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The program's primary goal is to educate the at-risk groups about CO poisoning prevention and detection and fire prevention. The families will be provided a free CO alarm and instruction on the proper maintenance of the alarms.
The alarms will be available at the "Get Alarmed" program:
Wednesday, Aug. 4, 5:30 p.m., Parksley Volunteer Fire Department;
Thursday, Aug. 5, 5:30 p.m., Community Fire Company, Exmore;
The program is for the whole family and will include a brief safety presentation, pizza and drink, a firehouse tour and the free carbon monoxide alarm. Each family will need to complete an application form. Preference will be given to those who have completed and submitted a form and to early arrivals on the day of the program.
In 2008 and 2009, fire departments throughout Virginia responded to approximately 1,000 carbon monoxide exposure-related incidents each year, according to the Virginia Fire Incident Reporting System.
According to the United States Fire Administration, each year in America, CO poisoning claims approximately 500 lives and sends more than 15,000 people to hospital emergency rooms for treatment.
With extremely cold days last winter, there were more frequent use of fuels that can produce carbon monoxide. Often called the "invisible killer," carbon monoxide is an invisible, odorless, colorless gas created when fuels -- such as gasoline, wood, coal, natural gas, propane, oil and methane -- burn incompletely. In the home, heating and cooking equipment that burn fuel are potential sources of carbon monoxide. Vehicles or generators running in an attached garage or in a basement can also produce dangerous levels of carbon monoxide.
Call Faye Godbey, Onley Community Health Center, 757-787-7374, ext. 6 for more information.
A crowd reportedly gathered around the victim who was still lying in the highway. According to police reports, traffic was flowing heavily on Coastal Highway in the area, but the victim’s family members were able to carry her from the roadway before any vehicles reached her.
When the officer arrived on scene, he noted the victim appeared to be injured with her ankle swollen and disfigured, according to police reports. The victim told the officer she believed her ankle was broken, and the officer concluded she would not have been able to get out of the way of oncoming traffic without the help of her family.
Meanwhile, the victim’s sister told the officer she did not know Barnett prior to the incident, nor had any of the family members or individuals in the group. The victim’s sister led the officer in the direction Barnett had fled to no avail. However, when the officer returned to the scene, he observed Barnett talking to a different OCPD officer.
The victim later told police Barnett appeared intoxicated when he picked her up suddenly, and while she repeatedly shouted at him to put her down, he continued to run toward the highway and told her he was going to “throw her in the street.”
The victim confirmed to police she had never met Barnett and had no prior contact with him that night. Barnett was arrested and charged with first- and second-degree assault and reckless endangerment. He was released later on Wednesday after posting a $10,000 bond.
The Board of Supervisors will add its voice to those of Chincoteague town officials who are determined to battle efforts to eliminate or reduce beach parking at Assateague Island National Seashore in favor of a shuttle system.
The vote came after Chincoteague Councilman John Jester made a plea for the county to join the town in supporting the continuation of parking at the beach.
A study by Volpe National Transportation Systems Center commissioned by the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in anticipation of the updating of the refuge's master plan in the coming years gave four options for getting visitors to the beach --two of which involved some type of shuttle service. The transportation alternatives are partly in response to the threat of rising sea levels and storms that have necessitated the rebuilding of the parking lots at the beach after each winter in recent years.
"Wherever Volpe's been, shuttles seem to follow in national parks," Jester said. He called the idea of families taking a shuttle bus to the beach, loaded down with all their gear, "ridiculous."
Jester said 500 surveys returned to a beach access committee of the town showed 80 percent of those surveyed say they come to Chincoteague to go to the beach; 80 percent said they would not feel safe during a storm at the beach; and 75 percent said if a shuttle service is implemented they would think about not coming back to vacation there.
Jester said Accomack County in 2009 collected $401,500 in hotel taxes from Chincoteague and the town's real estate represents $1.1 billion out of a total in the county of $3.6 billion, with 45 percent or more of homes on the island being second or vacation homes. Those property values, and taxes collected by the county, would likely decrease if the beach was no longer accessible by private vehicle, he said.
