Sunday liquor sales bill passes in Virginia House
By this time next year, last-minute liquor purchases for Super Bowl parties could be possible in Virginia.
The House of Delegates passed a bill Jan. 27 to open Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control stores after 1 p.m. on Sundays. More than 130 stores in the state are already open that day.
The vote on House Bill 896 was 69 to 29. Central Valley Dels. Tony Wilt, Todd Gilbert and Rob Bell, all Republicans, voted in favor of the bill, while Del. Steve Landes, R-Weyers Cave, was against it.
“I feel like six days a week for access to distilled spirits is enough,” Landes said.
The proposal, which is estimated to add millions to an ever-growing state moneymaker, now moves to the Senate.
The bill runs counter to a multiyear effort by Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Harrisonburg, to get the state out of the alcohol business and privatize Virginia’s 335 liquor stores. In the past, his bills have failed largely because Democrats, who controlled the Senate, were opposed to the idea.
Leading into the General Assembly session, Obenshain sounded resigned to the fact that alcohol privatization may never pass, admitting that it seems Virginia makes too much money off alcohol sales.
According to the ABC, fiscal 2011 marked the 13th consecutive record-breaking year for liquor sales. Retail sales for the year topped $692 million, up $17 million from fiscal 2010. The department returned more than $339 million to the commonwealth.
Shoplifting case against police officers postponed
The case against one of two former Shenandoah Valley police officers accused of swiping hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from a grocery store was postponed Jan. 27 in Rockingham County General District Court.
Robert Morris Greer Jr., 44, of Elkton, is charged with felony conspiracy to commit grand larceny and misdemeanor shoplifting.
During the hearing, substitute Judge Kent Bowers postponed Greer’s preliminary hearing until Feb. 27.
Greer has worked for several law enforcement agencies, including the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Dayton and Elkton police departments. He is now a self-employed security consultant.
Monte Oubry Dean, 53, of Elkton, also is charged in the case. He faces conspiracy to commit grand larceny and felony grand larceny charges.
Dean, now retired, spent most of his law enforcement career with the sheriff’s office. Both men were arrested last month.
According to court documents, the two men stole more than $200 worth of merchandise from the Food Lion in Elkton, which the documents say was captured on video surveillance.
Dean is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 22. Both men were booked into Rockingham County Jail and released on a $5,000 secured bond.
New JMU president preparing for job
James Madison University’s president-elect is looking to continue a tradition he says would make the school’s namesake proud.
“We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens,” the school’s mission statement reads.
Jonathan R. Alger, 47, said that advancing the university’s goal to create well-rounded students, “who lead proactive and meaningful lives,” will be his No. 1 priority when he takes the reins of the 19,500-student institution on July 1. He will become the university’s sixth president.
Encouraging community service and study abroad opportunities will “complement what [students] are doing in the classroom as they prepare to compete in a global economy,” Alger, who now serves as Rutgers University’s senior vice president and general counsel, said in an interview.
Alger will make $420,000 per year, plus $40,000 in deferred compensation, when he takes over for retiring university President Linwood Rose this summer. He will be in charge of JMU’s $428.5 million budget.
Since being named president in November by the JMU Board of Visitors, Alger has said he has plans to build on what he said the university already does so well: combining the best of a strong liberal arts education with a determined focus on research.
Alger hopes to expand the study-abroad program and to diversify the faculty, staff and student body.
“Diversity in all of its forms and all of its facets is another central focus that I think JMU has been looking at,” he said.
Minority students make up 13.1 percent of JMU’s student body. About 1.4 percent of those students are identified as “international.”
Leave Comment