by Laurence Hammack | May 2, 2016 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
NATURAL BRIDGE — These dinosaurs obviously are not real. For one thing, they evolved. Four years after a fire forced Dinosaur Kingdom to close, the roadside amusement park is emerging from its temporary extinction. Like the old park, a new one under construction...
by Laurence Hammack | Oct 11, 2015 | Investigative reporting
When Roanoke-area health care providers make their worst mistakes, the results can get buried in two places: graveyards and out-of-town courthouses. Graveyards are where the victims of medical malpractice are buried; out-of-town courthouses are where the wrongful...
by Laurence Hammack | Jul 24, 2015 | Race relations
FAIRFIELD — Raymond Agnor’s gigantic Confederate battle flag, the size of a backyard swimming pool, hung limply from its 80-foot pole on a windless summer day. From its spot on Billboard Hill just off Interstate 81, the flag is easily visible to thousands...
by Laurence Hammack | May 22, 2015 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
NATURAL BRIDGE — Asha the elephant lumbered over to the edge of her pen, seemingly eager to greet visitors to the Natural Bridge Zoo. From deep within her 9,500-pound body came a low-pitched, rumbling sound. Zoo owner Karl Mogensen likened it to a cat’s purr. “Hear...
by Laurence Hammack | Dec 7, 2014 | Health care
For the fourth time this year, state officials are investigating a Roanoke County nursing home that has already been cited for 45 deficiencies – the most for any such facility in Virginia. Regulators with the Department of Health were at Richfield Recovery and...