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Scott co-leader of bipartisan effort to curb federal prison spending
From Virginia to California, states are pushing change to cut their ballooning prison costs that collectively approach $60 billion. Instead of automatically locking up people, 32 states have put in place reforms during the past five years that have reduced the numbers of people imprisoned without increasing crime rates. The efforts have saved at least $4 billion. That includes reserving prison cells for the most serous offenders and doing more to divert lower-level offenders to supervised support programs outside prison.
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VUU heads into homecoming with 50-21 win over St. Aug.’s
Virginia Union University has dominated its CIAA Southern Division football opponents. The question now is how will the Panthers fare against their own Northern Division opponents, beginning Saturday, Oct. 8, in its homecoming game against Lincoln University of Pennsylvania?
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Dump Trump
Every four years, the pinnacle of American democracy is reached with the presidential election. That’s when every eligible voter age 18 and older, from every town, city and hamlet across the nation, can listen to the candidates, examine their differing positions, go to the polls and cast his or her ballot for the next U.S. president. It’s a significant time for our nation, and for the world, because of the pivotal role of our country — and our nation’s leader — in all manner of global affairs, from humanitarian assistance and trade deals, to war and peace and the deployment of troops.
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Charleston ‘on eggshells’ with 2 racially charged trials
Trials in two South Carolina shootings that rocked the country last year and raised questions about race in America started last week, putting the city of Charleston on edge as the community awaits the testimony and jury decisions.
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VUU hoping for hoops wins
Virginia Union University ranks with the nation’s most improved basketball programs over the last two years. And there are signs the upswing will continue.
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Proposals to build 2 schools, redo George Wythe under review
Richmond Public Schools might provide incoming Mayor Levar Stoney with a potential blueprint for addressing the problem of outdated and increasingly worn-out school buildings.
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Missing house key unlocks tennis career for Franklin Military Academy student
Charlesten Freeman’s tennis success story started with a missing house key. Little could anyone suspect then the potential that awkward situation would unlock.
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$400,000 severance for former city auditor
Former City Auditor Umesh Dalal seems to have been as adept in negotiating his own exit package as he was in examining the practices of city departments.
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‘Reading Riders’ starts summer routes
In 2015, Reading Riders, Richmond Public Schools’ mobile library program promoting literacy among youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grade, started with a bus full of books, five scheduled stops in students’ Richmond neighborhoods and about 10 to 15 teacher volunteers at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School.
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Commencement season begins at area colleges, universities
The time of cramming for final exams, pulling all-nighters to finish papers and rushing to complete presentations and projects is over.
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VUU’s ‘Windy City Wonder’ breaks records, dazzles fans at regional finale
Kiana Johnson is so fast, so agile, so dynamic. She navigates a basketball floor like a sleek sports car, reducing foes to clunker status.
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‘American people cannot afford another recession’
We have made tremendous strides over the last eight years to dig ourselves out of one of the deepest recessions the United States has seen in decades. Under President Obama, we have gone from losing more than 800,000 jobs per month to the longest sustained monthly job growth in our nation’s history.
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Pope names panel to consider women as deacons
Following through on a pledge he made to a group of nuns last May, Pope Francis has established a special commission to study whether the Roman Catholic Church should take the historic step of ordaining women as deacons.
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VUU’s Nieves may have a leg up on cross-country competition
When his rival runners sputter, slow and even stall, Luis Nieves keeps going and going. The long-striding junior mass communications major is Virginia Union University’s leader of the pack on the cross-country trails.
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Contractor hopes vacant RPS building can teach students new lessons
When Kenneth Williams takes over the former REAL School building at Chamberlayne and Azalea avenues, he won’t be teaching students the typical reading, writing and arithmetic. Instead, the 68-year-old contractor and owner of Williams Builders Plus will use the vacant building to teach young adults skills in construction.
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Report forecasts millions would lose health insurance under Trumpcare
Fears that the Republican plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, would wipe out health insurance for millions of mostly low-income people appear to be highly accurate.
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McEachin, Wade on Nov. ballot
Richmond’s next congressman will either be Democrat A. Donald McEachin or Republican Michael L. “Mike” Wade. As expected, both men easily overcame rivals to win their respective party’s primary election Tuesday. They gain the right to carry their party’s banner into the November general election to represent the refashioned 4th Congressional District in Washington.
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Former ROC seeing renewal, growth after scandal and leadership change
Dr. Robert J. “Pastor Rob” Rhoden said he has seen a sprinkling of former members of the Richmond Outreach Center return over the past few months to attend worship services since he quietly was named as the church’s new senior pastor in January.
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Settlement reached in South Side mobile home suit
The war over mobile homes in Richmond appears to have ended in a truce. Under a settlement approved Monday in federal court, the City of Richmond has agreed to modify an aggressive code enforcement program that led to the condemnation of dozens of mobile homes in the past three years, displacing mostly Latino families.