RRHA, Feed More and the pandemic
We don’t get it. Yes, we understand there is a pandemic going on and many workers have been furloughed or sent home to help stop the spread of COVID-19. But we don’t understand why Damon E. Duncan, the short-timer CEO of the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, would stop the fresh food and grocery distribution program to the city’s public housing neighborhoods by Feed More, the area’s main food bank, at a time when people need help the most.
COVID-19 and inequities in health care system, by Kristen Clarke
In 1966, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Of all the forms of inequality, injustice in healthcare is the most shocking and inhumane.”
Righting the wrongs of the past
Kudos to Gov. Ralph S. Northam for signing common sense legislation that takes first steps in getting rid of the Confederate flotsam and jetsam that litters Virginia communities, undermines our psyches and devalues the lives of generations of enslaved people who were kept in bondage for the benefit of white supremacists.
GRTC subsidy in question
Instead of a route number, GRTC is now sending a message on its bus displays urging people to avoid riding unless the trip is necessary to get to work, a grocery store or to health care. The purpose: To help prevent the spread of coronavirus by reducing the number of people joy riding on buses now that fares have been eliminated.
Registration is needed for some to receive federal stimulus money
If you didn’t file taxes in 2018 and 2019, you can still get a $1,200 stimulus payment from the federal government. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has launched a new online tool that is accessible by computer or cell phone with internet access to allow people to register and receive the stimulus payment, it has been announced.
Telehealth grows during pandemic as safe way to confer with health professionals
Richmonder Melissa Hanson survived a vicious assault, but she still lives with the physical damage, mental scars and post-traumatic stress disorder. Like many people needing mental health therapy, Ms. Hanson found the pandemic disrupted her ability to meet with her caseworker three times a week and to get help with errands such as grocery shopping.
City voter registrar’s office may be moving to North Side
The headquarters for voting in Richmond soon could move out of City Hall.
RRHA shuts down food deliveries from Feed More
The Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority has cut off April food deliveries from the area’s largest food bank, Feed More, to needy families in public housing communities. The cutoff started last week after RRHA found that food deliverers were not wearing masks and other protective items or adhering to social distancing guidelines — keeping a 6-foot distance from other people.
City Council raises percentage of vehicle taxes residents must pay
As people struggle to pay their bills amid the pandemic, City Council has quietly approved a 1 percent increase in the tax that owners of vehicles garaged in Richmond must pay by Friday, June 5.
Sweeping changes signed into law by Gov. Northam
Democratic Gov. Ralph S. Northam has signed sweeping changes into state law that will allow people to vote up to 45 days before Election Day, remove jail time for possession of marijuana, impose new controls on gun sales and grant Richmond and other localities authority to remove Confederate statues from public property.
Washington NFL team drops its $500,000 annual fee to train in Richmond
It is still up in the air whether the Washington NFL football team will hold its annual summer training camp in Richmond or whether there will even be a football season, given the coronavirus pandemic.
City budget amendments reflect reduced revenue anticipated from pandemic impact
Richmond residents would not see any hikes in utility rates that would have added $5.56 a month to the average bill beginning July 1.
Nursing homes on front lines battling the coronavirus
Nursing homes are hot spots for the spreading coronavirus pandemic in Virginia, with 60 of the state’s 108 outbreaks occurring in long-term care facilities, state Health Department numbers show.
A bishop till the end
New Deliverance’s Gerald O. Glenn dies of COVID-19
Bishop Gerald Otis Glenn vowed to keep his Chesterfield County church open during the coronavirus pandemic “un- less I am in jail or in the hospital.” Just three weeks later, the respected leader of New Deliverance Evangelistic Church joined the list of people who died from the coronavirus.
COVID-19 testing to begin in high-risk areas of city
The Richmond City Health District plans to ramp up testing for coronavirus in neighborhoods that appear to be the most at risk — low-income areas of the city that are home to many African-Americans.
Popular Richmond musician Herbert Allen ‘Debo’ Dabney III dies at 68
Herbert Allen “Debo” Dabney III, a popular and beloved Richmond musician, died Thursday, April 9, 2020. He was 68.
UR president to present Facebook Live performance
Move over Andrea Bocelli and John Legend. University of Richmond President Ronald A. Crutcher is sharing his music with the world as well.
Faces of COVID-19
Virginians of all walks of life have been impacted by thecoronavirus,theairbornerespiratoryillnessthathas stricken more than 3,600 people in the Commonwealth and resulted in 75 deaths as of Wednesday. Their passing impacts their families and the larger communities in which they worked, volunteered, worshipped and lived. Here are some of their stories.
COVID-related furloughs push unemployment claims to new highs
Phillip Patterson has worked in various positions at the Mar- riott Hotel in Downtown for the past eight years – housekeeping, bellman, shuttle driver and maintenance engineer. Elton G. Christian Jr., a veteran cook, has been serving up savory barbecue, ribs and brisket at Pig and Brew, a restaurant in South Side, for the past two years. Both never expected to be laid off.
City Council readies for lower revenue projections
Ninth District Councilman Michael J. Jones, chair of City Council’s Finance and Economic Development Committee, esti- mates that projected Richmond revenues in the new fiscal year that will begin July 1 could shrink by $75 million to $100 million as a result of the coronavirus.
