Jimmy LaRoue

The Virginia Gazette — Step inside Colonial Williamsburg’s conservation labs at Bruton Heights and you’ll find Leroy Graves working with the quiet confidence and delicate, well-worn hands that come from decades of restoring some of the most iconic and antique furniture in the United States. But he didn’t have an inclination toward furniture restoration when, at age 23 in 1967, he went to work at Colonial Williamsburg in the maintenance department.

The Virginia Gazette — Phase 2 of a $9.61 million update to the Jamestown Settlement museum gallery is on track to begin this fall. Peter Armstrong, senior director of museum operations and education at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, said the update would be finished by late spring 2019.

The Virginia Gazette — Students and teachers who can't get to Jamestown Settlement or the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown will, by this fall, have a new, interactive way to learn about early American history. The Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation will begin to offer a live, distance learning component for schools across the country beginning around November.

The Virginia Gazette — Paid admissions and revenues at both Jamestown Settlement and at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown took a dip in the first three months of 2018, but are still well above totals for both 2014 and 2015. That, as well as discussions about a four-year action plan, updates on capital and marketing projects and the future of museums and digital advertising, were among the topics addressed by the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation’s board of directors and trustees during their two-day joint meeting that wrapped up Thursday. They also heard from Colonial Williamsburg president and CEO Mitchell Reiss.

The Virginia Gazette — For a trio of Williamsburg-area players on the Richmond Black Widows women’s football team, the sport has always been in their DNA, but they had precious few outlets to pursue their passion.

The Virginia Gazette — A new children’s theme park based on Busch Gardens’ current Sesame Street offerings could be coming to the Williamsburg park in the next three years, according to planning documents and a questionnaire sent out by the park’s parent company and confirmed by a park official Friday.

The Virginia Gazette — Debbie McGaughey is not big on roller coasters, but after riding Busch Gardens’ newest virtual reality ride, Battle for Eire, Friday, she’s found her new park favorite. “Well, at first when I got in there, I was like, ‘Oh gosh, I really don’t do roller coasters,’ so I was a little afraid,” McGaughey said. “But once it got you going I was like, I can do this. It was really, really neat and the storyline was great, too.” McGaughey, 52, of Deep Creek, was with a group from the Virginia Beach-based Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Virginia, which was invited to take part in the opening ceremony to kick off the ride’s public debut.

The Virginia Gazette — The weather yo-yo has caused the Virginia Department of Transportation a few headaches when it comes to patching up potholes around the Historic Triangle, but it is hopeful for the arrival of warmer weather to allow for permanent fixes.

The Virginia Gazette — Busch Gardens’ Battle for Eire is nearly at hand. During a preview of the ride Friday, park officials expressed high hopes for what they said is a unique attraction that blends 360-degree virtual reality, a motion simulator and a fairy tale. The simulator has been used in the past by the park for its Europe in the Air and Corkscrew Hill attractions.

The Virginia Gazette — Williamsburg Police Chief Sean Dunn wants his cops to get out of their cars and engage more with residents. That’s part of a policing philosophy, known as community engaged policing, that Dunn wants to implement in Williamsburg. It’s why he’s hosted workshops on the subject during the past two months. The training has been open to officers from other law enforcement agencies around Virginia, but Dunn has made it a priority for all of the city’s police staff to receive it so they can forge better ties to residents.

The Virginia Gazette — Unlike studies on the American Revolution that focus on specific battles or military campaigns, the week-long spring break course for six Washington College students had a narrower focus — and a unique classroom. The immersion course — officially titled Material Culture of the American Revolution: Living History and Experimental Approaches — took on the material dimensions of the war, and the classroom was in the facilities, trades shops and activity areas of Colonial Williamsburg.

The Virginia Gazette — Colonial Williamsburg has expanded its offerings for children and families for 2018, while also adding programming in the Historic Area and in the Art Museums, even as they undergo a more than $40 million expansion.

The Virginia Gazette — Busch Gardens’ initiative to phase out season passes in favor of memberships may be unique among amusement parks, but it’s also about a simple thing — trying to increase repeat attendance among its most loyal visitors, according to an industry expert.

The Virginia Gazette — Following at-times testy exchanges during a two-and-a-half hour hearing Monday, a judge turned aside several motions from a James City County man accused of first degree murder in the death of his mother.

