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Some Muslim candidates face backlash on campaign trail
Two months ago, Fardousa Jama did something no other Muslim woman in South-Central Minnesota has done: She filed to run for a City Council seat in Mankato, Minn.
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Lt. Gov. Fairfax compares ‘rush to judgment’ against him to Jim Crow-era lynching
With his political career in tatters, embattled Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax took a stand against his critics in the final moments of the 2019 General Assembly session.
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Harry and Meghan have a royal baby
And his name is Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex whose fairytale wedding last year garnered international headlines, gave birth to a 7 pound 3 ounce boy at 5:26 a.m. Monday.
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We must invest in ourselves
Let’s get one thing straight: Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s 2020 budget proposal to invest in public education and to improve basic services is an effort to remedy racism. It’s effectively universal affirmative action with a price tag. Simply put, the mayor asks us city dwellers to invest in ourselves.
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Incumbent Thornton facing 2 challengers in Fairfield District primary in Henrico
All five seats on the Henrico County Board of Supervisors are up for election in November.
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Probe into Northam’s blackface scandal ‘inconclusive’
Was Gov. Ralph S. Northam actually one of the people in the racist photo on his Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook page in 1984? It’s “inconclusive.”
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School Board approves $224.7M for school buildings
The Richmond School Board once again is challenging the mayor and City Council to find money to start replacing or renovating the decrepit public school buildings a majority of students attend.
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City welcomes new schools chief
Jason Kamras from D.C. to become next Richmond superintendent
They campaigned on a platform of change for a school system that continues to rank high in dropouts and suspensions and low in student academic achievement.
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Slot machines hit jackpot in stores around Va.
Andrea R. Hill is a self-confessed “slot machine grinder,” but she still hasn’t visited the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side to try her luck on the array of slot-style machines.
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Personality: Vilma T. Seymour
Spotlight on president of Richmond Region League of United Latin American Citizens
Strength is the key to Vilma Seymour’s life.
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Terror on the road
After 17 years, a Chesapeake man opens up about his encounter with ‘The D.C. Snipers’
After 27 years in the Navy, Harley Peterson couldn’t help but evaluate a passing car as he would an unfamiliar ship cruising past his own off the coast of Vietnam or in the Atlantic.
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’A Strange Loop’ earns a leading 11 Tony Award nominations
“A Strange Loop,” Michael R. Jackson’s critically cheered theater meta-journey earned a leading 11 Tony Award nominations Monday as Broadway joined the national discussion of race by embracing an envelope-pushing Black-written and Black-led musical.
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Aird defeats Morrissey
Winning 13th Senate District, November’s general election likely a shoo-in
Call it a special birthday present. Just two days before turning 37, Lashrecse D. Aird celebrated in advance Tuesday by putting an election whipping on maverick Democratic state Sen. Joseph D. Morrissey in their head-to-head contest.
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Foremost wishes for 2021
With the start of 2021, the Richmond Free Press invited select city and state officials and leaders to share their foremost wishes for the new year. Following are their responses.
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Jury still out
After a year on the job, Richmond Police Chief Gerald Smith has not won over many officers or residents either through style or substance
A year ago, Gerald M. Smith was introduced to the city as an “innovator” and a “reform-minded change agent” as Mayor Levar M. Stoney introduced him as Richmond’s new police chief.
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Personality: E. Martin ‘Marty’ Jewell
Spotlight on board chairman of Cannabis Equity Coalition of Virginia
In a time of growing econom- ic instability for marginalized communities, E. Martin “Mar- ty” Jewell sees an opportunity in a new industry for Virginia’s minority population and he is determined to seize it.
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Red Lip Theology: Candice Benbow’s love letter to Black women in the Black church
Candice Marie Benbow came to be a theologian by way of the death of Whitney Houston, who she considers “the ultimate church girl.”
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Catholic group pushes expedited sainthood for 6 African-Americans
BALTIMORE The process of recognizing saints in Catholicism is so arduous that it can take generations, even centuries, to complete, but even the usually slow-moving Catholic church can accelerate matters when it wants to. In the cases of Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Pope John Paul II, for example, church officials waived a five-year waiting period after their deaths to get the process started. Now a group of Baltimore Catholics says it’s time to expedite the cases of six other heroes of the faith. Parishioners of St. Ann’s Catholic Church, a predominantly African-American congregation in the East Baltimore Midway neighborhood, and the two other churches in its pastorate, Historic St. Francis Xavier and St. Wenceslaus, seek to make the case that the church should immediately canonize six Black American Catholics. The candidates include Mother Mary Lange, a Baltimore nun who started and ran a school for Black children during the era of slavery.
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The renaissance wasn’t just a concert tour, by Errin Haines
We have just witnessed the Summer of the Black Woman.
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47 acres and a dream
Developer seeks to expand family’s legacy in Tappahannock with housing for seniors, workers
Business is in Shiree Monterio’s blood.