Virginia Tech gets nod for aiding commuters

Virginia Tech made the Environmental Protection Agency's first list of "Best Workplaces for Commuters" among colleges and universities.

The list of 72 campuses was released Monday and is on the Internet at www.bwc.gov. The campuses are not ranked.

Universities were chosen for being "environmental leaders that improve air quality, save energy and reduce traffic congestion in their communities," the site says.

Virginia Tech's Commuter Alternatives Program, which offers car pool and bike, bus and walk programs, helps the university save its employees $839,777 a year on gasoline prices and reduces CO2 emissions by about 2,531 metric tons a year, according to a release from the university.

Steve Mouras, Virginia Tech's director of transportation, did not return phone calls about the designation Monday.

George Mason University was the only other Virginia school on the list. West Virginia University was also chosen.

-- Greg Esposito

Blacksburg child care advocate joins council

BLACKSBURG -- A local child care advocate has been named to a state council on early childhood education.

Retired Virginia Tech professor Jeanne Roper will join about two dozen local and state politicians, school officials and business people on the Strong Starts Pre-K Council to oversee development of early childhood education programs across the state for children 4 and younger.

Roper is the past president and a current board member of the Valley Interfaith Childcare Center, an organization that serves low- to moderate-income families in Blacksburg and Christiansburg.

Roper said she also wants to see churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious organizations involved.

Strong interfaith cooperation in Montgomery County has helped build the center's growing programs, she said.

The pre-K council is part of Gov. Tim Kaine's "Smart Beginnings" initiative, a plan to provide health, education and parental-involvement services to children.

Retired Roanoke Times publisher Walter Rugaber also was appointed to the pre-K council. Rugaber served as interim president of Hollins University from 2001-02 and now lives in Patrick County.

-- Tonia Moxley

Shooting charge certified to Giles grand jury

PEARISBURG -- A judge certified to a grand jury on Monday a charge of malicious wounding with intent to kill against a man who confessed to shooting at his estranged wife and her boyfriend Nov. 9.

Timothy Wayne Simpkins was also convicted Monday of violating a protective order prior to the shootings.

An investigator testified in Giles County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court that Simpkins admitted firing shots at Mary Melissa Simpkins, his estranged wife, and Mike Long, her boyfriend, from a hill behind his mother-in-law's home in the Staffordsville area. The shots wounded the wife and the boyfriend's stepfather.

Judge Robert Viar sentenced Simpkins to 30 days in jail for violating the protective order on his mother-in-law's property four months before the shootings, but Simpkins will get credit for time already served.

"Before he fired the shots, he had almost decided not to do anything at all," Giles County Sheriff's Office investigator Willie Lucas said Simpkins told authorities. "And when he saw his wife and Mr. Long in an embrace, kissing, he got upset all over again and decided to fire the shots at them."

A separate charge against Melissa McDaniels, of conspiring with Simpkins to commit murder, was dropped for lack of evidence. McDaniels had dropped off Simpkins near his mother-in-law's home at 2 a.m. on the date of the shootings. Authorities described her as Simpkins' girlfriend.

Mary Simpkins was struck in the left hip, and another shot destroyed a cellphone on her right hip. Long's stepfather, Wayne Twigg, was also injured.

Lucas said Simpkins said he threw down a .22-caliber rifle after firing the shots and fled into the woods, where he was later apprehended.

-- Paul Dellinger

Chase case ends with year-and-a-half sentence

Leroy Darnell Robinson, who last year led police on a high-speed chase down U.S. 460 that involved a passenger leaping out into the median, pleaded guilty Monday in Montgomery County Circuit Court. He was convicted of several felonies, including eluding police and possessing cocaine with intent to distribute.

Robinson was sentenced to seven years in jail but a judge suspended all but one year and six months.

Robinson, who was listed in court documents as living in Pulaski, was apprehended in late 2005 after a drug sting went awry. He ran from police with an informant in the car with him. As he raced through Shawsville, the informant leapt from the vehicle, suffering injuries described then as non-life-threatening. Robinson eventually stopped the car and fled on foot with his infant son before being arrested.

He also was convicted Monday of child neglect. An abduction charge related to the informant was dropped.

-- Niki King