State/Regional News for Stafford County Sun

Police briefs

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:52:00 EDT

RICHMOND — Operation Air, Land and Speed returned to Interstates 95 and 81 and yielded eight, 160 summonses and arrests during the two-day enforcement operation which took place June 27, and ended June 28. There were no reported fatalities on either interstate during the course of the operation

New laws take effect in Virginia

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:44:00 EDT

This year, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine has signed into law 884 bills passed by the legislature. A few, such as the repeal of bad-driver fees, had emergency clauses and took effect as soon as Kaine signed them. The vast majority took effect Tuesday

Virginia puts foot down on counterfeit products

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:32:00 EDT

ALEXANDRIA — Virginia consumers and businesses have new safeguards against counterfeit and unsafe products due to successful legislation that will allow persons caught selling the merchandise with a felony. Attorney General, Bob McDonnell, highlighted these new consumer and business protection measures, which took effect July 1.

Police arrest second city man from 2004 robbery

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 15:30:00 EDT

CULPEPER — Police have arrested a second Fredericksburg man in connection with the 2004 robbery of a Culpeper restaurant.

Blood-donor pool bigger, younger

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:35:01 EDT

Virginia is turning to teens to help increase the blood supply as restrictions on who can donate shrink the pool of eligible adults.

Professor sues Va. Lottery for $85 million

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:06:00 EDT

A Washington and Lee University professor has carried out his threat to challenge the Virginia Lottery. Business professor Scott Hoover is claiming in a lawsuit that millions of dollars worth of scratch-off tickets were sold even though the top prizes had already been won.

Protest of power plant leads to 12 arrests

Tue, 01 Jul 2008 00:42:00 EDT

RICHMOND — On the day Dominion Virginia Power began construction of a coal-fired power plant in Southwest Virginia, 12 people were arrested in Richmond for protesting the plant.

Power plant closer to reality

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:28:00 EDT

WISE – The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center will move swiftly toward construction, officials said Wednesday after the state Air Pollution Control Board approved permits for the 585-megawatt, coal-fired power plant.

Transportation plan defeated

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 01:17:00 EDT

Waiting for Virginia lawmakers to kill new taxes for roads is like watching a car crash in slow motion.

Power prices up?

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:41:00 EDT

A stinging 18.3 percent, $1.3 billion-a-year increase in electric bills proposed by Dominion Virginia Power probably won’t get the utility and its customers caught up with soaring fuel prices.

Report: Murder in Virginia on the rise

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 23:19:01 EDT

WOODBRIDGE — Violent crime throughout the state experienced a 2.6 percent decrease last year while reported property crimes dropped less than 1 percent, according to the 2007 Crime in Virginia report released June 20.

Gilmore says drilling in U.S. is best solution

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 13:05:00 EDT

U.S. Senate hopeful Jim Gilmore supports lifting the federal ban on offshore drilling, aligning himself with Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee.

Obama, McCain, stay close rivals in Virginia

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 12:36:00 EDT

RICHMOND — Sen. Barack Obama has gained ground in Virginia and is virtually tied with Sen. John McCain in an early indication of how competitive the state is shaping up to be this fall

Tech on lockdown prior to shootings, lawyers say

Tue, 17 Jun 2008 18:27:00 EDT

RICHMOND - Some Virginia Tech officials put their buildings on lockdown minutes before Seung Hui Cho locked the exits to Norris Hall and gunned down 30 students and staff on April 16, 2007.

Experts seek to unearth Richmond slave jail site

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:52:00 EDT

A section of the cracked parking lot behind Main Street Station is about to be opened as a window to Richmond’s slave-trading past.

Gov. Kaine urges Virginians to use water wisely

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:34:00 EDT

RICHMOND — Virginians must stop taking water for granted, experts said Monday.

Virginia emerging as election ‘battleground state’

Fri, 06 Jun 2008 00:32:00 EDT

Underscoring Virginia’s potential as a battleground state, Barack Obama plans appearances Thursday at opposite ends of the commonwealth.

