Bunch of interesting stuff

This article from the Charlottesville paper says: "The Supreme Court of Virginia has denied an appeal to a one-time political candidate who pressed his belief that a right to campaign should spare him from his trespassing arrest at an Albemarle County shopping center." Also on candidates, the Roanoke paper editorializes that the Commonwealth should make the price of running for office lower, so anyone could run for office.

In land use matters, the County Attorney in Christiansburg is advising against a county ordinance outlawing the proposed intermodal freight facility, which might be pretty good advice. Also, the Lynchburg paper reports here that the U.S. Department of Justice is no longer investigating whether a zoning fuss over the Cowboy Church in Bedford County implicates federal religious land use protections.

Also, speaking of church controversies, the Episcopal News Service reports here that the Episcopalians are still going to litigate over their property in Virginia. As for the old chapel in Williamsburg, the Wren Cross matter might cost the College $12 million, according to this report. Maybe they can make it up with money from Philip Morris - this post says U.Va. has just "announced its acceptance of a $25 million gift from cigarette maker Philip Morris, to support biomedical research and 'business leadership.'" Also, the lawyer for the ex-priest accused of being married and being an embezzler was not actually married, according to his lawyer, as reported here in the Richmond paper.

More lawyers are jumping on the gravy train in West Virginia, as it is now being reported: "Lawsuits similar to the case against Chesapeake Energy Corp. and NiSource Inc. that resulted in a $404.3 million jury verdict have been filed against two other big West Virginia natural gas producers." I thought the earlier case was mostly about whether some funky below-market financing deals could be considered in calculating the price on which royalties, but maybe they're not as funky as I thought. Speaking of gas, it says here that the cheapest gasoline in the U.S. is in Virginia.

From who knows where, this article describes a case where the defense lawyer "has called into question the judge, the police chief and now wants to subpoena a police dog as a exhibit in the case." Similarly, in Mississippi, State Farm may have some dog cases, and they are trying to boot the federal judge who has been dealing with their proposed settlement with Katrina victims, since he himself is a Katrina victim, according to this report.