News From Roanoke.com

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

The traffic circle is the first in a series of similar projects for the city, county and Blacksburg.

After numerous construction delays, the Virginia Department of Transportation on Thursday afternoon opened a roundabout that will merge two streets in Southwest Roanoke County.

The addition of the county into the regional utility still requires the approval from the State Corporation Commission.

Franklin County was voted in as a full-fledged member Thursday of the Western Virginia Water Authority by the governing bodies that already made up the regional utility.

The Roanoke City Council, the boards of supervisors of Roanoke and Franklin counties and the water authority board unanimously approved Franklin County's membership. The membership will become official upon approval by the State Corporation Commission. It's unclear when the SCC will take up the issue.

The companies will report for federal duty Jan. 5 and will be sent to serve in Iraq.

Four hundred Virginia National Guard soldiers, including companies based in Bedford, Clifton Forge and Lexington, were called for active duty in Iraq on Thursday. Some New River Valley-based companies could also get the call.

Health officials are targeting efforts on the high-risk groups of kids and pregnant women.

The 2009 H1N1 flu vaccine continues to trickle into the region, and health department officials in the Roanoke and New River valleys are concentrating vaccination efforts on high-risk groups that include pregnant women and children between 6 months and 18 years old.

A traveling exhibit that stopped in Rocky Mount reflected on the many funeral traditions throughout history.

ROCKY MOUNT -- For some, a trip to a local funeral home Thursday wasn't to mark the death of a loved one, but to reflect on the history and tradition of funerals.

A tractor-trailer transporting "Reflections: The American Funeral" set up outside Flora Funeral Service for the day.

The suspect, a Virginia Tech graduate, was shot but survived at Fort Hood, Texas.

UPDATE (7:55 a.m.: Nov. 6, 2009): Death toll from Fort Hood shooting now at 13

Raymond Dillon was charged in connection with a series of break-ins over three months.

Roanoke County police have arrested a man in a string of break-ins over the past three months.

Detectives are investigating Raymond Matthew Dillon, 23, of Roanoke for at least seven burglaries in the area from Mount Pleasant to Yellow Mountain Road, said Lt. Chuck Mason.

The Fleming principal said she feels "vindicated" after nine days of testimony before the three-person panel.

William Fleming High School Principal Susan Willis said nine days of testimony from a dozen witnesses poked enough holes in a state Department of Education report to prove her innocence.

Dan and Gil Harrington are calling on volunteers to take part in a three-day search for their missing daughter.
Related Web site

• View more details on the "community search party"

Map and timeline

Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times

A former Star-Sentinel freelancer is accused of illegally obtaining e-mail from her boss.
Related Previous coverage

• People behind newspaper ad could face fines (Dec. 10, 2008)
• Wishneff indicted in ad dispute (Dec. 2, 2008)
• Wishneff ad to be probed by state (July 22, 2008)
• Special prosecutor to investigate attack ad (May 23, 2008)
• Wishneff may sue over coverage (May 9, 2008)
• Prosecutors to review paper's ad (May 8, 2008)
• Wishneff admits link to attack ad (May 7, 2008)
• Ad against candidates ran with false name (May 6, 2008)

A former writer for The Roanoke Star-Sentinel has been charged with illegally obtaining e-mails from her ex-boss, apparently in an effort to shed light on a controversial political ad that ran in the newspaper.

The city hopes to have a new health plan in place next year amid current rising costs.

Rising costs are compelling Salem to re-evaluate the health benefits it has long provided city and school system employees and retirees.

Its current health care system --which covers 100 percent of the monthly premiums for about 1,275 individuals -- costs the city $8.7 million a year, according to Finance Director Frank Turk.

Candidates can request recounts in two area elections decided by less than a percentage point.

Elections officials in Roanoke County certified Wednesday that Mike Altizer won the Vinton District seat on the Board of Supervisors by a mere 16 votes.

A Roanoke man was arrested Wednesday after he was released from a hospital where he was recovering from injuries he suffered while allegedly trying to rob a taxi driver.

William Lee Craft Jr., 46, was released by doctors at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital and was then charged by officers with attempted robbery, said Aisha Johnson, a police spokeswoman.

The former head of the transportation museum helped make his mark with the lavish events.

Bob Dills, the colorful former director of the Virginia Museum of Transportation who was often accompanied by his gregarious white Lhasa apso, Emmy, died last week in Charleston, S.C., according to friends.

Joshua Frazier was a co-defendent in the fatal shooting of James Stokes in May 2008.

A Roanoke man who took part in the shooting death of James Stokes last year was sentenced Wednesday to serve eight years in prison.

Under an agreement filed in Roanoke Circuit Court, Joshua M. Frazier entered an Alford plea to the charges of murder as a principle in the second degree and use of a firearm in a murder.

Voters were given hand sanitizer and cotton swabs in an effort to keep voting clean.

One person, one cotton swab.