ROANOKE TIMES

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

DATE: SATURDAY, September 18, 1993                   TAG: 9309180263
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO  
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Long


IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - A Dayton woman on Friday claimed a $9.5 million Lotto jackpot, and said she plans to take early retirement from her job as a secretary and bookkeeper.

Lydia Baylor was the first Lotto-By-Mail jackpot winner, Virginia Lottery spokeswoman Paula Otto said. Baylor, 48, said she purchased the mail subscription to make sure she always had a ticket.

Baylor learned she had the winning numbers Thursday morning when her daughter called her at work. "I called to confirm the numbers, and then asked for the rest of the day off," she said.

She and her husband, Russell, 49, a maintenance engineer, live in Dayton, just outside Harrisonburg.

Baylor received a first payment of $319,215 after taxes and will get an additional 19 payments of $320,960 after taxes. - Associated Press

EPA opposes NS coal facility in Isle of Wight

WINDSOR - The Environmental Protection Agency has recommended that Norfolk Southern Corp. be denied a permit to build a huge coal storage facility in Isle of Wight County.

In a letter this week to the Army Corps of Engineers, the EPA said it opposes the railroad's $288 million project because it will have an "unacceptable impact on aquatic resources of national importance."

The EPA contends that the storage facility proposed for 1,600 acres near Windsor would damage 209 acres of wetlands and possibly threaten species such as the endangered tiger salamander.

The corps must issue permits for construction projects that affect wetlands.

The corps plans to meet Tuesday with environmental regulators and Norfolk Southern officials. "We're looking for a balance between preservation and development," said Kenneth Kimidy, a corps project manager.

The EPA letter said there are alternative sites that would be less environmentally damaging. But Kimidy said the Windsor site doesn't damage wetlands any more than alternative sites farther west.

Carolyn E. Szumal, an EPA spokeswoman, said the agency could veto a corps decision to issue the permit, but it doesn't like exercising that power. "Hopefully, there is still room for negotiation," she said. a - Associated

Press

Appeals court upholds murderer's conviction

RICHMOND - A federal appeals court Friday upheld the capital murder conviction of Timothy Spencer for the 1987 rape and strangulation of a Richmond woman.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Spencer's argument that genetic material extracted from semen stains on Debbie Dudley Davis' bedclothes should not have been admitted as evidence.

Spencer, who became known as the "South Side Strangler," was convicted in the deaths of Davis, another Richmond woman, a Chesterfield County teen-ager and an Arlington County woman. He was sentenced four times to death in Virginia's electric chair.

His convictions were the first in the country based almost entirely on DNA evidence.

- Associated Press

Va. Beach wins again in water pipeline battle

RICHMOND - Virginia Beach won another legal battle on the Lake Gaston pipeline project Friday when the state Supreme Court said the city does not need the consent of Halifax and Mecklenburg counties before building the line.

The court unanimously overturned a decision by Mecklenburg County Circuit Judge Charles L. McCormick III, who ruled last year that the city had to gain the counties' permission because the city plans to store water in Kerr Reservoir.

The reservoir is located in both counties. But the pipeline itself would not be in either county.

City officials argued that because the counties would not be the site of any physical construction, no permission was required. The Supreme Court agreed.

The proposed pipeline would bring up to 60 million gallons of water a day from Lake Gaston to Virginia Beach, which now buys its water from neighboring Norfolk. - Associated Press

School shooting suspect surrenders

RICHMOND - A 17-year-old wanted on charges of shooting a George Wythe High School student surrendered to Richmond police Friday.

The youth, whose identity was withheld because of his age, was being held at the city's juvenile detention center pending a hearing Monday.

The teen was charged with one count of aggravated assault and one count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

Police said the teen walked into the school's cafeteria Monday morning and fired two shots at Walter Booker, 18. Booker remained in the Medical College of Virginia Hospitals on Friday.

Neither the defendant's lawyer nor police would elaborate on the relationship between the two or the issue over which they argued. - Associated Press



 by CNB