Briefs

Local and VCU

Council liason is charged with sexual battery, assault

David R. Hathcock, a liaison to Richmond City Council President Kathy C. Graziano, has been charged with misdemeanor sexual battery and misdemeanor assault. He is accused of touching co-worker Jennifer Walle last April.

Walle, 1st District liaison to Councilman Bruce W. Tyler, made a report to Richmond police Thursday and then swore out the two criminal warrants at the magistrate’s office, Chief Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Tracy Thorne-Begland said.

“I absolutely deny these charges. They’re absurd,” Hathcock said Friday. “Any further comment will come from my attorney, Mr. (Craig) Cooley, in the proper format.”

Hathcock, 64, of the 7100 block of Shawnee Road in South Richmond, said he learned of the warrants Thursday night and was released after turning himself in to police Friday morning.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond schools face $1.1 million budget gap

The Richmond School Board is looking at a $1.1 million hole in next year’s budget as a result of new restrictions on the use of state funds for special-education services.

School Board members learned this week that behavioral aides could no longer be hired with funds for high-risk youth under the state’s Comprehensive Services Act. Officials initially estimated the budget gap created for next year at $1.6 million but later revised the total to $1.1 million.

There are 112 students who qualify for an aide in Richmond Public Schools this year, but officials are projecting the total to drop to 75 students next year at a cost of about $1.7 million. Superintendent Yvonne W. Brandon’s proposed operating budget for fiscal 2011-12 includes $600,000 in city and state funds for the aides, leaving a potential funding gap of $1.1 million.

School Board member Kimberly B. Gray said she’s concerned that the school system’s ongoing fiscal pressures could unduly influence decisions on whether a student qualifies for mandated special-education services.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

ACLU backs students’ display of Ten Commandments

A civil-liberties group says Floyd County High School students should be allowed to post copies of the Ten Commandments on their lockers.

The ACLU of Virginia said Friday that it e-mailed a letter to Principal Barry Hollandsworth urging him to allow students to keep the biblical texts up because they’re a form of personal expression, as opposed to school-imposed religion.

A telephone message left Friday for Hollandsworth wasn’t immediately returned.

Students organized an effort to post the Ten Commandments on their lockers in light of events in nearby Giles County, where the School Board voted this week to remove them from the school walls – a month after ordering them to be posted. The ACLU and the Freedom From Religion Foundation had threatened legal action, saying putting up the commandments was an unconstitutional government endorsement of Christianity.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

Tea party uses Ariz. summit to scope out 2012 role

A couple of thousand tea party members convening a weekend summit in Phoenix are determined to have a say in choosing the next Republican nominee for president.

The populist, conservative movement poses an enticing but complicated challenge for potential GOP candidates because it’s comprised of engaged voters who are generally skeptical of the political establishment.

Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and Texas Rep. Ron Paul are the only big-name Republicans likely to run in 2012 who accepted invitations to speak at the Tea Party Patriots event. Both spoke Saturday. All other well-known Republicans contemplating presidential campaigns cited scheduling conflicts for their absences.

Democrats are watching how Republicans jockey for tea party support. They’re eager to portray President Barack Obama’s eventual challenger as beholden to the political far-right.

Brief by The Associated Press

Libyan evacuees reach ports across Mediterranean

Mediterranean ports overflowed with thousands of evacuees from strife-torn Libya on Saturday, and thousands more foreigners were still scrambling to flee the North African nation by sea, air or land.

British officials said security around the airport in Tripoli, the Libyan capital, was deteriorating rapidly and urged its citizens to leave.

More than 2,800 Chinese workers landed Saturday in Heraklion on the Greek island of Crete aboard a Greek ship. Further to the west, another 2,200 Chinese arrived in Valletta, the capital of Malta, after a long journey from the eastern Libyan port of Benghazi. Hours earlier, in the dark of night, a U.S-chartered ferry dropped off over 300 passengers in Valletta who spent three days waiting to leave Libya’s chaotic capital.

The sheer numbers of foreigners leaving Libya as Moammar Gadhafi’s regime attacks anti-government protesters has been staggering. As of Saturday, at least 16,000 Chinese, 15,000 Turks and 1,400 Italians had been evacuated, most working in the construction and oil industries.

In addition, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the Security Council that some 22,000 people have fled across the Libyan border to Tunisia and another 15,000 crossed the border into Egypt.

“There are widespread reports of refugees being harassed and threatened with guns and knives,” Ban said, adding that many who managed to cross the border said their trips were “terrifying.”

Brief by The Associated Press

Hundreds at anti-gov’t rally in Algerian capital

Hundreds of demonstrators are protesting in Algeria’s capital to demand the ouster of President Abdelaziz Bouteflika – but police are out in far larger numbers to counter the protesters.

The protest on central Martyrs Square comes two days after the government ended a 19-year state of emergency born of Algeria’s bloody Islamic insurgency. The move aimed to ease tensions after weeks of anti-government strikes and protests.

President Barack Obama praised that move as a step toward responding to public concerns.

The demonstration Saturday, led by a political opposition party, was far smaller than protests that have brought down autocrats in fellow North African countries of Tunisia or Egypt.

Algeria’s Interior Minister says protest marches in the capital of Algiers are still banned.

Brief by The Associated Press