roanoke.com - local news

A man was found dead Thursday morning in a yard in the 400 block of Liberty Road, but Roanoke police said they did not suspect anything criminal was connected to his death.

Police department spokeswoman Aisha Johnson said a neighbor to the property where the man was found called police at 6:46 a.m. Officers found the man's body near Liberty Road.

Virginia has called a meeting of officials from the six states connected by Interstate 81.

Representatives of all six states along the nearly 900-mile Interstate 81 corridor would gather in the Roanoke Valley this fall to discuss common issues around the interstate's traffic and outlook under a proposal from the state's transportation chief.

When Jason Clary came home on leave, his friends surprised him with a refurbished pickup.

Richard Henegar Jr. looked a little pale as the minutes ticked down toward the big moment.

Almost a million Virginians may hit the roads over Labor Day, many headed to a beach.

Almost a million Virginians are expected to travel over Labor Day weekend, the traditional end of summer, even as forecasters try to gauge how closely Hurricane Earl will sweep past the East Coast.

The agency has a backlog of driver's license applications delayed by a computer glitch.

Roanoke's Department of Motor Vehicles office will be open throughout the Labor Day holiday weekend to help process a backlog of driver's license applications that accumulated during a state computer failure.

A 2008 bicycle accident left him paralyzed, but Bert Spetzler is grateful for little achievements.

He came to on his back in a creek. The water trickled about his ears. His bicycle was a tangle above him.

The system will reduce inmate movement and enhance efficiency.

Inmates at the Roanoke County-Salem Jail were introduced this week to a new method of speaking with family and friends. On Monday, the jail unveiled its video visitation system, which uses video cameras and monitors for inmate visits instead of glass partitions and telephone handsets.

At its convention, the legion delegates OK'd a resolution declaring the Stalin statue unsuitable.

The 2.5 million-member American Legion expressed its displeasure Thursday with the placement of a bust of Soviet dictator Josef Stalin at the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, saying the site now has the "notorious distinction of probably having the only bust or statue of Stalin in America."

The document publicizes information about end-of-life issues, but it includes his title of mayor.

Roanoke Mayor David Bowers has raised some eyebrows with a flier he's been distributing in conjunction with his law firm, offering a free, hourlong talk about end-of-life issues and legal documents.

The attorney general told a meeting that he would continue to fight the EPA.

ROCKY MOUNT -- Virginia's scrappy attorney general, already at legal war with the federal government on two fronts -- climate change and health care -- said Thursday that more offensives are possible.

A little over a month after shooting wrapped, "A Moving Film," -- a short movie aimed at attracting young professionals to the Roanoke and New River valleys -- has made its public and Internet debut.

Local networking groups are springing up to help as the number of people in the Roanoke metro region making first-time unemployment claims rises.
Donnie Corron blames the economy, not the company that laid him off from his six-figure job as a plant manager a year ago.

The 46-year-old had moved his family from Florida two years ago so he could run New Millennium , a Salem steel plant. But the parent company closed two of its fi ve plants more than a year ago, and a manager with more seniority was brought in to do Corron’s job.

Unemployed for a year now — and with scant networking contacts in the region — Corron reached out to Back on the Path, a support group for job seekers that meets weekly at Cave Spring United Methodist Church.

Corron received plenty of encouragement and tips from the two-dozen meeting regulars. But, alas, no one at a recent meeting had any job news to share.

In fact, the group’s performance dovetailed perfectly with the latest Virginia Employment Commission records for new unemployment claims: During the week of Aug. 6-12,     544 people in the Roanoke metro region made initial claims, up almost 70 percent from the same week a year before.

Network power

The people who man Back on the Path are called “helpers.” In group parlance, they’re here to help the so-called “hikers” fi nd work, and to cheer them up when they don’t.

But in the 11 years since the group began meeting at the church, many helpers have found themselves wearing hikers’ shoes.
RelatedJobless statistics

From Aug. 6-12, 544 people in the Roanoke region made new unemployment claims -- a 70 percent increase over this time last year. In July, 3,197 people in the region received unemployment insurance. Among that group:

The lots are at LakeWatch Plantation in Franklin County and Waterside in Bedford County

Millions of dollars worth of property around Smith Mountain Lake could be headed to a new owner after a federal judge ended LakeWatch LLC's attempt to reorganize under Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

An order filed Tuesday in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Roanoke clears the way for possible repossession of the undeveloped sections of the LakeWatch Plantation development, Roanoke attorney Andrew Goldstein said Wednesday. Also affected are open lots at the Waterside development, according to court filings.

He told Morgan Lockett's attorney that he could renew the motion.

Morgan Elizabeth Ward Lockett was so abused by her husband that she may not have been able to form the intent to kill her son Aveion Lewis -- the intent necessary to sustain the first-degree murder charge against her, one of her attorneys said Wednesday.

Office hours will be extended to handle the backlog of licenses and ID card applications.

RICHMOND -- The Department of Motor Vehicles is expected to resume normal operations today, more than a week after a state computer meltdown left the agency unable to process driver's licenses at its customer service centers.

The former local news anchor, who went into public relations, will do two segments a month.

One of Roanoke's most familiar faces will soon return to the small screen.

Fox affiliate WFXR (Channel 21/27) announced Wednesday that John Carlin will return to its "Fox 21/27 Ten O'Clock News" program. He'll appear twice a month, every first and third Thursday, with a segment called "John Carlin's Virginia."

The judge gave the Department of Corrections 60 days to develop a regulation to meet constitutional requirements.

A jailhouse lawyer's complaint that he should have access to "Ulysses" and "Lady Chatterly's Lover" prompted a federal judge to cite Walt Whitman, Robert Heinlein and the Playboy magazine website Wednesday in a decision overturning the restrictions on Virginia inmates' reading materials.

The town hall meetings will cover electricity rates and planned federal greenhouse gas legislation.

Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli will be in Southwest Virginia today, holding two town hall meetings to discuss electricity rates and proposed federal legislation to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

Cuccinelli is scheduled to appear in Abingdon for a 9 a.m. meeting at Virginia Highlands Community College before traveling to Rocky Mount for a 1 p.m. meeting at the Franklin Center Lecture Hall. Local elected officials, business leaders and residents have been invited, according to the attorney general's office.

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