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Metropolitan Business League founder Neverett Alexander Eggleston Jr. dies at age 90
Neverett Alexander Eggleston Jr., a well-known Jackson Ward entrepreneur and a founder of a Richmond trade association for Black businesses, has died.
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Ambulance charges may dramatically increase
$600 trips to medical centers could more than double
City Hall is pressuring the Richmond Ambulance Authority to nearly triple its charge for transporting patients to hospitals or other treatment centers based on a consulting firm’s recommendation, the Free Press has learned.
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Hope for healing
7 months after New York Times exposé, healthy equity advocates, Bon Secours report progress
Bon Secours Richmond is starting to receive positive feedback from advocates who had harshly criticized the hospital system for allegedly failing to re-invest income from a federal discount pricing program into low-income communities, most notably Richmond Community Hospital and low-income residents living nearby.
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Hanover case tests parental rights
The case of a Hanover County mother is providing a test of the proposition that parents matter — a currently popular Virginia political slogan.
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Pastor gets the boot
Parson departs amid Richmond Christian Center’s move to survive
More than a year after filing for bankruptcy, the Richmond Christian Center is gaining a fresh shot at survival after seizing financial power from founding pastor Stephen A. Parson Sr. The pastor, who launched RCC in his living room more than 31 years ago, is no longer a member of the church’s ruling Board of Trustees and has been stripped of control of the church’s bank account.
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Building for children
Independent group pushes hospital plan despite skeptics
Independent group pushes hospital plan despite skeptics
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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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Judge defends record
Embattled Judge Birdie Hairston Jamison defended her record on the Richmond General District Court and urged skeptical legislators to re-elect her to a new term.
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Joe down for count
Lawmakers call for his resignation
Is Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey an innocent man who took a plea deal because he feared a jury would convict him?
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Hammond moving quickly to shore up VSU
Dr. Pamela V. Hammond radiates energy and optimism in her new role as interim president of Virginia State University. “Every day there is something new to celebrate” she tells anyone who will listen.
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Tree not sole obstacle at Maggie Walker site
Too small and too congested with traffic. That reality is starting to clash with the vision of creating a $600,000 to $800,000 plaza and statue celebrating Maggie L. Walker at the intersection of Broad and Adams streets and Brook Road in Downtown.
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City election officials called on the carpet
The Virginia Department of Elections has a software upgrade that could have prevented voters in precincts split into two or more election districts from receiving the wrong ballots, the Free Press has learned. The finding comes at the same time the state Board of Elections, which oversees the department, has asked City of Richmond election officials to appear Jan. 8 before the state board to explain a series of problems that cropped up during the Nov. 3 election.
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Graduation rate in city inches up
Richmond awarded diplomas to 1,156 students in June, or 81.4 percent of the 1,421 students in the Class of 2015, new data from the Virginia Department of Education shows. The good news: That is Richmond’s best showing since the state began reporting systematic graduation results for each class in 2008.
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McAuliffe expands rights restoration
Eric Branch still owes the state government more than $9,000 in court costs and fees from a 1988 felony conviction that sent him to prison for nearly five years.
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Heat, water problems plague residents in new Highland Park apartment building
Ernest L. Fox has stopped showering since moving into the new Highland Park Senior Apartments, a former school building being converted into 77 residential apartments at East Brookland Park Boulevard and Second Avenue.
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Morrissey ahead in polls, but battles to keep law license
Attorney Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey appears to be riding high in his quest to become Richmond’s next mayor. But he also continues to be dogged by the sex scandal that landed him in jail in 2014 and a fresh effort to strip him of his law license. Mr. Morrissey, who was once the city’s chief prosecutor and now is a defense attorney, has emerged as the front-runner in the eight-way race to replace Mayor Dwight C. Jones, the first public poll of the race indicates.
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Hundreds of lives saved in the city
In Virginia, more people are dying from drug overdoes than from homicides or traffic accidents, data from state agencies show.
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Neck injury leads to time card investigation, shake-up at Richmond post office
Shekeera Greene injured her neck while delivering mail in late August. Now the letter carrier’s injury has led to a shake-up of the U.S. Postal Service in Richmond.
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Power moves
Uncertainty reigns as President-elect Trump prepares to take office
President-elect Donald Trump has jangled nerves with his unexpected Election Day victory and his appointment of a firebrand arch conservative, former Richmonder Steve Bannon, as his chief strategist.
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‘Tear those statues down’
Richmonders decry mayor’s plan to put Confederate statues ‘in context’
Ora Lomax is still fuming over Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s plans for dealing with the stone and bronze figures that have been defining symbols of Richmond for generations — the statues of Confederate defenders of slavery that punctuate Monument Avenue.