Free Republic

She knew him as a devoted friend, so worldly wise at 19 that the slight difference in their ages evaporated. "What people need to know is what a kind person he was; he was full of life, full of laughter and connecting with people," she said. But Thursday night, the new world shared by VCU students Tyler J. Binsted and his 21-year-old girlfriend turned upside down at Richmond's Byrd Park. "They got my keys and opened the trunk of my car," Binsted's girlfriend said yesterday, her face drawn, her eyes dry as sand. One of the two assailants had a...

William & Mary Uncensored by: Don Irvine, February 04, 2008 February 1, 2008— William and Mary school president Gene Nichol okayed students’ requests to hold the “Sex Workers’ Art Show” to be held on campus this week. The show which features prostitutes, strippers and other sex workers performing their work is part of a nationwide tour that will take them to Harvard and the University of Michigan. The show was scheduled to take place at Virginia Commonwealth University as well but according to Reuban Rodriguez no student requested campus space for the event and the performers violated their contract with...

Ward "Wannabee" Churchill Coming To Richmond Toooo funny! Be there or be sqare! "From a Native Son: Conquest and Colonization in the Americas: An Evening with Ward Churchill" Sept 7, 2007 7pm VCU Student Commons, Richmond Salons 907 Floyd Ave, Richmond, VA 23284 Free and open to the public You've got to go read the comments on Richmond's commie website!

Our Thursday story about a proposed bill that would allow guns onto college campuses drew quite a response. Thanks in large part, apparently, to a call to vote from the conservative Web site freerepublic.com, our poll question garnered more than 2,000 votes -- more than 90 percent in favor of the legislation. And more than 30 of you visited the roanoke.com message board to voice your own opinions. Here is a sample of what you said: >I am for gun rights but changing this could endanger lives, it's all about someone having the power to say no to carrying a...

Fawley indicted for murder in college student's deathBy the Associated Press January 17, 2006 RICHMOND, Va. -- Amateur photographer Benjamin Fawley was indicted Tuesday for the murder of Taylor Behl, a 17-year-old college student whose body was found in rural Mathews County. The county's commonwealth's attorney, Jack Gill, said Fawley was indicted on a first degree murder charge. "I don't want to go into any of the evidence in the case," he told reporters outside the courthouse. Behl was found dead on Oct. 5, one month after she was reported missing from Virginia Commonwealth University. Fawley, 38, is currently being...

Benjamin Fawley, a suspect in the death of Taylor Marie Behl, told police that the Vienna teenager died accidentally while they were having a sexual encounter, an attorney representing Behl's mother said yesterday. Her grieving mother disputed the account. "Let's be clear -- Ben Fawley murdered my daughter," Janet Pelasara said during a hastily arranged news conference outside her attorney's McLean office. "His claim that it was accidental is just one more perversion of the truth in his ever-changing web of lies." Fawley told investigators that he had consensual sex with Behl in her car parked near a beach in...

The Richmond police task force investigating the disappearance of Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Marie Behl has discovered the remains of a body in rural Mathews County. Sources close to the investigation said the body has not been identified. It was discovered in a shallow grave behind a barn on an isolated piece of private property just west of Diggs, a community along the Chesapeake Bay just south of Rigby Island. The area is about 70 miles east of Richmond. A law-enforcement source said police were led to the scene by a photograph identified by an ex-girfriend of a man...

Officials at Virginia Commonwealth University are pledging a $20,000 reward to anyone with information leading to the location and return of missing VCU freshman Taylor Marie Behl. "Please keep Taylor, her family and friends in your thoughts as we hope for her safe return," VCU President Eugene P. Trani wrote yesterday in a letter to the university and VCU Health System "communities." The announcement came a day after Behl's family posted an $11,000 reward for information about her disappearance.

