Published May 6, 2004, in issue 0318 of The Hook

Most Un-American behavior: Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib prison west of Baghdad are photographed as they're subjected to sexual and physical abuse at the hands of their American guards.

Best escape: American contractor Thomas Hamill, who was kidnapped in Iraq April 9, flees his captors and is picked up by American soldiers May 3.

Most anticipated IPO: Google announces plans to sell enough shares later this spring to value the company around $25 billion.

Most anticipated flop: Although the IPO may allow small investors to grab a piece of the search engine company that's become a household verb, did they really need to value it as high as General Motors?

Best break in a General Assembly impasse: The Senate and House of Delegates pass a tax package April 28 that sets the stage for a budget. Finally.

Worst serial rapist déj

vu: A woman is struck in the face April 29 when she returns to a Stribling Avenue residence and finds a black male in his mid 20s to mid 30s, 5' 9" to 6' tall. A plaid Adidas baseball cap is left at the scene. On May 1, a man wakes up in his John Street apartment to the touch of a black male in his early 20s. Police are uncertain whether these incidents are related to the serial rapist.

Worst first: Former UVA football player Jamaine Winborne is shot in the leg outside a dorm, the first non-self-inflicted shooting on Grounds in over 10 years. Engineering student Aaron Joshua Robinson is charged with malicious wounding.

Worst shooting aftermath casualties: Three UVA football players-- Marques T. Hagans, Brandon Cortes Lee, and Lonzer Kenneth Tynes-- are arrested following the shooting, Hagans and Lee for disorderly conduct, and Tynes for vandalism after allegedly throwing a chair through a window.

Worst brouhaha in Orange: Orange County Volunteer Rescue Squad Chief Gary Morris is barred from entering the county building where the E-911 offices are the latest incident in a showdown between the Board of Supervisors and the squad, Olympia Meola reports in the Daily Progress.

Best news for Albemarle seniors who must pass SOLs to graduate: Of the 751 members of the Class of 2004, only 20 have not completed SOL requirements, according to School Board member Brian Wheeler's mailing list, SchoolMatters. Also, the county's drop-out rate is less than one percent.

Biggest TV loss: Longtime NBC29 anchor Dave Cupp announces that he's leaving after two and a half decades at WVIR to join his wife in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Biggest TV gain: Channel 9, Charlottesville's second new television station, plans 24 hours of local content. Denny King and Bob Sigman will put the studio on the Downtown Mall,

la NBC's Today show.

Worst place to stay married: Roanoke, where one in five adults are divorced or separated, compared to the national rate of one in ten, the New York Times reports.

Biggest arraignment: King of Pop Michael Jackson goes to court April 30 and pleads not guilty to 10 felony counts that include child molestation and conspiracy.

Biggest deal: Patricia Kluge and her husband, Bill Moses, buy 550 acres from the University of Virginia Foundation that previously belonged to her ex, John Kluge, for $10.5 million, according to David Dadurka in the Progress.

Worst case of the missing wine: Patricia Kluge has her Kluge Estate wine dropped off the day before lunching at Charlie Palmer Steak House on Capitol Hill with the Washington Post's Reliable Source, Richard Lieby. The restaurant's inability to find the New World Red until 90 minutes later-- when the check arrived-- leaves Kluge "steamed," according to Lieby.

Juiciest detail in an obituary: That Joan Williams, who died April 11 at age 75, had "a brief romance for a few months in 1952" with William Faulkner, who encouraged her to write. The obituary claims her manuscripts are archived "with his" in UVA's special collections.

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