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

DATE: THURSDAY, November 3, 1994                   TAG: 9411030112
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - Virginia motorists still will have to get their cars inspected once a year while state officials study whether the requirement should be dropped.

Gov. George Allen's Blue Ribbon Strike Force backed off a recommendation that the annual inspections be dropped as part of its plan to reform state government. The panel had proposed that the inspections be done only when a vehicle is sold.

But in final votes on its recommendations, the strike force decided to have the Department of Motor Vehicles and the state police study the idea, chairman Otis Brown said Wednesday.

Brown said panel members wanted more data from states where inspections have been dropped. Consumer advocates had raised concerns that ending the inspections would jeopardize automobile safety.

The 60-member citizen commission settled on about 250 recommendations in a meeting that ended late Tuesday. Allen will get the report later this month.

- Associated Press

Police stymied in Kubler-Ross fire

HEADWATERS - The state police investigation into the fire that razed Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' home last month reportedly won't be able to determine whether the fire was arson or began accidentally.

The fire was so intense it consumed the evidence necessary to make the determination, an unnamed source close to the investigation told the Richmond Times-Dispatch for a story published Tuesday.

Kubler-Ross, who is best known for her book ``On Death and Dying,'' has said she believed the fire was arson. The fire apparently started near the wood stove on the first floor of the two-story log house.

Kubler-Ross, a psychiatrist, said she believes the fire was retribution from those opposed to her ties to the AIDS community.

Also, one of her pet llamas was shot a few hours before the fire. The shooting of the llama may have been a hunting accident and a coincidence, authorities said.

- Associated Press