Weather: High 70, Low 48 Thursday, March 17, 2016 http://rockbridgereport.academic.wlu.edu/

NYC St. Patrick’s Day Parade

Bill to require photo ID for food stamp recipients dies in General Assembly The proposed legislation could have presented problems for low-income families.

By Jordan Cohen

A bill introduced in this session of the General Assembly would have prevented fraudulent use of Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) cards, according to its sponsor, Del. Robert Marshall, a Republi-can from northern Virginia. But the General Assembly ad-journed March 12 without taking action on the bill, which would have required recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assis-tance Program (SNAP) to show

photo identification to obtain gro-ceries. Opponents to the bill, who be-lieve t would have posed problems for low-income Virginians, are relieved. “My view on it is that this is just another way of using poli-tics to construct and reinforce a stereotype of the poor in people’s imaginations, and that stereotype portrays them as conniving, lying, lazy, sub-humans who need to be monitored by us upstanding, virtuous, hardworking, non-poor people,” said Kelly Brotzman, a visiting assistant professor for Washington and Lee’s Shepherd Program. “We need less and not more of this type of stereotype-construc-tion. It’s disgusting.”

In December 2015, 202 house-holds in Lexington and 1,140 in Rockbridge County relied on SNAP to pay for groceries. In lieu of paper food stamps, recipients now use EBT cards, which look similar to credit or debit cards. According to the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture, instances of EBT fraud have decreased since 1993 from three cents on the dol-lar to about one cent in 2008. Shellee Moore, a benefit pro-grams specialist for Rockbridge County social services, says that although she has heard of instanc-es of recipients selling their EBT cards, she was not aware of any cases referred to their fraud inves-tigator. Although there is no law current-ly in place that requires a photo ID

to use one’s EBT card, the Depart-ment of Social Services does re-quire some form of identification in order to receive the card. “You would have to show that you are who you say you are be-fore you would be issued your card. That is one of the verification requirements as far as being eligi-ble for the SNAP program,” Moore said. “Photo ID is preferred, but we can not require a specific form of identification.” Among accepted forms of iden-tification, Moore said Social Secu-rity cards, birth certificates, voter registration cards, and prisoner release forms have all been accept-ed for those applying for SNAP benefits. Moore said that requiring a pho-

See Cohen, A6

Brewbaker Field

Young athletes to practice on new, spacious fields Plans to build new practice fields are in the works with support from several sources, including the City of Lexington and Washington and Lee University.

By Henry Luzzatto

The Virginia General Assembly appointed a new presiding judge for the Rockbridge County Cir-cuit Court last week. Judge Anita Filson, presiding judge of the Lexington/Rockbridge Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court, will take over as presid-

ing judge of the Circuit Court starting July 1. “I’m a little overwhelmed…sur-prised but grateful,” Filson said. “The good thing is I have some time.” Filson was the first female judge appointed to the district, where she’s served for 15 years in the Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court. Now she is the first wom-an to be appointed as presiding judge in this Circuit Court. “It’s an honor” she said. The local bar is thrilled with the

See Luzzatto, A2

Rockbridge Circuit Court gets new judge Judge Anita Fulson will bring consistency back to the courthouse after months of substitute judges ruling on cases. Former presiding judge Michael Irvine retired in January.

By Caroline Boras

See Boras, A2

appointment. “Members of the bar association felt that the appointment of a local candidate was crucial to the efficient administration of justice in Rockbridge County as well as the cities of Lexington and Buena Vista, and we are pleased that the General Assembly agreed,” Bar Association President Kent Gibson said in an email. “Judge Filson has shown great concern for our community and individual litigants during her time on the bench…we look

forward to her investiture and the continuation of her thought-ful consideration of the matters brought before her,” he said.In Virginia, the General Assem-bly appoints judges. Legislators interviewed three candidates -- Filson, Botetourt County Commonwealth’s Attorney Joel Branscom; and Lexington Gen-eral District Court Judge Gordon Saunders -- before appointing Filson last Wednesday. The General Assembly appoint-ed Corry Smith, the assistant commonwealth’s attorney for Amherst County, to fill the gap left by Filson in the Juvenile and Domestic Court. The presiding judge position opened in January, when Michael Irvine retired. This led to months of scheduling substitute judges to hear cases in the Rockbridge Circuit Court. Clerk of the Circuit Court Bruce Patterson said the courthouse had retired judges from Roanoke, Virginia Beach, Rocky Mount, Winchester and Norfolk preside over cases while waiting for the appointment. The court didn’t know when an appointment would happen, only that they were guaranteed one by the time the General Assembly adjourned March 12.

