GROCERY CHECKER WILL TRY TO PUT CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE BAG

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, February 7, 1993                   TAG: 9302070005
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Ed Shamy
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GROCERY CHECKER WILL TRY TO PUT CHAMPIONSHIP IN THE BAG
Debbie Bland fights this very day for all that is good and honorable about the New River Valley. She vies on behalf of all Virginians.
Today is the day that Bland, who works a register at Wade's Supermarket in Blacksburg, is to compete for the coveted title of the nation's fastest grocery bagger.
It all unfolds during the National Grocers Association convention under way in San Francisco.
Bland, who won the Virginia contest in October, will have to put as many as 40 grocery items in paper sacks better than any of the other state finalists. She'll be judged on speed, individual style, proper arrangement of groceries, number of bags used and even distribution of weight.
In short, Debbie Bland will be trying to do everything that most grocery baggers try hardest to avoid.
Seasoned observers say that if Bland can handle those nasty 3-liter soda bottles - which she admits give her a hard time - she could best the other 35 or 40 contestants in the nation's best bagger contest.

A few weeks ago, in a gun-control frenzy, I shared with you some compiled statistics about gun-related crimes in Roanoke during 1992.
In so doing, I may have left you with the impression that you already had: That the city is a drug- and crime-infested slum occupied by crack addicts, lowlife criminals and violent psychopaths.
Just to show you that guns know no political boundaries, I have since gathered up some numbers about 1992 gunplay in Roanoke County.
So much for the image of the idyllic cul-de-sacs of suburbia:
One murder with a gun.
Thirty-three assaults with firearms.
Twenty-four concealed-weapons charges.
Nineteen shooting into a car or a dwelling.
Eighteen illegally discharging firearms.
Five brandishing of firearms.
Five firearms possessed by felons.
Three self-inflicted gunshots.
One assault with a gun on a police officer.
One robbery of a residence, with a gun.
One robbery of a business, with a gun.
That's 111 times during the year just ended that county police investigated criminal incidences involving guns - in a county characterized by housing subdivisions, strip malls and pastures.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB