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

DATE: SATURDAY, December 31, 1994                   TAG: 9501030067
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - A Northern Virginia business executive with strong family ties to Virginia politics may be throwing his hat into the 1997 lieutenant governor's race.

T. Coleman Andrews III told the Richmond Times-Dispatch on Thursday he has formed a political action committee, Virginians for a Republican Majority, to finance 1995 GOP campaigns for the General Assembly - and, possibly, to help further his own political career.

``I have been encouraged by a number of people to run for lieutenant governor,'' said Andrews, 40, president and chief executive officer of the Herndon-based WorldCorp.

Andrews, who recently served on Gov. George Allen's Commission on Citizen Empowerment, already has begun courting the party's social conservatives, including members of the religious right.

Andrews' grandfather and father, both Democrats, played a prominent role in Virginia's political history. His grandfather, T. Coleman Andrews, resigned as commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service in 1955, denouncing the income tax as ``vicious and evil.'' T. Coleman Andrews Jr., served four terms in the Virginia General Assembly.

Should he decide to run in 1997, Andrews also has a jump on fund raising. His PAC has raised nearly $235,000 since its formation in September, he said.

- Associated Press

Bad instructions led to prison break

HARRISONBURG - Improper instructions given by supervisors to guards helped five inmates escape from a Harrisonburg prison in November, according to state Department of Corrections reports.

The breakout occurred Nov. 25 at Harrisonburg Correctional Unit 8, a minimum-medium security prison near Linville. All of the inmates were recaptured by Nov. 28.

Amy Miller, assistant to the director of the Corrections Department, said details of the violations and the improper instructions from the supervisors will not be released for security reasons.

The reports were filed by the department's internal affairs unit and by a committee appointed by Ronald Angelone, director of the department.

The inmates escaped by overpowering and beating two guards, then stealing a guard's vehicle.

- Associated Press

Danville newspaper sale put on hold

DANVILLE - The sale of the Danville Register & Bee has been delayed while the state Attorney General's Office investigates whether the transaction is in the best interest of a charitable trust that owns the newspaper.

Charles A. ``Zan'' Womack, a publisher of weekly newspapers in Virginia and North Carolina, is seeking to buy the paper. American National Bank & Trust, the executor of the estate of the late publisher, agreed Aug. 31 to sell the paper to him for $19 million.

Publisher Lawson Grant said Friday the bank has not followed the instructions of his mother, Stuart James Grant. The newspaper was intended to go entirely to the charitable foundation, he said.

Meanwhile, another potential bidder for the newspaper has surfaced. Thomas Byrd, publisher of The Winchester Star, said Byrd Newspapers has written to the trustee ``stating our interest in acquiring the necessary information to put a bid in.''

Byrd Newspapers also publishes the Daily News-Record in Harrisonburg and weeklies in Luray, Woodstock, Elkton, Front Royal, Amherst and Nelson County.

- Associated Press

Keywords:
POLITICS