Attorney General Bill Mims, a confidant of Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, is joining a Richmond legal powerhouse in January as a lobbyist.

Bill Mims, Virginia’s attorney general and a confidant of Gov.-elect Bob McDonnell, has a new job—he’s joining the regulatory and lobbying practice of a big Richmond law firm, Hunton and Williams. Mims, a former delegate and state senator who succeeded McDonnell as attorney general and helps lead the McDonnell gubernatorial transition, had been mentioned as a possible chief of staff or counsel to the next Republican chief executive.

Virginia’s attorney general is urging the State Corporation Commission to either cut Dominion Virginia Power’s electric rates this year or have the company give customers a refund for over-earning last year. Experts for Attorney General Bill Mims’ office told the SCC that Dominion Virginia Power’s rates should be reduced by $238 million or customers should receive a refund of $153 million.

A federal appeals court in Richmond voted yesterday to uphold Virginia’s 2003 law that bans a type of late-term abortion, which means the case might be headed for the U.S. Supreme Court. The 6-5 ruling reversed two 2-1 rulings by a panel of the appeals court. The panel had struck down the Virginia law, which prohibits what opponents of the procedure call “partial-birth abortion.“

Memorial Day was on full display at Virginia’s state Capitol yesterday as crisply dressed uniformed representatives from all branches of the U.S. military observed the time-honored rituals for the attorney general’s “Wall of Honor” ceremony.

Agrandmother living in Richmond was already on a tight budget. When tragedy struck her family recently, she found herself without money to buy food. She went to Richmond’s Central Virginia Food Bank, shared her story, and was provided with one of the basic necessities of life. “If it hadn’t been for the food bank giving me groceries, I don’t know what I would have done,“ she said. “They helped me when I really needed it. I don’t know how to thank them.“