First day welcome: Barack Obama Elementary School Principal Jennifer Moore welcomes 7-year-old Christopher Pleasants to the first day of school Tuesday. Opened in 1922, the Fendall Avenue school had been named for a Confederate general. (Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press)

Politics and a party U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, center, hit the campaign trail Monday at Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott’s 42nd Annual Labor Day Cookout. Pausing for a photo with Sen. Kaine are his wife, former Virginia Secretary of Education Anne Holton and Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney. (Brandon Gassaway)

Politics and a party — Pausing for a photo with Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, left, are Ruby Walden of Suffolk and her son, Olin L. Walden, president of Olin Arctronics, a building design, real estate development and construction consulting firm in Hampton Roads. They were among hundreds of people enjoying food, music and political fare at Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott’s 42nd Annual Labor Day Cookout Monday in Hampton. (Courtesy of Walden family)

A final farewell: Former President Obama speaks last Saturday at the memorial service of U.S. Sen. John McCain at the National Cathedral in Washington.(Chris Wattie/Reuters)

Heavy machinery digs up the ground in Jackson Ward to prepare for construction of a 154-unit apartment complex.(Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press)

Fall on the way in South Side (Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press)