DavidsonNews.net

DavidsonNews.net is a volunteer community news website established in late 2006 to share information and promote discussion about town news, events, and issues in the town of Davidson, N.C.

It is owned by Davidson News LLC and managed by and for Davidson residents. The list of categories at right offers a glimpse at some of the topics we’re following. Join our email list by going to our main page (http://www.DavidsonNews.net) and entering your email address in the box atop the right column.

We invite readers to comment. For more about our comment policy and how to post, CLICK HERE>

To contact the editor, please send an email to editor@davidsonnews.net

Contributors

David Boraks, South Street (founder and editor) - David has been interviewing national and local politicians, entertainers and artists, corporate CEOs and regular folks for more than 30 years. His work has appeared in newspapers, magazines and on the radio in the U.S. and abroad. He holds a master of arts degree in liberal studies from Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., and a bachelor of arts degree in history from Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. From 2001 to 2005, he covered the top U.S. banks for the daily American Banker in New York. In 2000, he was a senior correspondent for the (short-lived) online news service LocalBusiness.com. At The Charlotte Observer from 1993 to 2000, his duties included tech columnist, business writer and assistant features editor. Other gigs included editing jobs at The Hartford (Conn.) Courant and The China News in Taipei; Editor-in-chief of The Cambridge (Mass.) Chronicle, and editing and reporting for The Waterbury (Conn.) Republican. David has lived in Davidson since 1993 and, after a 2005-2006 sojourn in Taipei and Shanghai, now works as an independent writer, editor and photographer, and part-time reporter and announcer at Charlotte public radio station WFAE-FM. Web: www.davidboraks.com

Laurie Dennis, McConnell neighborhood - Laurie got her start in journalism as a reader for the Beijing bureau of the Associate Press, where she perused such papers as the Tibet Daily and the Shanghai Evening News for exciting leads. After finishing a master’s degree in journalism at the University of Minnesota, Laurie joined the Monticello Times, a small, family-owned weekly newspaper covering a town on the Mississippi River. There, Laurie served as a journalist and photographer before becoming the paper’s editor in 2001. Her opinion writing earned her Page One awards from the Minnesota Society of Professional Journalists and a Golden Dozen award from the International Society of Weekly Newspaper Editors, while her feature writing garnered awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association and the National Newspaper Association. Laurie is currently living in Davidson and working on a novel of historical fiction set in 1300s China.

Brenda Barger, Concord Road - Brenda is a longtime Davidson resident who co-wrote (along with Judy Schuh) the “In and around Davidson” column in the Lake Norman Times for a decade. In January 2008, she moved the column to DavidsonNews.net and renamed it “Around Davidson” - the name it had when it was founded at the old Mecklenburg Gazette weekly in the 1960s. Read Laurie Dennis’s Jan. 8, 2008, profile of her and the column or go to the Around Davidson archive page, where you’ll find all her columns. She is married to Hugh Barger.

Robert Maier, Walnut Street - Bob is a multi-media communications consultant who works from his home in Davidson. He has written text books, produced and managed websites, and made documentary films, usually for broadcast on PBS. He has a B.A. in literature from American University and pursues post-graduate work in East Carolina University’s Professional Communications program. Currently, he works primarily with educator professional development specialists and organizations. Besides his occasional commentaries for DavidsonNews.net, Bob regularly has letters to the editor published in the Charlotte Observer. He maintains a blog , www.portablefilms.blogspot.com, that focuses on his interests and experience in Afghanistan and the Middle East. He and his wife, Catheryn assist several young Afghan journalist/activists working to advance freedom of expression in their country. Bob presents slide/lectures about his recent travels to Afghanistan , and the issues America faces there.

Shelley Rigger, South Street - Shelley is a professor of East Asian Politics at Davidson College. She also is a member of the Davidson Planning Board and has served on other community advisory boards.

Bill Giduz - Davidson’s unofficial photographer and head juggler, Bill contributes occasional photographs to DavidsonNews.net. He is also the director of college communications at Davidson College.

Cristina Shaul, Oxydendrum Hill Lane (marketing director) — Cristina moved to Davidson in April 2005 from Newtown, Conn. She started subscribing to DavidsonNews.net in 2006 and became an avid reader. In 2007, she launched DavidsonREADS, a town-wide reading program, to encourage people to read the same book and participate in book-related events. Cristina worked at the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation doing direct response fund raising and Golf Digest magazine, doing circulation marketing, and is thrilled to be putting her skills to use to help grow DavidsonNews.net. She is a graduate of Cornell University and interviews prospective local students for the admissions office. She and her husband, Matt, have a son, James, who attends Davidson Elementary, where she volunteers regularly.