THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, November 2, 1996 TAG: 9611020305
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B5 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Briefs
LENGTH: 46 lines
Welfare recipients will receive jobs of illegal immigrants
State and Immigration and Naturalization Service officials agreed Friday to give Virginia welfare recipients jobs vacated by illegal immigrants caught in raids by federal authorities.
The agreement is the first of its kind nationally, combining efforts to curb illegal immigration with Virginia's welfare-to-work program.
Under the agreement, signed Friday, INS agents will continue to identify workers who are in the country illegally. Agents will remove illegal immigrants from the work site, and state social service administrators will provide the employer with a pool of welfare recipients.
Officials said the effort could provide 600 jobs a year for welfare recipients.
Trespassing charges axed
ARLINGTON - A prosecutor on Friday dropped trespassing charges against comedian-turned-activist Dick Gregory and three others for protesting in front of a federal Drug Enforcement Agency building.
The charges were reduced to obstruction of free passage.
Arrested along with Gregory Sept. 11 were Joseph Lowery, chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference; Joe Madison, a Washington radio talk-show host; and Mark Thompson, a Washington City Council candidate.
The four protested in the courtyard of a DEA building after trying unsuccessfully to meet with the agency's commissioner.
SOUTHWEST VIRGINIA
School in spotlight
MONTVALE - For the second time in five months, a Montvale Elementary School teacher has taken away a copy of Rush Limbaugh writings from Jason Gardner.
The school then decided that fifth-graders cannot bring any reading materials from home.
The Gardners have retained the free legal aid of The Rutherford Institute, a nonprofit watchdog group for issues of free speech and religious freedom.
In May, when Jason was still in fourth grade, his teacher ignited a controversy by confiscating a copy of Limbaugh's best-selling book, ``The Way Things Ought To Be.'' School officials said the book was inappropriate for a fourth-grader. Thomas Gardner then sued the school system in federal court. by CNB