WHAT OTHER ISSUES ARE ON LEGISLATORS' MINDS? RACCOONS AND GOAT MILK

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

DATE: MONDAY, January 27, 1992                   TAG: 9201270101
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: A-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium
WHAT OTHER ISSUES ARE ON LEGISLATORS' MINDS? RACCOONS AND GOAT MILK
Legislators aren't worried about just the state budget this year, they're also concerned with raccoons, goat milk, the lawyer glut, daylight-saving time and "mind-altering" counseling techniques.
Those are the topics of some of the more offbeat bills and resolutions among the record-high 2,167 measures introduced in the General Assembly.
Del. Jackie Stump, D-Buchanan County, proposed a bill to set a statewide season for chasing raccoons with dogs from Aug. 1 through May 31.
The sport of raccoon chasing now is allowed year-round in eastern Virginia, he said, but only for six months west of the Blue Ridge Mountains.
"In the western part of the state, it's unbelievable the number of people that chase raccoons," Stump said. "We're just looking for something to try to help them."
Stump said the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries might agree to extend the season in Western Virginia for a couple of months, making his bill unnecessary.
Del. Mitchell Van Yahres, D-Charlottesville, is trying to help goat farmers with his bill to allow the sale of small amounts of unpasteurized goat milk.
"It's my fun bill," Van Yahres said. "There's an awful lot of support for it."
A goat farmer in Albemarle County has been trying for years to sell goat milk to the public, but state regulations bar the sale of raw milk.
"There are a lot of goat-milk producers around the state and there are many consumers. We have gotten a lot of letters and communications from consumers as well as producers of goat milk that want this," Van Yahres said.
But he said he expects opposition from the state Health Department and dairy farmers.
Sen. Madison Marye, D-Shawsville, is taking on the legal profession with his resolution calling on the state's three public law schools to study the supply of and demand for lawyers.
Marye's resolution notes that Virginia has 25,000 licensed attorneys, more than Japan does.
Marye unsuccessfully introduced a budget amendment last year to cut off funds for the state's newest law school, at George Mason University in Fairfax. The other two public law schools are at the University of Virginia and the College of William and Mary.
Sen. Robert Russell, R-Chesterfield, has proposed a new kind of parental-consent bill. He wants parents to give their permission before schools use "mind-altering techniques" in counseling or other instruction.
"In some of the elementary school guidance counseling programs, there are meditation therapies or meditational exercises that the young grade school or kindergarten kids are taking part in which are objectionable to a number of parents," Russell said. "It has religious connotations to it."
Sen. Yvonne Miller, D-Norfolk, put in her resolution on daylight-saving time at the request of a class at Azalea Garden Middle School in Norfolk.
It urges that daylight-saving time be extended by a week so that it ends the first Sunday of November each year instead of the last Sunday in October.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB