Local Government

Dear Defenders of the Queen…

First of all, thank you all for your calls, letters and comments on this issue. We appreciate your feedback and look forward to continuing this discussion with you over the coming weeks. Over the last few days, several of you have commented about our decision not to speak with Darlene Burcham or members of City [...]

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Roanokers Should Not Have High Hopes in City Council

Note: “Mr. Big” is a current employee of the City of Roanoke. His name has been altered to protect his/her identity. Although there has been much publicity over the Queen Darlene article, Roanokers should not hold high hopes of anything changing anytime soon. While we view Darlene as the problem, the problem exists because of [...]

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The Conversation is Growing – Whose Side Are YOU On?

It’s been just 11 days since we launched this blog, but the dialogue is already beginning to spread. Just check out a few of these excerpts from conversations about our coverage taking place on other sites…

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A Citizen's Response: Don't Let City Council Off The Hook

The following letter was received from Roanoke City resident Robert R. Craig. An excellent article and well researched. I hope it will be a wake up call for the current City Council that it is time for Darlene to leave. Having said that, Darlene’s defense is she only did what the City Council authorized. For [...]

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Roanoke City employee speaks out

Note: “Mr. Big” is a current employee of the City of Roanoke. His name has been altered to protect his/her identity. Roanoke City Council has a bad habit of not doing their job. As with most government entities, there are politics involved, but in our case no one knows who is on the right and [...]

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It’s time to talk about it

It’s time to talk about it. Time to talk about what’s happened to a city that 50 years ago had 105,000 people and today has just over 92,000. A city that within the first decade of its existence shot from nothing to the fifth largest city in Virginia and became . . . the Magic [...]

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