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About a quarter of the Blacksburg center is unoccupied, and major traffic-drivers remain absent.

| Jeff Sturgeon

jeff.sturgeon@roanoke.com, 381-1661

BLACKSBURG -- At First & Main one morning, women toted bags out of upscale clothing shops. Inside a sweet-smelling shop, a chocolatier poured truffles.

Jim Smith wants a development authority to finance a parking garage and water service at the site.

The owner of Slate Hill is re-branding the controversial development and said he's ready to start building, if he can get some assistance from Roanoke County.

The state is proposing to pay $6 million for a Rockbridge County wildlife and hunting area, but some say the price and problems outweigh the benefits.

RAPPS MILL -- Short Hills, a 10-mile stretch of steep, boulder-capped mountain in Rockbridge County where bears roam, is as inaccessible to most Virginians as any snowy Tibetan peak. But a plan now in the works would put the mountaintop into state hands, giving the public -- and hunters -- sudden access to thousands of rugged acres.

2008's recycling rates ranged from 48 percent in Salem to 13 percent for Botetourt County.

For every six-pack of beer or soda downed in the Roanoke region, two of the empty aluminum cans get tossed in a recycling bin and the other four wind up in the trash.

That's a simplistic way of looking at the area's recycling rate, which last year was 33.3 percent.

The National Adoption Day event in Roanoke County marked several new beginnings.

Robin Allen and the two young boys she and her husband fostered had been to court many times before.

The boys' birth mother had fought to keep them, and every time there was a court hearing, Allen feared the babies would be taken from her.

NORFOLK -- Gov. Tim Kaine has requested money from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and low-interest loans from the government to help people who were victims of last week's nor'easter.

Kaine asked for FEMA assistance to cover costs of damage to public infrastructure and debris removal in Chesapeake, Hampton, Newport News, Norfolk, Poquoson, Portsmouth, Virginia Beach and the counties of Halifax, Isle of Wight, King and Queen, Northampton and Surry, a governor's office statement said.

A Roanoke house fire that sent one person to the hospital Saturday was "intentionally set," an official said.

Crews were called to a house in the 1100 block of 12th Street Southeast about 8:30 a.m., spokeswoman Tiffany Bradbury said.

Enjoying the fall

n From top: Mckenzie Weddle, 4, helps make sweet potato butter. Mckenzie is the daughter of Audra and Doug Weddle of Floyd. Her grandparents Kirby and Irene Duncan of Indian Valley submitted the photo.

Montgomery County

What: School board forum

When: 7 p.m. Monday

Where: Christiansburg Middle School, 1205 Buffalo Drive N.W., Christiansburg

On the agenda: Introduction of the three superintendent candidates and a question-and-answer session with attendees.

The nonprofit gives children a safe place to visit with their noncustodial parents.

| Shawna Morrison

shawna.morrison@roanoke.com, 381-1665

Less than two years after Safe Haven Child Visitation Centers of the New River Valley opened the doors of its Pulaski site, the nonprofit has branched out to Christiansburg.

The expanded bus routes in town start Monday and mark the first major expansion of Blacksburg Transit.

| Sharla Bardin

sharla.bardin@roanoke.com, 381-1669

CHRISTIANSBURG -- The field trip isn't scheduled until next week, but the excitement is already present.

Landscape outfits are raking in profits since Roanoke no longer collects loose leaves for free.

Editor's note: Roanoke no longer removes loose leaves from curbside. As reported, the city still accepts bagged leaves, as does Roanoke County. Portions of this article originally gave a different impression. This online version has been updated from the original print story to correct the error.

Roanoke's public works crews no longer suck up loose leaves piled curbside.

Roanoke formally stepped into the social networking world Friday as the city launched a Twitter account.

Salem police have arrested a man and charged him with malicious wounding after an incident early Friday.

Stephen Lee McBride, 23, of Salem was arrested at his home in the 500 block of Roanoke Boulevard about 10:30 a.m.

A Lexington man who was struck by a tractor-trailer on Interstate 81 in Wythe County has died, police said.

Steven Michael Lecroy, 53, was walking along the northbound lanes of the highway in the rain about 9 p.m. Wednesday when he crossed into the path of an oncoming tractor-trailer, Virginia State Police said. The crash happened near mile marker 72.

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality is investigating the source of a gasoline leak that contaminated a small tributary of Carvin Creek in Roanoke County.

Roanoke County Fire and Rescue crews were called about 10 p.m. Thursday after several people reported a strong smell of gasoline, said Allen Linkenhoker, pollution response coordinator for the Roanoke office of the DEQ.

A list of endangered sites in the Roanoke region includes a number of locations that are or have recently been in use.

Psst! Some of your heritage may be vanishing.

A former Star-Sentinel writer is accused of illegally obtaining e-mails from the paper.

A former Roanoke Star-Sentinel writer pleaded not guilty Friday in federal court to a misdemeanor charge connected to an apparent attempt to document an election law violation.

Willow Louisa Rosenblatt, 39, of Roanoke is accused of the unauthorized access of a computer system engaged in interstate commerce, an unusual charge rarely seen in Roanoke's federal courts. Translated, the accusation is that after her employment as a freelance sports writer ended in the spring of 2008, she set the Star-Sentinel's e-mail system to forward messages to her at home, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sharon Burnham said. Star-Sentinel Publisher Stuart Revercomb had his personal e-mail forwarding to the paper, so that went to Rosenblatt as well, Burnham said.

The animals are more of a threat to livestock and pets than they are to humans, but residents are concerned nonetheless.

Coyotes are increasingly on the prowl in the expanding suburban Greenfield community of Botetourt County, but state game officials say there's little they can do but encourage residents to hunt down the animals.

Editor's note: Mill Lane will be closed Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, officials said. The dates were incorrect in print, and have been fixed in this online version.

Part of Mill Lane in Salem will be closed for three days next week while nearby railroad repairs are made.