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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 19, 1992                   TAG: 9202190322
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Short

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REDISTRICTING PLAN APPROVED; GOP MIFFED

Federal authorities have given their seal of approval to Virginia's new congressional districts, including an additional seat in Northern Virginia and a first-ever black majority district that stretches from Norfolk to Richmond.

The U.S. Justice Department notified Attorney General Mary Sue Terry's office on Tuesday that it would not object to the new districts, approved last November by the General Assembly amid howls of protest by Republicans.

GOP lawmakers complained of partisan gerrymandering when Democrats drew the lines to put the homes of GOP Reps. Thomas J. Bliley Jr. of Richmond and George F. Allen of Charlottesville into a new district stretching from the capitol city to the Blue Ridge.

- Staff and wire reports

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