"The bottom line is the economy of Chincoteague and of Accomack will suffer," he said.
County supervisors appeared to agree wholeheartedly with Jester.
"I hope this board will do anything they can to prevent the shuttle service," Supervisor Jack Gray said. Ron Wolff agreed, as did Donald Hart Jr., who said of the Fish and Wildlife Service, "In their opinion, human beings are a nuisance."
Hart made the motion to support a letter Chincoteague will write objecting to the proposed elimination of beach parking and also to ask state and federal elected officials to go on the record as to what their stance is on the matter.
Supervisor Wanda Thornton of Chincoteague said the same issue came up in 1999 but was thwarted by a concerted effort including local officials making several trips to Washington, D.C., to present their case.
"The deal was then that they were going to bus the people from Wallops ... We were able to change that whole equation then and we can do it now," she said.
A judge set a Sept. 23 execution date for Teresa Lewis, 41, the only woman on Virginia's death row. She would be the first woman executed in the state in nearly a century.
Lewis offered herself and her 16-year-old daughter for sex to two men who committed the killings. She provided money to buy the murder weapons and stood by while they shot her husband, Julian Clifton Lewis Jr., 51, and stepson Charles J. Lewis, 25, in 2002 in Pittsylvania County in south-central Virginia.
Lewis rummaged through her husband's pockets for money while he lay dying and waited nearly an hour before calling 911.
The gunmen, Rodney Fuller and Matthew Shallenberger, were sentenced to life in prison. Shallenberger committed suicide in prison in 2006.
Lewis' daughter, Christie Lynn Bean, served five years because she knew about the plan but remained silent.
Lewis' attorney James Rocap III claims Shallenberger said about two years before his suicide that it was him, not Lewis, who planned the killings and that he was using Lewis to get to her husband's money.
"The truth about her involvement in the tragic deaths of Julian and C.J. Lewis does not require or justify her execution, especially in light of the fact that the lives of those who actually gunned down Julian and C.J. were spared," Rocap said.
Lewis would be the first woman executed in the U.S. since Frances Newton died by injection in Texas. Newton shot her husband and two young children to death to collect insurance money.
Lewis would also be the first woman executed in Virginia since 1912, when 17-year-old Virginia Christian died in the electric chair for suffocating her employer.
Women commit about 12 percent of the murders in the U.S. annually, and few ever reach the execution chamber.
Out of more than 1,200 executions since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976, only 11 women have been executed. Of the more than 3,200 inmates on death row nationwide, 53 are women.
Women usually don't commit torture murders, they aren't serial killers and often don't have a history of other violent crimes compared with men who get sentenced to death, said Richard Dieter, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. They also typically kill someone they know.
"I think it's those facts, rather than just gender that make the difference," he said.
Lewis' first attempt to kill her husband failed. The plan was for the men to kill her husband as he came home from work and make it look like a robbery, but a car was too close and foiled the plot. A few days later she found out her stepson was coming home on leave from Army National Guard duty, and they decided to wait and kill him, too, so they could get all the insurance money.
Lewis pleaded guilty to capital murder, allowing a judge to determine her sentence. Her attorneys believed she stood a better chance of getting a life prison term from the judge who had never sentenced anyone to death, than from a jury.
In a 2004 interview with The Associated Press, Lewis said she hired the hitmen to escape an abusive relationship. She said she and Shallenberger became lovers and concocted the scheme to murder her husband, who she said was an abusive alcoholic.
In a hearing before the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in March, Rocap argued that Lewis was too dependent on other people and prescription drugs to have plotted the murders. He said the trial lawyers' failure to raise dependency disorder and drug addiction as mitigating factors at sentencing violated Lewis' constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel.
Rocap said he would appeal her case to the U.S. Supreme Court and will file a clemency request with Gov. Bob McDonnell.
