Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, October 9, 1993                   TAG: 9310090118
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

ALEXANDRIA - Police have no reason to believe a loaded revolver found in a church preschool classroom was brought in by a teacher or a student, Alexandria Police Cpl. Jim Dietz said.

The appearance of the rusty old Harrington & Richardson revolver has alarmed parents and officials at Trinity United Methodist Church, but no one has removed their child from the program, said The Rev. James Godwin.

A teacher discovered the .32-caliber revolver within a child's reach on a bookshelf of an empty classroom last Friday, police said.

There was no sign of a break-in, and the gun was not reported stolen, Dietz said. Ballistics tests will be performed to determine if the weapon can be linked to any crime, he said.

Godwin said he was certain the gun was not in the classroom the previous day.

- Associated Press

\ Media blamed for tie-up of phones after tornado

RICHMOND - The news media helped clog a cellular telephone service shortly after August's deadly tornadoes, leaving state police without the system for more than an hour, state officials said.

"A lot of news media . . . essentially blocked the trunk," said Bobby Johnson, director of the state's telecommunications division in the Department of Information Technology.

In the aftermath of the Aug. 6 tornadoes, callers in the Petersburg area made 26,000 attempts to use the Contel Cellular system during a two-hour period. The company could process only 13,000 of the calls.

State police were without cellular telephone communications for an hour and a half.

Contel provides cellular service in central and southeastern Virginia and is the contractor for state agencies with cellular service. - Associated Press