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City Council continues talks on school funding
Richmond City Council appears to be stuck between a rock and a hard place as it seeks to craft a balanced $709 million operating budget that would become effective July 1. On one side are passionate supporters of Richmond’s public schools who want the council to shift more local tax dollars into public education to avoid the potential shutdown of Armstrong High School and four elementary schools. Find the money, they say.
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Chief Durham refutes claims that smell of weed falsely being used for searches
Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham said he has sought to hold his department to high standards and to impose discipline when he finds officers fail to uphold them.
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The status quo is unacceptable
Editorials
Another weekend, another mass shooting — this time in Odessa, Texas, where a 36-year-old man, who had been fired from his oil services job earlier Saturday, initially shot a Texas state trooper during a routine traffic stop and then went on a 10-mile, hourlong shooting rampage, killing and wounding people in passing cars, in neighborhoods, at car dealerships and shopping plazas and killing a postal worker while hijacking her mail truck.
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Personality: Martinez Kelley
Spotlight on board chairman of Atlantic Outreach Group
More than a decade ago Martinez Kelley saw the beginnings of the Atlantic Outreach Group, which eventually led to his path in community service.
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Personality: Barbara S. Brown
Spotlight on Coming Together Virginia’s board chairwoman
Coming to the Table was founded in 2006 when a small group of descendants of slaves and slave holders met at a table in Harrisonburg with a goal of “Taking America Beyond the Legacy of Enslavement.”
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From the Free Press to the front office
From the Free Press to the front office St. Joe’s student-athlete flexes writing skills as summer news intern
Most journalists will tell you that nothing beats seeing your name in print or having something tangible that says to family, friends and future employers, “I did this.”
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HU’s Davion Warren among the state’s Division I top scorers
If one can imagine basketball as a track relay, Jermaine Marrow has handed the baton to Davion Warren at Hampton University.
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Revered dentist, Dr. James ‘Mac’ McCain Jr., dies at 85
Dr. James “Mac” McCain Jr. was often described as the “philanthropist” dentist. During his more than 40 years of practice in Church Hill, he gained a reputation for taking on patients who could not afford his services.
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Teen shootings raise questions about school attendance
Another shooting involving Richmond students has once again focused attention on the high level of truancy the city schools experience.
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Sculpture honors 1st Black president of U.S. college
The first Black president of an American college is being honored with a sculpture installed in the Vermont city where he was born in 1826.
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Mayor’s new term to focus on transforming city into ‘capital of compassion’
Mayor Levar M. Stoney promised to listen more, engage the community in developing initiatives and push for “justice and equity” as he was sworn in Monday for a second four-year term.
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Russell Wilson wins distinguished Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award
The Walter Payton NFL Man of the Year Award recognizes a player’s excellence on and off the field.
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Barrier-breaking golfer Lee Elder being honored by the Masters with scholarship
In a year marked by racial injustice, Augusta National announced Monday it would honor Lee Elder with two scholar- ships in his name at Paine College and an honorary tee shot next year for the first Black player in the Masters.
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After three other schools, J.J. Matthews Jr. picks NSU as his fourth – and hopefully final – stop
J.J. Matthews Jr. might be described as a basketball “globetrotter,” but minus any of the comical theater.
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Comfort Anderson-Miller, who charity helped thousands in Liberia, dies at 60
For 30 years, Chesterfield County resident Comfort Yjakpai Anderson-Miller led a charity that shipped essential supplies and educational materials to her native Liberia. The founder of the nationally recognized Robert and Mary Anderson Charitable Organization succumbed to cancer after a 16-month fight on Sunday, Dec. 26, 2021. She was 60.
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Grand jury clears officer who shot and killed Pharrell Williams’ cousin
A special grand jury found that a Virginia Beach police officer was justified in fatally shooting a man armed with a gun during a chaotic night of violence on the city’s oceanfront this spring, authorities said late last month.
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‘Truth Tellers’ chronicles careers of 24 Black women journalists since 1960
A new book calls attention to the Black women editors, columnists and reporters who have brought change since the Civil Rights Movement to the previously mostly male and mostly white newsrooms of mainstream news outlets.
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It’s for the culture
Just a reminder that the city’s 2023 edition of the Summer Festival of the Arts will wrap up this weekend with a really cool, free festival from 1 to 6 p.m. Saturday at the Dogwood Dell amphitheater in Byrd Park.
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Chesterfield focuses on suicide prevention
During September, which is National Suicide Prevention Month, Chesterfield County and the Chesterfield Suicide Awareness and Prevention Coalition are raising awareness about how to recognize and respond to signs of suicide in older adults.
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Get real about Middle East, by Clarence Page
Some of my friends who know more about Middle East affairs than I do caution me against having too much optimism. Life is complicated, they note, especially in Middle East politics.
