Story
Bedden trouble?
Dr. Dana T. Bedden, Richmond’s public schools superintendent, is probably out of here. No, it’s not because he was a runner-up and not the winner of the Boston public school system’s top job. It’s because of the latest actions by possibly the two biggest burrs under his saddle — Mayor Dwight C. Jones and the Richmond School Board. Last Friday, Mayor Jones announced a $2.8 billion budget plan for the city for the next two years. His plan includes little more for the city’s public school system than it currently receives — roughly $136 million annually for operations.
Story
Lynch confirmation needed now
On Nov. 8, 2014, President Obama nominated an outstanding prosecutor from the Eastern District of New York to be our nation’s next attorney general. It now has been more than four months since Loretta Lynch was nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Justice — a period longer than any attorney general nominee in the last three decades.
Story
Power in the word
Performing spoken word helps 15-year-old Leslie Reyes deal with the gruesome death she witnessed at age 9 of a 16-year-old friend. With a steady voice, Leslie tells a packed audience of more than 100 people that she watched her best friend die from gunshot wounds in El Salvador. She tells the room of mostly strangers about the “blood-covered gauze and stitched up holes on his shoulder and leg.”
Story
Transformation Expo at Coliseum
Renowned preacher, author, filmmaker and entrepreneur Bishop T.D. Jakes is coming to Richmond this weekend. The 57-year-old pastor at the 30,000-member The Potter’s House church in Dallas is scheduled to speak at the annual 2015 Transformation Expo 4 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at the Richmond Coliseum in Downtown. Doors open at 11 a.m. for the expo, which is scheduled from noon to 5 p.m. Organizer Radio One describes it as “a day of empowerment, education and entertainment.”
Story
VUU women’s coach resigns; men’s coach under evaluation
Barvenia Wooten-Cherry has resigned after five seasons as Virginia Union University women’s basketball coach. Her Lady Panthers were 9-18 overall this past season, 4-12 in the CIAA and advanced to the second round of the recent conference tournament in Charlotte, N.C. In accepting Coach Wooten-Cherry’s resignation, VUU Athletic Director Joe Taylor applauded her for her efforts, but noted that college coaching is a bottom-line occupation. “Off the court, Coach Wooten-Cherry did a lot to assure it was a good experience for her players,” said Taylor. “But at this level, it’s about wins and losses.”
Story
George Wythe High driving toward state championship
In 1975, Willard Coker was an up-tempo, high-energy guard who led Winston-Salem’s R.J. Reynolds High School to the state championship in North Carolina. Now, 40 years later, Coach Coker — still brimming with energy — is close to winning another high school state title state, this time as coach. Coach Coker’s fast-breaking George Wythe High School Bulldogs were playing unbeaten Spotswood High School of Rockingham County in the State 3A finals at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Siegel Center at press time for the Free Press on Wednesday, March 11. The Wythe Bulldogs improved to 25-4 on Tuesday, March 10, by cruising past Northside High School near Roanoke, 78-57. Coach Coker “let the Dogs out” at just the right time for peak perfection.
Story
Preston to challenge Dance for Senate seat
In a surprise move, Joseph E. Preston announced this week he would give up the seat he recently won in the House of Delegates and challenge freshman Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance in the16th Senate District that stretches from Richmond’s East End to the Petersburg area. Delegate Preston’s decision comes barely two months after he replaced Sen. Dance as the representative for the 63rd House District. It also appears fueled, in part, by a dispute he and Sen. Dance have over the choice of the first African-American judge for the Petersburg Circuit Court.
Story
Dreams deferred
Hopewell brothers jailed 72 days until charges dropped
At first, the story seems all too familiar. Two Hopewell teenagers rob two pedestrians at gunpoint near a private school, but are quickly caught when responding police officers scour the area and arrest them a few minutes later as they are buying sodas and pastries at a nearby convenience store. With police boasting about having strong evidence, the teenage brothers are kept in jail for two and a half months — twice refused bond because they are charged with a crime of violence involving a weapon. But just as suddenly, the case evaporates. The evidence does not stand up, and the brothers are freed to resume their lives.
Story
Movie screening to raise money for Sudan refugees
Virginia Commonwealth University is hosting a screening of the movie “The Good Lie” 4 p.m. Saturday, March 21, at the VCU Commons Theater. The goal is to raise money to aid Sudanese refugees living in camps across the Sudan border in Gambela, Ethiopia, according to Manyang Reath Kher, founder and CEO of the Henrico County-based Humanity Helping Sudan Project. The group is organizing the fundraiser. An estimated 200,000 Sudanese now live in such refugee camps, Mr. Kher said.
