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Trump changing complexion of federal courts
President Trump is nominating white men to America’s federal courts at a rate not seen in nearly 30 years, threatening to reverse a slow transformation toward a judiciary that reflects the nation’s diversity.
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New ICA exhibit, 'Great Force,' to include late Free Press founder
The power of white culture versus black resistance is at the heart of a major art show opening this week at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Institute for Contemporary Art.
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Mayor Stoney throws over Columbus to proclaim Oct. 14 Indigenous Peoples' Day
Richmond has long refused to recognize the annual federal Columbus Day holiday that will fall on Monday, Oct. 14, to remember the European explorer Christopher Columbus who “discovered” America.
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Pope Francis preaches message of peace, care of the sick and environmentalism during 3-nation visit to Africa
Pope Francis greeted packed stadiums full of celebrating locals and spoke to crowds numbering up to 1 million people in Madagascar, the second stop on his weeklong, three-nation trip to Africa.
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Ira P. Washington Jr., retired educator and sports enthusiast, dies at 79
For Ira Payne Washington Jr., guiding middle school students to academic achievement was a calling. For nearly 50 years, he was a fixture at Henderson Middle School in Richmond’s North Side where he taught, ran the in-school suspension program and served as an assistant principal, with a lengthy illness forcing him into retirement.
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KKK targets Henrico neighborhoods, hits Hanover again
Henrico County Branch NAACP officials and top county officials urged residents to push back against white supremacy as the Ku Klux Klan targeted Glen Allen neighborhoods to distribute recruitment fliers in the dead of night last weekend.
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VCU Health System offers relief to certain patients with overdue bills
The VCU Health System, Virginia Commonwealth University’s medical arm, is taking steps to ease the financial stress on thousands of patients and their families struggling to pay their VCU hospital and doctors’ bills.
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VSU to meet CIAA champ Bowie State in Saturday's homecoming
Virginia State University has won five straight games with a relatively soft schedule. On Saturday, Oct. 19, easy street ends.
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Coco wins first WTA title at 15; Osaka gives up U.S. citizenship to play for Japan in Olympics
Coco Gauff is still just 15. She also is already the owner of a WTA singles title.
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VSU alumni, faculty and students have much to celebrate this ‘homecoming’
Virginia State University’s first homecoming since 2019 likely will be a landmark in many ways, returning to the campus this year amid a surge in interest and enrollments in historically black colleges and universities locally and nationally.
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No charges in shootings of Jacob Blake and Tamir Rice
A Wisconsin prosecutor declined Tuesday to file charges against a white police officer who shot a Black man in the back in Kenosha, Wis., concluding he couldn’t disprove the officer’s contention that he acted in self-defense because he feared the man would stab him.
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On the battlefield:
City schools, agencies and government work to find strategies to combat gun violence
South Richmond residents are preparing to bury a mother and her infant daughter, two of the latest victims of a spate of indiscriminate violence that has left families devastated and in tears over the unnecessary loss life.
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America’s new day
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris are sworn into office in an uplifting ceremony
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. issued a ringing call to the nation and began throwing out the damaging, corrosive policies of his predecessor after being sworn into office Wednesday along with his history-making vice president, former U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris of California.
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A new day
We revel in the glow surrounding the Jan. 20 inauguration of President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and Vice President Kamala Harris, and the historic “firsts” it represents for our nation: Vice President Harris, the highest-ranking woman ever elected in U.S. government; the first woman vice president in the nation’s history; the first African-American and first South Asian ever to become vice president.
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ROUNDUP
The search for Richmond’s next poet laureate is on. City officials recently launched the search for an artist who can bridge division in the city’s community through art.
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Community rallies to preserve historic Black hospital
Richmonders will rally for an important symbol of the city’s Black history Sunday afternoon at the former Richmond Community Hospital on Overbrook Road. Virginia Union University, a historically Black university which owns the former hospital, plans to demolish the historic building and replace it with housing.
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Joe locks up win, gets cold shoulder
Delegate Morrissey back in General Assembly
Joseph D. “Fighting Joe” Morrissey is back in the General Assembly.
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Another black justice?
Political power play may lead to third African-American on Va. Supreme Court
Virginia is on its way to having a record three African-American judges on the state’s highest court — courtesy of the frayed relationship between Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe and Republican leaders who control the General Assembly. In a slap at Gov. McAuliffe for apparently ignoring them, top GOP legislators announced this week that House and Senate Republicans would take the virtually unprecedented step of rejecting the person the governor had appointed to the Virginia Supreme Court, in this case an experienced white female judge.
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School Board weighs options to close schools
Richmond Public Schools is considering a seismic shift in how it attempts to solve overcrowding issues and meet other pressing demands related to its burgeoning student population. For the first time, Superintendent Dana T. Bedden and his leadership team are publicly admitting they could close up to six school buildings and move those students into existing schools even if no new buildings are constructed. Those findings are part of the thick new Richmond Public Schools Facilities Needs Report, which focuses on current and future building needs.
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A new top cop in town
The Richmond Police Department has stayed free of public accusations of police brutality as “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations grow locally and across the nation to protest atrocities by white police officers in the black community. The nearly 740-officer force has garnered mostly praise for its community policing efforts to gain closer ties with neighborhoods in the city it serves.