No matter the amount of sugar and cream, coffee tastes too bitter for my palate.

Lo and behold, I recently discovered one that I like from Beach Bum Coffee, a mobile coffee trailer that opened in April.

Owner Allyson Huff, who hails from Washington, created a White Chocolate, White Coffee Ube Latte for me that was delightful. The sweet, creamy and nutty flavors had me sipping with joy while my heart fluttered from the caffeine. I think I overdid it by getting the chai latte, too. It had an intoxicating spicy aroma and bold finish.

Huff once worked at Starbucks, so she knows a thing or two about coffee. The Tsunami is the most popular on Beach Bum’s chalkboard menu; it contains espresso, vanilla, coconut, milk, soft top (cream) with a caramel drizzle. The barista also offers other specialty coffee drinks and traditional ones such as an Americano and cold brew. The non-coffee options are lemonade and steamers. She has energy drinks as well as, for instance the Beach Bum made with pineapple, strawberry and Redbull.

My sampling didn’t stop at java. Beach Bum listed five cookie choices by Turnbreezy Cookies, a local brand, on a display. I tried the ube and gave it praise after taking one bite. The soft purple treat was rich but not overly sweet. The white chocolate chips gave me a desire to stalk Beach Bum’s social media for its next location or daily move. My soul was tormented after the last morsel was gone. It made a fantastic pairing with my drinks.

I was definitely on a sugar high that day and officially a coffee drinker.

Rekaya Gibson, [email protected], 757-295-8809; on Twitter @gibsonrekaya

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If you go

Where: Locations vary. 1186 Lynnhaven Parkway, Virginia Beach

Hours: 7:30 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Prices: $6 to $8

Details: 253-318-8109; instagram.com/beachbumcoffeeva

As summer arrives, the Williamsburg Winery’s “Art at Wessex Hundred” exhibit has a new rotation of artwork to help complement the season.

The new collection, “It’s Summertime — Enjoy Life,” opens June 16 in the winery’s tasting room, featuring nearly 50 new pieces, including some from newly featured artists.

The exhibit opened in April 2022 and features art that rotates seasonally. A three-person team of volunteers from the Williamsburg arts community — Cary Garnet and Mary and Jim McCormick, known by their sobriquet, “The Art People” — organize and manage the exhibit.

According to Mary McCormick, more than 100 pieces of art from local artists have been sold since the exhibit first opened. The next rotation will open in September.

Sian Wilkerson, 757-342-6616, [email protected]

The former superintendent for King William County Public Schools has been hired by a school district in North Carolina.

David O. White was recently installed as the interim superintendent for the school district in Washington County, North Carolina, according to the Roanoke Beacon newspaper. White was to begin June 1, the paper reported last week.

White was terminated by the King William County School Board in December by a 3-2 vote. He had held the superintendent position for more than six years. School Board members, citing a personnel issue, would not give a reason for his firing, but White had previously been a target of the King William Tea Party and other groups that opposed mask mandates in King William schools during the COVID-19 pandemic.

White told the Roanoke Beacon that his firing stemmed from the district’s adherence to the mask mandate.

The former chief secondary officer for Stafford County Public Schools, White took over as superintendent in King William on May 1, 2016. He previously worked as a supervisor for career and technical education, a principal, an assistant principal and a teacher in other localities in Virginia.

In announcing White’s hiring, Washington County School Board Chairman Carlos Riddick expressed “confidence” in White’s appointment, saying, “We will not be without a leader,” according to the Roanoke Beacon.

White told the Beacon his first task as superintendent would be to assess the schools’ status and “have real conversations about what works and what doesn’t work.”

Washington County Schools pointed to White’s leadership, collaborative and inclusive decision-making and effective communication, according to a press release. In the release, White said he would “ensure that others have a voice in the development of that path so that they may see their own investment in the division’s future. And, as an effective communicator, I will articulate a clear and concise message to a diverse community of stakeholders (administrators, faculty/staff, students, parents and members of the greater community) on where the district is going, why we are going there and how we will get there.”

In May, King William Schools announced it had named Charles A. “Chuck” Wagner, the assistant superintendent for instruction in Gloucester County, as its next superintendent. Wagner, who has been assistant superintendent in Gloucester since 2011, has more than 28 years of experience in education and has served as a principal, assistant principal and a teacher in Williamsburg-James City County Public Schools.

Wagner will begin his new role July 1.

Roanoke Beacon staff writer Dale Heberlig contributed information to this story.

Matt Bowry came back to the Peninsula to hit a goal a dozen years in the making — to buy the only waterfront hotel in the Historic Triangle.

