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No answers yet on why new Richmond schools costs to be higher than many other locales
Richmond is preparing to spend $140 million to build three new schools financed by an increase in the city’s meals tax — $30 million more than the school system first projected and far in excess of what most school divisions are paying for new buildings.
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Armstrong graduation figures better than initial report
Armstrong High School is providing best evidence that more seniors are graduating from Richmond Public Schools this year than the public could have expected given the pessimistic projections released three weeks ago by Superintendent Jason Kamras and his staff.
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Regional recycling program at risk with Chesterfield, others pulling out
Chesterfield County is poised to pull out of a regional curbside recycling program, which could require Richmond and Henrico County to boost their subsidies to maintain the program.
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Richmond barber helping rebuild lives, homes in Haiti
Kenneth Barney makes his living cutting hair. But in his spare time, the longtime Richmond barber is on a mission to build solid, safe houses in a community in Haiti where thousands make their homes in tiny ramshackle spaces.
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Epic fail
At least 280 Richmond Public Schools seniors won’t be graduating in June, RPS officials say
Hundreds of Richmond seniors will not be allowed to graduate in nearly three weeks because they have not met the state standards for a diploma.
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Local business owners recognized with inaugural Black Wall Street awards
Craig Watson saw opportunity when he couldn’t find any places in Richmond that offered a public venue for poets like him and best friend Dontronn Goode to share their work.
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The end of Easter on Parade?
Sunday might have been the final edition of Easter on Parade — at least as an organized event. Thousands of people turned out to stroll along four blocks of Monument Avenue on Easter afternoon, some in holiday finery and others with costumed pets. It’s a tradition that dates back at least 50 years and has been under the aegis of city-supported groups for at least 30 years.
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Councilman Hilbert opposes Salvation Army move to North Side
“I am firmly against this.” That’s the not-in-my-backyard response from 3rd District City Councilman Chris A. Hilbert’s to a Free Press report last week that the Salvation Army is applying for a special use permit to move its combination headquarters and homeless shelter from Downtown to a church building in Mr. Hilbert’s North Side district.
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Training camp fails to score finances, developments for city
After five football seasons, the Washington pro football team’s training camp at 2401 W. Leigh St. apparently is failing to generate enough income to pay off the cost of its construction.
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Richmond Police spent tax $ at Henrico County establishments for rally food
Will Richmond have to shell out another $570,000 if supporters of Confederate statues come back in six weeks to hold another rally in Richmond?
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Virginia NAACP steps up lobbying
Jesse Frierson is ensuring that the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP will have a strong, vocal presence at the General Assembly.
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VCU offers chance for jail inmates to ‘write way out’
Instead of spending time behind bars, a few inmates soon could serve their sentence in a college classroom. That’s the idea behind a new program that Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring and Virginia Commonwealth University are creating. It is dubbed “Writing Your Way Out.”
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St. Luke Building tagged with graffiti
The owner of the vacant St. Luke Building is furious after a brick annex attached to the historic Gilpin Court structure was vandalized with graffiti.
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Probe finds Wilder engaged in ‘nonconsensual sexual contact’ with 20-year-old student
Virginia Commonwealth University now finds itself in the embarrassing position of both supporting and attacking one of its highest paid and most prominent faculty members, L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor.
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City Council approves anti-litter, anti-conversion therapy resolutions
It took five months, but Richmond City Council is finally putting its anti-plastic stance on record.
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Court rules denomination can be sued over child sexual abuse by church employee
One of the nation’s largest Pentecostal denominations can be sued for failing to protect one of its child members from a pedophile who worked closely with the children in a member church, the Virginia Supreme Court has ruled.
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Hearing on Coliseum referendum petitions still up in the air
Richmond Circuit Court Chief Judge Joi Jeter Taylor so far has not set a new hearing to consider whether city Voter Registrar Kirk Showalter wrongly threw out more than 2,000 petition signatures and keeping a nonbinding advisory referendum on the Richmond Coliseum replacement project off the Nov. 5 ballot.
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Problems with paths, grass persist at Monroe Park
Add Monroe Park to the list of troubled projects for the city Department Public Works.
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State NAACP president dismissed, listening tour stopped in shake-up
The president of the Virginia State Conference NAACP was abruptly dismissed and the civil rights group’s statewide “Listening Tour” has been halted in changes announced last weekend by the state administrator.
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8 candidates vying for Agelasto’s City Council seat
And the race is on. Eight people successfully qualified to compete for the 5th District seat on Richmond City Council from which Councilman Parker C. Agelasto plans to resign on Nov. 30.
