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Commonwealth Catholic Charities to lead city’s winter overflow shelter efforts
Homeless people needing shelter in Richmond beginning Friday, Oct. 1, through mid-April will have a place to stay if the private shelters are full during cold weather.
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Invest in Richmond’s schoolchildren, not Coliseum
Letters to the Editor
Re “Moving on up or out? Mayor Stoney submits to City Council $1.5B Coliseum replacement and Downtown development plan,” Free Press Aug. 8-10 edition: Richmond is in the process of approving spending $1.5 billion for city infrastructure development, including a new Coliseum and the area around it.
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Places To Go, People To See
Looking for something to do or new experiences in the months ahead? Here are just a few of the upcoming fun events and adventures:
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Judge suspends incorporation efforts at Fourth Baptist Church
A Richmond judge has temporarily blocked historic Fourth Baptist Church from taking any further steps to incorporate and reversed other actions approved during the pandemic.
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Vote on Medicaid expansion will tell if black lives matter
The decision to expand Medicaid in Virginia should be a no-brainer: Accept federal dollars already allocated to the state and give affordable health care coverage to nearly 400,000 uninsured Virginians.
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13th Annual InLight Richmond exhibition starts Nov. 12
The 1708 Gallery is again showcasing local light-based artwork across the city as part of its 13th annual InLight Richmond exhibition.
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Documentary details past and present of AME Church
The African Methodist Episcopal Church has released a short film online about its history that includes an interview with the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, the pastor killed in a June 2015 racial attack on his historic Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, S.C., church, in which he talks about the historically Black denomination’s significance.
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Kamras: New George Wythe won’t be completed until 2027
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras is insisting that it will take six years to produce a replacement for George Wythe High School, or three years longer than City Hall has insisted it would take if its personnel led the construction.
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Confronting racism
There was a time not too long ago when businesses in Richmond and across the South would call the police to arrest black people who sat down at lunch counters because they wanted to order. So we found a sad irony in the April 12 arrest of two black men in Philadelphia because they sat down at a Starbucks and didn’t order anything.
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Investing in people and communities, by Ben Jealous
President Biden and the Democratic Congress have come through with a $1.2 trillion infrastructure package — something the previous president repeatedly promised but never delivered.
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Center awaits end of bankruptcy
The 300-member Richmond Christian Center is poised to leave bankruptcy after nearly two years, with the finances of the South Side church restored.
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Woodland, Evergreen cemeteries for sale
A Richmond foundation is pursuing the purchase of two historic, but privately held African-American cemeteries, the Free Press has learned.
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Driving? Only hands-free cell phone use allowed in city
Holding a cell phone while driving in Richmond could cost you $125, beginning next week.
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Prisoners in the U.S. are part of a hidden workforce linked to hundreds of popular food brands
A hidden path to America’s dinner tables begins here, at an unlikely source — a former Southern slave plantation that is now the country’s largest maximum-security prison.
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The big Stone Brewery beer production center is heading toward completion in the East End. Location: Williamsburg Avenue and Stony Run Road. The California-based company …
Published on December 5, 2015
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‘Our ballots will stop bullets’
Thousands take to streets in Richmond, D.C. and across the nation to demand gun control and school safety
Chanting “Enough is enough” and “Never again,” more than 5,000 students and other demonstrators marched through Richmond last Saturday as part of a nationwide protest against mass school shootings and gun violence.
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Court ruling allows handgun sales to 18- to 20-year-olds
If you are old enough to vote, you are old enough to own a handgun, a panel of the Richmond-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided Tuesday.
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Virginia Premier to offer health plans on ACA exchange this fall
Virginia Premier, the insurance arm of VCU Health, will start selling individual plans beginning this fall to Richmond area residents who buy coverage through the health insurance exchanges of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, it was announced Monday.
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‘Virtual school’ in Va.?
Advocates say it would boost educational choices; critics say it would strip students and money from public schools
Thousands of public school students in Virginia could have the option of taking all of their classes on a home computer in what is known as a “virtual school” — instead of making the daily trek to a building with bells and defined class times. Gov. Terry McAuliffe is mulling whether to sign House Bill 8, a largely Republican-backed piece of legislation that would allow Virginia to join Florida, Ohio and 28 other states in providing 12 years of public education in what enthusiasts describe as a “classroom without walls.”
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RRHA reconsidering plan to demolish Creighton Court
The city’s key public housing agency is rethinking its vision of demolishing the six major public housing communities in Richmond and replacing them with “mixed-income” neighborhoods to end the concentration of poverty.