The body of a Newport News fisherman who fell off a pier has been recovered from the James River.

Newport News’ King William reservoir project is coming to a halt after the Army Corps of Engineers suspended its permit. City Manager Randy Hildebrandt said the decision was prompted by a recent federal court ruling that said the Corps “acted arbitrarily and capriciously” when it issued a construction permit for the 13-billion-gallon reservoir in 2005.

Hung around recently with any flat-snouted paddlefish? You’d know if they came uninvited to your pool party - they’ve got a sharklike body and a long, distinctively flat snout that can turn bright white at the tip. If you’ve never seen one up close, you can find several in an eco-friendly habitat aquarium at the Virginia Living Museum, Newport News’ all-in-one answer to Richmond’s Maymont, the Science Museum of Virginia and the Metro Richmond Zoo.

NEWPORT NEWS In the midst of the worst economic funk since the Great Depression, blue-collar cities such as this major manufacturer of aircraft carriers and submarines are in dire times. But Newport News is not only holding on to its staple jobs, it has landed commitments for corporate expansions expected to create 3,360 jobs. And they’re lucrative jobs, too, with companies such as optics and graphics giant Canon, German auto-parts maker Continental AG and a joint venture between French nuclear power company Areva and Northrup Grumman, owner of the massive shipworks that has been the city’s backbone for 140 years.

Fallen NFL star Michael Vick told a bankruptcy judge yesterday that he became a changed man in prison and is determined to do all the right things upon his release, including repaying his creditors with the millions he hopes to resume earning in professional football. But after more than three hours of testimony in which Vick laid out what he called his “exit strategy,“ U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Frank J. Santoro rejected it. Santoro told Vick to draft a new Chapter 11 plan, one with more certainty.

The long-planned King William County reservoir just sprung a leak. A federal judge struck down the Army Corps of Engineers’ permit for the lake, saying in effect it would wreak too much destruction on the environment. The decision is a victory for reservoir opponents, who said the $250 million project would destroy more than 430 acres of wetlands, threaten rare American shad and flood Indian archaeological sites.

The U.S. Department of Labor filed complaints yesterday accusing suspended NFL quarterback Michael Vick of illegally spending about $1.3 million in pension-plan funds for his own benefit, including paying restitution ordered in his dogfighting-conspiracy case.

The Army soldier killed in a standoff with police in Shenandoah National Park Sunday was acting so bizarrely that day that he painted his face and dressed to look like The Joker, Batman’s nemesis. Spc. Christopher N. Lanum, who attacked a fellow soldier at Fort Eustis with a knife and stun gun while wearing the costume, “idolized the ‘joker,‘ “ according to court records filed yesterday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk.

A Newport News police detective is on administrative leave after being charged with embezzling from a fraternal group.

Conard B. Mattox Jr. was born in Gretna in rural Pittsylvania County. After five years as a U.S. Army Air Forces pilot in World War II, he earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Richmond, and his law degree there in 1951. He stayed on to teach economics in UR’s Evening College, was law librarian at T.C. Williams School of Law, and also practiced law.

Newport News’ Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding and General Dynamics Electric Boat Co. will build eight more nuclear-powered submarines in a project that could increase employment at the Newport News shipyard by 2,000 people by 2015.

An environmental group is being allowed to challenge a state decision that aided plans for a much-debated reservoir in King William County. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia has overturned a 2007 Richmond Circuit Court decision that barred the group, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, from pursuing the challenge. The Richmond court said the group did not have the legal right to mount the challenge. The appeals court said the group did.

An environmental group is being allowed to challenge a state decision that aided plans for a much-debated reservoir in King William County. A three-judge panel of the Court of Appeals of Virginia has overturned a 2007 Richmond Circuit Court decision that barred the group, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, from pursuing the challenge. The Richmond court said the group did not have the legal right to mount the challenge. The appeals court said the group did.

NEWPORT NEWS Turn off State Park Road into this community of beachfront houses and you can see what makes life in the Grandview section of Hampton so attractive. Elevated on pilings high over the sandy soil, virtually every home commands impressive views of the Chesapeake Bay shoreline or the surrounding tidal creeks—and that means tons of strategically placed windows.

Within three years, Northrop Grumman Newport News may be constructing the components necessary to hold nuclear fuel for a new generation of power plants. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine announced yesterday a partnership between the shipbuilder and the French nuclear vendor Areva that will create 540 jobs and bring $363.4 million in investment to Newport News.