By Christy Barritt Correspondent CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER Jason Abbott used to spend his days cleaning toilets or scraping paint on his Navy ship as an enlisted sailor. Today, he's creating beautiful impressionist oil paintings that are being displayed by the very people who used to rank above him.

CHESAPEAKE Officer Ernest "Jeff" Jefferies was a couple of blocks from 932 Redstart Ave. when he heard the call "Shots fired" over his police radio. Moments later, Jefferies heard officers at the scene calling, "Officer down." Jefferies pulled up to the house, got out of his cruiser and learned his longtime friend Detective Jarrod Shivers had been shot.

CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER Although the turnout was low for the third annual "Fathers Making a Difference" program at Indian River High, the speakers' messages resonated loud and clear.

By Phyllis Johnson Correspondent CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER What does opera mean to you? Exaggerated drama? Singers wearing hats with horns? Balcony seating and peering through binoculars?

By Tony Stein Correspondent CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER   Thanks to Paul Finch, more than 800 people will get their just desserts Saturday night.

Tom Swanston loves working with and for people with disabilities. He's entering his 20th year of service with Chesapeake Service Systems (CSS). The nonprofit organization helps local residents with mental and physical disabilities find jobs in industries such as food service, laundry, shrink wrapping and assembly, bulk mailing and trash collection.

CHESAPEAKE Ryan Frederick said Thursday he’s not the “drug lord” some people might make him out to be, but a scared, 100-pound man who thought someone was breaking into his home.

CHESAPEAKE Ryan Frederick, the Chesapeake resident accused of killing a police officer, is a hard-working man who believed he was protecting himself the night the officer came to his door and tried to serve a search warrant, Frederick’s aunt said today.

CHESAPEAKE A benefit will be held tonight for the family of Jarrod Shivers, a narcotics detective killed a week ago while serving a search warrant in Portlock. The Police Emerald Society of Tidewater will hold the event at 7 p.m. at Paradocks East Coast Grille, 801 Eden Way North in Greenbrier. The event will include a raffle and silent auction.

Chesapeake A 22-year-old Chesapeake man was cleared Wednesday of first-degree murder in the 2005 shooting of his cousin in South Norfolk. A jury, after an eight-day trial in Chesapeake Circuit Court, found Andy Smallwood not guilty of the murder and the use of a firearm in the crime. Smallwood was accused of killing 19-year-old Ted L. Bright of Chesapeake on Oct. 12, 2005.