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Hope for the ‘Cotton Curtain’
We won the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at Selma, combining the power of a principled mass movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a compassionate president who did the right thing despite the heavy political price. What was that cost? President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best at the time when he told his aides that we’d “just lost the South for a generation.”
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More than 50% of African-Americans have high blood pressure under new guidelines
Well over half of all African-American adults will be classified as having high blood pressure under new streamlined diagnostic guidelines released this week, illuminating the heavy burden of cardiovascular disease in the population. Anyone with blood pressure higher than 130/80 will be considered to have hypertension, or high blood pressure, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology stated Monday in releasing their new joint guidelines.
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Black artists alliance to hold benefit online auction for COVID-19 relief
Members of the Black American Artists Alliance of Richmond are holding an online art auction from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 6, to benefit CultureWorks’ COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund.
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Crusade for Voters to celebrate 65th anniversary with banquet Oct. 14
The Richmond Crusade for Voters, the area’s oldest Black political group, will mark its 65th anniversary with a scholarship banquet 6 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 14, it has been announced.
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Obamas break ground for $830M presidential library
After five years of legal battles, gentrification concerns and a federal review, Barack and Michelle Obama dug shovels into the ground Tuesday during a celebratory groundbreaking on their legacy project in a lakefront Chicago park.
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From home, Virginians can keep an eye on legislators
It may not offer the drama of “House of Cards,” but an initiative at the Virginia Capitol is lifting the curtain on the workings of the General Assembly.
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Food fight
Highland Springs-based food ministry scrambles to generate new food sources after being shut out by Feed More
For the past year, Brian Purcell has stopped by the Kroger store in Mechanicsville four days a week to pick up unsold prepared food and bakery items the store otherwise would have thrown away.
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Changes at 2 North Side funeral homes
They may deal with death, but two venerable, African-American-owned funeral homes in North Side are getting new life. The former W.S. Watkins & Son Funeral Home at 2700 North Ave. has new owners who vow to rebuild the 84-year-old business.
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Visit museums, gardens and historical sites in Richmond and the world online
Richmond area museums are offering on- line activities, virtual tours and resources to youngsters and families as schools are out for the rest of the academic year and museums and other public venues have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
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City registrar to seek $1.2M for new voting machines
Richmond is close to resolving its voting machine problem. Less than two weeks after the state banned the touch-screen machines Richmond and 29 other localities have used for 10 years, the city’s Electoral Board has selected replacement equipment.
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City residents’ utility bills increase
Effective with the July bills, Richmond residents will be charged at least $8.70 more per month for public utilities, including water, sewer service, natural gas and stormwater controls.
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Price of first class stamp drops by 2¢
A postage stamp now costs 47 cents — a drop of 2 cents for a first class letter.
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Chesterfield to remain in CVWMA recycling program
A regional curbside recycling program that serves Richmond, Henrico County and seven other localities is no longer in danger of collapsing.
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City quietly pumps $833,569 more into Monroe Park renovation
The renovation of Monroe Park is a prime example of why Richmond City Council is becoming more aggressive in overseeing city spending.
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Medicaid expansion moves ahead in House of Delegates
Efforts to expand Medicaid to about 300,000 low-income adults in Virginia continue to gain momentum, as Republican House leaders on Sunday publicly embraced a form of expansion that includes work requirements and copays.
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Justice movement will not be deterred, by Jesse L. Jackson, Sr.
The right wing majority on the U.S. Supreme Court has undercut the federal Voting Rights Act again. Having gutted the section that required pre-approval of state voting laws to protect the rights of minorities to vote in Shelby v. Holder, Republican-appointed justices now have castrated the backup clause, Section 2, that bans racial discrimination in election practices in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee.
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Young, gifted, black and abused
In the course of one week, we witnessed the burden of being young, gifted and black. First, the Little League baseball phenom Mo’ne Davis was insulted by a white college baseball player who called the abundantly talented young girl a ‘slut’ in a tweet in response to news that Disney was planning to make a movie about her incredible rise to fame. The player, Joey Casselberry, quickly retracted the tweet in the face of a wave of criticism in cyberspace and was promptly dismissed by the Bloomsburg University team.
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Gov. Northam issues temporary weapons ban
Fearing a repeat of the deadly violence that engulfed Charlottesville more than two years ago, Gov. Ralph S. Northam declared a temporary state of emergency Wednesday that would ban all weapons, including guns, knives, sticks, bats, chains and projectiles, from Capitol Square through the weekend and until Tuesday.
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NCAA bound: VSU men’s team plays Notre Dame College Saturday
If the Virginia State University men’s basketball team is to advance in the NCAA Division II playoffs, it will have to avoid a roadblock standing 6-foot-8 and weighing 240 pounds.
