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WALLOPS ISLAND, Va. (AP) - NASA has postponed for a second time a rocket launch with student experiments from its Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia.
 
    
A launch that was scheduled for Friday at Wallops Island was postponed. No new launch date was set. Friday's launch had been rescheduled from Thursday.
 
    
NASA says the rocket contains four university experiments as part of a project designed to provide students experience in designing, fabricating, testing and conducting experiments for space flight. After a 15-minute flight, the payload will splash down about 66 miles off the Virginia coast and will be recovered for re-use and experiment analysis.
 
    
The experiments are by students from Baylor University, the University of Colorado, the University of Puerto Rico and Virginia Tech.

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. (AP) - A Virginia Beach man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for robbing five banks earlier this year.

Media outlets report 55-year-old Leonard H. Teagle Jr. pleaded guilty Tuesday and was sentenced in Virginia Beach Circuit Court. He also was ordered to pay more than $11,000 in restitution.

All five banks were in Virginia Beach. Four were Wells Fargo banks and the other was a BB&T branch. Prosecutors say that in each robbery, Teagle dressed similarly and wore sunglasses. He did not use a weapon.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - Average scores on the ACT exam held steady for Virginia's 2012 graduating class.

Virginia's average composite score was 22.4 on a scale of 1 to 36. That's up slightly from 22.3 a year ago. The scores were released Wednesday.

The average national composite store was 21.1.

Only a quarter of Virginia's graduating students took the ACT.

Nationally, it was the first year in which more than half of graduates took the ACT. Traditionally the ACT has been a rival college entrance exam to the SAT, but it is now taken by almost all students in nine states, and by at least 60 percent of graduates in 26 states.

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) - Clinton Portis is announcing his retirement, nearly two years after he played his last NFL game.
 
    
The Washington Redskins said Tuesday that Portis and owner Dan Snyder will hold a retirement news conference Thursday.
 
    
Portis played two seasons with the Denver Broncos and then seven with the Redskins. He is most remembered for the colorful array of characters he created each week during the team's drive to the playoffs in 2005. His 1,516 yards rushing that season set a franchise record.
 
    
The Redskins cut Portis after a torn groin muscle ruined his 2010 season, unwilling to pay for another year of his expensive contract.
 
    
He was unable to find another team and ends his career 77 yards shy of 10,000, No. 27 on the NFL's all-time list.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - University of Virginia President Teresa A. Sullivan says she has drawn lessons from a failed attempt by the school's governing board to oust her.

Sullivan says that she should have communicated more frequently with members of the Board of Visitors besides the rector and vice rector. She says she's looking for ways to talk with board members about their concerns.

Sullivan also says she might have made a mistake when she didn't ask for a hearing and a public vote after being told she would be fired. She says she was concerned that a public airing might cause turmoil.

But turmoil couldn't be avoided.

The June 10 announcement of Sullivan's resignation created an uproar on the Charlottesville campus. She was reinstated June 26.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A federal appeals panel in Virginia has denied a former sailor's bid for a hearing to challenge his conviction in the high-profile "Norfolk Four" case.

Eric Wilson of Jourdanton, Texas, is one of the four ex-sailors who claimed police intimidated them into falsely confessing to a 1997 rape and slaying. In 2009, then-Gov. Tim Kaine granted conditional pardons to the other three men and freed them from prison. Wilson, who was convicted only of rape, had already served his sentence and wasn't eligible.

Wilson could return to court to challenge his conviction only if he remained in custody. In a 2-1 ruling Wednesday, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Wilson's claim that restraints placed on him by the Virginia and Texas sex offender registration laws amount to custody.

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A former contractor has been ordered to pay $18,750 in restitution for accepting payments on work he never performed at two Chesterfield County homes.

A Chesterfield circuit judge Tuesday sentenced Stephen P. Mills of Chesterfield to five years in prison but suspended all five years. The judge ordered Mills to pay at least $300 monthly to his Mills pleaded no contest to one felony count of construction fraud.

Mills and his wife face additional charges that they failed to fix improperly installed work at other customers' homes.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (AP) - The University of Virginia's chief operating officer has resigned.

President Teresa A. Sullivan says in a news release that Michael Strine's resignation is effective Tuesday.

Strine also served as executive vice president.

Sullivan says Strine determined that his resignation was in the university's best interests.

She says his departure will allow her to conduct some internal restructuring.

Strine had served as chief operating officer and executive vice president since July 1, 2011. He came to U.Va. from Johns Hopkins University, where he was chief financial officer and treasurer.