The five correctional officers charged in October with animal cruelty for fondling a K-9 dog and videotaping the incidents will not be prosecuted. Powhatan County Commonwealth’s Attorney Robert B. Beasley Jr. decided last week not to follow through because he believed the cruelty charges would not stand up in court, he said yesterday.

Evelyn Kay Mann, a retired Powhatan County nurse, has put her product invention on hold until next year to focus on her unexpected job as the county’s Christmas Mother. “Everything is on hold until after Christmas,“ she said. “I’m jampacked. Every day.“ Also, Mann’s husband, Tommy, a military veteran and a retired U.S. Postal Service employee, was named the program’s first Christmas Father.

Eleven-year-old Powhatan County resident Monica Plumb is the Kid of the Year. That’s according to the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, which honored Monica last week at the Humane Awards Luncheon in New York City. Plumb was awarded the “Tommy Monahan” Kid of the Year Award for developing a Web site with the help of her father to collect online donations to buy oxygen pet masks for fire departments.

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.

Five Virginia Department of Corrections officers have been charged with animal cruelty involving the fondling of a K-9 dog and videotaping the two incidents. All five officers were training at the Academy for Staff Development in Goochland County to become K-9 handlers. They were charged across the James River in Powhatan County where the kennel is located, at the Powhatan Correctional Center.

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.

Marsell C. Bustos has been appointed the District 2 representative on the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors. Bustos, 50, replaces Charlie Green, who died Oct. 2 of complications from pneumonia. He will serve at least until a special election can be held in November 2010. The unanimous appointment was made last night by the board after a handful of the nearly 150 residents in attendance let supervisors know they didn’t agree with the way the matter was handled.

What: The meeting will include a public hearing on the appointment of Marsell Bustos as District 2 supervisor
  When: 7 p.m. tonight
  Where: Powhatan High School, 1800 Judes Ferry Road

The Powhatan County Board of Supervisors is expected tonight to appoint Marsell Bustos as District 2 supervisor, replacing Charlie Green, who died Oct. 2. While the board didn’t break any laws by picking a replacement behind closed doors, the lack of public input in the process has some residents upset. After a work session last Wednesday, the board went into closed session to discuss a replacement for Green. Members came to consensus on Bustos, the runner-up in the three-way race for the District 2 seat in the 2007 election, said Board Chairman Robert R. Cosby. Bustos serves as chairman of the Powhatan Democratic Party, a role he says he would relinquish if appointed to the Board of Supervisors.

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.

Wal-Mart has filed for the rezoning of a 53-acre parcel of land in eastern Powhatan County, making official their intention to build there. The retailer, which submitted the application to the county Thursday afternoon, hopes to open a 170,000-square-foot store north of U.S. 60 just west of state Route 675. If Wal-Mart gets the county’s blessing, doors could open by 2011.

Charles Dallas Green Sr., vice chairman of the Powhatan County Board of Supervisors, died Friday morning in a Richmond hospital. He was 63. He had been hospitalized with pneumonia. Mr. Green, who represented District 2 in southeastern Powhatan, worked for the Virginia Department of Military Affairs as superintendent of roads and grounds at Fort Pickett in Blackstone, where he managed more than 43,000 acres and 270 miles of roads and trails.

Sometimes regionalism starts at Starbucks. Every other Monday, Chesterfield County’s Midlothian District Supervisor Daniel A. Gecker and Richmond City Council President and 4th District representative Kathy C. Graziano meet for coffee and conversation in South Richmond. They talk about issues of mutual interest in their neighboring localities and districts, regional initiatives and their children.

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

A day after President Barack Obama’s televised remarks to students, area school officials yesterday were more supportive of his speech. That was a contrast from the days leading up to Obama’s address, when a national fervor led school districts nationwide—and all but one of the largest districts in central Virginia—either to ban the broadcast or restrict access to it.