News
The Roanoke Outside Foundation and the Roanoke Regional Partnership have introduced a new RoanokeOutside.com website. The site features a fully-responsive modern design that will work on any device and includes new video and photos of the region’s outdoor assets. More from WFIR’s Bob Clark.
CONCORD, Va. (AP) _ Virginia State Police say a man who locked himself in a bedroom with a toddler died following an exchange of gunfire with police. State police say in a news release that the shooting ended a 15-hour standoff at a residence in Campbell County. The 3-year-old boy wasn’t injured. State police say Campbell County sheriff’s deputies responding to a 911 call went to the residence Friday night. The deputies negotiated with the man throughout the night. A state police tactical team relieved the deputies Saturday morning. The boy came out of the bedroom around 12:05 p.m. Saturday and the man began shooting at the officers. They returned fire. The man died at a Lynchburg hospital. His name and relationship with the boy haven’t been released. The incident is under investigation.
CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (AP) _ A school district in Virginia plans to offer a high school Appalachian history course in response to a flap over displaying Confederate symbols in public schools. The Roanoke Times reports that the Montgomery County school board approved the new elective course last week, along with elective courses in women’s studies and entrepreneurship. In November, the board banned apparel displaying Confederate and other symbols in public schools. That decision followed protests over Christiansburg High School’s ban on Confederate symbols on student vehicles in the parking lot. Confederate symbols have come under increased public scrutiny since the June 17 massacre of nine black worshipers at a church in Charleston, South Carolina. Dylann Roof, the white man charged in the slayings, had been photographed holding the Confederate battle flag.
Michael McAlister (DOC photo)
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) _ Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposed budget includes $1.3 million in restitution for a man who spent 29 years in prison for an attempted rape that officials say he didn’t commit. McAuliffe pardoned Michael Kenneth McAlister in March after another man confessed to the abduction and attempted rape of a woman in 1986. The compensation is part of McAuliffe’s $109 billion budget proposal and must be approved by the General Assembly. McAlister said Friday that the proposed compensation is more than he had expected. Virginia law allows exonerated former inmates to collect an amount equal to 90 percent of per capita income for up to 20 years of wrongful imprisonment, which would come out to about $900,000. But the General Assembly has waived the 20-year cap before.
As the Democratic party’s presidential candidates prepare for their next debate Saturday night, the latest Republican debate may help solidify several candidates in particular. Virginia Tech Professor and political analyst Bob Denton says Ted Cruz did the most to help himself, and he expects few, if any , GOP candidates to drop out before Virginia’s president primary. WFIR’s Evan Jones has more.
ROANOKE, Va. (AP) _ The organizers of a Christmas parade in downtown Roanoke are having second thoughts about allowing a Southern heritage group to march in the parade with a Confederate battle flag. The Sons of Confederate Veterans carried the flag in the parade one week ago despite complaints from the local chapter of the NAACP. The civil rights group wanted the flag banished from the parade. But city officials and the parade organizers defended the group’s First Amendment rights to fly the flag. Since then, however, some residents complained that the group “hijacked” the parade. The Roanoke Times reports that as many as 50 Confederate flag bearers marched in the parade. Downtown Roanoke Inc. organizes the parade. It says it’s considering whether the group should be allowed to enter in the future.
From The Henry County Sheriff’s Office: Deputies have been searching for a runaway juvenile, Tylea Caroline Niblett, since December 11. 2015. Following efforts by the sheriff’s office to locate Tylea, she contacted her mother and stated she was safe but did not want to come home. Tylea refused to provide her mother her location or where she had been staying. Tylea returned to school today and is safe. The Henry County Sheriff’s Office would like to thank the media and others who disseminated her photograph and provided information as to her whereabouts. Continue reading for the original news release.