Briefs

LOCAL & VCU

FEMA chief says Obama won’t visit Louisa

Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate called Gov. Bob McDonnell Friday to relay that President Barack Obama will not visit Louisa County on his upcoming bus trip.

McDonnell had asked Obama to join him in surveying earthquake damage in Louisa while the president is in Virginia early next week on a two-day bus tour of the state and North Carolina.

McDonnell spokesman Tucker Martin said today Fugate called the governor to say the visit would not take place.

In addition to struggling with the earthquake damage and aftershocks, Louisa was also one of three counties struck by tornadoes Thursday. Twisters were also confirmed in New Kent and Prince William counties.

Martin said the governor is donating $5,000 from his Opportunity Virginia PAC 
for Louisa relief efforts. Half will go to the Louisa Earthquake Recovery Fund, which is being set up to help homeowners with repairs, and half to the Louisa County Public School Disaster Relief Fund.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

Pro-gun group to protest at Virginia universities

The pro-gun Virginia Citizens Defense League is planning demonstrations next month at state universities including Virginia Tech, Radford University and James Madison University to protest efforts to ban the concealed carrying of guns in campus buildings, the group’s president, Philip Van Cleave, said last week.

The effort stems from an opinion recently issued by state Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli that said to ban legally concealed guns in campus buildings, a university’s governing body must pass a state regulation. A simple policy, such as that in effect at Tech, is insufficient, he said.

According to a recent Virginia Supreme Court ruling, however, public universities may ban open carry of firearms in buildings and at such events as football games through a simple policy. Violations of such policies can lead to criminal trespassing charges and may lead to administrative disciplinary action against students and employees.

Legal open and concealed carry must be allowed on the grounds of public universities, however. Meanwhile, private colleges and universities may ban all firearms from their campuses by posting public notice of their policies.

Van Cleave said a schedule for his group’s demonstrations has not been finalized.

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

12 indicted in Northern Va. drug ring that stretched to Mexico

An investigation into a Virginia-based cocaine ring that operated in Prince William County and stretched to Mexico has resulted in the indictment of 12 people, according to federal prosecutors.

The individuals used a distribution network to smuggle cocaine from Mexico to Northern Virginia, said Neil H. MacBride, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia.

The indictments are the latest in the continuing Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force investigation “Operation Springfield Snow,” which began in November 2008 to target Virginia-based cells of a cocaine-trafficking organization based in Mexico.

Court documents allege that the regional leader of the alleged international drug-trafficking organization is Gregorio “Goyo” Delgado-Salinas, 27, of Alexandria, who was arrested May 25, along with four suspected lieutenants and another co-conspirator.

At an arraignment Friday, U.S. District Judge James C. Cacheris scheduled a jury trial for Feb. 7, 2012

Brief by The Richmond Times-Dispatch

NATIONAL & INTERNATIONAL

Stunned by bloodshed, Egyptians torn over army

An army crackdown on a protest that killed more than 20 Christians has not only stunned Egyptians, it has left them with deeply torn feelings toward the force seen as the protector of the nation.

The deaths a week ago deepened mistrust of the military among the “revolutionary” sector, the politically active liberal and leftist activists who have been leading protests against the generals’ rule for months. They have become increasingly vocal in calls for the army to step aside.

A broader sector of the public has been thrown into shocked confusion. Many Egyptians view the military as the last bastion of stability – a force “made up of our own sons,” as many often say – and tend to trust it to handle the transition toward a democratic system.

Some try to find excuses for the ruling junta or nervously defend it. Intertwined in the reaction are the religious tensions between Egypt’s Muslim majority and Christian minority. The fact that victims were Christians has made some less sympathetic or more willing to forgive the army’s actions.

Brief by The Associated Press

Afghan militants assault U.S. base

Militants tried to blast their way into an American base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, striking before dawn with rocket-propelled grenades and a car bomb.

All four attackers were killed as well as two truck drivers parked nearby, said provincial Police Chief Gen. Mohammad Qasim Jangalbagh. Two Afghan security guards were wounded.

NATO downplayed the significance of such strikes on Saturday, presenting figures that showed headline-grabbing assaults account for only 1 percent of attacks in Afghanistan and that militant activity is down overall.

Insurgent attacks between January and September were 8 percent lower than the first nine months of 2010, according to figures supplied by a senior official with NATO forces.

But assassinations have increased 60 percent for the same period, according to the official.

Brief by The Associated Press

U.S. House group files motion in gay marriage suit

Gays and lesbians are not entitled to the same heightened legal protection and scrutiny against discrimination as racial minorities and women in part because they are far from politically powerless and have ample ability to influence lawmakers, lawyers for a U.S. House of Representatives group said in a federal court filing.

The filing Friday in San Francisco’s U.S. District Court comes in a lesbian federal employee’s lawsuit that claims the government wrongly denied health insurance coverage to her same-sex spouse. Karen Golinski says the law under which her spouse was denied benefits – the Defense of Marriage Act – violates the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.

But attorneys representing the House’s Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group counter that DOMA is subject to a lower level of court scrutiny because gays and lesbians don’t meet the legal criteria for groups who receive heightened protection from discrimination. Under that lower standard, DOMA is constitutional, they argue.

Golinski’s case has received support from the Obama administration. In a brief filed in July that urged the court to find DOMA unconstitutional, the administration argued that it reflected Congressional hostility to gays and targeted an immutable characteristic – sexual orientation – that has nothing to do with someone’s ability to contribute to society.

Brief by The Associated Press