Your week in the Star City,
in about ten minutes.
Local news, events, and stories from the Roanoke Valley — every Monday.
Local news, events, and stories from the Roanoke Valley — every Monday.
May 11, 2026
The Virginia Supreme Court ruled 4–3 Friday to strike down the April redistricting referendum, voiding the new map voters had approved. The 2024 maps stay for November. Rep. Ben Cline is back in his current 6th District against Beth Macy, and Tom Perriello is pivoting back to the 5th to face Rep. John McGuire. Plus: Roanoke City Schools is rezoning five elementary schools — first major rezoning in 50+ years, board vote May 26. Speed cameras coming to I-81 in Roanoke and Botetourt, $100 fines, work-zone enforcement. The city is wrestling with the Berglund Center's future as casino-anchored development faces unanimous legislative opposition. The Roanoke Valley uses less water than it did 20 years ago, which is the county's argument for Google's data center. And a Blacksburg nonprofit just abolished $51M in medical debt across Southwest Virginia. Events: Cardinal News 250 Trivia Tuesday, Boogie on the Mountain Wednesday, David Nail and Jackyl & Buckcherry Friday, and the Local Colors Festival Saturday at Elmwood Park. Closing with Texas Tavern's Cheesy Western making its debut at Hamburger America in Lower Manhattan.
I'm Swain. I was driving home after dropping off one of my kids, listening to a national news podcast, and I thought: why isn't there something like this for Roanoke? A quick weekly rundown of what's actually happening locally. The kind of thing I could listen to on the way to work and feel caught up.
I also find myself looking up events every single week. What's going on this weekend, where to take the kids. That information is scattered across a dozen websites and Facebook pages.
So I wanted to build it. I don't have the time or the talent to make a traditional podcast with real hosts, but I'm a software developer, so I built a pipeline instead. Every week, I go through the Roanoke Times, WDBJ, WSLS, Cardinal News, and local event calendars, pull out what matters, and write a script. The curation is human. The voices are AI, through ElevenLabs. Alex and Morgan aren't real people, but the stories are.
This is a small, independent project. Just local news, done weekly, for people who care about this place.
If it's useful to you, share it with one person in the valley. That's how this grows.
The voices you hear — Alex and Morgan — are generated using ElevenLabs text-to-speech. They aren't real people. But every story is researched and written by a real person who lives in the Roanoke Valley. The AI reads the script; it doesn't write it.
Each week, I review reporting from the Roanoke Times, WDBJ, WSLS, Cardinal News, and local event calendars. I pick the stories that matter, paraphrase the facts, cite the sources, and encourage listeners to support those outlets directly.
Email hello@theroanokeweekly.com. I read everything.