Barack Obama told a packed house at the Richmond Coliseum in late October “that change won’t come easy. It won’t come quick. [President] Bush has dug a deep hole.“ Obama drew cheers from some of the overflow crowd of 7,000 when he stopped to address them before going into the Coliseum. Melanie Goodlow (foreground) of Woodbridge says the pledge of allegiance at the start of the rally. Wendy Lucas reacts after watching Obama wave from his motorcade as it drove from The Jefferson Hotel to the Coliseum. Two of Virginia’s most powerful Democrats, former Gov. Mark R. Warner (left) and current Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, joined Obama on stage at the Coliseum rally.

Another of Richmond’s financial giants has fallen. LandAmerica Financial Group Inc., a company that began in Richmond in 1925 as Lawyers Title Insurance Corp., has agreed to merge with rival Fidelity National Financial Inc. The new company will be based in Jacksonville, Fla., moving another corporate headquarters out of Richmond. Fidelity expects to save at least $150 million by consolidating offices and eliminating duplication.

Richmond police had nothing but kind words this morning for the several thousand people who staged an impromptu street party late last night to celebrate Barack Obama’s presidential election victory. “No problems at all,“ Capt. David Martin said. No arrests were made and no force was required to control a crowd that police estimated at more than 2,000 people who gathered on the Virginia Commonwealth University main academic campus to party in the streets and march downtown.

Students filled the sidewalks in the Fan District and politicians fought back tears. Broad Street was shut down from Belvidere to Lombardy streets while a crowd of at least a thousand cheered and waved flags and Obama signs. The block in front of the Siegel Center was filled wall to wall with happy people. Emotions built up over two years of presidential campaigning erupted tonight as Sen. Barack Obama’s victory became a reality.

One lane is closed on northbound Interstate 85 in Dinwiddie County because of a wreck involving a tractor-trailer and a pickup truck this morning. State Police said there were injuries, but they had no details. The wreck occurred just north of Squirrel Level Road about 7:15 a.m. The right lane of the interstate has been reopened.

A Richmond man accused of the strangulation death of his elderly mother is due in court today. David Ray Worsham, 55, faces a charge of first-degree murder in the death of Virginia Worsham. He turned himself in to Richmond sheriff’s deputies and admitted he had killed her after she saw him using cocaine and expressed her disapproval, according to a law-enforcement official.

At least three people were hurt this morning in a crash that occurred during a pursuit involving Richmond police. The crash occurred shortly after 1 a.m. in the city’s Fan District on Park Avenue near the Stuart Avenue intersection. A Richmond police officer and two suspects were among the injured, and all were taken to hospitals for treatment.

In a vote scarred by controversy, Dwight Clinton Jones tonight won the endorsement of the Richmond City Democratic Committee in his bid to become the city’s next mayor. Jones, who currently represents Richmond in the House of Delegates, won the group’s endorsement by about a 2½-1 margin over the other three candidates combined. The Democratic endorsement is key in the mayor’s race because it likely will determine which candidate is listed with presidential candidate Barack Obama on Democratic sample ballots.

Caroline Fifteen people were arrested yesterday on a total of 57 indictments in what the Caroline County Sheriff’s Office described as a war on illegal drugs and distribution. The arrests resulted from a yearlong undercover drug investigation. The indictments, handed up by a Caroline grand jury Oct. 1, ranged from distribution of cocaine and conspiracy to distribute cocaine to distribution of marijuana.

In a vote scarred by controversy, Dwight Clinton Jones last night won the endorsement of the Richmond City Democratic Committee in his bid to become the city’s next mayor. Jones, who represents Richmond in the House of Delegates, won the group’s endorsement by about a 2.5-1 margin over the other three candidates combined. The Democratic endorsement is key in the mayor’s race because it likely will determine which candidate is listed with presidential candidate Barack Obama on Democratic sample ballots.