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Maybe your friends, coworkers, bosses and so on are not as educated as they claim. Now you can check.

The Spokesman-Review, the newspaper for Spokane, Wash., and surrounding areas, has been reporting on the fate of a diploma mill out that way whose operators face jail time for selling phony college degrees.

I find the whole concept of buying a fake diploma disgusting. A college degree isn't about the piece of paper; it's about the education you receive earning that piece of paper. If you just buy the diploma, you've missed the point.

Yet some people do buy these degrees, and they put them on their resumes, deceiving potential employers. Sure, an employer should check that St. Regis University and Concordia College actually exist, but the fundamental fault is the deceivers'.

The Spokesman Review acquired a list of nearly 10,000 people who spent $7.3 million buying fake degrees and diplomas and placed the entire list online. Among the most foolish were people who used their work e-mail addresses to place their orders. These included 135 with military ties, 39 with educational institution ties and 17 employed by government agencies. Because only half of the records or so had e-mail addresses, the actual numbers are almost certainly higher. (The Washington Post picked up on the story today.)

And guess what?  One of the 17 government employees lives in Roanoke. Dale L. Louderback sought a fake degree with a .gov e-mail address. He received a BBA (bachelor of business administration).

A spokeswoman for the Virginia Department of Social Services confirmed that a Dale L. Louderback works for the department's Division of Child Support Enforcement in the Roanoke office. He has worked there since Dec. 1, 1992. The spokeswoman would not reveal details about his resume but did point out that a college degree is not a requirement for his job finding deadbeat parents.

Nevertheless, barring some miracle coincidence that two Dale L. Louderbacks live in Roanoke and work for government agencies, the DCSE might want to check to see if they hired Mr. Louderback or ever gave him a raise based on a fake diploma.

The NRV Current today had a preview of this weekend's Steppin' Out festival in Blacksburg. This from the story:

Organizers try to bring in all kinds of music to fit everyone's tastes, (DLP Concerts' Dylan) Locke said, including blues, jazz, bluegrass, Middle Eastern and old-time.

I'm reminded of a line from "The Blues Brothers"

Elwood: Er.. what kind of music do you usually have here?
Claire: Oh, we got both kinds. We got Country, and Western.

I'll attend Steppin' Out this weekend, but it won't be for the music.

For Sunday: Roanoke schools face a unique challenge teaching an increasing number of refugee children from countries with no written language. A summer school crash course in English is but a start.

We're working on an editorial for Friday about the town of Pulaski. The town council there saw some serious turnover in the last election and is working on filling a vacancy with an appointment. The council got the appointment right first by holding public interviews with applicants. Equally important, it will hold its discussions before the vote in open session. (Just be sure not to cheat with e-mail chain discussions and phone calls beforehand.)

Meanwhile, new Councilman Morgan Welker (pictured) will stop attending meetings of Citizens for the Betterment of Pulaski. It's one thing to be involved in a local activist group while running for office. Once in office, though, an official has a responsibility to the entire community, not just to carry the water for one group.

Both of these examples offer lessons to local politicians everywhere.

For Sunday's Current: A little more than a year after Christiansburg pulled the parking meters from downtown as a public draw, merchants have complained that some visitors overstay the welcome. Town council voted in July for a two-hour limit on street parking, but the change won't take effect until Sept. 1. Till then, council is open to making revisions, which is reasonable. But it shouldn't lose sight of the worthy aim of getting parking spaces to turn over.

Getting real on graduation

Virginia now can track students well enough to calculate real graduation rates and is looking to incorporate them into accreditation standards.

Virginia is considering adding a high school's graduation rate to the state's accreditation standards, a logical next step in public school accountability.

It's a step Virginia can take because it now can measure graduation rates with an unheard-of degree of accuracy -- a significant technological advance.

Read more.

There's a lesson in the tax holiday

Lawmakers can sell any bad idea if they say it is for families.

This year, more than most, the commonwealth's shoppers might appreciate the back-to-school sales-tax holiday that takes place this weekend. That does not make it any less a pathetic pander from lawmakers.

Read more.

Wise plant adds to life cycle

Pete Sarjeant

Sarjeant is retired from Westvaco and moved recently to Bedford.

The Southern Environmental Law Center (whomever this may be) is appealing and trying to obstruct the state board's permits for the Dominion VA Power plant in Wise County by citing a failure to meet Clean Air Act requirements, namely providing for means to capture the carbon dioxide pollution.

Read more.

With banks, it's a matter of trust

Peter Morici

Morici is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Business and former chief economist at the U.S. International Trade Commission.

Once again, we have good news and bad from Wall Street.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson has announced Citigroup and three other banks will begin issuing covered bonds in an effort to rejuvenate commercial bank mortgage lending and the housing market.

Read more.

Making do on less

Linda Whitlock

Whitlock, a Roanoke Times columnist, is an adjunct English professor who lives in Salem.

When one of my uncles developed emphysema after smoking for most of his life, he didn't sue the cigarette manufacturers. He didn't blame them either. Whatever the tobacco companies had or hadn't done, my uncle knew he was the one responsible for his smoking and for the disease that would ultimately kill him.

Read more.

Read today's letters here.

"When I

Check out Virgil Goode's unwitting guest spot -- Rappers or Republicans -- on "The Daily Show." It's a hoot.

An unscheduled editorial: The U.S. House has apologized for the nation's "fundamental injustice, cruelty, brutality and inhumanity of slavery and Jim Crow." The apology is long overdue.