Rockbridge County Courthouse

National | D1

The youth baseball season is in full swing in Rockbridge Coun-ty starting this week. However, because of the high number of young athletes, teams are strug-gling to find practice places. The Rockbridge Area Recre-ation Organization (RARO) of-fers youth sports all year long, and serves hundreds of children throughout Rockbridge County. Last year, Buena Vista became part of the organization, which has caused participation to swell . With such a large group, RARO needs to expand its practice fields to make room for all of its ath-letes, RARO leaders say. Starting this spring, RARO will renovate the Brewbaker Field Annex to create new practice fields for baseball, soccer and lacrosse. John Trudgeon, executive direc-tor of RARO, said that the organi-zation has had a shortage of space available for teams to practice, causing scheduling problems for local teams. Kristen Bailey, who has two chil-dren who play baseball through RARO, agrees that space has been a problem. “We had to practice out at the Natural Bridge Elementary field,” Bailey said. “It takes about 40 minutes to get there. We had to go out there because there isn’t enough space in Lexington.”

The planned renovations to the Brewbaker Field Annex would turn the two-acre complex into a baseball diamond and a field that could be used for either soccer or lacrosse. The renovations will cost nearly $180,000 to construct the base-ball diamond, plant grass on the field, and build a chain link fence around the perimeter. Trudgeon said funding for the project will come from sever-al sources, including the city of Lexington, Rockbridge County, Washington and Lee University and the Virginia Military Insti-tute. “We’re about 60 percent to our goal from financial support from the city, the county, universities and clubs,” Trudgeon said. Lexington and Rockbridge County each allotted $25,000 to the project in their capital im-provement plans. Trudgeon also said that a pub-lic fundraising event is being planned. An online crowdfunding platform is also being established to continue raising money. An influx of new athletes from Buena Vista, as well as increased enrollment throughout the coun-ty, means demands on the fields are high. “With the addition of Buena Vis-ta teams, we’ve got more sports,” Trudgeon said. “It won’t totally solve field issues, but [the new practice fields] will help.” Bailey said that the lack of space has been exacerbated by the con-struction at Harrington Waddell Elementary School.

Garland to make Senate visits WASHINGTON (AP)--Presi-dent Barack Obama’s choice for the Supreme Court commenced courtesy calls with senators Thursday as Democrats began the next phase of their drive to put unbearable election-year pressure on Republicans refusing to con-sider any Obama pick. Under the glare of television lights, Merrick Garland met with Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the top Democrat on the Judicia-ry Committee, a day after Obama finally gave a name, face and judi-cial record to his effort to fill the vacancy left by last month’s death of Justice Antonin Scalia.

“The court would be a lot better off,” with Garland as a justice, Leahy told reporters. A meeting with the Senate’s top Democrat, Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, was scheduled for later in the day. But even before Garland — a 63-year-old moderate, a top appel-late court judge and former prose-cutor — could hold his first session, the Senate’s Republican leader indi-cated he would not budge from his party’s refusal to consider a replace-ment for Scalia until the next presi-dent takes office in January. Stating what he called “an obvi-ous point,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the

two parties disagree over filling the vacancy and it is time for law-makers to turn to other issues. “Republicans think the people deserve a voice in this critical de-cision. The president does not,” he

said. With the issue coloring this fall’s contests for control of the White House and Senate, Dem-ocrats have spent weeks trying to link Senate GOP resistance to a

Federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland shakes hands with President Barack Obama as he is introduced as Obama’s nominee for the Supreme Court during an announcement in the Rose Garden of the White House

The National Park Service (NPS) is now forecasting that March 23-24 will be the start of the peak bloom period for the

cherry blossoms in Washington.

Spring is in the air

March Madnessheats upSports | E1

Weather: High: 70 °, Low: 48 ° Thursday, March 17, 2016 http://rockbridgereport.academic.wlu.edu/

STATE & LOCAL B

By Carolyn HoltzmanSomething about Buena Vis-

ta and downtown Lexington is different this week. Bicycles, re-decorated by local school art de-partments, are on display in store-fronts and restaurants.

The 31 salvaged bikes aim to bring attention to “Wheels for Meals,” the first annual fundrais-ing event benefitting the Maury River Senior Center and its “Meals on Wheels” program.

Laurie Macrae, director of se-nior services of Valley Program for Aging Services for the Rock-bridge area, is in charge of the fundraiser.

“Out of the Senior Center, we have a home-delivered meal pro-gram called ‘Meals on Wheels America,’” Macrae said. “We de-liver about 70 hot meals a day, five days a week to folks in Buena Vis-ta and the Glasgow area through our volunteers.”

The Maury River Senior Cen-ter provides a number of other services to local residents over the age of 60, including a van trans-portation service, guest speakers, and a monthly concert performed by members of the center.

Nationally, 10,000 baby boom-ers a day become older adults, Macrae said.

“That’s a ton of baby boom-ers. The changing demographics mean that different services are needed to support this influx.”

The Maury River Senior Cen-ter is one of eight senior centers under the Valley Program for Aging Services, Inc., or VPAS. VPAS is a nonprofit organization that provides meal, transporta-tion, health and wellness services to seniors across the Shenandoah Valley.

Maury River Senior Center hosts first fundraiser

One of the repurposed bikes for the first annual “Wheels for Meals” fundraiser sits outside a storefront in Lexing-ton, Va. (Photo by Carolyn Holtzman)

VPAS was established in 1974 in response to the 1965 Older Americans Act passed by Presi-dent Lyndon B. Johnson. The act, aimed to help people 60 and old-er, requires each state to establish agencies on aging.

