Wayne LaPierre, Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts, Bob Goodlatte

Because a Metro Transit Police officer from Woodbridge has been charged with conspiring to steal thousands of dollars worth of coins to buy lottery tickets, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to our good friend Wayne LaPierre, CEO of the Fairfax-based National Rifle Association. How can you tell he's lying? His lips are moving.

Media Matters reported Tuesday that Wayne told Glenn Beck on his Internet "show" that unlike union dues, the NRA's funds come from grassroots support. "We raise it all through 5, 10, 15, 20 dollar contributions that Americans are willing to preserve freedom," he said. "And they're willing to support it. But, you know, that's what NRA is about. I mean, I always say we're about our membership and we're about giving voice to our membership."

If by "all" he means "some," then yes. In actuality, Bloomberg News reported last month, less than half of the NRA's $228 million in 2010 income is from membership dues; most is from fundraising, sales, advertising, and royalties. Bloomberg found that Strum, Rugar, and Smith & Wesson, and Remington all contributed in 2011. The lobby's "Ring of Freedom" program started in 2005 honors donors who have contributed $1 million. The NRA received $71 million in donations in 2010, up 54% from 2004. In fact, Missouri-based firearms-related retailer MidwayUSA alone has donated $6.7 million to the NRA since 1992.

Although the NRA says it has "corporate sponsors," it also says, "It is not affiliated with any firearm or ammunition manufacturers or with any businesses that deal in guns and ammunition."

Actually, Wayne may be getting a call from the IRS soon. The NRA Foundation created an online store where NRA grant recipients were required to purchase many common products. The former director of tax-exempt organizations for the IRS told Bloomberg that this could jeopardize the foundation's tax-exempt status.

The silver goes to the Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts in Vienna for, well, picking on the little guy.

Tom Jackman of The Washington Post's "The State of NoVa" blog reported Wednesday that Wolf Trap is suing The Barns of Rose Hill in Berryville for trademark infringement over the use of "The Barns" because of the Barns at Wolf Trap name. After 50 years of toil, The Barns of Rose Hill nonprofit opened a community center in September out of donated pieces of land. A month later, Wolf Trap trademarked "The Barns."

In its suit, Wolf Trap is calling for The Barns of Rose Hill to cease using its name and website domain name, destroy all merchandise with the name, and pay Wolf Trap its profits, compensation for injuries, legal fees, and triple the total reward. Never mind that The Barnes of Rose Hill nonprofit was founded in 2004 – and Wolf Trap didn't sue or trademark then – and has an annual budget of $150,000, compared to Wolf Trap's $28 million. The nonprofit says it can't afford to litigate. Jackman followed up Thursday, reporting that neither side is backing down yet.

As Jackman asked aloud in his blog, would customers really confuse a nonprofit community center and an amphitheater with the third-largest ticket sales in the world 50 miles apart?

Wolf Trap critics can bring their comments, pitchforks, and torches to the Facebook page "Big BAD Wolf Trap Bully" and donate to The Barns of Rose Hill on its website.

But the gold (which was bound to go to one of the Bobs this week) goes to today's clear winner, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, not so much for anything he did or said this week but for being a tangible target of the nation's ire: a cosponsor and chief defender of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).

SOPA (and the Senate's PIPA) is meant to combat Internet piracy and copyright infringement but critics charge it could censor free speech, burden websites to police user-generated content, stifle innovation, and shut down legitimate sites. Goodlatte told The Roanoke Times this week, "This is all about violations of criminal laws and giving law enforcement new tools to enforce those laws."

Not since possibly the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 has an act of Congress rankled so many Americans. The White House announced last week that it opposes SOPA and PIPA, saying, "We will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet." Websites like Wikipedia, Reddit, Mozilla, and WordPress protested the bills with blackouts on Wednesday. Google said 4.5 million people signed its anti-SOPA/PIPA petition on Wednesday.

The backlash is being felt in Washington. The Hill reported Wednesday that two Republican SOPA cosponsors withdrew their support Tuesday. PIPA lost four Republican sponsors on Wednesday. One senator even withdrew his support from PIPA in June four days after he joined as a cosponsor.

