PORTSMOUTH The city's police chief and the top prosecutor are calling on Sheriff Bill Watson to restrict more inmates from work programs and beef up supervision after a prisoner's escape from a lawn crew Wednesday. Watson responded that the complaint from Commonwealth's Attorney Earle C. Mobley and Chief Ed Hargis is politically motivated.

PORTSMOUTH A $140 million budget for next year that includes a 2 percent salary increase for employees and no layoffs was approved by the School Board on Thursday. A one-time, pre-tax bonus of $650 for full-time employees and $325 for part-timers also was approved. It will be paid next Friday, June 1.

PORTSMOUTH Citizens in Cavalier Manor took cellphone pictures of a man as he tampered with an air conditioner at a house on Darren Drive, say police, who are now using one of the photos in the hopes of catching him.

PORTSMOUTH There are two kinds of people in life: those who pull into a parking spot and those who back in. The pro-reverse crowd - it's safer, supporters say (and slower, critics counter) - can cheer a vote tonight by the City Council. Their favored "back-in" approach, long relegated to parking lots, is going mainstream.

HamptonRoads.com's New Day in Olde Towne blogger writes up to the annual Memorial Day Parade being held in Portsmouth this week. Please click here to view the full page.  

Ceremonial elders, a libation ceremony and a history lesson. Those are the traditions of Portsmouth's annual Umoja Festival to be held this weekend at the waterfront. Along with music acts, children's activities and food, organizers hope to share the rituals of various African cultures in an effort to promote cultural understanding and community togetherness.

PORTSMOUTH They file into the conference room, looking sharp in dress shirts and ties, stopping to shake hands before taking their places around a table to talk strategy. The mayor is there. A lawyer is, too. And though the rest of them have dressed the part, for now, they're just trying to get through middle school.

"Bad news, everyone," a breathless White House aide tells the vice president and an array of handlers in Washington. "This hasn't hit the mainstream media yet, but a crane has collapsed onto a ship at Portsmouth, Va." The vice president on the receiving end of this news can only gasp, "God, how horrible."

PORTSMOUTH On April 10, 2010, two days after Johnny Ray Hubbard stabbed his estranged wife almost 30 times, he turned himself in to North Carolina police. He told them that he offered his dying wife a Tylenol and that it took her 10 minutes to die. Hubbard pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Beverly Gail Hubbard but later filed a motion attempting to withdraw that plea.

PORTSMOUTH The ad on Craigslist was alarming: "2yo baby girl for sale - $300 (portsmouth)."