Allen B. Fine was a man in motion—except when he was fishing. When he wasn’t in the industrial surroundings of Virginia Bearings and Supply Co. as its president, he raced cars and sailboats, flew small planes and searched for thermals in sailplanes, enjoyed skiing and played tennis as often as five times a week. He was a co-founder of the Virginia Motor Sports Club and served as president for a year. He was a Porsche man, though he collected other classic race cars, including Alfa Romeo and Lotus, said his daughter, Allyn Fine Linas of Goochland County.

William Douglas Gentry Jr. will spend life in prison for killing a woman in her apartment. Gentry, 23, was sentenced Monday in Charlottesville Circuit Court for capital murder in the death of Jayne Warren McGowan, a University of Virginia alumna who was killed Nov. 8, 2007. Circuit Judge Edward L. Hogshire also sentenced Gentry to life on a robbery charge, 50 years for breaking and entering and 13 years total on three firearm offenses. Gentry pleaded guilty in December.

Nearly three years after being accused of possessing child pornography, a former pastor is scheduled to go to trial today in Albemarle County Circuit Court. For most of that time, lawyers have been dealing with questions about the age of the females in the images that authorities said they found on Gregory M. Briehl’s computer in July 2006. An expert was brought in to try to identify their ages by sight, and the prosecution has tried to find out more information about the females in the images, which came from an Australian Web site, without success.

The fireball in the sky last night could have been caused by a Russian booster rocket falling toward earth, a U.S. Naval Observatory official says.The booster - basically a big steel cylinder - was part of the Soyuz spacecraft that launched Thursday on a mission to the International Space Station.

This daily column features short news items from the 20 localities that make up the greater Richmond area. On Mondays, we run at least one item from each of the localities. If you have a news item, call 649-6990 or e-mail us at Amelia The renovations to the historic Hillsman farm house at Sailor’s Creek Battlefield Historical Park in Amelia County can be seen Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. during a commemorative weekend recognizing the last major battle of the Civil War in Virginia. Historians will reflect on the house’s role as a federal army hospital during and after the battle. Park manager and historian Chris Calkins will talk about the battle and discuss the historic furnishings for the interior of the farmhouse and plans for developments of the park.

4 die in head-on Culpeper crash They were riding in sedan; police say SUV in wrong lane Four people died after a head-on collision early yesterday between a sport utility vehicle and a sedan on state Route 3 near Stevensburg in Culpeper County. Virginia State Police spokesman Sgt. Les Tyler said the accident was reported around 2:50 a.m. The victims were identified as Tyler Scott Harlow, 20, and Joseph Lee Sahnow, 20, both of Ruckersville; Tianna V. Jones, 19, of Stanardsville, and James B. Cook, 21, of Marshfield, Vt.

Woman dies in Virginia Beach crash A 68-year-old woman died after her car struck another vehicle and then a building in Virginia Beach on Monday night, Virginia State Police said. Barbara Teresa Duzant of Virginia Beach was driving a car on Princess Anne Road when it struck a parked vehicle at Witchduck Road, police said. Duzant’s car continued to travel a quarter of a mile on the opposite side of Princess Anne Road and then struck a building on Oakmears Crescent at 11:40 p.m., police said.

SW Va. wrecks are fatal to two A 2-year-old passenger died yesterday in a Tennessee hospital after he was involved in a two-car collision Saturday in Southwest Virginia. Virginia State Police said Mathew Harris Bogle of Tazewell was in a child-restraint seat when the vehicle he was riding in was hit from behind at a stoplight on U.S. 460 at Clay Drive in Tazewell County about 6:30 p.m.

Dr. Jacques Recht was an acknowledged winemaking expert on two continents when he and his wife, Liliane, decided to retire and sail around the world on their 36-foot catamaran. The wind that brought them up the Chesapeake Bay and the Potomac River almost 30 years ago also was a favorable one for the Virginia wine industry, which had been crushed by the Civil War and had languished since Prohibition in the 1930s.

A 23-year-old man, one of 10 passengers in a minivan, died at a Wythe County hospital early yesterday after the van rolled three times on Interstate 77 in Bland County. Virginia State Police said Jose Luis Rivas Morales of Alvarez, Mexico, died shortly before 2 a.m. at Wytheville Community Hospital. Morales was not wearing a seat belt, police said.

An Afton man who fired shots at cars on Interstate 64 in March 2008 pleaded guilty to 14 felony charges yesterday in Albemarle County Circuit Court. Slade Allen Woodson, 20, faces a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison on the count of use of a firearm. Albemarle Commonwealth’s Attorney Denise Lunsford said the statute shows a sentence ranging from 28 years to 150 years, although it is unlikely that the state’s sentencing guidelines will recommend a sentence of 28 years.

One man is in jail and authorities are looking for another in the slaying of a house sitter in Woodbridge. Jose Luis Salvador, Jr., 19, of Dale City was charged yesterday with murder and accessory to murder before the fact in the shooting death of David Enrique Melendez Lopez. Lopez, 24, was found shot to death Monday inside a home in the 1300 block of Saxon Street by two men who were looking to shovel snow. Police said the men approached to knock on the door and saw a person on the floor, said Prince William County police 1st Sgt. Kim Chinn.

An Ohio businessman faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in Lynchburg yesterday to conning customers, many of them elderly, into buying wheelchairs by making them think they were purchasing motorized scooters. Michael Cowen, head of Active Solutions of Worthington, Ohio, also agreed to forfeit $2.5 million, along with four vans, a truck and a 2003 BMW. The government has already seized $1.8 million from him. Cowen pleaded guilty to two charges, conspiracy and health-care fraud, in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg.

An Ohio businessman faces up to 15 years in prison after pleading guilty in Lynchburg yesterday to conning customers, many of them elderly, into buying wheelchairs by making them think they were purchasing motorized scooters. Michael Cowen, head of Active Solutions of Worthington, Ohio, also agreed to forfeit $2.5 million, along with four vans, a truck and a 2003 BMW. The government has already seized $1.8 million from him. Cowen pleaded guilty to two charges, conspiracy and health-care fraud, in U.S. District Court in Lynchburg.

A Montgomery County, Md., man and a Miami man are charged in a federal indictment with running a nationwide prostitution ring that hired immigrant women. The indictment filed in federal court in Michigan alleges that Michael Porru of Boyds, Md., and Rafael Bernabe-Caballero of Miami set up trysts through the Web site MiamiUltimate.com, and that they initially told the women they would work as escorts. The story was first reported in The Washington Examiner.