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New VUU president
Dr. Hakim J. Lucas of Bethune-Cookman tapped as school’s 13th president
They’ve been rivals forever, but Virginia Union and Virginia State universities soon will have one thing in common — a first-time president with executive credentials honed at Bethune-Cookman University in Florida. Twenty months after VSU hired Bethune-Cookman Provost Makola M. Abdullah as its 14th president, VUU announced that the Florida university’s chief fundraiser, Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, would become its 13th president, effective Sept. 1. Dr. Lucas’ appointment was announced Tuesday by Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, VUU’s board chairman, following a 14-month search to replace former President Claude G. Perkins, who stepped down in June 2016, first taking a sabbatical and then retiring.
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1 vendor? ‘This is ridiculous!’
Re “Only 1 black-owned food vendor at NFL training camp,” Free Press July 27-29 edition: Only one black food vendor at the NFL training camp in Richmond? This is ridiculous!
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Happy birthday to Medicaid
For more than a half century, Medicaid has been a shining example of the good and essential support government can provide those most in need across all ages. Through the years, we have been striving to live up to the promise of ensuring all children and young people a chance to reach healthy adulthood — laboriously and successfully expanding coverage to more children thousands by thousands, millions by millions, state by state.
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The latest stunt
We are living in dangerous times. The bigots in the White House have launched a federal Justice Department study of anti-white bias in college admissions. The New York Times reported Tuesday that the Trump administration plans to redirect the civil rights division’s efforts toward investigating and suing universities over admission policies believed to discriminate against white people. What????
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Pulitzer winner Tracy K. Smith named U.S. poet laureate
Tracy K. Smith, who won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 2012, has been named the nation’s 22nd poet laureate, and her recognition is being trumpeted in more than the usual places.
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Richmond Christian Center again facing sale
The Richmond Christian Center, still struggling to emerge from bankruptcy after nearly four years, once again is facing the loss of its property in South Side.
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St. Elizabeth’s 9th Annual Jazz and Food Festival this weekend
St. Elizabeth Catholic Church in Highland Park will host its 9th Annual Jazz and Food Festival from noon to 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 5, on the church grounds at 2712 2nd Ave.
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Personality: Sylvia Alexander-Wall
Spotlight on founder and president of The Ladies of Elegance Inc.
The purpose pushing Sylvia Alexander-Wall’s passion to help people and families enduring cancer can be summed up in two words: Early detection.
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GRTC to hold meetings on bus route changes
How will GRTC’s overhaul of its bus routes and bus stops affect you? Regular riders and potential transit users can find out at a series of information meetings that kick off Saturday, Aug. 5. The meetings will spell out the changes to be put in place when the new Pulse Bus Rapid Transit System begins operating.
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Rev. Jesse Jackson announces Healing and Rebuilding’ tour in Richmond
The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. urged parishioners at Trinity Baptist Church in Richmond to lift the community by voting in Virginia’s statewide election for governor in November.
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City Hall computers secure
City Hall’s computer defenses appear to be successful. The City of Richmond’s computer specialists, it turns out, have dealt with and overcome hacking attempts and other computer challenges that have made headlines elsewhere, officials said.
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$400,000 severance for former city auditor
Former City Auditor Umesh Dalal seems to have been as adept in negotiating his own exit package as he was in examining the practices of city departments.
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A thorn in Trump’s side
I don’t agree with U.S. Sen. John McCain of Arizona about very much, but I was saddened by his recent diagnosis of brain cancer.
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Keep the pressure on
We don’t know where to begin this week with the crazy that has taken place in Washington.
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Grand opening Aug.1 of Southside Community Center
A grand opening is planned for next week for the Southside Community Center, the newest addition to the city’s inventory of recreation centers.
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Dr. Henderson to retire as pastor of 102-year-old church
After 10 years in the pulpit, Dr. Morris G. Henderson is preparing to retire as pastor of Thirty-first Street Baptist Church. Last month, he notified the congregation that he would step down in December as the sixth pastor in the history of the 102-year-old church at 823 N. 31st St. in Church Hill.
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National Night Out to bring together police, community spirit
The rise in crime in Richmond has Marilyn Olds frustrated. “While you are locked up in your house, criminals are taking over our streets,” said the president of the Creighton Court Tenant Council. “The criminals need to see that we are united and we are not going to give up.”
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Only 1 black-owned food vendor at NFL training camp
When Washington’s professional football team converges on Richmond this week for its annual three weeks of preseason practice, Herman Baskerville and his team from Big Herm’s Kitchen on North 2nd Street will be there to greet everyone.
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Johnson named interim president of national NAACP
The national NAACP announced a new interim leader, along with a nationwide listening tour that will allow the organization’s leaders to talk to local members and figure out the future direction of the nation’s oldest civil rights organization.
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Who’s running RPS superintendent search?
Who is controlling the future of Richmond Public Schools? In a school system with a high poverty, predominantly African-American student population, the new search committee charged with identifying superintendent candidates to lead RPS is being guided, in part, by some of the city’s most influential corporate personalities.
