The week in review
Most weather: Charlottesville ends February with a fall of more than four inches of snow; Wintergreen reports 11 inches.
Worst snow casualties: An Acura driven by Matthew Weiss crashes into a snowplow on I-64 near 5th Street Extended. Weiss, 28, of Newport News dies around 6:25pm February 28, WINA reports. And Afton resident Clarence Bartlebaugh, 59, slides off Gordonsville Road around 7pm and is pronounced dead at the scene.
Biggest bust: Seventeen members of the "Westside Crew" are indicted for conspiring to distribute cocaine, heroin, PCP, and marijuana since 1995. Gang members have shot at 13 people and killed two, according to U.S. Attorney John Brownlee.
Biggest coincidence? The Westside Crew, aka "Project Crud" and "PJC," marked with graffiti their Hardy Drive and 10th and Page streets turf– the same areas Domino's and Papa John refuse to deliver pizza.
Worst crime wave: A male UVA student reports a strong-armed robbery outside Fitzhugh dorm early February 27. A female undergrad reports being robbed and sexually assaulted at the corner of Wertland and 12th street February 28. And two purse snatchings are reported in the university area late February 26/early February 27.
Best news for Death Row teens: The Supreme Court votes March 1 to abolish the death penalty for those who commit murder under 18– even in Virginia.
Biggest Richmond trial: Piper Roundtree, accused of shooting her husband, University of Richmond professor Fredric Jablin, in his driveway October 30, is convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison February 26 .
Hardest bust: Two UVA students face charges and expulsion for smoking pot in Bice Dorm when someone calls the police.
Softest bust: On the Lawn, Jefferson Literary and Debating Society members erect an eight-foot snow sculpture of TJ, a photo of which appears on the February 28 Cavalier Daily.
Latest sentencing of a former UVA student: Aaron Joshua Robinson is found guilty of malicious wounding and use of a firearm in the April 28 leg-shooting of former UVA football player Jamaine Winborne. The jury recommends an eight-year sentence.
Best case of 'you're-not-my-mom': UVA's Student Council votes against a bill that would have discouraged Dining Services from selling smokes on Grounds.
Best press for Medical Center: Figure skater Scott Hamilton discusses his UVA brain tumor treatment on the Today Show with UVA alum Katie Couric.
Worst week for pontiffs: Pope John-Paul II undergoes an emergency tracheostomy February 24. And Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell is put on a ventilator February 23 in Lynchburg.
Best new gig for Philip Zelikow: Head of the Miller Center and the 9/11 Commission takes a position as senior advisor to his old buddy, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Most surprising legislation to pass in Virginia's homophobic General Assembly: SB 1338, which allows companies to provide domestic partner benefits just as the Commonwealth's competitive business-luring neighbors, West Virginia and Maryland, do.
Worst déjà vu: Former Charlottesville deputy sheriff Steven Wayne Shifflett, 51, previously cleared in a local impersonating an officer charge, now stands accused on a new charge in Alexandria. Shifflett says he's never been there.
Most competitive: In a sting, a Daily Progress deliveryman is arrested in Orange and charged with allegedly stealing a copy of the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star from a customer's box, the DP reports.
Latest theme: The Virginia Film Festival announces this year's fest will dwell on "In/Justice."
Best picture: Million Dollar Baby KO's The Aviator at the 77th annual Academy Awards February 27. Morgan Freeman, Cate Blanchett, Jamie Foxx, and Hilary Swank take home Oscars for best acting.
#