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Five years after Tech, Virginia colleges gauge threats

Virginia's colleges and universities have quietly investigated hundreds of students, employees and others in recent years to prevent a repeat of the Virginia Tech massacre of 2007, when a student gunman left a series of increasingly disturbing warning signs before killing 32 people and himself.

Monday marks the fifth anniversary of Seung-Hui Cho's rampage, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. A state panel investigating the killings determined that professors, students and mental health professionals knew about Cho's troubled behavior for years but never tied all the information together — something officials said might have prevented the slayings.

In response to the panel's findings, the General Assembly passed a law in 2008 requiring Virginia's 15 public, four-year colleges and universities to form panels with broad powers to investigate students' academic, medical and criminal records. And their findings are largely exempt from public disclosure laws.

While the law covers only public institutions, most of Virginia's private colleges also have so-called threat assessment teams in place, according to the Virginia State Crime Commission.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Virginia legislation calls for school PE guidelines

Pediatrician groups and other health advocates are claiming a small victory in their efforts to press for physical education in Virginia's public schools.

Gov. Bob McDonnell is expected to sign legislation into law that would require the state Board of Education to develop guidelines to incorporate PE in Virginia's elementary and middle schools, a small step in a wider attempt to combat the childhood obesity epidemic. It's expected to pass both chambers next week and become law.

“We were pleased to have reached a compromise with the governor to help create a road map to increase physical education,” said Dr. William Moskowitz, president of the Virginia chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics.

McDonnell vetoed a bill by Sen. Ralph Northam, D-Norfolk, but proposed amendments to the companion House version by Del. John O'Bannon, R-Henrico. Under McDonnell's changes, the state would develop non-mandatory PE guidelines, rather than implement regulations. The guidelines are to be in place by 2014.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Eagle Cam comes to end; chicks being fed by hand

The Richmond Eagle Cam came to an abrupt end Saturday as scientists dismantled the equipment in hopes of eliminating any distraction that might be keeping the parent birds from feeding their chicks.

“We are clearing all the gear out,” said eagle expert Bryan Watts. “We want to give the birds every leeway.”

The Eagle Cam had drawn more than 1.5 million Web page views in more than 130 countries, but technical problems kept it off most of the past week. Then on Friday a crisis erupted when the parent birds didn't return to the nest to feed their two chicks.

Experts fed the chicks by hand Friday night and late Saturday afternoon. The plan now is to keep the area around the nest quiet so that the parents resume feeding the chicks.

If the parents don't return, Watts plans to put the chicks in the nest of other eagles along the James River. Eagles will care for chicks that aren't theirs.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Law gives Zimmerman extra chances in court

George Zimmerman persuaded the police not to charge him for killing unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin, but the prosecutor has accused him of murder. Soon, armed with unparalleled legal advantages, Zimmerman will get to ask a judge to find the killing was justified, and if that doesn't work, he'll get to make the same case to a jury.

The wave of National Rifle Association-backed legislation that began seven years ago in Florida and continues to sweep the country has done more than establish citizens' right to “stand your ground,” as supporters call the laws. It's added second, third and even fourth chances for people who have used lethal force to avoid prosecution and conviction.

Martin's shooting has unleashed a nationwide debate on the validity of these laws, which exist in some form in most of the country and which prosecutors and police have generally opposed as confusing, prone to abuse by criminals, and difficult to apply evenly.

One area that sets Florida apart is the next step Zimmerman faces: A judge will decide whether to dismiss the seconddegree murder charge based on “stand your ground.” If Zimmerman wins that stage, prosecutors can appeal.

Brief by the Associated Press

Egypt's election commission bans 10 presidential hopefuls

Egypt's election commission disqualified 10 presidential hopefuls, including Hosni Mubarak's former spy chief and fundamentalist Islamists, from running Saturday in a surprise decision that left a field of moderates in the race for the country's first post-revolutionary leader.

The elimination of the three most powerful and controversial candidates could go in two directions with just weeks to go before the vote, observers said. It could plunge the Arab world's most populous nation into a new political crisis or defuse it.

Farouk Sultan, the head of the Supreme Presidential Election Commission that was appointed by Egypt's military rulers to oversee the vote, said that those barred from the contest included Mubarak-era strongman Omar Suleiman, Muslim Brotherhood chief strategist Khairat el-Shater and hard-line Islamist Hazem Abu Ismail. Sultan did not give reasons.

Disqualified candidates have 48 hours to appeal the decision, according to election rules. The final list of candidates will be announced on April 26.

Brief by the Associated Press

Norway survivors brace for killer's trial

When Per Anders Langeroed heard about the bomb explosion in downtown Oslo, he wrote reassuringly to his Facebook friends that he was “safe on Utoya.”

Those who survived Norway's worst peacetime massacre on July 22 are bracing for the horror of Utoya island to return when the trial of confessed killer Anders Behring Breivik begins on Monday.

Breivik, a 33-year-old Norwegian, faces terrorism and premeditated murder charges for the bombing in Oslo's government district and the shooting spree at the governing Labor Party's annual youth camp on Utoya. Eight people died in Oslo and 69 were killed on the island, in a lake some 25 miles northwest of the Norwegian capital.

Breivik was found insane in one examination that recommended committing him to compulsory psychiatric care, while another assessment found him mentally competent to be sent to prison. It's up to the judges in Oslo's district court to decide which diagnosis they find most believable.

Brief by the Associated Press

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