ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, April 26, 1997 TAG: 9704280084
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
Grand jury to consider capital case
STAUNTON - A capital murder charge against Bobby Wayne Swisher in the abduction and slaying of a Stuarts Draft florist has gone to a grand jury.
Swisher, 21, confessed to killing Dawn Snyder, a detective testified at a hearing Thursday.
The 22-year-old woman disappeared Feb. 5 from her florist shop while filling Valentine's Day orders. Her body was found Feb. 21 in a field near a sewage treatment plant.
Swisher, who was arrested three days after the woman's body was found, did not testify at the hearing in Augusta County General District Court.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Source of $2 million fires was a $2 blown fuse
CLOVER - Fires at one of the two generating units at the 786-megawatt Clover Power Station last week began with a blown $2 fuse, Virginia Power officials said.
Repairing the damage could cost $2 million, said Ed J. Rivas, the plant's manager.
The blown fuse caused the unit to automatically shut down. The resulting power loss caused the turbine-generator lubrication system to stop operating, Rivas said.
Grinding gears, oil and hydrogen gas used in the machinery combined to start three fires that lasted about 15 minutes. There were no injuries.
The grinding gears, not the fires, caused most of the damage, Rivas said. Repairs are expected to take about two months to complete.
The $1.2 billion state-of-the-art plant started operation last year.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Charlottesville curfew court date May 8
CHARLOTTESVILLE - A federal judge has speeded up the trial schedule of a lawsuit challenging the city's curfew.
``I do not want this matter delayed,'' U.S. District Judge James H. Michael Jr. said Thursday after lawyers for the plaintiffs asked for an injunction to bar enforcing the curfew until the case can be heard.
The trial was scheduled for May 8.
``I'm happy the judge is going to go forward so quickly,'' said Mary Bauer, legal director of Virginia chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The lawsuit brought by the ACLU on behalf of a group of city teen-agers and parents challenges the constitutionality of the rules that went into effect March 1.
The curfew, one of about 40 statewide, requires children under 17 to be off city streets after 1 a.m. on weekends and after midnight weekdays.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines KEYWORDS: FATALITYby CNB