In the call center world of Virginia politics, the push to mine uranium has been put on indefinite hold.

Newspapers across the Commonwealth will be spilling blood, guts and barrels of ink this General Assembly session to beat back legislation that would gut the requirement that public notices be published in newspapers. Perhaps this would be a good time to invoke an editorial standard, the disclosure of self-interest.

How quickly things in life can change: Not so long ago, our neighbor to the east, Mecklenburg County, shined brightly (relatively speaking) as a beacon of economic vitality in southern Virginia. Of course, a lot of this had to do with its two lakes, Buggs Island and Lake Gaston, but there was also a nice string of expansions by major employers in the area: Microsoft last year, Hewlett-Packard (née EDS) a few years prior to that, plus a handful of new manufacturing concerns popping up here and there. If not for the depressed state of the real estate market, you could make the case that Mecklenburg was well on its way to greater things, ahead of schedule for the rest of Southside.

Maybe it’s time to rethink the notion that any industry — even the government-supported and –sponsored kind — can be truly recession-proof.

With the days on the Mayan calendar counting down rapidly, 2012 is not the time — nor end of time — for lengthy introductions. It’s a brand-new year; you know the drill. Herewith, without further ado, is our Pop Quiz of the Future: