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Woman says former executive who defrauded city also fooled her
Sharon B. Holmes is relieved that a retired senior executive in the Richmond Department of Public Works is going to prison for engineering a scheme that ripped off the department for $600,000.
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City’s new CAO
In her seven years of managing the City of Suffolk, Selena Cuffee-Glenn has garnered serious attention for turning the once nearly bankrupt city into a job magnet with a triple A bond rating. Mayor Dwight C. Jones hopes that she will be equally successful in Richmond.
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Former President Obama to speak at Sen. McCain’s funeral
Former Presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush will deliver eulogies Saturday at the funeral of U.S. Sen. John McCain, a former prisoner of war during Vietnan and six-term Republican senator from Arizona whose reputation as a maverick is causing a stir even after his death.
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Goldman has until Aug. 30 to show signatures on Coliseum referendum were wrongly rejected
Paul Goldman is refusing to give up on his effort to allow Richmond voters to weigh in on the huge and costly plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum.
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Personality: DaNika Neblett Robinson
Spotlight on the board chair of the James River Writers
In 2015, DaNika Neblett Robinson found a new path to literary success. At the suggestion of her writing mentor, Stacy Hawkins Adams, she attended the annual James River Writers conference, in hopes of finding the inspiration she needed for her work.
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Racial justice and democratically governed schools, by Kenya J. Gibson
I am writing in response to a letter the Richmond School Board received this spring from the Virginia Department of Education regarding the body’s ability to effectively govern. It is a letter that I believe should concern us all.
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Area congregations remain cautious as COVID-19 runs its course
This time a year ago, Richmond area houses of worship were loaded most weekends with church members praying, greeting and embracing friends and swapping thoughts about family, neighbors, work, school and retirement.
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Jason Kamras must resign
Photos of Shawn Jackson, smiling proudly as he accepts his diploma on the Altria Theater stage, are hard to look at knowing that just minutes later the 18-year old would lay outside the downtown theater gasping for breath before dying from gunshot wounds.
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Richmond native successfully pitches at Black Ambition
For Leslie Winston III, it was a case of the third time is the charm when his company, Monocle, was named HBCU Grand Prize Winner at the 3rd Annual Black Ambition Demo Day on Nov. 9 at Spring Studios in New York.
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Virginia lawmakers approve budget, but Gov. Youngkin warns that changes will be needed
Virginia lawmakers wrapped up their 60-day legislative session Saturday by approving a two-year budget that includes pay raises for teachers and state employees, increases for education funding and extends the state sales tax to cover digital services.
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Faith and family inspire local nursing student
With a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing, Erin Norwood is ready to help others — and set an example along the way.
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Tonsils, talent and newborns
Richmond Community Hospital holds a special place in the hearts of many, including Edwina Richmond, a retired college professor with deep family ties to the city. Born at the hospital 76 years ago, Ms. Richmond has fond memories of the care she received there, from getting her tonsils removed to witnessing the hospital’s integral role in the neighborhood’s welfare, Richmond Free Press reporter George Copeland Jr. reports in this week’s edition.
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Bedden to stay in Richmond
“Everyone should check your emails,” Richmond School Board member Jeffrey M. Bourne eagerly alerted his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon prior to a hastily called board budget meeting. The six other board members in attendance then quickly turned to their hand-held electronic devices and scrolled to an email sent to them by Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden at 5:07 p.m.
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Powered by faith and family, gospel queen Sheilah Belle triumphs over illnesses
Richmond gospel queen Sheilah Belle is “pressing forward” through the health challenges that have dogged her for six months.
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Washington NFL team drops racist name
The most polarizing name in North American professional sports is gone.
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Virginia expresses ‘profound regret’ for history of lynchings
Outlining a “dark and shameful chapter of American history,” state legislators unanimously passed resolutions to “acknowledge with profound regret the existence and acceptance of lynching” in Virginia, where more than 80 people — mostly African-American men — were killed by mobs in the decades after the Civil War.
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Special VCU council offers plan for human remains from old medical research
A proper burial in a historic African-American cemetery, recognition on the Virginia Commonwealth University medical campus and continued research.
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President Obama inspires Class of 2020, adroitly criticizes current leaders for mishandling pandemic crisis
Hours after former President Obama delivered two measured and inspiring na- tional commencement speeches to the Class of 2020 college and high school graduates last Saturday, social media lit up with comments of “Great speech, Mr. Obama. We miss you!” and “That’s what a president should be like. November 2020 can’t get here soon enough.”
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Henrico hotel pays workers with free lodging
An aging hotel in Henrico County has found a way to virtually eliminate wages. Instead of money, employees get a room in exchange for working 40 hours a week checking in guests, doing maintenance work, cleaning rooms or filling other needed roles.
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Frank Lloyd Wright synagogue continues 60 years later as work of art
Sixty years ago, just before the Jewish High Holy Days, members of a Conservative synagogue processed into their new sanctuary, marking a new era in their congregational life and in modern religious architecture.