Local and VCU
Mayor’s budget includes $1,000 bonus for city workers
Richmond city government employees would receive a $1,000 bonus in July and no increase in health-care costs as part of proposed budget for next year that’s 3 percent more than this year’s plan.
In announcing a $1.4 billion biennial budget for fiscal 2011-12 and 2012-13, Mayor Dwight C. Jones said Thursday that employees have worked without raises since 2008 and deserve to be recognized.
The proposed bonus would take effect in July for eligible employees and cost about $3.1 million.
The Richmond School Board has requested an additional $1.5 million from the city to give its employees a one-time 1 percent bonus. City and school officials are discussing the best way to recognize their workers, Jones said.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Former federal prison counselor gets home detention
An Iraq war veteran and former employee at the Federal Correctional Complex in Petersburg convicted of smuggling contraband to inmates escaped a prison sentence of his own Friday.
Instead, Kevin J. Erickson, 50, a former prison counselor, was sentenced to five years of probation, two years of home confinement and ordered to pay $10,310 in fines and special assessments, by U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne.
He was convicted by a jury in October of charges of conspiracy, smuggling contraband and soliciting an inmate to commit a crime of violence.
“Mr. Erickson, what you did was awful, it was disgraceful,” said Payne. “But the fact is, you have otherwise led an exemplary life.”
Payne cited Erickson’s war-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as part of the reason for not ordering a prison term. Payne said he was troubled there was no way to treat PTSD for veterans in the prisons.
Evidence showed Erickson allowed favored inmates to charge other inmates for better cell and bed assignments. In return for contraband, including a cell phone, the prisoners would carry out assaults on other inmates at Erickson’s direction.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
Dominion to convert 3 coal plants to biomass
Dominion Virginia Power is planning to convert three of its Virginia power stations from burning coal to using renewable biomass energy.
The power stations in Hopewell, Altavista and Southampton County are identical and went into operation in 1992, the Richmond-based power company said.
If the conversions are approved by local governments, the state Department of Environmental Quality and the State Corporation Commission, they could begin burning biomass in 2013.
The conversions would provide environmental and customer benefits, the state’s largest electric utility said, and generate up to $350 million for their local economies over the next 30 years.
The biomass Dominion Virginia Power will burn will be wood slash, the residue of branches and limbs left on the ground after a forest’s trees have been harvested for timber.
Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch
National and International
9/11 kin decry plans to house remains at museum
Some relatives of victims who died a decade ago at the World Trade Center decried a plan Sunday to place more than 9,000 unidentified pieces of human remains at a subterranean site at the National September 11 Memorial & Museum.
A plan that would locate the unclaimed and unidentified remains seven stories below ground behind a wall featuring a quote from Virgil is unacceptable, they said.
“The families here today say no,” said the families’ attorney, Norman Siegel. “They believe that the remains should be placed in a respectful and accessible location, such as something akin to the Tomb of the Unknowns above ground and separate from the museum.”
The families might consider legal action in the future but have no current plans to sue, Siegel said.
Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter-son Christian died at the World Trade Center, contended that families had not been consulted about where the remains would be placed and felt the proposed location was disrespectful. She said city and museum officials have never formally informed relatives of those killed about the plans.
Rosemary Cain, whose firefighter-son George also died Sept. 11 agreed.
“The families have a right to consultation,” Cain said. “It’s a disgrace, and it’s wrong.”
However, Christy Ferer, who lost her husband in the terror attacks and worked as a liaison for Mayor Michael Bloomberg with 9/11 families, said the location was done at the behest of families.
“They wanted them placed as close to bedrock as possible,” Ferer said in a telephone interview. She said there were numerous meetings over the years about the museum and memorial. The remains will be placed in the memorial section of the facility, and relatives of those who died will have private access, she said.
“The outreach we did on this is voluminous,” she said.
Brief by The Associated Press
Somalia creates new state, Azania
Somali politicians on Sunday announced the creation of a new state in the battle-scarred nation, a move condemned by Somalia’s fragile government, which said it could further fracture the already chaotic Horn of Africa country.
The creation of Azania was celebrated Sunday in a colorful ceremony in Kenya’s capital. Its creation brings the total number of new states to more than 10.
Kenya supports the new administration as it creates a buffer zone near its border with Somalia.
Azania President Mohamed Abdi Gandhi said his first duty is to retake his territory from al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab.
“Our aim of establishing this administration is to first liberate these regions,” he said. “We are not breaking away from Somalia.”
Much of Somalia’s southern and central regions, including large swaths of the capital of Mogadishu, are controlled by al-Shabab.
But Somali Information Minister Abdulkareem Jama said the new states are a bad idea.
“Taking that path is a disaster,” he said. “The idea that every region and every group of people has to form their own government without the consultation of the national government will only create more differences among communities and encourage Somalis not to come together.”
Somalia’s interim charter allows for new states. The idea is appealing to many, who still bear hatred toward the country’s last centralized government, which failed to accommodate many residents outside the capital. Somalia has been mired in chaos since the fall of that government in 1991.
Brief by The Associated Press
Yemeni police attack women with sticks
Thousands of women calling for the ouster of Yemen’s longtime ruler were attacked on Sunday by police with sticks and rocks, setting off a furious battle with male protesters that left several people hurt, activists said.
The women were marching down a main street in the southern town of Taiz shouting “peaceful! peaceful!” when they were attacked, activist Ghazi al-Samei said.
Three of the young men suffered serious gunshot wounds when police opened fire, protester Bushra al-Maqtari told The Associated Press by telephone. She said over 200 more suffered breathing problems caused by inhaling tear gas.
Army tanks and armored cars stopped other demonstrators from entering Taiz, the site of some of the largest and angriest protests against President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.
Protesters have been camping out in main squares throughout Yemen for weeks, demanding Saleh immediately leave power after 30 years. The president has offered to resign by the year’s end and says leaving without a negotiated transition, would lead to chaos. On Saturday, opposition groups demanded he hand power to his vice president and set up committees to thrash out constitutional reform and elections.
The president’s spokesman, Ahmed al-Sufi, said Sunday that the president is only “ready to discuss the peaceful handover of power according to the constitution.”
Saleh’s top security official in Taiz, Abdullah Qiran, to oversee security in Taiz, is accused by demonstrators of orchestrating some of the most brutal crackdowns against demonstrators, particularly in the southern port town of Aden, where he was previously stationed.
Brief by The Associated Press