A man suspected of fatally shooting four men in the parking lot of a North Carolina television shop was arrested early Monday in Virginia, police said. Police in Mount Airy, N.C., said Marcos Chavez Gonzalez was arrested without incident at a motel in Henry County, about 50 miles northeast of Mount Airy near the state line. He was charged with four counts of murder.

Denny Hamlin passes Jimmie Johnson, ending the three-time defending series champion’s run of five trips to victory lane in the previous six races at the shortest circuit in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

MARTINSVILLE - Ryan Newman edged Jeff Gordon in qualifying for tomorrow’s Tums Fast Relief 500, turning a lap of 96.795 mph yesterday to secure the pole position as the second half of NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup gets under way. “It’s the place to be, no doubt, and it’s the place to finish,“ said Newman, who is eighth in the championship points standings through the first five Chase races. “Obviously, that’s what we want.“

CONCORD, N.C. - Casey Mears didn’t expect to find himself looking for work so soon. The NASCAR veteran began the year as the newest driver at Richard Childress Racing, taking over the wheel of the No. 07 Chevrolet and hoping to revive a career that couldn’t get out of neutral at Hendrick Motorsports. Mears has done that, putting himself 18th in points entering tomorrow night’s race at Martinsville, ahead of established RCR stars Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick. But the final five races still could be another audition for Mears after Jack Daniels, the primary sponsor on his car, chose not to return in 2010.

Bassett Furniture Industries says it will close its fiberboard manufacturing plant in Henry County by the end of the year, ending 45 jobs.

Jobs and money are coming to the Martinsville area of Southside Virginia. American Foods Group LLC sold its meat snack division to a Tennessee company that plans to invest $3 million to expand production at a plant at Patriot Centre Industrial Park in Henry County near the city of Martinsville. Employment at the facility will nearly double from 130 employees to 250 in October when the expansion is expected to take place, said Karl Schledwitz, chairman and CEO of Monogram Food Solutions LLC, based in Memphis.

SPRING GARDEN Pat Gatewood’s job is more than a labor of love. It’s one that delivers peace and comfort to families grieving the death of a loved one. Gatewood releases doves at funeral services, a business she began about eight years ago after the death of a friend in Martinsville. The family had wanted doves sent off at the funeral but ended up having to seek out someone in Richmond to perform the service. There were no available birds in the area, she said.

Microbes are extremely small organisms such as bacteria, protozoa and fungi. Even though we can’t easily see them, they are all around us. Like it or not, microbes live on us and inside us. When people talk about “germs,“ they’re generally talking about microbes. Many diseases are caused by microbes. Plague, tuberculosis and pneumonia are caused by bacteria. Malaria is caused by a protozoan (a single-celled organism) that is spread among animals by mosquitoes. Also, many diseases, including swine flu, hepatitis and rabies, are caused by viruses, another type of microbe.

Consistency has become too important to NASCAR. The holy grail in NASCAR is the Sprint Cup points championship. In order to compete for the grail, drivers must rank among the top 12 after 26 races. They then spend 10 races running for the Cup while the others get in the way. Too much emphasis is placed on top 10 finishes in Races 1 through 26, and not enough is placed on winning.

Hundreds of thousands of bats have mysteriously died in the northeastern United States in the past three years. This situation causes great concern for our planet. Bats are important for our environment and even our physical health. Most bats in North America eat insects. You could call them “flying bug zappers.“ Some of their insect prey, such as gnats, merely annoy us. However, others can transmit harmful diseases that infect animals. For instance, bats eat mosquitoes, which are capable of carrying the West Nile virus that is very harmful to people.

What are potholes? If asked, most of us probably think of those holes that appear in pavement after a winter of snow, ice and thaw. But to geologists, potholes also can mean the holes eroded into the solid bedrock of river channels. The location, shape and size of these potholes give us useful information on the channel-forming processes.

The city with the highest unemployment rate in Virginia is losing more jobs. GSI Commerce Inc. is closing its call center in Martinsville, eliminating 279 jobs. The King of Prussia, Pa.-based e-commerce and marketing services company said yesterday that the Martinsville operation will be consolidated into call centers in Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia, as well as a virtual network of work-at-home professionals. The consolidation will result in phasing out of the Southside Virginia center from June through September.

Mary Greer says she worked at the same Martinsville factory for 42 years, but after being laid off in August, she doesn’t believe she’ll ever find a job in this city again. “There’s really no work around here,“ the 61-year-old said recently as she left the Virginia Employment Commission’s Martinsville office. “I call [businesses] two times a week, and they all say the same thing, ‘We’re not hiring.‘“

Martinsville police believe they have solved a 34-year-old homicide, but no one will be charged because the suspects have died—one at the hands of his co-conspirator, police said. Two years ago, at the request of the victim’s family, investigators reopened the case into the 1975 killing of Kyle Stanley Oakley. Oakley, 41, frequently slept at the Liberty Road Sunoco service station where he worked. In the early hours of Jan. 5, 1975, he was shot and killed during a robbery there. Police worked the case for nearly five years before it went cold.

Virginia State Police are investigating the death of a 17-year-old Martinsville boy who died Thursday after a city police officer used a Taser on him. Martinsville Police Chief Mike Rogers said officer R.L. Wray, now on paid administrative leave, approached the boy in a home on Rives Road and used his stun gun when the boy “moved rapidly” toward him in an offensive manner.