The week in review
Biggest scandal: Two Charlottesville police officers are arrested April 8 on bribery and conspiracy charges. Officers Charles Saunders and Roy Fitzgerald are indicted in federal court for allegedly accepting cash and sex from prostitutes, courtesy of Charles M. Phillips, manager of the now demolished Max nightclub, who also ran an escort service, Reed Williams reports in the Daily Progress.
Biggest basketball brouhaha: UVA athletic director Craig Littlepage tells WINA April 6 that a Pete Gillen replacement has not been hired, despite an NBC29 report that University of South Carolina head coach Dave Odom had been offered the job.
Biggest threat to Pantops bus service: Charlottesville Transit threatens to pull the plug on the route if Albemarle doesn't cough up $470,000– a 94 percent increase over last year's county contribution, according to John Yellig in the DP.
Biggest winners: Scottsvillians Nancy and William Bentz claim the $10.3 million they won from a ticket purchased at the IGA in February.
Biggest move: UVA's 147-year-old Varsity Hall travels 185 feet April 9 to make room for a new building behind Rouss Hall.
Latest addition to the 57th District race: Builder Clement "Kim" Tingley joins fellow Dems David Toscano and Rich Collins in the primary race for Mitch Van Yahres' General Assembly seat.
Most dubious distinction for the state legislature: The Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression awards two Muzzles to the House of Delegates for bills that would have installed filters on all library computers and criminalized underwear-showing fashions– the notorious "droopy drawers" bill.
Worst flouting of Virginia's sunshine laws: The Orange County School Board violated the state's Freedom of Information Act in its firing of Superintendent David Baker, according to the state FOIA attorney, Kate Andrews reports in the Progress.
Best Jeffersonian perk: Charlottesville and Albemarle government employees get April 13 off to celebrate TJ's birthday.
Best news for travelers: Low-fare carrier AirTran Airways is coming to Richmond.
Longest spamming sentence: Jeremy Jaynes, 30, of Raleigh, North Carolina, is sentenced to nine years April 8. Prosecutors believe he was responsible for 10 million emails a day. His sentence is under appeal.
Saddest local loss: Four-year-old Robert Waller Shafer is killed April 10 by the Orange County family's pet Rottweiler-shepherd mix.
Worst literary loss: Nobel Prize winner Saul Bellow dies April 5 at 89.
Worst link: Between milk and Parkinson's disease in middle-aged men, according the medical journal Neurology. UVA's Dr. R.D. Abbott participated in a follow-up that supported an earlier study.
Best way to get a degree: Be a big rock star like Dave Matthews, who gets an honorary degree– his first sheepskin– from Haverford College in Pennsylvania May 15.
Most urbane gig for a local big band: Big Ray and the Kool Kats will perform at a swanky Kennedy Center gala April 17.
Most urbane premiere for a local documentary: Rick Preve will debut his film Chagas: A Hidden Affliction May 20 in Barcelona.
Most books: Friends of the Library sell $171,837 worth of books– an increase of 11 percent– at this year's Gordon Avenue Book Sale.
Best sign it's time to stop the accolades: Charlottesville is the top "Really Cool Small Southern Market" for its "sophisticated market in a rural setting," according to Southern Business and Development magazine.
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