Story
Ferguson’s double message
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder’s Ferguson investigation offers plenty for both sides of this dispute to hate. Seven months after the shooting of unarmed black teen Michael Brown by former white Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson sparked national protests and a #BlackLivesMatter movement, U.S. Justice Department sleuths found enough evidence to let the cop off the hook but indicted the criminal justice system in which he worked. That’s enraging to Michael Brown’s family and many protesters nationwide who wanted to see Mr. Wilson prosecuted. But the evidence kept pointing the other way, said Mr. Holder, who would hardly be called an apologist for police abuse or racial profilers.
Story
Selma
Excerpts from President Obama’s speech at the 50th anniversary of the Selma marches
There are places and moments in America where this nation’s destiny has been decided. Selma is such a place. In one afternoon 50 years ago, so much of our turbulent history — the stain of slavery and anguish of civil war; the yoke of segregation and tyranny of Jim Crow; the death of four little girls in Birmingham; and the dream of a Baptist preacher — all that history met on this bridge. It was not a clash of armies, but a clash of wills; a contest to determine the true meaning of America. And because of men and women like John Lewis, Joseph Lowery, Hosea Williams, Amelia Boynton, Diane Nash, Ralph Abernathy, C.T. Vivian, Andrew Young, Fred Shuttlesworth, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and so many others, the idea of a just America and a fair America, an inclusive America, and a generous America — that idea ultimately triumphed.
Story
Activist to speak on faith, politics
Activist and author the Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou will share his experience protesting in Ferguson, Mo., and the role of faith in political activism 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 19, at Good Shepherd Baptist Church, 1127 N. 28th St. in Richmond. Rev. Sekou, a 2014 visiting scholar at the Martin Luther King Jr. Research and Education Institute at Stanford University, is the author of “urbansouls,” a collection of essays about at-risk youths in St. Louis, and “God, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy.”
Story
VCU opens March 12 in Atlantic 10 Tournament
The chase is on as Virginia Commonwealth University heads to Brooklyn, N.Y. VCU is trying to run down its first Atlantic 10 basketball title, while Rams senior Treveon Graham remains in pursuit of the university’s all-time scoring record. The more the Rams win, the greater Graham’s chances. VCU, 22-9, opens A-10 tournament play 2:30 p.m. Thursday, March 12, against the play-in survivor between George Mason and Fordham universities.
Story
RRHA reviewing new sites to relocate Fay Towers
The Frederic A. Fay Towers once again seem to be upholding the city housing authority’s reputation for slow-moving development projects. Instead of breaking ground last summer as promised, the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority is still struggling to determine the site where it will build a replacement for the aging high-rise in Gilpin Court, just north of Downtown.
Story
Bedden to stay in Richmond
“Everyone should check your emails,” Richmond School Board member Jeffrey M. Bourne eagerly alerted his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon prior to a hastily called board budget meeting. The six other board members in attendance then quickly turned to their hand-held electronic devices and scrolled to an email sent to them by Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden at 5:07 p.m.
Story
City betting millions on brewery
In its California hometown, Stone Brewery is a standout in San Diego’s burgeoning craft beer market, with Stone’s two beer gardens ranking as important tourist lures. The company boasts that only the renowned San Diego Zoo and the LEGOLAND amusement park attract more visitors to the Navy port city with 4 million people in the metropolitan area or four times the population of metro Richmond.
Story
State legislature bent to Dominion’s pressure
According to the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America, Richmond ranks No. 1 among the 100 most challenging places to live with asthma in the United States. But you’d never know that by the way the Virginia General Assembly deals with legislation sought by Dominion Virginia Power.
Story
Dems need winning formula
Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel just got spanked. Despite a campaign war chest of more than $15 million and the support of President Obama, the former congressman and White House chief of staff could not avoid a runoff in the non-partisan election. Garnering 45 percent of the vote to runner-up Jesus “Chuy” Garcia’s 34 percent, he did not clear the 50 percent bar for victory. Mr. Emanuel, the darling of the mainstream Democratic Party, has earned the dubious distinction of being in the first Chicago mayoral runoff in nearly 20 years. He also runs the risk of being the first incumbent mayor ousted since Harold Washington beat Jane Byrne in 1983.
Story
The GOP’s acting-the-fool dynamic
Among the formal definitions for “acting the fool” is: One who is deficient in judgment, sense or understanding. Perhaps the dictionaries should add a new one: Today’s Republican Party. February was a great month for those who think the GOP has become a dustbin of ideological extremists with no commitment to actually getting things done in Washington, elected officials easily led into ethically questionable dealings, and office-holding crackpots with bizarre beliefs about some of the most important issues of the day.
Story
Whipping up war, disrespect
If we needed further proof of the Republican disrespect shown to President Obama, the nation witnessed the latest insult Tuesday with the visit of Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to Washington, where he addressed a joint session of Congress. His appearance was at the invitation of House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican who flouted protocol and decency by neither consulting nor informing the White House first.
