4Better Or Worse
The week in review
Published on Aug 1st, 2002
0 comments   Best reckless, multiple-life-endangering police chase in a 30-foot motor home: Michael David Keys, accompanied by a seven-year-old child, flees from Augusta and Albemarle County police on July...
The week in review
Published on Jul 25th, 2002
0 comments Best 100-year anniversary: July 17, the date Willis Carrier invented air conditioning, the device that made summer in the South tolerable and that led to inevitable battles about whether it's too hot...
The week in review
Published on Jul 18th, 2002
0 comments   Best case of landing on one's feet: Eavesdropper Edmund A. Matricardi, who resigned as head of Virginia's Republican Party, is hired by South Carolina Republicans. Next best case of landing on...
The week in review
Published on Jul 11th, 2002
0 comments Worst place to need to go to the bathroom: Fridays After Five. The city drops public restrooms from a $1.5-million renovation of the Downtown Recreation Center because of cost, reports Jake Mooney in...
The week in review
Published on Jul 4th, 2002
0 comments   Best press release of the week: Feisty Sprint, which recently went after Adelphia's phone customers, finds value in the WorldCom debacle. A June 26 release expresses the company's dismay at...
The week in review
Published on Jun 27th, 2002
0 comments 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...
The week in review
Published on Jun 20th, 2002
0 comments 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...
The week in review
Published on Jun 13th, 2002
0 comments 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...
The week in review
Published on Jun 6th, 2002
0 comments Best celebrity wedding: Mary Chapin Carpenter got married outdoors in downtown Batesville on Saturday, June 1– to a real carpenter. Dave Matthews and Sissy Spacek attend, but rumored...
The week in review
Published on May 30th, 2002
0 comments Best conclusions from paid consultants studying the impact of a highly unpopular garage: UVA’s proposed 1,180-car garage will not cause unacceptable traffic problems, according the study the...
The week in review
Published on May 23rd, 2002
0 comments Best news for City Councilor Meredith Richards: She’s the Democrat nominated to run against Republican Virgil Goode in the Fifth District congressional race. Best news for Virgil Goode: He still owns...
The week in review
Published on May 16th, 2002
0 comments Best display of voter appreciation: Newly elected councilor Rob Schilling and his wife Joan stand on the corner of Ridge-McIntire and Preston the day after the election and hold up “Thank you” signs...
The week in review
Published on May 9th, 2002
0 comments Best overdue apology: At the dedication of the historical marker noting the Supreme Court decision allowing the sterilization of 8,000 Virginians deemed “genetically inferior,” Del. Mitch Van Yahres...
The week in review
Published on May 2nd, 2002
0 comments Worst headline in a national story with a Charlottesville connection: “Child-killer fights neighborhood publicity” appears in the April 28 Washington Post, detailing Glenn Barker’s efforts to dispel...
The week in review
Published on Apr 25th, 2002
0 comments Best emotion-packed meeting of the Board of Architectural Review: Swayed by the impassioned pleas from First Baptist Church members who want to partially demolish the Rufus Holsinger warehouse on...
The week in review
Published on Apr 18th, 2002
0 comments Best news for Republicans aspiring to party leadership in Virginia: A vacancy is created when state executive director Edmund A. Matricardi III resigns following his indictment for eavesdropping on...
The week in review
Published on Apr 11th, 2002
0 comments Best item from St. Anne-Belfield’s auction catalog: A week in Mustique in a five-bedroom villa designed for Britain’s Princess Margaret, including roundtrip private jet travel from Charlottesville to...
The week in review
Published on Apr 4th, 2002
0 comments Best April Fool’s joke: Brooke Shealy, MIX 107.5 morning host and Channel 29 weekend weather woman, announces she’s taking a job with the Today show in New York, complete with limousine and a shoe...
The week in review
Published on Mar 28th, 2002
0 comments Best present a girl turning 13 could ever get: Dave Matthews plays at the bat mitzvah of Jessica Colburn, daughter of AOL Time Warner exec David Colburn who hired ‘N Sync two years ago to perform at...
The week in review
Published on Mar 21st, 2002
0 comments Best phone number to have when your climatology office’s budget is threatened: Senator George Allen’s, which Pat Michaels called when the funding for his state climatology office was looking at a...
The week in review
Published on Mar 14th, 2002
0 comments Best description of a thief– white male, fond of chocolates, ice cream, and books:  Barracks Road’s Lindt Chocolate Shops, Barnes & Noble, and Ben and Jerry’s all have been robbed over...
The week in review
Published on Mar 7th, 2002
0 comments Best boost for Virginia’s upscale wines: Patricia Kluge appears on CNBC touting wines from the Kluge Estate Winery and Vineyard that start at $80. Host Liz Claman registers surprise by calling it “...
The week in review
Published on Feb 28th, 2002
0 comments   Worst case of NIMBYism: Eleven Keswick property owners, who live in a rural area zoned agricultural, oppose a new agricultural venture, Keswick Vineyards, reports Peter Savodnik in the Daily...
The week in review
Published on Feb 21st, 2002
0 comments   Best legislation the General Assembly can come up with to help fiscally strapped schools:  Both the House of Delegates and the Senate pass bills requiring the posting of “In God We Trust...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Feb 7th, 2002
0 comments Worst attack story: UVA students are beat up in three separate incidents in attacks believed to be racially motivated. Most timely sleuthing by police: Six are arrested for the attacks. Worst case of...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 1st, 2013
0 comments Most hailish weather: Chunks of ice pummel Greene County, and a possible lightning strike enflames a house at 971 Grayson Lane in Redfields June 16. Worst loss to movie magic: UVA alum/special...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 1st, 2013
0 comments Most feverish: Two UVA Medical Center employees have H1N1– swine flu– bringing the local number of confirmed cases to four. Closest call: UVA student Jamie Jiao, 20, sits in the front car...