Bob McDonnell brought his gubernatorial campaign to Lynchburg on Friday, urging donors and campaign activists to help in a race where a president, sitting governor and national labor unions are supporting his opponent.

The YMCA of Central Virginia presented more than 200 local children with free backpacks stuffed with school supplies Friday as part of the YMCA’s annual “Bright Beginnings” program.

Projected student enrollment at the Amherst branch of Central Virginia Community College has doubled for the upcoming fall semester compared to its inaugural spring semester.

In the hierarchy of human needs, the bladder always outranks the stomach. Hunger, after all, can wait patiently for hours — even days — before being satisfied. An urgent need for bathroom facilities is another matter.

Logs, invoices and computers were seized when Virginia State Police investigators served a search warrant on a local business suspected of defrauding a public assistance program. Investigators searched Sterling Oil Company, on Cobbs Street in Lynchburg, last week looking for records and computer files relating to the Department of Social Services fuel assistance programs.

Demolition and groundwork have begun at the site of Lynchburg’s second Wal-Mart super center.

A covertly taped meeting between a Lynchburg police detective, the city manager and the police chief, has become the subject of a $500,000 lawsuit.

Lynchburg’s largest church is planning to open a satellite congregation in Danville, according to church officials.

After a state-imposed hiring freeze that lasted about five months, Central Virginia Training Center plans to hire a few nurses and assistants in the next several weeks, Director Denise Micheletti said Tuesday.

Creigh Deeds, Democratic candidate for governor, plans to swing through Central Virginia on Monday, visiting three communities in one day.

A group of Bedford merchants is joining in an effort to revive the city’s struggling Main Street program that has been in existence for more than 20 years.

The University of Virginia is poised to roll out a major fundraising campaign to support AccessUVa, its increasingly expensive and popular financial aid program.

A 19-member committee has been appointed to find a successor to University of Virginia President John T. Casteen III, who will retire Aug. 1, 2010.

Seven cattle remain roaming the land around the U.S. 29 bypass after a car crash Monday afternoon set them loose.

APPOMATTOX — The head of the Museum of the Confederacy wanted to talk privately with Appomattox County supervisors Monday night about aspects of a plan to build a satellite museum in Appomattox, but the board declined.