Aging agencies in Virgin-ia correspond to the 25 state planning districts. VPAS covers the second largest planning dis-trict geographically, and serves Harr isonburg-Rockingham, Staunton-Waynesboro-Augusta, Buena Vista-Lexington-Rock-bridge, and Bath-Highland.

“We deliver about 70 hot meals a day, five days a week to

folks in Buena Vista and the Glasgow area through our

volunteers.”said Laurie Macrae

“We get a little more than half of our funding through the fed government, and most through Older Americans Act,” VPAS Ex-ecutive Director Jeri Schaff said.

According to its Form 990, VPAS took in just over $3.2 mil-lion in revenue in 2015. About a quarter of that funding comes from the state, with another 12 percent coming from the local governments.

“The rest, about 12 to 13 per-cent, is a combination of private grants from United Way founda-tions, support from the Washing-ton and Lee Community Fund, and from individual donations and group gifts,” Schaff said.

Fundraising makes up a mi-nuscule part of VPAS revenue. Macrae’s event will be the first major fundraising event for any VPAS Senior Center.

The “Wheels for Meals” fund-raiser will be a ride and dine event, in which participants may ride their bicycles on three differ-ent trails and enjoy a dinner ca-tered by Southern Inn restaurant.

FUNDRAISER, page B6

Bright idea: Lylburn Downing hires solar firm to save

energy costs and educate students

Subway safety shutdown makes for a very long day in capital

Federal funds to aid layoff-hit Appalachian coal communities

By Peter RathmellWhile students look to the sun

for warm weather, Lylburn Down-ing Middle School is looking to the sun for electricity – and to teach its students how that works.

In June, the Lexington City School Division contracted a Staunton-based solar energy com-pany, Secure Futures LLC, to in-stall a solar panel array on the roof of Lylburn Downing. The school division hopes to save money on cheap and clean electricity while educating students about solar power.

“Even a small school system our size, we

can do something,”

said Jeffries

The school is participating in Secure Futures’ Solar Schools Ini-tiative. The initiative leases roofs of school buildings and puts solar panels on them at no cost to the school.

The panels are still owned by Secure Futures, but the electricity generated by the array is sold to the school at a reduced rate. The system is expected to save the Lex-ington school division between $3,000 and $5,000 annually, ac-cording to Matt Ruscio, program and policy advisor at Secure Fu-tures.

The solar array will include about 295 panels, said Ruscio. It is projected to generate 110,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity each year, which supplies roughly a quarter of the school’s needs.

“If they [the schools] want-ed solar energy and they wanted to directly purchase the system, they’d be expending $250,000 up front and that is something that a K-12 school… [doesn’t] have,” Ruscio said.

The Solar Schools Initiative be-gan in June with six public schools in Albemarle County. Lexington City Schools is the second divi-sion to jump aboard.

The motivation comes from increasing awareness about the need to protect the environment, said Lexington City Schools Su-perintendent Scott Jeffries.

“Even a small school system our size, we can do something,” he said.

Beyond just saving the division operating costs, the project will also minimize Llyburn Downing’s carbon footprint. The solar energy will offset about 80 tons of CO2 annually, Ruscio said, about the same amount generated by the coal needed to power 10 homes.

The education part of the proj-ect features a “Solar Spotlight”: a 20-foot tall structure holding six solar panels with USB ports for students to charge their electronic devices and LCD screens to show students the benefits of solar en-ergy. The structure also provides a seating area and shade for stu-dents.

Jeffries hopes that the school will be able to use the spotlight for

various science experiments and educational opportunities, such as measuring how long it takes to charge different devices and how much energy cell phones and computers use.

“We plan on having a screen that shows the work that is being produced from our solar panels, how much we’re saving, the out-put; kind of a transparent, edu-cational component as well,” said Jeffries.

The solar array will create min-imal aesthetic disturbances to the school and will not require mas-sive renovations, said Ruscio.

“They [the panels] will just simply rest on top of the roof. They will be weighted down, so that obviously the wind doesn’t blow them off, but there are no roof penetrations so they are just kind of sitting on top of the roof,” said Ruscio.

The school division original-ly considered installing the solar array on Waddell Elementary School, which is still under con-struction, but the school board ultimately decided that Lylburn Downing ’s location and its height make it a better fit, Jeffries said.

The solar panel array has an expected service life of about 35 years, but Lexington City School’s contract with Secure Futures ex-pires in just 20 years. After that, the division can decide whether to buy the array, renew the contract or have the array removed.

Installation of the solar array is set to begin in May and be com-pleted by August.

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Appalachian coal communi-ties hit hard by layoffs will get $45 million in federal funding to help them diversify their economies, create new jobs and retrain work-ers.