A U.K. study tested 30 mobile phones for levels of potentially harmful bacteria, or the total viable bacterial count (TVC).
High TVC levels don’t pose any immediate harm, but usually indicate poor hygiene.
The results revealed that 25 percent exceeded the acceptable TVC by 10 times and have 18 times the TVC as a handle on a public restroom toilet. The Which? magazine study suggests that 14.7 million of the 63 million phones being used in the U.K. could pose a health risk, the report said.
“Most phones didn’t have any immediate harmful bacteria that would make you sick straight away, but they were grubbier than they could be,” said Ceri Stanaway, a researcher with Which? magazine.
One phone’s TVC level was so high it put its owner at risk of a serious stomach ache, the report said.
“The levels of potentially harmful bacteria on one mobile were off the scale. That phone needs sterilizing,” Jim Francis, a hygiene expert, said.
The phone with the most bacteria had more than ten times the acceptable level, as well as 39 times the safe level of enterobacteria, which includes Salmonella.
“What this shows is how easy it is to come into contact with bacteria,” Stanaway said. “People see toilet flushes as being something dirty to touch, but they have less bacteria than phones.”
The tests also found E. coli and staphylococcus aureus, among other food poisoning bugs, but at safe levels. There was also 170 times the acceptable level of the bacteria associated with human waste, fecal coliforms.
“People need to be mindful of that by observing good hygiene themselves and among others who they pass the phone to when looking at photos, for example,” Stanaway said.
The seven-page suit filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Baltimore challenges Maryland's restrictions on handgun carry permits. Under state law, applicants must show, among other things, that they are not addicted to drugs or alcohol, don't have a history of violence and have a "good and substantial reason" to carry a gun.
Plaintiff Raymond Woollard, a Navy veteran who once fought with an intruder in his Baltimore County home, was denied a permit because the state found that he could not show he had been subject to "threats occurring beyond his residence," according to the suit.
"He was only denied for lack of a so-called good and substantial reason," said Cary J. Hansel, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers. He said Woollard met all of the other hurdles.
"Imagine a world in which you had to go to the government and show a good and substantial reason to exercise your constitutional rights," Hansel said. "We are not arguing there shouldn't be background checks, fingerprints, mental examinations or training requirements."
The lawsuit comes in the aftermath of recent court victories for gun rights advocates. In June, the Supreme Court ruled that the Second Amendment provides Americans a fundamental right to bear arms that cannot be violated by state or local governments. The decision extended the court's landmark 2008 ruling that struck down the District's decades-old ban on handgun possession.
Raquel Guillory, a spokeswoman for Maryland Attorney General Douglas F. Gansler declined to comment on the case, saying that state officials had not reviewed the arguments.
But Guillory said the attorney general's office reexamined state gun laws in the context of the recent Supreme Court rulings. "We have reviewed Maryland gun laws and concluded none of them are so stringent as to violate the Second Amendment," she said.
The lawsuit, also filed on behalf of the Bellevue, Wash.-based Second Amendment Foundation, names the Maryland State Police superintendent, Col. Terrence B. Sheridan, and three members of the state handgun permit review board as defendants.
Hansel said a permit generally is needed to carry a handgun outside the home in Maryland. There are some exceptions, he said, including taking a gun home after it is bought or traveling to a shooting range.
According to the suit, Woollard, who lives on a Baltimore County farm, was with his family on Christmas Eve 2002 when a man shattered a window and broke into his home. Woollard trained his shotgun on the man, but the two fought and the intruder pulled the gun away. Woollard's son eventually got another gun, ending the fight.
The intruder was convicted of burglary in that case and ultimately was sent to prison after violating probation, according to the lawsuit. The man, who was released from prison in 2005, lives about three miles from Woollard.
Woollard's handgun permit was renewed in 2005, according to the lawsuit. He sought to renew it again last year but was denied. The board found that Woollard had not "submitted any documentation to verify threats occurring beyond his residence, where he can already legally carry a handgun," the suit states.
