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Montgomery County Sheriff-elect Tim Brown says he plans to evaluate the department before making personnel changes — and has no plans to bring in staff from outside. “That’s not my personality,” he said, rejecting the idea of arriving and “cleaning house.” Brown, who defeated interim Sheriff Robert Page by nearly 9,000 votes, is preparing for the role while continuing as a Christiansburg police lieutenant. He plans to meet individually with department staff and says any promotions would come from within. Brown expects to retire from the police department Nov. 30 and be sworn in as sheriff either Nov. 23 or Dec. 1. The county’s first African American sheriff-elect also outlined plans to increase transparency: quarterly meetings with news media and the department’s policies posted online for the public. His first public comments since winning the election offer an early picture of how he intends to lead. The U.S. Forest Service has proposed rescinding the “roadless rule,” a protection that limits logging, roadbuilding and other development across 59 million acres of national forest land. In Southwest Virginia, about a fifth of Jefferson National Forest is designated roadless; George Washington National Forest is about a quarter. Those areas include the 18,000-acre Bear Creek tract, where the Appalachian Trail runs, and Lewis Fork Addition, where brook trout breed. Advocates say the protections help safeguard wildlife habitat, drinking water and outdoor recreation. Opponents argue that removing the rule could expand logging and improve wildfire management. The proposal drew more than 1 million public comments before the comment period closed in October. A Sierra Club analysis found that the vast majority supported keeping the rule. The Forest Service must review the comments and prepare a finalized environmental analysis. For Abingdon hiker Donna Barkley, the stakes are personal: she fears clear-cutting could scar the mountain views that make the region’s trails a place of escape. A new Frontline documentary returns to a story Howard Berkes first reported years ago: black lung disease among coal miners in central Appalachia. In “Coal’s Human Cost,” the longtime NPR reporter reconnects with Ron Carson, former director of Stone Mountain Health Services, whose clinics provide black lung programs in Southwest Virginia. Their conversation echoes one from 2018. “For us to be sitting here, discussing what we’re talking about over the past eight years, and nothing’s been done … it’s horrifying,” Carson says. The film examines the regulatory failures behind an escalating toll, as miners continue to be exposed to silica dust while cutting thinner coal seams. A study released in August found that one in three miners with at least 25 years of underground work tested positive for black lung in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia. That rate is nearly 12 percentage points higher than when Berkes reported on the issue in 2018 — and the highest among central Appalachia’s working miners since the 1970s. He didn’t want to lose the sound of home. 🎶 The Buchanan County Board of Supervisors voted 6-1 to ask the Appalachian School of Law to return a $3.4 million appropriation it approved in February. Supervisors Tim Hess and Jeff Cooper said fellow supervisor Trey Adkins told the board the school appeared to be in better financial health than officials had initially been led to believe. Adkins said circumstances had changed and cited “reckless spending.” But the agreement governing the appropriation contains no mechanism for the county to demand the money back. The law school’s president and dean, David Western, said the county was never misled and had long had access to the school’s financial information. The dispute comes as the Grundy law school considers a possible merger with the University of Pikeville in Kentucky, after years of financial challenges.

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