New Kent The New Kent Ruritan Club and Virginia Blood Services will hold a blood drive on Wednesday from 3 to 8 p.m. at the Quinton Community Center. Register by logging onto www.vadonor.com and enter “nkruritan” as the sponsor code. Petersburg The annual Lighting of Petersburg will be Friday from 6:15 to about 10 p.m. at the Old Towne Visitor Center and Union Train Station. The event includes music from the Virginia State University Marching Trojans and a visit by Santa.

The Hopewell City Council this week will send a request to the General Assembly to amend the city’s charter to provide for a seven-member School Board.

MONDAY, DEC. 1 New Kent County School Board, 7 p.m., New Kent High School auditorium, 7501 Egypt Road. TUESDAY, DEC. 2 Chesterfield County Joint Board of Supervisors/School Board Liaison Committee, 11 a.m., Room 505, Lane B. Ramsey Administration Building, 9901 Lori Road. Hopewell Public Schools Special Education Advisory Council, 3:30 p.m., School Board Office, 103 N. 12th Ave.

Community events in Richmond, Henrico, Hanover, Goochland, New Kent, Chesterfield, Powhatan and Tri-Cities. SATURDAY, NOV. 29 Craft Bazaar and Outreach, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Ladysmith Baptist Church, 19443 Jefferson Davis Highway. Details: (540) 226-2911.  TUESDAY, DEC. 2 Christmas Concert, presented by the Virginia State University Concert Choir, 7 p.m., Anderson-Turner Auditorium, Virginia Hall. Free. Details: (804) 524-5311 or (804) 524-5342.

Green Dinneen Ethanol represents a national boon, or a delusion. Those are the competing views of Bob Dinneen, president and chief executive officer of the Renewable Fuels Association, an industry group, and Kenneth P. Green, a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank.

Caroline To help compensate for a $2.7 million shortfall in budget projections, the Caroline County Board of Supervisors has asked for 15 percent cuts in most county operations. The cuts will include schools, but not at the full 15 percent rate because that would push the county below the state’s minimum level of school funding. An exact cut in school funding is still under discussion. The county has also imposed a hiring freeze and is prepared to put off capital purchases until after 2010.

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.

Craig Shealy seems taken aback by the concerns he has heard about the ethanol plant his company is building in Hopewell. Will it stink? Will it pollute the air? What about an explosion? “It’s a big moonshine still, guys,“ said Shealy, president and chief executive officer of Osage Bio Energy.

Former NFL star Michael Vick is back in Virginia to plead guilty to state dogfighting charges, a move he hopes will expedite his return to society and, eventually, pro football.

MONDAY, NOV. 24 Richmond City Council, begins at 3 p.m. with an informal meeting followed by a formal meeting at 6 p.m., council chambers, 900 E. Broad St.  TUESDAY, NOV. 25 Chesterfield County Board of Supervisors, 3 p.m., Public Meeting Room, County Administration Building, 10001 Iron Bridge Road. Prince George County Board of Supervisors, 7 p.m., third-floor boardroom, County Administration Building, 6602 Courts Drive.

Chesterfield The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) has presented the Chesterfield County Department of Utilities with its top utility management award. Chesterfield’s utilities department was one of only 11 public drinking-water systems in the country to receive the Platinum Award for Utility Excellence. Henrico The next constituent meeting of Supervisor Frank J. Thornton of Fairfield District will

Caroline Fifteen people were arrested yesterday on a total of 57 indictments in what the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office described as a war on illegal drugs and distribution. The arrests resulted from a yearlong undercover drug investigation. The indictments, handed up by a Caroline grand jury Oct. 1, ranged from distribution of cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine to distribution of marijuana.

During a traffic stop in northeast Texas last week, police discovered about $17,000 stashed in a car driven by a Hopewell woman, authorities said. Sherrie Dee Jamison, 30, of Hopewell was arrested along with a female passenger, authorities said. A 14-month-old baby found in the car’s back seat was placed in protective custody. Joshua Hatfield, a police officer in Mount Pleasant, Texas, said he and another officer pursued the car on Interstate 30 after he saw it speed by. Jamison said she was headed to Waco, according to Hatfield. He said the women acted nervous, and after a criminal background check, police asked to search the car. After getting permission, officers found $16,620 in the trunk.

The Crossings Cinema near Hopewell closed Sunday night, a victim of the faltering economy and a decline in the quality of the movies, its co-owner said. “You look at what movies are coming along, and it looks like it’s more of the same. I don’t see anything in there that’s going to be exceptional enough that it looks like [business] is going to be better,“ said Roy Tompkins, the independent theater’s co-owner.