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Local News

  • Prayer protection advances in Senate

    RICHMOND — A proposed state constitutional amendment that would guarantee the right to pray in public schools and government meetings cleared a Virginia Senate committee on Jan. 29, beginning a vigorous debate about the intent and reach of the legislation.
    The amendment resolution is co-sponsored by two senators representing part of the Twin Counties, Bill Carrico (R-Grayson County) and Bill Stanley (R-Franklin County.)

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  • Pros, cons of wind power debated

    HILLSVILLE — A wind energy workshop on Monday gave citizens an opportunity to vent about Carroll’s proposal to ban tall structures on ridge tops, a response by county officials to the possibility of a wind turbine farm being developed on Stoots Mountain.
    An idea by EDP Renewables to study a wind farm caused the neighbors and other citizens some concerns, which were shared at several meetings with the Carroll Board of Supervisors.
    The wind farm could have as many as 24 turbines that reach nearly 500 feet tall.

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  • Bill allowing home-schoolers to play public school sports clears subcommittee

    RICHMOND – Who should qualify to play school sports was at the center of several committee meetings last week in the Virginia General Assembly.
    Home-schooled students made their pitch for eligibility to play sports for their local schools, a request under consideration in both houses under so-called “Tim Tebow” legislation. The bills are nicknamed for the NFL quarterback who was allowed to participate in public school athletics as a Florida home schooler.

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  • Police investigate fire, death in Grayson

    UPDATE: The Grayson County Sheriff’s Department has confirmed that a man found burned at the scene of a fire last week died of a massive heart attack.
    Sheriff Richard Vaughan announced the results of the medical examiner’s office on Feb. 1.
    Ted Wright, 81, was burned by a grass fire at his home on Pine Mountain Road on Jan. 29. It appeared that he had been burning brush. Investigators were not sure if Wright died as the result of the fire or a medical condition.
    The body was sent for an autopsy at the state lab in Roanoke.

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  • Hillsville land use taxation can begin in 2014

    HILLSVILLE — Special use land assessments can apply to Hillsville properties in January 2014, after the town council held a public hearing and approved an ordinance earlier this month.
    The ordinance set out the requirements for the long-sought special assessments for land owners to match those offered in Carroll County.
    Localities in Virginia are allowed to assess real estate based on the “use value” instead of fair market value.

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  • Electoral bill appears headed to defeat

    RICHMOND — A bill that would allocate Virginia’s presidential electoral votes by congressional district rather than statewide popular vote appears headed towards a bipartisan rejection.
    Though it would have meant a GOP victory for Virginia in the past election, even a few Republicans seem hesitant to support the changes to the system of awarding the commonwealth’s Electoral College votes proposed by Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Grayson County).

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  • Virginia gun bills shot down

    RICHMOND — Last month’s mass shooting at a Newtown, Conn., elementary school has revived a national debate about firearms laws, but gun control legislation is meeting a familiar fate in Virginia’s General Assembly.
    Legislation aimed at closing Virginia’s so-called “gun show loophole” won’t advance this year, but members of a state Senate committee pledged last week to work toward a compromise that could expand the use of criminal background checks for firearms sales at events like the annual Labor Day gun show in Hillsville.

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  • Fuller Center house to hold dedication

     

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  • Carrico named to finance committee

    RICHMOND — The Virginia Senate has reshuffled its standing committees and the changes give Southwest Virginia, and specifically the Twin County region, representation on the budget-writing Senate Finance Committee.
    Republicans have working control of the evenly-divided chamber and they used that advantage last week to install first-term Sen. Bill Carrico (R-Grayson County) on the powerful Finance Committee.

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  • Board wants to go after delinquent taxes

    HILLSVILLE — Carroll supervisors indicate they would publish a list of delinquent taxpayers to encourage them to pay up — if they could only get that information from the county treasurer.
    Not for the first time, Supervisor Sam Dickson says he wants the county officials to get a complete list of delinquent taxes.
    At a board of supervisors’ meeting on Jan. 14, County Attorney Jim Cornwell answered that he’d been working on it and had received “some, but not all” of the list.

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The Galax Gazette is your source for local news, sports, events and information in Galax, Grayson, Carroll, and surrounding areas.