4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Biggest lead: A drawing of a suspect in the Morgan Harrington murder is released and connected by forensic evidence to a 2005 rape in Fairfax. [See story p. xx.]
Latest in Cuccinelli v. UVA: The target of Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli's demand for documents from the university, climate scientist Michael Mann, has been cleared of research misconduct by a faculty panel at Penn State, his current employer.
Latest charge for alleged girlfriend burner: Cordick Lewis Dade, 36, is charged with child endangerment June 29 on top of charges of arson and malicious wounding for allegedly setting his girlfriend and apartment on fire March 22 in Stanardsville.
Saddest loss: Ian Woo Cumings, 21, a rising fourth-year at the University of Chicago and son of UVA Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences Meredith Woo, is killed in a June 27 auto accident on I-95.
Newest skill set for the Albemarle Commonwealth's Attorney Office: Collection agency. Prosecutors will take on delinquent fines and court costs to generate income for the county– half the net collections– and Commonwealth's Attorney Denise Lunsford estimates that could add up to $200,000 in county coffers, according to a release.
Biggest unanswered question in the release: Just how much in uncollected fines are there?
Biggest death penalty case in Nelson: Christopher Meeks, 20, of Shipman, and Austin Griffin, 20, of Afton, are charged with capital murder, robbery and burglary in the May 2009 death of Afton resident Opal Page, 73.
Biggest move: The papers of George Washington collection that have been housed in UVA's Alderman Library since 1968 will head to Mount Vernon to the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington, the AP reports. [That move will happen in about 15 years when the project is complete.]
Latest illegal junkyard: A property on Maxfield Road owned by Maggie Morris in eastern Albemarle is allegedly the scene of a car recycling operation, according to the Progress. Albemarle Fire and Rescue says 40 to 45 vehicles are on the site. No charges have been filed, and Assistant Chief James Barber says the goal is to get the site cleaned up.
Most patient: Police arrest Ronald Lee Brown Jr., 22, for the June 2009 shooting of a 14-year-old girl asleep in her bed at Blue Ridge Commons on Prospect Avenue and hit in the shoulder. Brown is charged with aggravated malicious wounding, two counts of attempted malicious wounding and three counts of use of a firearm during a felony.
Most incompetent: Christropher Speight, accused of killing eight people in Appomattox in January, including his sister and children, is found incompetent to stand trial and sent to a state psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Most unusual travel alert: The ACLU of Virginia warns citizens of the Commonwealth traveling to Arizona that they could be subject to racial profiling, especially if they look Latino, and required to produce proof of citizenship under the new Arizona law that goes into effect July 29. Civil rights organizations are challenging the statute.
Worst threat to local air traffic: Canada geese, which weigh 10 pounds and can bring down aircraft when sucked into jet engines. Eighty-nine of the fowl that reside in Forest Lakes near the Charlottesville Albemarle Airport are removed and eradicated, a move okayed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture but upsetting to some of the residents. Brandon Shulleeta has the story in the Daily Progress.
Biggest slip of the pen: In Thomas Jefferson's early draft of the Declaration of Independence, some words are crossed out, but the word "subjects" is erased and replaced with "citizens," the Washington Post reports. The Library of Congress uses high-tech imaging to discover the expunged word, which does not appear in the Declaration.
Updated 7/9/10 to note the papers of George Washington won't leave for another 15 years or so.
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