www.roanoke.com

America's best collegiate reporter

Hokies who weeks ago had to abandon hopes of a championship on the gridiron this year can find other Virginia Tech champions to cheer. All they need to do is pick up a copy of The Collegiate Times to find Caleb Fleming, who has been named the top collegiate reporter in the nation by the Associated Collegiate Press.
Read more.

Welcome to Roanoke, Sarah Palin

Whether one thinks Sarah Palin should be the next president or should bury her political career in a convenient Alaska snow bank, there is no denying the honor of having her visit Roanoke tomorrow. Southwest Virginia does not typically wind up on the national political circuit, especially in an off year. It reflects well on our region's hospitality that the former vice presidential candidate and governor of Seward's Icebox is back. She must truly have enjoyed her campaign stop here little more than a year ago.
Read more.

One of Santa's helpers is a registered sex offender

In 1897, the New York Sun newspaper printed an editorial response to a letter from a young reader. "Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age," wrote Francis Pharcellus Church in what has become perhaps the most famous editorial of all time: "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus." We wonder what he might write today as grown-ups have been affected by the fears of a fearful age. The U.S. Postal Service this week announced Santa will no longer return mail from the North Pole.
Read more.

Correction

In Friday's editorial, "Filibuster follies," former Indiana Gov. Evan Bayh's party affiliation was incorrect. Bayh is a Democrat.

GOP hypocrisy hit new heights Tuesday as Republicans in the Senate attempted to filibuster President Obama's nominee for a vacant seat on the 7th U.S. Court of Appeals. Just four years ago, these same Republicans denounced such filibusters as an affront to the Constitution.
Read more.

Congratulations to William Fleming High School on achieving full accreditation this week from the state Board of Education. The status had been questionable since June, when it was revealed a handful of school leaders cheated on the SOLs because they doubted some students would pass. The irony is that the school would have earned accreditation without cheating. That's how well the Colonels are performing in the classroom.
Read more.

More than eight years after the 9/11 terror attacks, the United States will finally be bringing some of the alleged perpetrators to justice. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has spent the years since his capture in the legal limbo of Guantanamo, will be brought to New York City for trial, the Obama administration announced late last week. Other suspected 9/11 conspirators will also be brought to trial. Predictably, the reaction from some quarters has bordered on hysteria. "This decision is further evidence that the White House is reverting to a dangerous pre-9/11 mentality -- treating terrorism as a law enforcement issue and hoping for the best," said House Minority Leader John Boehner.
Read more.

Not surprisingly, Larry Vander Maten came calling on Tuesday to ask the governing board of the defunct Explore Park to delay his June deadline to either break ground on a new development or lose his lease. Capital isn't available for a project like his envisioned Blue Ridge America, which he figures will take $200 million to turn 1,100 acres of mostly undeveloped state land into a commercial family resort.
Read more.