Briefs

Local and VCU

Carytown place gets closer to becoming reality

Richmond City Council committee voted Tuesday to support plans for the proposed Carytown Place development, paving the way for the full City Council to vote on the matter at its meeting Monday.

The City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation committee voted 2-1 to approve a change to the city’s master plan that would allow retail on the entire property. A second vote on a special-use permit for the controversial development got two votes, with one abstention.

City Councilman Charles R. Samuels voted against the change to the master plan and abstained on the vote for the special-use permit.

Baltimore-based developer Maryland Financial Realty Inc. is looking to convert the former Verizon building at 10 N. Nansemond near Carytown into a 42,000-square-foot retail center that will include underground parking and eventually a second 5,400-square-foot building on the site.

North Carolina-based grocer The Fresh Market has signed a letter of intent to move into about 25,000 square feet at the center.

Tuesday’s vote does not mean the plan will win final City Council approval, but it is an influential recommendation that creates momentum.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

VCU police identify suspect in theft

Virginia Commonwealth University police are looking for a Richmond man who is accused of trying to steal audio-visual equipment last weekend from the university’s Temple Building.

VCU police have obtained warrants charging Teriel E. Seymore, 26, of the 1600 block of Hickory Street, with burglary, attempted grand larceny, damage to state property and resisting arrest.

Sgt. Nicole Dailey said Seymore was identified as a suspect after police were alerted that someone tripped an alarm about 3 p.m. Saturday while trying to remove projection-type equipment from the ceiling of an auditorium-style classroom in the Temple Building.

When an officer responded and spotted the intruder, the man jumped down and fled. Evidence left at the scene helped police identify Seymore as a suspect, Dailey said.

Anyone with information about Seymore’s whereabouts can call VCU police at (804) 828-1196 or Metro Richmond Crime Stoppers at 780-1000.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Va. can now perform familial DNA searches

The Virginia Department of Forensic Science can now perform familial DNA searching, a technique that prosecutors and victim family members have sought to help solve some of the state’s most difficult cases.

The capability will allow searches of the DNA database for a person who may be closely related to a suspect who is not in the database but whose DNA has been identified on crime scene evidence.

It’s a technique that has been sought in high-profile cases, including the search for the killer of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington.

State law requires that people convicted of or arrested in certain crimes provide a sample of their DNA for inclusion in the state databank of DNA profiles.

Familial searching is barred in Maryland and the District of Columbia because of privacy and other concerns.

The Harringtons have requested that a familial DNA search be conducted in their daughter’s case.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

National and International

WTC steel to honor Ariz. shooting victim born 9/11

A piece of World Trade Center steel is being molded into an angel in the memory of a girl who was born on Sept. 11, 2001, and died in a barrage of gunfire in the Tucson, Ariz., shooting rampage that injured Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

The 5 1/2-foot-long fragment of an I-beam was to be picked up from a hangar at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Wednesday before being trucked to Arizona in time for an April 1 dedication ceremony. The Freedom’s Steadfast Angel of Love statue will incorporate artifacts from the Sept. 11 attack on the Pentagon and the crash of United Airlines Flight 93 in Shanksville, Pa., sculptor Lei Hennessy-Owen said.

The angel honoring Christina-Taylor Green will stand 9 feet, 11 inches tall.

“We just wanted to do something to kind of help them heal, let them know that we’re going to try to support them through their grief,” said Hennessey-Owen said, who has created angel sculptures at the three 9/11 crash sites and other locations across the country.

She said some family members of Sept. 11 victims plan to attend the dedication.

Brief by The Associated Press

Japan’s police say disaster death toll nears 9,500

Japan’s police agency says nearly 9,500 people are dead after an earthquake and tsunami. More than 15,600 are missing.

Those tallies are likely to overlap, but police officials estimate that the final figure will likely exceed 18,000 deaths.

A police spokesman from one of the of the hardest-hit prefectures, Miyagi, estimates that the deaths will top 15,000 in that region alone. Police in other devastated areas declined to estimate eventual tolls, but said the confirmed deaths in their areas already number nearly 3,700.

The National Police Agency said the overall number of bodies collected so far stood at 9,487, while 15,617 have been listed as missing.

Brief by The Associated Press

Airstrikes force Gadhafi retreat from key city

International airstrikes forced Moammar Gadhafi’s tanks to roll back from the western city of Misrata on Wednesday, a local doctor said, giving respite to civilians who have endured more than a week of attacks and a punishing blockade. In the east, civilians fleeing another strategic city described relentless shelling and dire conditions.

Western diplomats neared an agreement to let NATO assume responsibility for the no-fly zone and its warships began patrolling off Libya’s Mediterranean coast.

The international coalition continued airstrikes and patrols early Wednesday, but the report that Misrata was targeted could not immediately be confirmed. U.S. Navy Adm. Samuel J. Locklear, the on-scene commander, said Tuesday the coalition was “considering all options” in response to intelligence showing troops were targeting civilians in the city, 125 miles (200 kilometers) southeast of Tripoli.

Gadhafi made his first public appearance in a week late Tuesday, hours after explosions sounded in Tripoli. State TV said he spoke from his Bab Al-Aziziya residential compound.

Brief by The Associated Press

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