People gathered on the banks of the James River in Charles City County to commemorate America’s first Thanksgiving, in honor of the safe landing of English settlers 390 years ago.

Eight local governments in the Richmond area will have a new way to talk to one another in an emergency, with no telephone wires attached. A $1.73 million grant provided by the U.S. Homeland Security Department will allow emergency officials to complete a regional microwave system that allows them to share critical information in a natural or man-made disaster.

When Ray Rucker and his wife, Meriam, bought a home in a middle-class Mechanicsville neighborhood in 1990, they were told the brick rancher was haunted. A ceiling light activated by a pull chain would mysteriously come on in one room, the previous owners said. Rucker was skeptical.

Juanita Ernestine Cotman was 19 years old and a new mother when she was diagnosed with sarcoidosis, a disease that results in inflammation and, sometimes, organ damage. The disease left the Charles City resident with a hole in each lung that grew larger each year until she underwent a double-lung transplant in Durham, N.C., when she was 37.

The Wildlife Center of Virginia is releasing a bald eagle at Westover Plantation on the James River.

The body of a boater missing in the James River since Saturday was found yesterday, nearly 24 hours after his disappearance. Authorities identified the boater as Spencer Barbour, 58, of Charles City. He was thrown from the johnboat he was operating about 6 p.m. Saturday when it hit an object underwater about 200 to 300 yards upstream from a pier at Lawrence Lewis Jr. Park, said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

Authorities plan to resume their search today for a boater who went missing in the James River in Charles City County. A 58-year-old man was thrown from the johnboat he was operating yesterday about 6 p.m. when it hit something underwater about 200 to 300 yards upstream from a pier at Lawrence Lewis Jr. Park, said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries.

The body of a 16-year-old boy who disappeared while swimming in the James River in Charles City County was discovered yesterday afternoon, officials said. A Chesterfield County dive team recovered the body shortly after noon near the area where the teen was swimming about 100 yards offshore near Lawrence Lewis Jr. Park off state Route 5.

The body of a 16-year-old boy who disappeared while swimming in the James River was discovered about 12:15 p.m. today, officials said.

Battlefields: $579,000 for maintenance projects in the Richmond National Battlefield Park and $563,000 for the Petersburg National Battlefield.
  Historic sites: $94,000 to replace the heating and cooling system at Maggie L. Walker’s historic house, which also will have deteriorating exterior woodwork repaired or replaced.
  Wildlife: $1.95 million for the Chincoteague, Rappahannock and Back Bay wildlife refuges, the Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery, removal of two dams in western Virginia, and support for two other fish and wildlife programs in the state.

Harrison Lake National Fish Hatchery was created during the Depression with a water-supply system dating to the late 18th century. And that’s what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is still using today at the Charles City County hatchery, which is helping stock Virginia’s rivers with American shad, nursing a fledgling sturgeon fishery and restoring endangered mussels to state tributaries.

Abrief rain shower yesterday afternoon delayed the start of the Virginia Indian Nations Pow-wow but did nothing to dampen the spirits of those in attendance. Sounds from drums rolled across the Chickahominy Tribal Grounds, drowning out the staccato beat of raindrops pattering on overhead tents.

The Virginia Department of Transportation has awarded seven highway contracts, worth about $5.5 million, for construction and maintenance projects in central and Southside Virginia.

• Lee Hy Paving Corp. of Glen Allen received two contracts totaling about $2 million for paving work in Charles City, Goochland, Hanover, Henrico and New Kent counties.

Once inhospitable because of pesticides, a nearly 40-mile stretch of the tidal, freshwater James now harbors one of the country’s top concentrations of eagles, herons and other fish-eating birds.

Bid goodbye to state Route 5’s old, gapped, sagging span over the Chickahominy River, and say hello to the new Judith Stewart Dresser Memorial Bridge. The $33.6million span will open to traffic today, the Virginia Department of Transportation said, replacing a balky, 70-year-old bridge that has to swing open to allow boats to pass. “The drive to Williamsburg will be made much easier now that they have the new bridge,“ said Charles City resident Doris Slusser. “It’s a big help for me.