BIGGEST NEWS STORIES OF THE YEAR TOP 10 2006
Readers choose top 10 stories of 2006
Date published: 12/31/2006
We asked readers to choose the top 10 local news stories of 2006. Here are the results of our online poll. Free Lance-Star staffers cast separate votes. For their picks, see page C7.
Popular teenager killed at January dance party
When 16-year-old Baron Braswell II was stabbed to death at a Spotsylvania County dance party Jan. 20, the news reverberated throughout the community.
Braswell, a junior at Courtland High School, was a successful student and athlete. He excelled in football and planned to attend college.
Those plans were derailed by a single stab wound to the heart, which killed Braswell at the Howard Johnson motel on U.S. 1 at Four-Mile Fork. At least 100 teens had gathered there for a CD-release party.
Four Fredericksburg teens were convicted on assault charges. A fifth, 18-year-old Marvin M. Parker II, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. He faces up to 40 years in prison at a sentencing hearing scheduled for Jan. 9.
The Courtland High football team dedicated its season to Braswell. The community raised money for a college scholarship fund in his honor. His mother organized a road race aimed at preventing further teen violence.
--Bill Freehling
Law changes after Spotsylvania dog attack that killed 82-year-old woman and her dog
A fatal mauling in Spotsylvania County led Virginia lawmakers to strengthen the state's laws involving serious dog attacks.
It was March 2005 when Dorothy Sullivan, 82, and her small Shih Tzu were mauled to death by a pack of roaming pit bulls outside their Partlow home. But the aftereffects continued into 2006.
Deanna Large, a 37-year-old Partlow woman, was sentenced in March to serve three years in prison. A jury last year decided that the pit bulls belonged to Large and convicted her of involuntary manslaughter.
She became the first person in Virginia history to be convicted of manslaughter as a result of a fatal dog attack.
The incident led the Virginia General Assembly to adopt a law this spring that would allow felony charges against dog owners if a person is seriously injured by a dog that is recklessly allowed to run free. It was dubbed the Dorothy Sullivan Memorial Bill.
--Bill Freehling
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Staff vote
Free Lance-Star staff members cast separate ballots for the top 10 stories of 2006. Our picks mostly agreed with readers' votes, with two exceptions.
1. Braswell case
2. Webb defeats Allen
3. Two hospitals approved
4. Plane crash in Stafford kills four
5. Deanna Large case
6. Patient deaths at MWH
7. Tyreek Davis' body found
8. City approves river easement
9. Civil War Preservation Trust preserves battlefield land in Spotsylvania County
10. National Marine Corps Museum opens |
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City OKs easement
In April, Fredericksburg's City Council approved a conservation easement to protect more than 4,200 acres the city owns along the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers. The vote came after more than two years of discussion, with opponents claiming that the easement would restrict the region's road-building options.
The protected land runs 25 miles upstream, through Stafford, Spotsylvania, Culpeper, Orange and Fauquier counties, and the agreement includes provisions that would allow for future road needs.
The Nature Conservancy gave the city $1.6 million in exchange for the easement. It holds the easement, along with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation and the Virginia Board of Game and Inland Fisheries.
In 2007, Fredericksburg leaders will try to persuade the counties in which the land lies to join on as easement holders and contribute financially to the land's upkeep. They're also asking the General Assembly for more wardens in the local office of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to help police the land.
--Emily Battle
Trust preserves battlefield land
Civil War battlefield preservation efforts had a banner year in 2006. Indeed, the Fredericksburg area was the site of the most significant acquisition nationally.
The Civil War Preservation Trust, aided by Tricord Cos., a preservation-minded local developer, bought the Pierson farm on Tidewater Trail in Spotsylvania County.
Soldiers fought on the 208 acres, east of modern- day Shannon Airport, during the Battle of Fredericksburg. The land earned the name "Slaughter Pen" on Dec. 13, 1862. Five Union soldiers received the Medal of Honor for action on the farm's corn- stubble fields.
Another preservation achievement came at Chancellorsville, where 74 more acres were protected in November. Toll Brothers, a residential developer, sold the CWPT a tract where first-day fighting occurred May 1, 1863. The land sits west of 140 acres that the trust purchased from Tricord in 2005.
--Rusty Dennen |
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1. Braswell case
2. Deanna Large case
3. (tie) Stafford plane crash kills four
State approves two hospitals
5. Jim Webb defeats George Allen
6. Coors beer tanks move through region
7. Tyreek Davis' body found
8. National Marine Corps museum opens
9. Stafford High football player Joey Roberson dies after collapsing at practice
10. Patient deaths at Mary Washington Hospital |
MORE INSIDE
FOR THE REST OF READERS' TOP 10 STORIES OF 2006, SEE PAGE C7. |
| MORE ON 2006
The AP's top 10 stories of the year. Page A7
Dave Barry pokes fun at the year's headlines. Page F1 |
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Date published: 12/31/2006
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