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Salsa classes may offer wider lessons
Is salsa coming to Richmond Public Schools? Attorney Brent A. Jackson is pushing to make it happen.
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Possible funding increase for city schools?
Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration is hinting that it might propose a $5 million increase in support for Richmond Public Schools’ operations in the new 2020 budget it will present next month to Richmond City Council.
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‘Y&R’ actor Kristoff St. John dies at 52
Kristoff St. John, who played the struggling alcoholic and ladies’ man Neil Winters for 27 years on “The Young and the Restless,” has died. He was 52.
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Racist groups must be viewed as direct threat to national security
We are concerned about the white supremacist-organized domestic terrorist threat facing the United States. And we say to members of Congress, enough is enough. It is time to do something about it. These organized domestic terrorists and their leaders operate through dozens of groups known to law enforcement agencies as white nationalists, white supremacists, white separatists, alt-Reich Nation, Loyal White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Confederates, neo-Nazis, racist skinheads and Christian Identity, which represent a direct threat to our national security.
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Human Rights Campaign kicks off election focus on LGBTQ, religious relations
The Human Rights Campaign, which works to promote LGBTQ equality, has started an election season tour in which its president will visit houses of worship of different faiths to build relations between the religious and the gay communities.
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Parades and curbside visits bring joy to veterans’ home residents
Retired Sgt. 1st Class William “Big T” Taylor had not seen his family since early March.
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James ‘Jimmy Lee’ Bracey Jr., founder of West End Richmond Striders track club, dies at 80
James Lee “Jimmy Lee” Bracey Jr. developed a passion for running track while serving in the Air Force.
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GRTC CEO leaving
GRTC is looking for a new leader. The search is about to begin following the sudden resignation of David Green, GRTC’s chief executive officer, less than two months after launching the new Pulse bus rapid transit system ushering in a controversial overhaul of all other GRTC bus routes.
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French president promises quick return of stolen African relics
French President Emmanuel Macron has called the return of African relics to their origin “a top priority” of his administration.
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Dominion to ask U.S. Supreme Court to hear pipeline appeal
Dominion Energy said Tuesday it will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to hear its appeal after a lower court refused to reconsider a ruling tossing out a permit that would have allowed the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross two national forests, including parts of the Appalachian Trail.
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School Board to take up rezoning, budget resolution April 8
The Richmond School Board is still far from making specific decisions on rezoning the city’s 44 public schools, but it is starting to take preliminary steps to address a long sought goal of “right-sizing” the division.
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2 area primaries for House of Delegates will be among races to watch
The battle for control of the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates will start to heat up next week as voters go to the polls in 19 party primaries to choose nominees to run in November.
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City employees expected to receive 2.5% bonus
City employees are about to be awarded a 2.5 percent Christmas bonus. Richmond City Council is expected to unanimously vote Monday, Dec. 11, to approve the bonus payments. Mayor Levar M. Stoney and his administration also support the bonuses to be paid Friday, Dec.15.
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Why is Hampton leaving MEAC?
Re “HU exits MEAC for Big South Conference,” Free Press Nov. 22-25 edition:
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Virginia’s CHIP funding in jeopardy
Overshadowed by the uproar of President Trump’s attempt to defund government support of the Affordable Care Act for adults, 65,000 children in Virginia and 9 million children across the country are now threatened with the loss of their health insurance.
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‘The civil rights struggle has not survived on fear nor superficiality’
Re Letter to the editor, “Absence from Mississippi museum dedication hurt us,” Free Press Dec. 14-16 edition: It is an unimaginable claim that Rep. John Lewis’ absence from the dedication of the Mississippi Civil Rights Museum on Dec. 9 hurt the African-American community. For Rep. Lewis to have stood on such hallowed ground with President Trump at the dedication would have been a travesty of historic proportions.
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Cold weather help available for city residents
Richmond’s brutal chill will get even more frigid as the temperature continues to drop into the single digits during the next few days. The city’s Cold Weather Overflow Shelter will be open through Monday, Jan. 8, and each night when temperatures are forecast to be at 40 degrees or below. Located in the city’s former Public Safety Building at 501 N. 9th St., the shelter opens at 7 p.m. and closes the following morning at 10 a.m.
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No cakewalk
We are impressed by the résumé and remarks of Jason Kamras, the 43-year-old Washington public schools administrator and 2005 National Teacher of the Year who received the unanimous backing of the Richmond School Board to become Richmond’s next public schools superintendent.
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Richmond ties for indicted Gates
Richmonder Rick Gates, a former Trump presidential campaign official, and his business partner, Paul Manafort, who was chairman of the Trump campaign, pleaded not guilty to a 12-count indictment charging them with conspiracy against the United States, tax fraud and money laundering.
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Inaugural prayers mirror new governor’s themes of tolerance, unity
The Rev. Kelvin F. Jones called on new Gov. Ralph S. Northam and his leadership partners to “pursue an aggressive agenda” with a focus on “health care, a fair living wage, a thriving economy and a superb education for all” in his opening prayer at the governor’s inauguration Saturday.