This n' that - catchin' up

Just read Dan Smith's blog about the Richmond Times-Dispatch laying off their Roanoke reporter Rex Bowman - wow - and the Roanoke Times asking NRV reporter Tim Thornton to resign. Tim covered local issues like the possible Explore Park development as well as they could be when he was based in Roanoke. Its all a sign of the Times as newspapers contract. People are just not reading papers the way they used to, and potential advertisers know that. Plus folks are just not walking through the door to buy in the same numbers these days.

Rex Bowman is a talented reporter, has written screenplays and several books. We've both been laid of from newspapers within the past year. I feel your pain, Rex! Tim Thorton's "resignation" is just another sign of talent bleeding from the Roanoke Times.

Etc: I was honored to emcee the latest RAMA book and author dinner at Hotel Roanoke recently, where mega-best selling novelist David Baldacci was the featured speaker. Two other novelists - NY Times reporter-turned spy series scribe Alex Berenson and Dr. Bill Bass, who started the "Body Farm" at the University of Tennessee - also spoke. A great night for popular literature fans and a fundraiser for the youth and health programs suported by RAMA, an organization featuring the spouses of physicians.

Kudos to the Roanoke City School Board for working through sticky issues like the closing of schools and attendance zone changes in recent months. You cannot please everyone during that process, but chairman David Carson and company did not waffle, keeping a strong hand on the rudder the whole time, in concert with School superintendent Dr. Rita Bishop. Now, as David Carson said, lets get down to the business of educating kids, raising that shockingly low graduation rate in Roanoke City High Schools.

Green stuff: just taped a Cox TV show (The Interview) with LEED architect Gregg Lewis, and Roanoke Valley Cool Cities chair Diana Christopulus, for air on channel 9 in May (1:30pm and 8:30pm). They are working at two ends of the green/sustainability issue.