City projects $4.7M budget surplus despite COVID-19
While many in Richmond are struggling to pay their bills during the pandemic, City Hall surprisingly remains awash in cash.
School supplies, show giveaways start for ‘back to school’
As Richmond area students prepare for virtual learning this semester, they still will need school supplies and other items as online classes begin Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Collaboration helps erase graffiti at historic cemeteries
Nearly three weeks after historical African- American and Jewish cemeteries were tagged with graffiti, volunteers and other workers have cleaned the marks — “777” — that were spraypainted on headstones and entrances to Evergreen, East End, Barton Heights and Sir Moses Montefiore cemeteries, including the gravesite of noted businesswoman Maggie L. Walker.
Gray calls for probe of mayor’s use of $1.8M to remove Confederate statues
The fate of two Richmond-owned Confederate statues and one of Christopher Columbus remain on hold even as City Council has put in place a process to sell off 10 others.
Special General Assembly session kicks off amid rallies calling for reform
Will evictions be halted until April 30, 2021, as Richmond Democratic state Sen. Ghazala F. Hashmi has proposed?
Dems pull out big guns to energize virtual convention for Biden
Democrats launched the third day of their virtual national convention on Wednesday, with headliners broadening the focus from a multipart rebuke of President Trump to an energizing message of change in boosting former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential bid.
School day care?
Empty public school buildings may be central to city task force plan to help parents with day care as they return to work
Sharonda Robinson hoped against hope that Richmond Public Schools would reopen this fall so her sons, ages 6 and 8, could be in school taking classes while she went to work.
Payback? Questions raised about charges against Sen. Lucas
State Sen. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth, a key power broker and one of the highest ranking African-Americans in the General Assembly, has been charged with conspiracy to damage a Confederate monument during protests in Portsmouth that also led to a demonstrator being critically injured when the statue was knocked down.
Concern for fiancé in jail during pandemic
Re “3 inmates, 2 staffers at city jail test positive for COVID-19, numbers higher in Henrico,” Free Press July 23-25 edition:
Faith and Sen. Kamala Harris
Re “5 faith facts about VP pick Kamala Harris – a Black Baptist with Hindu family,” Free Press Aug. 13-15 edition:
Fitting name for new vice presidential candidate
Re “Magic moment,” “Biden-Harris” editorial and “5 faith facts about VP pick Kamala Harris – a Black Baptist with Hindu family,” Free Press Aug. 13-15 edition:
Laws as weapons of the unjust, by Oscar H. Blayton
We read in disbelief that a Black man who has already spent almost 23 years in a Louisiana prison for stealing a pair of garden clippers has now been denied any measure of mercy and must spend the rest of his life behind bars for his minor crime.
Black women leading, by Marc H. Morial
The selection of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to be the Democratic vice presidential nominee represents many “firsts” — the first Black woman to be nominated on a major party ticket. The first vice presidential candidate of South Asian descent. The first nominee to be an HBCU grad. More importantly, though, her candidacy is emblematic of this unprecedented moment of racial reckoning in America and the outsized role that Black women are playing in leading the nation through this period of crisis.
Virginia Supreme Court halts most evictions through Sept. 7
Thousands of families in Richmond and across the state are heaving a sigh of relief after a sharply divided Virginia Supreme Court temporarily halted local general district courts from issuing a writ of eviction for failure to pay rent — though not for other reasons like property damage.
City Electoral Board certifies 6 mayoral candidates, 22 for City Council and 19 for School Board
Incumbent Mayor Levar M. Stoney will have five opponents as he seeks a second term.
Rodney A. Robinson, national teacher of the year, returns to RPS in new role
Rodney A. Robinson, whose successful and inspiring work with students at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center propelled him into the national spotlight as the 2019 National Teacher of the Year, has been named a senior adviser for Richmond Public Schools.
Commission to ask Richmond museum to house Lee statue from U.S. Capitol
The Virginia Museum of History & Culture on Arthur Ashe Boulevard could become the new home for the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee that represents Virginia in the U.S. Capitol.
Hanover School Board turnaround orders Confederate signs down by Sept. 7
The Hanover County School Board did an abrupt and unexplained about-face Tuesday night and voted 6-1 to remove the signs from two schools named for Confederate leaders before Sept. 7.
