Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, October 14, 1993 TAG: 9310140244
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
OAKWOOD - A restraining order has quelled picket line confrontations in Southwest Virginia, where striking coal miners are upset that Consol Inc. is operating a mine with supervisors, state police said Wednesday.
About 100 of the 800 United Mine Workers on strike in Buchanan County demonstrated outside the mine Tuesday, Lt. Curtis Bailey said.
Wednesday, there were between five and 15 pickets at the mine and "no activity at all," Bailey said.
A Buchanan County circuit judge issued a restraining order Tuesday against union pickets at the Vansant mine, where the company said strikers damaged vehicles belonging to company supervisors.
At Consol's request, Judge Nicholas Persin limited the number of pickets and picket-line activity.
- Associated Press
Teen-ager pleads guilty in grandmother's killing
SPOTSYLVANIA - A Spotsylvania County teen-ager pleaded guilty Wednesday to stabbing and bludgeoning his grandmother to death.
Michael D. Chewning, 15, was charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of Thelma Chewning. As part of a plea agreement, prosecutors dropped a grand larceny charge.
Chewning is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 20 in Circuit Court.
Chewning's attorneys unsuccessfully sought to have their client tried as a juvenile. Commonwealth's Attorney William Neely argued that the crime was "far too heinous" to be handled in juvenile court. - Associated Press
Wal-Mart makes gift to tornado's victims
COLONIAL HEIGHTS - Wal-Mart officials on Wednesday donated $100,000 to help victims of a tornado that killed three people and demolished the company's store.
Wal-Mart also held a grand opening for a temporary store where customers can shop while the company constructs a new 146,000-square-foot facility.
"One-hundred thousand dollars is kind of insignificant to what we owe you," divisional Vice President Larry E. Williams said after handing a check to Mayor James B. McNeer.
City Manager Robert E. Taylor said he did not know specifically what the city plans to do with the money.
Wal-Mart's original Colonial Heights store was destroyed by the Aug. 6 tornado, which killed two store employees and one shopper. The store was the company's highest-grossing store in Wal-Mart's Eastern region, officials said. - Associated Press
Richmond prosecutor out of jail, back at work
RICHMOND - After 2 1/2 days in jail and more than four months away from his office, Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Joseph D. Morrissey was back in the office Tuesday.
Last week, a judge ordered Morrissey jailed for violating a suspended sentence on a 1991 contempt-of-court conviction for sending a substitute judge a threatening letter.
In June, four days before the Democratic primary for commonwealth's attorney, Morrissey was indicted on five felonies related to his handling of a plea-bargain agreement. A jury cleared Morrissey of three of the counts. Trials on the remaining charges are set for November and December.
Morrissey lost the primary.
- Associated Press
Group wants rebel flag returned to courthouse
STAFFORD - A group of Stafford County residents has urged the Board of Supervisors to once again raise the Confederate flag at the county courthouse.
More than 1,800 residents have signed a petition calling for the return of the flag, according to organizers of the drive. A flag collection flew in the courthouse law library for about two weeks this summer. General District Judge John Scott Jr. said the display was offensive, and Circuit Judge James Haley Jr. asked that it be removed.
Scott said the Confederate flag is not appropriate at a courthouse because it "does not symbolize the concept of equal justice under the law."
American Legion Post 290 purchased the flag display for $1,700 and donated it to the county. It included British flags from the Colonial period, four versions of the Stars and Stripes, the state flag and three Confederate flags - the Stars and Bars, the Stainless Banner and the 1865 flag of the Confederacy.
- Associated Press
Jury indicts woman in Pepsi-tampering lie
NORFOLK - A woman who claimed she found needle fragments in a Diet Pepsi can was indicted on six charges by a federal grand jury Wednesday.
Tobbie Elesha Shoemo could be sentenced to five years in prison and fined $250,000 on each count of communicating a false tampering claim, making a false statement and obstruction of justice. She also could get 10 years in prison and be fined $250,000 on each of three counts of threatening a witness.
A wave of tampering claims swept the nation this summer. Dozens of reports that needles and other foreign objects were being found in Pepsi and Diet Pepsi cans were filed in 23 states. More than a dozen arrests were made on charges of product tampering or making false claims.
Shoemo is accused of lying when she told a television station and a federal Food and Drug Administration official that she bought a can of Diet Pepsi in Norfolk on June 4 and discovered needle fragments in the soda.
- Associated Press
by CNB