WilLaVeist.com

Any hardworking, caring parent who has fought the urge to knock teeth down a rebellious teenage throat through which ungratefulness is spewing understands why Tommy Jordan shot his daughter's laptop computer.

The jobs were

The Shepherd's Table Soup Kitchen depends on donated food to serve hundreds of hot meals each weekday - and on heavy-duty carts to move that food from the curb to the kitchen.

Several Triangle college students have

The ill will lingering from a surprise midnight session in January will color the legislature's return to Raleigh this week.

A Wake County prosecutor dropped charges Tuesday against an Occupy Raleigh protester who has a disability and was charged with trespassing in October after she refused to move her chair.

RICHMOND

Military spouses who move to Virginia will more easily obtain professional licenses to work under legislation moving through the General Assembly and being promoted today by White House and defense officials.

Those officials, plus first lady Michelle Obama, plan to unveil a report on streamlining occupational licensing for military spouses and ask states to pass legislation addressing the problem within two years. The effort is part of the White House's Joining Forces initiative to better support veterans, the military and their families, said Brad Cooper, executive director of Joining Forces, during a conference call Tuesday.

In their push to overturn Roe v. Wade, opponents of abortion in Virginia's General Assembly are now advancing a bill that confers to "the unborn child at every stage of development all the rights, privileges, and immunities available to other persons, citizens, and residents of this commonwealth."

The so-called "personhood" bill was approved by the House of Delegates on Tuesday.

VIRGINIA BEACH

A divided City Council struck down a resolution Tuesday that would have required the city manager to craft a budget with no increases in taxes or fees.

Councilmen John Moss and Bill DeSteph had advanced the resolution to prevent City Manager Jim Spore from proposing new sources of revenue when he presents his annual budget recommendation next month. The council rejected the resolution by a vote of 6-5.

Opponents, including Mayor Will Sessoms, said they wanted to preserve Spore's freedom to make budget recommendations without restraint.

"I strongly believe we should let the city manager do his job," Sessoms said.

WASHINGTON

Members of Hampton Roads' congressional delegation generally were pleased with parts of the Obama administration's defense budget proposal that focus on continued funding for shipbuilding and ship repair and keeping intact the Norfolk-based fleet of five aircraft carriers.

But some aspects of the budget plan, including a proposal for two rounds of base closings, next year and again in 2015, did not sit well with the legislators, who said the Pentagon should begin by targeting overseas bases rather than those at home. And they had mixed reactions to proposed changes in veterans health care benefits that would require working-age military retirees to pay larger fees, varying