PORTSMOUTH Norcom guard DeCarlos Anderson held on tight to his shiny partners - his team's trophies - as he swayed before TV and newspaper cameras Wednesday afternoon. The fancy moves were performed at Norcom High's pep rally, held to celebrate the Greyhounds' boys basketball team's historic state championship, won last Friday.

PORTSMOUTH Jerry Chisholm, 55, was sentenced Thursday to serve 45 years in prison for the August 2008 slaying of a homeless man who had bedded down for the night in the alcove of a church ministry. Edward W. Bell, a 58-year-old brick mason, died of blunt-force trauma to the head. He had been struck multiple times, according to an autopsy.

PORTSMOUTH Phish is returning to Hampton Roads this summer. But this time, the psychedelic jam band will play a smaller venue – nTelos Wireless Pavilion.

The group kicked off its summer tour last year with a three-day stop in Hampton. While the Hampton Coliseum has more than 10,000 seats, the Portsmouth venue has only 6,500.

By Lia Russell PORTSMOUTH April 28, 2009, was a beautiful, sunny day in Hampton Roads, adding to the upbeat mood of Marie and Tim Bentley, who had just received good news from their dog’s veterinarian.

The Portsmouth couple’s 70-pound,  2-year-old Bernese mountain dog, Isabelle, whom they call  Bella , wouldn’t need surgery after all for a leg injury.

TODAY, it's a nondescript conference room. Empty table, bare walls. But for months in 2008, this space was plastered with maps and charts. Detectives called it the Meghan Room. And every Tuesday, investigators would gather there to strategize their hunt for a 16-year-old girl's killer.

Return to the first half of the story   AS DAYS TURNED into weeks, and weeks into months, some in the community feared the trail of Meghan's murderer was growing cold. Maybe her killer took some comfort in the passage of time, too. Funkhouser didn't share the view.

CLICK ON THE INTERACTIVE ABOVE TO WATCH VIDEOS AND LEARN MORE.   A CASE that began with a stepfather's anguished 911 call on April 10, 2008, in Portsmouth ended Feb. 18 when Robert Lee Barnes was sentenced for sexually assaulting and stabbing to death his 16-year-old friend, Meghan Landowski.  

PORTSMOUTH Central to the flap over the demise of Sheriff Bill Watson's special neighborhood patrol squad was his assertion that the city was fumbling its chance at a lucrative federal contract.

RICHMOND

Norcom guard DeCarlos Anderson made a promise following the Greyhounds’ win in the Group AAA state semifinal game.

He told anyone who would listen to him that Norcom would bring home a state title to the Greyhound fans.

“We will not fail them,” he said. “I promise you that, we will bring it home.”

PORTSMOUTH School leaders aren't weighing massive layoffs to balance steep cuts, but employees and students would still feel some pain under the division's latest proposed budget for next year. There would be fewer employees through attrition, larger class sizes and significant fee hikes in employee health care plans under Superintendent David Stuckwisch's proposed budget.