by Laurence Hammack | Feb 18, 2018 | Investigative reporting
A construction company hired to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline worked on three similar projects that were cited by environmental regulators, who found mountainsides turned to muddy slopes and streams clogged with sediment. The three developers of the natural gas...
by Laurence Hammack | Aug 14, 2016 | Investigative reporting
Sixteen months before administrators began an internal review that found the Rockbridge Area Department of Social Services turned a blind eye to reports of child abuse and neglect, there were signs something was amiss. In October 2014, an official in the social...
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 | Oct 8, 2010 | Investigative reporting
As monthly electricity bills go, this one was a monster: $111,834.08. That was what the U.S. government owed in January to keep the lights and heat running in the Poff Federal Building in downtown Roanoke. The bill was an aberration for two reasons: It came in the...
by Laurence Hammack | Sep 14, 2008 | Investigative reporting
It is 9:30 a.m. on July 24, another Carilion day in small claims court. A computer printout tacked to a bulletin board outside Roanoke General District Court lists 123 cases in which Carilion Clinic is suing its former patients for unpaid medical bills. The docket...
by Laurence Hammack | Feb 24, 2008 | Investigative reporting
Confronted with evidence that he billed taxpayers twice for some of the nearly $15,000 he spent last year on meals and travel, Roanoke Councilman Alfred Dowe has resigned. “I humbly offer my resignation from Roanoke City Council effective today,” Dowe...