The week in review

By Hook Staff |
Published online Thursday Nov 6th, 2003
and in print issue #0244 dated Thursday Nov 6th, 2003

Worst party to crash: UVA walk-on football player Carson Ward is in critical condition after attempting to enter a Sigma Chi fraternity Halloween party. Two frat brothers, Kurt P. Rupprecht and John P. Selph, are charged with malicious wounding.

Worst week for double homicides: In Greene County, Berman Justus Jr. is accused of killing his estranged wife, Amanda Justus– in her car in front of their four-year-old son– and her boyfriend, Joseph White in his trailer November 1, Claudia Pinto reports in the Daily Progress. And in Buckingham County, Dillwyn dry cleaner Elizabeth Baird and family friend H.B. O'Bryant are killed October 30. David Lewis Booker is charged in the slayings.

Worst fire in Scottsville: The Swiss Way Market burns October 28.

Worst country club fire: The Grill at Farmington burns November 3, drawing 55 firefighters from eight departments, according to the Progress.

Worst solar storms: A scientist calls the two huge solar flares that hit Earth on October 29 and 30 "unprecedented."

Worst break for Darrell Rice: His trial for the 1996 Shenandoah National Park murders of Laura Winans and Julianne Williams is delayed until August 2004 after a new hair turns up October 28, following the discovery of two other hairs that could belong to the murderer but that don't belong to Rice or the victims. [See News story, page XX.]

Worst UVA bashing: University of Maryland president C.D. Mote calls UVA's U.S. News and World Report top public university ranking "ridiculous" and says students who pay out-of-state tuition to UVA "don't know any better," Kate Andrews reports in the Daily Progress.

Worst inconvenience for UVA students whose names begin with D, E, K, Q, R, U, and W: They suffer through eight hours without email October 28 when a central mail server node fails, the Cav Daily reports.

Best SATs: Albemarle County's 2003 grads score the highest ever, for an average of 1096 on the combined verbal and math portions of the test.

Best county high school for SAT scores: This year's Western Albemarle grads average 1198.

Worst civic awareness: 56 percent of Virginia's high school students cannot name even one of the state's two U.S. senators, according to Larry Sabato's Center for Politics.

Best place to buy a mansion: During the first nine months of 2003, 42 area properties sold for more than $1 million, according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, up from 27 in 2002.

Worst new law for backyard grillmeisters: Effective October 1, apartment and condo dwellers are prohibited from grilling on wooden balconies or on patios within 10 feet of combustible buildings.

Best Miller Center get: Former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, whose CIA wife was outed by a Bush administration official, speaks at a forum on Iraq October 31.

Best award for a former dean: Robert M. Carey, head of the med school for 16 years, receives the Thomas Jefferson Award, UVA's highest honor.

Worst way to get a date: Virginia Beach cop Richard P. Klepach is forced to resign after fixing a ticket for a woman he stopped in March. The woman accepted his offer of dinner, but declined his alleged request for oral sex, according to the AP. Klepach is barred from working in law enforcement for 10 years.

Best revenge: About 20 Catholic schoolgirls in Philadelphia chase down a flasher who'd repeatedly exposed himself since September and hold him until police arrive.