Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

Richmond Sheriff to run for re-election

C.T. Woody is running for a second term as Richmond’s sheriff, he said Sunday morning. He has been planning to make the announcement at a news conference Monday morning on the steps of the John Marshall Courts Building, but he said inclement weather could affect those plans.

He said he will announce later today whether the news conference will be held as planned.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

No layoffs in Powhatan schools budget

The Powhatan County School Board approved a $41.1 million budget for the 2009-10 fiscal year during a special meeting Friday. The budget does not call for salary reductions or layoffs, a statement from the School Board said.

The board had to reduce the current year’s budget by almost $2 million to make up for the anticipated shortfall in revenue, primarily from the state, while also bracing for cost increases.

The budget calls for level funding from the county and was based on state revenue estimates using a compromise between the House of Delegates and Senate proposals. The budget anticipates an additional $861,700 in federal stimulus funds, the statement said.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Va. Assembly wraps; Kaine cuts losses

Gov. Tim Kaine oversaw the conclusion of his final General Assembly session last night, virtually assuring he will leave office without fulfilling his most conspicuous campaign promise: to resolve Virginia’s transportation mess.

Facing the worst economic crisis in generations and stiff resistance from Republican lawmakers who felt burned by past efforts at compromise, the commonwealth’s 70th governor discovered that the ambitious agenda he laid out to voters in 2005 would remain largely beyond his reach.

Brief by the Washington Post

Richmond banks aided by feds show only modest increases in loans

Billions of dollars flooded into banks’ coffers as the credit crunch gripped the U.S. economy last year, but only a fraction of that stimulus money is going back into the community as loans, regulatory records show.

Richmond-area banks that received taxpayer money meant to kickstart lending show only modest increases in loans on their books, a Richmond Times-Dispatch review of hundreds of pages of filings found.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Topless coffee shop a hit in small Maine town

On Monday, Donald Crabtree opened Grand View Topless Coffee Shop in Vassalboro, Maine, where the waiters and waitresses serve their customers topless.

In a town with fewer than 4,500 residents, the topless coffee shop is booming with business. Paul Crabtree, the owner’s brother, describes business so far as “fantastic.”

Brief by CNN

Denver paper latest victim of declining readership, ad revenue

After nearly 150 years in business, the Rocky Mountain News published its final edition Friday, the victim of a bad economy and the Internet generation. The Rocky Mountain News in Denver, Colo.

The final front-page headline simply says: Goodbye, Colorado.
The paper’s owner, E.W. Scripps Co., made the announcement to the newsroom at noon Thursday, ending three months of speculation and drama over its fate. The News had been put up for sale in December.

Brief by CNN

EU insists Eastern Europe doesn’t want bailout

Top European Union officials say at the end of summit talks that eastern European nations don’t want a special rescue program for their region. EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso says the ten eastern states of the bloc “do not want a program just for them” because different nations had different problems.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek says the European Union will not leave any nation “in the lurch.” Topolanek chaired Sunday’s crisis talks on Europe’s troubled economies. EU nations agreed that governments should make sure that bailouts for banks or car makers should not be protectionist or hurt the economies of other members in the 27-nation bloc.

Brief by The Associated Press

Bangladesh border guards return to HQ after mutiny

Hundreds of Bangladeshi border guards started reporting back to their headquarters Sunday, two days after a bloody mutiny left at least 76 people dead and 72 others missing.

The Home Ministry gave guards across the country a 24-hour ultimatum Saturday to return to their posts or report to a local police station or face disciplinary action. The insurrection, in which mostly army officers were killed, apparently erupted over the guards’ long-standing complaints that their pay hasn’t kept pace with soldiers in the army.

Some of the returning guards said they were on leave or off duty during the two-day mutiny that ended Thursday, while others claimed they had fled the compound after the violence started.

Brief by The Associated Press