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Preston to challenge Dance for Senate seat
In a surprise move, Joseph E. Preston announced this week he would give up the seat he recently won in the House of Delegates and challenge freshman Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance in the16th Senate District that stretches from Richmond’s East End to the Petersburg area. Delegate Preston’s decision comes barely two months after he replaced Sen. Dance as the representative for the 63rd House District. It also appears fueled, in part, by a dispute he and Sen. Dance have over the choice of the first African-American judge for the Petersburg Circuit Court.
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Services sacrificed in council’s $ plan
Richmond Public Schools is on track to gain an extra $9 million to help meet critical needs in the coming year. Police officers and firefighters also are on track to gain bigger raises of roughly 2.5 percent to help reduce turnover in public safety.
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No charges filed against Wisconsin police officer in teen’s death
A Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot an unarmed biracial teenager in March, prompting several days of peaceful protests, will not be charged, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Officer Matt Kenny used justified lethal force in the March 6 shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.
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Church must boot Parson to clear bankruptcy
The future of an embattled South Side church may hinge on whether it can completely cut ties with its founding pastor. As part of a financial plan clearing the way for the once giant Richmond Christian Center to emerge from bankruptcy, the church had to agree to one stipulation — that Pastor Steven A. Parson Sr. “have no contact” with the worship center he founded in his living room more than 32 years ago.
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New VSU president shares vision, receives support at official introduction
Brimming with confidence and eager to get started, the new president of Virginia State University is promising to first listen to students, faculty and staff and then roll out a “strategic vision that will be bold and purposefully challenging.” Among other things, Dr. Makola M. Abdullah wants VSU to be known for providing “a quality education,” to invest in specialty academic areas that would make the university more attractive while continuing to be “an opportunity university” for students who might not be admitted elsewhere.
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Morrissey preps for trial that could be ‘career-ender’
On Friday, Dec. 12, Delegate Morrissey pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
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RRHA residents in ‘buy or move’ spot
Charlene C. Harris hoped to live out her years at 1600 Colorado Ave., the single-family brick cottage that she and her family have called home for 47 years. But now the retired 68-year-old state employee is being told she must either purchase the two-bedroom home from her landlord, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority, or face moving. “It’s a terrible situation,” she said. “RRHA has told me I have to put up $500 to begin the process and to get a mortgage by December. Otherwise, I would have to accept relocation.”
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Savings vs. service
City’s 2014 audit shows millions sent to rainy day fund despite critical needs
Is Mayor Dwight C. Jones saving too much money while starving City Hall of the monetary resources needed to provide services to Richmond residents?
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Morrissey fails to withdraw officially
Two weeks ago, attorney Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey told the Free Press and other news outlets he was ending his campaign for the state Senate because of a health issue.
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‘Why is this happening?’
Newborn baby taken from mother in hospital
Newborn baby taken from mother in hospital
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VSU, NSU have smallest freshman classes in years
Enrollment is continuing to retreat at Virginia’s two historically black public universities, Norfolk State and Virginia State. Both institutions apparently have admitted their smallest freshman classes in at least a decade, and total enrollment has declined to levels not seen in at least 15 years or longer.
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Senate race may prove crucial in chamber control
Richmond will be in the center of the high-profile political fight to replace retiring Republican state Sen. John Watkins in the General Assembly. Both major political parties are expected to go all out to capture the 10th Senate District seat that appears to be the key to control of the closely divided state Senate where Republicans now hold sway. The GOP already has selected its candidate, Glen H. Sturtevant Jr., an attorney and a member of the Richmond School Board since 2013.
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Legality of severance pay to ex-mayor’s appointees questioned
In November 2004, as Richmond City Hall prepared for the change to an elected mayor-council form of government and to abolish the city manager’s office, the outgoing City Council rushed to approve an ordinance that authorized the council or the mayor to give severance pay to appointees whose jobs were eliminated or who were terminated for non-criminal reasons.
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Election Day less than smooth for local voter
Eugene M. Price finally has been told his vote will count, six days after the Nov. 8 election. The 73-year-old Richmond auto mechanic said Monday he got a call from the city Voter Registrar’s Office telling him that the provisional ballot he cast was accepted and would be included in the city’s total vote after it was determined that he was properly registered to vote and that his name should have been on the voter rolls.
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‘When is enough enough?’
Slaying of Va. State Police Special Agent Michael T. Walter grips Mosby Court
At an April community meeting, residents of Mosby Court pleaded with Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham for a crackdown to end the violence in the section of the public housing community located off Accommodation Street in the East End.
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Mayor seeks to lease part of park to Chesterfield for county drinking water
Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney apparently is seeking to overturn a 16-year-old ban on development in a public park in South Side.
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Pay raise problems resolved
The salary snafu at City Hall has been resolved. Police officers and firefighters are to receive their delayed raises on Friday, Aug. 11, when the next city paychecks are issued, according to Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s press secretary, Jim Nolan.
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Bank business turns ugly for local man
Every two weeks like clockwork, Jeffrey Perry has deposited his paycheck at the Wells Fargo bank branch in Mechanicsville located a few blocks from his workplace.
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Back on the runway
Renée Lacy has been the modeling guru for thousands of children, teens and adults in the Richmond area and beyond. For 35 years, the bubbly, energetic woman operated a training center in Downtown where would-be models under her tutelage learned the ways of the runway.
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Mayor Stoney, city officials mulling options to reduce crime in public housing
The Mosby Court public housing community — particularly the area around Redd and Accommodation streets — could be considered the epicenter of Richmond’s spike in homicides.
