4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Largest: The Class of 2011, which moved in August 25, contains 3,267 first years as of August 27, the biggest and most diverse class in UVA history, according to a University release.
Best reason for locals to love UVA students: They spent $211 million in 2005, including an $18.6 million restaurant and bar tab, NBC29 reports.
Biggest sigh of relief: The four UVA students charged with brandishing a broken BB gun while shooting a movie for a Japanese class a week after the April 16 mass murders at Virginia Tech got their case dropped, as expected, in late August.
Best place to have a heart attack: UVA installs 20 heart defibrillators around Grounds.
Best place to buy a gun: Virginia is the second-leading source of guns recovered by police on the East Coast, the Washington Post reports.
Saddest pool tragedy: Two-year-old Jude McKay Gilliam dies August 24 after falling into a pool at his grandparents' Ednam Forest residence eight days earlier.
Lamest heist: Two men who allegedly robbed a Virginia National Bank branch in Arvonia August 17 and made their getaway in a gray 1960 Ford pickup with black antique tags numbered AJ 729, are arrested in Colonial Heights after allegedly robbing a Wachovia there. Registered sex offender Gregory Allen Lebert, 33, and Leslie Steven Guthrie Jr., 36, are taken into custody August 24, according to the Daily Progress.
Fastest withdrawal: The partial one from Iraq advocated by Virginia's top hawk, former Navy Secretary and Senate Armed Services Chair John Warner on Thursday, August 23. The Republican calls for retrieving some troops by December.
Worst spate of child porn charges: Police are seeking Walter D. Gregory Jr., 44, of Crozet for 17 counts of possession. Arrested August 21 is Stephen Michael Fortney, 27, of Yellowstone Drive on 10 counts (seven possession, three attempted possession), and Bryan Petersen Malmstrom, 29, of Barracks Road, charged with 17 counts August 24.
Most satisfying vindication: The U.S. Census Bureau hires the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service to advise the feds how to improve estimates of numbers of citizens because the Cooper Center's data is more accurate than the Census's, according to a UVA release.
Most inadequate yearly progress: Four Albemarle County middle schools– Burley, Henley, Sutherland, and Walton– fail to make Adequate Yearly Progress in the federal No Child Left Behind program that mandates "teaching to a test," according to a critic in Matt Deegan's Progress story. Charlottesville High and Clark Elementary also come up short.
Best example of taxpayer dollars at work: The Lewis and Clark Exploratory Center gets a $150,000 grant from the Virginia Department of Transportation to develop trails and a "ferry concept" between Pen Park and Darden Towe Park, Jeremy Borden reports in the Progress.
Best time to be on good behavior: Labor Day weekend, when Virginia State Police launch something called Checkpoint Strikeforce to combat drunk driving, and conservation police swarm Lake Anna to ensure boat safety.
Latest White House exodus: Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez announces his resignation August 27, joining Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and ress Secretary Tony Snow among those out the door before Labor Day.
Most shocking statistic: One in four adults did not read a book last year, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll.
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