This week has been designated Teacher Appreciation Week, and Tuesday, May 6, is National Teacher Day. This is a time for all Southwest Virginians to honor the region’s teachers and recognize them for their dedication to educating the region’s students. Teachers have played a critical role in all of our lives, and it is especially important that these individuals be recognized appropriately for their contributions and hard work.
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When we began this publication eight months ago, I was wide-eyed and optimistic with a desire to lead the charge for progressive thought in the New River Valley. I thought the best way to do this was to print a free publication that would be distributed to thousands of people across the valley. And that’s exactly what we did. Our readership is somewhere around the 15,000 mark for our print publication and I would like to thank all who have ever picked up a copy of the Voice. And I know that’s a lot of you.

But in a sluggish economy and with essentially no advertising sales representatives to speak of, it just doesn’t make financial sense to continue publishing a print version. I appreciate the advertisers we have had, and I hope you will continue to support us. The fact is, however, that we’ve lost money on almost every issue of the New River Voice. And we’re not some huge corporation. We’re just a couple poor working folks trying to make a difference. In fact, my accountant is chagrined that we kept it going this long.

But we’re not finished yet. Our print product is going away—at least for now. If we can line up sufficient support and sign up advertisers to some long-term contracts, we might be back in print. But for now, we want you to continue keeping up with the progressive news and views and the best reviews that the NRV has to offer—online.

Please bookmark www.newrivervoice.com or add the RSS feed to your news aggregator. And remember that we want you to contribute. We want more bloggers. We want more feedback on each article, blog entry, or commentary. We want more articles from people like you! We want to form an online community of folks just like you—folks who love the NRV and want to make this place the best it can be, whether you live in Pearisburg or Pulaski, Snowville or Shawsville.

So join us! Support us. Visit us online. Tell your friends and family and coworkers to check out www.newrivervoice.com. Thanks for picking up our publication, and we hope to hear from you online.

Tim W. Jackson is the Editor & Publisher of the New River Voice. He advises that you keep this copy as a collector’s item and sell it on eBay in 10 years and make lots of money.

Whenever I think we’ve reached the pinnacle of our interconnectedness, some new technological innovation hits the news and I’m afraid again. (more…)

Four years ago, if you took your cans or bottles to a recycling center in the town of Radford, they were as likely to go to the landfill as to the regional recycling center in Christiansburg. That’s because recycling loads were very often contaminated by trash.

No similar levels of contamination were taking place in the surrounding counties of Montgomery, Giles, Pulaski, and Floyd because their recycling centers were in much better shape. They were supervised, there were large friendly signs telling you how to recycle, and the various containers were color-coded for various grades of glass, plastic, aluminum, and paper. (more…)

In the relatively obscure 1992 film Dolly Dearest, the family Wade is terrorized by a possessed doll. Thanks to Dolly’s evil influence, little Jessica becomes an unruly, disrespectful whippersnapper.

Hold on, I’m going somewhere with this. Seriously.

Jessica’s mother, Marilyn, discovers the cause of Jessica’s sudden transformation from lass to crass. Marilyn blames the devil, but that’s what all bad parents seem to do these days, isn’t it? The devil didn’t give Dolly to Jessica. The true culprits are Jessica Wade’s parents, who awarded their daughter a toy unfit for a girl her age. (more…)

That sound you’re hearing (or not hearing, if you prefer irony) is that of dry tumbleweeds floating desultorily through the barren, eroded landscape of the New River Valley music scene. Now, I know what some of you are thinking: What? The New River Valley actually has a music scene? (more…)