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General Assembly completes work on budget, criminal justice reform
Fairer sentencing for people convicted of crimes and a Marcus crisis alert system to improve the response to mental health emergencies are among the criminal justice reforms that have emerged from the General Assembly’s special session.
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Local authority’s outreach helps equity fund address health disparities
For the last two months, Jacquetta Gosier has worked to bridge the gap of mental health access for Richmond communities in need.
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Bon Secours breaks ground on new $11M medical office building in East End
Coming soon: A new Bon Secours Mercy Health medical office building in the East End that will house up to 100 doctors, nurses and other staff and include space to provide group therapy for mentally ill addicts.
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Race, democracy and Ukraine, by David W. Marshall
Just when you say it can’t get any worse, it gets worse.
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Pay them, but not her
RPS spends extra to win bill dispute
The Richmond School Board paid a white law firm $31,000 in legal fees to avoid paying a Black professional’s $27,000 bill for doing consulting work in the case of a disabled student, half of which was to be paid by the state.
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Daily dangers, including physical assaults on deputies, allegedly occur at city jail
Seven months after Richmond Sheriff Antionette V. Irving was sworn into her second four-year term, concern is mounting over her control of the still short-staffed Richmond City Justice Center, as the jail located in Shockoe Valley is called.
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For Heat, the legend of ‘Playoff Jimmy’ continues to grow
Jimmy Butler insists that “Playoff Jimmy” — the moniker that he has now, whether he wants it or not—isn’t a thing. His play shows otherwise. He has scored 45 or more points five times in his NBA career, and three of those games have come in the playoffs — the most recent one coming Monday in a performance for all time. Butler scored 56 points, tying the fourth-highest playoff scoring effort in NBA history, and carried the Miami Heat past the Milwaukee Bucks 119-114 to take a 3-1 lead in that Eastern Conference first-round series.
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Democrats reject 3 Youngkin appointees
Virginia Senate Democrats voted Tuesday to reject several appointees of GOP Gov. Glenn Youngkin, including the state health commissioner.
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Pressure mounts on UNC in Nikole Hannah-Jones tenure dispute
The pressure on trustees at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to grant tenure to investigative journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones continued to mount last week as a major funding partner joined the call to change her status and a sought-after chemistry professor decided not to join the faculty over the dispute.
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Lawmakers, others hopeful about passage of federal George Floyd Justice in Policing Act
A year after his killing unleashed a national reckoning over racial injustice, George Floyd’s relatives met on Tuesday with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the White House and with lawmakers on Capitol Hill to urge passage of police reform legislation in their loved one’s name.
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Prayers, fireworks as Indians celebrate Kamala Harris’ win
Waking up to the news of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris’ election as vice president, overjoyed people in her Indian grandfather’s hometown set off firecrackers and offered prayers last Sunday.
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Fairfax compares his treatment to George Floyd during Democratic debate
Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax accused his Democratic rivals for governor of treating him like George Floyd or Emmett Till by calling for his resignation in 2019 over unresolved sexual assault complaints without affording him due process.
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bell hooks, writer and groundbreaking feminist thinker, dies at 69
NEW YORK bell hooks, the ground- breaking author, educator and activist whose explorations of how race, gender, economics and politics intertwined helped shape academic and popular debates over the past 40 years, died Wednesday, Dec. 15, 2021.
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VUU’s transfers plan to make a difference in Saturday’s game against VSU
Coming out of high school, Robert Osborne and Keleaf Tate took the sce- nic route in arriving at Virginia Union University.
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BLM757 organizer announces fun for Congress at Lobby Day gun rally
Using the annual pro-gun rally on Lobby Day at the General Assembly as a backdrop, JaPharii Jones, lead organizer with Black Lives Matter 757, announced his intention to run for Congress in Virginia’s 3rd District, a seat that has been held by Democratic Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott since 1993.
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On the way out
Gov. Ralph S. Northam orders removal of 40-foot granite pedestal that held Confederate Robert E. Lee’s statue on Monument Avenue, and for the land to be turned over to the city
When the giant monument of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee went up 131 years ago, fiery Richmond Planet editor John Mitchell Jr. described it as monument that would hand down to future generations “a legacy of treason and blood.”
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Gerald G. Poindexter, a Surry County county attorney and prosecutor, dies at 80
Gerald Glenn Poindexter, a legal institution in Surry County where he served 23 years as county attorney and another 20 years as commonwealth’s attorney, has died.
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Archbishop Desmond Tutu, lion of anti-apartheid movement, dies at 90
Mourners held a candlelight prayer ceremony outside the Soweto home of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Wednesday, weeping over the memory not only of a world-renowned lion of the anti-apartheid movement but of a kind and loyal neighbor.
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William Barber launches new center at Yale
Yale Divinity School is launching a new Center for Public Theology and Public Policy, an advocacy-focused body to be led by prominent pastor and activist the Rev. William Barber II.
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U.S. Open champ Coco Gauff wants to get better and win more major titles — don’t doubt her
Now that Coco Gauff is a Grand Slam champion, she’s ready for stardom.