The week in review
Worst day for CEOs: July 8. Enron's Kenneth "Kenny Boy" Lay takes a perp walk and is charged with selling his stock while urging investors and employees to buy more. Adelphia founder John "Personal Piggy Bank" Rigas and his son, CFO Timothy, are found guilty of looting the company. And Martha "Decorator Cell" Stewart's motion for a new trial is denied.
Worst day for Richmond-weary legislators: A special session to fix the botched "day of rest" law that allows workers to get Sundays off– or triple pay– calls the General Assembly back July 13.
Best pork: Congressman Eric Cantor gets $14.7 million in funding for the National Audio-Visual Conservation Center, a part of the Library of Congress devoted to preserving films, television, and sound recordings. The facility is already under construction in Culpeper using $11 million Cantor scored last year, and should create 140 jobs.
Biggest windfall from the new state budget: Albemarle County gets $2.7 million, most going to teacher salaries, a new fire station, and firefighters.
Most surprising top-10 award winner: Albemarle County, despite its painfully slow website, ranks #8 in the nation for its "high quality" information technology service for the second year in a row.
Most surprising AAA four-diamond award winner: The Clifton Inn, closed since November because of a tragic fire, joins local winners the Boar's Head Inn, its Old Mill Room, Keswick Hall, and the Omni, WINA reports.
Best continuing story: Former Louisa police chief John Wilson, who was convicted of assault and battery in March for striking one of his officers in the groin, appeals and is given a three-month suspended sentence July 8, according to Braxton Williams in the Daily Progress.
Worst decision for local cheesemakers: The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to hear John Coles and Christine Solem's appeal, Melissa Lynch reports in the Progress. The Satyrfield Farm owners refused to allow food inspectors to search their home in 1999 without a warrant, and appealed their misdemeanor sanitation violations.
Worst wild dog attacks: Fluvanna County compensates two farmers whose cattle were attacked by packs of wild dogs this spring. According to Virginia law, counties must pay when wild dogs attack livestock. Braxton Williams has the story.
Worst dogs-eat-former-owner story: Esther Crigger is found dead in her Speedwell home July 6 with at least 19 dogs. Three family members are charged with felony neglect and abuse.
Newest Wendell Wood project: The United Land Corporation czar plans a new shopping center on the same U.S. 29 parcel where Albemarle County nixed his plans to build a Home Depot three years ago, David Dadurka reports in the Progress.
Biggest overhaul: Wintergreen Resort plans a $35-million upgrade that includes a new high-speed lift and spa expansion.
Biggest negligence trial: Wintergreen goes to court July 12 in a multimillion-dollar lawsuit filed after a teenager slammed into a snow maintenance vehicle in January 2003. George Lettis has the story on NBC 29.
Biggest chain reaction: 10 cars pile up on U.S. 29 north July 12 when a car-transport truck hits a southbound car near Sam's Club. "It was like a chain reaction from the rear," the Progress quotes Albemarle police Captain Crystal Limerick.
Best flashback to "Dewey beats Truman": The New York Post runs an exclusive July 6 naming Rep. Dick Gephardt as John Kerry's running mate.
#