A 38-year-old amateur photographer -- one of the last people to see missing Virginia Commonwealth University student Taylor Behl -- filed a report with police claiming he had been abducted and robbed just hours after Behl was last seen on the night of Sept. 5. The photographer told Richmond police that he was walking in an alley near Franklin Street and Monument Avenue at 5 a.m. Sept. 6 when he was "robbed by an unknown number of people," according to a Richmond Police Department incident report obtained last night by The Times-Dispatch. The photographer told police that he was hit...

The sun set shortly after 7 p.m. at Monroe Park. An hour later, the park was illuminated once again. A crowd of about 100 people, most of them young women, expressed their hope for the safe return of Taylor Marie Behl at a candlelight vigil last night at Monroe Park in the heart of the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. A VCU freshman, Behl has been missing since Sept. 5. The 17-year-old's disappearance has attracted national attention.

One day after the car belonging to missing college student Taylor Marie Behl was located, Richmond police said yesterday that they believe the Virginia Commonwealth University freshman might have been abducted. Behl's 1997 Ford Escort was found Saturday morning in a neighborhood about 1 1/2 miles from the Richmond campus. Its license plates had been replaced with Ohio tags that were reported stolen in Richmond about two months before the Sept. 5 disappearance of Behl. ............No alert was issued when Behl was reported missing because the case did not meet the criteria, police said. Investigators executed several search warrants Friday,...

The hurricane must be over On The Record has returned tonight with wall to wall coverage of missing person's. Virginia college coed's mother was just interviewed and next up is Natalee Holloway's mother.

Taylor Marie Behl, a 17-year-old freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, is still missing after last being seen on Sept. 5, according to Colonel Willie B. Fuller, the VCU chief of police. The VCU student was first reported missing on Sept. 7 around 1:35 a.m. Her roommate, who was with her boyfriend at the time, saw her last on Sept. 5 around 10:20 p.m. in their dorm room. Behl had just returned from dinner at the Village Café, located on the corner of Harrison and Grace streets. She left shortly after that with just her car keys and a credit card....

Taylor Marie Behl, a 17-year-old freshman at Virginia Commonwealth University, is still missing after last being seen on Sept. 5, according to Colonel Willie B. Fuller, the VCU chief of police. The VCU student was first reported missing on Sept. 7 around 1:35 a.m. Her roommate, who was with her boyfriend at the time, saw her last on Sept. 5 around 10:20 p.m. in their dorm room. Behl had just returned from dinner at the Village Café, located on the corner of Harrison and Grace streets. She left shortly after that with just her car keys and a credit card....

RICHMOND, Va. -- One week after she walked out of her dorm room to give her roommate privacy with a boyfriend, a 17-year-old college student remains missing--and increasingly anxious authorities have called in the FBI for help. Virginia Commonwealth University freshman Taylor Behl hasn't been heard from since she hastily departed her room last Monday night with her car keys and a credit card. Her roommate reported her missing to campus police around 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. There has been no activity on her credit cards or bank accounts since Monday, police said. Calls to her cell phone ring through, indicating...

Introduction On March 18, 2005, for the first time on record in the history of Islam, a woman led a mixed congregation of men and women in Friday prayers. The imam was Dr. Amina Wadud, an American Muslim of Indian origin who is professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, and the author of the book The Qur'an and the Woman: Rereading the Holy Text from a Female Perspective. The main organizer of the event was Asra Nomani, an Indian-born Muslim and an author and former Wall Street Journal reporter who initiated the Muslim Women's Freedom Tour project that...

People with bigger brains are smarter than their smaller-brained counterparts, according to a study conducted by a Virginia Commonwealth University researcher published in the journal “Intelligence.” The study, published on line June 16, could settle a long-standing scientific debate about the relationship between brain size and intelligence. Ever since German anatomist and physiologist Frederick Tiedmann wrote in 1836 that there exists “an indisputable connection between the size of the brain and the mental energy displayed by the individual man,” scientists have been searching for biological evidence to prove his claim. “For all age and sex groups, it is now very...

