A 20-year-old Seventh-day Adventist student missionary from Virginia was found murdered on the Pacific island of Yap after going jogging near the school where she was teaching.

Cyrus was not aboard the bus, which was one of four traveling in a caravan to the pop star’s next concert in Greensboro, N.C.

In what he described as an “unconventional” campaign announcement, one Republican candidate running for the 5th District GOP nomination pledged to 10 goals Thursday in Danville.

Local governments aren’t likely to escape the pain when the General Assembly attempts to eliminate an estimated $3.5 billion hole in the next two-year budget.

Low- and middle-income families pay a disproportionate share of taxes in Virginia, a study by a tax policy institute concluded Wednesday.

RICHMOND—Virginia Gov. Timothy M. Kaine’s term expires in less than two months, but that doesn’t mean he’s leaving behind his concerns about the future of the commonwealth.

The computer glitches affecting flights at some airports have not canceled or delayed flights at Lynchburg Regional Airport today, said Rick Stein, deputy director of the airport.

The five correctional officers charged in October with animal cruelty for fondling a K-9 dog and videotaping the incidents will not be prosecuted.

Setting up a historic year-end debate, Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid revealed his long-awaited version of legislation to reshape the nation’s health-care system last night, a measure designed to extend coverage to 94 percent of eligible Americans and bar private industry from denying insurance because of pre-existing medical conditions.

Virginia transportation officials say they will have to slice $851.5 million out of Virginia’s six-year transportation plan, which has already been hit with $3.7 billion in cuts since the spring of 2008.

JARRATT — Shortly before Larry “Bill” Elliott was put to death for killing a Woodbridge couple in 2001, he wrote that the justice system “failed me.“

Police say the drowning of a Halifax County toddler in a pond near his home appears to be an accident.

Last week’s torrential rainfalls have caused damage and delays to some Virginia farm crops, but the extent of losses is unknown, some agriculture experts said Monday.

The University of Virginia is likely both to raise tuition and ask alumni to dig deeper into their pockets as the university seeks to find a more sustainable funding model in an era of dwindling state support.

Del. Phillip A. Hamilton, R-Newport News, under an ethics cloud and defeated for re-election, has resigned from the House of Delegates seat he has held for 21 years.

Gov. Timothy M. Kaine told Virginia Board of Education members this morning that if he could run for governor again that he “definitely” would have and continue his efforts to improve education for the state’s 1 million-plus students.

The Virginia House of Delegates’ Democratic and Republican caucuses each elected their leadership for the 2010 General Assembly session during the weekend.

Anti-war protesters try to shout down President George W. Bush at a July 4 naturalization ceremony at Monticello. U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., shouts “You lie!“ at Barack Obama during an address by the president to Congress. Angry constituents shout in the faces of their congressmen at health care town halls.

In late summer, with polls pointing to victory, Bob McDonnell may have realized his No. 2 in the attorney general’s office, Bill Mims, was out of the running for gubernatorial chief of staff.

The hits keep coming for Virginia’s financially strapped school divisions.

The University of Virginia’s Board of Visitors is poised to greenlight yet another round of demolitions of the university’s 1960s-era residence halls.

Nearly a year after terrorist bullets snuffed the life forces of her husband and daughter, Nelson County resident Kia Scherr hopes her new Web site will help other people find positive forces in their own lives.

UPDATE 8:10 p.m. MondayThe Danville TEA Party has officially cancelled its bonfire and effigy burning planned for Saturday after the event received nationwide interest, according to the group’s chairman, Nigel Coleman.

The day before the Nov. 3 election, Bob McDonnell’s campaign paid Google about $39,000 to saturate computers in Virginia and Washington with banner ads promoting the candidate.

Juggalos, Wiccans, Satanists and vampires are all subcultures of the occult that are on the periphery of the mainstream. But the recent quadruple homicide in Farmville at the home of a Longwood University professor has thrust these lifestyles into the headlines.

A Baltimore attorney who became a confidant of executed D.C. sniper mastermind John Allen Muhammad is writing a book about him.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration has alerted domestic agencies to plan for a freeze or even a 5 percent cut in their budgets, part of an election-year push to rein in record deficits that threaten the economy and Democrats’ political prospects next fall.

Saturday morning will mark an annual ritual for thousands of area hunters, who will hit the woods for the opening morning of deer season.

Former President George W. Bush has chosen the Miller Center of Public Affairs to conduct an oral history of his presidency.