The managing partner of M.A. Bowry and Co. purchased the long-standing Duke of York Hotel in Yorktown near Riverwalk Landing for $3 million in July 2021, according to online county property records, and is taking it to a higher level. Renamed the Yorktown Beach Hotel, it earned the county’s 2023 Distinguished Business Award presented to growing businesses that make significant investments in York County.

Bowry, a Newport News native, had left the area years earlier to pursue a career in investment banking and real estate private equity in Baltimore, Maryland.

While visiting his mother on the Peninsula, he had lunch at the Yorktown Pub a few doors down from the hotel.

“I said then, ‘I am going to buy that hotel,’” Bowry said.

First owned by the Crockett family, the first of three buildings were constructed in 1962 with two more buildings being added by 1977. It was built into the hill by the Holiday Inn corporation. At the time, Holiday Inn had another business building hotels for other companies, he said.

Bowry worked over the years to acquire the hotel.

“I wrote letters to Paul Crockett and met with him when I was in town. I developed a relationship with him and other family members and stayed in touch for more than a decade,” he said.

Paul Crockett died in August last year. Crockett’s son, Cole Crockett, is just a phone call away if Bowry has maintenance questions.

“He grew up in this hotel,” he added. “He knows every facet.”

Bowry, along with his investors, started making changes beginning with the name. They wanted to emphasize the York River beach across the street.

“We are selling the view,” he said.

He renamed the three buildings. The largest building is the Chesapeake, with the mid-size being the James and the smallest called the York. This reflects the three bodies of water around the Peninsula.

Local contractor Scott Olsen and his team with Fjord Construction fully renovated the first floor of the Chesapeake over a year and a half. All windows along the front facade were replaced and the building received a fresh coat of paint. With grant help from the economic development authority, he upgraded windows and replaced old plastic balcony chairs with high-end matching chairs to offer the optimal beach-gazing experience. A new continental breakfast area and market for drinks and snacks opened in April and May.

The restaurant was eliminated to create an open lobby space. He made the decision because the restaurant was in disrepair and limited parking made it difficult to accommodate both restaurant and hotel customers. In addition, there are several restaurants within walking distance from the hotel.

While still in a three- to five-year renovation process, guests can notice a modern lobby and coastal blue walls in the hallways. The interior will continue to be renovated with the help of Bowry’s fiancee, Ferren Wolfe, an interior designer, who will work on the guest rooms and a small conference room.

The pool was repaired complete with saltwater filtration. A grassy area with a gazebo in the middle of the hotel complex will remain a common space unless a group would like to hold an event. Bowry said groups need to book at least 30 rooms for the request. A military reunion recently did just that.

Future plans are to establish a rooftop deck. “There is 54,000 square feet. I hope to have it done by next Memorial Day,” he said.

For Riverwalk Landing, the hotel’s upgrades add to the county’s mission.

“The county is focused on continual enhancements to the Historic Area, from Riverwalk Landing to the beach picnic area and up the hill on Main Street,” said Kristi Olsen-Hayes, director of the Economic and Tourism Development Department. “Our EDA is also focused on retaining the long-standing businesses in our legacy industries. So, helping Mr. Bowry revive the aging hotel, and choosing Yorktown Beach Hotel as this year’s award winner, made perfect sense. We’re excited to see this tourism asset refreshed and thriving again.”

By SARAH BRUMFIELD and MICHAEL BALSAMO (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON (AP) — The pilot of a business jet that flew over Washington and crashed in a remote part of Virginia appeared to be slumped over and unresponsive, three U.S. officials said Monday, recounting observations by fighter pilots who intercepted the wayward flight.

The revelations came as federal investigators trudged through rugged terrain to reach the site where the plane slammed into a mountain Sunday, killing four people. The officials who said that the fighter pilots saw the civilian pilot slumped over had been briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the military operation.

The plane’s owner told news outlets that his daughter and 2-year-old granddaughter were aboard.

The New York-bound plane took an erratic flight path — inexplicably, turning around over Long Island to fly directly over the nation’s capital — which prompted the military to scramble fighter jets. This caused a sonic boom heard in Washington, Maryland and Virginia.

Remote terrain around the crash site posed major challenges to the investigation. It took investigators several hours to hike into the rural area near the community of Montebello, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Charlottesville, said NTSB spokesperson Eric Weiss. They expect to be on the scene for at least three to four days.

Speaking at a briefing Monday morning, NTSB investigator Adam Gerhardt said the wreckage is “highly fragmented” and investigators will examine the most delicate evidence at the site, after which the wreckage will be moved, perhaps by helicopter, to Delaware, where it can be further examined. The plane is not required to have a flight recorder but it is possible that there are other avionics equipment that will have data that they can examine, Gerhardt said.

