www.newrivervalley.com

Think you've got what it takes to be a fearless forecaster? Match your predictions against the sports staff of The Roanoke Times -- and anyone else who wants to sign up in this year's edition of Varsity Forecasters.

The roster of games this week includes, of course, these New River Valley contests:
* Pulaski at Radford
* Christiansburg at Floyd
* Blacksburg at Giles
* Bath at Eastern Montgomery
* Craig at Auburn
* James Monroe at Narrows

Click here to sign up and make your picks. The deadline is 4 p.m. on Friday.

The Floyd library has an unusual event on Wednesday. Answer a question correctly and you can get a piece of cake. For details, see this post on our Back Cover book blog.

The band Mad Tea Party plays the Sun Music Hall in Floyd on Aug. 29 -- and music writer Tad Dickens has a podcast with the band's Jason Krekel in this post on his cut'n'scratch music blog.

AYP is the minimum level of improvement in Standards of Learning test scores, attendance and other areas that states, school districts and schools must achieve each year under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools which receive Title I federal aid for low-income students and fail to make AYP for two consecutive years must offer parents the option of transferring their children to better-performing schools in the same school district.

The numbers for the most recent school year have been released 13 schools in the New River Valley fall short -- seven in Montgomery County, three in Pulaski County and three in Giles County. All schools in Radford and Floyd met the AYP standards.

You can look up the results yourself in this database on our Datasphere site of searchable data.

There will be a discussion of Jill Bolte Taylor’s book “My Stroke of Insight" at the Jessie Peterman Library in Floyd on Thursday at 2 p.m.

For more on books, see our Back Cover book blog.

Some American Electric Power customers in northeastern Floyd County will be without power Wednesday from 8:30 a.m. until 4:30 p.m.

Affected customers should have received a notice, said Todd Burns, spokesperson for AEP.

Power will be out to do improvement work to a substation that’s part of a larger project, Burns said.

Burns said they hope to have the work completed by noon, but put out a notification that the power would be out all day in case it takes longer.

--Amy Matzke-Fawcett

Music writer Tad Dickens has filed some after-the-fact updates -- and podcasts -- from FloydFest in this section on his cut'n'scratch music blog.

We also have photos from FloydFest in this post on our Southwest Roanoke County community news site.

New River Valley American Legion Post 68's baseball team was eliminated from the state tournament in Glen Allen today following a 10-1 loss to Norfolk Post 60.

Here is a slideshow of Post 68 in action at the tournament this week.

Music writer Tad Dickens is up at FloydFest, which kicked off Thursday and runs through Sunday. He's filing regular reports all weekend long about what's happening -- so even if you can't make the fest, you can still feel the vibe in these posts on his cut'n'scratch music blog.

The New River Valley's American Legion Post 68 squad captured the district title this afternoon with a 10-6 win over Big Island at Kiwanis Field in Salem.

After falling to Big Island on Wednesday night, Post 68 faced a winner-take-all game today and put Christiansburg High School's Seth Martin on the mound. Martin went nearly seven innings and picked up the win to capture what had been an elusive district title.

Post 68 (13-4) moves on the state tournament, which begins Monday at the Virginia Sports Complex in Ruther Glen.