Virginia On Demand for August 10, 2026

He says he'll be watching Virginia's employment and labor markets to see if those large companies hire enough workers to shift the numbers. I'm Michael Pope. The city of Roanoke is leveled a former hotel and now is clearing its foundation, all in an effort to reduce flooding and improve water quality. Mason Adams has this story. The site of the former Ramada Inn on Franklin Road is busy with construction equipment, demolishing the hotel's former foundation. Contractors are clearing the way to open up ore branch, a stream that emerges near a commercial area along U.S. 220 and flows through the Crystal Spring neighborhood before emptying into the Roanoke River. It's caused frequent flooding events over the years, particularly since shifting in 2012. Thomas Huntington Schubert is a civil engineer with the city's stormwater utility. The low bench area that we were looking at is going to be reforested with native trees, and then above that we'll have a really pretty pollinator meadow that'll have blooms. The next phase involves demolishing buildings that since 1997 have been occupied by Georgia's Flowers, a local business that's been operating for 45 years. In October, it's moving to a new location on Ogden Road near Tanglewood Mall. Owner George Clements has mixed feelings about seeing his flower business replaced with the flower meadow. It feels really good, but I'm going to be really sad to see our building knocked down. But I also see a great healing for this area, and I think it's going to be a fantastic look for people coming into Roanoke. The entire project cost about $7 million, including about a million and a half in local money and the rest coming from the state and federal government. In Roanoke, I'm Mason Adams. Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett will visit the University of Virginia next month. She'll discuss her new book, Listening to the Law, Reflections on the Court and Constitution September 17th at UVA's Colbrith Theater. She'll become the third justice to speak there in a year's time. Ketanji Brown Jackson Ketanji Brown Jackson spoke at UVA last September, and Chief Justice John Roberts accepted the Jefferson Medal in law last April. The University of Virginia is a financial supporter of Radio IQ. Virginia's Red Onion State Prison has become the first super maximum security prison to host an intensive reentry program. The programs intended to help inmates who are at risk of coming back to prison prepare for their return to society. Cardinal News reporter Elizabeth Beyer is covering this story. She spoke with Fred Eccles. Elizabeth, what does the intensive reentry program provide for inmates? So the goal of the program is to help inmates to develop problem-solving skills, healthy decision-making skills. Participants live in the same housing area, and inmates work both in groups and individually to learn problem-solving skills and to practice positive social interactions with their peers. So a DOC spokesperson told me that the re-entry program success will be measured by an inmate's engagement, their self-regulation, and other positive behaviors that they display while taking part of the program.

Which inmates are eligible for it? There are currently 20 inmates participating in the program at Red Onion. So those inmates scored moderate or high risk on the general recidivism scale of the correctional offender management profiling for alternative sanctions assessment. And that's a lot of words. People like to shorten that to Compass assessment. The folks who scored moderate to high risk on the compass assessment, and if they're within seven to 20 months of release, those 20 folks were selected for participation in the pilot program. Programs like this are in place in some minimum and moderate security prisons in Virginia. This is the first time it's been done at a maximum security prison. So what are the challenges at Red Onion that might not exist elsewhere? Red Onion is a Supermax prison, and a lot of the inmates at Red Onion are held in single occupancy cells for much of their time in custody. So that means that it's possible that their only social interaction is with correctional staff. Being social and being social in a positive manner is kind of like a muscle. And a lot of us learned this during the COVID pandemic lockdowns. If we don't use that muscle, it can atrophy. So... you know putting inmates in an environment where they're able to socialize more ahead of their release from red onion that could be critical for their reentry to society there will be people who are familiar with the name of red onion prison in a negative sense there have been incidents allegations at least of incidents and problems at red onion the state department of corrections did a long investigation so what were the circumstances there and what did the investigation find Yeah, so Red Onion made headlines in 2024 after reports of inmates sending themselves on fire or burning themselves with modified electronic devices were published by the Virginia Defender. The inmate's goal was reportedly to get transferred out of the prison because they said they had experienced abuse, neglect, racism, and retaliation from prison staff at Red Onion. Over the next year or so, the Department of Corrections conducted an investigation into allegations of the mistreatment. According to that report, most of those allegations were found to be, and I'm putting this in air quotes, unsubstantiated by the ombudsman team, according to a report by the Virginia Mercury. However, claims of racism and retaliation against inmates were deemed, and I'm putting this in air quotes, too, inconclusive. Elizabeth Beyer reports for cardinalnews.org. I'm Fred Eccles. Cardinal News is a non-profit online independent news organization covering Southwest and Southside, Virginia.

We're expecting hot and humid conditions with daily rain chances into the middle part of the week. Today, a mix of sun and clouds around the region. Some isolated showers and storms are possible. Little breezy and humid. Highs in the low 80s to mid-90s, it'll feel close to or in the triple digits as you head east of the Blue Ridge. A bit more cloud coverage tonight, possibly a shower rumble of thunder in the far southwest with lows in the mid-60s to 75 in Richmond and Danville. More clouds Tuesday, scattered showers and storms, especially by the afternoon and evening. Strongness of air storms are possible. A little breezy, too, highs in the low 80s to around 96 for Danville, again feeling hotter east of the mountains. Pretty cloudy Wednesday, another chance for showers and storms, especially along the western fringe of the state later in the day, breezy highs in the low 80s to low 90s across the region. Thanks for listening to Virginia On Demand. A little reminder, subscribe and tell your friends about it. For Radio IQ, I'm Jeff Bonser.