Transcripts For WSLS WSLS 10 At 5 PM 20160218

Want to take the chance at the time. Numerous facebook posts regarding a rumored shooting caught the attention of many. Roanoke county police say this rumor began from students talking about a threat on a school bus and then spread to social media. Its why parent eric inmon like others kept his son, a senior at northside high school, home. His frustration stems from the School System not informing parents of this situation until the time kids were leaving for school. In fact, he says it was social media and wsls10 that first alerted him. Parents had a right to be afraid for their children. School shooting i know were taken seriously, even threats. But, the parents should have been notified at the point the school knew so we can make up our own minds on how to keep our children safe. The School Systems spokesperson tells us in light of todays unusual circumstances the superintendent has agreed to excuse all absences. To be informed, but did not want to create more panic. The schools spokeperson further says. This is a fine line they have to deal with. The district handles every incident on a case by case basis, and that their first concern is the safety of its students. A Community Meeting will be held monday night inside the high schools cafeteria at 7 pm to discuss todays events. A look at our exclusive timesaver traffic system shows. Interstate 81 north in Rockbridge County is shutdown due to a tractor Trailer Crash. A live look from the vdot traffic cam shows a tractor trailer thats flipped over on its side. This is just north of i64. State police say. The road will be closed for several hours. Route 11 at exit 191. Meanwhile. Drivers in wythe county. Also facing slow downs on i81 due to a tractor Trailer Crash mile marker 86. Take a look at this video our earlier today. Vdot estimates a sixmile back up. The north left lane and shoulder are closed. The crash shut down i81 around four this morning. An update on Power Outages following the president s day snow storm. Appalachian power serves the largest portion of our viewing area. Crews are still working to fix more than 100 outages in roanoke. At peak on tuesday. There were nearly 50 thousand customers across the region without power. Starting today. Parents in rocky mount wont have to drive far to their children. Carilion clinic opened up a Pediatric Clinic after the only pediatrician in town decided to retire over a year ago. Wsls 10s ananda rochita has more on the need this will fill for the area. Nat sound nora is almost four. Being a parent is a lot of work. Especially if your child gets sick. Nats this rash all over his little body. Day five were seeing whats going on. For about a year. Jennifer lata had to drive her kids to roanoke or westlake to see a pediatrician after the only one in town decided to retire. More than 3 thousand patients had to find another doctor. 30 34 Jennifer Lata parent i couldnt believe it. Not having anything close was very challenging. It was worrisome especially if they need treatment soon to make that long trip. Carilion decided to open up a Pediatric Clinic in rocky mount self is the pediatrician for the new office. 54 58 dr. Kathryn self pediatricia n i knew of the void in the community so i was excited when this opportunity came up to provide care in this area. While dr. Self is the only pediatrician in town. Its not expected to be that way for long. The chair of carilions department of pediatrics says. Theyre looking to expand. 1 121 16 Alice Ackerman chair of department of pediatrics my hope is that this practice will probably three pediatric providers at some point but i dont know how soon that will be were just going to add one at a time. Carilion is spreading the word about the new office through Marketing Efforts but plans to hold an open house for the community sometime in march in rocky mount. Ananda rochita wsls 10. People protesting the planned move of two historic slave structures in Botetourt County held a vigil at the site today to honor its history. Been fighting the plan since the county first announced it last october. She tried to get an injunction to prevent the county from moving them. But a judge denied it. Now lewis is determined to show shes not alone in her opposition to plans for future construction on the historic hill. Shirley lewis, slave descendant to put up shell buildings, to put up 3 storage buildings, its just actually, i feel, a slap in the face to the slaves and to all the descendants and to the citizens of botetourt, the commonwealth and america, this is american history. The county plans to move those buildings next week. Lewis says even if the buildings are uprooted. She will fight any construction on the hill. She says. Contains unmarked graves of her ancestors who worked as slaves on the greenfield preston the Campbell County republican committees lawsuit against two former board of supervisors candidates will go to trial october 12th. The case alleges. John ferguson and Travis Griffin made more than 875dollars worth of checks and credit card purchases on the ccrc account after their removal by the