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New book asks: What if Harry Potter attended an HBCU?
It all began with a post on Twitter. It was 2020 during the height of the pandemic and LaDarrion Williams was thinking about the lack of diversity in the fantasy genre. He proposed: “What if Harry Potter went to an HBCU in the South?”
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Schools prepare for partial solar eclipse in Richmond
It all happens Monday, April 8 when a total solar eclipse will span across the U.S., Mexico and Canada as the Moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, blocking sunlight.
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USDA updates rules for school meals that limit sugars
The nation’s school meals will get a makeover under new nutrition standards that limit added sugars for the first time, the U.S. Department of Agriculture an- nounced Wednesday. The final rule also trims sodium in students’ meals, although not by the 30% first proposed in 2023. And it con- tinues to allow flavored milks — such as chocolate milk — with less sugar, rather than adopting an option that would have offered only unflavored milk to the youngest kids. The aim is to improve nutrition and align with U.S. dietary guidelines in the program that provides breakfasts to more than 15 million students and lunches to nearly 30 million students every day at a cost of about $22.6 billion per year. “All of this is designed to ensure that students have quality meals and that we meet parents’ expectations,” Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told reporters. The limits on added sugars would be required in the 2025-2026 school year, starting with high-sugar foods such as cereal, yogurt and flavored milk. By the fall of 2027, added sugars in school meals would be limited to no more than 10% of the total calories per week for breakfasts and lunches, in addition to limits on sugar in specific products. New WIC rules include more money for fruits and veggies. They also expand food choices Officials had proposed to reduce sodium in school meals by as much as 30% over the next several years. But after receiving mixed public comments and a directive from Congress included in the fiscal year 2024 appropriations bill approved in March, the agency will reduce sodium levels allowed in breakfasts by 10% and in lunches by 15% by the 2027-2028 school year.
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Real emotion also defines March Madness
Baylor’s Jada Walker heard all the cheers along the way. Then, in the end, came the tears.
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Decades of foresight enable Virginia to process cargo diverted from maryland after bridge collapse
The Port of Virginia is taking on additional cargo shipments diverted from Baltimore, Md. after a massive ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge last month.
Staff member
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Personality: Joanna Suzanne Lee
Spotlight on City of Richmond’s Poet Laureate 2024-26
Joanna Suzanne Lee has been writing poetry since elementary school. Some of Ms. Lee’s schoolteachers encouraged her to write and think creatively, but it all started with her mom.
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Spring brings a mild warmup to the area
Richmond is starting to heat up, as spring finally brings warmer temperatures to the Metro Area. The week started with temperature highs in the 80s, with estimated peaks of 90 degrees on Monday and Thursday.
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Mayor Stoney drops Va. governor bid, will run for lieutenant governor
Mayor Levar Stoney announced Tuesday he is dropping his bid for Virginia governor in 2025, avoiding a nomination contest with U.S. Rep. Abigail Spanberger, and will run for lieutenant governor instead.
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In April, honor memories and seek reforms, by Thomas P. Kapsidelis
Spring ought to be a time of relief and promise. The days are longer and seemingly a bit sunnier, and the end of the school year is around the corner — and with it, the hopes of graduation days ahead.
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Granite Community Foundation unearths lost community legacy in South Side
Bridget Blake and Katrina Clarke are on a mission to preserve their family history and honor their ancestors buried in Green Cemetery located in the Granite community near what is now Stratford Hills in Richmond’s South Side.
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Mayoral candidates' platforms include equity, mental health and safe neighborhoods (Updated)
The list of candidates who hope to become Richmond’s next mayor continues to grow.
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City Council postpones budget adoption
Despite calls to increase funding for Richmond Public Schools and address capital improvement issues, Richmond City Council delayed adopting its proposed $2.9 billion 2025 budget until May 6.
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Virginia universities announce graduation dates, speakers
College graduations start throughout Virginia in the next two weeks, with thousands of students receiving their diplomas and taking their hard-earned knowledge out into the world.
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The new guy
In this edition of the Richmond Free Press I introduce a new managing editor who I think inaugurates an exciting new era for this publication and for its readers in Metropolitan Richmond, the Old Dominion and beyond.
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TikTok sues to block law that could ban the platform
TikTok and its Chinese parent company are challenging a new American law that would ban the popular video-sharing app in the U.S. unless it’s sold to an approved buyer, saying it unfairly singles out the platform and is an unprecedented attack on free speech.
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Convenience stores shut down Virginia Lottery sales in protest for skill games
Organizers say hundreds of stores participate
At Krunal Patel’s convenience store outside Richmond, a row of Queen of Virginia skill games has been powered off and turned around against a wall.
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A new deal
City pitches special bonds for stadium project
The Richmond city government is pushing the idea of using special revenue bonds to finance the new Diamond Stadium and the first phase of infrastructure work in the Diamond District.
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Discriminatory laws have driven Black voters from the polls, by Marc H. Morial
“If the United States wants to make good on its foundational claims of a democratic system of governance open to all citizens, it must find ways to close the racial turnout gap. Wider now than at any point in at least the past 16 years, the gap costs millions of votes from Americans of color all around the country. Perhaps most worrisome of all, the gap is growing most quickly in parts of the country that were previously covered under the pre-clearance regime of the 1965 Voting Rights Act until the disastrous Shelby County ruling.” – Brennan Center For Justice
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Richmond’s evolving restaurant scene sprawls out to the suburbs
The owner of Tarrant’s Cafe in Downtown Richmond is a 20-year veteran of the city’s food scene. She started out waiting tables – now she owns four Richmond area restaurants and is the CEO of RVA Hospitality.
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