RICHMOND -- Virginia Commonwealth University has tightened security because of threats against a faculty member who led a mixed-sex prayer service that drew harsh criticism throughout the Muslim world. The precautionary measures were taken the week after Islamic studies professor Amina Wadud led 80 to 100 men and women in Muslim prayer at a church in New York. Muslim clerics denounced her actions and some have suggested that it was part of a plot to corrupt Islam, which requires separate religious services for men and women.

Woman Leads Muslim Prayer Service in New York City Despite Criticism in the Middle EastBy Tarek El-Tablawy Associated Press Writer Published: Mar 18, 2005 NEW YORK (AP) - A female professor led an Islamic prayer service Friday with men in the congregation despite sharp criticism from Muslim religious leaders in the Middle East who complained that it violated centuries of tradition. Amina Wadud, a professor of Islamic studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, led the service at Synod House at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, an Episcopal church in Manhattan. Some Islamic scholars have said they were aware of...

More than 886,000 deaths could have been prevented from 1991 to 2000 if African-Americans had received the same level of health care as whites, according to an analysis in the December issue of the American Journal of Public Health. The study estimates that technological improvements in medicine -- including better drugs, devices, and procedures -- averted only 176,633 deaths during the same period. That means "five times as many lives can be saved by correcting the disparities [in care between whites and blacks] than in developing new treatments," Dr. Steven H. Woolf, lead author and director of research at Virginia...

<p>Members of the Richmond Conservative Forum met in front of the Siegel Center at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va. yesterday evening to protest the taxpayer funded appearance of Hans Blix and to support President George W. Bush, our Troops and the Mission they have been deployed to accomplish. FReepers in attendance were Alpheus, GottaLuvAkitas1, tva, GeorgeW23225, helmut113 and Flora McDonald.</p>

All FReepers, Lurkers, Protest Warriors and Patriots are invited to join us in giving former U.N. Weapons Inspector Hans Blix the welcome he deserves when he speaks at VCU’s Siegel Center on Thursday, April 22, 2004 at 7:30 p.m. Inspector Gadget is promoting his new book, “Disarming Iraq”, which coincidentally will be on sale at the VCU bookstore that very same day. His appearance is funded by a grant from the NEH (National Endowment for Humanities). That’s right, our tax dollars are going to this man who called his American detractors in Washington bastards. And then there is the...

Supporters of a Safe Israel invites you to join us for two extremely interesting and informational events this month! We are providing an excellent opportunity for our community to learn about pressing issues on United States policy, Israel, and the Middle East. And best of all, these opportunities are free! We look forward to seeing you there! Thursday, April 15 7:00 p.m. We are hosting Caroline Glick, columnist and deputy managing editor of the Jerusalem Post. Glick was recently embedded with the US Third Infantry in Iraq and has been a leading voice in Israeli politics and media. Her topic...

Supporters of a Safe Israel Invites you to hear Dr. Yaacov Lazowick Speak onThe Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars Tuesday, March 30th 7 p.m. at Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Va Archivist of the Collection at Yad Vashem, Israel's Holocaust Memorial, Dr. Yaakov Lazowick and Supporters of a Safe Israel seek to end the cycle of violence that plagues the Modern State of Israel, Judea and Gaza. in the Business Building Auditorium

Richmond Officials Assess Damage From Wind-Driven Fire Mar 27, 2004 By David E. Leiva/ Associated Press Writer/ RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Firefighters poured water on the remains of a smoldering downtown building Saturday, a day after wind-whipped flames destroyed or damaged nearly two dozen structures. Firefighters had stayed on the scene overnight to douse hot spots, said Lt. Keith Vida of the Richmond Fire Department. A woman died when the power company shut down electricity to help firefighters contain the blaze. She went into cardiac arrest after her oxygen tank quit, said Assistant Fire Marshal Lt. Ronald Faulconer. The woman...

Fox reporting "five or six square blocks" near Broad Street on fire in downstown Richmond, VA. "Explosions heard" before fire erupted. Evacuations underway. Fire spreading.

IS THE Confederate battle flag a symbol of hate? Although there are certain connotations that have been improperly associated with the Confederate flag, there are still many people within the American population who display it to show pride in their heritage. Heritage, not hate.The Confederate States of America was a compilation of southern states that seceded from the United States of America. Following the formation of this new government, the grievances between the North and South produced hostility and warfare.Our differences divided us as a nation. Yet during that period, there arose a certain Southern solidarity that people cannot forget.A...

Scientists Present Findings at First Conference Ever on Forgiveness Research 10/22/03 2:34:00 PM -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor Contact: Vicki Robb, 202-285-4394, or Louisa Mattozzi, 703-476-0742; Web: http://www.forgiving.org News Advisory: More than 40 of the top scientists in the world who study forgiveness are reporting on their research at a conference in Atlanta Oct. 24-25 at the Westin, Peachtree Plaza Hotel. Spanning the globe from South Africa to Northern Ireland, some of the top researchers include Franz duWaal (director of the Yerkes Primate Center), Ming Tsuang (Harvard psychiatrist), and Lyndon Eaves (geneticist, second most cited geneticist in world)....

Marijuana and Its Receptor Protein in The Brain Can Control Epilepsy, VCU Study Finds Ingredients in marijuana and the cannabinoid receptor protein, which is produced naturally in the body to regulate the central nervous system and other bodily functions, play a critical role in controlling spontaneous seizures in epilepsy, according to a new study by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers. The study, the first to look at marijuana and the brain's cannabinoid system in live animals with spontaneous, recurrent seizures, suggests new avenues that researchers can explore in their search for more-effective drugs to treat epileptic patients who don't respond to...

Immigrant Group Sues Virginia Colleges Immigrant-Rights Group Sues Seven Virginia Colleges Over Admissions Policy The Associated Press ALEXANDRIA, Va. Sept. 3 — Immigrant-rights groups are suing seven Virginia colleges for allegedly following the state attorney general's advice to deny admission to illegal immigrants.The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, contends that the schools' policies usurp the role of federal immigration authorities. It was filed on behalf of unidentified students who either attend or have graduated from Virginia public high schools. The suit follows an advisory opinion issued last year by Attorney General Jerry Kilgore recommending that all Virginia...

A group of Hispanic illegal immigrants sued seven state colleges and universities yesterday in federal court, claiming the schools denied them admission because of their immigration status. The lawsuit, made public yesterday, says the schools' presidents and rectors are following ill-conceived legal advice from state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, who last fall issued an opinion recommending that all Virginia colleges deny admission to illegal immigrants and suggesting that admissions officers report potentially illegal applicants to federal authorities. The schools are George Mason University, James Madison University, University of Virginia, Virginia Tech, Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), the Northern Virginia Community...

Nadeau, 32, continues a rehabilitation program at Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center that includes physical, recreational, and occupational and speech therapy. The Danbury, Conn., veteran suffered a moderate to severe head injury, a fractured left scapula (shoulder blade) and injuries to his left-side lung and ribs on May 2 when his car spun and hit the Turn 1 wall during a practice session at RIR. Doctors at VCU Medical Center said Nadeau has shown rapid progress this week, is medically stable and is not in a situation where it is necessary to classify his general condition. Jay Frye, general manager...

Va. music student defies deafness to a high degree By Bill Baskervill, The Associated Press May 18, 2003 RICHMOND, Va. - A woman who lost all hearing when she was beaten by a robber received a master's degree in music composition Saturday from Virginia Commonwealth University, becoming the first deaf student ever to earn a music degree from the school. By Lisa Billings/AP Tammie Willis watches fellow music student Tiara Walker play piano at Virginia Commonwealth University. Willis can't hear the music - she was rendered deaf in a 1994 beating Instructor William Eldridge described Tammie Willis's accomplishment as...