Republican Party of virginia for Party Election rules violations. In november 2015. Both candidates ran under the campbell first banner. Ferguson and griffin lost their campaigns against republican candidates. Turning now to economic news. Diversifying leading industries in virginia was the topic of discussion today. As virginia senator mark warner made his third stop of his five day tour through the commonwealth. Lynchburg city leaders met with him at Central Virginia Community College for a roundtable discussion about the local economy. Warner says its time virginia begins building a workforce for two growing Industries Systems focusing on drones and driverless vehicles. Mark warner unmanned systems, some of the best testing can be done right over at fort pickett. Weve gotten southside virginia areas where you can test unmanned vehicles in terms of driverless cars. This is a transformation that is going to take place all across america. Warner says 18 thousand cyber tech jobs are currently unfilled in the state with an average salary of 88thousand dollars per year. The Roanoke Regional Chamber of commerce is giving away 15 thousand dollars to help small, local businesses grow. The chamber is working with the Small Business Development Center to bring a National Program to the star city. The growth wheel course will begin in april. The program has about 12 vacancies. Startup and existing business that complete the course have the opportunity to become eligible to win a fivethousand dollar grant. Economic Development Director most jobs in this country are generated by Small Businesses not the big business. But, Small Businesses theres so many of them. We have over 3,000 businesses here in the city of roanoke. And job creation with two, three and four jobs eventually add up. Businesses enrolled in the course will need to attend nine of the 10 sessions to be considered for the grant money. The Salem Police Department is hosting an internet and social media safety course tonight. Parents are invited to learn how to monitor your childs Online Activity as well as maintain open discussions about dangers on apps and social media. The event starts at 6 30 at the salem public library. Virginia Tech Community members are looking for feedback from people who live in blacksburg during a town and gown meeting. Tonights meeting will focus on plans for the proposed northwest precinct. The Vice President of University Planning will introduce ideas that could include plans for a new business and University Commons building. Mark owczarksi virgi nia tech spokesperson those changes will obviously change campus but will also impact the town, so its really important as we do the planning process as we get ideas on to the table is that we share those ideas and to be open and transparent with the town is really one of our closest friends. The meeting starts at six in the great room at east amblar johnston hall. A healthcare expansion in the hill city. In wsls 10 health team. How centra plans to use a Building Energy efficiency doesnt pick favorites. It should apply to everyone. Im zach bacon with appalachian power. Im an Energy Efficiency coordinator here in virginia. To help our customers learn Energy Efficiency. This partnership with appalachian power allows us to touch more families in this region that really need it. woman when we first moved in, the house wasnt very livable. It had holes in the ceilings. It was very cold. They saved our house. announcer we may be a power company, but the true power in our communities this is a live look from our tower cam. Sunshine was out in full force on thursday, warming us up into the 40s. High pressure will be in control of our weather for one more day, allowing for us to be quiet and tranquil for one more day. Tonight fair skies and cold with lows in the middle 20s. Friday mostly sunny with highs in the middle 40s. Saturday will be partly sunny more sun east, more clouds west with highs in the lower 60s. I cant rule out the chance for a few lateday showers on saturday, but there will be a better chance for spotty showers on sunday. We turn mostly cloudy on sunday with highs in the lowtomid 60s. Monday will be continued mainly cloudy with scattered showers. It will not be as warm with highs in the middle 50s. 40 on tuesday, so another surge of cold air will come back into play soon. Tuesday will be cloudy with passing showers, but the rain could changeover to a mix at some point on tuesday. Beyond tuesday, things starts to get complicated. We will be eyeing another low pressure system coming from the southwest. And there are indications that the wedge could be in play for a little while as well on wednesday. Heres the issue will the low take a more inland track, thus bringing in warmer air with it, keeping the main precipitation type rain or will be the low become more coastal, allowing for colder air to sneak in with it, thus bringing us more snow . Or will it go in between giving us a mix . Thats what we have to watch for over the next several days. Any leftover precipitation will be gone by thursday afternoon. But it does look like will be in the 30s. Sunshine was out in full force on thursday, warming us up into the 40s. High pressure will be in control of our weather for one more day, allowing for us to be quiet and tranquil for one more day. Tonight fair skies and cold with lows in the middle 20s. Friday mostly sunny with highs in the middle 40s. Saturday will be partly sunny more sun east, more clouds west with highs in the lower 60s. I cant rule out the chance for a few lateday showers on saturday, but there will be a better chance for spotty any leftover precipitation will thank you jeff. These lil chickies and lil doggies are small, but theyre intense. Oh, yeah. Small but intense like my niece, hannah. Oh, yeah. And you, uh, take karate . Yeah she does. Show him how intense you are, hannah. Yah yah ah karate sounds oh, my. Hey yes now finish him. Bow to her, peter. Im not gonna bow to a. Bow to her, peter. gong big flavor in a little package. New lil chickies and lil doggies. And grab a burrito and drink for 3. 00 delivered in two minutes am. Centra health plans to renovate an empty building in lynchburg. The three Story Building on langhorne road has been vacant for about five years. Centra Officials Say once renovations are finished. The building will House Information Technology teams that handle Electronic Health records. The first phase of construction is expected to be complete at the end of april. The second and third phases should be finished in the summer. The first ever Roanoke Valley gives day is expected to bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities and nonprofits. Organizers have set a big goal for the Roanoke Valley to reach. 150thousand dollars in just 24hours for 120 participating organizations. Its very easy, you go to the and pick from a list of organizations and its right in front of you. You can do it in your pajamas when youre getting ready to go to bed or getting ready for work. Just take 5 minutes and do it. Its a very easy way to make a huge difference. You still have some time to decide how you want to donate your money. Roanoke valley gives begins just after midnight on march 16th. After the break. In tonights education matters. Learning. Not inside a classroom. But from miles away. Thats what technology being used in texas. Is allowing to be in class. Without really being there. Live music with my grandpa sharing is how ms. Thomas thirdgraders kick of their time together at Pond Springs Elementary School in texas. Z you want to share . See my beautiful baby cooper. Yaaayyyy even though Zyan Ogiste Hayes is 15 hundred miles away from her school, shes still in class, thanks to the kubi cart. It allows her to log on from her laptop in philadelphia where shes getting treatment for her third relapse with leukemia. A little bit sore. Zyans been gone about two months, but shes not missing a beat. Shes included in every discussion. Nats in group at desks with zyan right, left she can even move the screen, so she can see around the class. Nats ms. Thomas says the class doesnt focus on zyans leukemia. Jenna thomas, third grade teacher at pond springs elementary ;47 rather a challenge she has to go through, just like every student in our go through and if they havent gone through a life challenge, they will in their life. Zyan is grateful for this little ipad thats making a big difference in her life. Zyan ogiste hayes, learning with the kubi cart 1 02 if i didnt then id be absent and i wouldnt know what they were doing and id be sad because i would miss my class. Now, that she doesnt have to worry about missing out, she can focus on healing, and getting home. Nats on cam these robots are part of a statewide effort in texas to improve students educational needs. Working to help through innovation. Jenna zibton, wsls 10. Blue ridge crossroads eda we will deliver greater Economic Prosperity for our citizens, and thats really what its all about. Now at 5 30. The wildwood Commerce Park in Carroll County is almost ready to welcome businesses. How the park could help boost the economy. Plus. The martinsville Police Department holds a seminar on workplace safety. Why one local more confident after taking the course. Donald trump, r president ial candidate for a religious leader to question a persons faith is disgraceful. And. Donald trump responds to the popes recent comments about the president ial hopefuls faith. Good evening and thanks for joining us for wsls 10 at 5 30. Im john carlin. And im dawn jefferies. The wildwood Commerce Park in Carroll County is one step closer to welcoming in businesses. The 120 acre plot off interstate 77 just achieved site certification. Which means its ready for companies to start building. Wsls 10s bhayegaue explains how this could be a needed boost for that region. This field has been a labor of hope for seven years. Now. It has officially become site certified. Which means it is ready to be more than an open meadow in the valley. It is ready to be wildwood Commerce Park. Ken mcfayden, blue ridge crossroads eda its a demonstration to companies that we have taken the time and the energy and resources to develop the sight, to build utilities, to do due diligence