ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, March 16, 1996 TAG: 9603180115
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C4 EDITION: METRO
LEXINGTON - The federal government will put about 120 wild horses up for adoption this weekend.
The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management rounds up and gives away about 6,000 horses and burros each year to ease grazing pressure on public lands in Western states.
The Bureau of Land Management holds about 200 adoptions each year, and tries to visit Virginia at least once each year. The mass adoption will take place at the Virginia Horse Center.
The animals are free to a qualified home, but there is a $125 fee for transportation and veterinary care.
The animals are federally protected and have few natural predators, so their numbers have jumped since ``mustanging''- rounding them up and selling them for slaughter - ended in the 1950s.
Most people use the horses for trail riding because of their stamina and sure-footed skills, said Victoria P. Craft, a bureau program specialist. - Associated Press Grocers drop shock-jock fight
RICHMOND - The Ukrop's grocery chain has agreed to quit trying to persuade other businesses to cease advertising on a radio station that carries "The Howard Stern Show," the station's general manager said Friday.
James and Robert Ukrop recently wrote letters to WVGO advertisers urging them to stop advertising on the Richmond station.
``The greater Richmond area should not be exposed to the racist, sexist filth and obscenity that are the standard fare of Howard Stern,'' the brothers who head the Richmond-based grocery chain wrote.
WVGO began airing the New York-based shock jock's morning show in October. The station has a two-year contract with Stern for his show.
``Your advertising dollars to WVGO are condoning and contributing to the erosion of values and quality of life'' in Richmond, the Ukrops wrote in a letter dated Feb. 26.
Stern's four-hour program frequently features scatological humor and sexual innuendo.
WVGO General Manager John Crowley said he met with James Ukrop, who agreed ``to make no additional efforts to induce advertisers to discontinue their contractual relationships with WVGO.'' - Associated Press Social Services will keep boss
RICHMOND - The acting commissioner of the state Department of Social Services has been given the job permanently.
Clarence H. Carter of Henrico County was named acting commissioner in mid-January when Commissioner Carol A. Brunty stepped down. - Associated Press Racist fliers cost federal job
ALEXANDRIA - The author of racially inflammatory fliers left on car windshields in Alexandria's Old Town neighborhood has been fired from his government job.
The fliers reflect badly on the Library of Congress, which fired David Ritchey from his temporary job as a legal editor on Thursday, library spokeswoman Helen Dalrymple said.
Ritchey listed a library telephone number on the fliers.
Dalrymple said federal regulations prohibit using an office phone number for ``advertising or other commercial purposes.'' She said the policy is necessary because distribution of material such as that in the flier ``adversely reflects on the library.''
Ritchey, 40, admitted distributing the flier, Dalrymple said. The flier warned that the area's quaintness and charm ``will wear away fast if we don't begin to get over our guilt and passivity about race.''
Violent crime in Alexandria is at a 28-year low, officials said. - Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB