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American justice defiled
President Trump’s first three weeks in office have left Americans reeling from what Republican speech writer Peggy Noonan called his “cloud of crazy.”
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VCU takes on St. Mary’s College in NCAA first round in Salt Lake City
Virginia Commonwealth University’s legion of basketball fans has come to expect two things — continued excellence and lengthy journeys to cheer on their Rams in the NCAA Tournament. VCU has qualified for the NCAAs a noteworthy seven straight years. Only three schools have longer streaks.
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For-profit prisons trample basic human rights
Tuesday, March 7, marked the 52nd anniversary of Bloody Sunday, the historic march and shocking police riot in Selma, Ala., that helped build public support for passage of the federal Voting Rights Act.
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VCU ready for 7th consecutive bid to NCAAs
Barring an unlikely late season collapse, the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams are primed for a seventh straight trip to the NCAA playoffs.
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Fouls central part of Rams’ strategy
Virginia Commonwealth University’s winning basketball recipe includes balanced scoring plus a little discussed “secret” ingredient — balanced fouling. Now with eight straight wins after last Friday’s 84-73 victory at the University of Richmond, the Rams are 22-5 heading into difficult Atlantic 10 Conference road tests at the University of Rhode Island and the University of Dayton.
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John Marshall ready for regional playoffs with tall men in front, back court
Richmond’s John Marshall High School boasts perhaps the tallest basketball front line in Virginia in 6-foot-9 Isaiah Todd, 6-foot-7 Isaiah Anderson and 6-foot-6 Greg Jones.
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The people’s champion
Ditch the memories of Muhammad Ali showing up uninvited at Sonny Liston’s training camp, announcing that he was going bear hunting. Put aside his boasts of being the greatest of alllll-timmmme. Scratch the images of the “Ali Shuffle” and his patented rope-a-dope.
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A clear and present danger
The danger that Donald Trump, practitioner of questionable business practices, inveterate bully, racist, sexist, demagogue and the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for president of the United States, presents to American society was never more evident than last week amid a flurry of negative news stories.
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3 of 9 quarterbacks chosen in NFL draft are black
A wave of talented African-American quarterbacks has emerged as NFL headliners in recent years. But what are the prospects for the next wave?
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For Toronto Raptors fans: Fast facts
Maybe it’s time for the National Basketball Association to shift its name to the International Basketball Association. With the slogan “We the North,” the Toronto Raptors have reached the NBA Eastern Conference finals for the first time in franchise history.
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Cam Newton wins league MVP, but loses Super Bowl
From Super Bowl 50, we learned the “D” in Denver stands for “defense,” and Cam Newton remains a work in progress. In a game sandwiched between endless commercials and a marathon halftime show, the Denver Broncos defeated the upstart Carolina Panthers 24-10.
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Reaching toward justice
Bryan Stevenson’s inspiring and best-selling book “Just Mercy” shares some of the fruits of his lifelong fight to push our nation closer to true justice. In January, our nation took two more steps forward in the ongoing struggle to treat children like children and ensure a fairer justice system for all, especially for our poor and those of color.
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Afflicting the comfortable
In American society, we claim to support freedom of speech as a cornerstone of our democracy. Yet when it comes to certain kinds of information — particularly ideas that threaten the basis for white supremacy — censorship suddenly becomes justifiable. A teaching tool created by the African American Policy Forum recently was subject to this form of censorship in Henrico County.
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Protesters seek year-round city-run homeless shelter
About 30 members of the city’s homeless community, advocates for homeless people and other concerned residents gathered behind the city’s old Public Safety Building early last Friday evening for a rally and sleep-in protest at the entrance of the emergency overflow shelter.
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TJ’s new football coach trying to ‘translate talent into more wins’
Chad Hornik scored noteworthy victories, both on and off the field, as football coach at Richmond’s Thomas Jefferson High School from 2012 to 2015.
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Demand economic justice
This year’s presidential primaries have highlighted the importance of people of color to the Democratic Party coalition. Hillary Clinton’s lead in the party’s nomination race comes almost entirely from her strength among African-American and Latino voters. When people of color favor one candidate by large margins, they make the difference.
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Chesterfield player headed to Final Four with Syracuse
The Virginia teams in the NCAA basketball tournament are gone, but a Chesterfield County player remains in the competition. Talented Michael Gbinije is headed to the Final Four in Houston as Syracuse University’s 6-foot-7 graduate student point guard.
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Violent crime in city down in 2015
Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Police Chief Alfred Durham trumpeted a major decrease in violent crimes committed in the city during 2015 at a news conference last Friday. But the grim reality of crime’s impact on the community was illustrated when Charlene Boone stepped to the podium during the officials’ announcement last Friday at the Richmond Police Training Academy.
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Richmond Public Schools losing budget director during critical season
Richmond Public Schools is losing one of its chief budget architects as the School Board and Superintendent Dana T. Bedden prepare to kick off their budget negotiations for fiscal year 2017 with Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Richmond City Council. Betsy Drewry, RPS director of budget and planning, will leave her position Friday, Feb. 5, to become director of budget and finance for Prince George County, she told the Free Press at Monday’s School Board meeting at City Hall. Ms. Drewry is exiting after 18 months in the position. She was the Prince George school system’s budget chief for 14 years prior to coming to Richmond.
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Gov. Northam acknowledges his own uncomfortable truths
Nearly a year after public revelations of racist photos published on his medical school yearbook page, Gov. Ralph S. Northam offered a mea culpa at Virginia Union University’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Community Leaders Breakfast and acknowledged the lessons he has learned confronting some of his own painful truths.
