Radio station K92 collected cases of bottled water Tuesday. Photo by Matt Chittum | The Roanoke Times

Local efforts were getting started today to gather relief supplies for the Oklahoma communities devastated by a massive tornado Monday.

Radio station K92 on Virginia 419 in southwest Roanoke County has been collecting cases of bottled water today with the intention of sending it west.

Another radio station, Spirit FM, TV station WSLS and relief organization God’s Pit Crew will collect bottled water, packaged food and personal hygiene items at the Bonsack Walmart from noon to 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday.

You can text REDCROSS to 90999 and give $10 to American Red Cross Disaster Relief, donate online, or donate by phone at 1-800-RED CROSS.

The Salvation Army is also accepting donations. Donate online or text STORM to 80888 to contribute $10 to the Salvation Army’s relief efforts or make a donation by phone at 1-800-SAL-ARMY.

We’ll be adding more to this story as we learn of local relief efforts. Are we missing any? Please tell us in the comments below.

You can also find a more complete list of national efforts at USA Today.

While former senator Jim Webb was the official University of Virginia commencement speaker, comedian Stephen Colbert (“The Colbert Report”) delivered a Saturday speech during the school’s valedictorian exercises.

This Washington Post story offers a good summary of the speech, but we’ve pulled out a couple of gems to get the conversation started:

(At 13:50 on the video): “While traditional paths may seem harder to find, that also means that you may learn sooner than most generations the hard lesson that you must always make the path for yourself. There is no secret society out there that will tap you on the shoulder one night and show you the way. Because the true secret is your life will not be defined by the society that we have left you.”
…

“If you must find your own path, and we have left you no easy path, then decide now to choose the hard the path that leads to the life and the world that you want.”

What do you think?

Please share more links to inspiring/hilarious commencement addresses in the comments.

And don’t forget, you can catch up on our stories and galleries from graduations across Southwest Virginia on our Grads 2013 page.

Local officials hope to see more Virginia and North Carolina tourists visiting the Mill Mountain Star and other local sites. The Roanoke Times | File

Energized with a new brand and funding formula, the area’s tourism bureau plans to push the Roanoke Valley as a mini-vacation spot for people across Virginia and North Carolina.

That’s the first way to get the most people soonest, said Landon Howard, president of the Roanoke Valley Convention and Visitors Bureau.

The pitch is what Howard calls “a metro mountains mix,” located nearer to many North Carolina residents and to all Virginians than the big draw at Asheville, N.C.

That’s why the area’s new brand is “Virginia’s Blue Ridge,” Howard said, noting that the Blue Ridge Parkway is a world-renowned attraction.

“When people ask where you’re from and you say ‘Roanoke,’ they don’t know where that is,” Howard said. “When you say it’s in the Western Virginia mountains, the Blue Ridge, they say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a beautiful place.’ ”

READ THE REST OF THE STORY, which includes one idea to lure people who might otherwise zoom past on Interstate 81.

The comments below also show up in the story. More discussion is happening on our Facebook post.

A school-sponsored spring break trip to Europe by a group of Patrick Henry High School students has created questions and concern at home after parents learned about students drinking alcohol on the trip.

The report from last night’s school board meeting has generated a lively discussion, both in the comments at the bottom of the story (which are also showing up below) and on our Facebook page.

Editorial cartoon by Chris O’Brion

Update May 21: Handful of people at meeting protest 28.5% pay increase for Roanoke City Council

Update 2:50 p.m. May 13: Roanoke City Council votes to postpone a vote on the proposed pay increases until June 3.

Today’s the day Roanoke City Council takes up the issue of a big pay raise: 28.5 percent for council members and 15 percent for the mayor.

With the rest of city hall looking for a 2 percent increase and no final word yet on whether the city’s teachers will get an increase, the politics of this could be pretty interesting, notes reporter David Ress.

Take our poll:

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If you want to watch Roanoke City Council’s discussion and vote this afternoon, check out Blue Ridge Caucus for details.

The issue has been debated across several of our blogs, most intensely on columnist Dan Casey’s.

Here’s a quick summary to catch up:

Our news story explaining the proposed pay raises (and you can compare to other elected officials across the state): Roanoke council set to consider raises at meeting next week

The most comments (50+) can be found on this Dan Casey thread:  Column: Mayor & council pay raises — they’re baaaaack!

Reporter David Ress explains why the Roanoke council pay raise issue won’t end quickly

From the Roanoke Times editorial board: Roanoke City Council is making a huge mistake

Please jump into the issue in the comments below …

In today’s front-page story by reporter Laurence Hammack (@LaurenceHammack), we learned a number of treatments cost more at LewisGale Medical Center in Salem than at Carilion Roanoke Memorial Hospital, according to data released Wednesday by the federal government.

By making the prices publicly available, the government is hoping that providers who charge the most will be forced to reconsider their rates.

After reading the full story, we want to know:

Does this information change your health care choices? And what questions can we help answer?

Comments and questions are already popping up on the MedBeat blog and our Facebook page.

For ages now, we’ve encouraged online commenting on our roanoke.com blogs. We believe the best digital conversations happen around communities of interest, where commenters get to know each other and share their passion for food, sports, politics or the like.

But with the roanoke.com redesign, we wondered if we couldn’t keep the community vibe going while also allowing for conversations on stories that don’t fit neatly into our blog lineup. Could we resurrect story commenting, but manage it carefully and maintain our rules of engagement?

We’ve all seen comments run amok on other sites, with haters, shouters and trolls rendering the bottom of a story page the equivalent of a sewage-filled basement .  We’ve worked hard – and invested time – here to keep that crew out by pre-screening every comment posted on our site.

That will stay the case with our new story commenting, which we’re rolling out this week. You’ll find an example on today’s breaking story about the sentencing of former Franklin County sheriff’s deputy Jonathan Agee. Scroll to the bottom and you’ll see where you can post a comment. As with our blogs, you can post anonymously but need to sign in. You also may need to wait a bit before you see your comment approved by our editing team.

Thanks for your patience if you experience a delay. We hope you understand it’s a small price to pay for keeping roanoke.com a safe place for commenting.

So, how will this work every day? We’ll open story commenting on a few stories a day. If you’d like to suggest a thread, let us know by messaging onlineeditors@roanoke.com.

Let’s get some conversations going.

A platform for passengers, possibly covered, is being considered for waiting, boarding and disembarking.

A couple of stories trending this morning on roanoke.com (which were also on today’s front page):

Passenger rail service won’t reach Roanoke for an estimated three to four years, but work by engineers and consultants has lent the project new realism.

Unless there’s an unexpected glitch in funding the plan, “I don’t know anything that would hold it up now,” said Wayne Strickland, who directs the Roanoke Valley-Alleghany Regional Commission.

Read more.

Faisal Khan, who is also developing the Crystal Tower building downtown, plans to invest $7 million to redevelop the long-vacant former YMCA building on Church Avenue. File 2009

Roanoke is hoping the third time is lucky with the old YMCA building on Church Avenue — the city has found a developer who wants to renovate the 57-year-old landmark.

Faisal Khan, who is also developing the Crystal Tower building downtown, plans to build 6,000 square feet of commercial space and between 47 and 53 apartments in the old YMCA.

Read more.

Please add your comments and questions below.

Virginia Tech news has dominated our most-read story list since Sunday.

>> First up is reporter Tonia Moxley’s overview of the $1 billion building boom on the Blacksburg campus since 1999. See what will be transformed over the next decade.

>> Also on Sunday, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors voted to increase 2013-14 tuition and fees for all classes of students at a special meeting.

First-year Virginia resident students will pay 4.9 percent, or $532, more for tuition and fees in the coming academic year than their counterparts last year. Nonresident undergrads will pay 5 percent, or $1,296 over last year.

Room and board and other fees will also go up by varying degrees.

Find details in today’s story.

Your comments and questions about the building boom and rising education costs are encouraged below.

Anne “Mickey” Faville receives her master’s degree from Virginia Tech. The beloved fifth-grade teacher at Salem’s G.W. Carver Elementary School died March 7, 2000. Photo courtesy of the Faville family.

Today’s top story on roanoke.com is about a cold case that touches both the Roanoke and New River valleys.

More than a decade after a couple’s children accused their father of causing their mother’s unexpected death, Montgomery County investigators have charged the man with murder.

Mark Ward Faville Jr., 70, was arrested outside his Roanoke County home without incident Wednesday and charged in the March 7, 2000, death of his wife, Anne “Mickey” Michelle Faville, who was a fifth-grade teacher in Salem.

Mickey Faville started at G.W. Carver in 1983, teaching second grade. She soon moved to fifth grade, where former principal Trula Byington — now principal at West Salem Elementary School — said she made a lasting impression on her students.

“Out there today, there are many grown people who were influenced by her,” Byington said.

The Salem Educational Foundation and Alumni Association awards a scholarship in Mickey Faville’s name aimed at students who plan to attend a four-year college and study elementary education.

Read today’s story for more memories of Faville, and please share your own below.