Deep-frying. Wood-smoking. Sous vide (the French vacuum-packing technique). The mind-numbing number of suggestions for mining flavor from the typically unforgiving Thanksgiving bird have proliferated in recent years. This year, leave them all behind.

Before they vote, Chesterfield County leaders will hear from the public tomorrow night about a proposal to prohibit the use of bows and arrows within 600 feet of a home. The ordinance change was initiated to address concerns from homeowners in Midlothian’s Salisbury community that people were hunting too close to homes. Currently, Chesterfield property owners and permitted guests are allowed to use bows anywhere on their property, so long as the arrow does not cross the property line. Because of growth in the county’s deer population, the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries allows additional bow hunting with site-specific “kill permits” on property adjacent to or within residential neighborhoods.

Attention was drawn to Virginia this week with the execution of John Allen Muhammad, the state’s 104th person to be executed since the U.S. Supreme Court allowed capital punishment to resume in 1976. Officials are preparing for another execution next week, but little noticed amid the recent activity in the state’s death chamber is that there has not been a death verdict from a jury in the state since March 2008.

Four deaths, a trail of flooding in Va. A major storm that flooded southeastern Virginia and drenched much of the state should release its grip over the weekend and allow floodwaters to recede. “It’s going to be a very slow process,“ said Mike Rusnak, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Wakefield. “We still expect some coastal flooding into Saturday.“

A Richmond jury last night convicted Judy Wright of felony child neglect in the shooting death of her only granddaughter and recommended a two-year sentence, the least possible. Wright walked from the courtroom at 8:30 p.m. into the waiting arms of her adult children outside, released on bond pending formal sentencing Jan. 6. Wright did not testify during her trial.

Are children in the Chimborazo neighborhood more at risk with or without their community center? That’s a source of debate since the evening of May 13, when 20-year-old Thomas H. Scott Jr. was shot four times in the back and killed on a playground just outside Chimborazo Elementary School. The school at North 31st and East Marshall streets was functioning at the time as a community center run by the Richmond Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities. The center closed after the shooting and has not reopened.

A Richmond jury last night convicted Judy Wright of felony child neglect in the shooting death of her only granddaughter and recommended a two-year sentence, the least possible. Wright walked from the courtroom at 8:30 p.m. into the waiting arms of her adult children outside, released on bond pending formal sentencing Jan. 6. Wright did not testify during her trial.

Public-health officials caution that shutting schools is not a cure-all for the flu epidemic. Under some circumstances, doing so can cause other social problems, they say.

As the two men campaigning for Virginia governor make last-minute sound bites to get out the vote on Tuesday, the virtual cocktail parties they host on their Facebook fan pages have exploded in activity. Both campaigns have rolled out Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, YouTube videos and other social media tools to reach voters over the course of the race, in addition to their primary Web sites.

Richmond metropolitan health facilities are largely, if temporarily, out of H1N1 flu vaccine. “In the region, all the local health departments are out of vaccine except for a small stock held off to the side primarily for pregnant women,“ said Dr. Donald Stern, director of the Richmond Health District. “We hope to get another shipment at the end of this week,“ Stern said yesterday. “The key word here is patience. It’s on its way.“

Chesterfield County police are investigating the thefts of 34 catalytic converters that were cut from new vehicles at two Chester car dealerships. The loss was estimated at $80,000. The converters were taken sometime between 9 p.m. last Saturday, Oct. 17, and 9 a.m. Monday from Colonial Honda at 2100 Walthall Center Drive and Priority Honda at 2000 Walthall Center Drive. The vehicles hit included new Honda Pilots, Honda Elements, Honda Ridgelines, Toyota Tundras and RAV4s.

The housing market in Virginia, including the Richmond area, has steadily improved this year and prices are stabilizing in some areas—but not yet here, the Virginia Association of Realtors reported yesterday. Sales rose in 14 of 26 areas in Virginia in the third quarter from the same period a year ago, the report said. But prices fell in 17 regions, including the Richmond area, where prices dropped nearly 12 percent from a year ago.

While acknowledging parts of a Northrop Grumman fix-it plan for the government’s troubled IT network could work, Virginia is not retreating from its claim that the giant company has violated its contract with the state. Northrop Grumman, hired under a 10-year, $2.3 billion contract that is at least a year behind schedule, is asking for more time and a freer hand to complete Virginia’s switch to a privately managed information-technology system.

Acouple dozen Virginia Commonwealth University students are off on a flight of fancy this weekend. Kind of. They can’t actually fly, you know—life as a muggle does have its drawbacks—but that’s about the only thing that’ll keep them grounded as they head to Middlebury, Vt., for tomorrow’s Intercollegiate Quidditch Association World Cup III.

Extra computers are headed to health offices as part of Virginia’s response to swine flu after the company providing IT services to the state initially resisted supplying the gear because it was uncertain it would be paid. Northrop Grumman attributes the holdup to a misunderstanding. The Virginia Health Department blames confusion that, once cleared up, led to a better deal for the agency.