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City tax amnesty application process now open
City Hall is now accepting applications for tax amnesty on real estate taxes and some businesses taxes.
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Obamacare still vital
Signature health care law remains intact despite GOP assaults
Don’t panic if you bought individual or family health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act marketplaces. The ACA, a.k.a. Obamacare, is struggling but still alive and will continue to operate, according to experts in the field, despite President Trump’s decision last week to cut off premium subsidies to insurance companies.
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Criminalizing poverty
Kalief Browder, a teenager who spent three harrowing years in a New York City jail on charges that eventually were dropped, took his own life as a result of the trauma he suffered.
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$200M loss spurs City Council to revise real estate tax abatement program
For at least two decades, Richmond has primed the redevelopment pump by allowing individuals and companies that improve aging houses, apartment buildings and commercial properties to pay reduced property taxes over 10 years without any restrictions.
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A record number of Americans can’t afford rent
Single mom Caitlyn Colbert watched as rent for her two-bedroom apartment doubled, then tripled and then quadrupled over a decade in Denver — to $3,374 from $750 last year.
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Anger grows in Virginia city where first-grader shot teacher
When a 6-year-old shot and wounded his first grade teacher in this shipbuilding city near Virginia’s coast, the community reacted with collective shock.
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West End crew take Seattle Seahawks to victory over Washington
The Seattle Seahawks are a West Coast team with a strong West End of Richmond influence.
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‘Richmond 34’ student sit-in commemorated with state marker
Elizabeth Johnson Rice was among 34 Virginia Union University students who were arrested after they staged a sit-in at Thalhimers department store in 1960 for its refusal to serve African-Americans in its restaurants.
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Abrams, Georgia Dems call midterms ‘unfinished business’
Four years ago, Georgia Democrats had a contested primary for governor because the party’s old guard didn’t believe in Stacey Abrams. She routed their alternative and, in a close general election loss, established herself as de facto party boss in a newfound battleground state.
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Following directions
Dear Reader, This edition of the Richmond Free Press begins our 28th year of publishing. Our first edition — January 16-18,1992 — hit the streets with no internet, no smart phones and very few media outlets that populate today’s media landscape.
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Mellody Hobson, a Black woman, joins Broncos ownership group
The Waltons, heirs to the Walmart fortune and America’s richest family, have won the bidding to purchase the Denver Broncos in the most expensive deal for a sports franchise anywhere in the world.
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Teaching civil rights during February is not critical race theory, by David W. Marshall
In 1976, President Gerald Ford officially recognized Black History Month by encouraging the nation to “seize the opportunity to honor the too-often neglected accomplishments of Black Americans in every area of endeavor throughout our history.”
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Approval looms for city’s revamped budget
Plan includes retiree bonuses, overtime pay for firefighters
Thousands of City Hall retirees will receive a one-time 5 percent bonus. And the city is setting up a fund to buy property for development.
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Settlement reached in South Side mobile home suit
The war over mobile homes in Richmond appears to have ended in a truce. Under a settlement approved Monday in federal court, the City of Richmond has agreed to modify an aggressive code enforcement program that led to the condemnation of dozens of mobile homes in the past three years, displacing mostly Latino families.
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Dr. Irving P. McPhail, president of St. Augustine’s University, dies from COVID-19 complications
Dr. Irving P. McPhail, president of St. Augustine’s University, died Thursday, Oct. 15, 2020, of complications from COVID-19, just three months after taking the helm of the historically Black university in Raleigh, N.C.
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RRHA prepares to launch home-buying initiative
Richmond is preparing to become the first place in the country to test a revamped federal regulation aimed toward making it easier for people who hold housing vouchers or live in public housing to buy homes. Describing it as a “groundbreaking and historic ini- tiative” that would build wealth for those who qualify, Steven B. Nesmith, the chief executive officer for the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority,
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Cook, Johnson lead VSU to big win over Johnson C. Smith
Trying to find just one man to replace quarterback Tarian Ayres would be difficult. So Virginia State University has located two for the assignment. Cordelral Cook and Niko Johnson have taken turns directing the Trojans to a 2-0 start heading into its Saturday, Sept. 16, bye week.
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Plans shape up for developments in Gilpin Court area
The Stallings family is preparing to go even bigger on developing its property in Gilpin Court, which lies north of Interstate 95 in Downtown and is best known for the public housing community.