ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, September 19, 1996 TAG: 9609190077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-2 EDITION: METRO
Lawyer says he won't buck Payne
RICHMOND - James Dyke, a former state secretary of education, said Wednesday he will not oppose retiring Rep. L.F. Payne for the Democratic nomination for lieutenant governor in 1997.
Dyke said his decision was personal, not political.
``Given my family commitments and professional commitments, this is not the best time to put everything on hold to run for this,'' said Dyke, a Fairfax County lawyer and father of three teen-age girls.
``My family said they were willing to support me if I decided to run, but I felt it would not be appropriate to ask them to do so.''
Dyke said in a telephone interview that the outpouring of support for Payne's candidacy from Democratic leaders was not a factor in his decision. Sixty-three of 72 Democratic state legislators and 10 of 11 party district chairmen have endorsed Payne.
Dyke, 49, said he hopes to remain active promoting education improvements and economic development. He said he is keeping open the option of seeking statewide office in 2001.
It now appears likely Payne, 51, will be unopposed for the nomination.
The developer of the Wintergreen resort said in February he would not seek another term in Congress, but he said Monday in announcing his candidacy that Democratic leaders had recruited him to run for lieutenant governor.
Payne was elected to the 5th District seat in June 1988 after Rep. Dan Daniel died.
- Associated Press
Swiss indicted in money laundering
ALEXANDRIA - A Swiss businessman arrested in a Northern Virginia hotel lobby with a suitcase full of cash faces up to 145 years in prison if convicted of money laundering.
Karl Burkhardt, 53, who lives in Zurich and West Palm Beach, Fla., will be arraigned Sept. 30 on charges he used American and overseas banks to launder $600,000 for a federal drug agent posing as a drug dealer. Burkhardt also had agreed to launder $2 million and was arrested just after accepting that money, prosecutors said.
A federal grand jury on Tuesday returned eight counts against Burkhardt and two associates. Marco Meroni, 50, of Switzerland faces up to 45 years in prison if convicted, and Fernando Sotomayor-Rejas, 50, of Miami, faces up to 20 years. U.S. District Judge Claude Hilton ordered all three held without bond.
- Associated Press
Gilmore threatens to sue over sewage
FAIRFAX - Attorney General Jim Gilmore said Wednesday the federal government and Washington, D.C., must stop the flow of raw sewage into a Virginia river or he will sue.
Since April, more than 2 million gallons of sewage flowed into the Occoquan River from broken pipes at the Lorton prison complex in Fairfax County, Gilmore said. The sewage ended up in neighborhood streams where people fish and swim, he told a news conference.
``I believe it's not tolerable. It's not something I can put up with,'' Gilmore said. ``Enough is enough.''
The D.C. prison houses 6,000 prisoners. Earlier this summer, Gilmore filed a federal suit to close the prison. That suit is pending.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General Janet Reno and District of Columbia Mayor Marion Barry, Gilmore set a 10-day deadline for action.
A spokesman for Reno said she has not received Gilmore's letter.
The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality knows of no illnesses from the sewage spills.
State environmental officials counted 13 spills since August 1995, Gilmore said. The worst occurred during a week in April, when more than 1 million gallons overflowed from a manhole at the prison, environmental officials said.
- Associated Press
`Clone phone' maker must pay victims
NORFOLK - A federal judge has ordered the ringleader of a cellular ``clone-phone'' operation to pay nearly a half-million dollars to phone companies defrauded in the scam.
U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith also sentenced Derrick Wilson to the maximum 33 months in prison for trafficking in clone phones, which operate with codes copied from legitimate cellular phones.
Agents seized 40 phones and 1.4 grams of opium at Wilson's house in May. About 20 other phones were seized in four other raids.
Court records say Wilson intercepted phone numbers between March 1995 and May 1996 and, using computer equipment, programmed them into cellular phones, which he then sold for a monthly fee.
Since Wilson's arrest, agents have seen a significant drop in the amount of cloning in the area, Secret Service agent-in-charge Larry Kumjian said.
- Associated Press
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines KEYWORDS: POLITICS LT. GOVERNORby CNB