Yet, to Goodlatte's credit, he's done the impossible by uniting contentious Virginia factions in an otherwise bitter election year – uniting them against him, anyway. For the Democrats, Sen. Mark Warner, a technology entrepreneur turned politician, wrote on Facebook that SOPA and PIPA "go too far." He said, "Online piracy is a real and serious problem, but there has to be a better way to go after rogue sites without fundamentally changing the way the Internet works." Rep. Jim Moran tweeted that he opposed SOPA and said, "Keep the internet open." Rep. Gerry Connolly wrote on Facebook, "We need a free and open Internet. SOPA will have unintended consequences against the high tech industry in our district, and place undue burdens on our small internet businesses."

On the Republican side, Goodlatte's primary rival, Karen Kwiatkowski, slammed him as a puppet of Hollywood and big pharma and big ag. "Bob Goodlatte – in our name – has told the world he doesn't support due process and the traditional American concept of innocent until proven guilty," she wrote. State tea party leader and GOP Senate candidate Jamie Radtke said SOPA is an assault on free speech: "My position is that I don't want to give [Attorney General] Eric Holder complete determination of whether or not certain Internet web sites should be pulled down." Goodlatte's Virginia colleagues aren't fans either. Rep. Frank Wolf wrote on Facebook (seriously, who needs press secretaries anymore?), "I oppose SOPA in its current form." Rep. Robert Hurt was even harsher in a radio interview, calling SOPA "unprecedented and really frightening." "I have a real problem with it and I don’t think at this point it's something that I could consider supporting," he said. "I would want to see some changes made to it before I could consider it but overall, I have significant problems with it."

Politico reported Wednesday that House Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith called on Goodlatte to negotiate a compromise since bipartisan alternative bills have been proposed in both chambers. Goodlatte hasn't issued an official statement this week in response to the SOPA criticism yet, but he played the jobs card in what sounded like the last shriek on the retreat: "Literally hundred of thousands, if not millions of jobs, are depending on fighting this, and many hundreds of thousands more could be created if we stop this piracy," he told WHSV in Harrisonburg on Wednesday.

Although SOPA may be as dead as Goodlatte's balanced budget amendment, one commentator in China – where the Internet is censored – might've said it best about the debate: "We should learn something from the way these American Internet companies protested against SOPA and PIPA. A free and democratic society depends on every one of us caring about politics and fighting for our rights. We will not achieve it by avoiding talk about politics."

Congress' 13% approval rating won't climb much higher, thanks in large part to Bob Goodlatte, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Bob Goodlatte, George Allen, Angeline Lillard

Because the Virginia-Tennessee border was not officially agreed upon until 1902, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

First up is Rep. Bob Goodlatte. He is one of the Republican's greatest champions of a balanced budget amendment, and Goodlatte claims to have a powerfully influential ally on his side: Thomas Jefferson.

PolitiFact checked Goodlatte's claim and found it Half True on Friday. Sure, TJ in a letter in 1798 said that he supported a constitutional amendment to prohibit federal borrowing. But, like with much of what TJ believed at one point or another in his lifetime, he changed his mind or at least softened his stance on this issue.

As president he relied on public debt for the $15 million Louisiana Purchase in 1803. TJ supported public debt to fund the War of 1812, although he believed it should be paid off in a generation.

As one historian put it, "You pick the year – 1798, he's for an amendment [banning federal borrowing]. In 1813 he's saying it's OK to borrow, but you have to borrow within certain restrictions, but don't tie the hands of Congress by saying it's a rule."

If TJ was such an avid supporter of a balanced budget amendment in his day, he would've done more than mention it in a private letter to a friend.

Our runner-up is former Sen. George Allen, an oldie but a goody. George, who is campaigning to win back his Senate seat, claims on his website about his governorship in the 1990s, "He challenged critics and sentiment that suggested it couldn't be done, reining in government spending and substantially reducing the size of the state workforce."

PolitiFact says no way, George. "Even if you subtract about $1.75 billion in spending increases Allen aides say he was required to authorize, the general fund budget would have increased 20 percent under Allen's watch," PolitiFact found in its False rating. Not all of the factors were George's doing or in his control: inflation, population growth, and Medicaid costs among them.

But some budget items were because of his policies, such as $400 million in prison construction for his push to abolish parole and extend sentences, and $260 million set aside to help fund the end of the car tax for his successor, Jim Gilmore.

PolitiFact points out that if George claimed that he fought to curb spending rather than actually reigning in spending, that'd be more accurate. Not that George has a good history of choosing his words carefully, mind you.

But our winner is Angeline Lillard, a University of Virginia psychology professor. She was the lead author on a study published Monday that found that watching just nine minutes of SpongeBob SquarePants can cause short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds because of its fast-paced animation. (SpongeBob isn't nearly as "fast-paced" as myriad of other cartoons.)

