Start spreading the news: Liza Minnelli is coming to the Virginia Arts Festival in Norfolk. And life is a cabaret for Patti LuPone, who is also scheduled for the festival, which runs April 14 to May 31 throughout Hampton Roads. LuPone will appear May 24 at the Williamsburg Inn in Williamsburg; Minnelli will be at Chrysler Hall in Norfolk on April 24.

A prosecutor says Portsmouth police officers were justified in shooting a suspect after a vehicle chase. Norfolk Commonwealth’s Attorney Gregory D. Underwood wrote in a letter to the Portsmouth police chief that the officers will not be prosecuted. The officers shot 30-year-old Kenji Lee Danzy of Newport News on Jan. 9 after a chase that ended on a dead-end street in Norfolk. Danzy died at a hospital.

Virginia military bases will receive nearly $330 million through the federal stimulus package for quality-of-life improvements, infrastructure work and energy-saving projects, U.S. Sens. Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner announced yesterday. The stimulus projects range from modernizing military medical facilities to repairing runways to improving the efficiency of steam heating systems. The work is to be concentrated in Hampton Roads—as Virginia’s military bases are—but will include projects across the state.

A Norfolk woman has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and child neglect in the death of her 10-month-old daughter.

For the past decade, the Port of Hampton Roads enjoyed such robust growth that its leaders almost forgot what hard times looked like. Now they remember. The port—three large state-owned marine terminals—has changed abruptly from an engine of Virginia’s economic growth into a mirror of America’s economic turmoil. As demand has slackened for everything from toys to auto parts to home furnishings, fewer ships are calling on the port, and those vessels that do are handling significantly less cargo than they did only six months ago.

Music writer, Norfolk native ‘Rickey’ Wright dies Richard “Rickey” Wright didn’t sing professionally or play an instrument, but he spoke the universal language of music fluently. His friends called him “the encyclopedia of music”; he called himself “Geekus musicus maximus,“ said a niece, Elisabeth Wright of Norfolk. He earned the title after winning a Rhino Records musical knowledge contest.

A truck driver was killed Tuesday in a crash involving two tractor-trailers in Carroll County. Sabato Lettieri, 54, of Bellerose Terrace, N.Y., was driving a tractor-trailer southbound on Interstate 77, 1.5 miles south of state Route 69, when a tractor-trailer travelling in the opposite direction went through the guardrail and hit Lettieri’s vehicle head-on at 11:20 a.m.

Saturday, Jan. 10, 2009, was one of those days I felt lucky to be alive. It certainly was a day I won’t soon forget. Clear blue skies, cold breeze coming across the waters of the Chesapeake Bay to the world’s largest naval base, in Norfolk. As we walked down the giant Pier 14—there can’t be too many docks like it that can hold 20,000 people—we gaped at the sheer size of the U.S.S. George H.W. Bush. It’s roughly equal to the Empire State Building laid on its side, with a flight deck on top that takes up four and a half acres.

Virginia political leaders are vowing to fight the Navy’s decision to homeport a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in Florida. The Navy announced yesterday that Florida’s Mayport Naval Station will be the home port for the carrier, bringing 3,190 military jobs with it. The move is expected to pump about $500 million into the north Florida economy.

NORFOLK One photograph shows a black student sitting alone and expressionless in a Norfolk high school auditorium in 1959, shunned by his white classmates. Another shows an effigy of a black person, labeled with racial slurs, hanging from a tree right outside the school’s front door. The black-and-white photos are part of a new exhibit at Norfolk’s Chrysler Museum commemorating the 50th anniversary of the end of Massive Resistance, Virginia’s last-ditch attempt to preserve school segregation. The exhibit is scheduled to run through March 1.

NORFOLK (AP)—A 17-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder and other charges in a fatal mob beating in Norfolk’s Ocean View neighborhood. Shakida Bowers also pleaded guilty yesterday to two counts of malicious wounding and three counts of robbery in the death of 19-year-old James Robertson Jr. She will be sentenced in May.

NORFOLK (AP)—Norfolk police are investigating the fatal shooting of Maury High School football standout Charles Humphrey. The 18-year-old senior was found dead at an intersection in the city’s Park Place section at about 1 a.m. yesterday. Police say no arrests have been made. Humphrey was captain of Maury’s football team and co-captain of the basketball team. He led the Commodores in rushing this past season with 771 yards and was an All-Eastern District First Team running back.

Food prices continue to rise, according to a monthly report released yesterday by a state agency. But they are not increasing as rapidly as they did earlier this year, industry experts say.

Norfolk’s Economic Development Authority has agreed to loan the Virginia Symphony Orchestra $500,000 to help save it from bankruptcy. Six members of the seven-member authority attended yesterday’s meeting and voted unanimously to approve the five-year loan. The organization had requested a $1 million loan. The symphony ended its fiscal year in July with a $1.5 million deficit. Since August, it has laid off four staff members, announced a 20 percent pay cut and canceled several spring concerts to help deal with its financial crisis.

NORFOLK (AP)—The Virginia Symphony Orchestra is expected to find out whether it will get a loan from a Norfolk city agency to save it from bankruptcy. The organization requested $1 million from Norfolk’s Economic Development Authority. Symphony Executive Director Carla Johnson says without the loan, the symphony may file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.