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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 24, 1994                   TAG: 9406290050
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

CHESAPEAKE - The U.S. Justice Department has rejected Chesapeake's plan for at-large School Board elections, saying the city must do more to provide black candidates a fair chance of being elected.

City Council was notified of the decision at its meeting Tuesday night in a letter written by Gerald W. Jones, acting assistant attorney general in the civil rights division.

In reviewing the proposal, he said the department analyzed City Council elections because they are almost identical to the method that would have been used to select a School Board.

Even though black candidates were elected, he said, their victories were contingent on receiving very strong support from black voters and at least some votes from the white community.

|- Associated Press

Burned boy followed

bomb instructions

RICHMOND - A 12-year-old Chesterfield County boy who was burned when he tried to heat gasoline on a kitchen stove was following instructions on bomb making from a computer bulletin board, authorities said.

The burn case is one of an increasing number of incidents in which youths learned about bomb making and other potentially dangerous activities through personal and school computers, authorities said.

The boy, whose name was withheld because of his age, was heating the gasoline on the stove when it ignited. The boy tried to take the pan off the stove, and it landed on the floor. The boy's older brother put out the blaze with a fire extinguisher before firefighters arrived, Creasy said.

The boy was treated for first- and second-degree burns at a hospital and released. The kitchen had minor damage, Creasy said.

|- Associated Press

Tattoo-sanding dad

guilty of child abuse

MANASSAS - A man who used an electric grinder and sandpaper to remove his teen-age son's tattoo has pleaded guilty to felony child abuse.

Timothy V. Shotwell, 38, who entered his plea Wednesday in Prince William County Circuit Court, faces a 10-year prison term when he's sentenced Aug. 11. He originally was charged with malicious wounding for the Nov. 29 incident.

Shotwell was arrested in December after he took an electric grinder to his 14-year-old son's left middle finger to remove a homemade tattoo. He also used sandpaper on the left ring finger, Prince William Police Officer Richard J. Leonard testified.

|- Associated Press

by CNB