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GRTC workers strike deal on new contract
GRTC bus drivers and mechanics have approved a new contract that will boost their pay $1.10 an hour over the three-year life of the agreement, or an average of 2.2 percent. Both the transit company’s management and the union representing about 285 hourly workers are hailing the agreement that followed 10 months of quiet, but tough negotiations.
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City offers amnesty for past-due parking ticket penalties
Good news for people with old, unpaid Richmond parking tickets: City Hall will waive the penalties if the tickets are paid by Monday, Sept. 12.
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Crystal Cathedral, former home of ‘Hour of Power’ to become Roman Catholic seat
For nearly 30 years, the Rev. Robert Schuller’s Crystal Cathedral was not only a religious landmark, but an architectural wonder and an embodiment of flush times in Southern California’s Orange County.
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Nonprofit’s effort to buy St. Emma-St. Francis property collapses
A nearly two-year effort to protect the heritage of a sprawling Powhatan County site that was the home of two African-American Catholic boarding schools has collapsed.
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Economic justice and fair housing
“The housing problem is particularly acute in the minority ghettos. Nearly two-thirds of all non-white families living in the central cities today live in neighborhoods marked with substandard housing and general urban blight. Two major factors are responsible. First: Many ghetto residents simply cannot pay the rent necessary to support decent housing. In Detroit, for example, over 40 percent of the non-white occupied units in 1960 required rent of over 35 percent of the tenants’ income. Second: Discrimination prevents access to many non-slum areas, particularly the suburbs, where good housing exists. In addition, by creating a ‘back pressure’ in the racial ghettos, it makes it possible for landlords to break up apartments for denser occupancy, and keeps prices and rents of deteriorated ghetto housing higher than they would be in a truly free market.” – Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (the Kerner Commission), 1968 Former Vice President Walter Mondale, who co-sponsored the Fair Housing Act along with U.S. Sen. Edward Brooke, the first popularly elected African-American in the U.S. Senate, was interviewed recently on the occasion of the Fair Housing Act’s 50th anniversary.
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Richmond City Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson, center, assembles a desk with the help of Anita Sawyer, left, and Fatemia Gunter, two employees of Lowe’s home …
Published on October 29, 2020
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Promises by Bon Secours for new medical office buildings go unfulfilled
Bon Secours is still struggling to build long-awaited medical office buildings that collectively would create at least 175 new jobs in Church Hill and at the Westhampton School property the health care organization controls in the West End.
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Seniors wage fight against TV cable
I live in a high-rise building along with 200 senior tenants. We are forced to deal with Comcast and the cable company’s high prices.
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Richmond church burns
A devastating fire Jan. 9 appears to have dashed the hopes of the congregation of Seventh Street Memorial Baptist Church of returning to their long vacant “home location” in the Highland Park neighborhood in North Side.
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Southside Hardware closing doors for last time Saturday
Southside Hardware was long a place to find the unusual, from replacement wicks for kerosene heaters to the special keys needed to operate radiators, antique radios and baby buggies.
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NSU upgrading turf at Dick Price stadium
The footing, if not the football, figures to be much improved this fall at Norfolk State University.
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The people, price, promise
When race, politics, history and religion meet at the social intersection that we all negotiate at different periods in life, changes can pull you down a road that you never thought was possible.
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E-book purchasers may be due refund
Electronics giant Apple Inc. has begun coughing up refunds to e-book buyers in a price-fixing settlement. According to Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring, the company began distributing $11 million to $15 million in account credits and checks Tuesday to state residents who purchased e-books, or electronic books, through the company’s site.
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Henrico man’s gardening passion grows YouTube followers
Randy Battle has a passion for gardening. Now he’s sharing that passion with a worldwide audience.
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Price and Betts boost L.A. Dodgers’ World Series dreams
Since the Los Angeles Dodgers’ last World Series championship in 1988, 17 different franchises have won baseball’s top prize. To help snap the drought in Tinseltown, the Dodgers have beefed up its roster with a pair of likely future Hall of Famers.
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At 100, every day is a celebration, but it’s even better when the community recognizes your longevity. Eleven Richmonders were honored Sept. 21 at the …
Published on October 11, 2019
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Private contractors costing city big $ for snow removal
When snow falls in Richmond, City Hall is forced to pay big bucks to private contractors to clear the streets. The reason: Up to half of the aging fleet of city dump trucks that double as snowplows are usually parked, awaiting repairs, according to a new report from the Department of Public Works.
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Juneteenth events planned for Friday and Saturday
Talk about timing. Amid the upheaval over racial equity and police brutality, the Juneteenth celebration of freedom arrives Friday, June 19, and the once little-known holiday is suddenly gaining huge recognition in Richmond and Virginia.
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Ernie Francis gears up for St. Petersburg race
African-Americans are as rare on the IndyCar circuit as snowmobiles in Haiti, but that doesn’t bother Ernie Francis Jr., the latest contender for IndyCar honors.