Meant to post this a couple days ago: The American Journalism Review has a piece about the dramatic drop-off in Iraq coverage by traditional U.S. news media (newspapers and TV).

The decline in coverage of Iraq has been staggering.

During the first 10 weeks of 2007, Iraq accounted for 23 percent of the newshole for network TV news. In 2008, it plummeted to 3 percent during that period. On cable networks it fell from 24 percent to 1 percent, according to a study by the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

And more:

A daily

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Fort Lewis keeps growing and welcoming troops home from overseas deployments. That means the number of volunteers needed to keep the Army post running as a warm and nurturing environment for children, spouses and soldiers will grow as well.

All the more reason why Fort Lewis took time out at a May 21 luncheon to honor its top volunteers from the past year. From a pool of 40 nominees, organizers chose seven individuals and one married couple who benefitted and inspired those around them.

Volunteer of the year:

* Sandy White, for serving as family readiness group

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Fort Lewis says the first big batch of returning soldiers from the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division will return home to Fort Lewis on Thursday afternoon.

About 250 troops from the 4th Battalion, 9th Infantry Regiment on the first “main body” flight home will be followed by the rest of the brigade over the next three weeks, the post says in a press release.

The brigade has been in Iraq the past 15 months, operating mainly in Diyala Province and north Baghdad.

The advance party arrived a couple weeks ago.

Jack Lewis, an Army reservist who spent a year in Iraq with the old 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division from Fort Lewis – the Lancer Brigade – has a moving Memorial Day tribute up on Crosscut.

Col. Jon Lehr, commander of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division finishing up its 15-month tour in Iraq, did a teleconference Friday with the Pentagon’s “bloggers roundtable.”

Transcript here, and Quicktime audio here.

Links to coverage generated out of the interview: a Spencer Ackerman piece here at the Washington Independent, and a post here by Wired’s Noah Shachtman. (Hat tip, again: Strykernews.com)

Col. Jon Lehr, commander of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, gets some pub in his hometown paper, the York (Pa.) Dispatch.

We didn’t know this: They’ve opened an automatic teller machine at a bank in Baqouba.

(Hat tip: Strykernews.com)

Maj. Weldon K. Groves, who flew combat missions with the famed Tuskegee Airmen during World War II and later worked for many years at McChord Air Force Base, died May 12 at a Tacoma nursing home. He was 10 days shy of his 91st birthday.

Graveside services are 1:30 p.m. Friday at Tahoma National Cemetery with a memorial service to follow at 3 p.m. Saturday at Fern Hill Congregational Church, 6722 Yakima Ave. S. in Tacoma.

The Poynter Institute is out with a survey of more than 8,600 adults that says nearly half rate U.S. media coverage of the war in Iraq as “poor,” and a third rate it as only “fair.”

The survey also asked readers what kinds of stories they wanted to see more of:

&bull Information about the Iraqi government 68%

&bull Stories about the Iraqi people 68%

&bull Stories about returning soldiers 58%

&bull Stories about how the war has impacted communities here in the US 57%

&bull News about areas in Iraq where there

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