| Practice didnât start for two and hours but the coach was already running late. Heâd spent the morning cleaning his playersâ football uniforms because their parents often forgot and the afternoon hunting for second-hand helmets because the start of the season was looming. And just as he was beginning his hours-long route, collecting kids who would otherwise have no way to reach their 6:00 p.m. practice, one of his former players called for help. âCoach Glen,â came a voice so soft it belied the 30-something-year old man on the other end of the line. âI have a little problem.â He was homeless, sleeping in someoneâs garage and needed a pump to blow up his air mattress. âBrother, I got you,â Glen Yearling said, shifting his van into drive. âJust give me until after practice. Around 10:30 p.m. Then Iâll see what I can do.â  Read more in this Sunday's Main News section Local transportation officials have decided what they want the future of transit in our region to look like â for the next quarter-century, anyway. This summer, the Hampton Roads Transportation Planning Organization approved a long-range plan that lays out what changes are needed to maintain the way we move around through 2045. Itâs the culmination of a five-year process. Included are some of the flashy projects youâve likely heard of, such as expanding the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel. But citizens and experts proposed hundreds of other new projects that the organization then had to evaluate and pare down, from interstate work to highway upgrades and bike trails. Read more in this Sunday's Main News section A more contagious coronavirus strain is tearing through Virginia at such a fast clip, pandemic analysts think vaccinations alone wonât be enough of a speed bump next month. A new forecast by University of Virginia scientists indicates that even if the state were able to increase vaccinations to 85% of the population by Labor Day, Virginia would still experience a significant surge in new COVID-19 infections. As of last week, only 55% were fully inoculated. âIt is simply too late for new vaccinations to bend the curve for September,â according to the report. Read more in this Sunday's Main News section As tensions rose and the enemy in the Navyâs global Large Scale Exercise 2021 scenario kept poking at American forces, word came down from the fleet -- maybe even the Secretary of Defense -- that hostile forces had abandoned a port. And that it was up to sailors from Little Creekâs Navy Expeditionary Combat Command to secure it and make it safe -- whether for landing supplies for forces farther inland, or humanitarian relief or as a base for the fleet, the scenario that more than 25,000 sailors and Marines across some 17 time zones are following didnât say. Read more in this Sunday's Main News section hanning Taylor unraveled a ball of chunky yarn, tendrils of black spilling onto the bed like a snake. She stretched out the long strand and folded it into fluffy loops, pulling the single string of yarn through the loops to create a knot. She repeated the process â loop, pull, knot â weaving neat rows with her hands, no knitting needles needed. As she stitched the beginnings of a blanket one recent Saturday morning, Taylor coaxed her 11-year-old to finish a slice of breakfast bagel and swallow her medications, kept in a pillbox. Peytan had to take more than 20 of them. She lounged on her momâs bed, keeping her company as she knitted. âTake your pills, please,â Taylor said. With each knot, the 34-year-old mom inches closer to her mission: a new kidney for her daughter. Taylor sells her blankets to raise awareness about living kidney donation and Peytanâs rare illness, cystinosis. The disease can affect all parts of the body, including the eyes and kidneys. The funds will help with her care, medical bills and the familyâs living expenses during and after the transplant. Taylor doesnât have a specific financial goal in mind, but so far, sheâs raised about $10,000.  Read more in the Sunday Break section Hezekiah Walker became a student at Virginia Union University two years ago, but the Grammy-winning gospel singer took his collegiate experience to the next level by opening a gospel music center on the campus. He will lead the Hezekiah Walker Center of Gospel Music at Virginia Union University in Richmond. Itâs being dubbed the first academic center focused on gospel music at a historically Black college or university where students can learn the cultural and business aspects of the genre and industry. Read more in the Sunday Break section   Jamestown High has won more than two dozen state championships since opening 24 years ago, but no athletic team in school history galvanized the Eaglesâ community like the 2016-17 Group 4A boys basketball state runner-up. Electricity filled the air that season as the home stands were packed for every game and the gym was sold out for the three victories over rival and fellow state tournament participant Smithfield. Behind its brash coach and an undersized but fiercely competitive team, Jamestown won 27 games on its way to the state final. The Eagles lost Diamontâe Brown, the âheart and soulâ of that team, Sunday night. Brown, 22, was shot and killed, the victim of a robbery in an apparent drug transaction according to a report filed in the Williamsburg-James City County General District Court. Read more in this Sunday's Sports section Peace, love and blowouts â thatâs the greeting emblazoned above the check-in area at Drybar in Virginia Beachâs Town Center. Franchisee owner Christine Verfurth opened the first Drybar in Hampton Roads and in Southeastern Virginia at the end of July. She left an almost 20-year career in accounting when the wind began to blow her in another direction. âWhen I lost both of my parents within two years, I knew I wanted to redefine my life and the impact I could create,â she said. âIt was just time for a change.â Read more in this Sunday's Work & Money section
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