What do you do when your entire world crumbles around you? If you're Berkley Priest, you lower your head, duck into the Bible, and emerge with one of the most auspicious debut albums of the year.

Plans for the 49.9 megawatt wood-fired electrical plant, owned and operated by Michigan-based NOVI Energy and its utility partner Northern Virginia Electric Cooperative, are now progressing. Employment during the two-year construction period is estimated at some 250 jobs.

Five people — including a father and his three school-age sons, plus a visiting little girl — escaped injured Saturday when a fast-moving blaze demolished their Nathalie home two days before school started.

A mid afternoon storm yesterday brought much-needed rain to the community, but it also knocked out power to some 529 Dominion Virginia power customers.

It doesn’t ask how many iPods you play with, how many cell phones you talk on or whether you get your Internet from wires, satellites or gerbils on wheels. But the “Survey for Internet and Computer Funding” — being sent home today in students’ backpacks along with scads of other papers awaiting your signature — is likely to yield tens of thousands of dollars in savings for Halifax County Public Schools.