THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, January 22, 1995 TAG: 9501200223
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 08 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: On the Street
SOURCE: Bill Reed
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
What hath the new year wrought?
Earthquakes, storms, war, cruelty, famine, pestilence, political chicanery.
Sheesh. This was supposed to be a better year than last year. If so, it's getting off to a poor start.
O.J.'s upcoming trial, or supposed trial, is turning into a national referendum on his guilt or innocence. Just call 1-800-HANG-HIM or 1-800-FREE-HIM and once the results are tallied the State of California will either dust off the ol' gas chamber or roll out the ``Welcome Back'' mat.
Whatever happened to a fair trial by a jury of one's peers? Perhaps it's an outmoded 19th century whimsey, rendered obsolete by modern electronic gimmickry and determined journalistic pandering.
Mother Nature stepped into the news picture this week, shaking up Kobe, Japan, with a major quake.
The death toll has now surpassed 3,000, with 2,500 injuries reported. New super highways, railroad viaducts and office buildings that were supposedly quake-proof were snapped or twisted like strands of uncooked spaghetti.
Momma Nature continued to pour it on California as well. Consider the destruction resulting from recent heavy rains.
The BIG story in the good old U.S. is still politics. When last we visited Foggy Bottom, Newt and his band of Reform Rangers were getting a taste of their own medicine from intransigent Democratic snipers in Congress.
One example: Former Senate majority leader Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., 77, who is as wiley as an outhouse rodent, stalled a proposed balanced budget amendment by tossing a few seldom-used procedural rules in its path. What is more, Byrd says serenely, Republicans can expect more of the same from him and other old Democratic leatherbacks who say they ain't gonna ``roll over and play dead.''
Back in Virginia, Republican Gov. George Allen is running into heavy flak in Richmond from cranky Democrats over his proposed $2.1 billion in tax budget cuts and plans to build $375 million in new prisons. Or was that $900 million in new prisons?
Democrats want to know how Allen intends to accomplish both goals - meaning, where is the money coming from? Both sides have been tossing around a lot of figures to justify their respective cases. None of it adds up.
Here in Virginia Beach, a hot political scrap is shaping up.
On Tuesday the School Board balked at asking fellow member Charles W. Vincent to step down until his conviction by a Circuit Court jury of violating a state ethics code has been finalized. The verdict was held in abeyance by Judge Thomas S. Shadrick, pending a review of a legal question, meaning Vincent isn't guilty until Shadrick says so.
Vincent was accused of soliciting campaign contributions from firms recommended for school construction jobs by a School Board committee, of which he was a member. This is a no-no, even in New Jersey.
As the judge pondered the legal question, board member Joseph Taylor decided to act. On Tuesday he called for Vincent to remove himself from the board pending the legal outcome of his case. Taylor declared it was only fit and mete so to do.
Taylor won backing from Vice Chairman June T. Kernutt, but six fellow board members abstained from voting. Chairman James R. Darden was absent. Vincent and fellow board member Ulysses Van Spiva voted against the motion.
Spiva then allowed as how the move reminded him of a ``lynch mob'' action, since Vincent has yet to be declared guilty.
Vicky J. Hendley, president of the Virginia Beach Teachers Association, which endorsed Vincent in School Board elections last spring, agreed that the move was premature. So did Vincent's lawyer Andrew Sacks.
Maybe.
Vincent could show one and all that taking a step down eventually could lead to taking a step up. by CNB