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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 14, 1994                   TAG: 9407140060
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - Young high school dropouts can get a second chance in a Virginia National Guard program beginning this fall.

The students in the ``Challenge'' program will live at Camp Pendleton, the National Guard's military reservation in Virginia Beach, for five months. While there, they'll be completing educational requirements for a General Education Development diploma.

``These kids, we hope, are looking for military structure and will hopefully flourish and become productive citizens,'' said Col. Maynard K. Bean, the National Guard officer who guided the program through federal and state approval.

Bean said the young people will learn military discipline and take classes in everything from leadership to hygiene. They will be subject to random drug screening.

Gov. George Allen announced the program Thursday. He said it will be funded by a $2.8 million federal grant for the first year.

- Associated Press

CSX vice president to head Lottery

RICHMOND - Gov. George Allen on Friday appointed Penelope W. Kyle of Richmond, a CSX Corp. vice president, as director of the Virginia Lottery.

She replaces Kenneth Thorson, one of several high-ranking officials fired by Allen on June 3. Richard Wilkinson had been serving as acting director since Thorson's dismissal.

Kyle is a University of Virginia law school graduate. She also holds a master's degree in business administration from the College of William and Mary and a master's degree in English from Southern Methodist University.

- Associated Press

Judge convicts man in murder, robbery

HALIFAX - A Halifax County Circuit Court judge has convicted a man of capital murder and robbery in the slaying of a Washington, D.C., college student.

Judge Charles L. McCormick on Thursday convicted Robert K. Clark, 20, of the Nathalie community of Halifax County. Clark waived his right to a jury trial.

McCormick said he does not plan to impose the death penalty when he sentences Clark in September. Therefore, Clark faces a maximum sentence of life in prison on the capital murder conviction, another life term for the robbery conviction, and up to six years in prison for two weapons violations.

The body of Rawle O. Gueri Wharton, 32, was found in October at a gravel depot on Virginia 40 in the Cody community.

Wharton, a Guyanese national, was a student at the University of the District of Columbia at the time he was killed.

- Associated Press