Story
Reversal of misfortune
Kemba Smith, whose prison sentence was commuted in 2000, dines with President Obama after meeting with White House aides
When U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was making his initial bid to become president of the United States, Richmond native and 1989 Hermitage High School graduate Kemba Smith was among the thousands volunteering in his ambitious history-making campaign.
Story
Personality: Coach Maurice Tyler
Spotlight on founding director of Coaches Against Violence Everywhere
Maurice Tyler says he was driven to establish Coaches Against Violence Everywhere after 12-year-old Amiyah Moses was killed Dec. 19 during a gun battle between two 20-year-old men on North Side as she and her friends played nearby. “Her mom will not get to talk to her about boys. She doesn’t have the chance to watch her child grow up and be successful,” Coach Tyler says of Amiyah’s grief-stricken mother, Kele Wright. “It was all taken from her.
Story
100 days
New schools chief still energetic, optimistic
Richmond Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras has spent the last 100 days engaging with school community while trying to calm the storms from previous administrations.
Story
Enrollment begins Nov. 1 for Medicaid expansion
Shanté Williams is among tens of thousands of Virginians patiently waiting for Thursday, Nov. 1, to arrive. That’s the start date for enrollment in the state’s expanded Medicaid program.
Story
Trump creates firestorm over athletes’ taking a knee
President Trump seems to have too little to do. Amid the damage from two hurricanes, a verbal feud with a nuclear North Korea and a host of other issues ranging from health care to tax reform, the president has triggered a spat with athletes in the nation’s most popular pro sports leagues, the NFL and the NBA.
Story
More taxes
Mayor Stoney proposes tax hikes on real estate, cigarettes and utility rates to generate more money for city needs
More money, more money, more money.
Story
Stand by your plan
Mayor Levar M. Stoney pushes his proposed tax hikes despite opposition and criticism
Mayor Levar M. Stoney plans to take his case for tax hikes to Richmond residents in coming weeks, even as his plan draws resistance and foes express gratitude to one of his outspoken opponents, 8th District City Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, by showering her with bouquets of flowers.
Story
Simeon Booker, ‘dean of black journalists,’ succumbs at 99
Simeon S. Booker Jr. never lived in Richmond during his nearly 100 years on Earth. Still, at the height of his career, it seemed he was always in town somewhere.
Story
Wilder contests student’s claim of sexual impropriety
L. Douglas Wilder is fighting back against a reputation-tarnishing finding that he kissed an unwilling 20-year-old Virginia Commonwealth University student when she worked in the university building named for him and where he has his office.
Story
Resilience after the hurricane
The president of the historically African-American Progressive National Baptist Convention traveled to the Bahamas island of Grand Bahama on Sept. 11 to assess the damage from Hurricane Dorian and came away with stories of damage and determination.
Story
Personality: Allison Kay Coles-Johnson
Spotlight on co-chair of F.A.C.T.S., Finding a Cure Together 4 Sickle Cell
Allison Kay Coles-Johnson is half a million dollars away from bringing new hope and opportunity to thousands of Virginians and millions of others across the world.
Story
Why All Black People Should Visit Africa
I was 23 years old when I took my first trip to Africa, and if you ask me my trip occurred a little too late. It should have happened as soon as I developed comprehension and understanding. It should have happened before the “African booty scratcher” jokes became funny to me, and before Africa became the dark continent in my mind. However, thank goodness it happened. After visiting the beautiful country of Zambia on two different occasions, I’m convinced that every Black person should visit Africa at least once. It will change your entire life. It most definitely changed mine.
Story
Personality: Corey M. Nicholson
Spotlight on board chairman of Metropolitan Junior Baseball League
Corey M. Nicholson’s lifelong appreciation for baseball, its history and its impact, goes back to his childhood spent watching hours of New York Mets games on black and white television with his grandparents. Today Mr. Nicholson uses his passion and knowledge for the game to help guide the formative sports experiences of Richmond youths as board chairman for the Metropolitan Junior Baseball League.
Story
Personality: Jeffrey M. Gallagher
Spotlight on board chairman of Virginia Repertory Theatre
The largest producing theater in Central Virginia. The first theater to perform a live theater production before an integrated audience in post-Reconstruction Virginia in defiance of Jim Crow laws. Those are major milestones in the history of Virginia Repertory Theatre, which traces its early roots back to 1953 through the Barksdale Memorial Theatre at Hanover Tavern.
Story
Personality: Adolph White
Spotlight on volunteer caretaker for purple martin nesting at Bryan Park
Every spring, there is a great migration that one Bryan Park volunteer anticipates and anxiously looks forward to.
Story
Personality: Michael R. Jackson
Spotlight on Richmond First Club president
Michael R. Jackson, a forensic accountant, is the president of the Richmond First Club and has been involved with the nonprofit since 2011.
Story
Q&A: Jordan Peele on the dreams and nightmares of ‘Nope’
There’s little in contemporary movies quite like the arrival of a new Jordan Peele film. They tend to descend ominously and mysteriously, a little like an unknown object from above that casts an expanding, darkening shadow the closer it comes.
Story
Turnout expected to be key in race for governor
Virginia is for lovers of close elections, as one wag put it, and one more is just about to happen.
Story
What to know about Biden’s latest attempt at student loan cancellation
President Joe Biden is taking another shot at student loan cancellation, hoping to deliver on a key campaign promise that he has so far failed to fulfill.
Story
3 dead in 3 days
City inmate deaths raise questions about medical care
City inmate deaths raise questions about medical care