These children fared worse in mental-function tests than those who were told to watch a PBS documentary or draw with crayons instead for the study. Lillard said parents shouldn't let their children watch such shows before school or when they need to be focused on something.

Nickelodeon is crabby about it. A spokesman said such a study is inherently flawed and that the show is meant for kids age 6-11, not 4-year-olds. (That's ageism, Nickelodeon!)

SpongeBob has become quite the controversial social activist for being a laughy fry cook who lives in a pineapple under the sea. The show got flak from Focus on the Family for being part of a pro-tolerance program, and the Fox and Friends screwballs said that a SpongeBob show on pollution and going green was "pushing a global warming agenda." This just in: Oceanographers are outraged that the show portrays talking wildlife and underwater fire!

Lillard said that SpongeBob shouldn't be singled out among other cartoons. But, really, it's no fair to pick on SpongeBob, who did no harm to anyone and only wants to karate chop with Sandy and go jellyfishing with Patrick. Doesn't he have enough problems working for a penny-pinching ex-sailor, protecting the Crabby Patty Secret Formula from a sadistic competitor, and trying to finally pass boating school? Leave SpongeBob alone, eggheads!

That's professor Angeline Lillard, UVa's resident Squidward, today's Worst Virginian in the World!

Bob Goodlatte, Ronald W. Williams, Michael Vick

Because someone thought "Virginia is for Lovers" would be a great tourism motto for a state named for the Virgin Queen, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

The bronze goes to Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who earned top billing on an unenviable campaign-finance report last week.   

News America/Fox PAC is essentially a central depository for News Corp. executives’ political donations, including boss Rupert Murdoch himself. The PAC has donated $21,000 to Republican-affiliated PACs so far this election cycle, compared to $3,500 for Democratic ones.

Well, Politico reported Friday that a Goodlatte, R-6th (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg), leadership PAC received the largest contribution from News America/Fox at $3,000 in the month following a phone-hacking scandal that has rocked the Murdoch empire. In the 2010 election cycle, News America/Fox donated $8,000 to Goodlatte’s PAC, second-most of all individual congresspersons' PACs.

And what is Goodlatte’s PAC awash with Murdoch money called? Good Fund. Seriously.

 

The silver goes to attorney Ronald W. Williams, an alum of the Fire and Brimstone School of Law, evidently.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia is considering legal action against the Pittsylvania County Board of Supervisors for starting meetings with prayers that invoke Jesus. The ACLU has warned that such sectarian prayers violate the First Amendment and federal appeals court rulings, but the board won't budge.

Courts have ruled that such practices are government speech, not personal speech. Nondenominational prayers are appropriate, the Supreme Court ruled 30 years ago, as long as "there is no indication that the prayer opportunity has been exploited to proselytize or advance any one, or to disparage any other, faith or belief," something even the ACLU concedes is reasonable.

However, Williams, a former Danville mayor, will have none of it. In a letter to the board cited Thursday by the Danville Register & Bee, he called the ACLU's position "idiotic," and "I want to help you in any way I can and I know your position is solid. We, for too long, have ignored our strength and, to me, this is just another assault by the devil."

The devil? And who's this "we," Kemosabe?

The Register & Bee reported Friday that, according to the ACLU's website, more than half the group's 120 legal actions are on behalf of Christians. In fact, the newspaper pointed out, a federal court in 2002 sided with the ACLU and a preacher's church by ruling that a part of the state Constitution that forbid religious organizations from incorporating violated the First Amendment. That preacher was the Rev. Jerry Falwell.

Williams also told the Register & Bee that he is ready to do battle in the courtroom for this case: "I want to go down fighting in my last years as a lawyer, if I have to." Mr. Williams' expertise, as listed on his law firm's website, are motor vehicle accidents; personal injury; domestic relations; divorce, custody and support; criminal defense; traffic charges; and Social Security disability claims. First Amendment litigants and archangels need not apply.

But our winner is Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick. The former Hokie and Newport News native gave an extensive interview for the September issue of GQ magazine with Deadspin founder Will Leitch, in which he talked about returning to football after incarceration.

Vick had to back away from interview comments inferring that NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell steered him toward Philadelphia, which Vick said wasn't his first choice. "Michael Vick's decision on where to play to put himself in the best position to succeed was entirely his own," an NFL spokesman said Friday.

