Roanoke police officers show restraint and professionalism
A job well done for Roanoke Police Department officers. Having worked with local and state police departments in the past, I have seen innumerable occasions when our police officers have shown great levels of patience and restraint in circumstances when deadly force could have been used without batting an eye. This just shows what police officers endure regularly for the safety you and I take for granted. So the next time you encounter a police officer and maybe they’re not as friendly as you think they should be, remember they don’t know whether you are the next person to pull a gun and shoot them or not.
Oops back behind bars
Photo from WDBJ7
Oops the errant snow monkey is officially captured according to this story by The Roanoke Times. He was spotted by a resident of the Garden City area behind her home in the Mill Mountain Estates neighborhood, about one mile from the zoo. After about two hours of following the monkey through the trees, the zoo staff and Roanoke City animal control officers tranquilized Oops and returned him home to his cage. The monkey will be quarantined for about thirty days to make sure it didn’t contract any diseases during its weeklong sojourn in the woods of Mill Mountain.
A week just doesn’t seem like enough!
Update: Oops spotted monkeying around behind hospital
As a followup to my previous story on Mill Mountain Zoo’s errant monkey, Oops has been spotted foraging behind Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital. Patients and staff watched the Japanese Macaque in the trees on the side of Mill Mountain before the zoo staff arrived with bananas and binoculars. Oops promptly disappeared again.
Crazy snow monkey! Someone should adopt him!
On a whim, I searched to see how far this story has gone, the AP picked it up and it has been reported in–
- British Columbia, Canada
- Washington, DC
- Cayman Islands
- Cleveland, OH
- India
- South Africa
- Connecticut
- and many more places!
Monkey on the lam in Roanoke
Oops! A monkey escaped from the Mill Mountain Zoo yesterday. Be on the lookout for a 20-pound Japanese macaque on Mill Mountain or in the vicinity. (In all seriousness though…the monkey can be dangerous if it feels threatened, so don’t try to capture it, call the zoo or authorities.)
craigslist comes to Roanoke and Blacksburg
For those who haven’t heard, Roanoke and Blacksburg now have their own craigslist!
Roanoke County hosts drive-in movies
The Roanoke County Parks Department will be hosting drive-in movies this summer in three of the county’s larger parks. Walrond Park, Starkey Park and Vinyard Park will play host to “Shark Tale” (June 24), “Shrek” (July 29), and “E.T.” (August 26) respectively. You can find more information on this great family activity hosted by Roanoke County at the Roanoke County Parks website.
NewVa Connects
What in the world is NewVa Connects?
A. newvaCONNECTS is a new organization devoted to uniting young professionals in the Roanoke region.
For all you 20 and 30-something professionals out there, Roanoke now has a professional organization with you in mind. Check it out at – http://www.newvaconnects.org/. There will be a roundtable discussion on Tuesday, June 27, 2006 at 6pm at the Roanoke Regional Chamber of Commerce for those interested.
It’s about time too, I’m looking forward to the benefits this can bring the Roanoke Valley and NewVa region.
Furry creatures beware
It’s been a harrowing few days for the fauna of the Roanoke Valley. Recently I myself have inadvertently (and with much regret) run over with my car a bird and a rabbit. The bird I hit traveling down I-581 in Roanoke City and the poor rabbit ran underneath my car while traveling in the Hollins area. I never saw it, my wife pointed it out. Sad. I also witnessed yesterday a squirrel get run over by someone else and I have noted more than the usual number of dead animals on the side of the road, including a beagle on I-81 heading back to Roanoke from Christiansburg yesterday.
My conclusion- there must be some sort of El Niño effect over the Roanoke Valley now causing mass confusion and hysteria amongst the animals. If you’re furry and you crawl around on four legs best take shelter for a few days until this is over!
Old Southwest Roanoke visitor
The folks in Old Southwest Roanoke had an unusual visitor today! Check out the black bear story and photos of the chase through Old Southwest!
Fly from Roanoke to Orlando on Allegiant
Local TV stations and the Roanoke Times have reported on the new airline at the Roanoke Regional Airport, Allegiant Air, who is offering roundtrip airfares from Roanoke to Orlando. What seemed like a good deal when I was watching the news story though started to lose it’s luster this morning when I watched the TimesCast math lesson from Andrew Kantor.
Apparently Allegiant Air flies you to an airport on the other side of Orlando away from all the attractions. After adding in all the costs to get where you’re going, it’s still cheaper to fly out of Lynchburg Regional Airport. Thanks for the math lesson Andrew!
Update: Baby Ian
Andrew Kantor of The Roanoke Times wrote a great article on the local bloggers’ effort to help raise funds and collect used cell phones and inkjet cartridges for Baby Ian H. I had perviously blogged about it here and have a permanent page here.
The Floyd Press also picked up the story about the community’s effort to help Ian here.
Salem & Franklin County Schools receive A+
The Salem and Franklin County school systems were named academic outperformers by Standard & Poor’s School Evaluation Services.
According to The Roanoke Times 130 school districts were examined in Virginia with 12 districts receiving top marks.
You can read the report for Virginia schools here [pdf].
