When a loved one dies, it doesn’t mean they are gone forever, says Prince George medium Patrick Mathews. He says he is able to connect with their spirits and communicate with them, which he has demonstrated on television and radio shows. Spirits speak to him or show him visuals; he says he can sense their feelings. Sometimes, he says, it’s a combination of all three.

The littles and bigs of Traci Pryor’s new job aren’t problems but people. She’s the new director of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Richmond and Tri-Cities, an organization that last year had 711 “little” children matched with an equal number of “big” adults willing to be friends and guides on the path to adulthood. About 300 children are waiting for matches.

Bolling Staunton Partin Sr. had a solid grip, and he liked that legacy. “He was proud of his handshake,“ said son Richard N. Partin of Henrico County. “He liked to shake your hand and kind of bring you to your knees.“ The reason? He wanted to be remembered. Just three weeks ago, friend and former Army National Guard colleague Riley E. Ingram went to see Partin.

As many in central Virginia started to dig their way out of Saturday’s snowfall, transportation services slowly returned for road-weary travelers.

Snow paralyzed transportation in Virginia yesterday. And it’s likely to stay frozen for a while. “It might be Tuesday before we get into neighborhood roads” to plow deep snow that fell on the Old Dominion yesterday, said Britt Drewes, a Virginia Department of Transportation spokeswoman.

Dinwiddie County school officials made initial cost-cutting recommendations last week aimed at alleviating a projected $2.5 million revenue shortfall. This year’s budget is $40.9 million. School officials say they factored in the shortfall to make the fiscal 2011 budget $38.4 million. Among the recommendations, which represent a savings of $1.5 million, are trimming 20 positions, 5 percent cuts to all departments and 10 percent cuts to all supplements. Those include stipends for athletic coaches, club sponsors and department chairs. Among the positions at risk are five teachers, eight support staff and two math facilitators.

As New Kent County’s population continues to grow at a faster rate than other localities in the metro Richmond area, Petersburg is the only jurisdiction in the region to have a net loss of residents during the past decade. Meanwhile, Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield and Henrico continue to be among the largest localities in the state.

Major crime in Richmond was up 4 percent last year compared with 2008, ending a five-year streak of consecutive annual decreases in violent crimes and property crimes. Richmond police officials released the statistics this week but declined yesterday to comment on possible reasons for the citywide increase, which was fueled in part by a 9 percent spike in robberies. Officials said Police Chief Bryan T. Norwood would discuss the citywide statistics today at a forum with news reporters.

FORT LEE—The Army’s top general yesterday received his first up-close look at the expansion taking place at Fort Lee. Gen. George W. Casey Jr., chief of staff of the Army, said the growth at the installation is key to the long-term sustainment of the Army. “The synergy of having a transportation center, quartermaster center and ordnance center all in the same place, especially when you’re creating a logistics branch, is going to have a long-term impact on the Army,“ Casey said before leaving the base.

Crossing the Appomattox River on Campbell’s Bridge from Petersburg into Chesterfield County, past old mill smokestacks and towering concrete bridge foundations, is like entering a post-apocalyptic Mayberry. There, the small village of Ettrick is a study in contrasts, boasting small-town charm alongside urban decay with a scenic, historic college—Virginia State University—atop the hill as its crown jewel and lifeblood.

Three Petersburg men who terrorized shopkeepers along one of the city’s busiest commercial strips each will spend more than a decade behind bars for a string of armed robberies that netted them more than $10,000. Armed with a 12-gauge, sawed-off shotgun or a black BB pistol that resembled a real weapon, the men demanded money while leveling the guns at store employees and sometimes customers.

PETERSBURG—The lot at Washington and Market streets in downtown Petersburg sits empty. But a few blocks away, a nonprofit group works diligently to raise the money needed to build the 56,000-square-foot library envisioned for that site. The Petersburg Library Foundation is in the midst of a direct-mail fundraising campaign to get the group closer to its goal of $8 million—half the projected cost of the new library—by the end of February.

PETERSBURG—A city man convicted six years ago of stabbing to death his first cousin pleaded no contest yesterday to fatally stabbing his roommate in a domestic clash. Timothy M. Blowe, 42, entered an Alford plea to voluntary manslaughter, reduced from second-degree murder, in the Nov. 24, 2008, slaying of Charles Avent, 39, in a mobile home the men shared in the 2100 block of County Drive. In an Alford plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but agrees that prosecutors have enough evidence for a conviction

PETERSBURG—Relief was audible yesterday when Chesterfield County Superintendent Marcus J. Newsome announced that he has no plans to end the county’s participation in regional governor’s schools. “I have no intention of making any recommendation to withdraw our support for any of our governor’s schools or regional programs,“ he said at a meeting of the Appomattox Regional Governor’s School governing board, which includes the leaders of the school divisions that feed the school. Newsome said he would recommend a 6 percent reduction in funding, consistent with other participating school divisions.