The Appalachian Regional Commission, the White House and the U.S. Department of Com-merce announced Thursday that it’s part of a $65.8 million grant package through the Obama ad-ministration’s Partnership for Opportunity and Workforce and Economic Revitalization initia-tive, or POWER.

While grants will support eco-nomic development efforts among regional partnerships in coal com-munities nationwide, the Appala-chian Regional Commission will receive $45 million to distribute for such projects.

“This program is really an in-vestment in the leadership of the next generation of Appalachians,” said ARC federal co-chair Earl Gohl.

The partnerships must develop projects to diversify economies, create jobs, attract new job-creat-ing investment and provide work-force services and skills training.

The announcement comes amid the Environmental Protec-tion Agency’s plan to reduce the nation’s carbon-dioxide emis-sions 32 percent by 2030, viewed as a possible knockout blow to a staggering coal industry that has seen thousands of layoffs in recent years.

Those regulations, a compo-nent of President Obama’s plan to fight climate change, focus on cutting pollution from coal-fired power plants. Last month the U.S. Supreme Court voted to freeze the plan while legal challenges against the regulations are pending.

Within the last year, coal com-panies Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal and Patriot Coal have all filed for bankruptcy protec-tion. Peabody Energy announced this week it may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

White House senior policy adviser Jason Walsh said, “The people and the communities most affected by these changes in the industry are less interested in the data and less interested in the debate and more interested in solutions and how they can better build a life for themselves, their communities and their kids.”

One such community effort is Reconnecting McDowell, a large partnership to revitalize West Virginia’s McDowell County, where U.S. Steel sold the last of its mining operations.

Peabody Energy, hurt by weak demand for coal, says it didn’t have the cash to pay a debt payment due Tuesday, March 15, and warned that it may have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Morning traffic builds on Massachusetts Avenue, in Wash-ington, Wednesday, March 16. The Metro subway system serving the nation’s capital and its Virginia and Maryland suburbs shut down for an emergency safety inspection of its power cables. Making for unusual commute. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

WASHINGTON (AP) — An unprecedented 29-hour safe-ty shutdown of subways in the nation’s capital inconvenienced hundreds of thousands of people on Wednesday, but despite pre-dictions of “Metromageddon” or “Metropocalypse,” it was hardly the end of the world.

Many riders shrugged it off, saying it’s what they’ve come to expect from the aging, troubled Metro system.

One popular Twitter user who treets about the system, @un-suckdcmetro, was running a poll on whether the shutdown would solve “Metro’s flaming cables problem.” Thousands voted, with more than three quarters saying no.

“Metro sucks,” said Bob Jones, 26, of Arlington, Virginia as he waited for a bus. The subways are “always slow, always crowded,” he complained.

The nation’s second-busiest rail system stopped its trains at mid-night Tuesday for a system-wide inspection of its third-rail power cables after an electrical fire on Monday.

With inspections nearly com-plete as of 5 p.m. Wednesday, Met-ro’s general manager, Paul Wie-defeld, said at a news conference that the system would reopen as planned on Thursday at 5 a.m. Inspections of 600 cables found 26 areas of concern requiring re-placement or repair, Wiedefeld said, including three he called “show-stoppers.”

A news release late Wednes-day said most of the repairs had been completed, but three lines might see slight service changes if repairs can’t be completed by re-opening time.

The next step, Wiedefeld ac-knowledged, was to understand why the problems had occurred.

Riders take more than 700,000 trips on Metro trains every day because it’s still a quick way to get downtown from Maryland, Vir-ginia and the city’s outer neigh-borhoods. But the system has become less reliable and ridership has suffered.

Wiedefeld, who took over in November after running the Bal-timore-Washington airport, ac-knowledged in a public letter this month that the agency must “im-prove safety and security, deliver more reliable service, and con-tinue reforms to get our financial house in order.”

The system has closed for days for weather, but this was believed to be the first shutdown for me-chanical reasons.

Wiedefeld said in closing the system that “while the risk to the public is very low, I cannot rule out a potential life and safety issue here.” On Wednesday evening, he

said he recognized the hardship that the shutdown meant for the region but reiterated that it was necessary.

Delayed trains, closed escala-tors and other annoyances have become frequent, but the Metro has had deadly accidents as well, including a 2009 collision between two trains that killed nine people. Another passenger died last year, when malfunctioning electri-cal equipment filled a train with smoke. An electrical fire Monday was blamed on “disturbingly simi-lar conditions,” Wiedefeld said.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told a Senate Com-mittee on Wednesday that he has directed the Federal Transit Ad-ministration to identify any feder-al grants to the Washington metro with unspent money and redirect that money to improve safety on the Metro system and in Washing-ton as a whole.

Weather: High 70 °, Low 48 ° Thursday, March 17, 2016 http://rockbridgereport.academic.wlu.edu/

BUSINESSC

By Jenna Faude

The Rockbridge Area YMCA fulfills many needs for older Lexington residents as well as school-aged children throughout the county. However, like many other nonprofit organiza-tions, their limited resources can be discour-aging.

