ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 19, 1996 TAG: 9610210047
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
State adds $3.15 million in storm help
RICHMOND - Victims of Hurricane Fran will get another $3.15 million in state funds, Gov. George Allen said Friday.
The money will be an addition to $1.5 million that Allen already designated for hurricane relief.
``These funds will assist those who were hit hardest by the destruction of Hurricane Fran,'' Allen said. ``Throughout the commonwealth, our citizens are working hard to restore and rebuild their communities.''
The hurricane and accompanying floods caused more than $300 million in damage in Virginia.
The state also has received $10.8 million in federal disaster relief.
- Associated Press
Open house held for mistreated dogs
PRINCE GEORGE - Forty-six dogs that lived in a house littered with feces may get new homes.
Animal Control Warden Billie Cain is holding an open house today and hopes to get a list of people who would like to adopt one of Leokadia Worton's dogs.
Worton pleaded guilty to 18 counts of cruelty to animals and one count of being an unfit animal owner. General District Judge Kenneth Nye sentenced Worton to 90 days in jail on each conviction in August, but suspended all the jail time. The judge also barred Worton from owning more than one dog.
Authorities seized 48 dogs from Worton's home July 23, the day after firefighters responding to a blaze at the dwelling discovered animal feces covering the first floor, evidence of rat and flea infestation and mounds of trash in the yard. The dogs are now in a county animal shelter.
- Associated Press
Retiree pleads guilty to killing his wife
RICHMOND - A retired corporate executive pleaded guilty Friday to murdering his wife, who has been missing for more than two years.
Henrico County Circuit Judge George Tidey sentenced Henry Clay Wheless Jr. to 20 years in prison for the second-degree murder of Jean Spencer Wheless but suspended 12 years under a plea agreement.
Wheless, 61, was to go on trial this month for his wife's death.
Police said Wheless admitted to bludgeoning his wife of 33 years with a hammer and throwing her body in a river in the Fluvanna County town of Columbia.
Jean Wheless' car was discovered at Philadelphia International Airport with bloodstains in the trunk in April 1994, about a month after she vanished.
- Associated Press
Warship Wisconsin returns to Va.
PORTSMOUTH - The battleship Wisconsin has returned to Virginia, a move made necessary by the closing of Philadelphia Naval Shipyard, its home for the past five years.
The mothballed warship, which will be docked at Norfolk Naval Shipyard, drew a crowd of watchers Thursday, including some former crewmen, as it was pushed by tugs down the Elizabeth River.
``It's sad to see a ship that was once so alive so dead, being tugged,'' said Eugene Kanter, a Virginia Beach dentist who served aboard the battleship in the mid-1950s. ``But she's still a great lady. What a lady!''
- Associated Press
Pension recipient faces indictment
NEWPORT NEWS - A former Newport News Shipbuilding worker who was injured on the job was indicted in a fraud investigation on charges that he worked in construction while collecting $125,000 in disability payments.
Johnny Stinson, 50, of Newport News will be arraigned Nov. 1 in U.S. District Court. If convicted, he could get 25 years in prison and a $1.25 million fine.
Stinson began receiving disability payments from the shipyard in 1988 after he injured his back in a fall. From 1992 to 1996, however, he ran a construction business, according to a U.S. Labor Department investigation.
The shipyard requested the investigation after an anonymous tip, company spokeswoman Jerri Fuller Dickseski said Thursday.
Efforts to reach Stinson by telephone were unsuccessful.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 82 linesby CNB