State

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) - Authorities say they've recovered the body of a teenager who went missing in a tributary of the James River.

James City County police Maj. Steve Rubino said that crews pulled the body of 18-year-old Trevor Times from College Creek on Tuesday morning.

Officials say Times was swimming with a group to a sandbar on College Creek when he went under the surface on Monday afternoon.

Earlier Tuesday, officers walked along the shoreline of the creek in what the department called a recovery operation. Times was a senior at Jamestown High School.

Rubino says signs advise against swimming or wading in College Creek due to a strong rip tide.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Department of Inland Fisheries is offering a chance for anglers to fish without a license.

The agency said in a release that the free fishing weekend will take place June 1-3. No fishing license will be required for recreational rod and reel fishing - except for a special trout license in designated trout waters. All state fishing regulations, including size, catch and gear restrictions will remain in effect.

After the free fishing weekend, annual freshwater and trout licenses are $23 and annual saltwater fishing licenses are $17.50. Short-term licenses are also available through the game and inland fisheries department.

AMHERST, Va. (AP) - A worker at a central Virginia paper mill has died after being crushed by a roll of paper.

Spokeswoman Debra Strohmaier of industrial packaging company Greif Inc. says David McCormick of Appomattox died in Wednesday's accident at the plant in Amherst County.

Strohmaier says McCormick was crushed by a large, heavy roll of paper in the company's warehouse. McCormick had worked at the plant for about 30 years.

The plant makes paper used in cardboard containers. Greif is based in Delaware, Ohio.

The Virginia Department of Labor investigators were at the scene Thursday. Labor spokeswoman Jennifer Wester says the department is looking into whether safety and health issues were involved in the accident.

CHESAPEAKE, Va. (AP) - A Chesapeake jury has found that The Virginian-Pilot committed libel against an assistant principal at a local high school.

The newspaper reports the jury awarded Phillip Webb $3 million in damages on Thursday. The lawsuit stems from a 2009 story that said Webb's son was not disciplined by the school system after the boy's arrest for assault.

In court, Webb's attorney said the newspaper implied Webb's son had received preferential treatment from the school system because of his father's job at Oscar Smith High School. He said the newspaper had no proof of any misconduct and that the story damaged his reputation.

Conrad Shumadine, an attorney for the newspaper, said the story was accurate.

Attorneys for the newspaper are asking the judge to set aside the jury's verdict.

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) - The estate of a former Franklin County deputy's wife has settled a wrongful death lawsuit against him and a former sheriff.

An attorney for Jennifer Agee's estate, Matt Broughton said that a circuit judge in Rocky Mountain approved the settlement Thursday.

Agee's children will receive $900,000 under the settlement. The lawsuit had sought $20 million in damages.

Agee's ex-husband, former Deputy Jonathan Agee, is charged with fatally shooting her at a Roanoke convenience store on May 30, 2011. He's charged with shooting and wounding a State Police trooper while attempting to flee.

The lawsuit claimed former Sheriff Ewell Hunt didn't warn authorities that his deputy was armed and had threatened to kill Jennifer Agee.

MECHANICSVILLE, Va. (AP) - The U.S. Department of Agriculture has cited a private zoo in Mechanicsville for violating a federal regulation nearly two years after six chimpanzees escaped.

The agency cited Windy Oaks Animal Farm for failing to demonstrate adequate experience and knowledge of the species it maintains. In last month's warning notice, the department said any further violation could result in a civil penalty or criminal prosecution.

Windy Oaks owner Curtis Shepperson acknowledged Monday that he received the notice and said he's done everything he's supposed to do. He declined to elaborate.

According to a report by Hanover County Animal Control, the chimpanzees escaped when a painter left a gate open. The owners recaptured four of the primates.

The USDA notice mentioned only the two that were still loose when animal control arrived.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Gov. Bob McDonnell signed new polling place identification requirements into law and along with it has ordered new voter ID cards sent to every registered Virginia voter.
 
    
The voting requirements were updated by the Republican General Assembly this year and decried by Democrats and minorities as a voter suppression effort. The legislation requires voters to show valid identification at the polls. Supporters said it was a way to crack down on election fraud.
 
    
The bill forces voters who don't show ID to cast a provisional ballot to be counted after the election only if voters can validate their identity with local registrars.
 
    
With the bill, a McDonnell executive order directs the State Board of Elections to send out new voter ID cards statewide at a cost of about $1.3 million.

