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.

Eight local governments in the Richmond area will have a new way to talk to one another in an emergency, with no telephone wires attached. A $1.73 million grant provided by the U.S. Homeland Security Department will allow emergency officials to complete a regional microwave system that allows them to share critical information in a natural or man-made disaster.

LANEXA—A year after he allegedly gunned down a Williamsburg teenager in possible self-defense, fled his rental home here in New Kent County, and then surrendered to federal agents in Alabama, John Steven Carter is still off the radar of the county prosecutor. “I just haven’t decided yet what we are going to do,“ said C. Linwood Gregory, New Kent’s commonwealth’s attorney, when asked about the high-profile case recently.

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.

John F. “Jack” Berry is all over the place. One minute he’s speaking to a Rotary Club. The next, he’s promoting Richmond. Or playing tennis. Or sitting in a board room. Sometimes it seems as if he’s in two places at once. If you think that, welcome to Richmond’s small world—there are two Jacks. John F. “Jack” Berry Jr. is the president and chief executive of the Richmond Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau.

120 had no critical violations during inspections conducted during the 2008-09 school year; and
93 had two or fewer total
critical violations for the year
Here are some examples of critical violations inspectors found at area schools. These
violations were corrected:
Oct. 30, 2008: Employees were observed handling ready-to-eat food with bare hands at

At West Point High School, where he retired as associate principal in 1993, easygoing Charles Herbert “Herb” Brown Jr., also a band-choral director and teacher, was in charge of discipline. “He found good in everybody. He loved everyone. It didn’t matter who you were or where you lived,“ said his wife, Margaret Hill Brown. Since his death at age 72 from multiple myeloma on Tuesday, “many kids have come by and said that Mr. Brown would suspend them and they’d walk out of his office smiling,“ she said.

An early-morning thunderstorm dumped up to 6 inches of rain in some parts of the Richmond region but caused little damage, authorities said. The heaviest rain the Richmond area has seen this summer left more than 6,000 Dominion Virginia Power customers without electricity in the region at one point, but power to most residents had been restored by afternoon.

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.

New Kent County Administrator John A. Budesky is leaving to take over as executive director of the state Workers Compensation Commission. “It was an opportunity I couldn’t pass up,“ he said. Budesky, 36, will make the move on or before Oct 1, depending on whether New Kent’s Board of Supervisors releases him from the 90-day notice requirement in his contract.

New Kent County Administrator John A. Budesky is resigning his position to become executive director of the state Workers’ Compensation Commission.

NEW KENT After an eventful career built on winning race after race at nearly 40 miles per hour, and coming around the final turn at Churchill Downs on Derby day, Rosemary Homeister has found peace in New Kent. “I love it here because it’s very laid back and quiet,“ she said. “The track is in the middle of the trees, and it’s a great environment.“

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.

A 23-year-old Navy veteran who had worked as a prison guard until his arrest in March has been found dead in his jail cell. Henrico County authorities confirmed this week that an investigation is under way into the apparent suicide of Brian R. Cramer, who was found dead Sunday, hanged from a bed sheet in his cell. Henrico Sheriff Mike Wade said that Cramer was being kept in an isolation area of Henrico Jail East, which is in New Kent County, and had been checked by jail personnel 20 minutes before his body was discovered.

Passengers not wearing seat belts pushed the state’s highway death toll to 211 over the weekend, 50 deaths fewer than last year on May 3. In New Kent and Tazewell counties, passengers who police say were not wearing seat belts were thrown from vehicles and later died. Jordan Lee Hendrix, 19, of Williamsburg died Saturday at 1:48 a.m. in New Kent when a car he was in ran off the left side of state Route 634 near Woody Lane and overturned.