VOICELESS: KRISTEN LOMBARDI

I learned from Gawker that journalist Kristen Lombardi was "let go" from The Village Voice last Friday. As I noted in January, Lombardi was active in covering health issues of Ground Zero workers. I wish her well in whatever she does next.

BONUS FOR GOOD SPELLING In other Gawker news, the snarksite's Alex Balk points out that a recent New York Observer letter mispells Joe Conason's name. I could devote an entire item to Balk's mispelling of Lombardi's first name as K-r-i-s-t-i-n, but why bother with such petty matters when there's a National Spelling Bee to cover?

So far New Yorkers Adrian Acevedo and Paul Lindseth are still in the running, having spelled condemn and dutifully, respectively. [DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS DEPARTMENT: Adrian is actually out, felled by the written portion.] Also in the game: Long Island returnee Prateek Kohli (Martian) and the Lone Star State's veteran competitor Samir Patel (décor).

Last year's coverage can be found via this post.