Briefs

Local & VCU

FEMA OKs aid to Louisa residents

Federal officials have reversed a denial of disaster aid for Louisa County homeowners who suffered property damage from the Aug. 23 earthquake that shook much of the East Coast. The turnabout, announced Friday evening, opens up federal grants and low-interest loans as well as unemployment assistance and crisis counseling to homeowners, renters and businesses affected by the magnitude-5.8 earthquake.

Gov. Bob McDonnell announced the approval on Friday, thanking FEMA and President Barack Obama.

“Many of our fellow Virginians who call Louisa home are hurting, and this is critically needed aid. … The once-in-100-year earthquake that struck Virginia in August caused significant damage that was not covered by homeowner’s insurance. Many homes and businesses have been extensively damaged,” he said.

“This assistance is a key resource for families and business owners who have been trying to recover for more than two months.”

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

Memo says utility, U.S. covered up fault lines existence

Dominion Virginia Power and federal nuclear regulatory staff members covered up knowledge of geologic faulting at the North Anna Power Station site in 1973, according to a U.S. Justice Department memo.

The company, then operating as Virginia Electric and Power Co., or Vepco, told the former Atomic Energy Commission in June 1973 that “faulting of rock at the site is neither known nor suspected,” even though the company knew about the existence of faulting at North Anna, the 1977 memo said.

Earthquakes occur as a result of movement on faults, and quakes can be powerful enough to damage a nuclear power station. Dominion’s two 980-megawatt nuclear reactors at North Anna have been shut down since Aug. 23, when a magnitude-5.8 earthquake hit central Virginia.

The power station shut down automatically without damage to safety systems, unusual release of radioactive material or risk to the public, company and NRC officials have said.

Though the quake did not involve the ancient fault at the North Anna plant, no U.S. nuclear-power station had been tripped offline by an earthquake before.

The Richmond-based company said the two reactors are ready to go back into operation, only waiting for Nuclear Regulatory Commission permission to restart.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

 

VCU Police respond to weekend shooting

At approximately 3:15 a.m. Saturday morning, VCU police responded to shots being fired near the Monroe Park campus.

Police found two individuals injured, one with minor face injuries and one with a laceration on the hand, according to WRIC ABC channel 8.

Neither victim had been shot, and police say there is no longer a threat to the VCU campus.

Brief by Mason Brown


National & International

At least 69 dead in north Nigeria attacks by Muslim sect

Residents fearfully left their homes Saturday to bury their dead in northeast Nigeria after a series of coordinated attacks that killed at least 69 people and left a new police headquarters in ruins, government offices burned and symbols of state power destroyed.

A radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks in Borno and Yobe states, with the worst damage done in and around the city of Damaturu.

The group also promised to continue its bloody sectarian fight against Nigeria’s weak central government. Residents nervously moved through empty streets, waiting for the next attack.

Boko Haram wants to implement strict Shariah law across Nigeria.

A Boko Haram spokesman claimed responsibility for the attacks in an interview Saturday with The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record across Nigeria’s Muslim north. A spokesman using the nom de guerre Abul-Qaqa promised that “more attacks are on the way.”

Brief by The Associated Press

 

Slaying plunges Colombia rebels into uncertainty

President Juan Manuel Santos on Saturday called on fighters of Latin America’s only major rebel force to accept the killing of their top leader as proof the movement is doomed and to surrender.

“This is the moment to decide to lay down your arms because, as we’ve said many times, the alternative is prison or a tomb,” Santos told combatants of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia a day after 63-year-old Alfonso Cano was killed.

But analysts don’t believe Cano’s death will lead the drug-funded rebels, known by their Spanish initials FARC, to crumble. While it’s a body blow to the insurgents, the rebels remain potent. They have depth in their leadership and resilience steeled in a half century of armed revolt.

Santos said Cano’s ranks were infiltrated by state agents, but refused to discuss details.

Brief by The Associated Press

 

Most of the unemployed no longer receive benefits

The jobs crisis has left so many people out of work for so long that most of America’s unemployed are no longer receiving unemployment benefits.

Early last year, 75 percent were receiving checks. The figure is now 48 percent – a shift that points to a growing crisis of long-term unemployment. Nearly one-third of America’s 14 million unemployed have had no job for a year or more.

Congress is expected to decide by year’s end whether to continue providing emergency unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks in the hardest-hit states. If the emergency benefits expire, the proportion of the unemployed receiving aid would fall further.

Government unemployment benefits weren’t designed to sustain people for long stretches without work. They usually don’t have to. In the recoveries from the previous three recessions, the longest average duration of unemployment was 21 weeks, in July 1983.

Brief by The Associated Press


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