ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 1, 1996 TAG: 9606030073
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: METRO
Train kills two teens on tracks
ABINGDON - Two teen-age boys were struck and killed by a train as they apparently were trying to walk across or along the tracks, police said.
The names of the victims of the accident Thursday night were being withheld pending notification of relatives. One of the boys was 15 years old, and the other was 16, police said.
Police Chief Cecil Kelly said both victims were declared dead on arrival at Johnston Memorial Hospital.
``The conductor said they blew the horn and put the train in emergency lock,'' he said.
A volunteer with the Washington County Lifesaving Crew said it appeared the teen-agers were trying to carry an air-conditioning unit across the tracks when they were struck by the eastbound cargo train.
- Associated Press
Marker to honor John Langston
LOUISA - A historical marker on the courthouse square will designate Louisa County as the birthplace of John Mercer Langston, Virginia's first black congressman.
The marker will be unveiled June 7.
Langston was elected to Congress in 1888 as a Republican. He was the only black to represent the state in Congress until Robert C. ``Bobby'' Scott was elected in 1992.
Langston was born on a Louisa County plantation, but was never a slave. His father was a freed slave and planter whose will sent Langston to the North where he was educated at Oberlin College in Ohio. He became a lawyer, a township clerk, a professor, a law school dean and vice president of Howard University in Washington, D.C. He was U.S. minister to Haiti.
In 1886, Langston became the first president of Virginia Collegiate and Normal Institute, now Virginia State University.
The Virginia Historic Resources Board approved the marker in December and will install and maintain it.
- Associated Press
Illegal poaching ring brought to light
VERONA - In an investigation that began with someone upset over spotlighting of deer, 20 people have been arrested on 290 criminal charges involving an alleged illegal poaching ring.
The arrests were made in a pre-dawn sweep Thursday in western Virginia and West Virginia. Authorities said the investigation uncovered a network of illegal hunting and sale of bear, deer, turkey and other wildlife.
Virginia authorities charged 14 Rockingham County men with 124 counts, including gun and drug trafficking, poaching and the selling of wildlife and wildlife parts. Seven men face 166 similar charges in neighboring Pendleton County, W.Va. One of those suspects remained at large.
In addition to wildlife and wildlife parts, agents seized 13 marijuana plants and 24 marijuana pipes and bongs. The seized weapons included two sawed-off shotguns.
- Associated Press
UVa buys typed copy of Hemingway novel
CHARLOTTESVILLE - The University of Virginia has acquired a typed copy of Ernest Hemingway's novel ``Green Hills of Africa.''
The typewritten copy - actually the carbon - was purchased at a recent auction for $11,000, said Michael Plunkett, director of special collections.
The copy is the only known complete typescript of the novel and was bought with funds from an anonymous donor
- Associated Press
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