The Virginian-Pilot
                             THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Tuesday, October 22, 1996             TAG: 9610220286
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
TYPE: Briefs 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                          LENGTH:   84 lines

STATE DIGEST

NORTHERN VIRGINIA

Comedian Russell gives candidates a hand for humor

FREDERICKSBURG - Whatever the voters might think of President Clinton and Bob Dole, comedian Mark Russell is giving both of them points for humor.

``Clinton is a master at humor. Kennedy, Reagan and Clinton. He's in that class, no doubt about it,'' said Russell, who has been making jokes at the expense of politicians in Washington since the Kennedy administration.

Russell said Dole's wit is well known in Washington, although it doesn't serve him well on the campaign trail. ``It's a sardonic wit. It's lost on the masses. A little too subtle,'' he told the Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg.

SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA

Mom convicted of murder

ROANOKE - A Circuit Court jury decided Friday that Veronica Via committed first-degree murder Dec. 16 when she struck her 14-day-old daughter 10 or more times on the back of the head with her open hand.

Via's lawyers portrayed her as a desperate woman who could no longer control her anger and despair. Prosecutors said Via's statement to police that she wanted to send her daughter to ``a better place'' showed that she planned the murder.

The jury recommended that she spend 20 years in prison.

A dozen executions set

SOUTHSIDE With 12 murderers scheduled to be put to death by year's end, Virginia could more than double its record of five annual executions set in 1993 and tied last year.

Three executions have taken place this year. Five of the 12 pending executions likely will be delayed, leaving as many as seven to be carried out by Dec. 18.

Virginia's 32 executions since 1982 put it third behind Texas and Florida for the most executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Best has liquidation plan

RICHMOND - Best Products Co. sweetened its bankruptcy position Monday by millions of dollars in the liquidation of 81 of its 169 stores. A late bid for the catalog retailer by Gordon Brothers Inc. set off a courtroom bidding battle between the Boston-based liquidation company and Schottenstein Bernstein LLC and Alco Capital Group Inc. The bidding, won by Schottenstein Bernstein and Alco Capital, lifted Best Products' proceeds from the planned liquidation to 91.3 percent of the stores' value of about $185 million. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Douglas O. Tice Jr. was still hearing arguments late Monday on whether to approve the plan.

CENTRAL VIRGINIA

Civil War soldier museum

DINWIDDIE - Plans to build a museum that will tell the story of the average soldier's life during the Civil War were detailed Saturday at a ground-breaking ceremony at the Pamplin Park Civil War Site in Dinwiddie County.

The National Museum of the Civil War Soldier is scheduled to open in the 173-acre park on Memorial Day in 1999. When completed, the 70,000-square-foot building will have 13 galleries for exhibits, a 250-seat theater, a museum store, a restaurant and classrooms.

Also . . . RICHMOND - Virginia's 1996 corn crop is expected to set a record of 124 bushels per acre, the best since the state started measuring the crop in 1910. The $105 million harvest also is the most profitable for corn in 11 years.

CHARLOTTESVILLE - Archaeologists at Monticello are excavating the site of a log cabin that was inhabited by Elizabeth Hemings, a slave whose daughter was reputed to be Thomas Jefferson's mistress.

Monticello is holding a free open house from 1 to 4 p.m. daily through Friday to share its archaeological research.

COMING UP

THURSDAY: National Conference of Christians and Jews, 34th annual Richmond Chapter Humanitarian Awards, 6:30 p.m. at the Richmond Marriott. MEMO: From Associated Press reports by CNB