News briefs

Local and VCU

Police tell of encounters with Farmville suspect

Farmville police now say they were inside a Longwood University professor’s house with a California man less than 24 hours before officers would find four bodies in the home and pinpoint him as a suspect.

Police Tuesday night described an eerie encounter they had with Richard Samuel Alden McCroskey III-making it three times the suspect came face to face with law enforcement in the span of a few hours and before the bodies were found.

Earlier Tuesday, Prince Edward County Commonwealth’s Attorney James Ennis formally identified the victims and said all four were killed by blunt-force trauma to the head. He did not discuss a motive.

Ennis declined to discuss any weapon used in the deaths and did not say when they were killed at professor Debra Kelley’s house on First Avenue.

Ennis identified the victims as Kelley, 53, an associate professor of sociology and criminal justice studies at Longwood; her daughter, Emma Niederbrock, 16; Emma’s visiting friend, Melanie Wells, 18, of Inwood, W.Va.; and Kelley’s estranged husband, the Rev. Mark Alan Niederbrock, 50, pastor of Walker’s Presbyterian Church in Appomattox County.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Fan District runner assaulted, robbed

A man was assaulted and robbed Wednesday morning while running near the northwestern edge of Richmond’s Fan District.

Richmond police Capt. Scott Booth said the man was taken to Bon Secours St. Mary’s Hospital to be treated for injuries that were not life-threatening after the 1:15 a.m. assault.

The man told police he was running in an alley south of the 2600 block of West Broad Street when he was confronted by three males. Two threw him to the ground and one struck him with an unknown object, possibly a baseball bat, Booth said.

The suspects took his wallet and keys before fleeing on foot.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

School-bus driver sought for hit-and-run

The driver of a Richmond school system bus fled the scene Tuesday after hitting a bicycle that was ridden moments earlier by a 12-year-old boy, police said.

The boy suffered minor injuries when he jumped off the bike to avoid being struck, said Dionne Waugh, a spokeswoman for the Richmond Police Department. He was taken to VCU Medical Center for treatment.

Police were working with school officials to locate the bus driver, who is expected to face a felony hit-and-run charge.

The collision happened about 4:20 p.m. at a stop sign as the bus was turning from Maverick Avenue onto Fenton Street in the East End, Waugh said. She was unable to say whether children were on the bus when its right rear tire struck the bicycle.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

Senate Democrats propose surveillance law changes

Democratic senators, beginning work on revisions to the nation’s major counterterrorism law, want the government to meet tougher tests when requesting the right to conduct surveillance and seize records and other property.

Three expiring provisions of the USA Patriot Act provide Democrats with the opportunity to rewrite parts of the law-and curb what they consider abuses of Americans’ civil liberties and privacy during the Bush administration.

A bill with significant changes, sponsored by Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Sens. Ted Kaufman of Delaware and Ben Cardin of Maryland, was introduced prior to a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday.

Brief by The Associated Press

States aim at ACORN, but little money at stake

As support for the community activist group ACORN withered in Congress in the wake of a hidden-camera scandal, Republican governors and other state officials moved swiftly to sever ties. It turns out the group often commanded little – if any – state business.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, seen as a possible 2012 GOP presidential candidate, directed his budget commissioner to stop all state funding to ACORN except where “the state is legally obligated to provide such funding.” None of Minnesota’s money was going to the group, and hadn’t for more than a year.

An order from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, also seen as a possible 2012 contender, resulted in blocking two possible ACORN social services contracts worth a combined $13,750.

Brief by The Associated Press

Palin emerges in Asia with speech to investors

Former U.S. vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, criticized for her lack of foreign policy experience, emerged in Asia on Wednesday to share her views from “Main Street U.S.A.” with a group of high-flying global investors.

In her first trip to the region, the former Alaska governor addressed an annual conference of investors in Hong Kong in what was billed as a wide-ranging talk about governance, economics and United States and Asian affairs.

“I’m going to call it like I see it and I will share with you candidly a view right from Main Street, Main Street U.S.A.,” Palin told a room full of asset managers and other finance professionals, according to a video of part of the speech obtained by The Associated Press. “And how perhaps my view of Main Street … how that affects you and your business.”

Brief by The Associated Press