News
Bonsack Baptist Church is hosting its 3rd annual Opening Doors Conference this week, and organizers say anyone with any interest in the special needs community can benefit from it. WFIR’s Starr Anderson has the details.
The company that had proposed building a 180-bed nursing home off Keagy Road in Roanoke County has withdrawn its rezoning request. The notice came in a letter delivered Friday to the Roanoke County Planning Commission. Roanoke-based Medical Facilities of America had planned to spend $25 million and employ 200 people, but the proposal would first require rezoning 23 acres, and people who live near Keagy and McVitty Roads expressed strong opposition. As WFIR’s Evan Jones reports, it was that opposition that was largely responsible for MFA’s decision.
Click here to read the MFA letter
Kimberly Lowe
Haven’t heard about the “Kimberly Lowe of Congress” campaign? WFIR’s Gene Marrano has more on a former Roanoker running as a write-in Congressional candidate in the 5th and 9th districts:
Click below to hear more from Kimberly Lowe (speaking with WFIR’s Gene Marrano)
Courtesy: Don Harrison
Small houses are big these days on cable channels like HGTV, and they are now starting to pop up in the Roanoke Valley. By present-day standards, these homes are tiny indeed, as WFIR’s Evan Jones reports.
Click here for the Don’s Cab-Inns web site.
From State Police: ROCKY MOUNT, Va. – The Virginia State Police is investigating a non-fatal shooting incident involving a Rocky Mount police officer that occurred Saturday evening (Sep. 10) in the town limits of Rocky Mount, Va. At approximately 11:20 p.m., a Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy and Rocky Mount Police Officer attempted to stop a vehicle in the 900 block of Tanyard Road/Route 40. The suspect vehicle refused to stop and attempted to flee the scene. With the police officer and sheriff’s deputy’s vehicles blocking the suspect vehicle’s means of escape, the suspect vehicle began ramming the law enforcement vehicles. During the course of the suspect vehicle trying to escape and running into the law enforcement vehicles, the Rocky Mount police officer fired at the suspect vehicle. The suspect vehicle then broke free, fled the scene and was stopped by the same officers a short distance later.
(Continue reading for the rest of the news release.)
Virginia Tech Police say threatening e-mails sent to many campus addresses in late August originated from a South American country, although police do not name which one. Similar e-mails were sent to many others colleges as well. Officials say federal and foreign authorities have taken primary roles in the investigation.
From Virginia Tech Police: Working with state and federal partners, the Virginia Tech Police Department has been able to identify that the threatening emails originated from a South American country. Both federal and foreign authorities have been involved in the investigation and have now assumed primary roles. The Virginia Tech Police Department continues to provide assistance to those agencies, as needed.
Tourism is big business in the Roanoke Valley – last year travel expenditures in the region reached $800 million. 2015 was the 6th consecutive year of growth in tourism dollars spent and a 2.1 percent increase over 2014 in “Virginia’s Blue Ridge.” That’s bigger than ever says “Visit Virginia’s Blue Ridge” president Landon Howard:
The Radical Reels Tour runs twice a year across North America, bringing a variety of mountain sport films to the big screen. It’s coming to Roanoke this Sunday and WFIR’s Starr Anderson has the details.