The week in review

Best display of voter appreciation: Newly elected councilor Rob Schilling and his wife Joan stand on the corner of Ridge-McIntire and Preston the day after the election and hold up “Thank you” signs to homeward-bound commuters.
Best use of the single-shot voting strategy: On May 7, Republicans elect their first city councilor in 16 years.
Worst loss for Richmond radio: The talk show of former Clinton pal (and later alleged grope victim) Kathleen Willey is canceled after just a month.
Best row at a fundraiser: Boudreau’s owner Earl Smith escapes with a scratch after taking on a knife-wielding biker at a May 5 motorcycle rally to raise money for cancer. The Daily Progress reports that David Andrew Boland was arrested and charged with felony malicious wounding and a couple of misdemeanors.
Worst exodus of Albemarle County assistant school superintendents: Frank Morgan accepts a position as superintendent of Goochland County Public Schools. The other assistant superintendent, Jean Murray, a candidate for superintendent of Charlottesville City Schools (who lost out as first choice to Kriner Cash from Martha’s Vineyard), announces she has her resume in circulation, reports Kate Andrews in the Progress.
Best news for Albemarle County assistant superintendent Jean Murray: Fluvanna has a superintendent slot opening, as Wayne White announces he’ll step down in August, says an Austin Graham story in the Progress.
Worst haul from a drug sting: Operation Spring Cleaning in Orange County results in eight arrests and nets a lousy $400 in crack cocaine, $70 worth of marijuana, a “small amount of Ecstasy,” $2,200 in cash, and a handgun, according to the Progress.
Best project for uniting the city’s disparate political voices: The proposed bus transfer station at the eastern end of the Downtown Mall has Republicans, independents, Democrats, and even Democrats for Change joined in opposition to the $6 million redesign.
Worst example of fraternity hijinks: Three university students from Pi Kappa Alpha are charged with felonies for planting bombs in mailboxes, reports the Progress’ Reed Williams.
Best clue that local companies might not be fantastic: None are listed in the Virginia Chamber of Commerce’s “Fantastic 50” companies for 2002.
Worst death throes of a magazine with a Charlottesville publisher: Oxford American editor Marc Smirnoff emails friends that the spring issue is stuck at the printer’s without enough money to get it printed. Smirnoff acknowledges that Covesville-based publisher John Grisham has bailed the magazine out many times in the past. No word at press time whether Grisham will come to the rescue once more.
Best break for Virginia’s Republican Party: State prosecutors are ready to drop felony eavesdropping charges against the party’s former executive director, Edmund A. Matricardi III, according to the Progress.
Worst break for a former Republican candidate for lieutenant governor who’s now president of Patrick Henry College: Michael Farris’ college for home schooled kids is denied accreditation– in part because of its insistence on teaching creationism, even in biology classes that explain evolution.