Richmond police arrested 21 women and 10 men in four citywide prostitution stings over eight days. The operations were conducted along Chamberlayne Avenue, Hull Street and Jefferson Davis Highway between Aug. 20 and Aug. 28. The women charged with prostitution ranged in age from 23 to 57 and listed addresses in Richmond and Chesterfield County, according to police.

A Louisa County man pleaded guilty yesterday to distributing methamphetamine and cocaine after police found more than 82 grams of both drugs in his car last summer. Charles Langton, 42, was convicted of felony distribution of cocaine and methamphetamine in Louisa Circuit Court. A judge set sentencing for Nov. 16. In a summary of evidence, Deputy Commonwealth’s Attorney Rusty McGuire said officers responded to Langton’s home July 20, 2008, after authorities received a 911 call about a possible suicide attempt. When the officers arrived, Langton told them that he was high on two grams of “ice”—a street name for methamphetamine—and needed help.

A Hanover County man will spend nearly 30 years in prison for second-degree murder in the brutal stomping death of his disabled, elderly cousin last August. Judge Timothy K. Sanner of Louisa County Circuit Court yesterday suspended 15 years of a 40-year sentence for Jerome Mallory, 42, and tacked on an additional 3½ years from a previously suspended sentence.

WARES CROSSROADS There is no black-tie requirement at the Lake Anna Yacht Club, no minimum income and no pretense. Neither is there a clubhouse, pool or restaurant, although there are plans for each. There is, however, a 42-slip, covered pier with lifts and storage and a yacht club commodore. “We have about 12 or 13 members and we’re working on getting some more social functions going,“ said club commodore Joan Reutter of Manassas. “Most of what we do as a yacht club is keep the docks in good shape and figure out what we want to do in the future.“

The number of Virginia schools that made Adequate Yearly Progress goals in reading and math dropped slightly during the 2008-09 school year after the passing rates got a little tougher. But there were some bright spots. A few local school divisions improved despite the higher benchmarks—including Petersburg, which has a long history of low performance on standardized testing.

The death of a longtime pilot on Lake Anna in Louisa County on Sunday has stunned friends and flying companions who say he was a fixture in the flying community throughout Virginia. “He was one of the top pilots I’ve ever known,“ said Gene McDonough, president of Million Air in Richmond, a private charter service. Edward B. Toth, 46, worked for McDonough for several years beginning in 1990, and the two had maintained a close friendship. Toth was especially well-known in Richmond, McDonough said. Toth’s father lives in Colonial Heights and his mother in Urbanna.

A pilot whose homemade airplane crashed in Lake Anna on Sunday died from blunt-force trauma to the neck and chest, the state medical examiner’s office said. Edward B. Toth, 46, a veteran pilot from Nokesville in Prince William County, apparently died on impact from what is being listed as an accidental death. State police said yesterday that Toth was in the process of taking off from the lake when the two-seat, single-engine Maxair Drifter lost power, hit the water, and cartwheeled nose first. The partially submerged plane, which has no doors, was upside down with Toth strapped into his seat.

A pilot whose homemade airplane crashed in Lake Anna yesterday died from blunt force trauma to the neck and chest, the state medical examiner’s office says. Edward B. Toth, 46, a veteran pilot from Nokesville in Prince William County, apparently died on impact from what is being listed as an accidental death. Toth was flying with his 17-year-old daughter in a two-seat, single-engine Maxair Drifter when the plane went down near the southern shore of Lake Anna yesterday in Louisa County about 1 p.m. The Federal Aviation Administration and Virginia State Police are investigating the crash.

When it comes to learning about fire, there’s no substitute for the real thing. That’s the theory behind a new training building Louisa County is erecting. Officials broke ground recently on a “burn building,“ a structure designed to burn up without burning down. Firefighters will line rooms of the building with pallets, light them, then train in the flame-engulfed rooms while instructors monitor the heat inside from a control panel. They hope to have it completed by the end of this year.

More than 30 years after a man sexually abused a 10-year-old girl in Louisa County, he pleaded guilty yesterday to charges of sodomy and taking indecent liberties with a child. Richard Clinton Moore Jr., 58, was convicted for crimes that took place in 1980 and 1981, when the girl was about 10. Moore had been accused of sexually abusing the girl in 1987, and even though the allegation was determined to be founded by social-services officials in Louisa and forwarded to county law-enforcement officials, no charges were placed, authorities confirmed yesterday.

Central Virginia is on pace to record more homicides this year than last, a trend largely driven by more killings in Richmond, suburban Henrico County and Petersburg. Forty-eight slayings occurred during the first six months of this year in the 24 localities that make up the Richmond Metropolitan Statistical Area, compared with 42 during the same period last year.

The state medical examiner’s office is unable to determine a cause of death for the human remains unearthed in April from a shallow grave in Amelia County, a spokesman said yesterday. Advanced decomposition has forced the medical examiner’s office to rule the cause of death as undetermined for the skeletal remains believed to be those of Clent Chavers, according to Steve Murman, a spokesman for the office.

A Henrico County man was sentenced to five years in prison yesterday for sexually soliciting online a police detective posing as a 13-year-old. Julian Martin, 54, pleaded guilty in March in Louisa County Circuit Court to electronic solicitation of a minor on June 26. According to evidence, Martin initiated a conversation online with a female Louisa sheriff’s investigator who he believed was a 13-year-old girl. After talking about providing the teen beer and wine, the conversation turned sexual, said Chief Deputy Commonwealths Attorney Russell E. “Rusty” McGuire.

Investigators are taking a closer look at the death of a third person with ties to Ulisa Mary Chavers. Authorities said they are examining the death of Eleanor K. Bowles, the mother of Chavers’ boyfriend.

A woman accused of hiding her boyfriend’s body in a well in Louisa County pleaded not guilty to all charges yesterday. Ulisa Mary Chavers, 60, pleaded not guilty to charges of concealing a body, identity theft, credit-card fraud and possession of a sawed-off rifle. A trial was set for Oct. 21. On March 6, authorities found the body of Chavers’ boyfriend, Reginal Cody Bowles, in a well on his property in the Mineral area, where Chavers also lived.