Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, May 14, 1995 TAG: 9505150104
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
RICHMOND - Former prison inmates, mothers and inmate advocates say women - especially mothers - who have committed nonviolent crimes belong at home.
They kicked off a campaign called ``Mothers in Prison, Children in Crisis'' on Friday at a Richmond news conference sponsored by Friends of Incarcerated Women.
``This Mother's Day; is it not time to call for a moratorium on the madness of imprisoning mothers who are guilty of nonviolent offenses?'' asked Kathleen T. Kenney, associate director of the Office of Justice and Peace for the Catholic Diocese of Richmond.
Kenney said ``women ... belong with their children. Virginia should seek ways to keep families together through alternatives to incarceration for nonviolent offenses.''
|- Associated Press
Woman sues to find missing mate's fate
HERNDON - Sheila Olem doesn't really believe her husband is alive in the jungles of Bolivia, but she does believe no government officials tried very hard to find out what happened to the missing environmentalist.
Harvey Olem, 42, ran his own environmental consulting business. He was under contract with the World Bank to help improve Bolivian mining standards.
A year ago, Olem disappeared while doing environmental survey work. He and a Canadian man also working for the World Bank were in a Bolivian Air Force single-engine plane when it vanished on May 4, 1994. And that is the last definitive information anyone has given Sheila Olem.
A week ago, Olem filed a $5 million wrongful death suit against the World Bank in federal court in Washington.
``I found I was getting more roadblocks from the bank than assistance,'' said Olem, 39. ``I want closure. I want to know what happened to him.''
- Associated Press
2nd woman named Drill Sgt. of Year
HAMPTON - For the second time, the Army has selected a woman as its Drill Sergeant of the Year.
Sgt. 1st Class Anita D. Jordon of Fort Jackson, S.C., was picked from among 15 competitors Friday for the active-duty honor. Staff Sgt. Bruce Clark of the 100th Training Division in Louisville, Ky., was named Army Reserve Drill Sergeant of the Year.
- Associated Press
True believers meet at UFO conference
VIRGINIA BEACH - Had ET zipped into Virginia Beach this weekend, he would have been greeted with open minds and open arms. The interstellar traveler would have become an interstellar star.
``I tell myself I'm ready for them,'' said Joan Leone, a mother of nine with an unshakable belief in benevolent space creatures. ``I'm just waiting for them to come.''
Leone was in town with more than 100 other true believers and truth seekers for a three-day conference on UFOs and extraterrestrial visitations. Sponsored by the Edgar Cayce Foundation's Association for Research and Enlightenment, the conference attracted people from as far away as Switzerland, according to event organizers.
They paid more than $250 to hear some of the country's leading researchers on UFOs and to swap stories of otherworldly sightings.
- Associated Press
by CNB