AP
Dean Selbe (Vinton Police photo)
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ A Vinton man has been sentenced to 60 years in prison for killing his mother. Media outlets report that 30-year-old Dean Austin Selbe was sentenced Wednesday in Roanoke County Circuit Court. Selbe pleaded guilty in April to the first-degree murder of 56-year-old Karen J. Selbe. She was hit in the head with a hammer and stabbed 68 times while she slept in January 2014. Police found her decapitated torso on a bed in an apartment she shared with her son. Her limbs were found in boxes. Selbe testified Wednesday that he heard demonic voices that told him to commit the crime. Circuit Judge James Swanson acknowledged that Dean Selbe had lived a difficult life marked by mental illness but said he had a duty to protect the public.
Bob and Maureen McDonnell
(Associated Press photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review his public corruption convictions. McDonnell’s attorneys filed their petition Tuesday, arguing that he was convicted based on an overly broad definition of corruption that puts all elected officials at risk of prosecution. Prosecutors have 30 days to respond. The justices have no deadline for deciding whether to consider the appeal. McDonnell and his wife, Maureen, were convicted in September 2014 of doing favors for a former vitamin executive in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans. Meanwhile, a federal appeals court put Maureen McDonnell’s case on hold until the Supreme Court decides whether to review her husband’s convictions. Both were sentenced to prison but remain free while they pursue appeals.
Noah Thomas
PULASKI, Va. (AP) _ A Pulaski County couple faces felony abuse and neglect charges stemming from their 5-year-old son’s death in a septic tank. Multiple media outlets report that the Pulaski County grand jury indicted Paul Thomas and Ashley White on Tuesday. Each also faces a felony abuse and neglect charge related to the care of their infant daughter. The couple is accused of leaving their son, Noah, and daughter, Abigail, home alone on March 22. The boy’s body was found in a septic tank near the family’s home in Dublin on March 26. The medical examiner determined that the boy drowned and that hypothermia contributed to his death. The couple remains in jail without bond.
Gov. Terry McAuliffe
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ A spokesman for Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s political action committee said it raised $5.7 million since last year, including $1.4 million during the last quarter. Spokesman Stephen Carter said Tuesday the PAC will report having $1.4 million cash on hand. Quarterly campaign finance reports are due Oct. 15. McAuliffe, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and prodigious political fundraiser, has raised about the same amount as his predecessor, Republican Bob McDonnell, did at the corresponding time in his term in office. Carter noted that McAuliffe has also helped raise funds for the state party as well. The Democratic governor has spent heavily on a handful of upcoming legislative races to try to flip control of the state Senate.
Bob and Maureen McDonnell
(Associated Press photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Prosecutors are opposing former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell’s request to delay a hearing in her case while the U.S. Supreme Court considers whether to review her husband’s public corruption convictions. In papers filed Tuesday with the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutors say the public “has a significant interest in the prompt resolution of the McDonnells’ appeals.” Former Gov. Bob McDonnell and his wife were convicted last year of doing favors for a former vitamin executive in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans. The appeals court has upheld Bob McDonnell’s convictions but has allowed him to remain free while he seeks a Supreme Court review. The court has scheduled a hearing in Maureen McDonnell’s case for Oct. 29. She also remains free during her appeal.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ A new report shows that growing Medicaid spending is responsible for much of the growth in the Virginia state budget. A report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission issued Tuesday showed that Medicaid spending rose by 75 percent from fiscal 2006 to 2016. That accounted for 25 percent of the state budget’s total growth from $32 billion to $47 billion during that time. Enrollment in Medicaid and a similar children’s program grew from 76,000 in 2006 to 113,000 in 2015. The federal government and Virginia share the costs of Medicaid, which provides publicly funded health care to the poor and disabled. Republican lawmakers have blocked Democratic Gov. Terry McAullife’s proposed expansion of Medicaid, which would be largely funded by the federal government.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ A state report shows about one fifth of the people going to Virginia’s Department of Motor Vehicles customer service centers are doing so unnecessarily, costing them a $5 fee and increasing wait times for all customers. A report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission issued Tuesday found 866,000 customers went to the DMV is fiscal 2014 for services that could have been done online, over the phone or by mail. According to the report, nearly all of those people who went to the DMV were for vehicle registration renewals. The report also found that DMV customer service centers in heavily populated Northern Virginia have longer wait times than the rest of the state. In Arlington the average wait time is 47 minutes, compared to 24 minutes statewide.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia residents are running out of time to register to vote in the Nov. 3 general election. Tuesday is the voter registration deadline. The Virginia Department of Elections says eligible Virginians can register to vote online here. The online system also can be used to check registration status and update voter information. The online system requires a resident’s Virginia Department of Vehicles information for authentication. Voters who don’t have a DMV identification can use the system to provide their information and print a completed registration form, which can be sent to their local voter registration office. Residents also can register to vote in-person at their local voter registration office by 5 p.m. on Tuesday.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Officials say deaths in Virginia from heroin and opioid use outnumbered highway fatalities for the first time last year. Multiple media outlets report that in 2014, 728 Virginians died from drug overdoses. That same year, there were 700 highway fatalities. Highway deaths have been dropping as drug deaths increase. The highway death toll in 2013 was 741 compared with 661 from drugs. In 2009, there were 750 traffic fatalities compared with 504 deaths from heroin and opioids. The increase in drug-related deaths comes despite heightened efforts to attack heroin use in the state, a focus that was announced a year ago by Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring. Herring said last week that he hopes the new statistics help officials realize how urgently solutions are needed to solve the heroin epidemic.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ President Barack Obama has nominated new U.S. attorneys
for Virginia’s eastern and western districts. Eastern district nominee Dana J. Boente has served as acting U.S. attorney since 2013. He has been with the office since 2000 and also was the district’s acting U.S. attorney in 2008 and 2009. Boente is a 1982 graduate of the St. Louis University law school. Western district nominee John P. Fishwick Jr. has been a partner in the Roanoke law firm of LichtensteinFishwick and its predecessors since 1996. He graduated from Washington and Lee University’s law school in 1983. Their nominations were announced Thursday.