The Virginia State Police issued a statement saying that because of the severity of the crash, human remains will be transported to the state medical examiner’s office for autopsy and identification. The Federal Aviation Administration said that the victims included the pilot and three passengers but didn’t release their names. There were no survivors.

Investigators will look at when the pilot became unresponsive and why aircraft flew the path that it did, Gerhardt said. They will consider several factors that are routinely examined in such probes including the plane, its engines, weather conditions, pilot qualifications and maintenance records, he said. A preliminary report will be released in 10 days.

According to a timetable released late Monday by NTSB spokesperson Jennifer Gabris, the plane took off from Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Tennessee at 1:13 p.m. Sunday, headed for MacArthur Airport in Long Island, N.Y. Air Traffic Control lost communication with the airplane during its ascent.

Preliminary information indicates the last ATC communication attempt with the airplane was at approximately 1:28 p.m., when the plane was at 31,000 feet (9,449 meters). The plane climbed to 34,000 feet (10,363 kilometers), where it remained for the rest of the flight until 3:23 p.m. when it began to descend and crashed about nine minutes later. The plane was flying at 34,000 feet (10,363 kilometers), when it flew over MacArthur Airport at 2:33 p.m., the NTSB said.

The White House expressed its “deepest condolences” on Monday to the family of those on board the plane.

“We need to keep them front and center,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said.

Kirby deferred questions about a follow-up report on the security response over Washington airspace to the Pentagon and U.S. Secret Service. But he said, “What I saw was just a classic, textbook response.”

The White House was continuously informed as the military jets tried to contact the pilot of the civilian plane and monitored the small aircraft’s path from Washington airspace to rural Virginia, Kirby said.

Air Traffic Control audio from the half-hour before the plane crashed captures voices that identify themselves as military pilots trying to communicate with the pilot of the private plane, according to recordings on LiveATC.net.

“If you hear this transmission, contact us,” said one pilot who identifies herself as being with the Air National Guard.

Several minutes later, a military pilot says: “You have been intercepted. Contact me.”

The plane flew directly over the nation’s capital. According to the Pentagon, six F-16 fighter jets were immediately deployed to intercept the plane. Two aircraft from the 113th Fighter Wing, out of Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, were the first to reach the Cessna Citation to begin attempts to contact the pilot. Two F-16 aircraft out of New Jersey and two from South Carolina also responded.

Flight tracking sites showed the plane suffered a rapid spiraling descent, dropping at one point at a rate of more than 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) per minute before crashing in the St. Mary’s Wilderness.

In Fairfax, Virginia, Travis Thornton was settled on a couch next to his wife, Hannah, and had just begun recording himself playing guitar and harmonica when they were startled by a loud rumble and rattling that can be heard on the video. The couple jumped up to investigate. Thornton tweeted that they checked in with their kids upstairs and then he went outside to check the house and talk to neighbors.

The plane that crashed was registered to Encore Motors of Melbourne Inc, which is based in Florida. John Rumpel, a pilot who runs the company said his family was returning to their home in East Hampton, on Long Island, after visiting his house in North Carolina.

Rumpel told the New York Times he didn’t have much information from authorities but suggested the plane could have lost pressurization.

“It descended at 20,000 feet a minute, and nobody could survive a crash from that speed,” Rumpel told the newspaper.

In interviews with the Times and Newsday, Rumpel identified his daughter, Adina Azarian, and 2-year-old granddaughter Aria, as two of the victims.

Azarian, 49, was well-known in real estate circles both in New York City and Long Island, described by friends and relatives as a fiercely competitive entrepreneur who started her own brokerage and was raising her daughter as a single parent.

“Being a mom was everything to her,” said Tara Brivic-Looper, a close friend who grew up with Azarian on the Upper East Side. “That they were together (at the end) is fitting.”

Friends say Azarian moved to East Hampton fulltime to raise Aria, with the help of a nanny. But she made frequent trips back home, bringing both Aria and the nanny to meet her tight-knit extended family on multiple occasions in recent months.

“She seemed so happy out there,” her cousin, Andrew Azarian, recalled. “Both of their lives hadn’t even started.”

“How could this happen?” he continued. “No one can explain it.”

___

Brumfield reported from Silver Spring, Maryland. Associated Press reporter Jake Offenhartz and researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York, and White House Correspondent Zeke Miller contributed to this report.

NORFOLK — People living in and around the nation’s capital experienced a rare, if startling, sound that has a rich history in American aviation and possibly a muted future: A sonic boom.

The boom was heard Sunday after the U.S. military dispatched six fighter jets to intercept an unresponsive business plane flying over restricted airspace.

The Air Force gave the F-16s permission to fly faster than the speed of sound — something civilian aircraft rarely get to do — as the jets scrambled to catch up with the Cessna Citation. The result was a thunderous rumble that resonated across a metropolitan area that’s home to more than six million people.

The business jet eventually crashed in rural Virginia, killing the pilot and three passengers.

Below is an explanation of what sonic booms are, their history in the U.S. and their potential future.

WHAT IS A SONIC BOOM?

Sonic booms are heard on the ground when airplanes overhead fly faster than the speed of sound. That speed is typically about 760 mph near sea level, but can vary depending on the temperature, altitude and other conditions, according to the Congressional Research Service.

As the plane speeds through the air, molecules are pushed aside with great force, “and this forms a shock wave, much like a boat creates a wake in water,” according to NASA.

“When this line of shock wave passes by, listeners on the ground hear a very loud noise,” according to an explanation from Australia’s University of New South Wales.

The F-16s flying over Washington on Sunday were “probably trying to go as fast it could to catch up” with the wayward Cessna airplane, said Anthony Brickhouse, an associate professor of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon can fly 1,500 mph or twice the speed of sound, known as Mach 2, according to the Air Force.

WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF SUPERSONIC TRAVEL — AND BOOMS?

In 1947, test pilot Charles “Chuck” Yeager became the first person to fly faster than sound in an orange, bullet-shaped Bell X-1 rocket plane. His exploits were told in Tom Wolfe’s book “The Right Stuff,” and in the 1983 film it inspired.

In the movie, someone on the ground asks, “What’s that sound?” as Yeager’s plane flies above the Mojave Desert and breaks the sound barrier.

Interest in supersonic flight initially focused mostly on military planes, according to the Congressional Research Service. But it grew to include supersonic civil aircraft in the 1960s.

For example, the Soviet Union became the first country in 1968 to fly a supersonic passenger plane, the Tupolev TU-144. But a fatal crash at the 1973 Paris Air Show ended that ambition.

In 1963, the U.S. government announced a major program to develop a supersonic passenger aircraft. But serious problems soon surfaced, including massive development costs and doubts about financial viability. The program was terminated in 1971.

During the 1960s, NASA was tasked with helping to develop commercial supersonic aircraft and researched the effects of sonic booms. It found that people who experienced them were not happy with the loud sounds, describing them as “annoying,” “irritating” and “startling.”

In 1973, the Federal Aviation Administration prohibited supersonic flights over land, “based on the expectation that such flights would cause a sonic boom to reach the ground,” the Congressional Research Service wrote.

The Concorde, an Anglo-French supersonic jetliner, saw success for a number of years after making its first commercial flights in 1976. However, its ear-rattling sonic booms irritated people on the ground and led to restrictions on where the jet could fly.

In the U.S., the plane flew mainly over the Atlantic to New York and Washington. It could fly at twice the speed of sound. And it promised to revolutionize long-distance travel by cutting flying time from the U.S. East Coast to Europe from eight hours to three and a half hours.

The Concorde never caught on widely. The plane’s economics were challenging, and its sonic booms led it to be banned on many overland routes. Only 20 were built; 14 of which were used for passenger service.

In 2003, British Airways and Air France both stopped Concorde service.

Sonic booms are still heard in the U.S. from the nation’s military aircraft. In 2021, a sonic boom from F-15 fighter jets caused widespread concern that there was an earthquake on the Oregon coast.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF SUPERSONIC PASSENGER TRAVEL — AND SONIC BOOMS?

In 2018, the Congressional Research Service noted a revival of interest in supersonic aircraft, with startups hoping new technology could make them quieter and profitable.

Since then, American Airlines and United have bought supersonic jets from manufacturer Boom Supersonic. The aircraft are still on the drawing board and years away from flying — an not all industry observers believe they’ll be profitable.

Meanwhile, NASA’s X-59 airplane is designed to fly faster than sound — but with drastically reduced noise — over land, according to April blog post from the agency.

“People below would hear sonic ‘thumps’ rather than booms, if they hear anything at all,” NASA wrote.

RALEIGH, N.C. — Gov. Roy Cooper launched a firearm safety education initiative Monday in an effort to curb gun deaths among children and firearm thefts in North Carolina.

The NC Secure All Firearms Effectively initiative primarily focuses on educating North Carolina communities about secure gun storage in cars and houses. The $2.5 million effort will include a weeklong tour around the state to encourage safe firearm storage, as well as a statewide media campaign until January.

Many North Carolinians will be receptive to the initiative’s effort to secure guns properly, Cooper said, in part due to gun violence rising at an alarming rate. Firearms have become the leading cause of death among children from ages 1 to 17 in the state, according to the Research Triangle Institute.

“People don’t want to see their child in a pool of blood accidentally shot,” Cooper said. “People don’t want their guns used for suicide. They don’t want their guns stolen to be used in a commission of a felony.”

Efforts to expand gun safety education in North Carolina schools are also part of the NC SAFE initiative, said NC Department of Public Safety Deputy Secretary William Lassiter. The program — Educating Kids about Guns — was launched in 13 school districts last year.

Preventing youth deaths by firearms isn’t the only aim of Cooper’s new program — addressing gun thefts across the state is another focal point.

In Raleigh, 582 guns were stolen from cars in 2022, Raleigh Police Department Chief Estella Patterson said. In Durham, 331 guns were stolen last year, Lassiter said.

The rise in gun thefts — up 45% in Raleigh between 2020 and 2021 — can be attributed to factors like an increase in gun ownership and looser gun restrictions, experts say. Gun owners’ carelessness plays a role as well, with many gun thefts being from unlocked cars.

NC SAFE will distribute around 25,000 gun locks and 200 gun safes initially, Lassiter said. The program will also collaborate with local law enforcement departments across the state to educate communities on proper gun storage.

The program joins other gun safety initiatives launched out of the governor’s office, including the Office of Violence Prevention established by a March executive order. The office, formed under the state Department of Public Safety, aims to use public awareness campaigns to mitigate firearm misuse.

Cooper and the Republican-controlled state legislature have been at odds over gun legislation this year, culminating with lawmakers overriding the Democratic governor’s veto on eliminating a requirement for a permit to buy a handgun. The bill also implemented a safe storage education initiative.

Another bill that would have allowed permitless concealed carry stalled in the House in early May.

The initiative also comes nearly eight months after a mass shooting in Raleigh’s Hedingham neighborhood that killed five people. The suspected shooter was a 15-year-old Knightdale High School student.

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©2023 The News & Observer. Visit at newsobserver.com. Distributed at Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

By TERRY SPENCER (Associated Press)

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — The Florida judge who oversaw the penalty trial of Parkland school shooter Nikolas Cruz should be publicly reprimanded for showing bias toward the prosecution, failing to curtail “vitriolic statements” directed at Cruz’s attorneys by the victims’ families and sometimes allowing “her emotions to overcome her judgement,” a state commission concluded Monday.

The Judicial Qualifications Commission found that Circuit Judge Elizabeth Scherer violated several rules governing judicial conduct during last year’s trial in her actions toward Cruz’s public defenders. The six-month trial ended with Cruz receiving a receiving a life sentence for the 2018 murder of 14 students and three staff members at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School after the jury could not unanimously agree that he deserved a death sentence.

The 15-member commission found that Scherer “unduly chastised” lead public defender Melisa McNeill and her team, wrongly accused one Cruz attorney of threatening her child, and improperly embraced members of the prosecution in the courtroom after the trial’s conclusion.

The commission, composed of judges, lawyers and citizens, acknowledged that “the worldwide publicity surrounding the case created stress and tension for all participants.“

Regardless, the commission said, judges are expected to “ensure due process, order and decorum, and act always with dignity and respect to promote the integrity and impartiality of the judiciary.”

“In limited instances during this unique and lengthy case, Judge Scherer allowed her emotions to overcome her judgement,” the commission said in its report to the Florida Supreme Court, which will make the final decision.

Scherer announced last month that she would be retiring from the bench on June 30. The commission said the resignation was not part of any deal struck with the judge. The commission report said that Scherer acknowledged during her testimony that her conduct during the trial “fell short” of what’s expected of judges and that “her treatment of members of the defense team was at times not patient, dignified or courteous.”

Scherer, a 46-year-old former prosecutor, was appointed to the bench in 2012 and the Cruz case was her first capital murder trial. Broward County’s computerized system randomly assigned her Cruz’s case shortly after the shooting.

Her attorney, Thomas Panza, did not immediately respond to a call or email seeking comment.

Broward County Public Defender Gordon Weekes declined comment.

Scherer’s handling of the case drew frequent praise from the parents and spouses of the victims, who said she treated them with professionalism and kindness, but her clashes with Cruz’s attorneys and others sometimes drew criticism from legal observers.

Before the trial she criticized two reporters from the Sun Sentinel newspaper for publishing a sealed Cruz educational record that they obtained legally. She threatened to tell the paper what it could and couldn’t print, but never did; legal experts say such a move would have been unconstitutional.

Scherer also had frequent heated arguments with McNeill. Those boiled over for the first time when McNeill and her team suddenly rested their case after calling only a small fraction of their expected witnesses. Scherer called it “the most uncalled for, unprofessional way to try a case,” though the defense has no obligation to call all of its witnesses or announce its plans in advance.

McNeill countered angrily, “You are insulting me on the record in front of my client,” before Scherer told her to stop. She then laid into her.

“You’ve been insulting me the entire trial,” Scherer barked at McNeill. “Arguing with me, storming out, coming late intentionally if you don’t like my rulings. So, quite frankly, this has been long overdue. So please be seated.”

The two clashed again during Cruz’s sentencing hearing in November over the verbal attacks some victims’ family members made against the defense team during their courtroom statements. Scherer refused to curtail the statements and ejected one of McNeill’s assistants, David Wheeler, after she wrongly interpreted one of his comments as a threat against her daughter.

After sentencing Cruz, 24, to life without parole as required, Scherer left the bench and hugged members of the prosecution and the victims’ families. She told the commission she offered to also hug the defense team.

That action led the Supreme Court in April to remove her from overseeing post-conviction motions of another defendant, Randy Tundidor, who was sentenced to death for murder in the 2019 killing of his landlord. One of the prosecutors in that case had also been on the Cruz team, and during a hearing in the Tundidor case a few days after the Cruz sentencing, Scherer asked the prosecutor how he was holding up.

The court said Scherer’s actions gave at least the appearance that she could not be fair to Tundidor.

NORFOLK — It had been four years since Cox reached a state team championship match in boys tennis, but the Falcons remedied that Monday morning with a 5-1 Class 5 semifinal victory over Maury at Old Dominion’s Folkes-Stevens Tennis Center.

With new players following in the footsteps of those who earned state Class 6 runner-up honors in 2018 and ’19, the Falcons won their fifth consecutive match this postseason.

No. 6 Matt Baan and No. 5 Luca Gandolfo won their matches before No. 4 Alex Ortiz and No. 1 Neil Vanga escaped competitive second sets to put Cox on the verge of advancing.

Sam Dixon then won 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) at No. 3 to defeat Manolo Angeles and clinch the victory while a pair of doubles matches were just getting underway. Freshman No. 2 John Felts scored the Commodores’ only team point with a 6-1, 6-3 triumph against James Lonergan.

Cox will go to Huntington Park in Newport News for the title match at 11 a.m. Thursday and will be the underdog against Deep Run.

Class 2

Bruton 5, Riverheads 1: The Panthers gained their second consecutive trip to the state final, defeating the Gladiators on Mary Baldwin’s courts in Staunton.

Glenvar, located near Roanoke in Salem, emerged from the other half of the bracket and will face Bruton for the trophy at 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Virginia Tech. Defending champion John Battle of Bristol fell 5-4 in a quarterfinal to Floyd County, which Glenvar defeated 5-2 Monday.

Anson Li got Bruton on the board first with surgical execution and creative shotmaking, coach James Barr said.  Nick Felsman, Leon Strain and Max de Winter all closed tight matches by shortening points and finishing at the net.

No. 1 player Simphiwe Matibini clinched the final point with a gutsy rally.  Down 1-4 in the second set, he battled back to force a tiebreaker and claim his second match point.

Class 4

Hanover 5, Grafton 4: The host Hawks won a match tiebreak at No. 3 doubles to edge the Clippers, giving Hanover its third trip to the final in the last four years.

Grafton, seeking its first spot in the team final, got singles victories from No. 1 Rainer Christiansen, No. 2 John Cloud and No. 6 Noah Mitchell to forge a 3-3 tie entering doubles. Christiansen and Cloud, the Region A doubles champs, won their match, but Hanover won highly competitive clashes at the other two spots.

That gave the Hawks a title-match rematch against defending champion Western Albemarle at 9 a.m. Thursday at Huntington Park.

Class 3

Maggie Walker 5, Tabb 3: The Tigers gave Maggie Walker one of its toughest matches in recent years, but the Dragons won a semifinal at Battery Park in Richmond. Maggie Walker will go to Virginia Tech for Thursday’s 10:30 a.m. final against Monticello.

Tabb managed a 3-3 singles split with match-tiebreak triumphs by Nicolas Crespo and Matthew Wornom on lines 1 and 2, plus a 6-1, 6-1 victory by Zain Moussa at 6.

In doubles, Maggie Walker registered 6-3, 6-1 and 6-4, 6-0 victories on lines 2 and 3, respectively.

Girls

Class 5

Princess Anne 5, Cox 0: The Cavaliers reached a state girls tennis title match for the first time, winning at home over a Falcons team they defeated for the third time this year.

PA’s Nos. 3-6 players — Ysabel Wells, Laine Kwong, Sophia Koch and Rino Sato — haven’t lost in team competition all season. They’ll face their hardest test at 11 a.m. Thursday when they face two-time defending champion Douglas Freeman of Richmond for the title at Huntington Park.

Class 4

Jamestown 5, Courtland 3: The Eagles went to Fredericksburg, won four of the six singles matches and held on to reach their third consecutive state title match.

Jamestown will go to Huntington Park for a 9 a.m. Thursday title match against Sherando, which knocked off Handley in a reversal of their Region C final.

As they frequently have been this season, Julia Clark and Lauren Elliott were in command for Jamestown at the top of the lineup. Clark’s 6-0, 6-0 victory at line 1 and Elliott’s 6-1, 6-2 triumph at 2, combined with straight-sets victories by Scarlett Gamez at 4 and Emily Dahl at 6, gave the Eagles a 4-2 edge.

In doubles, Clark and Elliott squelched the hosts’ comeback ideas with a 6-2, 6-0 victory at No. 1.

Class 2

Poquoson 5, Woodstock Central 0: The Islanders reached the state title match for the second time in three years, shutting out the 2022 runner-up Falcons in the Shenandoah Valley.

At 8:30 a.m. Thursday at Virginia Tech, Poquoson will face Marion in a clash of teams seeking their first championship.

Meredith Woodruff, Sarah Litton, Sophie Young, Kate Lee and Karen Lee won their matches, and the Islanders’ Madison Wyatt was ahead when play was stopped.

At a glance

Boys

STATE SEMIFINALS

Class 5

Cox 5, Maury 1:

Singles: Neil Vanga (C) d. Patrick Stiles 6-1, 7-5; John Felts (M) d. James Lonergan 6-1, 6-3; Sam Dixon (C) d. Manolo Angeles 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Alex Ortiz (C) d. Johnny March 6-3, 6-4; Luca Gandolfo (C) d. Keegan Anvar 7-5, 6-1; Matt Baan (C) d. Drew Nottingham 6-0, 6-0. Doubles: Nos. 1 and 3 did not finish the first set; No. 2 did not start.

Deep Run 5, Mills Godwin 3

Class 4

Hanover 5, Grafton 4

Western Albemarle 5, Broad Run 0

Class 3

Maggie Walker 5, Tabb 3:

Singles: Nicolas Crespo (T) d. Alex Percey 6-0, 4-6, 1-0 (10-8); Matthew Wornom (T) d. Ethan Choe 6-2, 3-6, 1-0 (11-9); Akley Papp (MW) d. Jared Kensick 6-1, 6-4; Carson Chang (MW) d. Jacob Dunster 6-2, 6-2; Christian Walsh (MW) d. Gus Alston 6-1, 6-2; Zain Moussa (T) d. Ryan Marks 6-1, 6-1. Doubles: No. 1 did not finish; Pappu-Wang d. Kensick-Alston 6-3, 6-1; Walsh-Rowan Muller d. Dunster-Moussa 6-4, 6-0.

Monticello 5, Liberty Christian 2

Class 2

Bruton 5, Riverheads 1:

Singles: Simphiwe Matibini (B) d. Swats 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); Anson Li (B) d. C. Cash 6-0, 6-0; Higgins (R) d. Thomas Lienard 6-3, 6-0; Max De Winter (B) d. Eppard 6-4, 6-4; Nick Felsman (B) d. Bryant 6-4, 6-4; Leon Strain (B) d. W. Cash 6-2, 6-4.

Glenvar 5, Floyd County 2

STATE FINALS

(Thursday at Huntington Park)

Class 6: Tuesday’s Freedom of South Riding-Cosby winner vs. Tuesday’s Thomas Jefferson S&T-Langley winner, 9 a.m.

Class 5: Deep Run vs. Cox, 11 a.m.

Class 4: Western Albemarle vs. Hanover, 9 a.m.

(Thursday at Virginia Tech)

Class 3: Monticello vs. Maggie Walker, 10:30 a.m.

Class 2: Glenvar vs. Bruton, 8:30 a.m.

Girls tennis

STATE SEMIFINALS

Class 6

Freedom of South Riding 5, Battlefield 3

Langley 5, James Madison 3

Class 5

Princess Anne 5, Cox 0

Douglas Freeman 5, Riverside 2

Class 4

Jamestown 5, Courtland 3

Singles: Julia Clark (J) d. Adele Granger 6-0, 6-0; Lauren Elliott (J) d. Meredith Stapleton 6-1, 6-2; Libby Snow (C) d. 6-4, 6-3; Scarlett Gamez (J) d. Drew Sherwood 6-3, 6-2; Allison Meyer (C) d. Gladys Smith 6-3, 6-2; Emily Dahl (J) d. Kelsie Ashwood 7-5, 6-1. Doubles: Clark-Elliott d. Granger-Stapleton 6-3, 6-0; Snow-Meyer led Zhou-Gamez 6-2, 2-3, did not finish; Sherwood-M. Lawson d. Dahl-Rachel Yu 6-3, 6-0.

Sherando 5, Handley 3

Class 3

Maggie Walker 5, James Monroe 0

Abingdon 5, Spotswood 4

Class 2

Poquoson 5, Woodstock Central 0

Marion 5, Radford 4

Class 1

Rappahannock 5, Buffalo Gap 1

George Wythe of Wytheville 5, Lebanon 2

STATE FINALS

(Thursday at Huntington Park)

Class 6: Langley vs. Freedom of South Riding, 11 a.m.

Class 5: Douglas Freeman vs. Princess Anne, 11 a.m.

Class 4: Sherando vs. Jamestown, 9 a.m.

(Thursday at Virginia Tech)

Class 3: Abingdon vs. Maggie Walker, 10:30 a.m.

Class 2: Marion vs. Poquoson, 8:30 a.m.

Class 1: George Wythe of Wytheville vs. Rappahannock, 12:30 p.m.

NORFOLK — The father of an 18-year-old man who underwent plastic surgery at a Virginia Beach hospital in 2019 testified Monday he thought it was strange when the surgeon insisted he and his wife immediately fill their son’s prescriptions when they arrived at the hospital.

Dr. John Mancoll told the couple he wanted them to get the drugs right away so he could explain how to properly administer them, and show how the pills could be cut in half if only a partial dose was needed, according to the father’s testimony.

Hours later, Mancoll took a break from the procedure and went into the waiting area to tell the parents about a minor complication that came up, and to ask if they’d obtained the Percocet painkillers he’d prescribed, the father said.

When the father handed the pill bottle to the surgeon, Mancoll poured some into his ungloved hand and pointed to a pre-cut line that could be used to divide them. He then closed his hand around the pills and put some — but not all — back in the bottle before putting his hand in his pocket, the father said.

“Was that something that stuck out in your mind?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Rebecca Gant asked the father. “Absolutely,” he said.

Mancoll, 58, a well-known plastic surgeon in the area, is on trial in U.S. District Court in Norfolk on multiple charges of illegally obtaining and possessing two powerful prescription painkillers: Dilaudid and Percocet.

The three fraud charges he faces are each punishable by up to four years in prison, and the two possession counts carry a maximum penalty of one year apiece. The trial is expected to last several days and Mancoll will testify, according to his lawyers.

Assistant U.S. Attorney John Butler told jurors during opening statements that Mancoll was addicted to the painkillers and began to pocket patients’ pills because he couldn’t legally obtain them for himself. The doctor also encouraged patients to bring back unused drugs so he could properly dispose of them, but instead kept them for himself, Butler said.

Defense attorney Mario Lorello described his client as a brilliant and caring surgeon who’s been wrongly accused.

Lorello questioned why patients who claim Mancoll stole drugs from them never reported the alleged crimes, and continued to go back for more surgeries and follow-up visits. The defense lawyer also suggested the patients are using the accusations to win legal settlements from the doctor, and former employees conspired against him to get out of no-compete contracts.

“Dr. Mancoll is not an addict. He is not a thief,” Lorello told the jurors. “The evidence will prove that.”

To protect the privacy of Mancoll’s patients and the patient’s families, those witnesses are only being identified in court by their first names or initials. The type of surgeries each patient underwent also is not being disclosed.

The father of the 18-year-old patient, identified in court as Cassidy, was among a handful of witnesses called to testify Monday. He said after he returned home from his son’s surgery, he counted the pills in the bottle Mancoll had handled and noticed there were only 47. The label said there should be 50.

When asked on cross examination by defense attorney Mario Lorello if he reported the alleged theft to the police, the hospital, or anyone else, the father said no because his son didn’t want him to say anything. He also said the family continued to go to Mancoll’s office for follow-up visits and another procedure for their son.

In other testimony Monday, two Virginia Beach police officers testified about an August 2021 traffic stop and search they conducted on Mancoll’s Porsche Panamera sedan after seeing him driving erratically. Officer Rachel Nash testified she found a backpack containing three bottles of pills, including one that had a variety of prescription painkillers in it, which she thought was unusual.

In a bodycam video of the traffic stop played in court, Mancoll can be heard telling the officers he had prescriptions for the pills. He also said he often consolidated various types of pills when he traveled to avoid having to carry multiple bottles.

Jane Harper, [email protected]