Andrew B. Silva, 49, a Virginia surgeon, pleaded guilty in U. S. district court to conspiracy to defraud the U. S. Government by hiding about $250,000 from the Internal Revenue Service by smuggling 26 cash payments to the U. S.

The country's total bank closures number hit a whopping 130 on Friday, as regulators seized and shuttered one major bank in Ohio, Illinois, Virginia each, and 3 small banks across Georgia. AmTrust Bank in Cleveland was the largest bank to have been shut.

There is no progress being made by Virginia in reducing the number of preterm babies. In a March of Dimes report card, the Commonwealth got a D, second time in a row.

The report found 12.1 percent of babies born in Virginia are premature. The national goal is 7.6 percent so there is still a long way to go.

In a latest development which is set to make sure that America is battling cyber crime better and much efficiently than ever before, Home Security officials have recently started a $9 Million cyber operations center.

The worldwide recession which literally shook the world economy has even resulted in the downfall of the expected profits of Wyndham Worldwide Corporation.

Virginia-based Rosetta Stone Inc., maker of the language-learning software firm has filed a lawsuit against Google Inc., alleging that a change in Google's policy assists the unauthorized use of its brand by competitors and software pirates.

The Arlington Police Department has confirmed that a 26-year-old female employee of an Apple store in Arlington County was shot at in the right shoulder, and wounded on Friday morning.

Going by reports, the wounded employee is recovering in an area hospital, and is stated to be in a serious yet stable condition.

58-year-old Allen Stanford, under investigation in an alleged $8 billion fraud is due to appear in Richmond federal court on Friday in Virginia.

Dick DeGuerin, Sir Allen's lawyer, said that Allen Stanford surrendered to the US authorities after a warrant was issued for his arrest on criminal charges.

Despite the high cost of feed hammering the country's hog production unit Smithfield Foods Inc., the largest US hog producer and pork processor Tuesday posted a smaller-than-anticipated fiscal fourth-quarter loss, due to stable pork sales. 

According to a Thursday filing with Securities and Exchange Commission, the McLean, Virginia-based mortgage bigwig Freddie Mac said that it has paid $1.3 million in retention bonuses to three executives in 2008-end and 2009 thus far.