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Local week in review

October 22, 2006 12:50 am

The man accused of murdering a King George County couple was denied bond last week.

Cleave Williams Jr., 29, was arrested Oct. 13 in Spotsylvania County and charged with the first-degree murders of Maggie Skinner, 63, and Phil Hamilton, 75.

Spotsylvania sheriff's deputies found the badly burned bodies of an adult male and female in a field off Tidewater Trail on Oct. 13. The bodies were presumed to be those of Skinner and Hamilton.

Officials believe Skinner and Hamilton were killed when they went to collect overdue rent and evict Williams from the house he rented from Skinner at 10612 Opal Lane off Tidewater Trail.

The pilot of a stunt plane that crashed during an air show at Culpeper Regional Airport on Oct. 14 died the following day, and a man piloting an experimental plane died Oct. 15.

Nancy Lynn, 50, of Annapolis, Md., was burned over much of her body after her plane crashed when it failed to complete a snap-roll maneuver at the Culpeper air show.

William Mitchell Strother III, 43, was alone in a single-seat plane when it crashed into a field on the southwest side of Spotsylvania County's Shannon Airport. He was killed on impact.

Last week, a legislative commission heard arguments over whether insurance companies should be forced to cover a particular radiation therapy for cancer patients, but won't make a recommendation until next month.

The therapy--known as intensity modulated radiation therapy--is offered at the Mid-Rivers Cancer Center in Montross, a clinic established by Dr. Christopher Walsh. IMRT delivers radiation to a tumor in a way that's more concentrated and affects less of the surrounding healthy tissue.

This past spring, health insurance companies--such as Anthem--stopped covering IMRT for breast and lung cancers, saying it wasn't proven to be more beneficial to patients than conventional radiation treatment for those cancers.

Students who kill others at school are often victims themselves--victims of bullying, some experts say.

That's why Stafford school officials need to proactively address the problem, a consultant told 27 county officials last week.

In the wake of several deadly school shootings, Stafford obtained a $226,000 federal grant to achieve such goals.

Computer Sciences Corp. of Alexandria began holding sessions with school officials on ways to combat violence Oct. 10 and will be finished Oct. 19. But the consultant will continue to work with the county through next December to "enhance" safety measures at Stafford's 29 schools.

Sexually oriented businesses that want to locate in Stafford will face screening by county gatekeepers if officials adopt a proposed ordinance.

Planning Commission members agreed last week to ask a committee to review the regulations, which limit where and how companies that sell adult content can operate. Any store, theater, model studio, motel, entertainment company or nightclub not appropriate for children would be impacted.

The ordinance requires such firms to get conditional-use and Sheriff's Office permits before opening in the county. It also restricts the businesses' street presence and proximity to residential areas.

Officials began work on the regulations earlier this year after a lingerie, gag gift and sex toy shop opened in Doc Stone Commons off Garrisonville Road. The store, called Pheromoans, riled North Stafford residents who said the business did not belong near Anne E. Moncure Elementary School.

It's too late to make that store comply with an adult-business ordinance. But owners there say they've already frosted their windows and pushed more graphic items to the back of the shop, so passers-by won't see what's inside.