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City Council member raises host of questions on homeless plan
City Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson feels caught between a rock and a hard place when it comes to a proposal to create a housing services center for the homeless in a church building in South Side.
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Top of the ticket
We cannot stress enough the importance of voting in Tuesday’s election for Virginia’s next governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general.
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Commentary: Virginia voters can be certain their votes count
The U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee concluded in late July that election systems in all 50 states were targeted by Russia in the 2016 presidential election. While the report concluded that no votes were changed in voting machines at the time, the committee’s report warned that the United States remains vulnerable to attack in upcoming elections. In the wake of the report, the Richmond Free Press invited Christopher E. “Chris” Piper, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, to address the question of just how secure is Virginia’s election apparatus. Here is his response, penned with Michael Watson, chief information security officer with the Virginia Information Technologies Agency.
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Central Park Five: Harrowing, humanizing
Columnists
Many know them as the Central Park Five, but filmmaker Ava DuVernay forces us to see the five wrongfully convicted men as individuals. Their names are names we must remember, as individual, courageous, principled black and brown men. They are Korey Wise, Raymond Santana, Yusef Salaam, Antron McCray and Kevin Richardson.
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Councilman Agelasto asks for taxpayer money to pay his legal bills
Parker C. Agelasto has run up a hefty legal tab fending off lawsuits seek- ing to immediately remove him from his 5th District City Council seat now that he and his family have moved out of the district.
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Wes Carmack helped launch VCU’s postseason era
When Wes Carmack first took the floor for VCU in January 1977, Rams fans’ initial reaction was “Who’s He?” Second reaction was more like “wow, that new kid can really ball.”
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‘He took the bait’
Kamala Harris pushes back over Florida’s new teachings on slavery
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, facing heavy criticism for defending “anti-woke” teaching in Florida, this week teed up an unusual proposal to the nation’s first Black vice president: Come debate the merits of the state’s new curriculum on African-American history.
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Trump’s mob sparks violence
After spurring violence, chaos and an attempted takeover of the U.S. Capitol, President Trump urged his mob of supporters to go home, telling them, ‘We love you. You’re very special.’
Thousands of President Trump’s supporters — with his encouragement — sought to seize the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Wednesday and halt the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives from completing the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election as the nation’s next chief executive.
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George Floyd’s family wins $27M settlement in civil suit over his death
The family of George Floyd won a $27 million settlement in a civil lawsuit over his death last year at the hands of a white Minneapolis police officer.
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Dems defeated
In a nail-biting race, Republicans sweep Tuesday’s election for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, and flip the Democratic-controlled House of Delegates from blue to red
So much for Virginia turning blue.
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Gov.-elect Glenn Youngkin talks transition with Northam; releases tax info
Republican Gov.-elect Glenn A. Youngkin met with outgoing Democratic Gov. Ralph S. Northam last week for a lunch with their wives at the Executive Mansion in Capitol Square, with both pledging a smooth transition of power.
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In ‘Equalizer 3,’ Denzel Washington’s assassin goes to Italy
Filmmaker Antoine Fuqua has been dreaming about taking the Equalizer abroad for years. The action franchise (very loosely based on a 1980s television series) starring Denzel Washington as the reluctant assassin Robert McCall had rooted itself in humble domestic beginnings, in Boston. But after two films and $382.7 million in box office receipts in the past decade, the time seemed ripe to travel.
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Two years after historic win, a divided Amazon Labor Union lurches toward a leadership election
Two years after clinching a historic victory at a warehouse in New York City, the first labor union for Amazon workers in the United States is divided, running out of money and fighting over an election that could determine who will lead the group in the near future.
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Allen Iverson lone Virginian to be inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame
Richmond’s high schools got an early glimpse of Allen Iverson’s athletic greatness. Before taking his talents to Georgetown University, the NBA and what will soon be the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame, Iverson left his mark on RVA.
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Host Chris Rock rocks the Oscars
Comedian Chris Rock launched his return stint as Oscar host Sunday by immediately and unabashedly confronting the racially charged elephant in the room — the furor over the all-white field of performers nominated for Hollywood’s highest honor.
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RRHA board takes major step to redevelop Creighton Court
New homes and apartments could begin to rise in Creighton Court within one to two years, if the financing can be arranged, according to the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority.
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Questions swirl around judge
Lawyers representing Mayor Levar M. Stoney and the city have rushed to the Virginia Supreme Court, requesting the state’s highest court overturn a Richmond Circuit Court judge’s 60-day injunction barring the mayor from using emergency authority to take down Confederate statues.
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City, schools officials struggle over how to fund school building improvement plan
Richmond officials continue to struggle over a funding plan for the public school system’s facilities. In a two-hour meeting Monday night of the Education Compact, Mayor Levar M. Stoney, and members of the Richmond School Board and Richmond City Council exchanged ideas and concerns on the best way to move forward to replace or improve the city’s aging and decrepit school buildings.
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Poor People’s Campaign vows to continue push to end poverty, racism, militarism
A multiracial, intergenerational crowd of thousands of social justice activists, union workers and people of faith prayed, cheered and listened intently last Saturday as speakers on the National Mall called for a re-energized approach to fighting poverty and other social ills they say are plaguing the country.
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RRHA begins major move to turn over public housing to private interests
Residents of public housing can expect to see their apartment complexes come under the control and management of private landlords.