THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, April 21, 1996 TAG: 9604190225
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 03 EDITION: FINAL
LENGTH: Medium: 74 lines
Sunday, April 14
2 p.m. - Kings Grant Landing South.
Regis Dunlap hears a fluttering high up in a tree in his yard. He looks up - maybe 45 feet - and sees a bird entangled in the branches by fishing line that's wrapped around its claws.
Dunlap contacts some of the animal rescue groups, but no one is able to help right away so he calls his 15-year-old grandson Ryan Dunlap to the rescue.
Ryan arrives from home with a 40-foot extension ladder.
While Dunlap holds his breath, Ryan climbs the ladder and then even climbs a little farther up into the tree itself to reach the trapped bird and cut it loose.
The bird, a purple grackle, flutters down to the ground and hobbles into a bush where grandpa Dunlap and Ryan finally catch it.
They cut the line from the grackle's feet, give it a boost up into the air and off it flies, none the worse for the scare.
- Mary Reid Barrow
5:30 p.m. - Gas station, corner of Providence and Kempsville roads.
A customer lays out $13 to fill a compact car with regular, then bemoans the rapidly escalating prices.
``How much higher is this stuff going to go?'' she asks the cashier. ``I don't know,'' the station employee replies, ``but I just work part time, and I told the boss yesterday that if it keeps going up he won't need to pay me because I'll be giving it all back to him for gas anyway.''
- Jo-Ann Clegg
Tuesday, April 16
10:15 a.m. - Ocean Lakes High School.
Anderson Gardner, 72, is speaking to a class of students about illiteracy. Gardner, a current student at the Adult Learning Center, wants the high school pupils to know how important it is to get an education.
Frankie Knox, a junior who just completed a program to overcome negative attitudes about school, watches from the first seat on the front row.
At the end of the program, Knox's name is called out and Gardner realizes that not only does he recognize the name, but that the boy's features are familiar.
Before him stands his grandson, whom he hasn't seen since Knox was a small boy.
At the end of the program, the elderly man hurries to feast his eyes upon Knox. The two renew their relationship with a hug and some words of advice from granddad.
``You'd better tighten up, son.''
- Jennifer Bennett
2:30 p.m. - Emergency room entrance, Virginia Beach General Hospital.
Television and newspaper reporters gather in a grassy area, across from the emergency room entrance, cameras and pens poised.
They have been waiting for two hours for the appearance of two Navy men brought to the hospital for treatment of injuries resulting from an F-14 jet crash at Oceana three hours earlier. The release of one is imminent, they are told by hospital spokeswoman Dee Dee Becker.
A pizza delivery man arrives with a stack of warm cardboard boxes. The contents have been ordered by TV newsies, who have pooled their resources for a late lunch.
Two of the electronic media reporters are in the midst of ``standups,'' describing the status of the hospitalized Navy men.
As the pizza man approaches camera range - in a show of courtesy - a competing TV reporter waves him out of sight and sound of the on-air deliveries.
- Bill Reed by CNB