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‘We have seen enough’
Crusade for Voters calls for removal of RPS Superintendent Kamras
The Richmond Crusade for Voters (RCV), a historically Black political organization, is calling for the immediate removal of RPS Superintendent Jason Kamras. In a statement released Tuesday, the organization said they have “seen enough” to make this determination.
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Mr. Speaker
Don Scott makes history as Virginia Legislature opens; Youngkin calls for bipartisan progress
A remade Virginia General Assembly convened its 2024 session Wednesday with a Democratic majority newly in charge of both chambers after a consequential election cycle that followed two years of divided control of the Legislature.
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Judgment day
Court orders RPS to release Sands Anderson report; findings show negligence
The external report by the Sands Anderson law firm regarding the June 6, 2023 shooting after the Huguenot High School graduation at the Altria Theater was ordered to be released to the public by 1 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 17.
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Tearful testimony highlights second day of Huguenot High graduation shooting trial
Loved ones and police officers gave jurors a clearer picture on Tuesday of a fatal shooting that occurred after a 2023 Virginia high school graduation ceremony on day two of the shooter’s trial.
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Livingstone wins CIAA men’s championship
For decades, Livingstone College’s Blue Bears were little more than commoners in CIAA basketball. Today, they’re kings. In fact, the Blue Bears now have a second crown to wear atop their first one. The jump shooters from Salisbury, N.C., are back-to-back tournament champs after blitzing Winston-Salem State University 106-91 in last Saturday’s CIAA title game at Charlotte’s Time Warner Cable Arena.
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Public safety on front burner in mayor’s budget plan
Mayor Dwight C. Jones is proposing to pour millions of dollars into wage increases for city employees, most notably police officers and firefighters. He also wants to equip the police with body cameras and modernize the 911 emergency communications system at a cost of more $50 million.
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Services sacrificed in council’s $ plan
Richmond Public Schools is on track to gain an extra $9 million to help meet critical needs in the coming year. Police officers and firefighters also are on track to gain bigger raises of roughly 2.5 percent to help reduce turnover in public safety.
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No charges filed against Wisconsin police officer in teen’s death
A Wisconsin police officer who fatally shot an unarmed biracial teenager in March, prompting several days of peaceful protests, will not be charged, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Officer Matt Kenny used justified lethal force in the March 6 shooting of Tony Robinson, 19, Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne said.
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New VSU president shares vision, receives support at official introduction
Brimming with confidence and eager to get started, the new president of Virginia State University is promising to first listen to students, faculty and staff and then roll out a “strategic vision that will be bold and purposefully challenging.” Among other things, Dr. Makola M. Abdullah wants VSU to be known for providing “a quality education,” to invest in specialty academic areas that would make the university more attractive while continuing to be “an opportunity university” for students who might not be admitted elsewhere.
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Police brutality : ‘I will not tolerate it’
Chief talks tough on expectations of officer conduct
Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham minced no words about how he won’t tolerate brutality and excessive use of force by officers under his command. “I’m going to tell it like it is. If there is riffraff in my department and you’re wearing a gun and a badge, you’re gone,” he told an audience of about 50 people at a public forum Tuesday night at Richmond’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. “I will not tolerate it.” At this second “Peeps and Police Community Conversations” attended by mostly elderly and middle-aged adults, Chief Durham said that “several officers were disciplined” recently after they mishandled a situation inside a resident’s home. He did not elaborate.
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Danville’s Claiborne among NCAA ‘pioneers’
In 1966, Duke University advanced to the NCAA basketball Final Four with an all-white roster. Waiting anxiously in the wings, however, was Claudius B. Claiborne, the Blue Devils’ first black athlete. From segregated John Langston High School in Danville, the 6-foot-3 Claiborne played on Duke’s freshman team in 1966, then moved to varsity for the 1966-67 season and became a three-year letterman under Coach Vic Bubas.
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Protests erupt over teacher cuts, reassignments
Teachers, students, parents and supporters mobilized via social media when they learned Richmond Public Schools officials began instituting cost-cutting changes affecting the jobs of some of their most beloved teachers. “Please help!” read one urgent Facebook post.
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School Board votes 4-2 to back Bedden’s ‘leveling’ plan
Are arts and music programs and foreign language classes now an endangered species in some Richmond Public Schools? That’s what some School Board members, students, parents and supporters fear in the wake of Monday night’s 4-2 vote by the board to back Superintendent Dana T. Bedden’s “leveling” plan.
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Forums deliver security tips to church leaders
Richmond area faith leaders and congregation members are on heightened alert following the mass killing of nine worshippers at a historic Charleston, S.C., church last week and a frightening incident that followed at a church in South Richmond.
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Tips to avoid the holiday blues
The six weeks encompassing Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s are for most a magically unique time of year. But for many, the holidays bring hurt. Caused by factors including the weather, separation, death, stress, unrealistic expectations, hyper-sentimentality, guilt or overspending, holiday depression can zap the merriment out of even the most wonderful time of the year.
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Faith and Nat Turner
The story of Nat Turner, the slave and preacher who led a failed 1831 rebellion in Virginia, is surrounded by mystery and speculation as to his motives and the role that faith played in the uprising.
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Broadcast legend ‘Tiger Tom’ Mitchell dies
“Tiger Tom” Mitchell built his life on the spoken and written word. For more than 30 years, the celebrated broadcaster entertained untold thousands of listeners with his radio show on long-gone WANT AM 990.
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Bank business turns ugly for local man
Every two weeks like clockwork, Jeffrey Perry has deposited his paycheck at the Wells Fargo bank branch in Mechanicsville located a few blocks from his workplace.
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Back on the runway
Renée Lacy has been the modeling guru for thousands of children, teens and adults in the Richmond area and beyond. For 35 years, the bubbly, energetic woman operated a training center in Downtown where would-be models under her tutelage learned the ways of the runway.
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Dr. King’s daughter urges people to rise above anger with Trump administration
The Rev. Bernice A. King electrified an audience of men and women at the National Press Club, challenging them to rise above bickering with people with whom they may have political and cultural disagreements and find common ground — including President Trump.
