Golden State Warriors may be the team to beat in NBA finals
No Spurs. No Heat. No Lakers. No Celtics. No one can say “same ol’ same ol’” about this year’s NBA Conference Finals. The surviving Atlanta Hawks, Cleveland Cavaliers, Golden State Warriors and Houston Rockets have more recently represented the league’s have-nots than haves. None of the teams has won an NBA title since Houston in 1995, when current league MVP Stephen Curry was just 7 years old.
New VCU basketball recruit played for Egypt’s national team
Virginia Commonwealth University’s latest basketball signee hails from Alexandria. No, not Alexandria, Va., but Alexandria, Egypt. Ahmed Hamby Mohamed, who turns 22 in August, is a 6-foot-9, 245-pound transfer from Lee College in Baytown, Texas. He averaged 16.2 points and 10.7 rebounds for the junior college team this past winter. Before that, he signed with the University of Houston but never played there.
VUU golf team plans to come out swinging in 2016 season
Virginia Union University once dominated CIAA golf. E. Lee Coble is optimistic the Panthers will roar and soar again on the links. After arriving on the Lombardy Street campus last year with impeccable credentials, Coach Coble is beginning his second full season as head of VUU golf.
Garland Avenue Baptist honors 5 women
Five Richmond area women have received Living Legacy awards from Garland Avenue Baptist Church on North Side. The women were singled out for their impact on education, health and civic affairs in the city at the church’s Living Legacy Colloquium on May 16 with the theme “Women of Conscience: Acts of Faith.” NBC12 news anchor Sabrina Squire served as mistress of ceremonies at the program. The honorees are:
Blues legend B.B. King succumbs at 89
B.B. King believed that anyone could play the blues, and that “as long as people have problems, the blues can never die.” But no one could play the blues like this guitar master, who died Thursday, May 14, 2015, in this Nevada tourism and gambling center where he had long made his home and where he had been in hospice care. The music legend was 89.
Personality: Amory M. James
Spotlight on chef, manager of FeedMore Community Kitchen
Chef Amory M. James, food production manager of the FeedMore Community Kitchen, his staff and volunteers cooked up something extra special this week.
Jay Z, Beyoncé bailed out Baltimore protesters
Power couple Jay Z and Beyoncé have privately donated tens of thousands of dollars to help bail out of jail demonstrators arrested while protesting police brutality in Baltimore and Ferguson, Mo., according to the hip-hop mogul’s ghost writer. Activist Dream Hampton, who worked with Jay Z on his 2010 autobiography “Decoded,” also said the couple wrote a “huge check” to the “Black Lives Matter” movement.
GRTC seasonal service to Kings Dominion starts May 23
GRTC is again providing seasonal express services from Downtown and South Side to the Kings Dominion amusement park in Doswell. The daily service is scheduled to start Saturday, May 23, and will continue through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, according to GRTC officials.
$1M upgrade at Main Library in Downtown
Every day, dozens of people flood into the Main Library in Downtown to use public computers. They come to check emails, seek employment, do research and handle other activities in the online world, including paying bills and applying for visas.
CARE van drivers frustrated by poor scheduling, changing contracts
Frustrated riders who rely on GRTC’s CARE van service often blame the drivers for the spotty service that can make them miss or arrive late for doctors’ appointments, therapy, dialysis or other crucial appointments. But it turns out that the drivers of the CARE vans are just as frustrated.
Memorial Day holiday schedule
A list of closings and schedule changes for Memorial Day, Monday, May 25:
Walmart to cut greeters
Walmart “greeters” soon will be losing their jobs. After 35 years, the retail giant is eliminating the part-time positions reserved largely for retirees and disabled people. Greeters at Richmond area stores have been told their positions will end June 19.
Richmond NFL Hall of Famer donates $500,000 to Morgan State University
Morgan State University was good to Willie Lanier. Now Mr. Lanier is being good to Morgan State. The historically black university in Baltimore announced that Mr. Lanier has given a $500,000 gift to establish the Willie E. Lanier Sr. Endowed Lectureship in Business Ethics.
Attention deficit?
Busy school superintendent wants to teach college course
Busy school superintendent wants to teach college course
Richmonder recalls meeting legendary pitcher Satchel Paige
Thanks to Richmond Free Press reader Joe Brown for alerting and informing us that Satchel Paige’s legendary baseball career included an historic trip to Virginia’s capital city. In fact, the last time Paige hurled a horsehide in a competitive game just may have been at the old Parker Field, then home of the Richmond Braves — the AAA International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Diamond, home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, was built on the site.
Federal appeals court gives workers greater protection against racial harassment
A Maryland waitress who was fired after reporting that a manager twice called her “a porch monkey” has become a key figure in bolstering protections for workers who face racial harassment and abuse on the job. A federal appeals court in Richmond is using the civil rights lawsuit that Reya C. Boyer-Liberto filed against the resort hotel where she worked in 2010 to bolster efforts of workers who seek legal redress for a hostile workplace — even when their complaint involves only one or two incidents.
Henrico hires Petersburg deputies
Henrico County Sheriff Michael L. Wade spotted a personnel opportunity when he learned that Petersburg was closing its jail.
5th Street traffic detour expected through mid-August
A portion of North 5th Street was closed Wednesday to start the second phase of work on the bridges beside the Richmond Coliseum.
Kaine, McClenney speaking at Sunday services
A U.S. senator and a newly elected Richmond General District Court judge are scheduled to speak at separate Richmond church services Sunday, May 17.
Not just another hip-hop show
The crowd at Jackson Ward’s Gallery 5 was treated to more than a hip-hop concert last Friday as The Cheats Movement presented “Lights, Camera, Action: A Celebration of Hip-Hop Film and Music.” It was an evening for the senses, starting with local artists Goldin, O_Bey and others performing their own independently produced music as clips from classic hip-hop movies streamed along a gallery wall. Later, a panel of experts, including hip-hop legend Queen Lisa Lee of the Zulu Nation, who starred in the classic hip-hop films “Wild Style” and “Beat Street” in the early 1980s, and Emmy Award-winning director Jesse Vaughan, talked about the current state of the hip-hop film industry and the opportunities available for aspiring hip-hop artists to produce independent films.
