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NATURAL BRIDGE -- The dinosaurs sound hungry.

They roar and growl as we tread along the gravel footpath. A fence separates us from the bellows in the woods. We're too shielded to see anything, but in the open enough for the shrieks and snarls to conjure images of big creatures with big claws and big teeth.

Q: With the high price of fuel why are there not any Valley Metro buses running in the major corridors of Roanoke, say for example from along Virginia 419 from where it intersects with Interstate 81 in Roanoke County to downtown Roanoke? On a recent trip to Australia they had the buses running on the main corridors every 15 minutes.

Two competing bids to enhance outpatient CT and MRI procedures in the Roanoke Valley are set to come before a state governing board next month.

Lewis-Gale Medical Center is seeking to open Roanoke Imaging by May 2009 at 4330 Brambleton Ave. in an approximately 7,000-square-foot building.

"June rainfall has been inconsistent across the region with pockets of heavy rainfall and areas with very little. Drought conditions are about the same or slightly worse than two weeks ago."

This wording from a statement issued by the National Weather Service in Blacksburg on Thursday answers any questions about whether recent thunderstorms have significantly improved the long-term drought.

Amelia Roberson

Roberson is a writer with a master of fine arts in screenwriting and film and a master of arts in teaching from Hollins. She lives in Roanoke.

I knew had surpassed my husband's taste for random '60s acts of sporadic expression when I asked him to pull over my new Toyota Celica ST on a deserted Chicago beach. He watched, clearly uncomfortably, while I set the volume to high and danced on the sand to Iggy Pop's "Wild One." It was then I realized with sobering finality that being creative had its limits in society. I had come to this place as a child dropped from an alien vehicle.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Holding off one of his best friends, Michael Phelps started his second attempt to break Mark Spitz's Olympic record with another epic swim.

Less than an hour later, the teenager he compares to a little sister joined Phelps in the record book.

On Sunday, Queen Harrison competed in a uniform that had "VT" across her chest. In her next meet, her top will read, "USA."

Harrison, a rising junior at Virginia Tech, earned a trip to the Beijing Olympics with her second-place finish in the 400-meter hurdles final at the U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Ore.

From his vantage point on the mound, it wasn't a bad pitch. Salem Avalanche reliever Bryan Hallberg wanted to throw a slider and he threw it pretty much where he wanted it.

He even liked how batter C.J. Retherford, a righty, opened up his shoulders before the ball made it to the plate, before it made its dive.

LOUDON, N.H. -- Tony Stewart walked out of the garage Sunday alone and truly under a dark cloud. The thunderstorm that shortened Sunday's race soaked him and typified his fortunes this season.

While fuel strategy and rain conspired to extend Stewart's career-long winless drought to 31 races, it rewarded those in need of help.

CALLAWAY -- Jimmy Mullins and Rodney Cook each won one of the 35-lap Late Model Stock races at Franklin County Speedway on Saturday.

Cook also finished second in the first race with Travis Hurt in third.

LOUDON, N.H. -- NASCAR penalized Juan Pablo Montoya two laps after he intentionally wrecked series points leader Kyle Busch late in Sunday's race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

The caution was out for a crash when Montoya and Busch made contact and Montoya retaliated. He spun Busch and Busch's car collected Montoya's.

Let's think of Rachael Ray.

Could this cutie who wears hip huggers and runs around the kitchen making 30-minute meals that she eats herself with enthusiasm be in the camp of terrorists?

Well, old Rachael did this online commercial for Dunkin' Donuts in which she wore this scarf that a lot of Eastern types wear and all of these ding-dongs complained that Rachael was aiding and abetting terrorists.

The bright lights are drawing Amanda Winter and her considerable singing talent. Not to Broadway, mind you, but to a bigger, spiritual stage.

Today

Well, zip-a-dee-do-dah! "Remus Tales" will be performed at the Roanoke College amphitheater off High Street. Bring a chair. Free. 8 p.m.

Tuesday

Faced with a child who'd rather eat fried worms than green veggies, or who regards mac and cheese as the base of the food pyramid, what parent hasn't resorted to cajolery, bribery or even outright threats to enforce a healthier diet?

CHICAGO -- They can't club-hop till dawn, frolic on Miami Beach or check into a $1,700-a-day rehab facility, but they've overcome all those disadvantages in their crawl to the top.

Celebrity babies are hot, hot, hot.

Don't release feral cats back onto the streets

Can you guarantee that the cats you are trapping are indeed feral and not someone's pet that's been out for some fresh air and exercise? You very well could be neutering someone's property ("Litter prevention," June 16 news story).

Amidst the hullaballoo over the U.S. Supreme Court's predictable decision on guns last week, another ruling with broad ramifications slipped by with little comment. The Constitution, it turns out, protects the right of wealthy Americans to buy their way into office.

In March, Rep. Rick Boucher stood by the principle that immunity should not be extended to telephone companies that helped the government spy on Americans without a court's knowledge or consent. Last week, the Southwest Virginia Democrat voted to grant them that immunity. What changed his mind?

In our popular culture, the perceived rarity of planetary alignments acquires a special meaning by some. But with all the various planets jostling around the solar system, interesting arrangements are not rare at all -- they just go unpublicized. We happen to play a role in a few of them in the upcoming four weeks.

In an upcoming editorial we'll take a look at a movement to extend downtown's trendy lofts and condos to a section of the city known more for reaching out to the down-and-out than the up-and-coming.

Virginia Rep. Randy Forbes, R-Hampton Roads, is on the right track with his call for a new Manhattan Project aimed at weaning the nation off foreign oil. But his notion of providing incentives (up to $24 billion in prize money) for scientists who develop technologies that get us toward that goal may not be the best way of going about it.

After all, it's not like the Manhattan Project offered up a reward to the first scientist to successfully detonate an atomic bomb.

Still, at least Forbes is talking about doing something - while naysayers complain that the plan does nothing to bring down high gas prices RIGHT NOW. Ironically, some of the critics support increasing off-shore drilling, which also does nothing to bring down gas prices immediately. It also does nothing to end our long-term dependence on a scarce energy source that will grow only scarcer.

We're writing about Forbes' proposal for an editorial that will run tomorrow.

In an editorial on Tuesday, we'll have a roundup of some of the new Virginia laws taking effect tomorrow. There are some good, some bad, and some entertaining.

Attorney General Bob McDonnell's office sent me an e-mail responding to questions about the federal shield law. It reads to me like someone desperately trying to play both sides of the issue as he runs for governor. Take from it what you will.