Weekend update

Teeming with history

Steven Spielberg has selected Virginia to film a biography of Abraham Lincoln starring Daniel Day-Lewis, elated state and local officials announced last week. Principal filming is scheduled to begin this fall at various historical locations in Petersburg and Richmond, the former capital of the Confederacy. The film is scheduled for release in 2012. Sally Field will play Mary Todd Lincoln.

The Virginia Film Office said Spielberg, who has filmed twice before in Virginia, selected those two cities because of the abundance of historic properties that date to the period. The state also offered financial incentives totaling nearly $5 million. "Virginia is just teeming with historic heritage," said Mary Nelson, a spokeswoman for the film office. "We just have wonderful architecture."

The film is based on the Doris Kearns Goodwin book "Team of Rivals," a 2005 best-seller that examines Lincoln's presidency and the Civil War. Tony Kushner will write the screenplay.

Health care hearings

Richmond will host the next round of federal appellate hearings on the constitutionality of the Obama health care law, the New York Times reports. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will consider a pair of contradictory rulings sent up from the lower courts. In one case, filed by Virginia's attorney general, a federal district judge in Richmond ruled late last year that Congress had exceeded its authority by requiring most Americans to obtain health insurance. In the other, filed by Liberty University, a district judge upheld the insurance mandate.

The issue could land before the Supreme Court as soon as the next term, which opens in October. "We want to win as many of these as we can," said Attorney General Kenneth T. Cuccinelli II of Virginia, a Republican, according to the Times. "If we have nothing but wins all the way up to the Supreme Court, there is an element of momentum, I think, where the justices consider what has gone on before the case came to them."

Smokes out

Within the next year, smokers living in public housing in Chesapeake and Portsmouth will have to go outdoors to light up. Public housing agencies in both cities plan to ban smoking inside apartments. The bans, the first in Virginia, will be phased in. Public housing agencies in Norfolk and Williamsburg are considering similar bans. Advocates say the bans would protect residents' health.

"They need it. Completely, completely," said 68-year-old Joseph Crew, a smoker who lives at Effingham Plaza in Portsmouth. Crew, who started smoking when he was 15, said a ban would give him the push he needs to stop smoking.

Others say a ban on smoking in apartments is an infringement on personal rights. Leroy Boone, an 83-year-old resident and treasurer of the tenant council at Effingham Plaza, which also serves the disabled, said the ban should be for new residents, not those who moved in before it started. "That's just like telling me you can't have a woman in there," said Boone, who hasn't smoked in 30 years. "We all are grown."

Home reckless

A Baltimore midwife has pleaded guilty to charges stemming from the death of a baby she delivered at the home of an Alexandria woman who had a high-risk pregnancy. Forty-four-year old Karen Carr had been charged with involuntary manslaughter, but she pleaded guilty last week in Alexandria Circuit Court to child endangerment and performing an invasive procedure without a license. Carr was not licensed to practice in Virginia.

Carr agreed to an at-home delivery of a baby in a breech position. Another midwife practice had turned the baby's family away because of the risk. The baby boy, delivered in September, had his head stuck in the birth canal for 20 minutes. Carr was sentenced to five days in jail and ordered to pay back the $3,200 fee she charged the parents.

Aid denied

The Federal Emergency Management Agency denied on Saturday the state's request for federal disaster assistance, indicating the damage was not severe enough to qualify for federal assistance. More than two dozen tornadoes hit Virginia in April, killing 10, destroying more than 200 homes and damaging more than 1,000 others.

Gov. Bob McDonnell said he may appeal the decision. "I think it's going to be devastating to the county," Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman told the Bristol Herald Courier. "I was disappointed certainly . I'm sure a lot of people were counting on federal assistance to provide some help."

"Apparently, we can spend all sorts of money on many frivolous federal programs, but not for those who are truly in need of disaster relief," said U.S. Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem. "I urge the governor to appeal this decision so that the people affected by these devastating storms in southwest Virginia get the support they need to begin rebuilding."

Autism coverage

Gov. Bob McDonnell has signed autism insurance bills, making Virginia the 26th state to adopt the protection for children and their parents. The law will cap annual coverage costs at $35,000. It will not apply to self-insured companies and exempts businesses with 50 or fewer workers. The legislation was signed after McDonnell negotiated an agreement with legislators over concerns he had with language in some of the bills. In exchange, he pledged not to veto the bill.

Advocates of the legislation told the Richmond Times-Dispatch the changes will extend a helping hand to families that have been financially battered by the lack of insurance coverage for autism therapies.

Lyme rising

Virginia residents are being warned about an increase in cases of Lyme disease statewide. The Daily Progress of Charlottesville reports that the warning stems from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which cited data that show that Lyme disease activity is spreading southward and westward from the northern regions of Virginia. According to the Virginia Department of Health, more than 1,200 cases of Lyme disease were reported statewide last year. See WORLDVirginia's coverage of the problem here.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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