4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review

Worst location for a drug bust: The Emergency Communications Center, where employee and Afton resident Jeanine Miller, 44, is arrested and charged with felony possession of cocaine and marijuana, according to a report in Bad Cop News.

Worst first: Dewey Sylvester Wood, 51, is found dead May 23 in the Arrington home of his friend, Thomas Junior Turner, following a dispute over payment for a deck Wood built for Turner, according to Rob Seal in the Daily Progress. Turner is charged with first-degree murder and a firearms offense in Nelson County's first homicide since 2004.

Latest in the UVA stabber lawsuit: Trial is set for March 4, 2008, in the wrongful death lawsuit brought by Howard and Barbara Sisk, parents of slain firefighter Walker Sisk, who was killed on the Corner in 2003 by third-year UVA student Andrew Alston, Liesel Nowak reports in the DP. The Sisks seek $3 million from Alston, who now lives with his parents in affluent Lower Gwynedd, Pennsylvania. Alston filed for bankruptcy in August and reports an income of $360 a month.

Most successful insanity: Joseph Allen Goldsworthy, 24, who beat his grandmother, Willie Mae Denny, to death in her Stuarts Draft home in 2001 and was found not guilty by reason of insanity, is given a conditional release from Western State Hospital May 23. Doctors say Goldsworthy suffered from a schizoaffective disorder in the weeks leading up to his grandmother's murder, WDBJ reports.

Best way to get ready for prom season: The Albemarle County School Board revises its training rules, which require athletes to pledge they won't drink or use drugs, to include students involved in extracurricular activities. The Board votes 4-2 vote May 24 to loosen the penalties for infractions and offer a counseling option. Dissenter Jon Stokes argues the policy exceeds school authority, and Pamela Moynihan votes no because the policy doesn't include all students.

Least successful attempt to avoid drinking and driving: Culpeper residents Eric Scott Kyff and Lauren J. Allen are arrested May 24 for public intoxication when they attempt to ride home on their horses, according to the Star-Exponent. The pair is released the next morning from the Culpeper jail, and find their mounts tied across the street. 

Best get: Charlottesville will be the site of a Veterans Affairs clinic scheduled to open in 2008, Senator John Warner announces May 25.

Second best get: Actor Sam Waterston, star of Law & Order, will speak at the July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello.

Latest act: Will Shaw, the UVA facilities manager who was reassigned after winning a Freedom of Information Act suit against the university, is nominated by 56th District Dems to challenge Republican Delegate Bill Janis. 

Freest lunch: Active-duty military eat for free at Rivals Sports Bar and Grill on Memorial Day, and families of those serving get a 25 percent discount.

Best time of the month: A new birth-control pill that eliminates women's menstrual periods is approved by the FDA.

Best attended: For the fourth consecutive year, the Virginia Festival of the Book exceeds 20,000 attendees, with an average of 92 readers and writers at adult events.

Worst shark bite: An employee at the Virginia Aquarium and Marine Science Center is bitten on her shin during a routine exam May 24 by Tidbit, a 10-year–old blacktip reef shark. Tidbit dies May 25 after being sedated.

Most recycled news: CNN posts a budget travel piece on Charlottesville May 22– and notes at the bottom that the article originally was published in 2006 and was accurate then, but readers had better check rates and details before they go. 

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