Across Virginia
Photo: UVa
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia is starting a new early decision plan to offer high school students the chance to receive their admission decision in the first semester of their senior year.The plan is designed for students who have decided by the fall that UVA is their top choice for college. The binding admission plan requires students who are admitted to accept the offer from UVA and cancel their applications to all other schools. Under the plan, the application deadline is Oct. 15 and the notification date is Dec. 15. UVA also offers an early action plan, with an application deadline of Nov. 1 and a notification date of Jan. 31. The regular decision plan has an application deadline of Jan. 1 and a notification date of April 1.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) – Virginia state regulators are seeking public comments on a new area code in the southeastern part of the state as the 757 code runs out of new numbers.The State Corporation Commission said it plans to have four public hearings in August.The North American Numbering Plan Administrator is recommending superimposing a new area code where the 757 code is currently used. That would mean local calls would require using 10 digits instead of seven.The SCC could also split the area currently using the 757 code into two parts, meaning half of the current 757 users would get a new phone number. Such an option hasn’t been used in the U.S. since 2006.New 757 numbers are set to run out by the end of 2021.
FORD, Va. (AP) — Members of a close-knit church community in central Virginia were in shock Wednesday after four people were killed and seven others were injured in a van crash on their way to a revival at another church. Virginia state police said the van carrying 11 people from Shiloh Baptist Church in Blackstone was slowing down on U.S. Route 460 to make a right turn into the parking lot of Mount Zion Baptist Church in Ford Tuesday night when it was rear-ended by a pickup truck hauling metal. The van rolled over several times before coming to rest on its side off the right side of the road. The pickup truck ran off the left side of the road and hit a guardrail. The four people who died were identified by police as: James Farley, 87; Wartena Somerville, 36; Delois Williams, 72; and Constance Wynn, 85.
Michael Somerville, a deacon at Shiloh Baptist Church, told WWBT-TV that his wife, Wartena, was a teacher at Crewe Primary School and sang in the church choir. He said the two have a 9-month-old daughter. The truck driver was identified as Robert Lee Allen, 47, of Norfolk. Sgt. Keeli Hill, a state police spokeswoman, said charges are expected to be filed against Allen after police consult with prosecutors. Seven other passengers remained hospitalized Wednesday. Allen was treated for minor injuries at a hospital and later released.
Lafayette Dickens, a deacon at Shiloh Baptist Church, told The Richmond Times-Dispatch that the van was carrying choir members who had been invited to sing at the revival. He said other choir members were traveling in a separate car and witnessed the crash. Dickens said he and other members of his church are in “absolute shock.” “They were such good people,” he said of the four people who were killed. “It just hurts right now. We’ve never dealt with anything like this.”
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Authorities in Virginia say a convenience store worker was shot and killed inside her car after she was robbed. Norfolk police tell news outlets that the woman, whose identity hasn’t been released, was sitting in her car in the parking lot of a WaWa late Sunday night when a man with a gun approached the car, robbed her and shot her. The woman was taken to a local hospital, where she died. A police spokeswoman says there is no indication that the store was robbed. Officer Jo Ann Hughes also said it’s not clear how much, if anything, was taken from the woman.
CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) — Authorities say 10 people have been shot – one fatally – when gun violence erupted at a holiday weekend party in Virginia. Chesapeake Police Department spokesman Leo Kosinski said via email that the total number of people shot was 10 and that one of those victims has died. Few other details were released. Police were called to the Chesapeake neighborhood of Holly Cove just before 10 p.m. on Saturday after receiving reports of traffic congestion and people refusing to move vehicles.WAVY.com has quoted a spokesperson with Sentara Norfolk General Hospital as saying that that facility was treating eight patients with gunshot wounds, all male. Investigators have not released any suspect information. They say tipsters could receive a cash award if their information leads to an arrest.
BALTIMORE (AP) — A Virginia man has been stopped with a handgun stuffed in his carry-on luggage at the international airport outside of Baltimore.The U.S. Transportation Security Administration says it was the third consecutive day that someone was caught with a gun at BWI airport.In a late Saturday statement, the TSA says the latest person arrested at the airport is a resident of Hopewell, Virginia. He told authorities had was carrying the bag he usually takes to the firing range and wasn’t aware the pistol was still packed. It was not loaded.Two residents of Maryland’s Anne Arundel County were caught with guns at the airport earlier in the week, making Friday’s gun arrest the third in three consecutive days.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Visitors to Virginia’s scenic Blue Ridge Parkway had an estimated $1.3 billion economic impact last year in the park’s various communities.The National Park Service’s annual survey gauged the impact of visitor spending in the Virginia prize as well in as the other U.S. parks.The winding roadway has been one of the United States’ most-visited national park sites and last year’s total was roughly on par with economic impact figures gauged since 2012. The $1.3 billion in estimated impact was down some $100 million from 2017.The parkway has become an integral part of the mountains and the communities that lie along its 469-mile route. It connects Shenandoah National Park with the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
Photo: UVa
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia’s business school has received a $68 million donation from a former student.The gift from investor and alumnus Frank M. Sands Sr. is the largest donation in the history of the university’s Darden School of Business. UVA President Jim Ryan said the “historically generous gift” will allow Darden to reach more students.Alongside matching funds the donation will be used to fund a “lifelong learning” program, professorships, renovations, and a conference center. Darden was founded in 1955.Sands is the founder of Sands Capital Management. He earned an MBA from Darden in 1963.In a university statement, Sands said attending the Darden School was a “transformational experience.” He said he is an “ardent supporter of its mission and values.”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A new television series with Ethan Hawke starring as the fiery abolitionist John Brown is set to film in Virginia.Gov. Ralph Northam’s office announced Thursday that production of the eight-part series will start in central Virginia this summer. The show based on the novel “The Good Lord Bird” by best-selling author James McBride and is set to air on Showtime at a later date.Brown led a raid in 1859 on a federal arsenal in Harpers Ferry, in what is now West Virginia, hoping to start an armed slave rebellion. The rebellion didn’t happen, and Brown was later hanged for treason.Before the raid, Brown and a group of abolitionist settlers killed five pro-slavery settlers in Kansas in the Pottawatomie massacre.
Photo: Eastern Virginia Medical School
The investigation is over and the report is in, but the mystery of whether Governor Northam was in that racist medical school yearbook photo remains unsolved. Eastern Virginia Medical School commissioned the investigation after the photo became public February 1st, and as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports, the law firm that conducted the probe is defending its independence: