Every Friday at noon, 82-year-old Renee Rucker arrives at Monument Terrace in downtown Lynchburg decked out in red, white and blue. Yesterday was no different. Under the scorching sun, Rucker and about 40 others lined the curb along Church Street to show their support for the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A judge ruled Wednesday that there was enough evidence in the case against a former Liberty University professor accused of sexual misconduct with a student to send the charges forward to a grand jury for consideration.

After a month of back-and-forth negotiations, the controversy between Liberty University and the college Democrat club reached a resolution Monday.

The 4000 block of Candlers Mountain Road will be closed between 7 p.m. Friday and noon Saturday for sewer line construction, according to an announcement from the city. The road, south of Liberty Mountain Drive, will be closed to all traffic, including emergency vehicles.

Liberty University administrators are negotiating terms for reinstating school recognition of the campus College Democrats club after receiving a proposal and apology, Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr. said Tuesday.

Liberty University’s College Democrats club was still working Friday on its response to Chancellor Jerry Falwell’s demand for a retraction and apology for statements club representatives made to news media last week after the university revoked its recognition of the club.

The Department of Environmental Quality again has proposed fining Liberty University for wetland and stream damage done during 2007 construction.

Lynchburg College and the greater local community today will celebrate the life of a man remembered for his peaceful nature and efforts to preserve a natural sanctuary for education.

The headline in our newspaper Friday morning — the very top headline, no less — told the world: “LU pulls plug on Democratic club.”

In terms of shock value, this was the equivalent of “VMI freshmen forced to do pushups” or “Taliban leaders oppose plans for new disco.” The mystery here is not that Liberty University decided to disassociate itself from the college’s Democratic club, but that the club was ever allowed to exist in the first place.

Leaders of the now-defunct Liberty University College Democrats group are reticent to accept Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr.’s latest proposal, which could allow college sponsorship of the group, albeit with a modified charter and different sponsor, group representatives said Saturday.

Liberty University officials insisted Friday that they revoked recognition of the College Democrats club for religious reasons and not political ones, and they weren’t trying to stifle free speech.

Despite apprehension that Liberty University’s 2009 commencement ceremony would be dampened by rain, Lynchburg’s overcast skies broke up enough to let plenty of sun through for graduates and guests at the school’s Williams Stadium on Saturday morning.

A Liberty University professor was charged with a sex-related crime and is no longer teaching at the University, authorities said Saturday.

In the mix of learning procedures for bedside nursing, Liberty University nursing professor Rosie Taylor-Lewis worried that students were losing out on a key component of health care — what caused the patient to need treatment?

While Liberty University’s commencement on May 9 is the earliest of major colleges in the area this year, the school is the last to announce a speaker.