AP
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ Miss Virginia Pageant officials have elected to cancel the television broadcast and webcast of the pageant, citing costs. The Roanoke Times reports executive director and president of the Miss Virginia Organization Harlen Gudger says they believe taking this step will benefit the organization in the long run. Gudger says cutting back on television costs will allow the organization to increase scholarships for contestants’ education and expand community service opportunities. Gudger says he’s not sure how much money will be saved by not televising the event. According to Gudger, attendance at the pageant has dropped in recent years. The Geico and Miss Virginia Pageant will be held at the Berglund Center from June 25-27.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia egg production totaled 765 million eggs in 2014, an increase of 6 percent from the previous year. The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services tallied up all the eggs and concluded they could be used to bake 190 million pound cakes or more than 1.5 billion holiday eggnogs. The 2014 value of egg production was $114 million, up 15 percent, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. That ranks Virginia 27th in the U.S. in egg production. Large-scale egg production and processing operations in Virginia are located in Abingdon and Amelia County. Smaller producers are scattered throughout the state.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Google’s self-driving cars will soon be cruising along more than 70 miles of Northern Virginia highways as part of an automated vehicle testing initiative. The initiative was announced Monday in Pittsburgh at a meeting of the Intelligent Transportation Society of America. The research will be overseen by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute on portions of Interstates 95, 495 and 66, as well as on U.S. 29 and U.S. 50. Test tracks will be used to certify the technology as safe before the cars are allowed on the highway. The cars must have a driver at the wheel to take over in case of a malfunction. Virginia will join California, Nevada, Michigan, Florida and Washington, D.C. in allowing the vehicles to be tested on public roads.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Tourism is a big business in Virginia, and Gov. Terry McAuliffe is set to say just how big it is. He’s scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to outline tourism’s economic impact in the state. In 2013, tourism was a $21 billion business in Virginia. It ranks as one of the top private employers in the state, with more than 200,000 jobs supported by tourism. The sesquicentennial of the Civil War helped draw hundreds of thousands of the visitors into Virginia.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia’s annual three-day free fishing weekend starts Friday. The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries says no fishing license will be required to wet a hook in state waters Friday through Sunday. Designated stocked trout waters are an exception. Freshwater and trout licenses will be required there. All fishing regulations including size, season, catch limits, and gear restrictions will remain in effect.
Jessica Ewing
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) _ A former Virginia Tech student has been sentenced to 45 years in prison for the 2014 murder of another student. Media outlets report that Montgomery County Circuit Judge Robert Turk sentenced 24-year-old Jessica Michelle Ewing on Monday. In February, Ewing entered an Alford plea to the first-degree murder of Samantha Shrestha. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges the prosecution has enough evidence for a conviction. Prosecutors had presented evidence that Ewing strangled the 21-year-old biology student on Feb. 7, 2014. Shrestha also suffered blunt force trauma to her head and her upper and lower extremities.
William Howell
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Virginia House Speaker William J. Howell has a dominant cash advantage over his tea party rival in the run-up to the June 9 primary election. Howell’s campaign said Monday it had raised more than $550,000 in the latest reporting period, leaving his campaign $528,000 to spend in the final days of the contest. The longtime Republican speaker is facing a former political protg, Susan Stimpson, who has accused Howell of abandoning his conservative beliefs in favor of serving deep-pocketed special interests. A spokesman for Stimpson said she raised $28,000 during the latest reporting period and has $21,000 cash on hand.
BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) _ The Virginia Tech Board of Visitors has approved a $1.4 billion budget for the upcoming school year. The board voted 13-0 Monday afternoon on the budget, which includes a pool of funds for merit-based faculty and administrator salary increases and staff raises mandated by the General Assembly. University figures show the total budget rose by about $41 million for educational and general programs funded through tuition and state money, and enterprise funds that include programs funded by student fees. Virginia Tech President Timothy Sands also proposed to the board that the university increases its enrollment over the next seven years. Officials recently confirmed the 2015 freshman class will number more than 6,000 _ the largest in the university’s history.
Bob and Maureen McDonnell
(Associated Press photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Federal prosecutors say there is easily enough evidence to support former Virginia first lady Maureen McDonnell’s public corruption convictions. In court filings Thursday, prosecutors told the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that it is clear McDonnell took illegal steps to benefit a wealthy vitamin executive who lavished McDonnell and her husband, former Gov. Bob McDonnell, with low-interest loans and expensive gifts. McDonnell has argued that her convictions on multiple corruption charges are based on an overly broad definition of bribery. But prosecutors said Thursday that her arguments show a “fundamental misunderstanding of bribery law.” A jury in September found the McDonnells guilty of doing favors for former Star Scientific CEO Jonnie Williams in exchange for more than $165,000 in gifts and loans.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) _ A September trial date has been set for a University of Virginia student whose bloody arrest outside a bar sparked a public uproar. Martese Johnson’s arrest in March gained widespread attention when photos and videos on social media showed the 20-year-old from Chicago’s face bloodied and him pinned on the ground by a state Alcohol Beverage Control Department agent. Johnson is black and has called the police racist. Johnson is charged with public intoxication and obstruction of justice without force. Johnson’s trial is scheduled to begin Sept. 30. A status hearing on the case is set for June 12.