A National Guard member convicted last month of murdering his girlfriend is a step closer to getting a new trial. Judge Gary A. Hicks of Henrico County Circuit Court agreed yesterday to suspend formal imposition of a 15-year sentence he issued Oct. 31 against
Wyatt Ward Hollar after a four-day jury trial. The move gives Hicks time to consider motions from Hollar’s defense team for a mistrial and comes just two days before the sentence would have become final. Hicks issued a conviction order Nov. 5 that cannot be amended after 21 days.

Two Richmonders are willing to pay the cost of bolstering a big willow oak in North Side that the city recently marked for removal. One of the residents, veterinarian Kim Kuhn, lives beside the tree in the 3900 block of Seminary Avenue in Ginter Park. Kuhn said two members of the city’s urban-forestry staff told her Monday that the oak would be cut unless she paid an expert to bolster it with cables.

As plans progress for an ethanol plant in Hopewell, a Kentucky town’s experience offers insights on what to expect in Virginia.
SLIDESHOW: Living with ethanol production in Hopkinsville, Ky.

Tonya Felice squeaked the rubber chicken in her hand, and her students whipped their heads around as they typed on a new technology gadget. “We don’t hunt and peck; we’re not chickens,“ the fourth-grade teacher at Salem Church Elementary School told her students.

Give the University of Virginia players credit for this: They stick together. On a day when the defense could have pointed all its collective fingers at the Cavalier offense for lack of support, not a single defender cracked.