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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.
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Morrissey busted on new charges
The situation has gone from bad to worse for scandal-tarred Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey.
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A plan for urban recovery
As the general election season begins in earnest, the National Urban League has a message for the next president: Invest in America. When Europe found itself in physical and economic ruin after World War II, the United States invested $13 billion — $130 billion in today’s dollars — through the European Recovery Program, more commonly known as the Marshall Plan, after Secretary of State George Marshall.
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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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Calls mount for independent investigation of Russia’s ties to Trump administration
President Trump is finding its easy to play golf, but harder to get his way as the nation’s chief executive.
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Paydazed in RVA
High-fee payday loan traps Henrico man
Running short of money to pay bills, Donald Garrett did what many people do — he turned to a payday lender. He borrowed $100 from a small loan company called Advance ‘Til Payday on Nine Mile Road near his Henrico County apartment in order to catch up. Four months later, he had wracked up $320 in fees and still was unable to pay off the original $100. Until a friend stepped in and paid off his debt, he faced paying $80 each month. To pay the loan off, $100 had to be added to the $80 payment.
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Grammys not just about the music
The Grammy Awards wasn’t just about the music Sunday night. The show opened with a dedication to basketball icon Kobe Bryant, who died in a helicopter accident earlier in the day and whose Los Angeles Lakers team has its home at the city’s Staples Center and Grammy venue.
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Dr. Earl McClenney Jr., legendary VSU educator and longtime public administrator, dies at 79
Dr. Earl Hampton McClenney Jr. left his mark on public administration in Virginia as an educator and as a Richmond and state official where he fought entrenched racism and sought to aid the underdog.
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FBI finds no hate crime in old noose in Bubba Wallace’s NASCAR garage
NASCAR went to Talladega Superspeedway last weekend on heightened alert after Bubba Wallace, its only Black driver, took on an active role in a push for racial equality.
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Gone!
After more than 100 years, the statue of Confederate ‘Stonewall’ Jackson on Monument Avenue comes down
Goodbye, “Stonewall” Jackson.
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Gov. Northam releases progressive 2020-22 budget plan
Smokers might have to shell out an extra 30 cents in tax for a pack of cigarettes to help offset the cost of tobacco-related illnesses that the state must pick up through Medicaid and other health care programs.
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Funeral service Friday for Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland
Tributes continue to pour in for Congressman Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland, a moral voice of conscience who fought for civil rights and took on the White House as a prominent figure in the impeachment inquiry of President Trump as chairman of the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee.
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Pushback
Richmond native files complaint about Navy Hill District Corp. with Internal Revenue Service; City Council vote on project may come as late as March
The battle over the proposed $1.5 billion Navy Hill District Corp. project in Downtown could rage for a few more months.
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No knee now
Kaepernick saga continues with surprise public workout
Colin Kaepernick’s saga took another surreal turn last Saturday — a last-minute audible to nix an NFL-arranged workout and a quick dash 60 miles to the other side of Metro Atlanta, where the exiled quarterback staged his own impromptu passing display on a high school field in dwindling light as hundreds of fans cheered him on from behind a chain-link fence.
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GOP takes another swipe at Obamacare
Jay Stout considers himself lucky that he was on the health insurance plan that his mother purchased through the Affordable Care Act’s marketplace.
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Local couple in Paris bears witness to Notre Dame fire
George K. Martin of Mechanicsville and his wife, Anita, arrived in Paris on Sunday night and made a sightseeing list that included some of the top tourist spots in the City of Lights, including Notre Dame Cathedral.
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Opening Bell
Richmond Public Schools students, parents, teachers and officials were up bright and early and full of optimism Tuesday morning for the beginning of the new school year.
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Misfire: Special General Assembly session called Tuesday to deal with gun violence collapses in GOP ploy; showdown expected in November elections
Gun control is likely to be a red-hot campaign issue for Virginia’s fall elections in the wake of a special General Assembly session that misfired Tuesday.
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Under the microscope
An experiment to fight pandemic-era learning loss launches in Richmond
After intense opposition and skepticism, two elementary schools opened 20 days early to help students make up for what they missed during the time of remote learning. The first question: Would kids show up in the middle of summer for extra schooling?
