A pair of dead raccoons discovered on the same day last week in Washington County brought the number of rabies cases up to four in 2008.
The cases prompted the sheriff to issue a news release about the dead animals that had reportedly been in contact with vaccinated dogs.
Still, the number of reported cases, as of Aug. 9, before the two cases were discovered here, is below what it was at this time last year. According to Virginia Department of Health figures, 375 cases have been reported across the commonwealth since Jan. 1. By that same week, the 32nd, last year, the number was 451.
One health official insists the public keep up vigilance in efforts to hold the numbers down. 

he “Largest Home Improvement Company in America” could be settling into a home off Interstate 81’s Exit 19 in the coming months.
County leaders at a recent board meeting OK’d a request to rezone two parcels from A-2 Agriculture to B-2 Business, paving the way for a Lowe’s Home Improvement Store, according to County Administrator Mark Reeter.

A group of literal cross-country runners made a swing through Southwest Virginia on Monday, churning through 60 miles to honor 60 U.S. servicemen killed in Iraq.
The stretch from Abingdon to Wytheville was just a small portion of the runners’ 4,086-mile trek across the continental United States – one mile for each U.S. military member killed in Iraq from the first death in March 2003 through death No. 4,086 on June 3, 2008, a few days before the group began its journey.

Wilma Norton stepped out of the Washington County News office building on Main Street and saw a flash of green. Then nothing but leaves.
A huge tree branch had just broken off and came crashing down, flattening everything between it and the ground. Fortunately, neither Norton nor anyone else was hurt that afternoon on Aug. 5. But had Norton not answered the call of nature, Mother Nature might have killed her.

Standard maintenance was the reason Virginia Department of Transportation Public Affairs Officer Michelle Earl gave for Exit 14 being shut down Tuesday night.
According to Earl, workers were doing ordinary patching on the bridge substructure and several beams need repair.

Mary Edna Thompson peers into a pot of soup.
“There’s still some left,” she says, stirring it with a wooden spoon.

Shelley Williams said no one is pointing any fingers.
Williams, of the Department of Environmental Quality’s Southwest Regional Office in Abingdon, said the health of Wolf Creek and the Holston’s Middle Fork is everyone’s responsibility.
“It’s a watershed problem,” she said.

Smyth County Sheriff David Bradley confirmed Wednesday an internal investigation in his office resulted in the termination of two unnamed deputies.

If you see two people wearing green shirts and carrying a gasoline can walking along Highway 11 next week, it won’t mean their vehicle has run out of fuel.

It takes a lot of stuff to make a TV show. Even one that uses a single set. Maybe especially one that uses a single set when it’s a stage where musicians perform and the look and sound have to be just right for both the audience and the viewers at home.