IF YOU DRIVE through the countryside today or tomorrow, you'll probably find that there is the sweet aroma of new-mown hay in the air. There will probably be more hay on the ground this weekend than at any other time this summer....

Rep. Rob Wittman, R-1st District, is planning the last of three campaign kickoff events on Sunday. Wittman's event will be at 5 p.m. at the Holiday Inn Express on U.S. 17 in Stafford County. He previously held campaign kickoff events May 5 in Montross and May 12 Williamsburg/James City County....

BY CATHY JETT Cathy Powell Cavender has given her parents a gift that was four generations and more than 100 years in the making....

An anti-abortion prayer rally will be held at the Fredericksburg Expo and Conference Center on Tuesday night. The African American Life Rumble, sponsored by the Fredericksburg Prayer Furnace, begins at 7 p.m at the convention center in Central Park. It's one of three prayer gatherings at the center next week....

BY RUSTY DENNEN Crossroads Vineyard Church, which meets in Fredericksburg Christian High School, had one more reason to celebrate at its Easter service last month: It added a second service in a season of growth....

One of the incidents happened at a Woodbridge McDonalds, police said.

Police said Jose Odil Diaz propositioned the 13-year-old girl for sex and sexually assaulted her in 2010 and 2011.

Loudoun County attorney Deborah C. Welsh will replace retiring judge Julia Cannon on the 20th Judicial District of the General District Court.

Reginald Alfred Schools sexually assaulted the 14-year-old girl in February, police said.

Teraney Fowler got a handgun and shot into the floor during an argument on Thursday, police said.