4Better Or Worse
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Mar 19th, 2009
1 comments Biggest 180: Albemarle's chairman of the Board of Supervisors, David Slutzky, who memorably compared last year's tax increase to the price of a pizza and beer once a month, says March 11 that he...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Mar 12th, 2009
0 comments Latest sordid Staunton sex crime: Garage-owner Wayne Gill, 39, is arrested for child porn and prostitution March 6 after he pays a 17-year-old girl $300 for oral sex and then films her in the back...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Mar 5th, 2009
0 comments Biggest snowfall: Four inches fall at McCormick Observatory March 2, according to the Daily Progress, the area's greatest snowfall of the season. Typically winter snowfalls for this area average...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Feb 26th, 2009
0 comments Most tradition-bound: UVA students overwhelmingly reject a referendum to create a multiple-sanction honor system, the Cavalier Daily reports. Seventy percent of those voting choose to stick with the...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Feb 19th, 2009
0 comments Biggest change of signal: Local TV stations NBC29 and the Newsplex make the jump from analog to digital broadcasting by February 17 as originally scheduled, despite Congress postponing the deadline...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Feb 12th, 2009
4 comments Biggest clearing of the air: The House of Delegates approves 59-39 a diluted smoking ban February 9 in the state founded on tobacco after Governor Tim Kaine and House Republicans agree to a...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Feb 5th, 2009
0 comments Worst place to be sentenced: The 16th Circuit, which includes Charlottesville and Albemarle, where the judges exceed sentencing guidelines 13.7 percent of the time, according to a Tasha Kates at the...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 29th, 2009
0 comments Most horrific crime: Less than two years after mass murders on the Virginia Tech campus, Chinese grad student Xin Yang, 22, is decapitated January 21 in the cafe at the Graduate Life Center where she...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 22nd, 2009
1 comments Most momentous middle of a Tuesday: Charlottesville stops to watch Barack Obama sworn in as the United States' 44th president January 20. Most swearings-in: U.S. Representative Tom Perriello...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 15th, 2009
2 comments Biggest housing slump: Albemarle sales fall 31.8 percent in 2008, according to the Charlottesville Area Association of Realtors, and Charlottesville's drop 14 percent. The median in Charlottesville...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Jan 8th, 2009
0 comments Biggest brick-laying project: The $7.5 million rebricking of the Downtown Mall begins in earnest January 5. Scariest statistic: UVA's endowment is lighter by $280 million in November, down from $5.1...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Dec 25th, 2008
0 comments Most gaping maw of a budget deficit (state level): Governor Tim Kaine projects the state will come up nearly $3 billion short for the 2009 fiscal year, which ends June 30, 2010. Worst news for UVA:...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Dec 18th, 2008
0 comments Best plea: One of the alleged murderers of Jayne McGowan, William Douglas Gentry Jr., 23, pleads guilty to capital murder and five related charges in Charlottesville Circuit Court December 15 in...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Dec 11th, 2008
0 comments Most gaping maw of a deficit: Albemarle's fiscal year shortfall grows from $4.9 million to $7.2 million. Brandon Shulleeta reports on the supes December 3 meeting for the Daily Progress.  Worst...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Dec 4th, 2008
0 comments Most tragic local link to international terrorism: Nelson County residents Alan Scherr and his 13-year-old daughter, Naomi, are killed while eating at the Oberoi Hotel in Mumbai, India, November 27....
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Nov 27th, 2008
0 comments Least orderly in the court: Witness-assaulter Mark Wayne Shifflett, 46, who attacked and threatened to kill a former employee while handcuffed in Albemarle General District Court August 21 during a...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Nov 20th, 2008
3 comments Best he-said, he-said: CNET founder Halsey Minor and developer Lee Danielson offer contradictory reports on the $30-million Landmark Hotel now under construction on the Downtown Mall, including...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Nov 13th, 2008
1 comments Most historic: Barack Obama is elected 44th president, the first African-American to hold that job, winning in a landslide November 4.  Most astounding upset: Ivy Dem Tom Perriello leads by 745...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Nov 6th, 2008
1 comments Least surprising conclusion: Two-hour parking spaces downtown are in high demand, a survey by the Raleigh, North Carolina, firm Martin Alexiou Bryson determines, and 20 percent of the parkers...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Oct 30th, 2008
0 comments Biggest shortfall: Albemarle County is looking at a $4.9 million deficit, up from $4.1 million in early September, and county teachers may miss raises, Brandon Shulleeta reports in the Daily Progress...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Oct 23rd, 2008
0 comments Biggest plunge: Gas prices drop an average of 27 cents over the weekend, from $3.26 October 17 to $2.99 October 20, Brian McNeill reports in the Daily Progress. Despite plummeting prices all over the...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Oct 16th, 2008
0 comments Worst déjà vu: The stock market plunges almost like it's 1929. Deepest cuts: Governor Tim Kaine announces layoffs of 570 state employees and slashes UVA's budget by 7 percent in...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Oct 9th, 2008
2 comments Worst spate of homicides: Joshua Lee Gibson, 20, dies September 30 from a knife attack at Friendship Court and a 44-year-old man is wounded. Lamont Jermaine Blakey, 26, is charged with first-degree...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Oct 2nd, 2008
0 comments Closest crash to home: Citigroup buys Wachovia stock, priced at $52 per share a year ago, for about a buck a share. The North Carolina-based Wachovia purchased local institution Jefferson National...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Sep 25th, 2008
0 comments Biggest sticker shock (nationally): Federal money men call for a $700 billion bailout of bad mortgages. Biggest sticker shock (locally): Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority announces that a $37.5...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Sep 18th, 2008
0 comments Most disastrous weekend: Hurricane Ike slams the east coast of Texas and takes out Galveston, while Wall Street reels from the bankruptcy of venerable banking house Lehman Brothers, sending the Dow...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Sep 11th, 2008
5 comments Best protest: UVA students hold blank pieces of paper at the September 6 UVA-University of Richmond game to demonstrate their disapproval of the athletic department's ban on signs. Rowdiest: Football...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Sep 4th, 2008
0 comments Most inadequate yearly progress: Nine public schools flunk No Child Left Behind Act standards. In Albemarle, Agnor-Hurt and Greer Elementary schools, and all the county's middle schools– Burley...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Aug 28th, 2008
0 comments Most ominous sign: UVA bans signs at all athletic events, and many wonder if the prohibition was inspired by David Becker's "Fire Groh" sign at a football game last year. Brian McNeill has the story...
4BETTER OR WORSE- The week in review
Published on Aug 21st, 2008
2 comments Latest Meadowcreek Parkway development: City Council approves 3-2 a diamond-shaped grade interchange and temporary construction easements at its August 18 meeting. Latest shootings: Two men walk into...