The remaining ponies will be returned to Assateague Island today. The return trip is just the reverse for them. Some of them have made the trek to the main land before so going home should be rather easy. It's on the quiet island of Assateague that the ponies will be able to roam and graze and occasionally look at the people going by.
I'm wondering if the pony going to a new home has any thoughts.
The lab was built, in part, to conserve and store artifacts recovered from Maryland waters.
But over the years, the "MAC" lab has been enlisted to help with many far-flung projects, including conservation of pieces of Blackbeard's ship, the Queen Anne's Revenge, found off the North Carolina coast in 1996, and a dugout canoe found in New Jersey that the lab carbon dated to A.D. 200.
"Our conservators have a great deal of experience with recovering and conserving waterlogged timbers, such as those found at the World Trade Center," said Nichole Doub, the MAC's head conservator, in a statement.
But the lab's director, Patricia Stamford, said this was the largest shipwreck project the lab has taken on. The process will entail up to a year of soaking in antifreeze, and then freeze-drying to drive out the remaining water and preserve the wood, she said.The New York ship was found July 13, during excavation work for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and the Lower Manhattan Development Corp. The dig will make way for construction of a new vehicle security center and tour bus parking facility. Workers removing the black ooze 20 to 30 feet below street level struck the regularly spaced and contoured timbers.
Archaeologists on the project identified them as those of a ship dating to the late 18th or early 19th century, which was likely placed there as landfill. They then hired the MAC lab to remove and conserve the wood.
The Shore Health Services Board of Directors voted to build the new facility between Keller and Parksley, while maintaining "significant outpatient, diagnostic and physician services" in Northampton, according to a prepared statement from the hospital.
The Riverside Health System Board of Directors approved the local board's decision.
Officials were not specific about exactly where the new hospital would be located within the territory proposed.
"RHS is proud to endorse the local board's decision. We are excited to support the board in expanding the availability of health care services for all Eastern Shore residents from the bridge-tunnel to the state line," said Bill Downey, Riverside Health System chief operating officer.
The new hospital will replace the existing structure in Nassawadox, which was built in 1971.
"I would look at it as a good sign," Onancock Mayor Bruce Paone said of the announcement, which came midday Thursday.
Onancock's Town Council recently appointed a committee to pursue the hospital's relocation. The town also sent a letter to Riverside Chief Executive Officer Richard J. Pearce inviting him to tour its new water and sewer facilities, which could have been a major selling point in the consideration of where to build the new hospital.
Northampton County Supervisor Spencer Murray, who has been an outspoken proponent of keeping the hospital in Nassawadox, also reacted to the announcement, saying, "Obviously, I'm very disappointed that they have decided to move north, but I don't blame our neighbors to the north for wanting the hospital."
Northampton County was to release an official statement about the announcement later Thursday.
"We have researched and evaluated our options for several months in our strategic planning and board meetings," said SHS board Chairwoman Caramine Kellam. "We sought the opinions of many stakeholders, including physicians and other health care providers and individuals from all areas of the Shore. All perspectives were systematically aired, discussed and genuinely considered."
Hospital inpatient and directly related support services will move north "to an as yet undetermined location," the statement said, while the Nassawadox location likely will include an express care center with extended hours.
The release also said that by the end of this year, $3 million in improvements to the Nassawadox site will be made, including an upgraded CT scanner and digital mammography and digital archiving systems.
The comparisons could take awhile, because "it won't be apples to apples," Mayor Percy Purnell said at this week's City Council meeting.
Bidders were asked for proposals that included more than just the cost of a turbine.
"It could take a month of study," he said.
Bids opened during the council meeting ranged from $4.7 million for a 1.5- megawatt turbine to $1.1 million for a 750-kilowatt model.
The city wants to build two or three large wind turbines -- about 300 feet tall -- on land next to the sewer plant to generate power for the plant.
