Week in review

Railway resources rejected

Virginia has rejected a share of $2.4 billion in federal high-speed rail funds that two dozen states, plus Washington, D.C., and Amtrak, are competing for. State officials estimate that a proposed rail line between Richmond and Washington won't be completed until 2021. To receive 100 percent federal stimulus funding, the project must be completed by 2017.

A Department of Rail and Public Transportation spokeswoman says the state would have to return the federal money if it didn't meet the deadline. The state also doesn't have a 20 percent match needed to obtain money from another federal rail fund.

More hats in the ring

Chesapeake Bishop Earl W. Jackson Sr. has decided to run against former governor George Allen and tea-party activist Jaime Radtke for the Republican nomination to Democrat Jim Webb's soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Jackson is the founder of Exodus Faith Ministries, a former lawyer, and a tea-partier.

Jackson's announcement comes a day after former governor Timothy M. Kaine announced his intention to run for the Democratic nomination. The Senate race will be one of the most closely watched elections in the country.

Paying the price

It's a common story: two men and their companies target conservative, elderly investors and sell more than $11 million in unregistered securities. But this time, they're paying a high price. Virginia regulators imposed a $37.4 million penalty Wednesday on Julius Everett Johnson and Walter Ray Reinhardt for 3,743 violations of the state securities act. The State Corporation Commission imposed a maximum penalty of $10,000 for each violation. The penalty will be waived if the men pay restitution of about $11.35 million within the next year to Virginia investors.

Unwelcome guest

At 3 a.m. Wednesday morning, Shirley Edwards woke up to find an unwelcome guest inhabiting her bathroom. A 3 to 4 foot long boa constrictor had meandered out of a plush rocking chair Edwards had purchased from her neighbor and slithered upstairs to search for food.

Edwards and her son called Richmond police, who removed the snake and returned it to its owner, but not before Edwards was very shaken up. "I didn't sleep all that good," she told WSLS news on Thursday.

Conviction

A 14-year-old Virginia boy convicted of participating in the fatal beating of an Arizona man has been sentenced Wednesday to a juvenile detention center until he turns 21. The teen was convicted in juvenile court of first-degree murder on Feb. 28. He was 13 at the time of the attack in Lynchburg.

Prosecutors say in September the youth and two other teenagers attacked 81-year-old George Baker III of Tempe, Ariz. Baker died the next day. He was in Lynchburg for his granddaughter's wedding. Kenneth Davis, 17, was tried as an adult and convicted of first-degree murder in March. The case against the other co-defendant, 16-year-old Vernon Jackson, is pending.

Cats killed

Authorities in Fairfax County have found at least 20 dead cats at a Herndon home. Lucy Caldwell, a county police spokeswoman, says an animal control officer was called to Herndon for a report of two dogs running loose Tuesday afternoon and chased the dogs into the backyard of a home on Summerfield Drive. While there, Caldwell says the officer spotted what appeared to be a dead cat in the window and called Herndon police.

Police obtained a search warrant to enter the house, where they found 20 to 30 cats. Authorities could not find the owner of the home. Caldwell says Herndon zoning officials have declared the house uninhabitable.

GPS

Fairfax County Police did nothing wrong when they failed to get a warrant before using GPS technology to track a registered sex offender's movements, the Virginia Court of Appeals ruled unanimously Tuesday.

In 2008, police investigating a series of sexual assaults in northern Virginia planted a global positioning system device on the bumper of a van driven by David L. Foltz Jr., a registered sex offender on probation. After GPS data indicated the van had been near the scene of another sexual assault, police decided to follow Foltz in person. From the evidence they gathered, Foltz was convicted of abduction with intent to defile and sentenced to life in prison. Foltz argued the evidence against him should be suppressed because the use of the GPS device violated his Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

Cotton climbs, peanuts plummet

Virginia cotton producers expect to plant 125,000 acres this season, up more than 50 percent from last year. Record high prices for cotton are fueling the increased interest. The last time the 100,000-acre mark for cotton was reached was in 2006.

The Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services also reports increased acreage for soybeans and corn, but a decline for peanuts. Soybean growers expect to plant nearly 600,000 acres, up 30,000 acres from a year ago. Corn plantings are expected to increase 20,000 acres to 510,000. On the down side, peanut producers will plant 14,000 acres, down 4,000 acres from last year.