The week in review
Earliest transfer of power: The U.S. hands over authority to an interim Iraqi government June 28, two days before the expected June 30 transfer.
Biggest sex discrimination case: A class action lawsuit that includes up to 1.6 million current and female employees alleges Wal-Mart frequently pays women less than men.
Worst news for AOL subscribers: Company software engineer Jason Smathers is arrested June 23 for selling 92 million AOL email addresses to spammers.
Worst water accident: UVA student Steve Catilo, 20, known as an excellent swimmer, drowns in the Potomac River June 25 while coaching novice rowers. His body is recovered two days later.
Saddest murder conviction: A Louisa jury finds Pamela Whindleton guilty June 24 of the first-degree murder of her Halloween-costumed six-year-old daughter, Diamond, in 2002. Whindleton shot herself in the head after suffocating her daughter, and her attorney argued she was insane at the time.
Worst alleged acquaintance treatment: Omar Riyad Musa, 21, is accused of sexually assaulting a woman– not his girlfriend– June 20 at the Carriage Hill Apartments on Pantops, according to the Daily Progress.
Worst place to hide from the police when wanted for the rape of another woman: In the backseat of your girlfriend's car, which is where police found Musa June 22.
Heaviest load for the Jefferson School: The weight of books, should it become a library, would require some structural engineering, Liz Nelson reports in the Progress.
Most controversial new building: Planned Parenthood's new digs on Hydraulic Road, according to a David Dadurka Progress story.
Most Left Coast protest tactic: Activists get ready to show their opposition to logging in the Jefferson National Forest by tree sitting.
Most corrupt corridor: Southwest Virginia, according to pundit Larry Sabato, who hails from Tazewell County, in a Richlands News-Press report– after 22 federal racketeering charges are filed in neighboring Buchanan County against businessmen, county employees, and current or former Board of Supervisors members.
Worst shoe theft: 100 pairs of sneakers are stolen from UVA's McCue Center between April 13 and June 16, the Progress reports.
Most disappointing plea-bargain: Keia Horton, the Newport News woman charged with felony sodomy in January when police found her receiving oral sex in a parked car, abandons her plans to challenge the constitutionality of the law, the Daily Press in Hampton Roads reports. Horton feared a felony conviction and its up-to-five-years-in-prison penalty, and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of indecent exposure June 24.
Worst blow to Martinsville: The Southside town, already devastated from closed textile mills and 14.7 percent unemployment, loses its minor league baseball team, the Martinsville Astros, according to the Washington Post. UVA coach Brian O'Connor [name grossly misspelled in the print edition but corrected here in this online version.–editor] once played for the Appalachian League team.
Closest call for UVA baseball: In its head coach hunt, Auburn chats up O'Connor [Same problem here and again fixed here online.–editor], who had a winning first season at UVA, before he withdraws his name from consideration.
Newest ACC members: Virginia Tech and University of Miami officially join the conference July 1.
Best appearance by a UVA prof on the Today Show : Steven Rhoads, author of Taking Sex Differences Seriously, weighs in on gender and parenting June 25.
Biggest local John Kerry fundraisers: The Dave Matthews Band will perform at a New York concert July 8 to raise money for the Democratic presidential candidate.
Worst potty mouth: Vice President Dick Cheney tells Senator Patrick Leahy "Go f*** yourself" on the Senate floor June 22.
#