Like a virus, statutory restrictions on panhandling have been spreading throughout Central Virginia. What began in Richmond moved to Henrico, and now threatens to infect Hanover. County officials will hold a hearing in mid-October on an ordinance that would forbid people to sell, solicit, or distribute literature on public roads. Legitimate concerns about safety underlie the proposal. People darting in and out of traffic present a danger to themselves and to others, and localities certainly should be able to restrict such behavior.

Henrico County police have arrested a Highland Springs woman on drug, alcohol, and neglect charges. Police allege that Melissa Ann Getchell, 28, of the 500 block of East Beal Street was with her two children, 10 and 8, Friday afternoon when employees at a CVS store on East Nine Mile Road called police. Getchell was charged with neglect, being drunk in public and possession of a controlled substance, according to arrest reports. She was “nodding out” and failed several sobriety tests, according to police.

A Midlothian man has been arrested by Henrico County police on a charge of exposing himself at a county bookstore. Police say that Leslie B. Boone, 56, was in the magazine section of the Barnes & Noble Booksellers yesterday about 6:45 p.m. near Virginia Center Commons when he exposed himself to a 23-year-old woman. Store employees called police, who arrested Boone in the parking lot as he was leaving the area, police said.

Two Labrador retrievers are undergoing six-month quarantines after a rabid raccoon was found dead in the backyard of their owner’s Sandston home. Henrico County police said this evening that the raccoon tested positive for rabies after it was discovered Friday in the yard of a home in the 200 block of Antioch Drive. Rabies shots for both dogs expired two years ago, police said. Both dogs are being quarantined even though it is not certain they were in contact with the animal. Henrico’s Animal Protection unit is urging residents to keep rabies shots up to date and to avoid contact with any animals or pets that are acting oddly.

Two people died from injuries received in a two-vehicle crash Friday at South Holly Avenue and Pleasant Street in Highland Springs. Henrico County police and fire responded to the crash in east Henrico at about 5:45 p.m. Police said David B. Hicks, 58, of South Ivy Avenue and Harriet G. Meadowcroft, 78, of Longstreet Avenue were killed in the crash. Both addresses are in Highland Springs.

WEEK’S END In Pragmatism and the Tragic Sense of Life, Sidney Hook described the dilemma of choosing between two rights, between two goods. The vote on Henrico’s Comprehensive Plan resembles just such a circumstance. The preservation of green space defines a good. Respect for property rights similarly defines a good. Henrico does not want to become a continuous subdivision from West End to East. We sympathize with the Varina residents committed to retaining their corner’s tranquility.

Henrico County police have arrested two suspects in a string of West End burglaries and larcenies that targeted televisions and video game systems. Henrico Police Lt. Doug Perry said the two men are believed to be involved in burglaries dating back to February and that both men were arrested yesterday shortly after two burglaries and grand larcenies.

University of Richmond, owner; Taylor & Parrish Inc., contractor; 1 Gateway Road, academic building expansion, $10.1 million. RCS Group LLC; 2508 Alexander Ave., $77,916; 3601 Lynhaven Ave., $122,914. Gary R. Treaster, owner; Hilton M. Rubin Inc., contractor; 5301 Horne St., $120,000. Robert B. Scoggins, owner; Ark Construction, contractor; 1820 Monument Ave., alterations, $195,000.

Henrico County police said today they have arrested a Richmond man they believe was responsible for as many as 40 office break-ins dating back to February. In addition, Chesterfield County police have charged Cornelius Baker, 43, of the 1700 block of Peter Paul Boulevard in the city with two break-ins there. Henrico police spokesman Lt. Doug Perry said that Baker was followed by Henrico undercover agents July 1 when he was spotted trying to enter an office within the Boulders office complex off Midlothian Turnpike near the city line.

A man who crashed a cookout and shot one of the partygoers after a struggle is being charged with malicious wounding and a firearms violation. Henrico County police identified the man this morning as Ian Sean Norris of the 7600 block of Beth Road. Police said Norris stumbled into a patio party at an apartment complex in the 5900 block of Queensthorpe Court and tried to enter the building, although no one recognized the man.

A gunshot victim and his friends overpowered the shooter, took the gun, held him down and summoned police earlir tonight in Henrico County, authorities said.

A Henrico woman who poisoned herself and her twin 3-year-old sons will spend 10 years in prison, Circuit Judge Catherine C. Hammond decided yesterday. Kellyann J. Wright, 41, pleaded guilty to two counts of malicious bodily injury in April after her sons had been found unresponsive in the family’s western Henrico County home in October 2008.

In an emotional verdict last year that left his family in tears and his lawyers wondering where they went wrong, Wyatt Ward Hollar accepted with a calm, soldierlike presence a jury’s decision that he had shot and killed his girlfriend. On Oct. 31, the Virginia Military Institute graduate and Iraq war veteran, 29, was sentenced to 15 years in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder and a firearms violation. He had told a Henrico County jury that the young woman had committed suicide.

Henrico County authorities believe the shooting death of a 2-year-old boy in January was an accident and that convictions in the case yesterday will end prosecutions in the matter. There was no physical evidence of who shot Kristofer L. Jefferson in an eastern Henrico home filled with children and with a long history of violent conduct.

A Henrico County judge ordered William Scott Baker held without bond this afternoon and set a hearing on an attempted abduction charge for September. William Scott Baker, who appeared disoriented and apologetic during a brief video appearance from the Henrico jail, was arrested Saturday night after he allegedly tried to abduct a 4-year-old girl from a parking lot in the 4000 block of Cox Road. The girl’s family and passers-by detained Baker until police arrived.