LOCAL & VCU
VCU Police seek unknown woman in relation to stolen credit card
VCU Police are searching for an unknown woman in relation to a case of credit card theft and fraud.
A wallet containing credit cards was stolen from a VCU student on the Monroe Park Campus on Sept. 8. Since then, the cards have been used to make purchases in several Richmond locations.
VCU Police Chief John Venuti said the card was used almost immediately after it was reported missing.
Police do not know if the woman using the card was the same person who stole the cards.
Venuti said larceny is not out of the ordinary at VCU, though most larceny cases involve electronics, not wallets. He advises students to keep their items secure, report any missing items to police and if the theft involves credit card, contact the bank immediately to cancel any cards.
Brief by Mason Brown
McDonnell announces sale of bonds to benefit VCU
Governor Bob McDonnell announced the sale of $167 million worth of bonds to help finance some dormitory projects at five state schools, including VCU.
The sale will take place Oct. 12 and 13 and will open first to state retail investors on Oct. 12. Any unsold bonds will become available in competitive sale on Oct. 13. Typically, bonds sold competitively go to larger, institutional supporters.
The sale will also go towards financing projects at Christopher Newport University, the College of William and Mary, George Mason University, Virginia Tech and Virginia State University.
VCU Residential Life and Housing were not available for comment and VCU Facilities Management is not at liberty to discuss the potential use of the money from the bonds’ sale.
Brief by Mechelle Hankerson
U.S. denies Va. request for aid after quake
Federal authorities have denied the state’s request for assistance with damage from the August earthquake that started in Louisa County and shook a large swath of the East Coast.
Gov. Bob McDonnell’s office announced Friday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency denied Virginia’s request to aid individuals who were affected by the magnitude-5.8 earthquake Aug. 23.
“We are very disappointed in FEMA’s decision, and we will immediately appeal,” he said.
The declaration would have made federal grants and low-interest loans as well as unemployment assistance and crisis counseling available to homeowners, renters and businesses.
Damage assessments for residential properties are nearly $15 million, mostly in uninsured costs, McDonnell said.
This is the second time this year the state has been denied disaster aid for individuals. In May, FEMA denied requests for help for areas hit by tornadoes in April, and McDonnell is appealing that decision as well.
Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch
NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL
3 women share Nobel; led change in Africa, Mideast
Leymah Gbowee confronted armed forces in Liberia to demand that they stop using rape as a weapon. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became Africa’s first woman to win a free presidential election. Tawakkul Karman began pushing for change in Yemen long before the Arab Spring. They share a commitment to women’s rights in regions where oppression is common, and on Friday they shared the Nobel Peace Prize.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee honored women for the first time in seven years, and in selecting Karman it also recognized the Arab Spring movement championed by millions of often anonymous activists from Tunisia to Syria.
Prize committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland said it would have been difficult to identify all the movement’s leaders, and that the committee was making an additional statement by selecting Karman to represent their cause.
Karman is the first Arab woman ever to win the peace prize, which includes a 10 million kronor ($1.5 million) award that will be divided among the winners. No woman or sub-Saharan African had won the prize since 2004, when the committee honored Wangari Maathai of Kenya, who mobilized poor women to fight deforestation by planting trees.
Brief by The Associated Press
Dutch classify high-potency marijuana as hard drug
The Dutch government said Friday it would move to classify high-potency marijuana alongside hard drugs such as cocaine and ecstasy, the latest step in the country’s ongoing reversal of its famed tolerance policies.
The decision means most of the cannabis now sold in the Netherlands’ weed cafes would have to be replaced by milder variants. But skeptics said the move would be difficult to enforce, and that it could simply lead many users to smoke more of the less potent weed.
Possession of marijuana is technically illegal in the Netherlands, but police do not prosecute people for possession of small amounts, and it is sold openly in designated cafes. Growers are routinely prosecuted if caught.
Economic Affairs Minister Maxime Verhagen said weed containing more than 15 percent of its main active chemical, THC, is so much stronger than what was common a generation ago that it should be considered a different drug entirely.
The Cabinet has not said when it will begin enforcing the rule.
Brief by The Associated Press
Thai floods kill at least 253
Thailand’s prime minister warns that rising floodwaters that have wreaked havoc across the nation now threaten Bangkok, the capital, as the death toll from the worst monsoon rains in decades rose Saturday to 253.
Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra said flooding, which has severed rail links with the north, shut dozens of highways and swamped ancient Buddhist temples in the city of Ayutthaya, has reached a crisis level.
Bangkok has been spared serious damage, but many fear it could be inundated as large amounts of water flow from submerged northern rice fields toward the Gulf of Thailand. That critical runoff is expected to be impeded by high ocean tides in mid-October. Also, Tropical Storm Nalgae is forecast to bring new rain in the days ahead.
The Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said 253 people have been killed in the disaster, mostly from drowning, since a series of tropical storms began hitting Thailand at the end of July. It said 8 million people in 60 of the country’s 77 provinces have been affected by floods and mudslides during that time, and 3 million acres of agricultural land have been damaged.
Brief by The Associated Press