Frank Pichel’s Christmas trees will probably never be chosen to light up New York’s Rockefeller Center. They look more like the droopy, pitiful tree made famous in the 1965 children’s animated classic, “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”

The statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee was removed with ease Monday from the U.S. Capitol, but the towering statue of the slavery-defending general will remain on Monument Avenue for now, courtesy of a Virginia Supreme Court ruling.

In observance of Christmas, Friday, Dec. 25, please note the following:

Tens of thousands of Virginians who lost their jobs, but whose applications for unemployment benefits remain in limbo, are about to get their money.

Behind on your utility bill? For city residents, there is help.

Applications currently are being accepted for the Dominion Energy Educational Equity Scholarship Program, a new $10 million scholarship fund announced by the energy giant in July to aid African-American, Latino and other young people from under-represented groups seeking a college …

The U.S. Postal Service is struggling to deliver gifts, medications and other mail in a timely fashion.

After more than four decades at the helm, Hampton University President William R. Harvey announced Monday that he will step down in June 2022.

Virginia State University just received a gift of $30 million, the largest private donation since its founding 138 years ago. Norfolk State University also received a record-setting gift of $40 million.

Every year, more than 2,300 special education students — 20 percent — are awarded essentially worthless diplomas when they graduate.

Free community testing for COVID-19 continues.

Teenage rebel Barbara Rose Johns, who led a student strike in Farmville that ultimately helped eradicate government-enforced racial segregation in the United States, is recommended to be Virginia’s new statue in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall.

Jefferson Davis Highway is getting a new name.

Rhonda Sneed has gained City Council support after a year of pleading for City Hall to create a year-round shelter for the homeless.

The state would provide nearly $11 million to repopulate Monument Avenue with figures of heroes to replace the Confederate statues that once dominated the street under a proposal from Gov. Ralph S. Northam.