Police officers and firefighters from around the Richmond region were recognized yesterday for their selfless acts of bravery. They risked their lives to rescue people from burning trucks, water-submerged cars, smoke-filled buildings and collapsed trenches. They also apprehended dangerous criminals with guns. And for their efforts, they were awarded gold, silver and bronze awards at the 20th annual Valor Awards breakfast at the Greater Richmond Convention Center.

The former headmaster of Benedictine High School is suing his former employer, alleging that the school broke his employment agreement when he was forced out in a reorganization this year. John B. McGinty’s suit, filed in Richmond Circuit Court last month, contends that his employment agreement of July 1, 2006, to June 30, 2007, provided for automatic one-year renewals unless the school notified him otherwise by April 1.

A driver for a Richmond day-care center faces 15 years in prison after being convicted in the death of a 13-month-old boy who was left in a van used by the center on a hot July day. Keishawn L. Whitfield was convicted yesterday by Richmond Circuit Judge Beverly W. Snukals after a trial that lasted nearly three hours. Whitfield, 24, is to be sentenced Jan. 8, when he could get up to 10 years for involuntary manslaughter and five years for felony child neglect.

Less than 24 hours after the worst mass shooting at a U.S. military base, a gunman yesterday killed one and injured five at an Orlando, Fla., office building. News of such scenarios, though still jarring, has become all too familiar. “We periodically have these types of crimes in the United States. The unusual thing is to have two incidents so close together,“ said Dr. Joan L. Neff, a criminologist and associate professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Richmond.

PROJECT: Bookshelf unit/window seat TIME: Two weeks spread over six months COST: $600-$700 HOW THEY DID IT: Jim Savage saw an idea in a home-improvement magazine for a built-in bookshelf with a window seat. He decided it could be a do-it-yourself project for his Richmond home. Savage built the cabinets out of plywood with poplar face frames and trim. The lower-cabinet doors are poplar. Crown molding trims the top of the two upper units. He was able to reuse baseboard that already was in place.

Noting the steep drop in state financial support, yesterday Virginia Commonwealth University alumni launched a campaign to raise $50 million for scholarships and fellowships for the academic and medical campuses. The VCU and Medical College of Virginia alumni associations said the money raised for Opportunity VCU would support undergraduate and graduate scholarships and fellowships for graduate students across all academic units.

A wave of aging baby boomers is coming, and the Older Dominion Partnership is making sure Virginia is prepared. In a meeting at the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s downtown offices yesterday, about 100 people discussed the nonprofit group’s efforts, its progress and hopes for the future. Created in 2007 by community leaders with the support of the Richmond Memorial Health Foundation and others, the Older Dominion Partnership is a nonprofit initiative aimed at helping Virginia prepare for that demographic shift, or age wave.

The scene at the main branch of the Richmond Public Library—or any library, for that matter—doesn’t usually inspire a comparison to the running of the bulls. But the frenzy surrounding the Friends of the Richmond Public Library Book Sale, where more than 30,000 used and donated books go on sale today for as little as 50 cents apiece, apparently motivates some people—if ever so briefly—to take leave of their senses.

Dominion Virginia Power customers would get back more than $400 million from the company under an agreement the state’s largest utility has reached with the state attorney general’s office and a group of large ratepayers. If approved by the State Corporation Commission, the proposed settlement of several pending Dominion Virginia Power rate cases would save a typical residential customer—using 1,000 kilowatt-hours of electricity a month—about $80 next year, the company said.

More information is
  available at www.
advancement.vcu.edu.

A 14-year-old girl reported missing more than a week ago by authorities in New York was found early yesterday in the company of a 33-year-old man at a hotel in Richmond. Richmond police arrested the man; the girl was being held by authorities in Richmond while her parents and police from her hometown came to Virginia. “In this day and age of missing juveniles and everything, it’s about as good an ending as we can get out of it,“ Richmond police Capt. Harvey S. Powers said.

Read more about the Older Dominion Partnership and its work at http://www.olderdominion.org.

Convicted slumlord Oliver C. Lawrence could serve his 70-day jail sentence in home confinement, but maybe not at his $1 million brick home in Ashland. The city of Richmond is asking that Lawrence, the owner of Bayou Properties, be ordered to live in one of his now-vacant, boarded-up homes in Church Hill North or Blackwell. Yesterday, General District Court Judge Barbara J. Gaden considered a motion for home confinement filed by Lawrence’s attorneys, but she did not make a decision.

Friends of the Richmond Public Library Book Sale
  Where: Main library, 101 E. Franklin St.
  When: Today, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. (members of Friends only; memberships available for $15); public sale, 1-5 p.m. and 7-9 p.m.; tomorrow, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.; Monday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.
  What: Hardbacks $1 and $2, paperbacks 75 cents and less, children’s books 50 cents, CDs $1, LP records 25 cents, sheet music 25 cents a sheet. Prices not negotiable.

Convicted slumlord Oliver C. Lawrence could serve his 70-day jail sentence in home confinement. The city of Richmond is asking that Lawrence, the owner of Bayou Properties, be ordered to live in one of his now-vacant, boarded-up homes in Church Hill North or Blackwell. General District Court Judge Barbara J. Gaden today considered a motion for home confinement filed by Lawrence’s attorneys, but she did not make a decision.