Not kidding:
95 vehicles crash on foggy stretch of Va. highway
Other things I've seen in the Globe:
"Tea Party favorite tries to win in Virginia" by Bob Lewis and Charles Babington | Associated Press, March 28, 2013
RICHMOND — Despite its Southern conservative history, Virginia is not Kansas or Oklahoma. President Obama carried it twice after years of Republican dominance, and both US senators are Democrats. Democrats and Republicans have battled fiercely for control of the state Legislature and governorship for years, with Republicans holding the edge lately.
It’s hard to find a more 50-50 state where moderate and independent voters loom large in fall general elections.
Ken Cuccinelli, the fiery attorney general running for governor this year, is strikingly conservative....
His in-your-face conservatism contrasts with the more measured style of successful Republicans in other toss-up states, including Pat McCrory, North Carolina’s first Republican governor in 20 years.
Some Virginia Republicans had hoped to thwart Cuccinelli’s nomination, fearing he’s too extreme. But a conservative takeover of the state party last summer ensured it.
A more moderate Republican recently decided against an independent candidacy, and GOP officials are rallying around Cuccinelli in his Nov. 5 showdown with Terry McAuliffe. The former national Democratic Party chairman and New York native was a major fund-raiser for Bill and Hillary Clinton.
Some GOP strategists nervously point to states where Republicans lost winnable elections in 2010 and 2012 after Tea Party-backed candidates wrested the nominations from moderates.
Most of those races were for the Senate, however. It’s hard to know if similar dynamics will play out in a gubernatorial race in an off-year election, when no federal candidates are on the ballot.
For now, Democrats are optimistic.
‘‘They must be saying, ‘Once more the Republicans have given us a gift,’ ’’ said Steve Jarding, a veteran Virginia Democratic strategist now teaching at Harvard University.
He said Virginia Republicans should view the intraparty tension ‘‘sort of like a cancer. You’ve got to remove it early or you risk killing the party.’’
Cuccinelli used a high-profile setting this month to acknowledge the political center. Addressing the Conservative Political Action Conference near Washington, he went relatively easy on the red-meat lines that conservatives eat up and used phrases seldom heard at the often bombastic annual convention.
He called for greater support for the mentally ill and for felons who may have been wrongly convicted. Virginia must ‘‘protect our most vulnerable citizens,’’ he said, ‘‘at every stage of life.’’ That seemed an indirect reference to opposing abortion, something he usually hits head-on.
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"Bus driver to serve 6 years for deadly Va. Crash" AP, January 24, 2013
BOWLING GREEN, Va. — The crash cast national attention on a growing industry of buses that travel the East Coast offering cheap fares.
Survivors at trial spoke of a harrowing early-morning ride, testifying that the low-fare Sky Express bus swerved from side to side and changed speeds erratically before careening off the interstate. The witnesses said the erratic driving lasted up to an hour as Kin Yiu Cheung drank coffee and energy drinks before nodding off.
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Related: Don't Get on the Bus
And stay off the booze:
"Former UVA athlete gets 23 years for slaying ex-girlfriend" by Steve Szkotak | Associated Press, August 31, 2012
CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A former University of Virginia lacrosse player who killed his former girlfriend in a drunken rage was sentenced Thursday to 23 years in prison after the defendant tearfully apologized to his victim’s family.
George W. Huguely V had three years trimmed from a jury’s recommended sentence of 26 years for the May 2010 slaying of Yeardley Love. Huguely, who is 24, could be released in less than 20 years.
‘‘Unlike Ms. Love, Mr. Huguely still has the majority of his life ahead of him,’’ Charlottesville Circuit Judge Edward Hogshire told the court.
Asked by Hogshire if he wanted to address the court before sentencing, a shackled and tearful Huguely turned to Love’s mother, Sharon Love, and sister Lexie and said, ‘‘I’m so sorry for your loss and I hope you find peace.’’
Huguely, of Chevy Chase, Md., was convicted in February of second-degree murder of Love, 22, of Cockeysville, Md., a Baltimore suburb. Jurors also found Huguely guilty of grand larceny.
Huguely and Love, both seniors and varsity lacrosse players at the university, had a volatile relationship that spiraled into Huguely’s deadly confrontation with Love on the night of May 2, 2010, after a day of heavy drinking and golfing by Huguely. Love was found the next morning, her battered face in a blood-soaked pillow.
I didn't need to see that.
Huguely’s attorneys acknowledged that he drank too much, but Chapman disagreed that that was the problem....
No excuse.
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