The week in review

Worst commute: An overturned tractor-trailer on I-64 east of Charlottesville April 12 grinds the morning traffic to a standstill.

Speediest way over Afton Mountain: A VDOT study proposes $51-million truck climbing lanes to get over the mountain as one of 49 road projects totaling $11.2 billion. The same study suggests a bypass around Charlottesville.

Speediest new hire: One month after longtime Virginia women's basketball coach Debbie Ryan is edged toward the door, UC-Berkeley coach Joanne Boyle, 47, is hired to replace her.

Best predictor of a campaign issue for Tim Kaine's U.S. Senate race: His decision during his last week as governor to send convicted murderer Jens Soering back to Germany–- revoked by incoming Governor Bob McDonnell–- comes up at Kaine's first press conference since announcing his run for the Senate, the Lynchburg News & Advance reports. Kaine "explains" that he felt Germany should pay for its native son who is serving two life sentences, even though critics of the decision noted that Soering would probably be paroled within two years if sent back.

Best Muzzle candidate for 2012? Liberty University blocks the News & Advance website for at least one day last week, has done so before, and has blocked other site as well, says Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.

Best reason for censorship: "We’re a private organization, and we don’t have to give a reason and we’re not,” Falwell tells the News & Advance.

Best news for hikers, bikers, and horseback riders: Albemarle County opens the 571-acre Preddy Creek Trails Park in the northwestern part of the county, Brandon Shulleeta reports in the DP.

Latest guilty plea in Mountain View Trailer Court murder: Carlos Turner Jr., 22, admits April 11 to being the driver in the January 22, 2010, robbery attempt that left Miguel Lugo Salazar dead and Rafael Valina Ayala with a bullet lodged in his heart. Turner faces up to 20 years in prison. Antonia Jha-Mhal Grooms pleaded guilty to second-degree murder April 4 and was sentenced to 29 years. Tasha Kates has the story in the Progress.

Latest City Council candidate: Independent Bob Fenwick throws his hat into the race again April 11. Fenwick ran in 2009 as a pro-dredging member of Citizens for a Sustainable Water Supply Plan and as a Meadow Creek Parkway opponent.

Newest WTJU general manager: Nathan Moore, 30, comes from Free Speech Radio News in Madison, Wisconsin, following the brief tenure of Burr Beard, who caused an uproar at the eclectically programmed station last year when he suggested play lists.

Most disturbing trend, part 1: Albemarle police report a second home invasion in the past week, this one April 6 in a Wilton Farm apartment by a 5'5"-5'6" Hispanic male through a rear window. A juvenile in the residence struggles with the invader and suffers minor injuries. Police say this is unrelated to the April 1 incident in Keswick.

Most disturbing trend, part 2: Median home prices in Central Virginia drop $19,000 between first quarter 2011 and 2010, Bryan McKenzie reports in the Progress.

Biggest city/county employee envy: April 13, when local government employees get the day off to commemorate Thomas Jefferson's birthday.

Worst time to exceed the speed limit: When carrying 36 pounds of marijuana on top of your car from California, as police say Riad Hassan Rayess was when pulled on I-64 in Alleghany County April 5. In a search of his Bumpass house, police find another 92 plants.

Oddest place to complain about a bad pot deal: Staunton man Jordan Salerno, 28, calls police to complain he was shorted in a $60 bag of marijuana, the News Leader reports. Salerno and his neighbors, Elizabeth Hayman, 55, and her son, John-Michael Hayman II, 24, are all charged with misdemeanor possession.

Oddest couple: C-Ville and the Hook, together under the new Charlottesville Publishing Group LLC, will continue as two newspapers, according to owners.