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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 7, 1994                   TAG: 9412070142
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

STAUNTON - Four women have been accepted in Mary Baldwin College's military training program, created as an alternative to admitting women to all-male Virginia Military Institute.

Three high school seniors from Virginia and one from Maryland have been accepted for the fall 1995 charter class of the Virginia Women's Institute for Leadership.

The number of prospects has exceeded 200 and is growing, said Pat LeDonne, the admissions director.

College officials expect up to 25 women in the institute's first class and are prepared for as many as 50.

Heather Wilson, Mary Baldwin's dean of students, said, ``We are exceptionally pleased with our first applicants and with the number of inquiries. ... They like the idea of making history.''

- Associated Press

Bus driver who made threats is fired

YORKTOWN - A York County substitute school bus driver accused by three parents of threatening to abandon a busload of elementary students in the woods has been fired, school officials said.

Her name was not made public.

The decision to dismiss the driver came after interviews with the three parents and with the driver, said Superintendent Steven Staples.

The parents, whose children ride a bus to Magruder Elementary School, complained last week that the driver swore at the children and threatened to kick them off the bus in the middle of the woods, where they'd ``never see their moms and dads again.''

- Associated Press

Allen criticized over river program

RICHMOND - Environmentalists say the Allen administration is dragging its feet on a program to protect the state's cleanest rivers from pollution.

Virginia adopted the ``exceptional waters'' program in 1992 under pressure from the federal government, but no rivers have been protected under it. Administration officials say they are moving cautiously on a program that will affect landowners permanently.

The State Water Control Board was scheduled to vote Monday on adopting five trout streams as Virginia's first exceptional waters, but environmentalists learned during the meeting that the matter was stricken last week from the board's agenda - for the second time in seven months.

- Associated Press