Week in review

No help?

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell is asking President Barack Obama to reconsider the Federal Emergency Management Agency's refusal to grant disaster aid after last month's tornadoes.

Ten people died and over 100 were hurt during the record tornado outbreak that destroyed 212 houses and damaged more than 1,050 homes and businesses.

FEMA denied McDonnell's requests for disaster assistance in Pulaski, Halifax, Gloucester, Middlesex and Washington counties. In a May 6 reply, FEMA administrator W. Craig Fugate said total damage from the separate and far-flung twisters was not severe enough to receive federal aid.

Press secretary Jeff Caldwell said the appeal would contain updated, larger damage estimates.

No drill

The Senate defeated a GOP bid that would have expanded offshore oil drilling off the Virginia coast Wednesday, four days after President Barack Obama directed his administration to ramp up U.S. oil production.

Democratic Sens. Mark Warner and Jim Webb joined 55 other legislators in rejecting Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell's bill to speed up decision-making on drilling permits and force previously scheduled lease sales. Democrats assailed the GOP bill as unnecessary and a giveaway to big oil companies, while Republicans said the measure would spur production that would reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil and create thousands of jobs.

Mysterious meteor?

A NASA scientist says a loud boom that rattled Hampton Roads and the Eastern Shore might have been caused by a meteor.

Residents in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, Suffolk and other areas reported hearing the boom last Tuesday night. Pam Trotter of Virginia Beach tells WAVY-TV that the boom felt almost like an earthquake.

NASA scientist Joe Zawodny tells WAVY that the boom is most consistent with a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. He says the boom could be associated with a meteor shower that peaked last week. Zawodny says an object as small as a golf ball could cause a loud boom if it was traveling fast enough.

'Spanking scholarship' provider charged

Henry Allen Fitzsimmons, the 54-year-old owner of Envy Bar and Grill in Virginia Beach, is charged with holding three young women against their will for spankings they agreed to get in exchange for financial support. In a preliminary hearing Thursday, a judge certified five felony abduction and object sexual penetration charges to the grand jury after hearing emotional testimony from the women, who claimed they were beaten with leather straps or a horse riding crop that left them with bruises and welts.

Fitzsimmons agreed to provide college tuition and a $200 weekly allowance to the women as part of the so-called Spencer Scholarship Plan. As part of the plan, the women agreed to be spanked if they violated certain rules, such as failing to call Fitzsimmons or drinking alcohol.

Life for life

A man charged with killing his pregnant girlfriend could face up to life in prison under a new charge of fetal homicide if convicted.

A Henrico County grand jury indicted Gregory Nelson Jr. earlier this week. Nelson, who lived with his wife in Chesterfield County, allegedly stabbed 24-year-old Susana Cisneros to death after she told her family he fathered her unborn child. Police arrested Nelson in Florida several days after the March 9 death of Cisneros, who was nine months pregnant.

Henrico Commonwealth's Attorney Wade Kizer told the Richmond Times-Dispatch Wednesday that he is deciding whether to charge Nelson with capital murder.

Death in flight

A 73-year-old passenger who was complaining of feeling ill died naturally aboard an American Airlines flight and the plane was diverted to Virginia.

Norfolk Airport Authority executive director Wayne Shank says the New York-to-Miami flight landed at Norfolk International Airport shortly before 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.

The passenger had complained he wasn't feeling well about 20 minutes after the flight took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport. Crew members' efforts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

Shank says the state medical examiner's office will determine what caused his death. He declined to release the man's name, but said he was a Miami resident.

Costly bust

Eighteen people in four states, including 10 from northern Virginia, have been arrested for allegedly operating an international trafficking ring that distributed nearly 10,000 pounds of the illegal African drug known as khat, authorities announced Thursday. The drug's estimated street value was $5 million.

Yonis Muhudin Ishak of Arlington was charged as the conspiracy's ringleader. He allegedly paid a network of couriers $1,000 each for trips to London to fetch fresh batches of khat, a leaf that gives users a high when chewed.

All 18 people arrested are natives of Somalia or Yemen.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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