Top stories of the past week

Date published: 9/11/2005

Region helps disaster victims

As massive cleanup efforts and body recovery continues along the Gulf Coast, Fredericksburg-area businesses and religious organizations are mobilizing to send supplies, money and even manpower to the disaster-stricken region. Local schools are enrolling students who were forced to flee their homes.

Gas prices inching back down

Local residents heading back to work and school after the Labor Day holiday enjoyed a bit of a reprieve at the gas pumps. Prices across the region settled at about $2.99 per gallon for regular unleaded after soaring above $3 in the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The previous week's jitters about supply and prices abated.

Spotsylvania lifts water plea

Spotsylvania County government has lifted voluntary water conservation measures. The city of Fredericksburg appears likely to follow suit, but Stafford County has no plans to lift its voluntary measures. All three governments asked their residents to take steps to conserve water in late June, when rainfall levels clocked in below normal and hot weather spurred higher water demands.

Welcome back, local students

Lazy summer days are officially over for all of the region's students. School bells rang on Sept. 6 in the city of Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, King George and Caroline. Two new schools opened--the city's Lafayette Upper Elementary and Stafford's Mountain View High School. Other local students, including Spotsylvania County's, returned to class before Labor Day.

City's Dixon Park has debut

Fredericksburg is celebrating its first new park in 40 years. This weekend marks the ceremonial opening of Dixon Park. The facility off Routes 2 and 17 is opening in three phases. This first phase includes 11 "pods" of Bermuda grass, each of which can be arranged to house as many as four soccer or field hockey fields.

Suspect named in local rapes

A Stafford County man accused of trying to abduct a woman outside her home in July has now been connected to two rapes through DNA evidence. Donnell Markeith Cusick, 21, was indicted on multiple charges Tuesday by a Stafford grand jury, including two counts of rape.

Missing-boy evidence stands

A judge Wednesday refused to eliminate the most damning evidence against the man accused of killing little Tyreek Davis. Allen Bareford, the attorney for Herman Black, had asked Judge Ann Hunter Simpson to suppress all clothing and physical evidence seized by police. That would have included blood on Black's clothes that turned out, according to court records, to be Tyreek's. A trial is scheduled to start Feb. 14 in Spotsylvania Circuit Court.

New Year to ring in with pear

Revelers at this year's First Night celebration in Fredericksburg will gaze at a sparkling, fiber-optic pear as they count down the final seconds of 2005. Spotsylvania County teacher Jeanie Fellinger's proposal for the new pear was chosen last spring to replace the original pear.

Date published: 9/11/2005