Week in review

Tornado damage

Two tornados caused eight injuries and an estimated $8.5 million worth of damage in Pulaski and Draper communities in the state's southwest corner early last Friday. The horseshoe-shaped hollow where the tornado hit was filled with modest bungalows owned by older residents. On Monday the area was the scene of heavily damaged houses, trees split in half and downed power lines. The National Weather Service says the storms packed over 100-mile-per-hour winds. Gov. Bob McDonnell has declared a state of emergency for the area, allowing state resources to be used in the recovery effort.

Bridge thief

A man has been accused of stealing and selling parts of a Petersburg bridge. Police found 52-year-old Charles Pond carrying a metal cutting device, a long piece of railing and other parts from the Martin Luther King Jr. bridge on Saturday. Police determined Pond had sold more than 145 pounds of railing pieces to a scrap yard in Colonial Heights. Pond was charged with grand larceny, destruction and removal of property and possession of burglary tools. Police say the damage wasn't disruptive to traffic and the bridge will be repaired soon.

Metro bomb plot

A computer technician from northern Virginia was sentenced Monday to 23 years in prison for joining what he thought was an al-Qaeda plot to bomb the Washington region's Metrorail system. Farooque Ahmed, 35, from Ashburn, Va., apologized at a plea hearing in U.S. District Court after his lawyer explained that Ahmed had succumbed to a government sting operation after being seduced by violent extremist rhetoric.

Ahmed took video of several northern Virginia Metro stations and made suggestions for how to inflict the greatest number of casualties. Prior to the Metro plot, according to authorities, Ahmed had discussed traveling to Afghanistan to fight and kill Americans there.

Best of the worst

Oil giant BP and the Obama administration won the Jefferson Muzzle awards for the worst First Amendment violations in 2010, given by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression Wednesday.

BP and the government appeared on the list for their roles in restricting news media access to the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Other recipients included the Transportation Security Administration, which arrested a passenger who stripped to his shorts to protest security measures; a Mississippi judge who jailed a lawyer for refusing to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and the Virginia prisons agency for banning a "Jailhouse Lawyers Handbook."

Teacher disciplined

A teacher who conducted a mock slave auction of the black and mixed-race students in her history class is being disciplined, the principal of Sewells Point Elementary School said last week. Ms. Jessica Boyle separated and pretended to auction the students as part of a hands-on lesson about the Civil War on April 1, the Virginian-Pilot reports. In a letter to parents about the incident, principal Mary B. Wrushen wrote, "I recently became aware of a history lesson that was presented to the students in Ms. Jessica Boyle's fourth grade class. Although her actions were well intended to meet the instructional objectives, the activity presented was inappropriate for the students."

Guns in church

People may carry guns into worship services for personal protection, but churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship have the right to keep weapons out, according to a legal opinion Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli released Friday.

The opinion was issued in response to an inquiry from Del. Mark Cole about a state law that Cole called ambiguous. The law makes taking a gun, knife or other deadly weapon into a worship service "without good and sufficient reason" a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of up to $250.

Cuccinelli wrote that personal protection constitutes such a reason. But he added that an individual's right to go armed must coexist with private property rights.

Re-incarceration rates lowered

Virginia prisoners are about half as likely to return to jail as prisoners in other states, the Washington Post reported Wednesday. Virginia has a 28.3 percent returning prisoner rate, compared to the national average of 43.3 percent, according to a Pew Research study, which compared Virginia to other states. Analysts believe that the lower rates may be because of Virginia's 16-year ban on parole, an increase in the average age of released prisoners, and an increase in the number of female prisoners released. Older prisoners and females are less likely to be repeat offenders, the statistics showed.

Grave mistakes

Arlington officials reported progress at a Capitol Hill hearing Thursday since an investigation revealed a mix-up of graves, but some lawmakers question whether former cemetery leadership faced enough reprisal for the mistakes. Arlington officials said they've added staff and equipment, set new burial rules and tightened operations in the months since the investigation.

An Army Inspector General report in June found the location of at least 211 people's remains were incorrectly recorded on some maps. Employees still rely on paper records to keep track of more than two dozen interments a day and to maintain existing sites where some 300,000 troops, spouses and U.S. dignitaries have been laid to rest since 1864.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.

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