    
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal appeals court is set to hear the case of a Prince William County man whose murder-for-hire conviction was overturned.
 
    
The state is appealing a judge's decision to vacate the conviction of Justin Michael Wolfe, who was sentenced to death for the 2001 slaying of his marijuana supplier, Daniel Petrole. A judge ruled last year that prosecutors suppressed evidence and knowingly used false testimony from the shooter, Owen Barber, who later recanted.
 
    
A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals hears arguments Thursday.
 
    
The case exposed a drug distribution ring in the affluent northern Virginia suburbs. According to trial testimony, Wolfe was making $10,000 to $15,000 a month selling premium marijuana he bought from Petrole. Barber owed Petrole about $60,000 at the time of the slaying.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli says Virginia will receive about $115,000 from a multistate settlement with Skechers USA Inc. over the company's shoe ads.

Lawsuits filed by Cuccinelli and the attorneys general of 43 other states alleged that Skechers made unfounded claims in ads for its Shape-ups, Tone-Ups and Skechers Resistance Runner athletic shoes.

Cuccinelli says the ads claimed the shoes would help people lose weight and strengthen their buttock, leg and stomach muscles.

Under the settlement announced Wednesday, Skechers will pay the states a total $5 million. The company didn't admit any wrongdoing and denies the allegations.

Skechers also agreed in a federal case to provide $40 million for customer refunds to settle similar charges by the Federal Trade Commission.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's revenue collections rose more than 10 percent in April compared with a year ago, putting the state ahead of the revenue forecast for the year.
 
    
Gov. Bob McDonnell's office Tuesday said total revenue collections for the year have risen 5.9 percent, compared with a revised annual forecast of 4.6 percent growth.
 
    
In one of the year's biggest months for tax collections, April receipts were ahead of the same month last year thanks to an increase in taxes withheld from salaries and paychecks and taxes paid by the self-employed and investors.
 
    
Sales and use tax collections increased slightly, and a nearly 5 percent decline in income tax refunds issued during the month contributed to the growth.
 
    
April's numbers build on the 7.6 percent growth rate seen in March.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - A National Academy of Sciences panel that examined the prospect of uranium mining in Virginia has scheduled its final meeting on the report.

Several members of the NAS panel that delivered the report, "Uranium Mining in Virginia," will be in attendance May 31 in Virginia Beach to brief the public.

The report examined several aspects of mining and processing uranium in Virginia. It concluded a number of health and environmental issues must be addressed before Virginia considers an end to a 30-year ban on uranium mining.

Virginia Uranium Inc. has proposed mining a deposit in Pittsylvania County that is among the largest in the world.

The company has faced fierce opposition from some Southside residents and environmentalists. They say mining is not worth the environmental risk.

The company disagrees.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A new program in Virginia will make it easier for veterans to get jobs in the transportation industry.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said Monday that the Troops to Trucks program is the first of its kind in the nation.

Beginning July 1, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles will streamline the process for veterans to obtain a civilian commercial driver's license through a new federal regulation. The regulation gives holders of military commercial driver's licenses a waiver from the road skills test requirement. The written test is still required.

The DMV is partnering with military installations to provide training for veterans who don't have experience operating commercial vehicles. The agency also is partnering with transportation associations to refer applicants to potential employers.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Libertarian Party is challenging a state law that allows only Virginia residents to circulate petitions to get minor party candidates on the general election ballot.

The ACLU filed the lawsuit Monday in federal court in Richmond on behalf of the Libertarian Party of Virginia and Darryl Bonner, a Pennsylvania resident who often circulates petitions for the party's candidates in other states.

The complaint alleges that the restriction violates the plaintiffs' First Amendment right of free speech and association.

In a similar case earlier this year, Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry challenged a related Virginia law that imposes the residency requirement for petition circulators in primary elections. A judge said the requirement is probably unconstitutional, but ruled that Perry filed his lawsuit too late.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginia's 2012 wheat forecast predicts a 5 percent increase over last year's yield.

The Virginia field office of the National Agriculture Statistics Service is forecasting a wheat crop totaling 18.5 million bushels. If that holds up, production will be up 810,000 bushels from 2011.

Producers are expected to devote nearly 300,000 acres to wheat with a yield of 64 bushels per acre. That is above the national yield by more than 16 bushels an acre.

As of early May, the majority of Virginia's wheat crop is in fair to good condition.

