WASHINGTON The skeptics among us who claim America’s young people have little interest in history might have changed their opinion had they attended Virginia History Day on Satur day, April 25, near Williamsburg. History Day is a one-day gathering of more than 200 middle and high school students from all over the state who have spent months working on a wide variety of history projects. Documentaries, written papers, exhibits, and performances are some of the forms used to express serious historical research.

Conservation easements are increasingly being seen as the most reliably successful means of preserving Virginia’s vanishing family farms and other open-space private lands. Conservation easements are partial interests in land by which a landowner conveys to a charity or government agency the right to restrict the use and development of his property, usually in perpetuity. Title and all other rights in the property—rights to sell, gift, bequeath—remain with the landowner, as does the right to use the land in any way that doesn’t harm its recognized conservation values.

Jewelers say the setting is as important as the stone. William H. Spell’s settings were measured in acres. The prominent landscape architect’s portfolio of projects reads like a tourism brochure: St. John’s Episcopal Church, Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, Science Museum of Virginia, Country Club of Virginia, Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen, Virginia War Memorial, a handful of universities and much of the parkland in Richmond’s East End.

Eugene P. Trani has been president of Virginia Commonwealth University for 19 years. Under his leadership, the university has become the largest in the Commonwealth of Virginia. A large part of the inner city of Richmond has been transformed from what was a rapidly decaying part of our city into a bustling, vibrant area. All of us should be eternally grateful. The transformation has been truly amazing.

A Chesterfield County man who said he started an Internet prostitution service because he was depressed, lonely and desired female companionship was sentenced yesterday to six months in jail. William H. Snyder, 51, of the 7300 block of Newbys Crossing Drive pleaded guilty in September to money laundering and receiving funds from the earnings of a prostitute in connection with his escort-service business, called Dream Dates for You.