So, the Loudoun Independent and the Loudoun Times-Mirror are merging, in another change to the local Loudoun media market. You may recall that Leesburg Today went through bankruptcy last year, and LoudounExtra was scrapped by the Post. The number of independent media voices in our county – the richest in Americ – will be further reduced.

Two Loudoun newspapers announced Thursday that they are merging their print and online operations.

The Loudoun Times-Mirror and the Loudoun Independent are combining, Peter Arundel, president and chief executive of Times Community News, said in an article on LoudounTimes.com.

The Times-Mirror will continue to be published Wednesdays, and the Independent will move to Fridays. – The Washington Post

The consolidation and reduction in independent media does not mean that the quality of reporting and news in Loudoun will be improving.Recall, for example, the totally made-up “news” story based on a non-scientific poll of an insignificant number of self-selecting website readers that the Loudoun Independent ran last week. As Daverunner opined then:

The Loudoun Independent is owned by William Dean, who also runs engineering firm M.C. Dean, Inc., headquartered in Sterling, VA. Ironically, Bill Dean personally donated $2,000 to Mr. Black’s campaigns when he (Black) served as Delegate for the 32nd District.

Even more ironically, M.C. Dean Building intelligence Inc. is also on record as having donated $19,500 to Mr. Black while he was a delegate, dating back to 2000. – Loudoun Progress

We will watch closely the editorial bent of the Times-Mirror in light of this merger. Money buys access, and sometimes even coverage and spin. Here’s hoping the Times-Mirror’s historical independence will not be sullied by Mr. Dean’s Independent investment.

Today I read two articles on the experiences of women in science:

First, via Shakespeare’s Sister, a post from Cocktail Party Physics, “things are often not what they seem to be…”.

…The program to which we were writing had a goal of teaming graduate science and engineering students with K-12 teachers, so we had recruited a few graduate students — all of whom happened to be female — to come and work with the kids.  We didn’t set out to get women students, those were just the students who were interested in participating.  Our goal was to see what the students learned about the process of science in their quest to make a bulb light with just a battery, a bulb and a single piece of wire.    

About halfway through the process, as I’m standing there watching with a smile as bulbs are lighting and students are saying “cool” and smiling about how they understand science, Gayle approaches me.  

“Guess what?” she asks.  “The students don’t believe you’re scientists.”

Next up, via Hoyden About Town, “Why ‘Female’ Science Professor?”

In the URL of my blog, I am simply “science-professor,” but the pseudonymous name I use as a blogger is “Female Science Professor.” Why the extra adjective? Does it matter in my work as a scientist and a professor that I am female?

Many times it does. In fact, when I first started using the moniker, my reasons were a bit cynical. I had been so often reminded by colleagues, in their words and actions, that I was different from the “regular” (read: male) science professors, that I decided to use the extra adjective to describe myself.

Read ’em both.

Why, links, what have you done?

• First Replicating Creature Spawned in Life Simulator – At it’s most basic, the mathematics of life itself. Fascinating, with video, as well!

There’s a thousand reasons to read Digby. Here’s one more.

I know the Democratic Party sucks. (It always has to one degree or another, by the way. Check out Roosevelt’s policies on race. It’s not like he didn’t know they were bad — it was his deal with the devil to keep the old confederacy in the coalition.) Sadly, that’s true of every political party ever created. However, it is the only institutional governance vehicle we have for liberalism of any kind and it is the only viable tool our system provides to fight back the increasingly manipulative, nihilistic and fascistic conservatives. – Digby

This is what I think of when I hear my fellow Democrats get disheartened and complain about our Party. We are the Party. Not the President, not Congress members, us. The Party is what we make of it. The fight is never done, and the party is not perfect – no human institution is – but it’s what we have, and it’s what we make of it. Just as America isn’t perfect, but we’re working towards an ever-more perfect union. Our Democratic party isn’t perfect. It’s flawed and it’s scared, and it needs our help to stay true to its bearings. But isn’t that kinda the point of being involved in the first place?

Seriously, Sterling, VOTE. HIM. OUT.

Among the more interesting items appearing across our desks lately was this press release from former Delegate Richard H. “Dick” Black of Loudoun, who is contemplating a run for the Virginia Senate in 2011:

STERLING, VA (June 15, 2010) — Virginia Delegate Richard H. Black, who served four terms in the Virginia House of Delegates from 1998 to 2006, today expressed thanks to the participants of a poll conducted by the Loudoun Independent. The clear majority of those who participated in the poll stated that Black is needed back in Richmond.

