Today's News

Staff Reports

ABINGDON – Federal agents and officers from local and state law enforcement were in the Twin Counties and the Mount Airy, N.C., area on Tuesday as part of Operation Rolling Thunder, a joint investigation that resulted in 24 individuals being charged with conspiring to distribute methamphetamine in Southwest Virginia and North Carolina.

Agents were seen throughout the area on Tuesday, traveling in unmarked vehicles and some wearing tactical gear.

More than 3,000 rape kits — some up to 25 years old — are finally being tested in Virginia in an effort to determine if any of the cases can be solved even at so late a date.

Attorney General Mark Herring announced earlier this month that a $2 million federal grant will pay for testing nearly 1,250 kits that were collected from 2014 to 2016, but were never sent to a lab for analysis.

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Land Transfers

These land transfers were recorded in January in the office of Susan M. Herrington, clerk of the Grayson County Circuit Court, Independence:

FRIES — The Town of Fries has approved a $1.4 million budget for fiscal year 2017-18.

The budget approved at the town council’s June meeting includes a 3-cent tax rate increase and other increases for water and sewer rates.

It is the first tax increase seen in the town in 13 years.

In previous budget meetings, council members explained that the tax increases were needed to help pay for future projects like upgrades to the town’s water plant.