HOPEWELL—After nearly two years of setbacks, the conversion of the historic James E. Mallonee school into 51 residential loft units is on track for a spring opening. The luxury apartments at the building, which once housed Hopewell High School, will be available for rent starting in April, said developer Mickey Garcia, owner of Suffolk-based Garcia Development LLC.

HOPEWELL—The incumbent commonwealth’s attorney in Hopewell was defeated by a big margin last night, while Petersburg’s sheriff and Colonial Heights’ commissioner of the revenue easily won re-election. Newcomer Richard K. “Rick” Newman defeated Anthony N. “Nino” Sylvester for Hopewell’s commonwealth’s attorney. Newman, 53, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Petersburg who has lived in Hopewell less than a year, received 62 percent of the vote, compared with Sylvester’s 38 percent.

HOPEWELL—The incumbent commonwealth’s attorney in Hopewell was defeated by a big margin last night, while Petersburg’s sheriff and Colonial Heights’ commissioner of the revenue easily won re-election. Newcomer Richard K. “Rick” Newman defeated incumbent Anthony N. “Nino” Sylvester for Hopewell’s commonwealth’s attorney. Newman, 53, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Petersburg who has lived in Hopewell less than a year, received 62 percent of the vote, compared with Sylvester’s 38 percent.

In the Tri-Cities elections, Hopewell elected a new commonwealth’s attorney, and Colonial Heights’ commissioner of revenue survived a challenge. In Hopewell, challenger Richard K. “Rick” Newman defeated incumbent Anthony N. “Nino” Sylvester to become the commonwealth’s attorney. Newman, 53, is an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Petersburg who has lived in Hopewell for less than a year.

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.

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

A Hopewell man surrendered to police yesterday in Friday’s fatal shooting of an acquaintance in Prince George County. Robert Edward Moore, 30, turned himself in about 11:15 a.m. and was charged with second-degree murder in the slaying of William Joseph Miller Jr., 39, who was found shot to death in the driveway of his sister’s home in the 3700 block of Prince George Drive. Moore also was charged with using a firearm in the commission of murder.

A new city resident is challenging incumbent Anthony N. “Nino” Sylvester in the race for commonwealth’s attorney. Sylvester, 44, was first elected in 2000 and ran unopposed for re-election in 2001 and 2005. Challenger Richard K. “Rick” Newman, 53, an assistant commonwealth’s attorney in Petersburg, is promoting a new focus on gang activity.

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.

HOPEWELL—Rontel Taylor’s decision to change his hairstyle last week effectively caused a mistrial yesterday in his murder case. As jurors in his first-degree murder trial deliberated his fate during the trial’s second day, one panel member suddenly realized she knew the defendant and told her fellow jurors. She apparently didn’t recognize him earlier because he had cut off his dreadlocks around Oct. 8 and now sports a close-cut look.

A fugitive whom police tracked back and forth from Richmond to Surry County in recent days was apprehended in Surry and charged in the fatal shootings of two Petersburg men last weekend in Hopewell. Shawn Wooden, 34, of Richmond was taken into custody Tuesday by a contingent of law-enforcement agencies that had been chasing him since Sunday’s killings of Kashif Temple, 24, and Antonio Spain, 22. The two men were found slain in a car in the 2300 block of Freeman Road in Hopewell’s Arlington Heights area.

Authorities yesterday arrested a man in Surry County in connection with Sunday’s slaying of two Petersburg men in the Arlington Heights area of Hopewell. Hopewell police, with the assistance of Waverly and Richmond police and members of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, apprehended Shawn Wooden in the shooting deaths of Kashif Temple, 24, and Antonio Spain, 22, according to a Hopewell police news release.

Hopewell police are investigating the city’s third and fourth homicides of the year with the double slaying of two Petersburg men found shot to death Sunday in the Arlington Heights area. Police received a shots-fired call about 10 p.m. in the 2300 block of Freeman Street, a neighborhood near Winston Churchill Drive and Arlington Road. When officers arrived, they discovered the bodies of two men in a car in a vacant lot between Freeman and Waverly streets, according to neighbors.

Police in Hopewell are investigating the shooting deaths of two Petersburg men. The victims were found last night in a vehicle. They have been identified as Kashif Temple, 24, and Antonio Spain, 22. Police said they discovered the victims after responding to a call from a resident who heard gunshots.

Central Virginia has seen a slight increase in homicides so far this year, with higher numbers in Richmond and Petersburg offsetting improved numbers elsewhere. For the first nine months of the year, the region had 59 homicides, compared with 55 at the same time last year. The biggest shift has been in Richmond, where city police recorded seven more homicides as of Sept. 30 than a year earlier. Richmond’s nine-month count of 34 exceeds the total of 32 homicides for all of 2008.