http://www.norfolk.com/taxonomy/term/113 Category: Kerry Dougherty en-us Copyright 2009 PilotOnline.com / HamptonRoads.com. Thu, 08 Jan 2009 06:40:20 -0500 Norfolk is crying - perhaps for the wrong reason. As endless eulogies flow over the death of a high school athlete, it seems to me the greater sorrow is the loss of young man. The victim's name was Charles Humphrey. He was 18 years old. And when he was shot to death on a city street at about 1 a.m. Sunday, he became Norfolk's first homicide victim. A sobering start to the New Year. http://www.norfolk.com/2009/01/theres-tragedy-all-young-lives-are-ended-guns Wed, 07 Jan 2009 22:12:31 -0500 As burglaries go, it was routine. The thieves broke into the locked house in the usual way: by smashing a window. Once inside, they rampaged, kicking in doors and ripping through papers. They grabbed credit cards and electronic equipment and other personal belongings. They then jacked the Toyota SUV in the garage and sped away. http://www.norfolk.com/2009/01/christmas-crime-qualifies-one-years-most-unholy Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:01:00 -0500 Christmas trees. Beloved symbols of the Yuletide season? Or decorated death traps? Depends on whether or not you pay attention to the news. Looks like the folks who took the fun out of Halloween and the flavor out of Thanksgiving are now taking aim at Christmas. Yep, the safety-goggle and pocket-protector crowd is coming. Quick. Hide your Tannenbaum. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/despite-warnings-fire-hazards-christmas-trees-are-still-safe Sat, 20 Dec 2008 21:53:21 -0500 Any minute now the sounds of sanctimony will ring out over the commonwealth. Non smokers will rejoice at the latest glad tidings from Richmond. Looks like Virginia's battered budget - headed for a $2.9 billion biennial shortfall - will be rescued, in part, by smokers. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/if-those-addicted-nicotine-quit-kaines-tax-plan-goes-smoke Wed, 17 Dec 2008 21:19:08 -0500 It's worse than we thought. The global economy, that is. To see just how rotten it's gotten, one need look no farther than Buckingham Palace. Rumor has it that the queen of England, who reportedly scrapes by on roughly $60 million a year (think about it, you couldn't build two miles of light rail in Norfolk for that) has begun wearing her clothes more than once. In public. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/hard-times-even-queen-has-rewear-same-outfit Mon, 15 Dec 2008 23:35:21 -0500 Norfolk's increasingly expensive Train to Nowhere - 24 percent over budget one day, some costs tripling the next - ought to scare the rails out of Virginia Beach taxpayers. Especially since the Beach elected a new mayor last month who supports light rail and claims most people in the city do, too. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/va-beach-needs-rail-against-costly-tide-project Sat, 13 Dec 2008 18:20:08 -0500 If the economy were healthier and if I weren't such a thrifty person, I'd defiantly toss my Christmas lights in the trash in January - every last strand - and buy fresh ones next December. Instead, I'll do what I do every year: drive back and forth to Kmart in an endless loop of lunacy, replacing cheap Chinese-made Christmas lights that die, one strand at a time. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/patience-key-when-it-comes-hanging-christmas-lights Mon, 08 Dec 2008 23:22:20 -0500 Hang on to what's left in your wafer-thin wallets, folks, because culture vultures are coming for it. Last week, the Virginia Beach City Council handed the Virginia Musical Theatre a $200,000 no interest loan. In her final performance as Lady Bountiful, Mayor Meyera Oberndorf expressed passionate support for this group that brings Broadway-like productions to the Beach. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/forget-about-fripperies-when-basics-go-begging Sat, 06 Dec 2008 20:14:21 -0500 This is rich. As most American cities hunker down and prepare for an economic apocalypse (Chicago may cut corners on snow removal) Virginia Beach officials stubbornly continue to spend, spend, spend. As if to prove that the Beach is awash in cash, the City Council on Tuesday approved an extravagant no-interest loan - courtesy of the taxpayers, of course - to a financially ailing arts group. http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/beach-bailout-arts-group-shows-council-doesnt-get-it Wed, 03 Dec 2008 22:38:24 -0500 I'd almost forgotten just how, ah, exciting Virginia Beach city government could be. What, with half a dozen years of benign-yet-bumbling municipal rule, many of us had developed amnesia about how the city used to operate, when some in the resort city treated politics as a gladiatorial sport. Remember the Sportsplex? The 31st Street hotel? TPC golf course? Shameless canoodling with developers? http://www.norfolk.com/2008/12/sleazy-handout-mayoral-race-calls-mind-politics-yore Mon, 01 Dec 2008 23:33:12 -0500