Leaders at the Rockbridge Area YMCA are hoping that will change in July 2016, as they recently announced the local center will merge with the Roanoke Valley branch to become part of a larger YMCA association.

The Executive Director and CEO of the Rockbridge Area YMCA, Alysan Raymond, has held her current position since November 2010 and is very excited for this new change, which will take place immediately follow-ing her planned retirement in June. She has worked with YMCA for a total of 16 years.

Raymond said the merger will offer the Rockbridge Area YMCA more room to grow, by allowing the branch to offer its members what it previously could not. As a part of a big-ger association, it can share all of the human resources, marketing, IT, grant writing, legal and development expertise among different staff members.

“There is only one person here now to wear all those hats, and it’s me,” said Raymond, who often receives many of the odd jobs within the organization. Although the local YMCA em-ploys around 45 paid staff members, most of them work part time.

Raymond said having access to more re-sources is a huge benefit to being part of a YMCA association, rather than trying to run an independent YMCA. In 2014, the Rock-bridge Area YMCA brought in $721,448 in revenue while the YMCA of Roanoke Valley brought in $6,835,369.

After many exploratory conversations with the resource director for the Virginia YMCA, both the Roanoke and Rockbridge YMCA boards voted to blend the two organizations.

The local Board of Directors is comprised of 12 volunteers from Rockbridge County, who ideally can offer a diversity of profession-al expertise the staff might be lacking. Poten-tial board members are nominated and vetted before the existing board votes to elect new members. The YMCA of Roanoke Valley has 27 volunteers on its board.

Although Raymond is excited about all of the new opportunities, she is most excited about the chance to expand the branch’s mar-keting efforts. YMCA launched its first nation-al campaign this year, which aims at expanding a sometimes one-dimensional view of what the organization has to offer communities.

“We have equipment in here but we are not a gym. We are all about health and wellness,” said Raymond. “We are a nonprofit organiza-tion. We try to address needs in the communi-ty that are not otherwise being met.”

Marketing and fundraising efforts, like the local branch’s Annual Campaign, allow the or-ganization to articulate the YMCA’s mission and educate the public on what it is doing for the community. The Annual Campaign also pays for 7 percent of the programming expens-es each year, which funds part of the financial assistance program. Raymond said she hopes through these campaigns, the public will rec-

ognize and understand the way that the YMCA can serve Lexington.

Raymond is very passionate about the need for these services, specifically targeting older adults who may be experiencing loneliness, declining physical health, chronic illness or nutritional insecurities. Many of these adults also have financial needs and could not pay for these services without help.

“I don't think there is any other community organization in Lexington where older adults can go and hang out,” she said, speaking about the socialization opportunities the YMCA offers through lifestyle classes. “They have some very specific [physical needs]: flexibility, agility, balance to to help them prevent falls in their older years. There's a right way and a wrong way of getting into a car or organizing your kitchen cupboards so you're not reaching for things that are above your reach, stairs, all kinds of things. A lot of our classes address these issues.”

She also praised the educational services the organization provides for elementary stu-dents in the Lexington community through after school care and a 10-week summer camp. The curriculum is focused on literacy and homework success.

YMCA, C2

The Rockbridge Area YMCA is a smaller venue that has previously run as an independent branch.

YMCAs merge Rockbridge Area YMCA hopes to gain resources by combining with

the YMCA of Roanoke Valley

US cancels oil and gas lease on Montana land sacred to Blackfoot tribe

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Obama administration on Thurs-day canceled a disputed oil and gas lease just outside Glacier Na-tional Park that is on land consid-ered sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S. and Canada.

The move came after U.S. District Judge Richard Leon crit-icized the government over its decades-long delay in resolving the matter. He accused the gov-ernment of trying to "run out the clock" on a lawsuit from Solenex LLC, a Louisiana company that wants to drill for oil and gas on the 6,200-acre site.

Left unresolved is the fate of 17 remaining leases in northwest Montana's Badger-Two Medicine area, site of the Blackfoot cre-ation story. Blackfoot leaders say the leases were illegally issued in 1982.

Government attorneys said the Solenex lease was improperly sold, in part because an environ-mental study on drilling did not consider its effect on the tribes.

"Today's action honors Bad-ger-Two-Medicine's rich cultural and natural resources and recog-nizes the irreparable impacts that oil and gas development would have on them," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said.

"I can't even imagine how many thousands of man-hours went into all these studies, and now the government is saying every one of these people was wrong," said William Perry Pend-ley with the Mountain States Le-gal Foundation, the law firm for Solenex. "It doesn't even pass the red-face test. It's ridiculous."

Dozens more oil and gas leas-es were originally sold in the area. Over the years, most were retired or surrendered by their owners.

Most of the 17 remaining leas-es in the area are held by Devon Energy of Oklahoma, federal offi-cials said. U.S. Agriculture Secre-tary Tom Vilsack recommended canceling all the leases in an Oc-tober letter to Jewell.

"We're pushing to have all the leases terminated," Blackfeet Trib-al Chairman Harry Barnes said. "It's considered a very spiritual place, a base for spirituality from whence a lot of power comes for the Blackfeet people."

