Olympic champion LaShawn Merritt of Portsmouth may earn enough gold medals to fill Fort Knox. Those medals won’t carry more value than the message he imparted to Elizabeth D. Redd Elementary School students about the value of hard work. Despite how we like to think of ourselves, the U.S. work ethic is endangered. Economic insecurity and lingering job losses have delivered a body blow that undermines the American dream. Criminals—from dope slingers to white-collar schemers—have further undermined that dream by taking financial shortcuts at other folks’ expense.

Paul Woody hates daylight savings time because the sun sets before he can finish his golf game. But then, nobody can see his hooks and slices.

How far right? Political columnist Jeff Schapiro says governor-elect Bob McDonnell is a conservative with the good sense to gloss over some of his edgier views. That may not be the case with the new attorny general, Ken Cuccinelli, who could squeeze McDonnell from the right.

After suffering a dreadful race at Talladega, Chris and George debate which racing movie is the best of all time. Plus, a preview of Texas Motor Speedway.

Arthur Utley is at the Meadowbrook, where the Monarchs are getting ready for their big game against Thomas Dale.

A year after tipping Democratic for president for the first time since 1964, Virginia fell to Republicans in a dramatic statewide sweep that is a historic reminder of its enduring competitiveness—but may not be a model for a national GOP comeback. “It’s not a red state,“ said Jay Timmons, chief of staff in the governorship of George Allen, whose victory in 1993 led the last Republican resurgence.

Over nearly 70 years, the baritone-to-bass radio voice of Harvey Lee Hudson Jr. woke Virginians up. It entertained them in their cars, sold them Cadillacs, talked to them from his home on Christmas morning while they opened gifts and, most recently, reminisced about the way things used to be on a show called “Harvey Hudson’s Passing Parade.“

Franklin, Va. grapples with the loss of its paper mill and 1,000 jobs after International Paper announces plans to close.

Michele Shuman suffers from an invisible disease. That disease is lupus, and it afflicts about 75,000 people in Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia. Some people with lupus get a butterfly-shaped rash on their faces. But many do not, making the disease hard for others to notice. “When you look at someone with lupus, unless they have the rash showing, they don’t look like they have anything wrong with them,“ said Shuman, 54, of Chesterfield County.

Arthur Utley is at the Collegiate, where St. Catherine’s met Collegiate for the LIS Field Hockey championship. Cross country and volleyball seasons are also winding down.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts, ex-Mayor Rudolph Giuliani of New York campaign for McDonnell, Lt. Gov. Bill Bolling and attorney general hopeful Ken Cuccinelli.

Chris and George debate how to improve racing at Talladega. Also, Tony Stewart is George’s pick to win this weekend, but Chris likes Dale Jr.‘s chances better.

Having previously distanced himself from the president as a potential liability, R. Creigh Deeds now is embracing Barack Obama in what may be the Democratic gubernatorial candidate’s last chance to shift momentum.

Few sights are sadder, or less attractive, than the decaying remains of a dead shopping center. Malls don’t leave a good-looking corpse. While handsome architecture, prime location or nostalgia helped facilitate the rebirth and reuse of the former Thalhimers, Miller & Rhoads and Berry-Burk department stores, the sites of two former shopping malls at Richmond gateways languish.

Theirs is a generation marked by frugality. It was a time when a single man could live on $40 a month—bread cost a nickel, a suit could be had for about $25 and a streetcar ride cost 7 cents. It was a time before TVs, air conditioning, iPods and computers.