    
WASHINGTON (AP) - The nine people killed in a Metrorail crash in June 2009 in northeast Washington will be honored with a plaque near the crash site.
 
    
District of Columbia Mayor Vincent Gray will join relatives of crash victims, first responders and the chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board to unveil the plaque Friday morning.
 
    
The crash was the deadliest in the transit system's history. A malfunctioning electronic circuit caused two trains to collide near the Fort Totten station, killing a train operator and eight passengers. Eighty others were injured.

WASHINGTON (AP) - Washington National Cathedral is preparing to dedicate a new carving of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks in a section of the church devoted to human rights.

The Episcopal cathedral formally installs the new sculpture Thursday with a ceremony of evening prayer songs. The carving of Parks will join others on the cathedral's Human Rights Porch that celebrates those who struggled to bring equality and social justice to all people. Other figures include former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.

One of Parks' nieces, Rhea McCauley, will join the ceremony, along with Elaine Eason Steele, co-founder of the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development.

Parks' refusal to give up her Montgomery, Ala., bus seat to a white passenger in 1955 is often cited as the start of the movement against segregation.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) - Fairfax County police say they have made an arrest in connection with a case of road rage that resulted in the death of a 21-year-old woman last week.
 
  
Authorities say 32-year-old Gloria A. McMillan of the Alexandria area has been charged with felony hit-and-run in the incident, in which Shelinda Delores Arrington was found Friday lying fatally injured on Harrison Lane. Police say the medical examiner's office determined that Arrington had been run over by a vehicle.
 
 It appears that an interaction between the women began while both were driving. Police say Arrington exited her vehicle and there had been a verbal altercation.
 
McMillan surrendered about 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Mount Vernon district police station.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Virginians who want to stock up on batteries, bottled water and other supplies for the hurricane season will get a tax break this month.

Starting May 25 and continuing for seven days, a sales tax holiday will spare them state and local levies for items deemed eligible. They also include flashlights, tarps, storm-shutter devices and big-ticket items such as generators priced at $1,000 or less.

The Department of Emergency Management says Hurricane Irene in late August caused the second-highest number of power outages in Virginia history, while several deaths occurred in the state from that storm and the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee in September.

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RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - The Virginia Department of Health is launching an initiative to control high blood pressure.
 
    
State Health Commissioner Dr. Karen Remley says the department is challenging residents to have 1 million blood pressures taken during May as a way to highlight of controlling hypertension in Virginia.
 
    
It's part of Million Hearts Virginia, which is in combination with a national movement aimed at saving 1 million lives from heart attack and stroke over five years. 
 

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - Old Dominion University is being sued by a professor who claims she was denied tenure because she is white.

Patricia Hentosh also claims she was told to leave the university at the end of 2012-2013 academic year.

Hentosh filed her lawsuit in April in federal court in Norfolk. The lawsuit seeks an injunction to require the university to either give her tenure or reopen the tenure evaluation process and keep her on the payroll for another three years.

The lawsuit also seeks unspecified monetary damages.

Hentosh is a professor in the School of Medical Laboratory and Radiation Sciences. She claims the university retaliated against her for complaining about an Asian American colleague.

University officials would not comment on the lawsuit.

BEDFORD, Va. (AP) - A former Bedford County deputy sheriff captured in Kentucky after he fled morals charges has been indicted on five felony counts.

Forty-seven-year-old Ernest Grubbs originally faced 12 counts of taking indecent liberties with a child in a custodial relationship. Those charges were certified to a grand jury last month. The grand jury indicted Grubbs on five of the counts Tuesday after a special prosecutor agreed not to prosecute the other seven.

Grubbs was a school resource officer at Liberty High School. According to court records, he admitted having a relationship with a 16-year-old female student.

After his arrest in October, Grubbs posted bail and fled the area with the girl. He was captured Nov. 9.

A trial date has not been set.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - The public will have an opportunity to view some evidence from the trial of a former University of Virginia lacrosse player convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend.

Charlottesville Circuit Court Clerk Llezelle Dugger tells media outlets that non-sensitive evidence will go on display May 15 and May 16 in the main courtroom.

George Huguely V was convicted of second-degree murder in February for the 2010 slaying of Yeardley Love. He's scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 30.

Dugger says the evidence to be displayed includes photographs and a tape of Huguely's interrogation by police.

She says autopsy photographs and other "sensitive" evidence won't be shown.

Recording, reproduction or replay of the evidence is prohibited. Electronic devices won't be allowed during the viewings.