RICHMOND When Richard Diamonstein's family started Paramount Sleep in the 1930s, selling mattresses made in Norfolk to far-away places was unthinkable.

Meet the Chladny family from Macungie, Pa., outside Allentown. Nanette, 60, is about to retire as a middle school German teacher. Ed, also 60, works as a heating and air conditioning technician. They visited the Oceanfront on a whim in 1991 and have been back every summer since, always staying at The Breakers Resort Inn.

As Washington grows more preoccupied with elections and less interested in compromise, the economy is headed for a train wreck at the end of the year that will affect just about everyone.

OK, locals, think you know everything about our Oceanfront summer visitors and their habits? We'll see. Try this multiple-choice tourist trivia test. 1. How many beers were served at Mahi Mah's last summer? A 18,352 B 47,278 C 83,247 D Who's counting?

- As told to Pilot writer Carolyn Shapiro We started in 1984 as a phone-in company. We did voice recordings and faxes. We have remote employees all over. Our East Coast team consists of myself, a person down in Florida and a person in New York.

NORFOLK More than half of the crew aboard the Maersk Alabama during a Somali pirate attack in April 2009 have filed lawsuits in Norfolk against the owner and operator of the ship, even as a new movie about the hijacking is in the works.

SUFFOLK
Ace Hardware Corp.’s new 336,000-square-foot import redistribution center on U.S. 58 is nearing completion and will open this summer. Construction of the facility in the CenterPoint Intermodal Center began last June.

Virginia’s annual sales tax “holiday” on purchases to prepare for a hurricane begins today and continues through Thursday.

The program allows consumers to save the state’s 5 percent sales tax on batteries, flashlights, bottled water, duct tape, mobile-phone chargers, first-aid kits and other products. Large items such as generators also are tax free during this week.

The average price of regular gas has fallen below $3.50 a gallon in Hampton Roads, AAA reported Friday.
The last time it was below $3.50 was Feb. 21, said Katharine Beachboard, a spokeswoman for AAA Tidewater Virginia.
The regional average was $3.49 this morning, AAA’s Fuel Gauge Report said. That was down from $3.51 Thursday and $3.56 a week before.

NORFOLK A day after state officials announced that a unit of A.P. Moller-Maersk Group had submitted an unsolicited proposal to operate the terminals of the Virginia Port Authority, reaction to the idea was mixed.