, and is put in jail, NBC29 reports. Stanton's defense attorney says his remorseful client simply drank to calm his nerves before the hearing.
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