Briefs

Richmond region’s jobless rate fell in March

The Richmond area’s unemployment rate declined in March, the Virginia Employment Commission reported Wednesday.

The local jobless rate was 7 percent in March, down from 7.3 percent in February and 8.1 percent in March 2010. The figures have not been adjusted for seasonal fluctuations.

Virginia’s other major metropolitan areas also generally had lower unemployment rates in March compared with February and a year earlier, according to the commission data.

Jobless rates trended downward in localities within the Richmond metropolitan area:

•The city of Richmond’s rate was 9 percent in March, down from 9.2 percent in February and 10.4 percent in March 2010.

•Henrico County’s rate was 6.3 percent in March, down from 6.5 percent in February and 7.2 percent in March 2010.

•Chesterfield County’s rate was 6.4 percent in March, down from 6.6 percent in February and 7.3 percent in March 2010.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

WWBT’s Gene Cox to end three decades as anchor

Gene Cox, an institution in more than three decades at Richmond’s WWBT-TV, will step down from the anchor chair June 16, a station official said today.

Cox, who went to part-time status two years ago, will remain with the station in a role that is still being worked out, said Paula Hersh, marketing director. Cox, who formerly co-anchored on the 5 p.m., 6 p.m., and 11 p.m. newscasts, is currently featured on the earlier programs.

Cox, whose last day was first reported by Style Weekly, told the publication that at age 70 he is “at peace” with the station’s decision not to renew his contract and that he supported WWBT in its move to look ahead.

In the meantime, said Hersh, the NBC affiliate was planning how it would commemorate Cox’s tenure, which is among the longest nationally. In addition, his collaboration with co-anchor Sabrina Squire has lasted more than two decades.

“We’re going to celebrate our best memories with our viewers,” she said.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond considers measures to relieve jail crowding

Richmond’s mayor is proposing new funding for several programs that would offer alternatives to traditional incarceration, moving forward with efforts aimed at relieving jail overcrowding and providing better treatment for mentally ill offenders.

Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ proposed budget for the fiscal year beginning July 1 calls for $1.4 million for a new mental-health court docket, assessments for mentally ill offenders, additional substance-abuse services and an expanded home electronic monitoring program. The amount is part of Jones’ $656.6 million plan for next year.

The city plans to allow for the placement of 100 more people on home electronic monitoring, adding to the roughly 40 people currently in the program. The mayor’s proposal would allot $587,700 for next year for the effort.

On average, it costs $20,294 per year to house an inmate at the city’s chronically overcrowded jail, and it would cost less than half that amount — about $8,117 — to put someone on home electronic monitoring for a year, said sheriff’s Maj. Jerry Baldwin.

“It’s going to cut costs all around,” said Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. “It’s much cheaper than letting them come to jail, eating three meals a day and coming in and out.”

Woody said that on an average day, 16 percent to 19 percent of inmates at the city jail have some form of mental illness. Officials say too many of the prisoners are unable to post bail and languish in jail for several months on relatively minor charges, such as public drunkenness and trespassing.

Nationwide, studies suggest at least 16 percent of inmates in jails and prisons have a serious mental illness, according to a 2010 survey by the National Sheriffs’ Association and the Treatment Advocacy Center. The report adds that a similar study in 1983 found that the percentage was 6.4.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

Va. Tech appealing fed fines from ’07 mass shooting

Virginia Tech will appeal $55,000 in federal fines levied against the school for failing to quickly alert the campus during the 2007 mass shooting that killed 32 students and faculty members, the state announced Wednesday.

State Attorney General Kenneth Cuccinelli made the announcement two days before the deadline to file an administrative appeal of the finding that the school violated federal law. He called the findings by the U.S. Department of Education “absolutely appalling,” adding that an appeal was necessary to ensure Virginia Tech was treated fairly.

The federal agency imposed the fine in March after finding that Tech had violated campus safety law by waiting too long to notify the campus of a potential threat after two students were shot to death in a dormitory. An email alert went out more than two hours later, about the time student Seung-Hui Cho was chaining shut the doors to a classroom building where he killed 30 more students and faculty and himself. It was the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history.

The department said Virginia Tech deserved a larger fine, but the $55,000 was the maximum allowed by law for two violations of the Clery Act, which requires campus notification of potential threats to students and employees.

Tech was specifically charged with failure to issue a timely warning and failure to follow its own procedures for providing notification. The law is named after Jeanne Ann Clery, a 19-year-old college student who was raped and murdered in her dormitory in 1986.

Tech officials have denied wrongdoing and said federal bureaucrats with the benefit of hindsight are holding them to stricter standards than those in place on April 16, 2007.

Brief by The Associated Press

Obama releases birth form, decries ‘silliness’

Responding to critics’ relentless claims, President Barack Obama on Wednesday produced a detailed Hawaii birth certificate in an extraordinary attempt to bury the issue of where he was born and confirm his legitimacy to hold office. He declared, “We do not have time for this kind of silliness.”

By going on national TV from the White House, Obama portrayed himself as a voice of reason amid a loud, lingering debate on his birth status. Though his personal attention to the issue elevated it as never before, Obama said to Republican detractors and the media, it is time to move on to bigger issues.

Citing huge budget decisions in Washington, Obama said, “I am confident that the American people and America’s political leaders can come together in a bipartisan way and solve these problems. We always have. But we’re not going to be able to do it if we are distracted.”

Obama spoke shortly after the White House released a copy of the long form of his birth certificate, which contains more extensive data than a version released earlier.

The certificate says Obama was born to an American mother and Kenyan father, in Hawaii, which makes him eligible to hold the office of president. Obama released a standard short form before he was elected in 2008 but requested copies of his original birth certificate from Hawaii officials this week in hopes of quieting the controversy.

Until Wednesday, the White House had insisted that the short form certificate was the appropriate legal document confirming Obama’s birth and no further proof was needed.

But so-called “birthers” opposed to Obama have kept the issue alive. Potential Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump recently began questioning why Obama hadn’t ensured the long form was released.

Brief by The Associated Press