The Virginia Gazette — Following at-times testy exchanges during a two-and-a-half hour hearing Monday, a judge turned aside several motions from a James City County man accused of first degree murder in the death of his mother.

The Virginia Gazette — Few people, it seems, lack for a Johnny Mercer story. For more than an hour Thursday, his colleagues offered tributes, hugs, handshakes and gifts for the retiring York-Poquoson Sheriff’s Office deputy, who served for 49 years between the Newport News Police Department and in York County. And if you had an encounter with Mercer, chances are he kept a log of it.

The Virginia Gazette — If you like your virtual reality with a pint or two of Irish mythology, packaged inside the feel of a roller coaster, then you will enjoy the newest Busch Gardens attraction, which offers a journey unlike any other in the amusement park.

The Virginia Gazette — The messages on the Liberty Tree at the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown are thoughtful. “Freedom to do anything I put my mind to, not only being a girl but also being African American,” Chloe A. of Williamsburg wrote. They offer a point of view. “Liberty means respecting and protecting the rights of all people to live their lives in peace,” said Pam of Williamsburg. They repeat thoughts of key leaders or quote from key documents. “Give me liberty or give me death,” a Williamsburg resident quotes Patrick Henry. They support the military: “Freedom isn’t free; God bless our troops!,” wrote Jen from Newport News. Some are a variant of: “Liberty is freedom.” Some have a religious or faith orientation: “Freedom to speak freely, worship as you please and choice of one’s path as long as it doesn’t bring harm to another,” Sam from Yorktown wrote. Still others are humorous: “Liberty is being able to eat pizza rolls,” Travis from Williamsburg wrote. But they all have meaning, and all touch on the liberty theme — even the pizza comment — said Heather Hower, assistant director of outreach education and digital media services at the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation.

The Virginia Gazette — On a crisp morning at Jamestown Settlement, tour leader Joni Carlson was with a group of 21 fourth graders from Laurel Lane Elementary School, peppering them with questions and engaging them for the two-and-a-half hours they were together. Though unscripted throughout her time with the students, Carlson, in her 13th year as a tour guide, knows what points she needs to hit with them: reasons why the English wanted to colonize and settle in Jamestown, their search for raw materials, and the hardships settlers faced, among others. Not coincidentally, those are all concepts fourth-grade students are required to know for the history Standards of Learning test, which they’ll take later in the school year.

vbea.org — Vowing to put K-12 public education atop his budget priority list. Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and other state officials received a litany of suggestions on how to improve the working conditions of teachers and provide a better learning environment for children during a education roundtable Monday at Kellam High School.

The Daily Advance — T.J. Pendleton had never picked up a basketball prior to Saturday. Yet when he made his first basket on the regulation hoop inside Elizabeth City State’s Vaughan Center at the Walker Hoops Father & Son Basketball Camp, the 10-year-old beamed, waved his arms, and called out to his father, Troy Pendleton: “Did you see that?” Indeed, Troy Pendleton did. It was exactly the therapy Troy Pendleton needed after he buried his own father, Billy Pendleton, just the day before.

The Daily Advance — EDENTON — There’s a different cast of characters every season. Even within a season, the cast gets altered, but the end has remained the same for the Edenton Steamers since 2006: no Petitt Cup title. The latest in a line of strong seasons that ended short of a Cup happened Thursday in a 8-7 loss to Wilson, giving the Tobs a 2-0 sweep of the teams’ Coastal Plain League East Division semifinal series. For the ninth time in 11 seasons, Edenton reached the postseason by winning at least one of the two half-season championships, and in all 11 of those seasons finished with overall winning records.

The Daily Advance — HERTFORD — Geoff and Penny Byrd said that when NGA Tour pro Thomas Hay got a look at their house, and specifically, the room in which he would be staying, he was relieved. The previous week, Hay had slept in a dormitory-style bunk bed. So when he arrived in Hertford on Sunday around 10 p.m., the Canadian was tired and ready to get a night’s sleep.

jlaroue.wordpress.com — Still, Richard Marte and Ricky Carvajal, both from the Dominican Republic, and Julio Rosales of Venezuela, have been making a new home for themselves in Elizabeth City since arriving at the start of the spring semester. It's a first for the College of The Albemarle baseball program, and a new experience for the trio of players from Latin America who are now a part of it. The three, along with Andy Herrera of Miami, now rent a house together near the Elizabeth City COA campus, and are looking to further their education and baseball careers while acclimating to life in the U.S.