Free Republic

<p>LEXINGTON, Va. — A small town in Virginia is trying to recover its image after The Red Hen restaurant famously refused to serve President Donald Trump’s spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders.</p> <p>The Roanoke Times reported Sunday that a regional tourism board is pulling together emergency funds to boost its digital marketing campaign.</p>

LEXINGTON — Rockbridge Regional Tourism approved a recovery plan to boost its marketing after The Red Hen restaurant controversy brought a slew of negative national media coverage this summer. The regional tourism board, with members from Lexington, Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, met with the Lexington City Council on Thursday for an update on tourism initiatives and numbers. The board had initially approved the recovery plan soon after news of The Red Hen controversy was spreading across the country. At the end of June, the restaurant’s owner declined to serve presidential press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders when she visited the...

The drive to Brownsburg, Virginia from my home is always a pleasant one. Driving south on Route 252 through the rolling hills and farmland of Augusta and Rockbridge Counties is like taking a trip back in time. Much of the landscape appears as it did 150 years ago. It is simply beautiful. But my most recent trip had an added benefit: I was headed to the home of Robert (Bob) J. Driver, Jr. to chat with him about his most recent book: The Confederate Soldiers of Rockbridge County, Virginia: A Roster . Driver’s circa 1795 home in the quaint village...

LEXINGTON — A former pastor charged with molesting a teenage boy from his church is asking that his upcoming trial be moved from Rockbridge County. Larry McKinley Clark’s attorney argued Tuesday that extensive publicity about the case would make it all but impossible to seat an impartial jury. Complicating the problem for Clark, attorney Dirk Padgett said, that news media coverage includes that of an earlier trial in which Clark was convicted of sexually abusing a second young parishioner. “I do think it raises it to a different level if [potential jurors] are aware of a conviction,” Padgett argued during...