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.

Some of the special-needs athletes participating in yesterday’s Special Olympics skating event with the performers of “Disney On Ice” couldn’t speak. But they vocalized, smiled broadly and clapped. “That’s from the excitement,“ said Sylvia Seaborne, a John Marshall High School exceptional education teacher who came to the Richmond Coliseum with the group. “They’re making noise. That means they’re happy.“

Federal recognition for six Virginia Indian tribes is tantalizingly closer to reality than ever. Two bills that have passed the House were approved Thursday by the U.S. Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee and sent to the full Senate, where Virginians Jim Webb and Mark R. Warner support them. Gov. Timothy M. Kaine also backs the effort and enjoys a close relationship with President Barack Obama.

It’s a brand new world for book readers in this digital age. Those were the words David Chu, 62, of Midlothian used yesterday to describe his tour of the 74-foot Digital Bookmobile parked at the Chesterfield County’s Central Library parking lot. Chu, the assistant director for administration at Central State Hospital in Petersburg, imagined himself downloading a book to an e-reader he plans to buy and reading that book at Maymont on a sunny day like yesterday.

Cuccinelli Shannon The final debate in the campaign for attorney general took on racial overtones yesterday as Democrat Stephen C. Shannon accused Republican Ken Cuccinelli of being “an ideological crusader” who favors states’ rights. Shannon, a delegate from Fairfax County, likened it to an agenda that produced some of Virginia’s worst movements, such as secession and the fight to maintain segregation.

Cohost George hates the Chase format because Jimmie Johnson’s practically destined to win. Where’s the drama? Also, a preview of Martinsville.

When they were young — Deeds, McDonnell. Special video report

As a young man in northern Virginia, Bob McDonnell held his faith and ethics close to his heart, and a pigskin close to his jersey.

From hunting deer as a child in Bath County to a short-lived stint as school newspaper publisher, Creigh Deeds’ early years were a reflection of rural Virginia.

Richmond School Superintendent Yvonne W. Brandon unveiled yesterday a plan she hopes will further decrease the school system’s dropout rate, which most recently went from 16.2 percent to 14.8 percent. The school system’s Dropout Prevention Initiative aims to get dropouts back into the classroom to graduate. “We are looking at why students are dropping out and developing ways to re-engage those students who have become disengaged,“ she said. “The plan is not just about getting them in, but getting them to become motivated to stay in.“

Richmond police today released a video showing last week’s armed robbery of the Modern Coin Co. downtown. Authorities are looking for the public’s help in identifying the suspects in the video. The first suspect is described as a black male, about 5 feet, 7 inches tall, with a medium complexion and stocky build. He was last seen wearing a dark ski mask and light-colored gloves.

Part 2: Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell meet in the final gubenatorial debate of the 2009 campaign.

Part 1: Creigh Deeds and Bob McDonnell meet in the final gubenatorial debate of the 2009 campaign.

More than a dozen two-liter jugs of hand sanitizer gleamed like liquid gold in the sunshine-filled lobby of Chimborazo Elementary School yesterday. “Look at the hand sanitizer,“ Principal Cheryl Burke said again and again as volunteers from Second Presbyterian Church unloaded 400 pounds of school supplies just inside Chimborazo Elementary’s front door.