| It was about 9:30 p.m. on Christmas Eve a few years ago when Derrick Rountree got on his bike and headed to a convenience store in downtown Norfolk. Rountree was staying with a friend at Tidewater Gardens public housing complex at the time, and the Shell Station market on St. Paulâs Boulevard was just a few blocks away. As he rode past a police cruiser, the vehicle briefly sounded its siren and flashed its lights. Thinking the display was meant for someone else, Rountree continued to ride on, then turned around to head back to his friendâs place to use the bathroom. What happened next was captured by Norfolk police officer Aaron Christieâs body-worn camera, and has become the subject of a $1.5 million lawsuit Rountree filed against the officer last year in U.S. District Court in Norfolk. Video footage from the incident was submitted a few weeks ago as an exhibit to the complaint by Rountreeâs attorney, Christian Connell. The lawsuit argues Christie violated Rountreeâs civil rights by using excessive force to stop the then-43-year-old man for riding his bike at night without a headlight, which is against the law in Virginia. Â Read more in this Sunday's Main News section It started the way all good Christmas tales do â with childrenâs dreams of whatâll be under the tree. This one begins at the International Longshoremenâs Association hiring hall. Eight years ago, a dockworker named Keith Clark, while waiting there to be shaped up with a cargo-handling team, asked other ILA members to donate bicycles that would be given to kids whoâd otherwise have a pretty glum Christmas. His fellow dockworkers rallied to the cause, while Clark made a pitch to elementary school principals, asking them if they could connect him with pupils who worked hard for good grades and whose families struggled to make ends meet. That first year, with the help of his hiring hall mates, Clark distributed 25 bikes at Richard Bolling Elementary School in Norfolk. His Christmas tale grew. He handed out bicycles at two schools the next year, and two other schools the year after that â and the work, like the need, kept growing. Clark reached out to ILA locals across the port and to the Hampton Roads Shipping Association, the management group the ILA deals with here. Read more in the Sunday Main News section The Daily Break invited readers to share photos of their favorite holiday ornaments and the stories behind them. We received nearly 80 stories and photos â so many that we ran some in Saturdayâs Home and Living. Today we offer more. Readers responded with stories of 100-year-old trinkets passed down through generations, pieces that began as laughs or classroom projects but are now treasured heirlooms, mementos of times and relatives lost but not forgotten. Read more in the Sunday Break section
Adam Alphin and Owen Hill caught more than they set out to when they were fly fishing at a friendâs farm pond in Suffolk in late 2019. That was the day the first cousins spawned the idea for their financial technology company, Kleer Card. âCertainly, the pandemic gave us some space to really think through, start planning and doing some building,â Alphin said. Headquartered in Suffolk with seven remote employees, the firm provides physical or virtual charge cards and its app-based platform enables small businesses and nonprofits to manage expenses and their corporate card spending. The platform has attracted 500 customers since launching in January. Alphin and Hill bootstrapped the startup initially but closed on a $50 million debt facility in late November to help fund customer credit lines and further grow the business.
Read more in the Sunday Work & Money section  Meet the 2021 All-Tidewater boys volleyball first and second teams
Meet the 2021 All-Tidewater girls volleyball first and second teams Read more in the Sunday Sports section
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