Additional electricity would power other city-owned buildings, such as City Hall, the police station and fire department, and also be sold back to the grid.
Officials are hoping to hear soon if a $4.18 million grant application to the Maryland Department of the Environment has been approved.
If the money is awarded, the city also will need to borrow $625,300 toward the project, according to Noah Bradshaw, the city inspector who is spearheading the project.
For several months, wind speeds in Crisfield were measured with an anemometer atop a city water tower. The 18- to 19-miles-per-hour average that was captured is enough to sustain a wind farm, he said.
Bradshaw -- who has attended seminars at the American Wind Institute -- is also in the process of trying to start a smaller wind turbine project at the American Legion post in Crisfield.
Aside from the environmental benefits, wind power is expected to take a huge burden off the budget. After the city upgraded its sewage treatment plant, electricity bills jumped from about $13,000 per month to $20,000.
City officials have said they want to take the savings and put the money into street paving and other projects.
VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (WAVY) - Approximately 120 Soldiers from the Virginia Beach-based 229th Military Police Company returned home to Virginia on Thursday after serving in Iraq since October, 2009.
Approximately 80 soldiers from the Hampton Roads and Richmond areas arrived around noon at Birdneck Elementary School to be reunited with their families and friends.
Another 40 soldiers from the Roanoke and Southwest Virginia area arrived at Patrick Henry High School about 90 minutes later.
The soldiers returned to the U.S. on July 23, arriving at their demobilization station at Fort Dix, New Jersey. There they conducted a number of different administrative activities to transition from active duty back to traditional National Guard status prior to returning to Virginia Beach. The soldiers began their tour on federal active duty on August 3, 2009.
While headquartered in Virginia Beach, the 229th is made up of soldiers from all over the state. Approximately 60 soldiers are from the Hampton Roads area.
Officials say the unit was expected to provide police training to the Iraqi Police, but was task organized and provided additional training to also conduct protection service detail missions. The unit was requested by name to provide route security for Vice President Joe Biden’s visit to Iraq on Jan. 22, 2010.
When the Iraqi national elections were conducted in March 2010, soldiers from the 229th helped maintain security, working side by side with Iraq Police. During the six-day time period of the elections, soldiers lived with their Iraqi Police counterparts at the Provincial Division of Police and the Patrol Headquarters.
The unit was also very active in conducting humanitarian missions while in Iraq. On their own initiative soldiers improved the conditions and safety at a local elementary school in West Rasheed, Baghdad as well as establishing a partnership with the adjoining hospital. In addition to distributing school supplies donated by family members, the company also filled in a sinkhole and installed 26 windows.
Soldiers in the company conducted more than 400 combat patrols and travelled more than 100,000 miles on Iraqi roads. The company provided personnel for traffic control points for several high level ceremonies to help make sure they were conducted safely.
No Virginia Guard Soldiers were killed or wounded in action during the company’s tour of duty in Iraq.
Soldiers from the company were awarded 11 Combat Action Badges, 22 Bronze Star Medals, one Meritorious Service Medal and 107 Army Commendation Medals.
NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) - After seven months at sea, nearly 5,000 sailors are now safely home. The USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, or "Ike" as it's affectionately known, docked at its home port Naval Station Norfolk Wednesday morning.
The Ike's crew has certainly been busy at sea and I think they're going to be pretty busy at home now, too. WAVY.com's Katie Collett spoke to some of their family members anxiously awaiting their arrival, and they have big plans for their sailors.
"I'm really excited. The house is clean thankfully, car is all working and ready, the battery's good. That's important, you'd be surprised," laughed one sailor's wife.
Even the little ones have big plans for the ones they've missed.
"Her biggest thing is she wants to go to the beach. She wants to take daddy back to the beach."
It was January when families had to say goodbye to their sailors on the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower as they headed overseas. While there, the Carrier Strike Group supported Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and helped protect waters from piracy.