But Vick focused mainly on what he's taken away from the dogfighting convictions and their aftermath. Vick criticized reporters, who he thinks are too focused on his involvement, "As if he were a lone actor, a single rampaging menace, a canine serial killer with no context, motivation, or backstory. As if he is the only person in America associated with dogfighting," Leitch wrote. Well, Vick was the highest-paid player in NFL history once, so it should be no mystery why he gets the attention. Plus, Vick won The Associated Press's NFL Comeback Player of the Year Award last season, so sports editors must not think that his criminal past trumped his remarkable 2010 campaign.

Yet, his celebrity and recent history combine to turn him into an outspoken and useful advocate against dogfighting. Vick is keeping himself as a poster boy of dogfighting alive.

Vick expands on comments about the press by saying others are oblivious about his upbringing and those like him, where something like dogfighting is common. His collaborators were also friends he knew and trusted, Leitch noted, not moochers or phony friends who wanted to bathe in his spotlight. "I mean, I was just one of the ones who got exposed, and because of the position I was in, where I was in my life, it went mainstream," Vick said.  There is greater public awareness of dogfighting because of the attention his crimes and trial attracted, though.

However, Vick – currently armed with a team of "at least seven" PR professionals – reinforcing a perception that his crimes were an understandable mistake or a common, one-time lapse in judgment like drunk driving minimizes the extent of what he did. Vick helped host, fund, and organize a sadistic, interstate blood-sport operation for about six years. Whatever his background or upbringing, Vick could've said, "No, I have too much to lose, I won't do this."

When the Atlanta Falcons drafted him in 2001, he had the then-largest rookie contract in NFL history at $62 million with $15.3 million guaranteed. Nearly two months after signing his contract, according to his plea bargain, Vick said he paid $34,000 to buy property in Smithfield to use for dogfighting that a co-conspirator found. Vick and his friends started getting dogs and puppies from both inside and outside Virginia that would fight for purses in upwards of thousands of dollars. Bad Newz Kennels was founded in 2002, with Bad Newz Kannels shirts and headbands made. Vick helped test dogs to fight, the dogs competed in Virginia and the Carolinas, and Bad Newz Kennels hosted fights with parties as far away as New Jersey. He was aware his friends killed dogs that underperformed, and Vick helped his friends kill up to eight dogs by hanging or drowning them in April 2007. Authorities found 54 pit bulls at the site, some with dogfighting injuries.

Furthermore, based on his own words in GQ, Vick is either lying about his love of dogs or reveals an even more sinister side. Vick is allowed to own dogs again next July as part of his probation. He told GQ, "I miss dogs, man. I always had a family pet, always had a dog growing up. It was almost equivalent to the prison sentence, having something taken away from me for three years. I want a dog just for the sake of my kids, but also me. I miss my companions." But when he talked about his prison sentence, Vick said, "It's almost as if everyone wanted to hate me. But what have I done to anybody? It was something that happened, and it was people trying to make some money." (Vick did not place any side bets or collect any winnings, but he did provide most of the gambling monies.) He added, "It's not fair to the animal." But this issue is more serious than "fairness."

If Vick adores dogs as lifelong family companions, but his dogfighting operation was about "people trying to make some money," then he put Bad Newz Kennels' profits and success above his own personal sense of human dignity, his own moral compass. Dogs were important as pets but not as important as disposable byproducts of a horrific enterprise.

We are victims of our choices, and Vick did not choose to be the bigger, wiser man by breaking a cycle of violence and greed – and in the process sacrificed his humanity.

Michael Vick, co-founder of Bad Newz Kennels, today's Worst Virginian in the World.

Lawrence Transportation Systems, L. Douglas Wilder, Norfolk Police Department

Because Virginia was too crazy even for West Virginia at one time, here are today's nominees for Worst Virginians in the World!

Third place goes to moving company Lawrence Transportation Systems after a long, embarrassing legal mess over hiring discrimination.

In 2008, job applicant Christopher Woodson was turned away because he refused to cut his dreadlocks to comply with an 80-year-old appearance policy of Lawrence's. Woodson is Rastafarian and refused to cut his dreads on religious grounds, although he did offer to curl his hair up and wear a cap or head wrap. Lawrence said his hair wouldn't fit under a "uniformed hat."

The federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission then filed a lawsuit against the Roanoke-based Lawrence last September on Woodson's behalf for violating the Civil Rights Act of 1964. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan committee told Lawrence, which is 100% employee owned, to stand its ground on Woodson, even though Lawrence admitted that the company could lose up to $400,000 in a lawsuit.

