Briefs
Local and VCU
VCU Police set two checkpoints this weekend
Virginia Commonwealth University Police will check for a variety of safety issues during a pair of administrative checkpoints this weekend.
VCU Police will operate a checkpoint from 7 p.m. until 10 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27, along the 800 block of West Franklin Street. A second checkpoint will take place from 11 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 27, until 3 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 28, along the 700 block of West Main Street. Officers will check operator licenses and vehicle registrations and review seatbelt compliance and other safety issues. Any drunken or drug-impaired drivers will be arrested.
The checkpoints are being funded through a Virginia Highway Safety Grant from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles. Vehicles will be screened by officers from the VCU Police Department, the City of Richmond Police Department, Virginia State Police and Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Brief by VCU News Center
Update: Computer woes continue for state
The state’s largest computer failure ever continues to hamstring key Virginia government agencies trying to handle their core duties this morning.
Agencies across the state are wrestling with different types of problems as a result of computer server failures, which hinder their access to IT applications, shared information and stored data.
For instance, the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles — one of the state’s priorities as a customer-facing agency — continues to be unable to issue driver’s licenses this morning because it can’t save drivers’ photos.
DMV is urging customers who are renewing their licenses to use online or automated phone services, which are still available.
And state IT officials don’t know when the problem that affected hundreds of servers will be fixed.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Beck seeks help restoring traditional American values; Sharpton tries to keep King dream alive
Conservative commentator Glenn Beck and tea party champion Sarah Palin appealed Saturday to a vast, predominantly white crowd on the National Mall to help restore traditional American values and honor Martin Luther King’s message. Civil rights leaders who accused the group of hijacking King’s legacy held their own rally and march.
While Beck billed his event as nonpolitical, conservative activists said their show of strength was a clear sign that they can swing elections because much of the country is angry with what many voters call an out-of-touch Washington.
Beck put a heavy religious cast on nearly all his remarks, sounding at times like an evangelical preacher.
“Something beyond imagination is happening,” he said. “America today begins to turn back to God.”
A group of civil rights activists organized by the Rev. Al Sharpton held a counter rally at a high school, then embarked on a three-mile march to the site of a planned monument honoring King. The site, bordering the Tidal Basin, was not far from the Lincoln Memorial where Beck and the others spoke about two hours earlier.
Brief by the Associated Press
National and International
Safety officials say salmonella found in feed was used by 2 farms at center of massive recall
Food and Drug Administration officials say they have found positive samples of salmonella that link two Iowa farms to a massive egg recall.
FDA officials said Thursday that investigators found salmonella in chicken feed at Wright County Egg that was used by that farm and also Hillandale Farms. They also found additional samples of salmonella in other locations at Wright County Egg. More than 550 million eggs from the two farms were recalled this month after they were linked to salmonella poisoning in several states.
Also Thursday, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that there could now be as many as 1,470 illnesses linked to the outbreak, about 200 more than previously thought.
Sherri McGarry of the FDA’s Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition said the salmonella found at Wright County Egg matches the fingerprint of the salmonella found in many of those who were sickened. She said the tests indicate that contaminated feed is a source of the outbreak but possibly not the only source.
Brief by the Associated Press
Kenya gets new American-style constitution
Kenya’s president signed a new constitution into law Friday that institutes a U.S.-style system of checks and balances and has been hailed as the most significant political event since Kenya’s independence nearly a half century ago.
Kenya’s new constitution is part of a reform package that President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga committed themselves to after signing a power-sharing deal in February 2008. That deal ended violence that killed more than 1,000 people following Kenya’s disputed December 2007 presidential vote.
“I feel honored to be your President at this moment because this is the most important day in the history of our nation since independence,” said the 78-year-old Kibaki. He was a senior official of Kenya’s independence party, the Kenya African National Union, when Britain handed over power in 1963 to its leader, Jomo Kenyatta.
Odinga said the new constitution was a major step in bridging Kenya’s political and ethnic divisions.
Brief by the Associated Press
Baby tiger found stuffed in bag at Thai airport
Authorities at Bangkok’s international airport found a baby tiger cub that had been drugged and hidden alongside a stuffed toy tiger in the suitcase of a woman flying from Thailand to Iran, an official and a wildlife protection group said Friday.
The woman, a Thai national, had checked in for her flight and her overweight bag was sent for an X-ray which showed what appeared to be a live animal inside, according to TRAFFIC, a wildlife trade monitoring group.
The woman was arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport before boarding her Sunday flight. The cub, estimated to be about 3 months old, was sent to a wildlife conservation center in Bangkok.
Brief by the Associated Press
