Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, December 5, 1994 TAG: 9412050076
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Wednesday afternoon, about a dozen of Clark's cows made a break for it. They climbed over a broken barbed-wire fence and enjoyed a brief taste of freedom, grazing blissfully on the grass along the Blue Ridge Parkway.
A caller to the parkway's emergency line noted they were at milepost 125. "Last seen, they were headed north," the caller said.
District ranger Richard Morefield said the cows that parkway visitors see are no different from other cows. They get out from time to time.
The farmers who own the cows are cooperative in getting their breakaway bovines back behind barbed wire, Morefield said. They are liable for any cow-car collision-related expenses.
Musical chairs
U.S. Rep. L.F. Payne of the 5th District survived the Republican wave on Election Day, but he's not finished battling yet.
Democratic committee members throughout the House of Representatives are losing their seats to Republicans - reflecting the GOP's new majority standing. Payne's prestigious seat on the policy-making Ways and Means Committee is teetering on the edge.
Right now, it looks as if there will be 23 Republicans and 14 Democrats on Ways and Means. Payne is ranked 14th in seniority among committee Democrats.
Final negotiations on the committee's makeup won't be completed until next week.
Rush job
Former Bedford County Sheriff's Deputy Steve Rush started a new job Thursday as a senior program support technician with the State Probation and Parole Department in Lynchburg.
In his new post, Rush will assist with supervision and surveillance of probation cases.
Rush and three other Bedford County deputies were demoted and suspended without pay for 60 days last year for drinking on duty. He also was accused of botching the investigation of Clayton Jahoe Fore's murder in 1990 by coming to the murder scene drunk, but a judge later ruled in Rush's favor, saying he had acted responsibly at the scene.
Lessons for life?
Stereotypes are changing in high schools. Used to be that the top academic students were considered bookworms who spent most of their time reading and studying.
But many top students now spend more time on socializing and sports than on intellectual pursuits.
According to a recent survey of high achievers, 52 percent study only an hour a day or less. But four in 10 spend eight hours or more on athletic activities each week, and nearly half devote that much time to social activities.
The survey of nearly 3,200 students with A and B averages, conducted by Who's Who Among American High School Students, is the largest and most independent sampling of high school students' opinions.
The decrease in reading and studying apparently has had an impact on the top students. Three-fourths said they had resorted to cheating on their schoolwork, 70 percent admitted copying someone's homework, and 44 percent admitted cheating on a quiz or test.
The students did not see dishonesty as a big issue. Two-thirds said cheating was not a big moral offense, 93 percent said they never were caught, and those who were apprehended were punished mildly.
by CNB