News From Roanoke.com

School officials are helping the military even as they grapple with yet another gruesome link to Blacksburg.
Related roanoke.com/multimedia/forthood

• Continuing coverage of the Fort Hood shootings and the suspected shooter's Southwest Virginia ties

Guestbook

• Sign a guestbook established for the victims of the Fort Hood shootings

Continuous updates

• The latest: High school video of suspected Fort Hood shooter shows him joking with friends in Arabic (Nov. 7, 12:12 a.m.)

From The Roanoke Times

• Despite confusion, Fort Hood heroes did not hesitate during shooting
• Hasan: Social awkwardness followed him into adulthood
• Fort Hood shooting: The first day

Nidal M. Hasan

Age: 39

The university's endowment will not meet its target for 2012, the treasurer said.

BLACKSBURG -- While some sectors of the economy are bouncing back from deep recession, in the short term Virginia Tech's budget won't, university officials told the board of visitors on Sunday.

Similarly, the university's endowment cannot meet the hoped-for $700 million target set for 2012, university treasurer Ray Smoot said.

Map and timeline

Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times

Vintage trains took hundreds of people to their destinations in style.

One phenomenon you might notice while riding in a railroad passenger car: When people see windows on a train that's going by, a lot of them wave.

A teenager was killed while hunting Saturday, according to the Buena Vista Police Department.

Victor D. Clark, 15, was shot while hunting with Codee M. Clark, according to a news release. Clark, 21, of Lexington has been charged with involuntary manslaughter and recklessly handling a firearm.

Looking back on my childhood, leaves are my favorite memory of fall.

I don't remember the raking as being fun, but I did help my dad when I had to.

The fun would begin when my brothers and I would gather the smaller piles into one huge pile and jump into it. We would even jump off a swing to land on top of the pile.

The Roanoke art museum wasn't immune to the region's economic hardships but is looking forward to shaping its future with a new executive director.

The Taubman Museum of Art opened a year ago today amid visions of nearly 200,000 annual visitors walking through its front doors and igniting a major economic upswing in downtown Roanoke.

Truett Cathy will speak Tuesday at a Roanoke benefit banquet for Renewenation, a nonprofit focused on Christian education.

A Roanoke nonprofit that wants to provide tuition-free Christian education to children is banking on the founder of a well-known national fast food chain to help it raise funds.

Truett Cathy, the founder and chairman of Atlanta-based Chick-fil-A, will speak on Wednesday at a benefit banquet for Renewanation at the Hotel Roanoke & Conference Center.

Volunteers will continue a search of Charlottesville today.

CHARLOTTESVILLE The scene was idyllic -- green fields, white fences, sunshine, a breeze and such quiet that you could hear the hiss of shoes on dry grass.

A beautiful setting for what was a grim task: a search for anything to help tell the story of what happened to 20-year-old Morgan Harrington on the mid-October night the Roanoke County woman disappeared from outside a Metallica concert here.

A Virginia Military Institute freshman died Saturday after collapsing following a training event, according to a release from the school.

John Alexander Evans, a 19-year-old fourth-class cadet from Highland, Md., collapsed in his barracks room after completing a 10-mile road march with other members of the rat class.

H1N1 vaccines were available Saturday in Salem and will be offered today in Floyd.

An H1N1 flu shot clinic drew hundreds of people to a Salem medical office Saturday, with dozens of people lined up in the 36-degree morning chill when the clinic opened at 8.

Valleys remember little about shooting suspect

Eric Brady | The Roanoke Times

The volunteer effort to find a missing Virginia Tech student resumes this morning in Charlottesville.

CHARLOTTESVILLE -- A massive search by 360 volunteers Friday apparently turned up no new leads in the disappearance of Virginia Tech student Morgan Harrington, but organizers said they will return to the job today and Sunday.

FORT HOOD, Texas -- Pfc. Marquest Smith, on his way to Afghanistan in January, was completing routine paperwork about a bee-sting allergy when the sounds erupted.

A musical performed by young thespians centers around adoption themes.

It's not central to the actor's craft to share traits with his character. After all, many of the great Shakespearean roles require killing another person.

But consider Anette Lloyd, the 26-year-old who plays the only adult in the local production of "They Chose Me!" a musical in which 10- to 19-year-olds represent adopted children telling their stories. Lloyd was adopted as a child, and she plays a central role in the play that opened Thursday at William Fleming High School.

Former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair answered tough questions Friday in Lexington.

LEXINGTON -- Burr Datz wanted to hear a full-blown confession.

Datz, a Washington and Lee University leadership development professor, sat in the last row of the college's Stackhouse Theater, waiting for Jayson Blair, disgraced former New York Times reporter and the night's featured speaker, to deliver.

The animal crashed through a storefront and then back out again before dodging traffic.
Video: Catching up with the deer

Video by Jordan Fifer | The Roanoke Times

Prosecutors reduced the charge against Marquise Daye to second-degree murder.

A Roanoke Circuit Court judge on Friday afternoon convicted a 17-year-old of killing another teenager.

Marquise Terrel Daye is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 3 for fatally shooting Gregory Grant, 15.

The suspect, a Virginia Tech graduate and one-time Vinton resident, was shot but survived at Fort Hood, Texas.

Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of shooting 12 people to death and wounding 31 others at Fort Hood, Texas, on Thursday, was the son of Roanoke merchants and restaurateurs, lived in Vinton and graduated from Virginia Tech.

Organizers say as many as 1,000 could turn out to search for the missing Virginia Tech student.
Related Web site

• View more details on the "community search party"

Map and timeline

Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times