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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, March 7, 1990                   TAG: 9003071382
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C7   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Richmond bureau
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                 LENGTH: Medium

A BILL INTRODUCED IN RESPONSE TO LAST SUMMER'S

Sen. Robert Scott, D-Newport News, said the bill sent the wrong message to students planning to return this year for the annual Labor Day "Greekfest" celebration.

The bill - which passed the House of Delegates - would have allowed the police chief or city manager of a locality to suspend alcohol sales during a natural disaster or large-scale disturbance.

Opponents said the bill was unnecessary because the governor already has the power to curb alcohol sales during a disturbance.

A Virginia Beach commission, which concluded that city officials and students shared the blame for the rioting, rejected the idea of curbing alcohol sales.

Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, said the bill would open an embarrassing caveat in the state's tourist slogan. "Virginia is For Lovers, as long as the lovers are not teen-agers coming from black colleges," she said.

Sen. Clarence Holland, D-Virginia Beach, defended the resort city as a place of "fun-loving and welcoming people." But neither Holland nor Sen. Moody Stallings, D-Virginia Beach, objected to a motion to send the bill back to a committee that is not scheduled to meet again this year.

The motion was approved by a voice vote, with only Sen. Onico Barker, R-Danville, dissenting.

In other action Tuesday, the Senate:

Approved a bill backed by the Wilder administration to allow the death penalty for murders that occur during drug deals.

There was little discussion before the Senate passed the measure 35-5. Gov. Douglas Wilder, a former opponent of the death penalty, had made the bill one of his top priorities in this year's General Assembly.

The Senate also approved, 37-3, a related bill allowing private fund-raising for police to fight drug use, but amended it to remove some appointive power from the governor. Shortly before the session adjourned Tuesday, the Senate agreed to a request by a Wilder ally, Sen. Virgil Goode, D-Rocky Mount, to reconsider the bill later in the week.

That bill would create a local anti-drug trust fund authority, which would raise private money to help local police catch drug dealers. The authority's members would include six legislators, a law enforcement official and a private citizen.

The bill originally called for the governor to appoint the authority's members, but the Senate voted 22-18 for an amendment offered by Sen. Joseph Gartlan Jr., D-Fairfax County, to let the General Assembly pick its representatives.

The Senate also amended the bill on a voice vote to require that the authority's expenses be limited to 10 percent of the money raised.

Agreed 34-6 to require that children be 5 years old by Sept. 30 before they can enter public kindergarten. Under current law, children who turn 5 between Oct. 1 and Dec. 31 can start kindergarten at age 4 if they pass a readiness test.

Sen. Edward Houck, D-Spotsylvania, said younger children do poorly in school and are likely to wind up repeating grades and dropping out of school.

But Miller said the bill amounted to punishing children for a failure of the school system. "We are saying that the child is the problem," she said.

A The change would be phased in over three years and 19 school divisions that offer two-tier kindergartens would be exempted.

Large oil companies that operate service stations would be barred from building new ones for a year if a bill passed Tuesday by the House of Delegates becomes law.

The bill had been the subject of intense lobbying by refinery operators, who opposed it, and independent gasoline dealers, who supported it.

Voted 38-2 to suspend the drivers' licenses for at least 4 months of persons convicted of a second drunken driving offense.