AP

WFIR-LOGO-1CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) _ A student who hid from a gunman as he shot two women at a southwest Virginia community college says he attempted to lure more students out of hiding by pretending he was a police officer.

Clara Keller told The Roanoke Times that she didn’t take the bait and waited with four friends under a desk until the shootings ended Friday at New River Community College’s satellite campus in Christiansburg.

Police have identified the shooter as 18-year-old Neil Allan MacInnis, a student at the college.

He is charged with two counts of malicious wounding and two counts of using a firearm in the commission of a felony. It is unclear whether he has an attorney.

The conditions of the two women injured in the shooting were not immediately available Saturday.

 

 

General-AssemblyRICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ By a single Senate vote, the General Assembly accepted Gov. Bob McDonnell’s amendment denying abortion coverage to people who buy policies through Virginia’s federally funded health insurance exchange.

McDonnell’s amendment to House Bill 1900 had passed the House 55-37 with seven delegates not voting earlier Wednesday. It eked through the Senate after opponents in both parties argued it abridges not only the right of women to buy their own policies, but what businesses can and can’t sell.

McDonnell pulled the amendment from a law passed in 2011 that would have governed state-run health exchanges _ forums where low-income people who don’t qualify for Medicaid could buy low-cost policies.

But McDonnell rejected a state-run exchange, leaving the federal government to fund and run the program in Virginia.

General-AssemblyRICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ The General Assembly has adopted Gov. Bob McDonnell’s amendments to his transportation funding bill.

The House of Delegates voted 62-36 to approve the changes during the legislature’s one-day reconvened session Wednesday. The vote in the Senate was 26-12.

The package will raise more than $1 billion a year from statewide and regional funding sources to address a growing backlog of deferred highway projects.

One of the amendments trims an annual feel on hybrid and alternative-fuel cars from $100 to $64. The governor also scaled back a vehicle titling tax increase, along with regional increase in the tax on hotel stays and a real estate-related fee in northern Virginia and Hampton Roads.

McDonnell also amended the regional component of the plan to address constitutional concerns raised by Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Morgan-HarringtonCHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) _ The parents of a Virginia Tech student who was killed after attending a Metallica concert in 2009 in Charlottesville are making new claims against a security company. The allegations are contained in an amended lawsuit filed by the family of  Morgan Harrington, whose remains were found in January 2010 in a farm field.  Continue reading

General-AssemblyRICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Gov. Bob McDonnell wants to prohibit abortion coverage through insurance plans purchased through the federally run health care exchange that will serve Virginia.  The Republican governor added the amendment to health reform legislation that passed the General Assembly earlier this year, outraging abortion rights  advocates. Continue reading

Master Trooper Junius Walker

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Slain Virginia State Police Master Trooper Junius A. Walker was remembered at his funeral as a dedicated public servant whose imposing size was offset by a gentle spirit.  A capacity crowd of nearly 3,000 people, including police officers from as far away as Alaska, attended Tuesday’s services for the 63-year-old Walker at Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Petersburg.  Continue reading

VT-APRIL-16RICHMOND, Va. (AP)  Attorneys for the families of two Virginia Tech students killed in an April 2007 campus massacre are renewing their bid to put on trial the university’s president.  The attorneys are seeking a full state Supreme Court hearing on their quest to bring President Charles Steger to trial for negligence in the deaths of Erin Nicole Peterson and Julia K. Pryde. Continue reading