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

DATE: THURSDAY, March 30, 1995                   TAG: 9503300090
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - Virginia will join a court challenge to the federal ``motor voter'' law because Washington may be exceeding its authority in telling states how to register people to vote, Attorney General Jim Gilmore said Wednesday.

Gilmore confirmed plans to file a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of California's effort to overturn the motor voter law, which allows residents to register by mail or when renewing their driver's licenses or applying for other government services.

The decision means Virginia will join at least five states hoping to uproot the new federal law, which is designed to place an estimated 65 million unregistered Americans on the voting rolls.

The General Assembly passed a bill last month that would implement the federal law in Virginia, but Gov. George Allen offered an amendment this week to delay the law for at least a year and require another vote by the legislature.

- Newport News Daily Press

$83 million more sought for prisons

RICHMOND - Attorney General Jim Gilmore on Wednesday called for the General Assembly to provide $83 million more for prison construction to accommodate the state's crackdown on violent criminals.

The assembly reconvenes April 5 to reconsider bills Gov. George Allen vetoed and to revisit some issues covered in a six-week session that ended last month.

Gilmore said the state needs to build more prison space to accommodate the inmate population growth resulting from last September's abolition of parole and other measures.

- Associated Press

Stream protection delayed for year

RICHMOND - State officials have delayed for at least a year a move to protect some of Virginia's most pristine streams.

The state Water Control Board voted unanimously Tuesday to postpone including five recommended streams in the ``exceptional waters'' program, in part to allay property rights concerns.

The vote was the latest in a year-long series of delays in the program, designed to protect Virginia's finest waterways.

The exceptional waters program is required of states under the federal Clean Water Act. The state water board adopted the program in May 1992 but has placed no streams under protection.

Rivers designated as exceptional waters would be protected from new sewage and industrial discharges.

- Associated Press