NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — A Norfolk man faces securities-fraud charges for his alleged role in a pyramid scheme involving a Chicago-based investment firm.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia is among a number of states receiving part of a $20 million regulatory settlement with three health insurance companies. 

The U.S. Department of Defense said Sgt. Kenneth B. Gibson from Christiansburg has been killed in Iraq.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — The University of Virginia’s entering class in the first academic year after the school scrapped its early-decision program largely resembles the previous year’s first-year students, admission officials said Monday.

With its riveting orchestration, definitive guitar play and signature sensual baritone vocals, Isaac Hayes’ theme song for the 1971 movie “Shaft” not only became one of pop music’s iconic songs, but also the defining work of Hayes’ career.

Virginia’s 51,000 miles of rivers and streams may be growing dirtier, according to a Department of Environmental Quality report due out this fall.

WASHINGTON (AP) _ Former presidential candidate John Edwards, who won nationwide praise and sympathy as he campaigned side by side with his cancer-stricken wife, Elizabeth, admitted in shame Friday he had had an affair with a woman who produced videos as he prepared to launch his campaign.

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (AP) — Busch Gardens Europe in Williamsburg says it is opening a Sesame Street-themed area for kids next spring.

ROANOKE — The State Medical Examiner’s Office has determined that Randall Lee Smith’s death in a Pulaski County jail four days after he shot two men off the Appalachian Trail was caused by a blood clot in his lungs. 

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Virginia State Police say a man accused of killing two people near the Appalachian Trail died from injuries he suffered in a wreck while fleeing the crime scene. 

The Olympic flame finishes its long journey to the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games on Friday, marking the start of 16 days of competition involving thousands of athletes. With all the action, keeping track of what to watch for can be tough. This guide provides a brief summary of each major sport.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The Virginia Forensic Science Board is expected to decide whether to allow private attorneys to help notify felons of old biological evidence in their cases that could be retested. 

PHILADELPHIA — A gun-control activist who championed the cause for more than a decade and served on the boards of two anti-violence groups is suspected of working as a paid spy for the National Rifle Association, and now those organizations are expelling her and sweeping their offices for bugs.

In-state undergraduates at the state’s public colleges will pay 7.3 percent more for tuition and fees this school year over last year.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) — State game officials are investigating the death of dozens of fish whose carcasses were found at the bottom of the dam at the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir. 

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — A Guatemalan native who admitted transporting illegal immigrants up Interstate 81 has been sentenced to 21 months in federal prison.

Hundreds of mourners at the Westmoreland School athletic field paid respects and shared memories of Samuel Massie, a beloved educator who left an indelible mark on many.

RICHMOND — The final week of June failed to yield a dime for the state’s crowded and deteriorating highways while legislators convened in special session. 

GOSHEN, Va. (AP) — Boy Scout officials have closed a popular camp in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains where more than a dozen Boy Scouts and one adult contracted an E. coli infection. 

Virginia has given birth to eight presidents, but only two vice presidents, future Presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Tyler. 

Main Street was closed at its intersection with Holbrook Avenue and Holbrook Road as firefighters fought flames coming from the roof at 145 Holbrook Ave. shortly after 8 p.m. Wednesday. 

Someone had moved a concrete flowerpot from her front step to block Sylvia Urani’s storm door, trapping her inside.

Deputies find an aide to Senator Jim Webb dead in his car this morning.

PITTSBURGH (AP) — Randy Pausch, a Carnegie Mellon University computer scientist whose ``last lecture’’ about facing terminal cancer became an Internet sensation and a best-selling book, died Friday. He was 47. 

WASHINGTON-With gas prices hovering above $4 per gallon across the state, three Virginia House Republicans Thursday repeated calls for Congress to lift the ban on oil drilling off Virginia’s coast. 

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Mill Mountain Zoo in Roanoke is considering an expansion project that would give it enough space for an exhibit of native Virginia animals. 

JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A killer who unsuccessfully argued that Virginia’s procedures for lethal injection were unconstitutional was executed Thursday after a federal appeals court upheld the primary method of capital punishment in the nation’s second-busiest death chamber. 

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Authorities closed a portion of U.S. 220 in Roanoke County for several hours after a truck carrying explosives overturned and spilled acetic acid.

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) — Virginia Tech should release all of its records in the April 2007 campus shootings that left 33 people dead so that others can learn from the events, family members of victims said Thursday. 

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A man who beat a co-worker to death with a lamp and then claimed Virginia’s method of executing prisoners by lethal injection was inhumane was scheduled to die Thursday unless a federal appeals court or the governor give him more time to make his argument.