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MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A prosecutor says a Virginia National Guard member was “highly intoxicated,” more than double the legal limit for drivers, when police arrested him for running near two Martinsburg schools in desert camouflage and toting an AR-15 training rifle. William Everett Alemar’s blood-alcohol content was more than 0.20 percent, Berkeley County Prosecutor Pamela Games-Neely said Thursday. West Virginia’s threshold for drivers is 0.08 percent. Games-Neely also said the terrorism charge filed against Alemar is the right one for the circumstances.

Roanoke police last weekend resorted to pepper-spraying raucous packs of Drew Expo carnivalgoers who swarmed the Roanoke Civic Center parking lot, peeling off their shirts and fighting, authorities said. Police spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said Monday that officers were called to the civic center Friday and Saturday nights to quell unruly crowds who threw punches and ignored officers' orders to disperse. Johnson said the instigators -- who continuously dashed around the parking lot -- started more than 30 fights Friday night, forcing the carnival to close early and sending home the 4,000 to 5,000 people who turned out for the event.

SAN FRANCISCO – Rumors swirled that the federal judge who had struck down California's same-sex marriage ban last summer was gay, but the lawyers charged with defending the measure remained silent on the subject. Their preferred strategy for getting the ruling overturned on appeal was to focus on the law, not a judge's personal life, they said. Eight months later, Proposition 8's proponents and their attorneys have taken a new position. They filed a motion Monday seeking to vacate Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker's historic ruling, a move they said was prompted by the now-retired jurist's recent disclosure that...

RICHMOND -- A federal judge has denied the Department of Justice's motion to dismiss Virginia's lawsuit challenging the health care reform bill passed by Congress, setting the stage for additional legal wrangling in the high-profile case. U.S. District Court Judge Henry Hudson's decision was released this morning, a month after lawyers from the Justice Department and the Virginia attorney general's office argued over the motion in Hudson's Richmond courtroom.

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (AP) -- A judge says an armed man arrested at a North Carolina airport after President Obama left is being held at the request of federal authorities. North Carolina District Judge Patricia Young said today federal authorities wanted 23-year-old Joseph Sean McVey of Coshocton, Ohio, held in custody, even if he posts bail

Most of Palin's supporters I talked to acknowledged that they had never heard of her until Sen. John McCain plucked her from obscurity last year and made her his running mate. They didn't care that she had quit the governorship of Alaska to personally cash in -- for millions -- with a ghostwritten-book bonanza. Or that the last elected office for which Palin finished her term was mayor of a town smaller than Vinton. When you wade into a pool of Palinmania like the one that collected outside Valley View on Sunday morning, you realize that stuff doesn't matter. Before...

More than 300 people camped overnight outside Barnes & Noble Booksellers at Valley View Mall for the chance to meet former Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin. Today, she signed her new memoir, 'Going Rogue.'

The soldier accused of killing 13 people and wounding 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday attended Barstow Community College from spring 1989 to spring 1990, college records show. Maj. Nidal M. Hasan was a straight-A student and on the dean's list at the college, said Maureen Stokes, the public information officer at the school. He took six classes and earned 19 credit hours. His classes - all basic courses - were English, history, sociology, math, political science and biology. Hasan's official transcript indicates he was an enlisted man, an E-3, at Fort Irwin at the time but John...

Virginia Tech this morning confirmed that Fort Hood shooting suspect Nadal Malik Hasan graduated from the university in 1995. Here's the full news release. Virginia Tech has confirmed with the United States Army Human Resources Command in Alexandria, Va., that the alleged shooter at Fort Hood, Texas, once attended Virginia Tech. According to Virginia Tech records, Nidal Malik Hasan first enrolled at Virginia Tech for Summer Session II in 1992, and completed coursework in Spring Semester 1995. He received a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in biochemistry from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He minored in biology...

DUBLIN -- Emotions ran high as about 1,200 people packed an auditorium at New River Community College on Tuesday to tell U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher why they opposed or supported the attempt to overhaul health care. Boucher, D-Abingdon, said he would not endorse or condemn any legislation during the three-hour town hall meeting, but he did offer insight into his thoughts on some key components of the latest proposals.

Missing mental health records of Virginia Tech gunman Seung-Hui Cho have been discovered in the home of the university clinic's former director, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press on Wednesday. The memo said the records were removed from the Cook Counseling Center on the Virginia Tech campus more than a year before the shootings. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090722/ap_on_re_us/us_virginia_tech_shooting