RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday upheld the bribery and extortion convictions of a former Virginia legislator who solicited a job as director of a teacher training center he helped create with taxpayer money.

Former Del. Phillip A. Hamilton of Newport News was sentenced to 9 1/2 years in prison last year. The Republican was vice chairman of the powerful House Appropriations Committee in 2007 when he successfully sponsored a $500,000 budget amendment for the center at Old Dominion University, which then gave him the $40,000-a-year part-time job as director without interviewing other applicants.