There will be no tricks, treats or Halloween parties this year for many of Virginia’s convicted sex criminals. Officers with the Virginia Department of Corrections and the Virginia State Police are teaming up again to make sure registered sex offenders who are under state supervision won’t cause any harm to young ghouls and goblins.

Boyle Dentistry
6366 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Mechanicsville
Tomorrow, 2-4 p.m.
  Dr. Vicki Tibbs
2700 Pocahontas Trail, Quinton
Tomorrow, 2-5 p.m.
  Dr. John J. Andre
10863 W. Broad St., Glen Allen and 208B Elm Ave., Louisa
Monday-Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  Children’s Dentistry of Virginia

After getting their cleaning products approved by the county health department, Amelia County school employees and contractors began disinfecting buses and schools.

The Federal Club, with a $9 million Arnold Palmer-designed golf course, opened three years ago with high-profile promise. Today, the club and the surrounding upscale housing development known as Mountain Run off U.S. 33 in Hanover County is in bankruptcy protection. Mountain Run Golf Inc. and Mountain Run LLC filed for Chapter 11 on Tuesday afternoon in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Richmond. Together they represent the golf club and course and unsold residential parcels.

Hanover County Sheriff’s Office auctions typically include the kind of horsepower found in seized cars and trucks, not Thoroughbreds. But a 2-year-old gray colt that currently lives at Horseshoe Hill Farm in Ashland is up for grabs next month. The colt, with no name, is valued at about $8,000 and will be part of a sheriff’s office public auction Nov. 4, said Horseshoe Hill owner Stephanie Nixon. The auction will take place at the farm, 14329 Horseshoe Bridge Road, at 9 a.m., with inspection beginning at 8 a.m.

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.

Manchester Middle School student Michael Turner thinks he would like to apply for the International Baccalaureate program at Meadowbrook High School for next fall, when he’ll start as a freshman. “I’m open to a lot of ideas and opportunities,“ he said Thursday evening while he waited with his parents for an IB presentation at Meadowbrook High.

Virginia’s graduation and dropout rates improved slightly over last year, with varied results across districts in the Richmond region. Data released yesterday by the Virginia Department of Education showed 83.2 percent of students who started ninth grade in the 2005-06 school year earned a state-approved diploma within four years. The on-time graduation rate for the 98,043 students in the Class of 2009 is an uptick from the four-year graduation rate of 82.2 percent for the Class of 2008.

Driving north on Chamberlayne Avenue from downtown, you’ll see a nondescript beige building that sits off to the left. From a distance, it looks like any warehouse in any urban area in America. But look a little closer and what you’ll find is a nearly 60-year-old building that has been gutted and renovated by its owners, brothers David and Tom Kern.

High school public-announcement systems. Barking dogs. Dirt bikes. Motorcycles. Some or all of these have generated complaints from Hanover County residents about excessive noise. As a result, the Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing next month on proposed changes to its noise ordinance. Here’s what’s happening and why. What prompted the county to revisit its noise ordinance?

The Hanover County Board of Supervisors will have a public hearing Nov. 10 to gauge support for the federal transportation enhancement program for 2011. The program is part of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users, and it provides money for any of 12 activities that improve nonmotorized transportation, revitalize communities and improve overall quality of life.

Chesterfield County is projecting a $4 million pinch on its current fiscal year’s budget because of state cuts. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine last month announced a fiscal 2010 budget-reduction plan that will mean about $1.5 billion worth of cuts in state spending. As a result, Chesterfield officials expect to see at least $3.85 million less than expected from the state for the county’s $716 million general fund.

After a discussion that seemed to go in circles, the Hanover County Board of Supervisors last night voted 4-3 to defer action on a proposed solicitation ordinance. Board Vice Chairman G. Ed Via III, as well as board members Aubrey M. Stanley and Elton J. Wade Sr., voted against the motion. The proposed ordinance presented last night would have allowed the county to prohibit or regulate the distribution of handbills or similar materials, the solicitation of contributions and the sale of merchandise or services on public roads and private roads designated as highways.

Robert E. Snead Sr., a retired pressroom manager who worked for Richmond Newspapers for 44 years, died Tuesday after suffering from Parkinson’s disease for many years. He was 80. Mr. Snead, of Manakin-Sabot, started in newspapering in 1950, when his father got him a position as an apprentice pressman. Mr. Snead’s father worked for the Richmond Times-Dispatch for 52 years as a pressman, and six of Mr. Snead’s uncles worked for the paper at one time or another.

Hanover County’s School Board heard from more than a dozen people last night at its pre-budget public hearing. They ranged from a former homeless, single mother who supports funding Head Start, to kindergarten instructional assistants who say their influence on children affects the students for the rest of their lives. School officials have warned the 2010-11 budget situation may be worse than the current year’s. Another year of reductions of more than $10 million is likely.