VIRGINIA BEACH If Chic's Beach residents want to snuff out smoking on their waterfront, it looks like they're going to have to take the issue to Richmond.

How Ronald Spann contracted hepatitis C may always be a mystery. What the virus has done to his 53-year-old body, however, is not. By the time his first symptom arose in 1995, hepatitis C had been quietly lurking for decades, damaging his liver so badly he needed a transplant.

ATLANTA For the first time, the government is proposing that all baby boomers get tested for hepatitis C. Anyone born from 1945 to 1965 should get a one-time blood test to see if they have the liver-destroying virus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in draft recommendations issued Friday.

VIRGINIA BEACH Residents near the intersection of Rosemont Road and South Plaza Trail are now free to drink the water again after new testing did not show E. coli bacteria.

RICHMOND At the end of a hearing Friday, a plea deal was reached to resolve charges against many of the 30 people facing trespassing misdemeanors after being arrested during a March 3 abortion-rights protest at the state Capitol.

VIRGINIA BEACH A water sample taken during routine testing found E. coli bacteria in a single sample taken near the intersection of Rosemont Road and South Plaza Trail, the city announced in a news release this morning.

NORFOLK
The owner of a Suffolk home health care company has been indicted on federal charges of bilking the government's Medicaid program out of $700,000.

RALEIGH, N.C.  A bill to provide compensation to people who were sterilized against their will continues to move through the North Carolina Legislature. A House finance committee approved the bill today and sent it to the appropriations committee. Approval came after an amendment to limit the compensation only to living victims failed.

By J. Lester Feder A new study could pose a challenge to the basic premise of President Barack Obama’s approach to controlling health costs — that spending will come down if doctors don’t give patients as much unnecessary medical care.

By Sarah Bruyn Jones

ROANOKE A medical transport helicopter had a close call with three military jets Thursday night in Rockbridge County, just north of Lexington. A pilot and three crew members were on board the Carilion Clinic craft. They were returning after dropping off a patient at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, according to Carilion spokesman Eric Earnhart.