Story

Coliseum referendum hearing slated for Aug. 15
Richmond Circuit Court Judge Joi Jeter Taylor will determine next week if Richmond voters will have a say on the proposed $1.5 billion Coliseum project that Mayor Levar M. Stoney is asking Richmond City Council to approve.
Story
Va. Supreme Court upholds revocation of Morrissey’s law license
Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey is just one election away from returning to the General Assembly as a state senator.
Story

Pope makes D.C. archbishop first Black cardinal in U.S.
Washington D.C. Archbishop Wilton Gregory is now the first Black U.S. prelate to assume the rank of cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church, a historic appointment that comes months after nationwide demonstrations against racial injustice.
Story

Dauntless
U.S. Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson deflects Republican attacks
Republicans on Wednesday pressed their attacks on a range of issues against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, President Biden’s nominee to become the first Black woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, as she inched closer to the end of an intense two days of questioning with Democrats coming to her defense.
Story

Nikole Hannah-Jones: ‘We’ve been taught the history of a country that does not exist’
Following a year of professional mile- stones born of her work on America’s history of slavery, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Nikole Hannah-Jones said she is clear-eyed about her mission to force a reckoning around the nation’s self-image.
Story

City Council authorizes mayor to accept Lee monument and land from state
The traffic circle at Monument and Allen avenues where the giant monument to Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee once stood will soon belong to the City of Richmond.
Story

BlackTop youth program loses gym space
A private South Side youth program that won plaudits and a $500,000 city grant for its virtual school operation that served more than 80 students daily during the 2020-21 school year has been evicted from its home in a church gymnasium and is scrambling to find a new location for its operations.
Story

Lessons taught at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce in the 1998 NBA draft, and if you think he doesn’t remember each and every one of them, then you don’t know Paul Pierce.
Story

Two men exonerated in assassination of Malcolm X after more than 50 years
More than half a century after the assassination of Malcolm X, two of his convicted killers were exonerated last week after decades of doubt about who was responsible for the civil rights icon’s death.
Story

French honor for Josephine Baker stirs conflict over racism
On the surface, it’s a powerful message against racism: A Black woman will, for the first time, join other luminaries interred in France’s Pantheon. But by choosing a U.S.-born figure/entertainer Josephine Baker—critics say France is continuing a long tradition of decrying racism abroad while obscuring it at home.
Story

Tightening the reins
Richmond School Board votes 5-4 to issues its own design request for a new George Wythe High School and empanel new evaluation team after 3-hour debate
After four months of heated debate, the Richmond School Board on Monday night pushed ahead with its own plan to build a new George wythe High School and two other schools in hewing to its mantra that “schools build schools.”
Story

RPS employee faces firing for incident she, others deny
Robin Spears previously had a spotless record during her 14 years as a teacher and social worker with Richmond Public Schools.
Story

Woman says former executive who defrauded city also fooled her
Sharon B. Holmes is relieved that a retired senior executive in the Richmond Department of Public Works is going to prison for engineering a scheme that ripped off the department for $600,000.
Story

The life and legacy of Jim Brown, all-time NFL great and social activist
If ever the term “larger than life” fit one individual, it would be Jim Brown, the athlete, actor and activist.
Story

Collapse of NBA, NHL arena deal prompts recriminations, allegations of impropriety in Va.
The majority owner of the Washington Wizards and Capitals, Ted Leonsis, told a crowd in December that he had “goosebumps” at the thought of moving his NBA and NHL teams from Washington to Virginia, “if all goes as planned.”
Story

VCU anti-war protest attracts hundreds, ends in 13 arrests
Six students at Virginia Commonwealth University were among the 13 people arrested by police Monday evening on VCU’s campus outside the James Branch Cabell Library during an antiwar, pro-Palestine protest and encampment focused on the ongoing conflict in Gaza, Palestine.
Story

Panthers b-ball hopes to come roaring back
There’s a common thread between one of Virginia Union University’s all-time basketball greats and its current leading man. Both A.J. English II and his protégé, Ray Anderson, hail from the hard courts of Wilmington, Del. The VUU faithful are hoping Anderson, hailed by some as the “Ray of Hope,” can usher the program back to the glory road. English recommended VUU to Anderson and arranged for a visit, recounted the 6-foot-3 junior guard Anderson. “That’s how I got here,” he said.
Story

City’s new CAO
In her seven years of managing the City of Suffolk, Selena Cuffee-Glenn has garnered serious attention for turning the once nearly bankrupt city into a job magnet with a triple A bond rating. Mayor Dwight C. Jones hopes that she will be equally successful in Richmond.
Story

Judge defends record
Embattled Judge Birdie Hairston Jamison defended her record on the Richmond General District Court and urged skeptical legislators to re-elect her to a new term.
Story

Police chief out amid protests of teen’s murder in Chicago
Chicago’s police chief was ousted on Tuesday following days of unrest over video footage showing the police shooting of a black teenager and the subsequent filing of murder charges against a white police officer in the young man’s death. The white officer, Jason Van Dyke, was charged Nov. 24 with first-degree murder in the killing of Laquan McDonald, 17, who was shot 16 times. The video of the killing was released on the day the former officer was charged.