Va. late-term-abortion ban struck down

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:43:00 EDT

Virginia’s 2003 law banning a particular form of late-term abortions has been held unconstitutional for the second time by a divided panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Man who claimed innocence in ’95 murder dies in prison

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:42:00 EDT

Larry Fowlkes, who maintained he was innocent of a 1995 murder in Crewe, died this month still serving his 45-year sentence.

Hunt for escaped inmate cost state $637,781

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:34:00 EDT

Prison escapee Alonzo Logan’s run for daylight last year ended in a dark East End attic and cost taxpayers $31,900 a day, according to state records.

High-ozone days likely to increase

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:32:00 EDT

Code Orange or Code Red days — those times authorities tell us our air is unhealthful — could jump dramatically this spring and summer.

Watermen turn to Congress for help

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:31:00 EDT

Watermen and environmentalists have set aside their differences to ask Congress for disaster relief while Virginia and Maryland clamp down on the economically important blue crab harvest.

6-year-old becomes daddy’s little angel

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:29:00 EDT

CASCADE —When Leslie Sheets left for work about 8 a.m. Sunday, her 6-year-old daughter, Caribbea, was still asleep and her husband, Donald, was tilling the garden.

GOP, McCain open state headquarters

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:27:00 EDT

Virginia Republicans showed yesterday the advantage of having settled on a presidential nominee early.

Statewide poll shows McCain wins in Virginia

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:25:00 EDT

A statewide poll released yesterday shows Republican presidential candidate John McCain defeating either Barack Obama or Hillary Rodham Clinton in Virginia.

VMI will expand program to include Arabic studies

Wed, 21 May 2008 23:45:00 EDT

Virginia Military Institute has received a $665,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Defense to expand its Arabic language program.

Howell has the power but wasn’t at the meeting

Thu, 08 May 2008 14:42:00 EDT

Thirty legislators — from both parties, from both ends of Virginia’s urban crescent — crowded around a conference table Tuesday, searching for common ground on a fiscal fix for transportation.

Loving, pioneer in fighting for interracial marriages, dies

Wed, 07 May 2008 18:09:00 EDT

Mildred Jeter Loving, a Caroline County woman who demolished the last legal bulwark of racial segregation in America, has died.

Frawley faces DUI charge

Thu, 01 May 2008 18:36:00 EDT

STAFFORD — A former University of Mary Washington President has been arrested in Maryland on his third drunken driving charge in a year.
William John Frawley, 54, of Chevy Chase, Md., was arrested April 10 for allegedly attempting to drive his car under the influence of alcohol, according to court documents.

Tornadoes injure more than 200

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 18:08:00 EDT

A terrifying flock of tornadoes hit Virginia Monday, striking close to where a twister killed four people in the Tri-Cities area 14½ years ago.

Tornadoes slam Virginia

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:59:00 EDT

There is widespread damage and several people injured in Colonial Heights, and damage in Brunswick County and other parts of southeastern Virginia caused by what appear to be multiple tornadoes.

Panel discusses felons who want right to vote

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 19:20:00 EDT

When Hasan Zarif was sentenced to life in prison in 1973, he knew he had to turn his life around.

Kaine discusses transit, energy

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:57:00 EDT

FALLS CHURCH — Virginia Gov. Timothy Kaine came to Luther Jackson Middle School in Falls Church on Saturday and announced that he will call the General Assembly back in session to discuss transportation funding

Delegates pressured to support Obama

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:27:00 EDT

RICHMOND —Virginia’s six uncommitted superdelegates are facing new pressure from Democratic activists to back Barack Obama for president.

Search continues for man who shot police officer

Fri, 04 Apr 2008 15:12:00 EDT

RICHMOND – Police are still searching for a southwest Virginia man who allegedly shot a state trooper in the neck March 28 near the Virginia-West Virginia state line, in Glen Lyn, Va.

New program targets jails

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 12:14:00 EDT

WASHINGTON — Federal immigration officials want to give local law enforcement agencies more tools to identify illegal immigrant inmates incarcerated in local jails and prisons.

Alleged I-64 sniper appears in court

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 09:55:00 EDT

Shell casings from Slade Allen Woodson’s 1974 AMC Gremlin match ballistics recovered from early-morning shootings on and near Interstate 64 on March 27, the Virginia State Police said Saturday.