A Stuarts Draft man who solicited a teen girl for oral sex avoided jail time as part of a plea agreement with the Staunton prosecutors office.

Authorities say they found a Staunton home inhabited by 100 birds with 19 more dead in a freezer, floors littered with piles of feces and carpets stained by urine.

Michael Mason killed his ex-girlfriend with a single gunshot fired at her head from close range.

John Franklin Myers shot his girlfriend in a gravel driveway outside the mobile home where they’d lived for seven tumultuous months.

Crews using four cranes swap old Delphine Avenue span for a new one as a crowd of onlookers watch the action.

State Labor Department opens investigation into death of Greenville man pinned by a forklift at a Lynchburg food distribution plant.

By Bob Stuart

The News Virginian

More than half of Virginia voters favor alternatives to public schools and want school-choice changes such as charter schools, tax-credit scholarships and school vouchers, according to study results to be released today.

The survey of 1,203 likely Virginia voters was taken last month for Virginia-based organizations by the Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice of Indianapolis.

Fifty-five percent of those surveyed want choices other than regular K-12 public schools and nearly two-thirds favor tax credits for scholarships.

“This shows a healthy appetite for increased parental choice and increased state support,” said Jeff Caruso, executive director of the Virginia Catholic Conference, the public policy organization for both Virginia Catholic dioceses.

Caruso said it is important for parents to have choices for their children since “they know what environment is best.”

Retiring House District 20 Del. Chris Saxman said the survey participants support public education but want choices for children.

“The system works well in higher education,” said Saxman of the menu of choices for Virginia college students.

While there were gaps in knowledge about school alternatives, the principal researcher on the survey said there were strong sentiments as well.

Paul DiPerna, research director for the Friedman Foundation, said a little less than half of those surveyed were aware of school vouchers and charter schools.

But DiPerna was impressed that nearly two-thirds of the survey participants expressed support for tax credit scholarships.

Under that proposal, private donors and organizations who donate money for scholarships would be given tax credits.

The money would be put in a pool to allow low and middle-income students in a state like Indiana to attend a private school on a scholarship.

Saxman for years has introduced tax credits for scholarships legislation in the Virginia Legislature to allow school choice.

While his legislation has passed the Virginia House, it has stalled in the Senate.

Under Saxman’s bill, the students could use the donated scholarship money to attend private or other public schools of their choice.

“Some kids need a change in their environment,” he said.

Another finding that surprised DiPerna was a question regarding the challenges facing public schools.

He expected to see funding, accountability or perhaps classroom overcrowding top the list.

Leading the list at 21 percent were issues schools have with student discipline and self-control.

The survey also found support among Democrats, Republicans and independents for tax-credit scholarships and school vouchers.

Caruso said educating children is not a political, ideological or religious issue.

“We are all partners in educating the commonwealth’s children,” he said. “This is a collaboration.”

Christian Braunlich, vice president of the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy, one of the survey sponsors, said a copy of the study will go to every Virginia General Assembly member prior to the 2010 session.

Braunlich said the survey results would also go to Virginia business associations and a wide range of opinion leaders.

Saxman, who will be watching from outside the General Assembly for the first time in eight years in January, is optimistic there will be more school choice.

“I think this year we will get some charter schools. They are in demand around the commonwealth,” he said.

When Lindsey Megginson thinks of her husband, she remembers an unwavering smile, laughter with family and the couple’s last kiss, just before sunrise.

Overall U.S. spending on health care would rise as a result of legislation approved a week ago by the House of Representatives, according to a report by a top official at the agency that oversees the government’s health insurance programs for the elderly and indigent.

Politicians may be divided on health care reform, but a consensus has formed among senior citizens: they find the 1,900-page House bill so confusing that many doubt proposed Medicare changes can even be explained.

Officials: Data showing holes in Waynesboro core will help fill gaps.

Veterans parade comes to Staunton

RICHMOND — The hits keep coming for Virginia’s financially strapped school divisions.

The Virginia Department of Education recently recalculated the composite index for the 2010 and 2011 school years, which determines how much money each school system receives annually from the state.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — Nearly a year after terrorist bullets snuffed the life forces of her husband and daughter, Nelson County resident Kia Scherr hopes her new Web site will help other people find positive forces in their own lives.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — State police announced Friday that they think Morgan D. Harrington was trying to hitchhike on a Copeley Road bridge the night she disappeared, which her father said isn’t something she’d normally do.

Three months into a new job as president of Blue Ridge Community College, John Downey is leading an institution that continues to receive record enrollment and now has career coaches to reach out to local schools and industry.

STAUNTON — Armed with scales and gem testers and magnifying glasses, Eddie Lambert and his team of four assessed everything from ticking pocket watches to little toy firetrucks.

CHARLOTTESVILLE — An Albemarle County jury awarded $5.25 million on Friday to the parents and sibling of a 16-year-old county girl who was killed in a car accident in 2008.

LYNCHBURG — Heavy rainfall that fell on the area over the past two days should abate Friday after causing closed roads, downed trees, cresting rivers and at least one fatality.

The weather is blamed in the death of an Amherst County man early Thursday on Virginia 56 in Nelson County — one of three weather-related fatalities statewide.

Alger H. Fleming, 66, died after he was hit by a tractor-trailer carrying logs.

All three area school districts will lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in state cuts in basic aid starting next year because of an increase in their respective composite indexes.

The superintendents of Waynesboro, Staunton and Augusta County Schools say they are working on strategies to deal with the cuts, and hope to minimize the impact on teaching positions and instructional programs.

STAUNTON — City officials will apply for federal funds to hire six firefighters.

The Staunton City Council voted unanimously Thursday to apply for a Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant, which at $527,892 would cover the costs of salaries for the firefighters for two years.

VERONA – A legal representative of the Stuarts Draft Rescue Squad told Augusta County supervisors Thursday that the squad would like to administer its own revenue recovery plan.

STAUNTON — The Staunton City Council on Thursday night outlined the process by which they will replace outgoing Councilman Dickie Bell, who this month won the House District 20 delegate seat.

STAUNTON — An Augusta County judge Thursday dropped charges against a couple accused of neglecting an elderly woman.

Relatives and friends of Irene Mae Mitchell, 84, left the General District courtroom confused and angry after Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Angela Landes failed to provide enough evidence to certify the charges against Timothy L. Propst, 33, and Gracia H. Propst, 32.

VERONA – Pastures District Supervisor Tracy Pyles made a plea to fellow Augusta County supervisors Thursday to scale back spending after learning that the county schools’ state funding would be cut further next year.

RICHMOND — Relentless rain drenched much of the Atlantic seaboard Thursday, pelting communities from North Carolina northward with gusty winds and heavy rains, inundating streets, stranding drivers and causing three deaths in hard-hit Virginia and one in North Carolina.

ARLINGTON — On a cold, rain-soaked Veterans Day, President Barack Obama walked slowly through the white, stone markers at the section of Arlington National Cemetery reserved for troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, the two wars he oversees as commander in chief.

With a two-year federal grant, Staunton City Council could chip away at fire department understaffing with six hires. The catch: those salaries could cost the city when the grant ends.

Locally grown produce makes its way onto school menus this week

All the things Shannon Button left behind, even washing laundry, felt different when she came home.

In Iraq she never enjoyed privacy. The hot weather and oppressive sun altered her sensibilities about the region. But when she stepped off the plane and onto Virginia soil, her old life looked, felt and seemed new.