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Robert M. Davis Sr., founder of construction company, dies at 74
Robert Michael Davis Sr. left his mark on hundreds of homes in Richmond and Washington. For 50 years, he was involved in building, renovating and improving residences with a quality that kept him in demand. His record in home construction and his mentorship of and encouragement to young people who worked for him to
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RRHA picks Orlando Artze as interim CEO
Orlando Artze, a 64-year-old former Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority board member who has spent the past two years working on special projects for the authority, has been named RRHA’s interim chief executive officer.
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Williams takes charge on UNC’s defense
Kenny Williams III is the Richmond area’s most recent link to arguably the nation’s premier college basketball program.
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Make Va. No. 1 for workers, not just business
Virginia recently was ranked the best state in the country to do business and the worst state for worker rights and protections.
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Homelessness: A national crisis
Columnists
For more than a decade, economists, lawmakers and others have heralded the nation’s economy, often citing how unemployment has declined as new jobs have been created, or Wall Street trading and major bank profits rise. Some might be led to believe that all is well in America. But as Sportin’ Life in the folk opera “Porgy and Bess” sang, “It ain’t necessarily so.”
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RPS Board affirms rezoning plan will be finished by late Dec.
The Richmond School Board reaffirmed Monday night that it will complete school rezoning by late December.
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Climate change and hurricanes
Columnists
Hurricane Dorian has drowned the Bahamas and devastated the coasts of North and South Carolina. There are trillions of dollars worth of damages to communities that will take years to rebuild.
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VSU student gets inspiration from Hollywood internship
It all started with an app, specifically, a presentation for the app “Sellow” by Virginia State University junior Jaelon Hodges at The Pitch 2019, an entrepreneurial competition in North Carolina held by the Thurgood Marshall College Fund in May.
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VUU heads into homecoming with 62-0 win over Lincoln
Virginia Union University has the potential to turn this weekend’s homecoming into showtime.
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Personality: Kathey B. Stone
As parents around Richmond prepare for the holidays by purchasing gifts, scheduling mall visits, tapping into savings and sharing holiday cheer, Henrico County resident Kathey Bacon Stone will be in Whitehouse, Jamaica, giving the best gifts of all — time, opportunity and love.
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Personality: Tyra Hayes Beaman
Spotlight on Fulbright and Rangel fellowships recipient
Long before Tyra Zuri Hayes Beaman graduated with honors from Spelman College in May 2016, she was working toward becoming a U.S. foreign service officer by studying abroad in Argentina, Uruguay, Haiti and South Africa.
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Melvin 'Mel' Tull
Spotlight on board chair of Children’s Home Society of Virginia
November is National Adoption Month, and the Children’s Home Society of Virginia is highlighting the best of their work with profiles of successful adoptive families in the Richmond area in hopes of encouraging the public to provide a loving home for Virginia’s youths in foster care. CHSVA has connected more than 700 youths and families across Virginia during the past year under the direction of leaders like Melvin “Mel” Tull, its board chairman.
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Abortion battle erupts with leaded U.S. Supreme Court draft opinion
America’s decades-old battle over abortion rights exploded anew on Tuesday as the U.S. Supreme Court authenticated a draft opinion leaked to the news outlet Politico that signaled the court will soon overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion nationwide.
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Richmond’s striking past with Black baseball pitchers includes Satchel Paige, others
Since integrated professional baseball arrived in Richmond, there has been a relative shortage of Black men on the pitching mound for the home team.
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Personality: Coleman Wortham III
Spotlight on Children’s Hospital Foundation board chairman
Through decades of change and evolution, Coleman Wortham III has been a steadfast part of Richmond’s child care community.
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Funeral traditions changed – maybe permanently – by COVID-19
John E. Thomasson was a hero in his hometown. As a member of the Louisa County Board of Supervisors, he was the first African-American elected to public office in the county. Across 98 years, he built a successful realty company, helped to save mortgages, paid for college scholarships and owned the local funeral home for 53 years, where he oversaw the burials of thousands of Virginians. When he died of an age-related illness on July 22, there was hardly anyone in Louisa County who had not been touched by his life. Other than his wife of more than 65 years, the Rev. Christine Thomasson, there is likely no one who knows his impact better than his successor, D.D. Watson Jr., who was handpicked by Mr. Thomasson to purchase and take over his funeral home business in 2004. And yet upon the death of Mr. Thomasson—a businessman, philanthropist, politician and public servant whose life and work was recognized this year in a proclamation from the Virginia Senate—the largest single gathering in his honor held barely 12 people. That’s because of government-imposed safety restrictions on public gatherings because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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‘I’m tired of fighting people who look like me’
Lt. Gov.-elect Winsome Sears rails against criticism she said is leveled against her by the Black community
Just days before Winsome Sears’ historic swearing in Saturday, Jan. 15, as Virginia’s first female lieutenant governor and the first African-American woman elected to statewide office in the Commonwealth, she sounds more like a woman under siege than someone poised to enter the history books.
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Denied their chance
Racism and segregation wouldn’t allow young African-Americans in Richmond to use whites-only pool for life-saving swimming merit badge in quest to become Eagle Scouts
J. Maurice Hopkins never wanted this story written.
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Richmond Symphony celebrates MLK weekend with three concerts
Dr. Henry Panion III, a Grammy-award winning arranger, composer, conductor, educator and producer, has worked with artists across the musical spectrum.
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Personality: Altamese R. Johnson
Spotlight on winner of AARP Virginia’s Shaw Advocacy Award
Altamese R. Johnson first met the late Elvira B. Shaw in the early 1990s, when the two attended an AARP meeting with Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott of Newport News. The two became fast friends, advocating for issues important to AARP, whose stated mission is “leading positive social change and delivering value to people age 50 and over through information, advocacy and service,” according to the organization.
