Across Virginia
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia and College of William & Mary are the latest schools to announce plans to become carbon neutral. The schools announced their goals Monday in a statement that said they hope to produce zero net greenhouse gas emissions. UVA and William & Mary said they will share information and collaborate. William & Mary said it’s exploring an agreement that could bring as much as 60% of its electricity from solar farms. Another challenge is the use of natural gas for heating and steam production. William & Mary said it will hire a consultant to provide advice. The goals go further than power consumption. UVA hopes to expand plant-based meal offerings and switch to sustainably raised meats. UVA is in Charlottesville. William & Mary is in Williamsburg.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A state report says medical care in Virginia’s prisons accounts for a fifth of operating expenses. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported last week that the information on prison medical costs comes from the Virginia House Appropriations Committee. The report said the cost of inmate health care grew from roughly $140 million a year to more than $230 million a year during the past decade. The report also found that 14% of state prisoners are at least 55 years old. That’s an increase of more than 5% since 2012. One possible way to address the issue is expanding so-called “compassionate release” of prisoners who are terminally ill or permanently disabled physically. State Delegate Mark Sickles of Fairfax said he plans to reintroduce a bill to expand the program.
RUSSELL COUNTY, Va. (AP) — Authorities say they’ve found the body of a man who went missing while kayaking in southwest Virginia.
News outlets report that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries identified the man as 38-year-old David Brent Glidewell. His body was found in Laurel Bed Lake on Friday.
Glidewell fell from his kayak on Wednesday. Authorities believe that high winds may have been a factor. Dive teams and rescue crews participated in the search.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — A Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, that became a rallying point for white nationalists has been vandalized again, this time with graffiti saying, “Impeach Trump.”
News outlets report that the statue of Confederate General Robert E.
Lee was also spray-painted Thursday night with “This is Racist.”
Tarps were put over the graffiti and city officials expect a clean-up effort to start Monday. The statue was vandalized earlier this year with an expletive directed at President Donald Trump.
White nationalists seized on a city plan to remove the statue and flocked there in 2017 for a rally that turned violent and deadly. The city’s effort to remove the statue have been prevented by a judge amid ongoing litigation.
The statue has been vandalized several times previously.
WYTHE COUNTY, Va. (AP) — Virginia State Police say they are investigating how a tractor-trailer carrying boxes and other goods crashed and caught fire on Interstate 81.
Police said they responded early Saturday to a call that a truck contracted by UPS hit a guardrail and overturned in Wythe County.
The impact of the crash caused the vehicle to catch fire. Police said fire crews spent much of Saturday morning putting out recurring fires within the trailer.
The driver was transported to a local hospital and treated for minor injuries.
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — Police in Virginia are warning people to watch their home deliveries or find other ways to receive packages in the mail.
The Daily Progress in Charlottesville reports that police expect thefts of mail packages from homes to increase with Black Friday and beyond.Albemarle police officer Joe George said such thefts are “problem everywhere,” including rural and more urban areas during the holiday season.
Research firm Edelman Intelligence estimates that 23 million Americans have had at least one holiday package stolen since 2014. Most were taken from porches while residents were at work.
People can avoid thefts by having packages delivered to their work. Amazon customers can have packages delivered to Amazon package hubs, which can include places like Whole Foods. Some people buy package lockers for their porches.
MIDLOTHIAN, Va. (AP) _ Police in Virginia say a small handgun went off inside a Walmart restroom when it fell out of a man’s pocket as he pulled up his pants. The Richmond Times-Dispatch on Wednesday reported the gun went off after it hit the floor Tuesday at the store in Midlothian, prompting an evacuation and police response. Chesterfield police Lt. Brad Conner says two other customers in the restroom were not hurt. The round went into a bathroom stall. Conner says gun owner Clifford C. Shook Jr. left the store without notifying anyone of the situation. Conner says police tracked down Shook after reviewing video surveillance and interviewing a person who had been with him at the store. The 66-year-old Shook has a concealed-carry permit. He is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 9 on a misdemeanor count of reckless handling of a firearm. Court records do not list an attorney for Shook.
Appalachian Power says those strong overnight winds left 25,000, businesses and other customers in the dark at one point. That number was down to less than 10,000 by late morning, most of them in West Virginia. And Apco expects almost everyone still without service to get their power back by tonight.
Appalachian Power Storm Response Update 10:00 am Thursday:
Situation
A prolonged and widespread period of high wind punctuated by gusts of more than 50 mph brought trees and limbs down onto power lines and left a peak of 25,000 customers without electric service.
Outages
Approximately 7,300 customers in West Virginia and another 2,000 in Virginia are currently without electric service as a result of wind damage.
Storm Response Efforts
More than 300 additional workers, including crews from North Carolina, Ohio and Tennessee, are moving into more heavily damaged areas to assist local employees and contractors with service restoration.
Restoration Estimates
Most customers still without service as a result of wind damage should have service restored by tonight. In some isolated instances where damage is most extensive, especially in Jackson, Marshall and Ohio counties in West Virginia, restoration may extend into Friday.
Safety Message
Wind storms can cause many downed power lines. Customers should treat all downed lines as live power lines and stay away from them. Never touch downed power lines or sparking equipment. Keep children and pets away from fallen lines and anything the lines may touch.
Additional safety tips are posted at https://www.appalachianpower.com/outages/faq/OutageSafetyTips.aspx.
Jens Soering (AP photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — U.S. immigration officials have taken into custody a German diplomat’s son who was paroled after serving more than 30 years in prison for slaying his former girlfriend’s parents in Virginia. The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement received Jens Soering from state custody Tuesday. ICE spokeswoman Carissa Cutrell declined to say when he might be sent back to Germany. Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said previously that Soering as well as former girlfriend Elizabeth Haysom will be deported.
Haysom was serving a 90-year sentence after pleading guilty to being an accessory to murder. She’s originally from Canada.
Haysom and Soering were granted parole Monday. Soering was serving a life sentence.
Soering initially confessed to the 1985 killings but later recanted, saying he was covering for Haysom.
MGN
If you are hitting the highways any time this long holiday weekend, you will find average national gas prices at their highest Thanksgiving levels in five years — but not all that much higher than last year at this time. Virginia continues to have among the lowest average prices in the country, and much lower than states to our north like Pennsylvania and New York. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more: