As a boy growing up in what was then Norfolk County, Gerald Kinney played âArmyâ with his friends. Kinneyâs family came to own a forested plot of land off of Joliff Road in the 1950s and Kinney and his friends imaginatively traded gunfire and ran up ramparts on earthen walls that seemed to naturally surround the spot. What Kinney didnât know then was the spot had once been a Civil War fort. Union soldiers set up along what was a major transportation route to keep the rebel army from heading farther into the region. The fort might have been constructed by the Confederates before then. âThere was always the rumorâ about the fort being used during the war, said Kinney, now 70. âThe fort was always near to my heart.â The city of Chesapeake now hopes to preserve the little-known earthworks fort in Western Branch by turning it into a public park, complete with historical markers and walking trails.  Read more in this Sunday's Main News section 
Hana Hagag hadnât had a morsel of food, nor a drop of water, since before sunrise. She was in the midst of 30 days of fasting for the month of Ramadan â but that didnât stop her from playing lacrosse. âYou can imagine just sprinting up and down the field with, like, no energy in you,â Hagag said. âBut, I mean, [my] teammates were always supportive. They were just amazing. Hagag, 17, plays for Bayside High Schoolâs club team in Virginia Beach. As a junior, sheâs starting her search for colleges where she can continue to play. The road here wasnât easy, however. Sheâd never held a lacrosse stick before she started high school. As a low-income student, she was wary of the costs of playing for a club team even after a teacher approached her about trying it. Before now, if you attended a public school in Virginia Beach and wanted to play lacrosse, you would probably be asked to foot at least part of the bill yourself. As a sport not sanctioned as varsity by the Virginia High School League, it received no financial support from Virginia Beach Public Schools. Read more in the Sunday Main News section Holidays are usually a confusing time for the families of logistics workers, Virginia Port Authority CEO and Executive Director Stephen Edwards said. Workers normally spend time around the Thanksgiving table explaining to relatives how the supply chain works and how they work to get material goods to stores and homes in a timely manner. Thatâs not the case this year. Thanks to a global supply chain slowdown caused by the coronavirus pandemic, everyone knows what Edwards and his employees do. âSo, we donât have to explain what we do. We just have to explain whyâs it gone wrong,ââ Edwards said to chuckles from the audience at a recent Hampton Roads Association for Commercial Real Estate event. But Edwards wonât have a lot of explaining to do about his particular workplace. While West Coast port slowdowns have made headlines and attracted the attention of President Joe Biden, Hampton Roads terminals are successful, running smoothly and outperforming other major East Coast locations. Read more in the Sunday Main News section
One of Rabbi Ellen Jaffe-Gillâs rules of a good latke is not to use leftover Thanksgiving mashed potatoes for the holidaysâ traditional potato pancake. Thatâs lazy, she says. Another is to not even consider baking or air frying them. Frying the pancakes for Hanukkah, which begins Sunday, Nov. 28, connects with the story of the holiday. The story goes back to the Maccabean Revolt and reclaiming the temple for the Jewish community. The victors lit a menorah to rededicate the synagogue but realized they had enough oil for only one night. The oil, instead, burned for eight â hence the eight days of Hannukkah. Jaffe-Gill, rabbi of Tidewater Chavurah, has another rule for latkes: Spice it up. Sheâs tried Indian latkes, Mexican-spiced ones, some made of broccoli, leeks and other root vegetables; pancakes too thin to take seriously and some âas thick as a Popeyes Chicken sandwich.â
Read more in the Sunday Break section Connie Weisâ proposal for her 2014 âExtreme Browniesâ book bulged with 125 recipes. Her editor made her reduce the number â hence â50 Recipes for the Most Over-the-Top Treats Everâ â so itâs no shock that Weis recently produced a sequel. Whatâs surprising is that the recipes in her latest, â50 More Extreme Brownies: Recipes for the Most Over-the-Top Treats Ever,â arenât scraps from the first book. New confections include dulce de leche cheesecake brownies, cheeky sour cherry brownies and campfire sâmore brownies. Read more in the Sunday Break section
Gilbert Mariano Sr. bought his sons a food truck not realizing it would lead them to another business venture. Two years ago, brothers Nicholas and Gilbert Mariano Jr. started LuvABowls, which sells protein meals in a bowl. Thatâs when they learned, like many other aspiring small food vendors, that Virginia requires operators to have a commissary kitchen â a licensed commercial kitchen regulated by the health department to prep, cook and store food and equipment. Prepping from a restaurant, they realized a potential need for startup food vendors. So the Mariano siblings, along with Nicholasâ wife, Daryelis, decided to invest LuvABowlsâ profit to create their own shared-use commercial kitchen. In June, they opened The Lab Commercial Kitchen at 405 S. Witchduck Road in the historic Kempsville area of Virginia Beach. Read more in the Sunday Work & Money section
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