Issue #21 of The Hook; published 06/27/02

Worst swipe at the League of Women Voters: City Council's invitation to a League observer to attend the June 18 interviews with school board candidates that were closed to the public has some folks grumbling about the watchdog group's privileged status, reports Jake Mooney in the Daily Progress.

Best description of a robbery suspect in the Progress (and worst fashion decision): Two women rob another woman early June 23 on 10th Street, and one of the suspects wore a "lampshade-like" hat.

Worst first: An HIV-positive Virginia man becomes one of the first in the country to be charged with "infected sexual battery" after having sex with his wife, who has contracted the virus, according to the Washington Post.

Best result of Vance Wilkins' resignation from speaker of the House of Delegates: The General Assembly is rife with sexual harassment from which even female state senators are not exempt, reports the Washington Post, and legislators are considering a new code of conduct that spells out what's not okay.

Worst loss to U.S. 29 South: The Waving Man-- Jimmy Dowell-- may have to leave his Covesville home, according to a Peter Savodnik story in the Progress. Dowell has been a fixture waving at passersby in the median south of Charlottesville for the past 12 years following time in prison for murdering a Scottsville man in 1961 and his girlfriend, a mother of six, in 1976.

Best reaping of funds by the local Alzheimer's Association: The organization receives $5,000 from Dave Matthews Band's philanthropic arm, Bama Works, and Eure Communications donates $52,000 worth of advertising on the company's three radio stations.

Worst side affect of anesthesia: "Anesthesia awareness" is limned as a state in which a patient is conscious during surgery, but is unable to communicate. Claudia Pinto in the June 20 Progress reports on the case of Carol Weihrer, who was wide awake as her eye was pulled out of her head.

Worst result of listening to that voice in your head telling you to kill: Craig Nordensen, the coal tower killer, is declared mentally competent to stand trial. He pleads guilty to two capital murder charges and is sentenced to life without possibility of parole, according to various reports.

Best Supreme Court ruling affecting mentally retarded murderers: Executing the mentally retarded is unconstitutional, a decision that will affect Virginia's Daryl Renard Atkins, who has an IQ of 59 and who shot a man for beer money.

Worst cattle rustling: Thirty-eight head are taken from the farm of Leroy Herndon in the biggest cattle heist in Fluvanna County history, reports the Progress' Reed Williams.

Worst robbery at a local ad agency: Williams also reports that a Payne Ross and Associates employee was tied up and robbed at the firm's office shortly after midnight on June 18.

Best grabbing of federal funds by Scottsville: The town received $277,000, much of which will build parking spaces for the Scottsville Historic Streetscape Project, says the Progress.

Worst results from shoplifting a book: Richmond Judge Learned D. Barry resigns from the bench after pleading guilty to stealing a $12.95 book from Tower Books. The Associated Press account did not say which book Barry took.

Best bomb-making in West Leigh: A 15-year-old boy is charged with felony manufacture of a bomb, and his father with contributing to the delinquency of a minor after an explosion rocks the Ivy neighborhood, the Progress reports.

Worst loss to the advice-hungry: Columnist Ann Landers dies at age 83.

Worst news for the DVD resistant: Circuit City will stop

selling videotapes.

Best signs of returning to a pre-9/11 normalcy: City Hall side doors reopen, as does the short-term parking lot beside the airport.

Best scooping of the national press by The Hook: This paper reported Mary Chapin Carpenter's June 1 wedding in its June 6 issue; the story hit the AP wire on June 21.

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