A South Carolina developer has purchased the former Dan River Inc. No. 8 Mill with a pledge to bring 400 jobs to this recession-scarred part of Southside Virginia. Danville City Manager M. Lyle Lacy III said the landmark White Mill is now owned by White Mill Development LLC, which is headed by Gibbs International Inc. of Spartanburg, S.C.

Fired Danville police officer Murrill McLean, who shot and killed a miniature dachshund named Killer on June 8, has decided to appeal the department’s decision to terminate his employment, a police department source said Thursday. First, McLean’s appeal will work its way through the Danville Police Department. Police Chief Philip Broadfoot will issue the final ruling for the department, which also can be appealed.

The Danville police officer who fatally shot Killer, a miniature dachshund, has been fired, according to Danville Police Chief Philip Broadfoot. Officer Murrill McLean’s dismissal was announced yesterday by the chief, who said McLean’s account of the June 8 shooting incident was accepted without a full investigation. “This entire matter has been an embarrassment to the Danville Police Department, the City of Danville and to me personally,“ Broadfoot said.

A Vernon Hill man is facing an animal cruelty charge after police say he killed an opossum while on an approved ride along with a Danville police officer.

Inspection reports from a Nestle USA cookie-dough factory in Virginia released yesterday show the company refused several times in the past five years to provide Food and Drug Administration inspectors with complaint logs, pest-control records and other information. The records, which date to 2004, were made public after Nestle’s Toll House refrigerated, prepackaged cookie dough was discovered to be the likely culprit in an E. coli outbreak that has sickened 69 people in 29 states, according to the latest estimates from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC is investigating the outbreak along with the FDA.

“Must love dogs” clearly isn’t a requirement to be a Danville police officer. A miniature dachshund charged at officer Murrill McLean after McLean attempted to serve a summons to a nearby resident. His cry of “Get!“ didn’t stop the dog, so he drew his pistol and responded with deadly force. An 11-year-old, 12-pound dog with the clearly ironic name of “Killer” died Monday night as a result. He wasn’t the first dog killed by Danville police.

Media General News Service Danville’s police chief says one of his officers acted properly by shooting and killing an 11-year-old miniature dachshund that ran at him while growling. Neighbors said Killer, who died Monday night after being shot once, was a sweet, mild-mannered dog. “He just kind of walked up and down the neighborhood and didn’t bother anybody,“ said Jenine Edmunds, who lives on the same cul-de-sac as Killer’s owners, Tawaiin Harper and his family. “He was just a little house dog.“

During her senior year at George Washington High School in Danville, Kristy Lyn Scott won her first tiara, as Miss Danville. She later added the titles of Mrs. Virginia America in 1996, America’s Sweetheart and Ms. All-American Woman for 2003-2004. “Kristy was a beautiful person outside,“ said her mother, Patricia Scott. “And some people thought if she was that pretty outside, she must be hollow inside.“

A former Danville mayor who is running for the House of Delegates has signed a petition demanding that the Virginia General Assembly reconvene and accept $125 million in federal stimulus money for unemployment benefits it rejected last week. F. Seward Anderson, a Democrat, is challenging Del. Daniel W. Marshall III, R-Danville, in November’s election.

When one drives into Danville it’s hard to miss the factories. Or, more precisely, the big majestic buildings that formerly were factories—one-time shrines of the South’s manufacturing economy. A good number of these structures are now dark, lifeless hulks that seem to literally and figuratively cast a shadow over a proud city and region.

In Danville, an economy that seemingly can’t get any worse is getting worse. One month after the city’s largest employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., announced it was slashing 400 jobs in the city, glassmaker Corning Inc. announced yesterday that it is shutting its Danville plant by the end of the year.

Danville endures economic upheaval Once-bustling textile center struggles as recession adds to woes of manufacturing sector Surveyor Nick Clark, four months out of work and still looking for a job, bluntly describes the grim economy here. “It’s going under.“ Clark may have overstated the situation. But at this point it’s hard to argue with the 25-year-old job seeker.

State unemployment rate jumps to 6.4% January reading up sharply but below U.S. figure; all 10 metro areas report increase Virginia’s unemployment rate spiked to 6.4 percent in January, a rate not seen here since June 1992. The increase from 5.1 percent in December comes after about 51,700 people lost jobs during the first month of the year, according to data released by the Virginia Employment Commission yesterday.

Union workers began voting yesterday morning on a tentative agreement between Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and United Steelworkers Local 831 that could result in the loss of at least 400 jobs at the company’s tire manufacturing plant here. Voting continued all day and into the evening. The agreement would reduce production from a seven-day operation to five days a week, with from 300 to 400 layoffs and as many as 200 buyouts of employees.

In a major blow to a city already battered by the nation’s grim economy, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. announced yesterday that it plans to cut 400 jobs at its Danville plant. The announcement is part of the tire company’s larger move to slash 5,000 jobs nationwide, said spokesman Keith Price in Akron, Ohio. Goodyear lost $330 million in the last quarter of 2008 as sales dropped to $4.1 billion for the year, down from $5.2 billion in 2007.