The week in review
Worst suspicious national fire: Cleveland authorities declare the May 21 fire that killed nine– including seven children attending a slumber party– arson.
Worst suspicious local fire: The Swissway Market. On June 1, a year and a half after the Scottsville business burns, business owner Barbara Corby Martin is arrested by federal agents and charged with arson and insurance fraud.
Worst additional woes for Martin: Thirty-three mange- and feces-ridden dogs are found at her home June 5, the rescue of which strains SPCA resources.
Worst police/homicide connection: Former Louisa County deputy and UVA police officer Jamie Daniel Jr. is a "person of interest" in the June 3 slayings of his wife and 17-year-old son in Florida, according to Reed Williams in the Daily Progress. Daniel has been in a mental ward since shortly before the bodies were discovered.
Best decision for Officer Andy Gluba: A grand jury decides the Albemarle County cop was justified in shooting burglary suspect Robert Lee Cooke, an exchange that killed Gluba's K-9 partner, Ingo, and left Cooke paralyzed and facing indictments, Liesel Nowak reports in the DP.
Saddest courtroom scene: Robert Newell, who struck 19-year-old Martha Jones November 29 on Earlysville Road, is sentenced to four months in jail May 31 after pleading guilty to felony hit and run, according to another Nowak article.
Wealthiest Charlottesvillians: Carl Smith with $500 million, followed by Betty Knight Scripps, James B. Murray Jr., John D. Philips, and Patricia Kluge, according to the annual ranking by Virginia Business.
Wealthiest Virginians: Not counting the Mars family, Black Entertainment Television co-founder Sheila Johnson and consumer products heiress Winnie Johnson Marquart share the top spot with $1.5 billion.
Worst moped accident: William Robert Stoughton is rescued from Ivy Creek beside Old Garth Road May 31 after he tumbles off his moped.
Worst police collision: An Albemarle police officer hits two cars May 31 at the intersection of East Rio Road and Hillsdale Drive, according to a John Yellig DP report. Witnesses say the cruiser had its emergency lights on but not its siren.
Worst false police report: UVA student Christopher Anthony Alexander is arrested June 3 for claiming he was abducted and robbed May 27.
Latest suggestion for GPS tracking: State Senator Creigh Deeds, who's running for attorney general, proposes putting a global position system locator on the ankle of everyone on the sexual offender registry.
Worst parenting tale: A Culpeper woman, Regina Banks, is sentenced to 10 months in jail for allowing her 14-year-old daughter to sleep with a 35-year-old man in her house, according to the Culpeper Star-Exponent.
Most public job interviews: City Council votes 3-2 June 6 that interviews with the 13 candidates for three open School Board seats will not take place behind closed doors.
Best plan: The Crozet Master Plan is recognized by the Congress for New Urbanism as one of 15 most innovative projects in the country.
Most ironic: The Crozet Community Association voted against the master plan last December because of a lack of county funding.
Worst decision for sick pot smokers: The U.S. Supreme Court rules June 6 that the feds may prosecute users even if they live in one of 10 states that allow physician-recommended medical marijuana.
Worst decision for right-to-lifers: A U.S. appeals court rules June 3 that Virginia's ban of late-term abortions is unconstitutional because it doesn't have an exception to protect a woman's life.
Latest Jefferson-linked imbroglio: The Jockey Club refuses to allow thoroughbred owner Garrett Redmond to name his filly Sally Hemings, and he sues.
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