by Laurence Hammack | Jan 31, 2010 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
On a raw and rainy Sunday afternoon, the regulars at Charbel’s Sports Grill found a safe haven to shoot pool, drink beer and watch the NFL championship games on television. And to smoke, despite a new law against it. Two months after Virginia prohibited smoking...
by Laurence Hammack | Jan 27, 2008 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
With a bleak winter sky as the only roof over her head, Sandra Coates took shelter Thursday afternoon on a sofa in the downtown Roanoke library. She agreed to put down her book long enough to answer some questions from Ricardo Valdivieso, a case manager for the...
by Laurence Hammack | Mar 29, 2007 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
Standing at the podium in a Roanoke courtroom, Terry Grimes was in the midst of arguing a fine point of the law when he was startled by the dog sniffing at his pants leg. Your Honor, Grimes told Judge James Turk, there’s a dog in the courtroom. Yes, the judge...
by Laurence Hammack | Sep 8, 2002 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
9 a.m., Sept. 11, 2001: Eileen Kennedy arrives at a beauty salon near her Smith Mountain Lake home for a manicure. The news is on. As soon as Kennedy fathoms the fact that an airliner has struck the north tower of the World Trade Center, she thinks of her son. Tom is...
by Laurence Hammack | May 6, 2002 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
HURLEY — Standing on a carpet of mud, Patsy Stevens measured her losses by the brown line that ran around her living room walls. The line, about 4 1/2 feet from the floor, marked the height of the floodwaters that invaded her double-wide mobile home. Everything...
by Laurence Hammack | Aug 1, 1998 | Miscellaneous (mostly animals)
Sam was in a jam, the kind of predicament that can happen innocently enough to a 2-year-old and then follow him for the rest of his life. On a trip Friday afternoon to the Mill Mountain Star, Sam Kinsey checked out the view by sticking his head through the metal slats...