A Virginia State trooper who was taken by helicopter to VCU Medical Center after he was struck in his car during a early morning traffic stop by another vehicle could be released from the hospital tomorrow, a spokesman said this afternoon.

Virginia State Police are stepping up enforcement of HOV rules, and they are catching a lot of violators.

A Richmond man died Saturday night in a single-vehicle crash that Richmond police attribute to alcohol and speed. Jeronimo Angel Mendez, 20, was declared dead at the scene Saturday shortly after 11 p.m. after his car left the 5500 block of Warwick Road and struck a sign. Mendez, who police said was wearing a seat belt, lived in the 200 block of Erich Road in South Richmond.

A candidate for Petersburg sheriff was arrested today on a misdemeanor count of committing voter fraud in last year’s November elections.

DINWIDDIE—A man was shot and fatally wounded this morning while Virginia State Police and federal agents were serving a search warrant at a house in Dinwiddie County. State police Sgt. Thomas Molnar said no law-enforcement officers were wounded in the shooting, which occurred about 6:05 a.m. at a residence in the 10000 block of Halifax Road, a short distance from a rear entrance of Richard Bland College.

New operation includes the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, as well as State Police, the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, the National Guard and state Fire Programs Department.

About 200 temporary and wage workers are being let go to save $2.3 million. The Virginia State Police will absorb the brunt of the part-time cuts with a reduction of 104 non-sworn employees.

CAROLINE—An 11-year-old girl was transported to VCU Medical Center last night with serious injuries. Virginia State Police are asking for the community’s assistance in learning what happened. State Police were dispatched around 6:35 p.m. to investigate an incident that occurred in the area of Loyalist and Senate drives in the Lake Caroline community. Upon arrival, crews found the 11-year-old girl.

Two traffic crashes with double fatalities during the weekend boosted the state’s highway death toll to 412, compared with 480 a year ago yesterday. Virginia State Police said an Appomattox County crash yesterday took the life of 85-year-old Winston Buford Davis of Ford. He died about an hour after a 5:58 a.m. crash that saw his eastbound vehicle leave U.S. 460 and overturn about a half-mile east of state Route 707. Police said he was not wearing a seat belt.

A drug task force turned up marijuana plants and 10 weapons, including an illegal sawed-off shotgun, at an Eastern Shore day-care center last week, authorities said. Virginia State Police said yesterday that a resident of the private residence near Eastville, Deandre L. Dunton, 30, was arrested last week on two drug charges and a weapons charge.

A Virginia State Police trooper was killed yesterday afternoon in a crash in Henry County. Trooper Ralph W. Carroll Sr. was riding a motorcycle along U.S. 220 in Henry County when a car driven by 20-year-old Christopher A. Cunningham turned in front of Carroll’s southbound motorcycle about 1 p.m., said state police Sgt. Bob Carpentieri.

Amanda Gibbs clung to a 9-foot-wide rock in a churning Clinch River on Wednesday, wondering if she would ever touch dry land again. Three hours earlier, the current overturned her canoe and nearly drowned her husband of 10 months, Jerry Gibbs. A poor swimmer, he emerged downstream battered, shoeless and ready to hike through the dense Castlewood forest for help.

A Danville man was killed Friday when his vehicle went off the side of a road in Pittsylvania County, hit a tree and overturned. Dallas McKenley Bowen, 71, wrecked while driving on state Route 724. Sandra Sue Waid, 61, of Lynchburg died Friday at Virginia Baptist Hospital in Lynchburg after being injured in a crash May 1. She was driving east in the westbound lane of U.S. 460 near state Route 645 when she struck a sport utility vehicle head-on, police said.

Heavy Memorial Day traffic on Virginia highways has sparked at least one incident of road rage. The drivers of two cars began arguing Friday afternoon and started to display “some type of road-rage behavior” while traveling south on Interstate 95 near milepost 157 in Woodbridge, said Corinne Geller, a Virginia State Police spokeswoman.

The death Wednesday of a man injured May 13 in a two-vehicle crash in Henry County has raised the 2009 state highway death toll to 252. That is 50 fewer than the total at this time last year. Johnny O. Bond, 80, of Mayodan, N.C., was a passenger in a car that was leaving a business when it was struck by another car on U.S. 220, police said. He was wearing a seat belt, police said.