The Badger-Two Medicine area is part of the Lewis and Clark National Forest, but it is not on Montana's Blackfeet Reservation.

The judge threatened to move forward on his own if the govern-ment did not act by Thursday.

“We are all about health and wellness... We try to address needs

in the community that are not otherwise being met.”

SeaWorld to stop breeding orcas

ORLANDO, Fla.( AP) — Finally bowing to years of pub-

lic pressure, SeaWorld announced Thursday that it will immediately stop breeding killer whales, and soon stop making them perform theatrical tricks.

SeaWorld's 29 orcas will re-main on display at the company's theme parks, but in "new, inspir-ing natural orca encounters," the company said.

Attendance at SeaWorld's parks dropped after the 2013 re-lease of "Blackfish," a highly crit-ical documentary. SeaWorld re-ported a fourth-quarter loss of $11 million in February.

SeaWorld CEO Joel Manby said he approached the compa-ny's killer whale quandary with a "fresh perspective" since taking the helm less than a year ago, and he realized, "society is shifting here."

"Society's attitude toward these very, very large, majestic animals under human care has shifted for a variety of reasons, whether it's a film, legislation, people's com-ments on the Internet," said Man-by.

"I really think the orca over-hang and the questions about it — whether people are right or wrong about it — it wasn't worth fighting that. We needed to move where society was moving."

The new shows will begin next year at the SeaWorld Entertain-ment Inc.'s San Diego park, before expanding to its San Antonio park and then to the Orlando, Florida, park in 2019.

Orcas have been a centerpiece of the SeaWorld parks since shows at the Shamu stadium in San Di-ego became the main draw in the 1970s, helping to make SeaWorld a top tourist attraction. The San

Diego show was the original home of Shamu, SeaWorld's first orca.

But criticism over keeping them captive grew after an orca named Tilikum grabbed trainer Dawn Brancheau after a "Dine with Shamu" show and pulled her into the pool, killing her. That death in 2010 was highlighted in "Blackfish." Tilikum, who was also involved in the deaths of two oth-er people in the 1990s, is now very sick. He has been at SeaWorld Or-lando for 23 years.

"Blackfish" director Gabriella Cowperthwaite applauded Sea-World's decision. Breeding orcas and exporting them to interna-tional parks has been an import-ant part of SeaWorld's business model, she said.

"But mostly I applaud the pub-lic for recalibrating how they feel ethically about orcas in captivi-ty," Cowperthwaite said. "I didn't imagine necessarily that the doc-umentary would spark so much change. I just sort of went about telling the story."

Last month, SeaWorld ac-knowledged sending workers to infiltrate the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, which has been par-ticularly critical. At the time, Manby said the undercover work-ers had been sent to protect the safety of SeaWorld employees and customers, but he vowed to end the practice.

Now, SeaWorld hopes to turn a less strident foe into a collab-orator — forming a partnership with the Humane Society to help educate guests about animal welfare and conservation through interpretive programs and advo-cacy.

ORCAS, C3

Trainers Kelly Flaherty Clark and Joe Sanchez work with killer whales Tilikum, right, and Trua at the theme park's Shamu Stadium in Orlando, Fla.

NEW YORK (AP) — Don-ald Trump’s railing about what’s wrong in corporate America goes further than the typical politi-cal populism: He vows to rewrite trade deals, tax imports and pun-ish U.S. companies. And he’s nam-ing names.

He is blasting Ford for beefing up operations abroad. He’s refus-ing to eat Oreo cookies that may soon be made in Mexico and is vowing to get Apple to make iP-hones in the U.S.

“You know, our companies are leaving our country rapidly,” the GOP front-runner said in Palm Beach, Florida, after winning the

state’s Republican primary on Tuesday. “And frankly, I’m dis-gusted.”

His tirades about unfair com-petition and lost jobs trumpet a familiar tune, but he’s going fur-ther than thers rhave dared.

Politicians and others have long laid into U.S. companies for shifting headquarters and produc-tion abroad and for stockpiling cash in foreign subsidiaries. But changing some of the trade and taxes rules behind such corporate moves are beyond the authority of the president and, experts say, are not so easy to do — at least not without big consequences.

Autonomous cars aren't perfect, but how safe must they be?

DETROIT (AP) — As auton-omous car technology rapidly progresses, makers of the cars face the difficult question of how safe they must be before they're ready to move people on highways and city streets.

Right now, companies such as Google, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz are testing the cars in a small number of cities to demonstrate

they can be safer than human drivers. They also must figure out what level of risk is acceptable to both government regulators and a potentially skeptical public.

Government statistics show that human mistakes are respon-sible for 94 percent of the 33,000 traffic fatalities each year. Auton-omous cars won't get drowsy, dis-tracted or drunk, so in theory they could eliminate those mistakes and save an estimated 31,000 lives a year.

But as a recent fender-bender involving a Google autonomous Lexus shows, cars that drive them-selves can make mistakes.

