Six months ago, the Dow was above 11,500, TARP and credit default swaps were not common terms, and most Richmond business news appeared on the business pages. As the business landscape has changed, so has the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s business coverage. Local business news lands on the front page regularly, along with the latest developments in stimulus, bailout, and foreclosure recovery efforts.

Your mother probably told you it was dangerous to bring up religion or politics in polite conversation. By now you’ve figured out on your own that other topics, such as race or sex, can quickly turn a friendly discussion into a rhetorical free-for-all. Yet every day on our Web sites, TimesDispatch.com and inRich.com, we invite readers to comment on those subjects, along with other hot-button issues such as smoking in restaurants, gun laws, abortion, domestic violence, and just about any incendiary subject you can name.

Barack Obama made history Jan. 20, but let’s look at the history of some of that day’s words . . . Such as blunder. Hey, in fairness to Chief Justice John Roberts, we’d all be nervous reciting anything, let alone the presidential oath, in front of millions of people. Still, bobbling a few words is a “blunder,“ or a clumsy mistake. The Old Norse blunda meant to shut the eyes, so we see a connection to our modern usage, where “blunder” (as a verb) can mean to move in a clumsy manner.

FROM THE NEWSROOM Shortly after noon Tuesday, Barack Obama raised his right hand and made history as the first African-American president of the United States. Richmond Times-Dispatch photographers were there to record the day. It began at 4 a.m. for our team of six photographers and a photo editor who fanned out across Washington, and it didn’t end until after midnight, with the president and first lady dancing at one of the many balls they attended that evening.

Last Sunday, the Richmond Times-Dispatch published a front-page story about the growing foreclosure crisis in Virginia. We presented you with facts and figures about the ex tent of the problem and compared 2007 with the first 11 months of 2008. Everything we told you about 2008 was correct. But most of what we told you about 2007 was incorrect. Nearly every number was about half of what it should have been.

What a difference an election makes. Through Election Day, Barack Obama was in constant motion. Since then, the president-elect has worked in near-silence and virtual seclusion in his Chicago home.

FROM THE NEWSROOM Charlotte M. Minor was so inspired by her experiences as the 2008 Richmond Christmas Mother that she plans to expand her volunteer efforts in the new year. Minor’s personal touch was evident in the number of donations that were dedicated to her, her family, and even the family pets—Doogie and Brownie. She made many appearances on behalf of the Christmas Mother Fund, including at The Jefferson Hotel tree-lighting ceremony, two Holly Balls, a luncheon at Imperial Plaza, the annual Valentine Christmas at Court End , and Richmond Christmas Mother Day at the Salvation Army Christmas Center.

High school students blogging during basketball games. Elementary pupils writing movie and TV reviews. Both are recent newsroom projects that are quite different from the traditional interview or news article.

Do you ever wonder where things are made? As a child, I developed a curiosity about such things. Trips to the Sears store with my father became impromptu geography lessons as we moved through the aisles and checked the “Made in . . . “ labels on various products.

Just before Thanksgiving, we launched a new version of TimesDispatch.com. We’ve received a ton of feedback from our users on the new look and feel.