News
HUDDLESTON, Va. (AP) _ Smith Mountain Lake is set to host this month’s annual Virginia Association for Biological Farming conference. The News & Advance reports the event will take place at the W.E. Skelton 4-H Educational Center in Franklin County on Jan. 29 and 30. VABF Executive Director Sue Ellen Johnson says this is the first time in years that the event has been held in the immediate Roanoke area. The 17th annual event has been held near Richmond for the past four years. Participants will attend seminars covering several topics including raising poultry, planting an edible landscape, small-scale grain growing and using tools on a small farm. The event will also feature guest speakers and sustainable agriculture experts from all over the state. VABF is a statewide group mostly run by volunteers.
Mark Herring
Virginia Attorney General Mark Herring is reminding consumers that the deadline to claim refunds from Sprint or Verizon is today. Consumers who have been “crammed” often had charges, typically $9.99 per month, for “premium” text message subscription services (also known as “PSMS” subscriptions) such as horoscopes, trivia, and sports scores that the consumers have never heard of or requested. As a result of the settlements, both companies are now required to get customer approval before charging for third-party messages. Current and former subscribers who had paid for unauthorized texts since July 1, 2010 can file a request no later than December 31, 2015 to get a refund. Verizon and Sprint both have online claim forms.
LEXINGTON, Va. (AP) _ An autopsy has found that a Virginia Military Institute cadet who collapsed during training died from a congenital heart disorder. Eighteen-year-old Sean Duc Hoang collapsed Sept. 21 while running as part of VMI’s routine physical training. The first-year cadet from Fairfax was pronounced dead a short time later at a hospital in Lexington. The Roanoke Times reports that the state medical examiner’s office concluded that Hoang suffered a fatal arrhythmia, or an abnormal heart rhythm. A VMI spokesman said the school conducts extensive health screenings of incoming cadets and had no knowledge of Hoang’s heart condition.