Now, seven months later, those goodbye tears transformed from tears of heartache to tears of joy.
The sailors' return comes on the heels of Carrier Air Wing 7's return one day earlier on Tuesday, it was part of the massive Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group.
This homecoming is not only special for the families, but it's also special because the Ike's helicopter squadron has a new home at Naval Station Norfolk. It was based in Jacksonville, Florida. Commanded by Rear Adm. Phil Davidson, the Dwight D. Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group (IKE CSG) is comprised of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN 69), the guided-missile cruiser USS Hue City (CG 66) the guided-missile destroyers USS Carney (DDG 64), USS McFaul (DDG 74), USS Farragut (DDG 99) and Carrier Air Wing 7 was also embarked aboard Eisenhower.
The USS McFaul is scheduled to return Monday.
"It really shouldn't be in the hands of children," said Police Chief Bernadette DiPino. "They really don't know what they're dealing with. It's not a toy ... We believe this will give us the tools we need to try to reduce the incidents."
DiPino told the council at Tuesday's work session that the Coast Guard and pilots of a Maryland State Police medevac helicopter already have complained that laser pointers have interfered with their operation.
Medevac pilots warned that they wouldn't attempt future landings in Ocean City if laser beams continued to be a threat, DiPino added.
State Police spokesman Greg Shipley confirmed that such an incident occurred over the weekend.
It's already a misdemeanor in Ocean City, and under state law, to shine any laser pointer on another person.
However, as the popularity of green-colored laser pointers has skyrocketed this summer, resort officials planned to tighten that law by banning their use on gathering spots like balconies, porches or patios.
Now, before the council gets a chance to make those changes, further restrictions on laser pointer abuse will be implemented. Council President Joe Mitrecic said the updated law will be passed Monday as emergency legislation.
The newly amended ordinance would make it illegal to shine lasers not just on people, but on any sort of vehicle, including cars, bikes, scooters, buses, trams, motorcycles, Segways or wheelchairs.
Proposed changes also include outlawing sales and possession of laser pointers to minors, and mandating that laser pointer vendors post conspicuous signs about the town's law while providing buyers with a written copy of the law. Violations would be punishable by a $1,000 fine and up to six months in jail.
Joey Kroart, of Boardwalk store Ocean Gallery, said he's queried customers as to whether they were cautioned by clerks when buying their laser pointers.
"We have yet to speak with someone who said that they were," he said. "In fact, one woman reacted somewhat angrily, remarking that 'they told us that that the red ones were dangerous, but that these were safe!'"
Shining laser pointers on boats or aircraft also would be punishable, according to the law.
More than 30,000 laser pointers have been sold in Ocean City this year by 23 stores, according to research by police, where they they sell for $30 to $50 each. Their reach extends into West Ocean City, where a Sunsations megastore advertises it stocks them on an outdoor electronic billboard to anyone coming in on Route 50.
Green laser pointers, more powerful than red ones popular a decade ago, shine not just a dot at a distance, but send a long green beam across the darkness.
"I was down there this weekend on the Boardwalk, and I tell you, it's like Star Wars," said Councilman Doug Cymek.
Ocean City Police said the incident happened about 2 a.m. July 24, in the parking lot of Yang's Palace, a Chinese restaurant at 54th Street. According to police, witnesses saw Escalante allegedly stab the victim several times.
Responding officers found the victim, a 26-year-old Berlin man, lying in the parking lot. Paramedics brought the man to Peninsula Regional Medical Center. Police are not releasing his name.
Police said Escalante allegedly approached and assaulted the man. The men knew each other and had a history of disagreements, according to police spokeswoman Jessica Waters. This incident stemmed from a prior disagreement earlier in the week, she said.
Ocean City Police are asking anyone with knowledge of Escalante's whereabouts to call Sgt. Todd Wood of the Ocean City Criminal Investigation Division at 443-235-0091.
bshane@dmg.gannett.com 410-213-9442, ext. 14