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Bobbi Kristina’s autopsy shows mixture of drugs, alcohol
Bobbi Kristina Brown’s autopsy report contained evidence of recent cocaine use by the daughter of Bobby Brown and the late Whitney Houston before she was found unresponsive in a bathtub in her home last year. But a medical examiner’s office said last Friday it could not establish whether her death after months in a coma was accidental or intentional. Ms. Brown suffered brain damage and died of pneumonia resulting from drug intoxication and her face being immersed in water, the Fulton County Medical Examiner said.
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Former First Lady Nancy Reagan dies
Nancy Reagan, the former actress who was fiercely protective of her husband, President Ronald Reagan, through a Hollywood career, eight years in the White House, an assassination attempt and his Alzheimer’s disease, died Sunday, March 6, 2016, at her Los Angeles home.
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Petersburg shake-up nets new chief operating officer
Amid crumbling finances, the City of Petersburg has shaken up its government leadership. After firing City Manager William E. Johnson III last week, the seven-member Petersburg City Council handed executive authority to three of its members, including Mayor W. Howard Myers, Ward 5, the city’s titular leader. The shuffle is the City Council’s latest effort to deal with millions of dollars in unpaid bills, a multimillion-dollar revenue shortfall and a malfunctioning water billing system.
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Planned school cuts causing pain
North Side resident Sherri Davis said she is concerned about planned budget cuts that may close schools, crowd classrooms and have parents scrambling to arrange transportation for their children. “It becomes a safety issue when you propose to put more kids in classes,” the mother of two Richmond Public Schools students told the Free Press on Wednesday. “It’s already hard enough for teachers to teach the large numbers of students they have in their classrooms.”
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Rudd’s Trailer Park sold; new owner takes over in April
Ronnie Soffee exchanged hugs and accepted well wishes from residents at Rudd’s Trailer Park early Saturday afternoon. He even shed a few tears as several people stopped by the office of the mobile home park at 2911 Jefferson Davis Highway.
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Déjá vu
Now that the political pundits of the major media outlets have gulped down the teas that were the South Carolina Democratic primary and Super Tuesday, they are busy trying to read the leaves left in their respective cups. One of the questions they are trying to fathom is: “Why are black voters splitting between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders?”
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Super Tuesday: Just how super?
Super Tuesday is over. And for fans of Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, it was a great night, with multistate victories for both candidates ranging from Massachusetts to Georgia to Arkansas.
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Plunky and Oneness wins 2 IMA awards
Plunky and Oneness, a Richmond-based jazz-funk fusion group, is among the winners in the 2016 Independent Music Awards.
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Host Chris Rock rocks the Oscars
Comedian Chris Rock launched his return stint as Oscar host Sunday by immediately and unabashedly confronting the racially charged elephant in the room — the furor over the all-white field of performers nominated for Hollywood’s highest honor.
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CIAA champs head to NCAA (Pt 2)
Lady Panthers celebrating title; Johnson clinches MVP
Kiana Johnson and Lady Walker may be the best celebration combination since ice cream and cake. They’re the life of a Virginia Union University basketball party that’s just spreading it wings under first-year Coach AnnMarie Gilbert.
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VUU enjoying turnaround
Long story short — Coach Jay Butler has turned things around at Virginia Union University. In recent times, VUU’s men’s basketball team would return from the CIAA Tournament in Charlotte, N.C., with no victories and little cause for optimism. The image brightened last week as VUU won its first tournament game since 2009 (over Shaw University), nearly tacked on a second win against two-time defending champ Livingstone College, and did so with a roster oozing with skilled underclassmen.
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Jesse Owens had backup
17 other black athletes competed on 1936 U.S. Olympic team
Adolf Hitler’s bigoted theory on “Aryan supremacy” took a terrible beating at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, Germany. A talented band of African-American athletes led by Jesse Owens blew up Hitler’s hateful propaganda and kicked the rubble in his face.
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Telfair: I was never consulted on Petersburg water contract
Two years ago, cash-strapped Petersburg jumped at a deal that Johnson Controls Inc. was offering. As it has done across the country, the energy and industrial giant offered to pay for installing automated water meters to replace Petersburg’s 11,500 old and outdated meters. The new meters would transmit water usage data to a passing truck and eliminate the need to send staff to physically check meters every two months.
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Pro-Confederate legislators make run to save symbols
Veto that bill, governor. That’s the cry from members of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus after the Republican-dominated General Assembly approved a bill that would bar localities from removing Confederate hate symbols from public property. “I voted against it, but now we can only hope that that the governor will use his veto pen,” said Delegate Jennifer L. McClellan.
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Local Democrats jubilant over Clinton win
Two groups of Democratic supporters gathered Tuesday night at separate viewing parties two blocks apart at restaurants in Shockoe Bottom. Shortly after the polls closed at 7 p.m., both venues quickly transformed into jubilant celebrations of Hillary Clinton’s resounding win over U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders in Virginia’s presidential primary. When it was all said and done, Mrs. Clinton easily trounced Sen. Sanders in the state, winning 64.3 percent of the vote to his 35.2 percent.
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Clinton, Trump win Super Tuesday
Super Tuesday proved super for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump. The two front-runners each won seven of the 11 state primary contests this week, including Virginia — putting each on course to win their party’s presidential nomination and face each other in a general election showdown.
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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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85-year-old barber takes shears from 2nd Street to South Side
Jackson Ward is losing another longtime fixture — barber William Lomax. For more than 62 years, Mr. Lomax cut hair in shops on 2nd Street, the Jackson Ward community’s main commercial corridor.
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Blood drive Monday to raise sickle cell awareness
Virginia Blood Services will host a blood drive from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday, Feb. 29, at The Shops at White Oak Village, 4500 S. Laburnum Ave., in Henrico County to raise awareness of sickle cell anemia.
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Va. officials propose commission on 400th anniversary of Africans in U.S.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine and Rep. Robert C. “Bobby” Scott want to set up a federal panel to study the contributions and accomplishments of black people in America.
