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VCU center developing master plan for historic Evergreen Cemetery
Richmond’s biggest university is taking a role in restoring the historic, but neglected Evergreen Cemetery. The Enrichmond Foundation, the new owner of the 127-year-old African-American cemetery, has hired the center for Urban and Regional Analysis in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs to create a master plan for the burial ground, which includes the graves of such notables as banker and businesswoman Maggie L. Walker and newspaper editor and banker John Mitchell Jr.
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General Assembly adjourns with special session planned on Medicaid expansion
The Virginia General Assembly’s 2018 session came to a close on Saturday but remained divided over the state budget and Medicaid expansion, forcing a special session to resolve its differences.
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Walkout
City students join Wednesday’s national demonstration for tougher gun laws on one-month anniversary of Florida high school massacre
Hundreds of Richmond area students joined their peers across the country and walked out of classrooms at 10 a.m. Wednesday to demand stricter gun laws in a national show of unity and solidarity one month after the bloody massacre that killed 17 students and staff at a Florida high school.
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ACLU urges no penalty for students in March 14 walkout
Students from Richmond, Va., to Richmond, Calif., are poised to take part in a 17-minute walkout from schools at 10 a.m. Wednesday, March 14.
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Leadership on school modernization ‘requires hard decisions’
Re “Put Schools First offers $650M plan to modernize city schools,” Free Press March 1-3 edition: The Paul Goldman plan to modernize our schools rightfully recognizes that we spend a disproportionate share of the taxpayers’ dollars on big salaries for bureaucrats at the expense of fixing problems like crumbling schools.
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Black immigrants’ lives matter, too
We are long overdue for a discussion about immigration as it relates to black immigrants, particularly at this moment as the current presidential administration clamors to end legal protections for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA recipients. Congressional leaders lurch from one proposed bipartisan solution to another in search of a permanent legislative fix.
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John Marshall heads to Saturday’s state final
John Marshall High School has proven it’s tops in the Richmond area. Now the Justices are out to show they are No. 1 in Virginia.
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Huguenot’s Deshawn Ridley snags regional Player of the Year
Deshawn Ridley’s trek to basketball stardom hasn’t always been the smoothest of rides. Twice, he was cut from his school teams — first as a seventh-grader at Elkhardt Middle School, and again as a Huguenot High School freshman.
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Lady Panthers win CIAA; headed back to NCAA playoffs
The Virginia Union University Lady Panthers have enjoyed a steady drumbeat of success during the last three years, and the drummer shows no signs of weariness.
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VUU men come alive to take CIAA title
Virginia Union University arrived at the CIAA Tournament in Charlotte, N.C., with a whisper, and left with a sonic boom.
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VCU Rams open in A10
Plenty of lunchtime basketball is on the menu for Virginia Commonwealth University. The eighth-seeded Rams will open Atlantic 10 Tournament play at noon Thursday, March 8, against No. 9 University of Dayton at Capital One Arena in Washington.
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City Council poised to revive Human Relations Commission
Richmond soon could have a new Human Relations Commission as a platform to hear and investigate residents’ complaints about bias, bigotry and discrimination in areas ranging from race and religion to gender orientation, disability and pregnancy.
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General Assembly approves city charter change for school modernization
By Jeremy M. Lazarus 40-0 in the state Senate.
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Winners and losers
Mayor Levar M. Stoney offers details of his $1.42B, 2-year budget plan
High school students would be able ride GRTC buses without charge on an unlimited basis for a year. After-school programs for city youths would be expanded by enabling six city recreation centers to stay open longer and through support for programs offered by the YMCA, the YWCA and several other youth-serving groups.
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Put Schools First offers $650M plan to modernize city schools
The volunteer Put Schools First committee is rolling out a plan that calls for spending $650 million to modernize all of Richmond’s public schools — with a goal of having 19 completed within seven years and the remaining buildings done within 12 years.
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50 years and counting
Metropolitan Business League continues growing services, membership a half century after founding
Four days after Christmas, Floyd E. Miller II was in the Metropolitan Business League’s offices at 707 W. Main St. preparing for “a new year and new opportunities for new sources of funding” for the league through grants, foundations and fundraising events.
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Nothing positive will be done’
President Trump urges ban on gun devices?
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Courage, political will and gun control
“This is our first task, caring for our children. It’s our first job. If we don’t get that right, we don’t get anything right. That’s how, as a society, we will be judged. And by that measure, can we truly say, as a nation, that we’re meeting our obligations? Can we honestly say that we’re doing enough to keep our children, all of them, safe from harm?” — Former President Obama, during 2012 prayer vigil for victims of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Conn.
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Settling the debt
Like a weed sprouting from the crack in a sidewalk, the truth always comes out. Take, for example, the rancid deal struck in 2012 by City Hall and the Washington NFL team for a Richmond training camp. City Council was left out of the negotiations between the team, former Mayor Dwight C. Jones and the city’s Economic Development Authority that resulted in construction of the Leigh Street training camp that is used by the team, at most, two to three months of the year.
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RVA Night League for Safer Streets builds life skills, relationships along with basketball
RVA Night League for Safer Streets is set to start its second season of night basketball with more jumps shots and lifestyle workshops.