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4th Circuit renders decision in battle over Md. cross
For 92 years, a four-story-tall cross has stood at a major intersection in Prince George’s County, Md., paying silent tribute to members of the American military who died fighting in World War I. Now, in the latest church-state battle over public memorials, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond has ruled that the massive memorial violates the U.S. Constitution’s ban on the government imposition of a religious faith.
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Black church tradition survives Georgia’s voting changes
Black church leaders and activists in Georgia rallied Sunday in a push to get congregants to vote — a long-standing tradition known as “souls to the polls” that is taking on greater meaning this year amid new obstacles to casting a ballot in the midterm elections.
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Where is the love?
“Reopen With Love 2.0” was the mantra being espoused by Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras as thousands of students returned to the classroom last week for in-person learning for the first time since March 2020 and the onset of the pandemic.
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JM now has ‘Moore’ to cheer for
A year ago, Ashaun Moore could do nothing but watch as John Marshall High rolled to the State Class 2 basketball title.
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Stormwater trouble
Stormwater trouble A year ago, Mayor Dwight C. Jones told the Free Press he would work with Richmond Public Schools to resolve its then unpaid $1.1 million bill for stormwater control.
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At-risk mothers
Remember Shanesha Taylor? She’s the Arizona mother who was arrested for leaving her children in the car while she went to a job interview.
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Gov. McAuliffe announces criminal justice reform
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is proposing changes in state laws that could help reduce the number of people who end up becoming unemployed or who are sent to prison.
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16 to graduate from police academy
The Richmond Police Department is gaining some badly needed reinforcements. Sixteen recruits are to graduate from the training academy this week and immediately join the ranks of the department. They are the first of more than 70 new officers who are expected to join the city police force in the next nine months. “When these recruits entered training July 1, I said that graduation day couldn’t come fast enough. Well, that day has finally arrived, ” Chief Alfred Durham told the Free Press.
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Battery Park art project on tennis great Arthur Ashe to educate, elevate
Sir James Thornhill has spent the past 11 years enlivening buildings, mostly in Jackson Ward, with murals depicting often forgotten African-American heroes.
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Family medical history prompts man to enter ‘Man of the Year’ campaign
Dwight Taylor knows the pain of losing a loved one to cancer and the triumph of celebrating a loved one beating the disease.
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RPS to pay consultants $1,692 for each temporary teacher hired
Richmond Public Schools has an emergency shortage of 119 teachers, and the administration hopes a Staunton consult- ing firm will help fill the void by placing temporary teachers in classrooms. Although the school district continues to offer contracts to new hires daily, teachers continue to resign less than two weeks before the start of the new school year, Tamica Epps, executive director of human resources for RPS, told the Richmond School Board during its Aug. 15 meeting.
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City’s projected deficit now reported as expected surplus
City Hall has wiped out the red ink. Instead of a deficit, Richmond is projected to finish its most recent fiscal year with a $4.5 million surplus, according to the administration of Mayor Dwight C. Jones.
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Creighton Court area transformation moving forward
Gov. Terry McAuliffe is pitching in $2.5 million to assist Richmond in transforming the impoverished Creighton Court area of the East End into a model, mixed-income community. The governor went to the East End on Wednesday to announce Richmond as a winner of a Vibrant Community Initiative grant.
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Petitions withdrawn seeking ouster of Petersburg officials
Petersburg Mayor Samuel D. Parham, 3rd Ward, and Councilman W. Howard Myers, 5th Ward, are keeping their city council seats.
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VSU Multipurpose Center opens to Trojans victories
You can call it Virginia State University or State of the Art University. VSU’s dazzling Multipurpose Center has emerged as the shining jewel of the CIAA. The grand opening last Saturday was a true celebration. The Trojans men’s and women’s basketball teams defeated Lincoln University and thousands of fans oohed and aahed at the new digs. “I’ve been to a lot of gyms, and what we have here is as nice as any I’ve seen in (the NCAA) Division II,” said VSU Coach Lonnie Blow.
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Tentative design, sculptor chosen for Emancipation Monument
Plans for a Richmond monument that pays tribute to the Emancipation Proclamation and enslaved Africans are moving forward three years after it was first proposed, according to a state commission that is spearheading the effort. The Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission has tentatively selected the sculptor and a potential design for the Emancipation Proclamation and Freedom Monument.
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Heating woes continue to plague Creighton Court residents
Tina Marie Smith finally has a working radiator on the first floor of her Creighton Court apartment. The only problem: It doesn’t produce much heat. And it hasn’t, she said, since maintenance workers from the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority installed it three weeks ago.
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Close vote expected on pairing North Side elementary schools
A close vote is expected on whether to pair elementary schools in North Side with majority-black and majority-white student populations.
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VUU president seeks dismissal of fraud lawsuit
Virginia Union University President Hakim J. Lucas is fighting back against an explosive lawsuit from his former employer, Bethune-Cookman University in Daytona Beach, Fla.
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Commission selects 10 for Emancipation Proclamation and Freedom Monument on Brown’s Island
Two leaders of slave rebellions and a Union spy will be among the 10 people who will be featured on the planned Emancipation Proclamation and Freedom Monument to go up on Brown’s Island in Downtown.
