The week in review
Latest in the Scottie Griffin annals: A lawsuit against the former Charlottesville school superintendent and her previous employer, the New Orleans public schools, is settled in favor of the executive secretary who sued when Griffin tried to fire her, Bob Gibson reports in the Daily Progress. Janice Clay is awarded $35,000 plus attorney fees, and attorneys for the plaintiff and for New Orleans both say they were unable to reach Griffin by phone.
Latest contenders for Albemarle County office: David Slutzky is nominated by the Dems to challenge Republican Gary Grant and independent Thomas Jakubowski for the Rio district seat on the Board of Supervisors. And Jon Stokes announces he'll run for the Samuel Miller School Board seat that Gordon Walker is leaving.
Latest plan to thwart terrorists: Sheriff Ed Robb proposes a defense shield around the Albemarle-Charlottesville Regional Jail and other measures totaling thousands of dollars to protect the facility from a terrorist attack, Liesel Nowak reports in the Progress.
Biggest merger: Albemarle First Bank, which was bilked out of $2.4 million in a check-kiting scheme in 2003, announces a merger June 10 with Millennium Bankshares out of Reston. Albemarle First will keep its name and three local branches.
Best merger bonus: Shareholders get over $15 a share for stock that had once dipped under the $8 mark.
Biggest vice bust: Seven slot machines, 25 quarts of moonshine, 75 cans of beer in a vending machine and cash are seized by the Virginia ABC in a June 9 raid on Charlottesville Novelties on East Market Street, according to John Yellig in the DP.
Best sign that inflation lives: City Council approves a utility rate increase June 6, boosting natural gas rates around 13 percent starting July 1, water rates 10 percent, and sewer rates 6 percent, and connection rates go up as well.
Worst loss of an educator and public servant: Former city councilor Mary Alice Gunter, 69, dies June 6 from cancer. Gunter was a teacher in the Charlottesville city schools and an associate professor at UVA's Curry School of Education, a writer of both educational books and mysteries, and a former president of the Venable Neighborhood Association.
Worst loss for Charlottesville police: Gary Williams, the community service officer at Buford Middle School, dies in a single-car accident in Ohio June 7.
Worst day for fatal fires: June 7. Gregory Mark Carter and his cat die in a Madison County predawn blaze, Reed Williams reports in the Progress, and a three-month-old boy dies late that night in a Waynesboro fire police believe was caused by an unattended pot on the stove, according to NBC29.
Worst chemical spill: Floor stripper being delivered to Jefferson Supply Company on Greenbrier Road June 9 apparently shifts in the truck and drips onto the parking lot. A clean-up crew is called, and Albemarle County says there's no immediate threat to the community.
Worst armed robbery: A knife-wielding male takes the cash drawer from an attendant at the Water Street Parking Lot late June 9, according to an NBC29 report. Police say the suspect, a medium-build black male in his mid 20s wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and gray scarf covering his face fled on foot toward Garrett Street.
Most anticipated opening: Bodo's on the Corner, while still not open at the Hook's Tuesday afternoon press time, should start rolling out the bagels this week. "Promise?"
Biggest verdict: Michael Jackson is acquitted June 13 of all charges in his three-month-long child molestation trial.
Biggest tease: Last week's Hook touts the story "Hingeley's after Peatross again" on its cover– but doesn't include the article inside. [The story made it in this week–editor.]