Goodyear spokesman Keith Price said today the company’s proposed job cuts could impact 400 hourly workers at its plant in Danville.

Unemployment rates rose in 98 percent of U.S. metropolitan areas last year, with one of the largest increases in the Southside Virginia city of Danville, the Labor Department reported yesterday. Danville, which saw its jobless rate bolt to 11.5 percent, had the third-biggest increase of 5.6 percentage points, according to the federal data.

You can take the boys out of Danville, but the Page Bond Gallery’s current exhibition suggests you can’t take Danville out of the artists the boys become. “Maggie” presents 27 silver-gelatin prints and one color print that illuminate the indomitable spirit of a Danville woman, Margaret Ennis Booher Cooper, who will turn 100 this year.

A Midlothian woman plans to show off her pig’s painting abilities at a fundraiser in March for the Langhorne House. Fran Martin taught Smithfield, her 11½-year-old Vietnamese potbellied pig, about 10 years ago to pick up a brush with his mouth and stroke colors onto a canvas. The pig has appeared on YouTube, on talk and entertainment shows, and in newspapers and has performed for charities.

Local leaders hope to be on the cusp of the growing hybrid fuel technology with the announcement that the Advanced Vehicle Research Center is just days away from breaking ground at Cyber Park.

Joe Biden, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is adding a stop in Danville tomorrow. Biden’s schedule originally called for him to visit only Martinsville. On the Republican side, two of the party’s big names are coming to Chesterfield. Former New York Mayor Rudy Guiliani and Steve Forbes, the publisher and former presidential candidate, will appear Saturday on behalf of John McCain.