www.newrivervalley.com

Expect frost Thursday morning. Weather journalist Kevin Myatt has details on his Weather Journal blog.

We have another entry from New River in our Ultimate Hokie Fan video contest. This one comes from Phillip Zellner of Blacksburg.

You can see his video here.

The deadline to enter is, um, well, today. After that, the voting starts. First prize: $1,500 in groceries from Kroger.

You can find out more about the contest, and see all the entries here.

Music writer Tad Dickens has posted the October schedules for a lot of clubs in the region -- including Gillie's in Blacksburg and Awful Arthur's in Blacksburg.

We have another entry from New River in our Ultimate Hokie Fan video contest. This one comes from someone who identifies themselves only as "the REAL Hokie fan" and he says: "We searched long and hard-- but how could you be more of a fan?"

You can see his video here.

The deadline to enter is, um, well, today. After that, the voting starts. First prize: $1,500 in groceries from Kroger.

You can find out more about the contest, and see all the entries here.

A defense technology firm will relocate from Roanoke to Blacksburg, Montgomery County has announced in a press release:

Cobham Sensor Systems will relocate its manufacturing, research and development operations from Roanoke to the Technology Manufacturing Building in the Blacksburg Industrial Park.

Cobham acquired M/A-COM’s defense business in 2008, including the Roanoke facility, and will lease 50,000-square-feet of office, laboratory and manufacturing space. The move is expected to bring 90 jobs to the facility with a total $7 million invested in its relocation and expansion over the coming 12 months.

“The Montgomery County Board of Supervisors is extremely pleased to see Cobham leasing space in this high-tech building,” said Board Chair Annette Perkins. “This is a first-class company with global operations. It is a great example of the high paying, targeted industries the County strives to attract.”

Cobham Defense Systems is a division of the British defense contractor Cobham plc, which generates more than $2.1 billion in annual sales and employs 12,000 people worldwide. This division develops and manufactures critical technology for the aerospace and defense industries.

It is also the world leader in advanced digital military vehicle tactical communications systems, soldier situation awareness and integrated navigation management tools.

“With the leasing of this fantastic facility, Cobham is relocating its operations from the ITT Building in Roanoke,” said Greg Caires, Vice President Media Relations. “This expansion in the Greater Roanoke and New River Valley Regions will enable Cobham to retain all of our operations in the region and allow opportunities for future growth.”

Imagine my surprise, and delight, when I received this email at 9:36 this morning from Henry Bass, a local Army reservist and business owner who we featured in a four-page spread in today's NRV Current:

Chris,

The blog articles and photos came out GREAT in today's paper- and guess what? Your timing was unbelieveable-- I have just arrived HOME!

My orders took me out to November 9th, but our unit transfered authority to the 36th Sustainment Brigade last week.  They had an earlier flight come open, and moved over a dozen of us up in the redeployment schedule! It was like a giant rollercoaster: we were waiting in Tallil for the next event, and suddenly we're in the redeployment ride, going from Tallil to Camp Virginia (Kuwait); then Fort McCoy, WI and home to Roanoke; and it's over! Or at least it's just beginning: reuniting with my family, and later on this week, with my work.

Henry

Just goes to show you that nothing ever works out the way you had it planned -- and sometimes, it's for the better. We have another four-page spread on Bass and his time in the Middle East planned for Wednesday's Current. Hopefully he'll like it just as much.

Welcome home, Henry.

The inventor of the infamous Hokietron is the latest to enter a video the Ultimate Hokie Fan contest.

You can view Hokietron's entry here.

Think you can do better? The deadline for entries is Wednesday. Details on our contest page.

After that, the voting starts.

Did we mention that first prize is $1,500 in groceries?

Sportswriter Randy King has odds and ends from Tech football in this post on the Insiders sports blog. Among the highlights: Coach Frank Beamer says beware of Duke.

A 19 year-old Virginia Tech student diagnosed with bacterial meningitis is expected to make a full recovery, a university official said today.

“About 75 students who may have had close contact with the student were proactively treated with antibiotics. No new cases have been found or are expected,” Tech spokesman Mark Owczarski wrote in an e-mail.

About 40,000 students, faculty and staff in Blacksburg were notified of the illness by e-mail Friday.

According to that e-mail, the student had been hospitalized and was listed Friday in critical condition.
State health officials worked with Tech’s health service to identify other students who may have been exposed.

Ten cases of meningitis had been reported in Virginia through August, according to a news release. Twenty-four cases were reported in 2008.

Bacterial meningitis, which is typically more severe than viral strains of the disease, nearly killed former Hokies basketball player Rayna DuBose in April 2002. She eventually returned to the university but lost parts of four limbs to the infection.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, bacterial meningitis causes swelling of the tissues around the brain and can cause brain damage, hearing loss and learning disabilities.

Common symptoms include high fever, headache and stiff neck. Other symptoms can include nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, rash and confusion and sleepiness and develop over several hours or over one to two days. The disease is treated with antibiotics.

According to the Virginia Department of Health, 10 percent of those infected die and 20 percent suffer permanent complications.

The infection is typically spread through saliva or nasal secretions. High risk activities include kissing and sharing of toothbrushes, drinking glasses or eating utensils.

For more information, visit http://tinyurl.com/yey3cbm.

-- Tonia Moxley

And the Oct. 10 game will  be televised.

For details, click here.