The week in review
Best—er– worst sex scandal of the week: Speaker of the House of Delegates and nearby Amherst resident Vance Wilkins allegedly pays $100,000 to the female victim of his unwelcome gropes. The Washington Post scoops Virginia papers on this story.
Worst use of the “I don’t remember” defense: Wilkins claims not to remember rubbing another woman’s leg in front of witnesses at a Christmas party.
Best coverage of the June 4 tornado watch in Free Union: Cvillenews.com.
Best photos of hail the “size of golf balls”: Again, cvillenews.com, complete with a ruler measuring said hail. No photographic evidence supported claims of hail the size of softballs.
Worst damage from hail the size of golf balls: 10 cars at the Crozet Volunteer Fire Department were damaged and the windshield of one of the department’s fire cars “got busted,” says Capt. Gerald Williamson in a Reed Williams Daily Progress account of the storm.
Best use of the “rapping” defense: That wasn’t a confession, it was “an impromptu lyrical composition,” claims attorney Lloyd Snook, according to an Austin Graham report in the Daily Progress. Snook’s client, Russell Adam Pelletier, on trial for murder in Louisa County, is convicted anyway.
Worst news for Adelphia subscribers: It may be time to start looking for a new Internet provider and source of cable TV if a worst-case scenario follows Adelphia’s anticipated bankruptcy filing
Best taste in stolen goods: Letters by George Washington, John Quincy Adams and Ronald Reagan, and a knife owned by James Madison were stolen from an Orange County collector by Thomas Glenn Paytes, who was sentenced to six months in jail, reports the Progress.
Worst state rankings: Virginia ranks 3rd in spending for police and prisons, and is number 50 in its spending for parks and national resources, according to the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee. The state is an unremarkable 27th in spending for education.
Best local sources for hormone replacement therapy and photography quoted by the Washington Post: JoAnn Pinkerton, director of the University of Virginia's Women's Place Mid-Life Health Center in Charlottesville, tells the Post on June 4 that hormone replacement therapy is the best solution for hot flashes, vaginal dryness and loss of bone density, and in a June 6 article, photographer Lynne Brubaker advises that even plain people with good cheekbones and makeup can look gorgeous in photographs with the right lighting.
Worst strategy to protest salary concerns: Washington Post writers forgo bylines June 5 and 6– and nobody notices.
Best example of how far educators will go to motivate their students: Greene County principal Bruce Johnson appears in his underwear on the front page of the June 10 Progress. Photograph of Captain Underpants by Andrew Shurtleff.
Worst blow to UVA fundraising: David Alexander Harrison III, whose name appears on Scott Stadium, the law school, and a new library facility, as well as on a number of academic awards and professorships, dies June 8.
Worst penalizing of the innocent in public housing: Leaseholders can be evicted from their homes if a family member is caught dealing– even if they have no knowledge that drug use was going on. Reed Williams reports on the local effects of this national “zero tolerance” story in the June 9 Progress.
Best example of more information than you need to know in a wedding announcement: The write-up of the Lockhart-Simon nuptials in the June 9 Progress includes the news that the bride’s mother is working on a graduate degree in counseling…at the Alliance Graduate School of Counseling in Nyack, New York.