PORTSMOUTH Two housing communities for low-income senior citizens will soon ban smoking, and convicted murderers are about to be barred from living in all public housing complexes in the city. The changes have been in the works for the past year and were adopted Thursday by the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority as part of an annual update to its policies.

A man was killed Tuesday morning in a collision that disrupted traffic along High Street in Portsmouth.
 
The driver's identity has not yet been disclosed. A woman whose SUV was struck by the oncoming car suffered minor injuries, Portsmouth Detective Jan Westerbeck said. The collision occurred in the 4600 block of High Street shortly after 10 a.m.

PORTSMOUTH The city has opened its marketing work to other companies after spending more than $1.6 million over four years with a firm it didn't have under contract.

PORTSMOUTH Three years after two Swimming Point neighbors went to court over a shared patio, a Circuit Court judge has ruled in favor of one - a well-known Episcopal bishop who did not live to see the dispute resolved.

PORTSMOUTH With its reservoir levels well below historic averages, the city prepared this week to buy water from Norfolk in case of an emergency. The City Council on Tuesday approved spending up to $2.25 million to buy raw water from Norfolk should it need to. There is no imminent need to purchase water, but the city wants to be ready, said Bryan Foster, director of public utilities.

PORTSMOUTH For the coming school year, the division's grading scale may look like others in South Hampton Roads, and the 2.0 grade-point average requirement to graduate may be dropped.

NORFOLK Eight local Navy installations produced 35 megawatts of their own electricity Wednesday - less than half of what they typically pull from the power grid - as part of a new program to reduce power consumption during times of peak usage.

For 21 years, the brick Greek Revival-style house at the corner of Crawford and London streets was simply known as the Murdaugh residence, the home of a prominent city attorney and his family. The Civil War changed all that. In 1862, after the Confederacy surrendered Portsmouth to Union troops, the federalists commandeered the four-story home as an office and headquarters.

PORTSMOUTH One side has decried the push to recall Mayor James Holley as an attack on democracy. The other has offered a $10,000 reward to highlight what it called a "ridiculous" challenge to the signatures behind the effort.

PORTSMOUTH A significant rift has emerged on the City Council as members split over a new vice mayor and then criticized one another for backroom politics. Council members on Thursday voted 4-3 to give the two-year title to Charles B. Whitehurst Sr., a former city treasurer. Members usually hash out differences over the choice behind closed doors to show a unanimous vote in public.