Wow. As a staunch supporter of Senator Mark Herring (D-33), whom Black would seemingly be challenging, this news is very surprising to me. One would think that the rousing beating Mr. Black took at the hands of Dave Poisson in the 2005 election would have served notice that his brand of right-wing loonyism (i.e., “baby pesticides” and plastic fetuses) didn’t fly in Loudoun County.

Until you consider the source of the poll, and do a little digging.The Loudoun Independent is owned by William Dean, who also runs engineering firm M.C. Dean, Inc., headquartered in Sterling, VA. Ironically, Bill Dean personally donated $2,000 to Mr. Black’s campaigns when he (Black) served as Delegate for the 32nd District.

Even more ironically, M.C. Dean Building intelligence Inc. is also on record as having donated $19,500 to Mr. Black while he was a delegate, dating back to 2000.

The Loudoun Independent, if they want to be considered as a legitimate news operation in Loudoun, should have either revealed this to their readers or stayed on the sidelines. One can also wonder if campaign finance laws are possibly being violated here: can a known Black supporter running a poll on their newspaper’s website for that candidate to gauge interest in his campaign be construed as making an in-kind donation to that candidate? While true that Black hasn’t yet declared, why would he issue a press release stating the results if he wasn’t going to run?

The poll, though, was simply a sidebar poll, and as of 1 PM on June 17th only had 324 responses. No other polls have been taken by any other media outlet in Loudoun to date.

So until an impartial source comes out with a more scientific poll showing similar results, we can take the Loudoun Independent/Dick Black’s poll for what it is: nothing substantial. And Black’s hyping of this poll as a mandate from the citizens of Loudoun is just a gross overexaggeration.

But the next time the Loudoun Independent hypes Dick Black, or vice versa, you’ll know the motivations.

Postscript: this was released by the Loudoun Times-Mirror after I published this diary. Hat-tip to Erika Garman.

Prop 8 Trial Tracker is asking for folks to do live and taped reenactments of the Trial Testimony, including closing arguments.

The Supreme Court did not allow the trial to be televised. The words spoken by both sides during the trial, and during closing arguments, are some of the most powerful statements in favor of gay marriage anywhere.

Everyone everywhere should hear what was said.

So grab a transcript. Grab your friends. Grab a camera. Read it aloud. Record it. Upload it.

Do it.

This morning’s Loudoun Times-Mirror has a story about the Board of Supervisors approving the 2010 Countywide Transportation Plan by a narrow 5-4 vote.

In the story, it mentions an interesting observation made by transportation consultant Lucinda Gibson:

The county’s traffic constraints are its intersections, not its roads, Gibson said.

Anyone who’s been stuck on Route 7 in Ashburn in the morning or afternoon knows what I’m getting at here. The elimination of the light at Loudoun County Parkway has only changed the choke point on Route 7 from there to the entrance for Strayer University near the Route 28 ramps.

Ms. Gibson suggests building roundabouts to replace intersections instead of widening roads, but unfortunately the Board failed to accept this suggestion or any of her other suggestions. They seem to be fixated on adding lanes to reduce congestion, which I believe only heightens the congestion at the choke points.

Growing up in South Jersey, I learned how to drive using roundabouts and jug-handles (for left hand turns). Unorthodox maybe, but quite effective if you think about it. Roundabouts eliminate traffic signals, and promote a free flow of vehicles through once-clogged intersections. Yes, one has to slow down considerably upon entering a roundabout, and has to be cognizant of other traffic entering and exiting, but the key is: traffic is moving. You’re not sitting at a red light, idling, watching no vehicles pass perpendicular to you. You’re always moving.

Evidence of this can be seen at the Route 50 intersection with Route 15; this intersection used to be a mis-mash, with cars backed up in all directions waiting for the signal to change. Now, no backups as traffic flows freely through the roundabout. To a lesser extent, MDOT recently opened a roundabout on Route 15 in Point of Rocks, MD, and again, you’re always moving (of course, absent a traffic incident).

Crossposted on Equality Loudoun.

Allowing gay men and lesbians to marry would “be a victory for the worthy ideas of tolerance and inclusion…[and] a victory for, and another key expansion of, the American idea,” and it would also “likely be accompanied by a wide-ranging and potentially valuable national discussion of marriage’s benefits, status and future.”

Also, marriage equality “would probably reduce the proportion of homosexuals who marry persons of the opposite sex and, thus, would likely reduce instances of marital unhappiness and divorce.”

So testified a key expert witness in the Proposition 8 trial.

You are probably assuming that this was a witness for the plaintiffs suing to overturn Prop 8. If so, you are wrong. This is the testimony under cross examination of David Blankenhorn, witness for the proponents of Prop 8.

The closing arguments are today, and are being live-blogged at prop8trialtracker.com

Bye, Marshall-Newman. It’s been fun.

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