4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Biggest story: A 10-year reign of terror ends with the August 13 arrest of Nathan Antonio "Tony" Washington, whom police charge in two serial rapist assaults. DNA had previously tied seven attacks to the same assailant.
Biggest plans for West Main Street: A nine-story tower at the corner of Ridge-McIntire is in the works by Richmond developer Bob Englander at the site of RSC Equipment Rentals where a planned CVS was twice shot down by the Charlottesville Planning Commission, Seth Rosen reports in the Daily Progress.
Latest Kerry Von Reese Cook trial: The 34-year-old accused of assaulting two Charlottesville police officers in 2004 when they answered a domestic relations disturbance at Garrett Square is convicted August 10 at his third trial, according to the Progress' Liesel Nowak. In his first trial, the jury convicted him of eluding arrest but deadlocked on the felony assault charges. A retrial in May ended in a mistrial when a juror recognized one of the people involved in the case. Cook, who was shot and wears a colostomy bag, is incarcerated at the Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail with his cousin, Robert Cooke (who was shot and paralyzed by police in a different incident).
Best press: The subject of a story in last week's Hook, UVA law prof Brandon Garrett continues to gain the attention of national media– including the Atlantic Monthly and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution last week– for his study of 200 wrongful convictions and the frightening flaws in the legal system they reveal.
Most diverse: UVA touts the entering Class of 2011 as its most diverse... since the 2004 entering class. Of 3,240 students, 12.2 percent are Asian, 11.2 percent are African American, and 4.7 percent are Hispanic, with 6.4 percent of the class declining to identify themselves by race.
Worst news for Virginia college students (and their parents): Tuition at public institutions rises almost 7 percent.
Latest Virginia Tech massacre reverberation: George Mason University senior Andrew Dysart organizes a chapter of Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, arguing students should have the right to arm themselves at school.
Biggest military academy lawsuit: Fishburne Military School is slapped with a $2.5 million lawsuit by the mother of a former cadet who was sexually assaulted by a 16-year-old platoon leader, who is also named in the suit, NBC29 reports.
Biggest retail news for Greene County: Both Wal-Mart and Lowe's are opening in the bedroom community at the new Gateway Center at U.S. 29 and U.S. 33, according to the Progress.
Most smoldering: A fire in UVA's heating plant coal hoppers keeps firefighters on alert for 22 hours after it is reported August 10, and one firefighter passes out due to the heat.
Farthest to go to rob a 7-11: West Hampstead, New York, residents Bryan Shannon, 18, and Cyril Didier, 23, are arrested for the August 8 armed robbery of the Woodbrook 7-11.
Hottest: The SunTrust marquee at U.S. 29 and Rio Road displays 153 degrees August 7, presumably a malfunction that was picked up on NBC's Today Show. The high that day was a mere 92 degrees.
Driest: Orange declares mandatory water restrictions August 8.
Greenest: Charlottesville makes Country Home's best green list, clocking in at number 6 between Wenatchee, Washington, and Boulder, Colorado, for our trees, parks, and "rainwater harvesting." (Wenatchee is noted for holding the world's only solar drag race.)
Cruelest: On a day that reaches 100 degrees, August 8 sees the closure of Washington Park pool because vandals "compromised" pool sanitation the night before.
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