"We cannot expect any tech-nology, any solution to be perfect all the time," says Raj Rajkumar, a computer engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who has led autonomous vehicle research for 15 years. "We live in a very uncertain world where lots of things happen."

Given that, regulators and would-be passengers may have to accept that the cars will cause a limited number of crashes, in-cluding deadly ones, if overall they save thousands of lives.

"It's not worth myfamily's safety to trust

a machine."said Colby Huff

Google’s self-driving Lexus

Trump faces obstacles in bid to shake up corporate America

US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump vows to get Apple to make iPhones in the US

Kintla Lake in Glacier National Park, Mont. The Obama adminis-tration canceled a oil and gas lease in Glacier National Park that is on land considered sacred to the Blackfoot tribes of the U.S.

Weather: High 70 ° , Low 48 ° Thursday, March 17, 2016 http://rockbridgereport.academic.wlu.edu/

SPORTSE

Virginia Commonwealth guard Melvin Johnson, center, dribbles across the court as head coach Will Wade, right, watches, during a practice for a first round men’s college basketball game in the NCAA Tournament,

March Madness heats up as the NCAA Tournament begins

A look at the opening day of the NCAA Tournament:

MATCHUP OF THE “I’’ SCHOOLS

Iona and Iowa State get together in Denver, and the “Mile High City” and its thin air may be just what this high-octane matchup needs.

“There’s always concern when you put two teams that run in this altitude,” Iona coach Tim Cluess said. “It’s going to be interesting to see how this game does play out.

“We played in Denver in 2011. It can have an effect on the game, es-pecially the first half. I thought the second half, our team got their legs better than earlier on.”

Iowa State got good news when point guard Monte Morris an-nounced his health is at an “all-time high.” He was limited by a shoulder injury in the Big 12 Tournament.

“I have my legs back under me.” He said. “It’s coming along great. ... I’m back smiling. Everything is get-ting better day to day.”

CATS FACE A STAR

Stony Brook’s Jameel Warney is one of the best-kept secrets in college basketball, and Seawolves coach Steve Pikiell is ready to show him off.

“He’s going to have to take 40 (shots) in this game,” Pikiell said. “Jameel is a unique player, and he’s seen every defense known to man.”

Kentucky coach John Calipari said his team will be ready for a tough game.

“ The first game is the hardest. I will throw that out there,” Cali-pari said. “All the coaches in this tournament who have been here a number of years know the teams get better as you advance, but the first one is the hard one. Especial-ly if you have guys like we do. We start three freshmen who have never played in an NCAA Tour-nament game.”

___

GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN

Arizona meets Wichita State in

Providence, pitting one team that came across the country against one that played just 48 hours ago.

“The first good sign for us is that the weather was warm. If it was cold, I’d worry about our guys a little bit,” Arizona coach Sean Miller said. “They’re so incredibly spoiled with the blue sky that they see almost every day of their life at Arizona.”

The quick turnaround and late-night trip didn’t daunt one of the Shockers.

“This time of year I could stay up all day. It doesn’t matter. It’s what we love to do. I mean, we could have walked to Providence for all I care,” guard Fred VanVleet said. “I’m just happy to be in the tournament. We’re hungry. We’re ready to play. And we’re not going to let some sleep or a late travel — we’re blessed to be in this po-sition. A late traveling schedule, whatever the case may be, we’ve got plenty of time to get rested up. ... I mean, we could have played this morning. Not that we would have been very good, but I think our energy would have been up.”

GET THAT BALL

Yale is in the tournament for the first time since 1962. It meets Baylor, which is trying to erase the memory of last season’s first-round loss to Georgia State. Both teams can really rebound.

“I think the three things we do well, as Coach (James) Jones al-ways alludes to, is we rebound the ball, we defend and we also share the ball on offense,” Yale forward Brandon Sherrod said. “That’s a recipe for success, and hopeful-ly we’re able to show the country that we can do that on a big stage against a big-time team. We’re looking forward to it.”

Baylor forward Rico Gathers knows getting to those missed shots should provide a key to vic-tory.

“I think it should be a good game rebounding-wise for both teams. We take pride in rebound-ing, and obviously Yale does, too,” he said. “It’s going to be one of those matchups that probably comes down to the last rebound, to be honest with you.”

Swiss open criminal case against fired FIFA official Valcke

By Graham Dunbar

ZURICH (AP) — Fired former FIFA official Je-rome Valcke has joined his former boss Sepp Blatter under criminal investiga-tion in Switzerland.

Switzerland’s attorney general opened a crimi-nal case against Valcke on Thursday “on suspicion of various acts of criminal mismanagement,” the fed-eral office said in a state-ment.

“The office of the attor-ney general began investi-gations in this connection and conducted searches and interviews on (Thurs-day). No arrest has been made.”

The case was opened “in response to two crim-inal complaints in which allegations were made” following a FIFA ethics committee investigation.

