4Better Or Worse


The week in review Published on Feb 14th, 2013 0 comments Most eagerly awaited fugitive: Former restaurateur Jim Baldi, pictured, returned to town February 5 after waiving extradition, according to San Francisco public defender Mark Jacobs. Now housed in...
The week in review Published on Feb 6th, 2013 1 comments Latest in the Daniel Harmon-Wright saga: The former Culpeper cop who blasted unarmed Patricia Cook, 54, a year ago is found guilty of voluntary manslaughter and two other felonies January 29. A jury...
The week in review Published on Jan 30th, 2013 9 comments Worst exercise of Second Amendment rights: A man walks into Kroger on Emmet Street with a loaded AR-15 semi-automatic rifle January 27. Worst idea for a hoax: University of Virginia at Wise student...
The week in review Published on Jan 23rd, 2013 0 comments Biggest bust: The six-to-10-inch snowfall predicted for January 17 that had Albemarle schools closing for the day despite no stickage. Biggest Culpeper trial: Former police officer Daniel Harmon-...
The week in review Published on Jan 17th, 2013 0 comments Best connecting the dots: The common thread for controversial UVA Rector Helen Dragas' top supporters– Governor Bob McDonnell, U.S. Senator Mark Warner, and former governor/U.S. Senator...
The week in review Published on Jan 9th, 2013 2 comments Newest BoV member: Governor Bob McDonnell appoints prominent UVA/McDonnell donor Bill Goodwin to the Board of Visitors. Goodwin has served on the BoV before, and this fall, in an advisory position,...
The week in review Published on Jan 2nd, 2013 0 comments Worst rumor: That something will happen at Albemarle High on the Mayan Doomsday December 21– one week after the horrific massacre of first graders in Newtown, Connecticut. Albemarle police...
The week in review Published on Dec 18th, 2012 1 comments Latest abduction: Mark L. Weiner, 52, of Barboursville, is charged after allegedly giving a ride from Charlottesville to Pantops to an adult female early December 13 and taking her against her...
The week in review Published on Dec 11th, 2012 0 comments Worst flu outbreak: St. Anne's-Belfield cancels upper school classes December 7 with more than 80 students and staff stricken. Jack Jouett Middle School reports a similar number of absences, reports...
The week in review Published on Dec 4th, 2012 4 comments Biggest search for missing teen: Nearly 100 people turn out December 1 to look for 19-year-old DaShad "Sage" Smith, who was supposed to meet a friend November 20 at the Amtrak station on West Main,...
The week in review Published on Nov 27th, 2012 1 comments Most disturbing discovery: A motorist reports an unresponsive man in a parked car at the eastbound I-64 rest area near Ivy/Crozet around 8:30am November 26. Virginia State Police determine the man...
The week in review Published on Nov 20th, 2012 0 comments Most disruptive: Occupiers interrupt City Council November 18 following the public comment portion of the meeting, and police escort two of them out, the first time anyone's been ejected in at...
The week in review Published on Nov 13th, 2012 0 comments Most schizophrenic: In June, UVA's Board of Visitors fires President Teresa Sullivan. At its November 9 meeting, the BoV unanimously votes to extend Sullivan's contract another year to 2016, with the...
The week in review Published on Nov 6th, 2012 1 comments Most disturbing wanted poster: Albemarle police send out photos of two girls November 5 seeking to identify them because they were believed to be victims of assault. The children are identified and...
The week in review Published on Oct 31st, 2012 1 comments Bigger than the 2012 election: Hurricane Sandy puts politicking on hold and has the Eastern Seaboard braced for a perfect (Franken)storm, the behavior of which meteorologists call "unprecedented."...
The week in review Published on Oct 23rd, 2012 0 comments Biggest bombshell: Albemarle Supervisor Christopher Dumler, who represents the Scottsville district, is arrested for forcible sodomy October 18. Biggest bombshell in court: Judge Cheryl Higgins...
The week in review Published on Oct 16th, 2012 6 comments Coldest case: Joseph Harris, 22, is on trial for the 2005 murder of Anthony Lorenzo "Bunny" Johnson in Darden Towe Park. Harris was arrested in 2010, and prosecutors say they will use jailhouse...
The week in review Published on Oct 9th, 2012 1 comments Most damning testimony: The partner of Wanda Marie Turner, the woman charged with second-degree murder in the March 3 death of Robert "Eddie" Snead Jr., tells a judge at a preliminary hearing October...
The week in review Published on Oct 2nd, 2012 1 comments Worst fire: Eleven-year-old boy Dustyn R. Fitzgerald dies in his second-floor bedroom in an 8am Sunday blaze September 30 in Dooms, according to a release. His parents and five-year-old brother...
The week in review Published on Sep 25th, 2012 3 comments Closest call for the owner of a prominent downtown location: John Dewberry, who bought the Landmark Hotel shell at a bankruptcy auction in June, walks away from a plane that hydroplaned during...
The week in review Published on Sep 18th, 2012 3 comments Latest BoV gaffe: UVA foregoes the chance to entice a $20-million donor with naming rights to build a new wing for the cramped University Art Museum when it accepts the art collection of former...
The week in review Published on Sep 11th, 2012 5 comments Most perplexing City Council action: The city will hire four ambassadors for the Downtown Mall to somehow counteract the drunkenness, profanity, and aggressive panhandling perpetuated by some of...
The week in review Published on Sep 4th, 2012 0 comments Most second-degree murder sentencings: Francis Panal Quiros, 40, gets 25 years August 28 for the brutal December slaying of Amy Holden, his brother's sister-in-law, in Shipman, according to the...
The week in review Published on Aug 28th, 2012 2 comments Most like a snow day: A week after classes begin, Charlottesville schools lets students out at 12:30pm August 29 in advance of a Presidential visit by Barack Obama at the nTelos Pavilion. Albemarle...
The week in review Published on Aug 21st, 2012 1 comments Loudest: Venable neighborhood residents outraged over decibel-searing parties go before City Council August 20 to clamor for the death penalty– or at least stiffer fines and jail time–...
The week in review Published on Aug 14th, 2012 1 comments Most name calling: WINA's Rob Schilling comes under fire for calling 5th District Democratic candidate John Douglass, a retired brigadier general, a "chickenhawk," "dupe," and "crook" for not coming...
The week in review Published on Aug 7th, 2012 1 comments Most questionable competency: Accused triple-murderer Rashad Riddick, 25, pummels his defense attorney, Joseph Flood, in the face at a mental competency hearing August 1 in Madison, the Culpeper Star...
The week in review Published on Jul 25th, 2012 4 comments Most number of bummed people: Those who had scored tickets to see Michelle Obama July 20 in Main Street Arena. Understandably, she canceled after the horrific mass shooting at the Dark Knight Rises...
The week in review Published on Jul 17th, 2012 2 comments Most likely to please UVA Rector Helen Dragas: The university enters an agreement to provide four classes online at no cost through a partnership with Coursera. A dearth of online classes was one of...
The week in review Published on Jul 10th, 2012 3 comments Biggest discovery: UVA scientists are part of a Large Hadron Collider team in Europe that finds what may be the Higgs boson– a.k.a. the "God particle"– believed to give mass to every...