Across Virginia
Your next DMV renewal notice may contain an opportunity to reduce the amount you pay, mainly if you own a fuel-efficient vehicle that doesn’t get a lot of miles. Virginia’s Highway Use Fee is aimed mainly for electric cars, hybrids and some other vehicles to support highway maintenance and construction in place of gas taxes. Until now, it has been a flat fee, but as of July 1st, you may have the option of applying for a reduction in that fee if a qualifying vehicle is driven less than 11,600 miles a year. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more:
Click here for full DMV information on the Highway Use Fee “Mileage Choice Program”
State Senator David Suetterlein says Virginia’s new redistricting process is hardly perfect, but it is a big improvement over the past. Suetterlein successfully authored a bill changing the way it is done. State law now calls for independent commission to create new Congressional and General Assembly districts, and if it cannot agree, the Virginia Supreme Court oversees the process. The new House of Delegates and State Senate districts take effect after next year’s elections. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
A law passed two years ago will result in Virginia’s gas tax increasing on Friday. The tax is tied to the consumer price index, and that means this year, it will rise 7%, or about three cents a gallon. More from WFIR’s Evan Jones:
A VDOT contractor has been hit and killed in an accident on Interstate-81. Virginia State Police say 54-year-old Matthew Frazier, of Clifton Forge, VA exited a piece of construction equipment just after 2:30am this morning while that equipment was loaded on a trailer when Frazier was struck by a tractor-trailer. Frazier was wearing a traffic vest and died at the scene. Read full release below
Full Release:The Virginia State Police are investigating a fatal Hit and Run at the 142 mile marker, involving a VDOT contractor in the work zone.
The crash occurred at 2:38 a.m. as the worker exited a piece of construction equipment which was being loaded on a lowboy trailer and was struck by a tractor trailer. The tractor trailer continued northbound on Interstate 81.
The worker was identified as Matthew C. Frazier, 54, of Clifton Forge, Va. Mr. Frazier was wearing a traffic vest and died at the scene.
State Police are working to identify the tractor trailer from videos obtained from multiple construction vehicles at the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
MGN
A tractor trailer crash this morning at mile marker 142 on I-81 in Roanoke County has caused all north lanes to be closed. All northbound traffic is being detoured onto Route 419 then onto Alt US-11 North/US-460 East then onto VA-117 then onto I-581 North, and back onto I-81.
On June 26, 2022 at approximately 12:05 a.m., Roanoke Police were notified by City of Roanoke E-911 Center personnel of a person with a gunshot wound in the 100 block of Campbell Avenue SE. Responding officers located an adult male lying in a parking lot in the area with what appeared to be a non-life threatening gunshot wound. Roanoke Fire-EMS transported the man to Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital for treatment.
Details about what led to the shooting are limited at this time. No suspects were located on scene and no arrests have been made regarding this incident. This remains an ongoing investigation. Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call (540)344-8500 and share what you know. You can also text us at 274637; please begin the text with “RoanokePD” to ensure it’s properly sent. Both calls and texts can remain anonymous.
ESCONDIDO, Calif. (AP) — Sapporo U.S.A. has reached an agreement to acquire popular Southern California-based craft brewer Stone Brewing, the companies announced Friday.
Stone will continue to brew its beers and retain its branding, management and workforce while Sapporo produces Sapporo-branded beers for U.S. distribution at Stone’s breweries in Escondido, California and Richmond, Virginia, a press release said.
Sapporo intends to brew 360,000 barrels in the U.S. by the end of 2024, essentially doubling Stone Brewing’s current production.
The companies said the transaction is expected to close in August. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Stone Brewing was founded by Greg Koch and Steve Wagner in 1996 in San Marcos, California. Koch announced Friday in his blog that he will soon leave the company.
Under the deal, Stone Brewing will continue to operate its seven Tap Rooms and World Bistro & Gardens destinations.
Stone Brewing’s distribution business, Stone Distributing Co., is not part of the sale. It will become an independent company and continue current operations.
Operations of San Francisco’s Anchor Brewing Co., acquired by Sapporo U.S.A. in 2017, will remain unchanged.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court has denied a request from a company building a natural gas pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia to have a new panel of judges reconsider permits that have been struck down repeatedly .
The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the motion from Mountain Valley Pipeline in a one-sentence order filed late Wednesday, The Roanoke Times reported.
Last month, the company filed a motion asking for a new panel to be assigned at random.
The 303-mile (487-kilometer) pipeline, which is mostly finished, would transport natural gas drilled from the Marcellus and Utica shale formations through West Virginia and Virginia. Legal battles have delayed completion by nearly four years and doubled the pipeline’s cost, now estimated at $6.6 billion.
Three-member panels are randomly assigned for incoming cases, but rules allow for the same judges to remain with a case sometimes when it comes up again. However, the company asserted that the Fourth Circuit didn’t follow its internal operating procedures.
The company also argued that the court’s continued rejection of government approvals, often by the same three judges, threatens public confidence in the court. But those who support keeping the same judges on similar cases argue that it’s more efficient as the judges can be more familiar with the history of cases and complex issues.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Seven members and associates of the MS-13 street gang have been convicted of sex trafficking in federal court after taking in a 13-year-old runaway and coercing her into commercial sex acts in Maryland and Virginia.
The seven defendants all face a mandatory minimum prison term of 15 years when they are sentenced in November.
The U.S. Attorney’s Officer for the Eastern District of Virginia, which prosecuted the case, announced the jury verdict Friday,
According to an FBI affidavit, the girl ran away from a youth home in Fairfax in 2018. She was sex trafficked for nearly two months in that year before she was recovered by the bureau’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking task force. The trafficking occurred in Woodridge, Virginia, and Mount Rainier, Maryland.
She was also beaten on two separate occasions 26 times on her backside with a baseball bat — once when she was initiated into the gang and once when she was accused of stealing from another gang member.
The seven defendants — six men and a woman — lived in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia and ranged in age from 22 to 50.