Briefs

Local and VCU

OT costs for Rams top $62,000

Police from three agencies logged more than 1,600 overtime hours – at a cost of more than $62,000 – while providing security in Richmond for large crowds that assembled after VCU’s last two games in the NCAA tournament.

Large crowds assembled in the streets of Richmond on March 27 when VCU’s men’s basketball team beat Kansas, extending the Rams’ tournament run from the Elite Eight to their first-ever trip to the Final Four. Both games were played in Texas.

Thousands massed on Richmond’s streets again April 2 after Butler University defeated the Rams in the national semifinal game. Some fans set off fireworks, started small fires and hurled objects at police clad in riot gear. Authorities charged one VCU student and five other people with disorderly conduct.

The Richmond and VCU police departments and the Virginia State Police have declined to discuss in detail how they handled the crowds or how many officers worked the two events, describing such information as tactical.

In response to a request under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act, the Richmond police said they accumulated 432 overtime hours for the Elite Eight game at a cost of $17,282. For the Final Four game, they reported 656.6 overtime hours at $26,540.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

2011 is 2nd deadliest year for tornados

A series of twisters that swept through Virginia this month have made 2011 the second deadliest year in Virginia for tornadoes since 1950, the National Weather Service said today.

Five people were killed Wednesday and Thursday as at least seven tornadoes hit the state. The number could increase as weather service crews continue to verify reported twisters.

Two others died earlier this month when tornadoes hit Gloucester County.

April’s death toll ranks second only to the 12 killed in a single day in 1959. The weather service has only tracked tornado fatalities since 1950, although it has documentation of a string of tornadoes killing 22 and injuring 150 on May 2, 1929.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Richmond council weighs study options for City Stadium

The latest competition involving Richmond’s City Stadium is over the scope of studies that could determine the property’s future use.

City Council President Kathy C. Graziano and Vice President Ellen F. Robertson want a review of the site’s “highest and best use” after Councilman E. Martin Jewell in March proposed a more limited study focused on the facility’s value and marketability.

Graziano and Robertson’s proposal, which was introduced Monday, also calls for a best-use study of the former GRTC Transit System headquarters property on South Davis Avenue. Mayor Dwight C. Jones wants to work with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority on a plan to pursue private development of the site.

“We have very viable economic-development properties,” Graziano said, referring also to city-owned land near The Diamond. “We need to look at how they’re going to interact with each other. I think that’s going to make for the best project for each property.”

The proposals come as the Fulton Hill Partnership is pushing a plan to redevelop the site as a mixed-use project with offices, residences and retail.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

Judge asks to see Tucson college’s Loughner emails

A judge is asking to review 255 pages of emails that a newspaper has requested from a community college that the Tucson, Ariz., mass shooting suspect attended.

Pima County Superior Court Judge Stephen Villarreal said Friday he wants to see the documents before deciding whether The Arizona Republic should get them.

Republic attorney David Bodney argues the documents must be released under Arizona Public Records Law. But attorney John Richardson, who represents Pima Community College, says the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act bars the school from releasing the emails.

The college has released thousands of other pages of documents, but Richardson argues only suspect Jared Lee Loughner can give permission to release the documents that have been withheld.

Loughner was suspended from the college last year for disturbing behavior, then withdrew from the school in October.

Brief by The Associated Press

Volunteers tend to victims in storm-ravaged South

Whether it’s refilling blood-pressure medicine or patrolling neighborhoods in a grocery-filled pickup truck, tornado victims in splintered Southern towns say volunteers are ensuring they’re well-fed and warm at night.

Across the twister-ravaged South, students and church groups aggressively tended to those who needed it most, clearing away wreckage and handing out food and water. Wednesday’s tornadoes marked the second-deadliest day of twisters in U.S. history, leaving 341 people dead across seven states — including 249 in Alabama.

Federal Emergency Management Agency workers handed out information to people in shelters about how to apply for help. National Guard soldiers stood watch, searched for survivors and helped sift through debris. Churches transformed into buzzing community hubs.

In Tuscaloosa, a Red Cross shelter was handing out clothes and providing counseling.

Brief by The Associated Press

Pope beatifies John Paul II before 1.5m faithful

Pope Benedict XVI beatified Pope John Paul II before 1.5 million faithful in St. Peter’s Square and surrounding streets Sunday, moving the beloved former pontiff one step closer to possible sainthood in one of the largest turnouts ever for a Vatican Mass.

The crowd in Rome and in capitals around the world erupted in cheers, tears and applause as an enormous photo of a young, smiling John Paul was unveiled over the loggia of St. Peter’s Basilica and a choir launched into hymn long associated with the Polish-born pope.

Beatification is the first major milestone on the path to possible sainthood, one of the Catholic Church’s highest honors. A second miracle attributed to John Paul’s intercession is needed for him to be canonized.

The beatification, the fastest in modern times, is a morale boost for a church scarred by the sex abuse crisis, but it has also triggered a new wave of anger from victims because the scandal occurred under John Paul’s 27-year watch.

Brief by The Associated Press