Issue #20 of The Hook; published 06/20/02

Best opportunity for 15 seconds of fame: The Hook's 24-hour webcam points at Main and Second streets on the Downtown Mall. Extra points if you happen to get hit by a bus while mugging for the camera.

Worst annoyance to local news hounds and anonymous posters on online forums: Waldo Jaquith's Cvillenews.com is out of service for a week and was still down at press time.

Worst news to hear when you're lolling on the beach: Low levels of lead, arsenic, and the pesticide DDE are found in lake sediment at Mint Springs, alleged residue of past spraying of nearby orchards. County officials say the amounts are below EPA action levels.

Worst fashion misstep: Louisa police officer Robert Rigsby Jr. is suspended for wearing a V-neck undershirt rather than the regulation crew necks mandated by new police chief John Cetrulo, reports Reed Williams in the Daily Progress. [See story on page 6.]

Best $90,000 the federal government ever spent on human impact biodynamics modeling: UVA wins Navy contract for a study on whatever human impact biodynamics modeling is.

Best indication that Thomas Jefferson carries a lot more weight in Virginia than Lewis and Clark: State congressmen are in a tizzy over a federal proposal to remove Monticello temporarily from the nickel during 2003-06 to celebrate the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch's Peter Hardin.

Worst publicity for the JAG school: Recent graduate Jeremiah Irvin Rupert, a lieutenant colonel with the U.S. Marines, is indicted on two felony counts of aggravated sexual battery on a seven-year-old girl, according to press accounts.

Best literary decision by the Albemarle County School Board: The board upholds Superintendent Kevin Castner's decision to continue to use The Education of Little Tree by Forrest Carter for supplemental honors reading, despite a Sutherland Middle School parent's objections that the book contains racist statements, is erroneously portrayed by the publisher as an autobiography, and presents a theme of "trickery, lies, and deceit for the purpose of making money."

Worst break for photographers who like to document violent criminal activities: Kroger will no longer develop such photographs. You can forget about getting prints made of sexual activities or sexually suggestive nudity, too.

Worst stereotyping of "mischief makers" as gang members: The president of Westhaven's neighborhood association, Harold Folley, disputes Police Chief Tim Longo's assertion that the public housing project has a gang. Longo stands by his comments in yet another Williams story.

Worst last day of school: At Jefferson School, this year's class of preschoolers is the last to attend the historic school.

Best news for area junkies: Central Virginia's first methadone clinic has opened at Pantops Clinic, reports Claudia Pinto in the Progress.

Worst gaffe by a university with plans to build an unpopular parking garage: It may not own all of the land where it plans to build the garage, claims David Franzen, the lawyer for neighbors who oppose the parking structure.

Worst NIMBYs of the week: Opponents of the use of Burley Middle School as the site for Albemarle County's Post-High School program, on the grounds that the disabled 18-22 year olds might be a danger to Burley students.

Worst publishing casualty: 64 magazine. The slick regional nonprofit arts and culture magazine started by Style Weekly founder Lorna Wyckoff survived two-and-a-half years before succumbing to harsh fiscal realities. The July issue will be its last unless a white knight steps in.

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