Editor’s note: This is the first of six installments of our Year in Review 2018, where we will look at the good and bad news of 2018, two months at a time. The date listed is the date of the edition in which the story ran.

 

Jan. 3 — Aden Baker, born Jan. 1 to Victoria Baker at Sentara Obici Hospital, is the first baby of the year.

 

Jan. 4 — A winter storm moved through the area and dumped about 8 to 12 inches of snow. Students were out of school for five school days in a row.

 

Jan. 12 — Walmart announced it would pay employees a starting wage of $11 an hour and offer more benefits. Suffolk shoppers interviewed outside of the College Drive store agreed it was a good move.

 

Jan. 14 — The Virginia General Assembly session began with many new state lawmakers in its ranks, including Suffolk’s Delegate Emily Brewer.

 

Jan. 25 — The “new” Southeastern Public Service Authority took effect, much the same as the old one. Significant changes for Suffolk, however, included no more free disposal in exchange for hosting the regional landfill.

 

Jan. 27 — The Suffolk Police Department files petitions for several students at King’s Fork High School they said were involved in fights at the school that week. Two days earlier, a 15-year-old student had been found with a gun at the school, but school system officials claimed there was no relation.

 

Jan. 31 — The Nansemond Indian Tribe, along with five others in Virginia, received federal recognition when President Donald Trump signed into law a bill that had been stalled in Congress for years but finally passed earlier that month.

 

Feb. 3 — Sen. Tim Kaine visited Suffolk to announced the introduction of his Military Spouse Employment Act, aimed at helping military spouses avoid unemployment and underemployment.

 

Feb. 11 — The Suffolk News-Herald Grown-Up Spelling Bee team, the Typographical Airers, won the second Grown-Up Spelling Bee, put on as a fundraiser by the Suffolk Education Foundation. BeeCharged, of John Yeates Middle School, won best costume.

 

Feb. 20 — Police and school officials were investigating a number of threats made against schools in the region, including Nansemond River and Lakeland high schools. They came in the wake of a deadly shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., on Feb. 14.

 

Feb. 23 — George Richards Sr. was mourned by the community. He spent 25 years on the Suffolk Planning Commission, served as a board member of the Suffolk Chapter of the American Cancer Society, served as president of the Tidewater Fair and was a lifetime member of the NAACP. He died on Feb. 20.