The sign outside The Diamond still proclaims “Home of the Richmond Braves,“ but Richmond and its 24-year-old stadium will have a new professional baseball team beginning next spring.

The difference between major-league ownership of a minor-league team and semi-local ownership of a minor-league team was readily apparent yesterday. The Atlanta Braves, owners of the former Richmond Braves, weren’t willing to invest much in The Diamond. The semi-local ownership of the new Richmond minor-league team will sink $1.5 million into upgrading The Diamond.

A million-dollar lawsuit against Henrico County’s top prosecutor, chief of police and three ranking police officers is waiting for a final decision by a judge on whether it can proceed to trial. Judge Jay T. Swett, an Albemarle County judge assigned to preside over the case in Hanover County Circuit Court, declined to rule yesterday on whether to allow the suit filed by Henrico police veteran William G. “Trip” Hueston III to move forward.

Richmond Times-Dispatch Exclusive: Six-figure wages reach from big localities to tiny King and Queen.

Henrico County officials won’t get a pay raise but won’t ask for higher taxes or fees to balance next year’s budget. They also will keep their computers an extra year, too. Despite stinging cuts in state payments, sagging real estate and vehicle values—the source of most of the county’s tax revenue—County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett expects to get through one of the worst economic slowdowns in decades without any cuts in services and without laying off employees.

For the first time in recent memory, the Henrico County School Board is publicly questioning County Manager Virgil R. Hazelett’s proposed capital budget. The School Board was not consulted before Hazelett announced that planning and construction funds for a variety of projects in schools and other county agencies would be eliminated this year, said Chairman John W. Montgomery Jr. of Varina District.