Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 21, 1994 TAG: 9407210084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
ALEXANDRIA - The boyhood home of Robert E. Lee was burglarized - for a bottle of cheap champagne.
When museum caretaker Tom Horan confronted a man cradling the bottle before dawn Tuesday, the man said he had broken in to find something to drink. So the caretaker let him go.
Horan said it was a cheap bottle of champagne, his own, not part of any exhibit.
The man used a ladder from a nearby house to climb into the 200-year-old museum's second-floor window, police said.
Then the man made a beeline for the refrigerator - passing antiques and period memorabilia - and grabbed the frosty bottle inside.
- Associated Press
Pipeline backers bash bureaucrats
VIRGINIA BEACH - A public hearing on the proposed Lake Gaston water pipeline turned Wednesday into a bash-the-bureaucrats gripe forum for backers who think the idea has been studied enough.
``It should be clear that there has been gross misconduct by the federal establishment in the handling of this project,'' said Rep. Owen Pickett, a Democrat whose 2nd District includes Virginia Beach, which wants the water.
``There's been no water to help these people who asked for this project more than a decade ago, but plenty of paperwork,'' said Rep. Norman Sisisky, whose 4th District includes Lake Gaston. ``This project has passed muster at every test, and it's time for decisive action.''
Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it will prepare a full environmental review of the 76-mile pipeline, even though previous studies have shown no adverse impact at the proposed maximum withdrawal rate of 60 million gallons a day.
- Associated Press
Preservationists seek to buy battlefield
WASHINGTON - A pitched battle over the site of the largest cavalry fight of the Civil War entered a new phase with a proposal Wednesday by two preservation groups to buy some of the battlefield for $5 million.
The Brandy Station Foundation and the Fredericksburg-based Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites raised the money to create a battlefield park. The groups are seeking to head off a rival plan to build a Formula One racetrack on land where more than 20,000 troops clashed June 9, 1863.
Brandy Station has been the site of a four-year legal battle over land rights and development. California developer Lee C. Sammis planned to build the Elkwood Downs industrial park there before filing last year for bankruptcy.
- Associated Press
Fondling accusation leads to dismissal
FAIRFAX - The Fairfax County School Board has voted to dismiss a longtime teacher for allegedly fondling students.
The 6-2 vote came at 1:35 a.m. today after five hours of deliberations on Craig Gordon, a teacher at Virginia Run Elementary School in Centreville who was accused of sexually molesting students over a 10-year period.
Gordon, 46, a teacher in the district for 21 years, left the room without commenting.
The board went into its closed-door deliberations after nine public sessions on the allegations in which 58 hours of testimony were heard.
``He crossed the line,'' school board Anne Murphy said at the end of the hearing in arguing for the dismissal of Gordon.
Gordon's lawyer, Stephen D. Stone, told the board the teacher's reputation had been smeared by a ``manufactured case,'' the result of ``hysteria produced by a biased investigation.''
The case arose after six former students came forward last year and accused Gordon of misconduct while he was a teacher at Belvedere Elementary School.
- Associated Press
by CNB