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We live in perilous times.

Industries announce layoffs by the thousands every day. Last rites are being read for American automakers, and Christmas sales are on life support.

But as everything collapses around us, we can take comfort in one bright spot: America has some of the sexiest men in the world.

To hear them tell it.

A recent global marketing survey found that 57 percent of American men have the cojones to publicly proclaim themselves sexy. God bless America. Read more »

Imagine you're a self-proclaimed, Neo-Nazi leader who routinely spews hatred and disdain against blacks, Jews and others.

You get arrested on a charge of encouraging violence against a juror and end up in federal court in Chicago.

You're sitting before U.S. District Court Judge William Hibbler, who belongs to a group of people you have derided as "half-ape" and "n-----s."

In other words, he's black.

Maybe if you're William A. White, you look up at the man sitting in judgment of you, and the vile words you have written and the hatred you have incited flash before your eyes: Read more »

U.S. Army Sgt. Cornelius Charlton is an American hero.

An Army barracks complex in South Korea is named for him, along with a bridge on Interstate 77 in West Virginia, a park in Bronx, N.Y., and a U.S. Navy cargo ship.

He is the recipient of the Purple Heart and the Congressional Medal of Honor, America's highest military award.

Wednesday, 57 years after Charlton led three charges up a hill in Korea and ultimately sacrificed his life for his country, he will get the final tribute due him:

He will be reburied in Arlington National Cemetery. Read more »

Joe the plumber, make room for Beth the mom, Stephanie the small-business owner, Brian the nurse, Jacob the home-schooled teen and countless other Sarah Palin enthusiasts who introduced themselves to the vice presidential nominee Monday by way of homemade signs.

"When I look at her, I see myself," said Beth Thomasson, clutching a bright orange "Moms for Sarah" sign with large, blue block letters as she stood on the field at Salem Stadium. "I see a woman raising her family and running a business."

Thomasson, of Roanoke, was one of 16,000 people at the political rally who represented the different constituencies drawn to Palin and presidential candidate John McCain. Read more »

Glenvar High School students Megan Laughon and Anthony Ratliff chose Barack Obama over class Friday.

Jessica Larson of Salem took a vacation day from her nursing job at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and pulled her 11-year-old son, David, out of Andrew Lewis Middle School.

Priscilla Casey of Roanoke told the folks at her volunteer job at Goodwill that she felt a case of "Bahama flux" coming on.

Across the Roanoke Valley and beyond, Friday marked a giant "skip day" as students, teachers and everyday workers took the day off to see the first major-party presidential candidate to visit Roanoke during a general election campaign since Sen. John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Read more »

Lowell's Restaurant and Lounge, home of the best homemade pound cake in Roanoke, is no more.

The can't-miss landmark yellow building in the 2300 block of Melrose Avenue is still there. But it has a new name: JB's Restaurant & Lounge.

Stark Jones bought the business six years ago. But he and business partner Bernard Basham decided recently the place needed some changes. So the restaurant has a new name, an older crowd on Friday nights and a few new, healthier items on the menu.

Read more »

This is not the column I had hoped to write about Beth Brown.

And it certainly isn't the one her family, friends and admirers wanted to read.

Brown, whose childhood fascination with space exploration led to her career as a NASA astrophysicist, died Sunday. Preliminary reports indicate the cause of death was a pulmonary embolism, a blood clot affecting the lungs.

Read more »

Anyone catch the piece in today's paper about a 10-year-old driving as fast as 90 mph before he rolled a van? Seems the kid was pulling designated-driver duty because the old man was riding shotgun, after downing 15 beers. Another passenger, a woman, was popping pills like candy when deputies arrived at the accident scene.

My immediate response was outrage--OUTRAGE, I say!---until I remembered that I began driving when I was 11. Of course, I wasn't doing zero to 60 in six seconds in the family wheels, either. And I was (mostly) confined to cruising quiet neighborhood streets near our house. Besides, the only "holics" my parents could plead guilty to being were WORKaholics.

Fortunately no one was hurt in the Blountsville, Tenn., accident. When arrested on a slew of charges, the male adult (and I use the term loosely) was wearing a T-shirt that said, "Buy this dad a beer."

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O.J. Simpson couldn't have really thought he was going to get away this time.

Some 13 years to the day after being acquitted of killing his ex-wife and her boy-toy, the Juice was convicted on 12 counts in a robbery trial.

The New York Times noted that many have seen the robbery trial "as a proxy for those unsatisfied by that 1995 outcome." Gee, ya think?

In these days of increasing financial uncertainty, it's worth noting that many Southwest Virginians went through even worse times. In the early 1930s, they and the rest of the country were trying to survive the Great Depression.

Imagine if you can the day word got around that developer John Senter had submitted the low bid to build the new William Fleming High School. The next morning, the builder awoke in his Maiden Lane home in Raleigh Court and looked outside.

"Literally [between] 150 and 200 men were standing on the lot adjacent to his home, in total silence, just hoping for a job," Senter's great-nephew Sam Lionberger recalled Wednesday afternoon, sharing the story his great-uncle had told him years earlier.

"He said he'll never ever forget that scene."

Read more »