By doing so, Lawrence actually played the victim card: "The guy we're fighting is being represented with our tax dollars and he has absolutely, positively nothing to lose," the company said. The company suggested on its Facebook page on June 13 that as a private company it was above the law: "Do you think that a private business has the right to have and enforce a dress code?" it asked. Lawrence defended the policy, The Roanoke Times reported, because it said employees need to keep a professional appearance since they enter customers' homes and take their possessions. So a man with dreads is neither professional nor trusting?

The company even reached out to Rep. Bob Goodlatte for help. The congressman's spokeswoman was quoted in the Times in April saying that although he had concerns about the EEOC's handling of the matter, Goodlatte, R-6th (Roanoke, Lynchburg, Harrisonburg), could not intervene as a member of Congress, although his office did forward Lawrence's concerns to the EEOC. (Incidentally, Lawrence Transportation Systems has donated $2,500 to Goodlatte's campaign committee this election cycle.)

The original civil suit ended with a deadlocked jury in June. Finally, on Tuesday, Lawrence agreed to settle for $30,000 and to implement a slew of anti-discrimination initiatives.

Woodson said, "I hope that other employees, especially teenagers and young people, will take my experience as validation that the American dream still exists and that one’s faith does not have to hold a person back from working in a job that he is qualified to perform."

Yet, Lawrence pulled out the victim card again, with President Ron Spangler saying, "We still are convinced that we did not violate any laws, that we didn't discriminate. It just reinforces what the business community is saying about government regulations. We feel like this was a frivolous case taken to the extreme."

That's Lawrence Transportation Systems: "Dress codes" trumping civil rights and dignity since 1932.

The runner-up is former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, whose dream of a U.S. National Slavery Museum may be over.

The Silver Cos. donated 38 acres in Fredericksburg for the museum in 2002. A garden was formed but no building was erected. Experts believe fundraising has been a problem because the museum is not in Washington or Richmond, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture opened at the Smithsonian. Wilder, the nation's first elected black governor, said in a blog post in February that the recession was to blame. "Just because the endeavor has become more difficult for us to complete, that does not mean this board will quit on what we believe to be an important American mission," he wrote.

Wilder believed the museum would cost $100 million for construction, but as of its last tax filing in 2007, the museum only had $115,000 in assets other than the land, even though $4 million has been raised since 2001 (about one-quarter of it from Bill Cosby). Now, Fredericksburg is putting the land on the auction block – a process that could take up to 6 months – to recoup $215,000 in back taxes and interest after the deadline passed on Saturday, the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg reported Tuesday. Even worse, the museum owes $5.17 million to its architectural company after a court ruling in New York last year. Also, supporters who have donated artifacts are upset that they aren't being given clear answers on where they are.

University of Virginia professor and political guru Larry Sabato lamented last month, “Anyone who knows Wilder and who has listened to him about this understands that he cares about this. Why it’s ended up in this way I just can’t tell you, and I’ve never heard anybody explain it.”

An African-American who donated Jim Crow- and slavery-era artifacts was more blunt, calling Wilder's handling of the museum “a slap in the face of every African-American.”

But our winner is the Norfolk Police Department. Recruit John Kohn, a Navy veteran who served a tour in Iraq, died nine days after he fell unsconscious on Dec. 9 during one of many self-defense training exercises that involved a simulated assault. His widow Patricia filed a wrongful death suit Tuesday for more than $35 million against the former and current acting police chiefs, a training division administrator, and the officers involved in the training.

The suit alleges that Kohn received "repeated, violent blows to the head" that caused a brain hemorrhage. The city originally believed Kohn died after colliding with another recruit. However, The Virginian-Pilot of Hampton Roads reported Tuesday that a state Department of Labor and Industry report found that "the victim received multiple hits to his head that ultimately lead to his death. ... The final hits to his head were when the instructor was standing over the victim in the ground fighting test."

Patricia Kohn said the doctor who operated on John saw damage from head trauma from earlier in the week. In fact, John complained about the exercise to others and his wife, and asked around if they knew the symptoms of a concussion. The report also said another recruit suffered serious head injuries. The autopsy has not been released yet.

The police department has now banned direct head blows, and implemented better training and reporting procedures.

But it's too late for Kohn and his family. Patricia was pregnant with their daughter when John died. Baby Sara is now 4 months old and will never meet her father.

The Norfolk Police Department: today's Worst Virginians in the World.