www.roanoke.com

Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

WASHINGTON -- At 7 years old, Brenda Keeling stood on the National Mall in 1963 with her older sister Wilma as Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his historic "I Have A Dream" speech.

She knew something important was going on that day. But she did not understand the gravity of King's words.

Tuesday, the significance resonated with the Roanoke woman as she stood on the same Mall, a witness to the inauguration of Barack Obama, the nation's first black president.

"What his dream was then," Keeling said of King's speech, "is just what is happening here today."

Read more »

My college professor once told me that life-altering events often are accompanied by pain.

The death of a loved one brings heartache. The arrival of a new life comes with the suffering of childbirth.

So as I move into the next phase of my professional life, I write this farewell column with a heavy heart.

This marks my last week with The Roanoke Times. I will appear in this paper twice more before beginning a new job with Carilion Clinic. Read more »

Stephanie Klein-Davis | The Roanoke Times

For Rosemary Haith, home is a one-bedroom, subsidized apartment full of secondhand furniture in Morningside Manor.

The 57-year-old native of Maine and her husband, Clinton, live frugally on their disability income in their Southeast Roanoke apartment.

Medicare pays for the pills that Rosemary Haith takes for hypertension, and the former diner cook has painful and creaky knees that need replacing. Her husband is a disabled Vietnam veteran with a bad back.

Yet, despite all that, "Rosie," as neighbors call Haith, climbs out of bed at 5:30 every Wednesday morning to cook a free meal for anyone in her building who wants or needs it. Read more »

In the 1970s and '80s, few barbers held court the way Donald Harry Alexander did.

The Roanoke native, who went by his middle name, was a barber among barbers.

He was famous for creating the most stylish and cutting-edge haircuts worn by many of Roanoke's young black men. Alexander's business, Harry's Style Shop, was equal parts entertainment and armchair philosophy.

"Everybody wanted a Harry Alexander haircut," said 45-year-old Claude "Sport" Page, who began going to Alexander as a youngster in the 1970s. "A lot of life lessons were learned there."

The man who inspired a generation of local barbers and endeared countless others to him with his generosity and his own brand of barbershop wisdom passed away Jan. 3 of heart failure. He was 58. Read more »

What's next, Salem?

Free beer for city officials at dollar-beer night when the Salem Red Sox are in town? Free passes for the movie theaters on Apperson? Canceled parking tickets for bigwigs?

Sure, under state law, Salem City Council members and local business owners Bill Jones and Lisa Garst have the right to do business with the city they serve.

But in a city where image is everything, that looks bad. Read more »

OK, so we know it was all theatrics, but was the Senate right today for icing Roland Burris, appointed by Illinois Gov. Blagojevich to fill the seat vacated by President-elect Barack Obama?

It looks as if Tim Kaine finally hit pay dirt.

Last summer, the Virginia governor's name was floated as a potential running mate for Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama. After Obama's election in November, Kaine's name surfaced for U.S. attorney general and education secretary.

Now, as president-elect, Obama has asked Kaine to serve as chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Is anyone really surprised? Read more »

On this New Year's morning, a moment of silence, please.

Prayer, it seems, is too much of a political hornet's nest.

Vice Mayor Sherman Lea has decided to remove his name from the list of ministers who pray before the Roanoke City Council.

The reason? He caused a dustup up by obliquely referring to Jesus Christ in a prayer earlier this month. Read more »

Read more »

The Illinois governor, who was accused three weeks ago of trying to sell the state's vacant U.S. Senate seat, calls to offer you the position. What do you do?

a) Give it some thought.

b) Say yes.

c) Lose all credibility.

Roland Burris picked d) All of the above.

Don't know Burris. Never met the man. Never heard of the man before Tuesday. But in the tragi-comedy known as Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's life, Burris has embraced the role as jester.

Who knows what backroom deals were cut or backs scratched. But no matter how blind my ambition, I would not play the fool for a political shyster -- and pariah -- like Blagojevich. Burris, the former state attorney general, stood at Blagojevich's side as the govenor said, "Don't smear him with my crap," or words to that effect.

Burris, who has run for a number of offices, obviously is no babe in the woods of politics. Willingly volunteering to enable Blagojevich to continue his shenanigans is another sad chapter in this whole sordid mess.