Here's the list of the five most popular DataSphere items for the week ending Monday, April 27:
1. Virginia freshwater trophy fish database
2. Map: Layoffs in Southwest Virginia
3. Roanoke Valley crime map and data search
4. Map: Scrap tire piles in the Roanoke region
5. Radford crime map and data search
Follow the latest in The DataSphere on Twitter.
Just a heads up that the data for the Roanoke Valley crime map just got it's weekly update. It now has offenses through April 20. Same goes for the separate database and map of Salem felonies.
To refresh your memory, the valley-wide data includes only serious violent and property crimes. The Salem-only data includes all felonies.
A repeated thanks to the Roanoke, Roanoke County and Salem police departments for providing this data consistently and reliably each week so we can offer it to you on roanoke.com.
Finally, don't forget you can now follow the latest updates and additions to the DataSphere and the DataBlog on Twitter.
Every Wednesday, on page A2, The Roanoke Times publishes a list of the most visited DataSphere items from the previous week, be they databases, maps, graphics, or whatever.
I'm not above shameless self-promotion, so I figured I'd start posting the same top 5 list here in the blog. Just one more way of letting you know what's knew or updated or just buzz-heavy in a particular week.
So, here's this weeks list:
1 - Roanoke Valley homicides, 2006-2009
2 - Map: Layoffs in Southwest Virginia
3 - Roanoke Valley crime map and data search
4 - New Roanoke elementary school attendance zones map
5 - Map: Scrap tire piles in the Roanoke region
And don't forget you can now follow the latest additions and updates to the DataSphere and the DataBlog on Twitter.
Thanks for tuning in,
m
Ok, I've caved. I've been a facebook user for a while in my personal life, but never got into Twitter -- until now. And it's strictly for professional reasons. It's just one more way to get the word out to the data hungry in the world about what's new in the DataSphere.
So do me -- and yourself -- a favor and sign up to follow the DataSphere's latest at http://www.twitter.com/The_DataSphere.
I'll do my best to be regular with updates on my latest blog posts, data updates and new additions to the site.
April 15 came and went yesterday. You might have been thinking taxes. But Virginia's political candidates had a different deadlline in mind: the deadline for first quarter fundraising reports.
That includes three Democrats and a Republican seeking the governor’s mansion at the top, and closer to home in Roanoke, a small herd of Republicans and a single Democrat seeking the 17th district House of Delegates seat vacated by the retiring William Fralin.
The source of candidates’ funds are a matter of public record all across the country, but the reports aren’t always easy to learn about. In Virginia, we’re fortunate to have the Virginia Public Access Project.
VPAP is a non-profit organization funded by a consortium of newspapers. Led by former Roanoke Times reporter David Poole, it’s purpose is to collect process and present online all manner of candidate and elected official financial disclosure information, from the gifts elected officials have received, to the activities of lobbyists, to the money raised by political candidates.
So, if you want to know where Republican candidate for governor Bob McDonnell got the impressive $2.2 million he’s raised since Jan. 1, you can find out at vpap.org. Nearly half of it came from the Republican Governors Association, by the way. Some $15,000 of it came from four donors in the 24018 zip code in Roanoke. And yes, you can drill down to see exactly who the individual donors are.
You can also see where fundraising front runner Terry McAuliffe, a democrat, turned up the stunning $4.2 million he raised in the same period. The names can be pretty fascinating, like Donald Trump, who gave $25,000, and Bill Clinton, who gave $10,000. And you can also see that darn little of his money came from the western half of Virginia.
And you can see that Democrat Gwen Mason, running for the 17th House seat, has raised close to $40,000, while her five Republican opponents, who are still jockeying for their party’s nomination, aren’t even out of the gate yet.
The information’s all there, and in a bunch of different ways. If you care to look, it’s an engrossing tale of power and influence and the making of favors. All brought to you by the wisdom of open government.
It seems like a step backwards to some.
Some proposals for re-drawing school attendance zones in Roanoke City would do away with zones that go back to the early 1970s and the need to bus kids out of their neighborhoods to schools across town in search of a greater racial balance in classrooms.
Two of the options presented by the school board call for single, contiguous attendance zones around schools, in effect creating something more like neighborhood schools than the city has seen for many a decade.
But in some cases those neighborhood schools will come at the cost of racial integration.
That’s a fact decried by some as a return to a segregated past that we’re supposed to have left far behind by now. But is it fair to expect the school system to accomplish what the vast, vast majority of Roanokers have not?
You’ve probably heard, and if you pay any attention at all, you could have surmised on your own, that Roanoke is a deeply segregated city. How segregated?