Former FIFA Secretary General Jerome Valcke FIFA banned Valcke from

soccer for 12 years last month. He was accused of various charges of unethical behavior since being picked by Blatter in 2007 to be FIFA secretary general. His main duty was overseeing preparations for the World Cups of 2010 and 2014.

The Frenchman was ac-cused of destroying evidence during the FIFA inquiry, which was provoked by allegations he sought to profit from a black market tickets deal for the

2014 World Cup in Brazil. The deal, with a FIFA ticketing partner, later fell through and no mon-ey was paid.

FIFA ethics judges also sanctioned him for using private jets for personal

use and preparing a deal to sell un-dervalued broadcasting rights for the 2018 World Cup.

Valcke has denied wrongdoing in statements through his U.S.-based lawyer.

“Mr. Valcke is confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong in carrying out his duties for the good of FIFA and the sport,” lawyer Barry Berke said last month.

Still, FIFA fired Valcke in Jan-uary.

He has long been expected to be a witness in dual American and Swiss federal investigations of cor-ruption in world soccer implicat-ing senior FIFA officials.

Swiss prosecutors opened a criminal case against Blatter last September for suspected criminal mismanagement and misappro-priation of FIFA funds. That case relates to approving a $2 million payment to then-FIFA vice pres-ident Michel Platini in 2011, and selling undervalued World Cup media rights for the Caribbean.

Playoff-minded Capitals hope to buck trend of slow starts

“Mr. Valcke is confident that when all the facts come out, it will be clear that he did absolutely nothing wrong in carrying out his duties for the good of FIFA and the sport”

By Stephen Whyno

WASHINGTON (AP) — As the Washington Capitals clanked shots off the post against Caroli-na, forward Jay Beagle said play-ers didn’t let frustration seep in.

Slow starts have dogged the Capitals, but this wasn’t one of them.

“I think it was a great start,” captain Alex Ovechkin said of Tuesday night’s win. “So far it was the best in maybe 10 or 15 games. Just hit crossbar, post, lots of good chances. That’s how we have to play.”

That game against the Hurri-canes, which clinched a playoff berth for Washington, represent-ed a divergence from the lingering trend. The Capitals had allowed the first goal in the previous five games and in 13 out of the last 15.

The Capitals are 10-5-1 in their past 16 games, but in the first period, they have led only 2:16, been tied 106:41 and trailed for 210:53.

“I’m kind of sick of talking about it, but it’s a stat, it’s there and it’s ugly,” forward Justin Williams said. “I think sometimes if you just keep talking about it, talking about it and talking about, then it becomes a problem. They you can get it in your head and all sorts of other things.”

It has been in players’ heads because it’s not an isolated issue. Opponents have outscored the Capitals 17-4 over this 16-game span, and yet the top team in the NHL has shown an uncanny ability to roar back in the third period.

Capitals forward Alex Ovech-kin celebrates his game-win-ning goal March 15 against the Carolina Hurricanes

Yet with just over three weeks left in the regular season, it’s not about victories or points for the Capitals as much as preparing for the playoffs, a process that continues Friday when they host the Nashville Predators. That’s why the start against Carolina was so encouraging.

“We showed what we can do to start the game and set up our game,” goaltender Braden Holtby said of the 2-1 win. “You look at it as we only scored two goals with the overtime goal, but we could’ve had quite a few more — just the posts and the tough shots we threw on net in traffic. Just didn’t go our way, but we stuck with it and that shows that we played a committed game.”

Coach Barry Trotz said he’ll take that start on most nights. Holtby cited the energy with which the Capitals played as a reason it’s a foundation to build off of.

See CAPITALS on E4

Scott rested and ready to resume his big run

By Doug Ferguson

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The numbers for Adam Scott in his last three tournaments are staggering.

He was runner-up at Riv-iera, won the Honda Classic and then won the Cadillac Championship at Doral. In those 12 rounds, Scott is a combined 35-under par. He has earned just over $3.3 mil-lion — only 21 players earned more than that all of last year on the PGA Tour.

The most important number during his week off at home is four, which is how many days he went without touching a club.

Scott was in The Bahamas last week, gearing up for the first big stretch of the year. He is among the favorites at the

Adam Scott tees off

Arnold Palmer Invitational when it begins Thursday. He goes to Texas next week for the Dell Match Play, and then will make his way over to Augusta National and start preparing for the Masters.

What does one do at home coming off back-to-back victories? Don’t practice because nothing needs fixed? Or practice to try to keep it sharp?Somewhere in between.“It’s so difficult to say,” Scott said. “If I just ran in the

See SCOTT on E3

Nationals aim to take on the Mets, improve on their diss-apointing 2015 season. James Wagner reports from Spring Training in Viera, FL see E3

Surpassing the 16-foot mark has American pole vaulter Sandi Morris readjusting her goals. Anne Peterson has more on her new and improved goals see E6

Just prior to their NCAA Tournament appearance, Cal assistant coach Yann Hufnagel was fired for an alleged sexual harrasment. Hufnagel has hired an attorney and plans to fight the school’s decision. Janie McCauley has more, see E5

InsideSportsPage