Postcards from the Hangin’
Commonwealth’s attorney Paul Ebert has never pulled the switch on an electric chair or helped prepare a lethal injection. He has never witnessed an execution, and he takes little interest in the actual killing, the method, or the inmate’s final moments. As enforcer of the ultimate punishment, Ebert is close to unbeatable. He has sent 11 men to Virginia’s death row. He’s now aiming to make sniper suspect John Muhammad No. 12
by Eddie Dean
Setting Precedence
Despite controversy over the government’s apparent death-mongering, the events that occurred immediately following the dropping of federal charges against alleged snipers John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo have offered the most fruitful means for defense attorneys to appeal the cases should the suspects be convicted
by Antionette Calabrase
A Deadly Dateline
Evidence is expected to link those accused, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, to a nationwide killing spree that culminated in more than 20 shootings, including 15 deaths, in nine states and the District of Columbia. The timeline traces their alleged movements and tracks the clues authorities linked to identify and apprehend them
by Antionette Calabrase
Letters
Diagnoses and Prescriptions, Honored, Radical Turnoff
Maddry
Writer is not prepared to duke it out with Hormel’s lawyers
Reporter
A stricter graduation requirement is the latest measure by the Department of Education to ensure accountability in public schools. It may also be its most controversial
Town & Country
A petite woman, Connie Hanna has long, straight hair and sure hands. A pastel palette decorates the interior of her studio, and hand-painted vines separate patches of color. “The time had come. Things opened up, and I was led here,” she says in her cosmically charged idiom
Around Town
Hampton Roads (they called it Tidewater then) was once largely a theatrical wasteland of dinner theaters offering Neil Simon reruns. Those days are long gone, and the local theater scene boasts an astonishing variety of polished performers in high-quality dramatic plays and musical theater—often cheaper than a movie and a whole lot more fun
Datebook
Hampton Roads cultural events in September
Life
At Home
What we see often depends on where we are at a particular time
Culture Check
Purchasing artwork is more like a marriage than a casual fling
Inside
Stereos and Reptiles: Specialty rooms are growing in popularity
Up or Away: Experts have good advice on how to arrange and preserve your personal art collection
Preppy Goes South: Pink isn’t just for bedrooms anymore
Home & Garden
For 18 years, hundreds of tiny ruby-throated hummingbirds return from their winter migration in Mexico and Central America to the sugar maple in Charles Stradley’s front yard on the Nottoway River in Southampton County
Dish
Chesapeake Bay cuisine
An epicurean excursion along Virginia’s Eastern Shore
Coming Right Up
Food news from across the region
Local Flavor
Good Italian eats abound at Gloucester’s de’Medici Ristorante
Corks and Kegs
Italian white wine steps up for Indian summer
Underground Gourmet
Caterer brings a Hawaiian punch to Virginia Beach
Last Words
Baseball already has an anthem
