@teimco Here are some pics i took this evening. Pretty much the same. The lawn is now coming up on two years old. This summer has been so wet I still have air in my irrigation system from blowing it out last fall. So this is not a stressed lawn at all. Last summer it was a little stressed but still looked ok. @uscjusto Thanks. This is 100% fescue. It consists of: Falcon 5, Cochise IV, Bullseye, Rhambler SRP and Inferno. So far I have not had to overseed. I use only Milorganite as directed by Virginia Tech Extension recs. Fungus pressure is very high if night temps are over 65 degrees and things are wet. I use Heritage fungicide on an as needed basis. I only needed one application last summer but this wet summer I will probably need two as the brown patch is coming on strong. I use Dimension 2EW for pre-emergence in spring and fall and Trimec for post emergence. Side note- The other side of the driveway has 100% KBG (midnight, washington, rugby II) and is equally as pampered. In this climate and soil it simply does not look as good as the fescue.

I think a lot of it comes down to why we "need to know" whatever. To advise of the tragedy is newsworthy only in its exceptionalism, and that could have been summed up in a 1-sentence soundbite repeated ad infinitum, ad vomitum. And that's pretty much what happened. More info can be categorized: who did what to whom, when and where. And let's be honest - "Why" is invariably speculative, becoming informative only well after the event -- consider the news reports about Hitler at 1-year intervals. "Why" has no place in the immediacy, and is of use only to those can study it after the event. The general public does not have the training, skills, knowledge or interest to actually make use of any determination of "why". Unless we are in the vicinity and have the needed skills to assist the authorities, we certainly don't "need" to know tragic or horrific details on a minute-by-minute basis. And if we do need those details, news teams are unlikely to provide am acceptable means of communication of the required information. The rest of us fall into the categories of being involved and/or being an observer. Involvment means you are personally connected to one of the victims -- and I don't mean living in the same home state, I mean you actually know the person. People who are involved would have been grateful for specific information regarding the victims, both in learning who was injured or killed; or confirming that the known person was safe. In this category, public media could have been useful, but I found the publicized information was scanty and late in being delivered. Non-involved observers do NOT have a "need" to know. The media can pander to their morbid curiosity and demands, but catering to inquisitive ghouls is sensationalism and neither admirable or necessary.

Pidge - I've also heard others commenting that "possibly the shooter could have been stopped" by someone else carrying a gun. Hearing those advocates for guns for "self-defense" just pushes my button. Guns have absolutely no use except to kill. I agree with the NRA that it takes a person to pull the trigger, however, it also takes someone to sell the gun and the ammunition before the trigger is available to be pulled. As far as I'm concerned, the person/s who sold the gun and ammo are just as guilty of premeditated murder as the person who pulled the trigger at VaTech. And let's look realistically at "self-defense" which I think is a non-runner term in the armed world. To use a gun as a means of defense means one has to have it available, loaded, and at hand ready to shoot. Uh huh, I can just see these teenagers trotting along to class with their arms full of books and a gun in one hand, ready to 'defend'; and I can see them at the weekend beer party, popping a brewskie with one hand and the ever-ready gun in the other. Those people who think guns should be carried for self-defense should look at some of the real-life statistics on who is actually harmed by the local weaponry: little kids who find the gun up on the shelf and play bang-bang with it; and the homeowner's family, not the burglar, is at risk; and the innocent students and faculty, not the guy who believes it's okay to sell guns to just anybody...

Something was done. He was referred to mental health and was forced to go. That is apparently where the ball was dropped--which is hardly surprising. Psych patients typically remain remarkably sick until two days before their insurance runs out--at which time they always make miraculous recoveries. That way there's little chance of the hospital losing money by discharging them before the benefits run out--and little chance of the hospital losing money by keeping them one minute longer than the insurance lasts. The messages from administration are always veiled but clear--charting needs to reflect the need to stay as long as there are insurance days left--and needs to reflect improvement and stabilization otherwise. There have been some high profile lawsuits by various attorneys general but the trend continues and that's basically the reality of how American psychiatric hospitals do business. It hasn't been too long that the distinguished Chancellor of UC Santa Cruz (???) jumped off the balcony of her San Francisco high rise--in a frankly psychotic state-- according to her poor mother who was with her at the time. This happened the same day she was discharged and therefore "stable." If it can happen to her--it can happen to anyone. It'll remain this way until people's well being surpasses the value of the dollar bill in American healthcare. MichaelAT