A Roanoke man claims sheriff’s deputies beat him in the city jail because of his burping.

Police say the body of a child found in the Smith Gap Landfill has been identified as that of a missing Roanoke boy.

The stepfather of a missing Roanoke toddler has been charged with felony child neglect.

Asbestos concerns are delaying the unveiling of a 1952 time capsule at the former Roanoke City Health Department office.

ROANOKE—In the brisk early-morning air, a few shouts among a crowd of more than 1,000 grew to an echoing cheer as a blue tour bus rolled into the Barnes & Noble parking lot yesterday. Stepping off the bus with her baby on her hip and her husband by her side, the former governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee beamed as she waved to the masses. “We love you, Sarah!“ people shouted.

Four men who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges in a plot to kidnap the wives of wealthy Roanoke-area men and hold them for ransom are going to prison.

Ukrop’s, which has talked recently with potential buyers, closed one of its two Williamsburg markets earlier this year. The company opened its Roanoke store in 2007.

A federal judge has ordered a psychiatric examination of an avowed white supremacist charged with threatening several people before deciding whether to release him on bond.

It could be more than two months before the Roanoke School Board determines whether a high school principal acted improperly regarding the Standards of Learning tests.

A Roanoke man has pleaded guilty to charges he threatened a San Francisco area transit policeman in an online posting. U.S. Attorney Julia Dudley said 47-year-old Jeffrey Lynn Weaver pleaded guilty yesterday to one count of sending a threatening communication. Prosecutors say Weaver threatened to kill the transit policeman and his family in a blog posting on radio host Alex Jones’ Infowars.com.

My grandmother’s clotheslines bisected a postage-stamp size backyard behind her 1920s bungalow in the shadow of Roanoke’s Mill Mountain. I’m told that I looked forward to laundry days as a child visiting her home. I’d watch her fill a large wicker basket with wet clothes out of the washer in the basement, then follow her outside to “help” hang them.

More than six months after the Richmond-based retailer made public its struggles in gaining sales and customers at its Roanoke store, executives say business hasn’t improved.

A certified nurse anesthetist has pleaded guilty to giving himself pain medication intended for patients at two Virginia hospitals. Alvin Earl Parkes admitted Thursday in U.S. District Court in Roanoke to two counts of obtaining controlled substances through fraud or deception. U.S. Attorney Julia C. Dudley said the 62-year-old Draper man diverted fentanyl prescribed to pregnant women and patients undergoing surgeries and such procedures as colonoscopies.

ROANOKE—Virginia officials are investigating possible irregularities in Standards of Learning testing at a Roanoke high school. Virginia Department of Education spokesman Charles Pyle said state officials received an anonymous tip Friday that some William Fleming High School students were being excluded from Algebra I testing. City school officials say the alleged exclusion may have involved students with disabilities.

Virginia Tech’s Carilion School of Medicine has received the preliminary accreditation it needed to begin recruiting students. The school, a joint project with the Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, plans to enroll its first class of 42 medical students in the fall of 2010. Preliminary accreditation by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education means the school meets national standards for the program leading to the doctor of medicine degree.