LYNCHBURG—Tomorrow’s election will be the last time Jerry Smith won’t vote. A couple of crimes from about 40 years ago, when he was a teenager, cost Smith the right to a spot at the polls. But it wasn’t until his status as a convicted felon also cost him a job he loved that he decided to regain what was lost amid his convictions—his right to vote, serve on a jury and run for political office.

Raised on a tobacco farm near Dungannon that had the first television set in the area, Tazewell County native Frederic David Fraley grew up fascinated by media. He played his guitar with a band on a daily radio show in the 1950s in Norton and was talking to fellow ham radio operators in Morse code by the time he was 15. After retiring from a career in social work in 2005, he started Fraley Family Videography and later produced and was host of a cable TV program called “People Helping People,“ which attracted national attention.

Two Richmond-area developers are working to pull one of Lynchburg’s oldest commercial buildings back from the brink of demolition. The old Piedmont Mills building milled wheat from local farmers into flour for decades.

LYNCHBURG—A former Liberty University administrator has been arrested for a second time this month and charged with breaking into a house. Scott Alan Ray, 43, of Lynchburg, was arrested on an outstanding warrant Monday and charged with breaking and entering, said Capt. Brandon Zuidema, of the Lynchburg Police Department. The warrant was issued last week following an investigation into an Aug. 20 break-in, Zuidema said. Ray is being held in the Blue Ridge Regional Jail without bond. His trial date has not been set.

Don’t expect room service or maid service at the Lynchburg Inn. Complimentary shampoo? Forget it. The former Ramada Inn on Odd Fellows Road might be bare-bones by hotel standards, but for a dormitory, it’s a jackpot. The unconventional dorm comes with perks left over from its hotel days: full-size beds, private bathrooms, built-in televisions and an outdoor pool.

Yesterday Virginia launched its first state-funded city-to-city passenger trains. The three-year, taxpayer-subsidized pilot program—making runs to Washington from Lynchburg and Richmond—will measure the feasibility of intercity rail. Virginia will shell out several million dollars a year to subsidize the operational side of the endeavor, on top of more than $100 million in infrastructure improvements.

A Lynchburg mother has been sentenced to 15 months in prison for neglecting her severely burned son for nearly a week. The incident sparked a manhunt after the 5-year-old blamed his mother’s former boyfriend of bending him backward over a tub of scalding water. Faith Loftin, 30, pleaded guilty in June to felony child neglect. Photos of the boy’s back submitted as evidence showed his burned skin peeling away “like paper,“ senior Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Janell Johnson said.

A Lynchburg attorney has been suspended for a year and a half by the Virginia State Bar after failing to meet the terms of a monthlong suspension last fall. Peter Sackett’s suspension comes after disciplinary actions by the state bar starting in 2007. When his license was suspended for a month in October 2008, Sackett was required to provide notice of the suspension. One of his clients in a civil case in Campbell County, however, complained to the bar that she learned about the suspension only after reading about it in the newspaper, according to bar records.

LYNCHBURG—Ed Bearss is 86, but you’d swear he was 175. When he talks about the Civil War, it’s in the voice of someone who has been there, who has heard the whine of the Minié balls passing overhead, eaten the wormy food, tromped for days on Virginia dirt roads. “That’s what makes him so popular,“ said Greg Starbuck, executive director of historic Sandusky, as Bearss led nearly 20 history buffs on a recent tour of several Battle of Lynchburg sites. “He really puts you there.“

LYNCHBURG—Tears ran down Mark Campbell’s face Wednesday as he listened to a recording of his 9-year-old daughter crying out while speaking to an emergency dispatcher: “I just called his name, but he didn’t respond, so I called 911! . . . Help is on the way, Daddy. Help is on the way. I love you.“ Even now, months after the incident, Campbell can’t remember the July afternoon when he had a seizure while Lexi was alone with him in their Madison Heights home.

Richmond-based Thalhimer/Cushman & Wakefield, has opened an office in Lynchburg, marking the sixth office for the commercial real estate firm. Norman Moon Jr., with nearly 24 years of experience in commercial real estate, has joined Thalhimer as first vice president. He will manage the Lynchburg office. Formerly, he was senior vice president at Hall Associates in Lynchburg and president of Milton Realty Service Co., which was purchased this year by Hall Associates.

LYNCHBURG—In a stunt that could come straight from a James Bond movie, professional skydiver Jim McCormick will parachute jump from an airplane over Candlers Mountain on Saturday, and—if all goes as planned—land on Liberty University’s new Snowflex ski slope. The feat is part of an all-day celebration marking the grand opening of the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre, a synthetic ski slope more than three years in the making that opened Aug. 1. The slopes will be open to the public for skiing, snowboarding and tubing.

About 85 employees at Genworth Financial Inc.‘s corporate offices in Henrico County were told Tuesday that their positions are being eliminated. The insurance giant is shifting some of its back-office functions in its annuity business to Lynchburg as part of Genworth’s ongoing review of its operations, spokesman Al Orendorff said. About 40 of the jobs will be transferred to Lynchburg, where the company is expanding its call center operations. Those employees will have the option of moving.

The Environmental Protection Agency has given Virginia $80.2 million in federal stimulus money for wastewater treatment improvements. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine accepted the money yesterday. It will be used to create jobs, improve aging water infrastructure, and protect human health and the environment. A news release says projects include work to eliminate sewage discharges from combined sewage overflow systems in Lynchburg and Richmond.