Mason Adams
Roanoke ReporterMason Adams reports stories from the Roanoke Valley.
Mason has covered Blue Ridge communities since 2001 and western Virginia since 2003. He was born and grew up in Clifton Forge, Virginia, and worked as a wildlife biologist before shifting into journalism by freelancing for an alt-weekly.
He hosts Inside Appalachia for West Virginia Public Broadcasting and writes the Southeast Energy News digest for Canary Media.
Mason lives with his family in Floyd County, Virginia.
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Last year, Roanoke city council members voted to eliminate single-family zoning and make it easier to build multi-family units. But after the vote became an issue during last fall's elections, members are taking another look. -
Because it offers a range of social services not found in other communities in western Virginia, Mayor Joe Cobb says Roanoke has long been a destination for people without housing. -
Roanoke's Melrose Plaza includes a grocery store, library branch, cafe, bank branch, wellness center, adult high school, and the soon-to-be relocated Harrison Museum of African American Culture. -
In Floyd, the June Bug Center provides after-school and summer programs for rural kids. But the Trump administration's budget cuts leave it facing an uncertain future. -
After months of preparation, Goodwill Industries of the Valleys will celebrate the grand opening of Melrose Plaza later this month. A grocery store and library branch already are located at the site in Northwest Roanoke – and beginning next month, Melrose Plaza will be home to a new high school for adults to complete their diplomas. -
The Trump administration has frozen $6 billion in Department of Education funding that affects a wide swath of programs. Roanoke's public school system will be especially hard hit because of its high rates of economically disadvantaged students and English learners. -
Roanoke County is sharing three options for the next stretch of Roanoke River Greenway, which would extend the greenway's terminus on the east side of Roanoke to a section near the Blue Ridge Parkway. -
Virginia's 71 free and charitable clinics are bracing for a surge in patients after the passage of the Republican budget bill. -
The main branch of the Roanoke city library is home to one of the longest-running library-based Dungeons & Dragons games in the country. -
Volunteer fire and EMS agencies across the U.S. are struggling to recruit and retain volunteers. The Botetourt County Department of Fire & EMS is no stranger to that struggle, so officials there are trying something new.
