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

DATE: THURSDAY, January 19, 1995                   TAG: 9501190131
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

IN VIRGINIA

RICHMOND - A pair of police officers has been assigned to crack down on students playing hooky from Richmond schools.

Miles Jones and Nathaniel Hudson, both security experts at area high schools, will begin combing city streets for truants within the next two weeks, the Richmond School Board announced Tuesday.

``It's another step in the process of making sure all school-age students are in school,'' Superintendent Lucille M. Brown said.

Truant officers, who are charged with picking up students and taking them back to school, last were used about 15 years ago, Brown said.

Although Richmond's dropout rate is going down, truancy remains a major concern, Brown said.

|- Associated Press

Wife leaves home and 1,500 rodents

STERLING - Daniel Potter put up with his wife's unusual hobby of breeding hundreds of rodents, living with more than 1,500 caged rats and mice.

But when the marriage went sour last month, she moved out, leaving the animals at their home with no one to tend them. That's when things started to smell.

Feces piled up in the 130 cages, and breathing in fumes from the urine gave Potter an upper-respiratory infection.

Potter called Loudoun County animal control officers, who confiscated 1,500 rats and mice, as well as eight rabbits, eight snakes, two prairie dogs and a hedgehog.

Diane Potter has been charged with cruelty to animals and failure to provide adequate shelter.

Potter, who was busy scrubbing his house Tuesday, said he's unsure why his wife stopped caring for the animals.

``The only thing I can think of is that she wanted the house, and she wanted the smell to drive me out,'' he said.

- Associated Press

Man admits dozens of molestations

ELKTON - A Shenandoah man is suspected of molesting dozens of boys ranging in age from 12 to 17 during the past 20 years in Rockingham and Page counties, Elkton Police Chief Warren Pence said.

Vincent Leroy Comer, 47, was arrested over the weekend by the Rockingham County Sheriff's Office on one count of sodomy and was incarcerated in the county jail.

While Comer confessed to molesting dozens of boys, he could not identify most of his victims, Pence said Tuesday.

Comer faces a drug possession charge in Elkton after police said they found about a half-ounce of marijuana and a smoking device in his car.

Comer said he lured young boys with drugs, then sodomized them, the police chief said.

- Associated Press

High-tech traffic control on the way

VIRGINIA BEACH - The Virginia Department of Transportation will launch a high-tech traffic management system in Hampton Roads this summer that will help motorists avoid highway headaches.

We've all been there:

You're cruising down the highway when off in the distance, you see the all-too-familiar glow of brake lights. There's an accident ahead, and the once-bustling roadway has become a parking lot.

But using computerized surveillance equipment, traffic controllers soon will be able to provide up-to-the-minute highway conditions to motorists already en route.

Eventually, the new traffic center will provide a direct feed to news media, giving them access to real-time traffic conditions. Other outlets include computer bulletin boards, information kiosks in hotel lobbies and shopping malls, and even a ``traffic channel'' for cable TV subscribers.

- Associated Press