Story
What’s at stake
Our spirits are heavy with the Trump victories this week that put Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama and Betsy DeVos in the critical roles of U.S. attorney general and U.S. secretary of education, respectively. The fight for civil rights, voting rights, gay rights, immigration and equity in education just got tougher, but we knew what was coming and are ready for the battles ahead.
Story
Like father, like sons
Clyde Austin’s sons shine in college hoops
The name Clyde Austin is back in the basketball news. Only it’s not the Clyde Austin readers might remember.
Story
Henrico senior wins state title in 2 events
The term “country comes to the city” could be the title of Craig McElroy’s athletic fortunes. McElroy spent his freshman and sophomore seasons at rural Charles City High School, enrollment 285. As a junior, he transferred to suburban Henrico High School, enrollment 1,780.
Story
Prince autopsy report hints at puzzling painkiller mystery
The report from the medical examiner who conducted Prince’s autopsy is tantalizing for what it doesn’t say. The single-page document released last week lists a fentanyl overdose as the cause of death, but it offers few clues to indicate whether the musician was a chronic pain patient desperately seeking relief, a longtime opioid user whose habit became an addiction or a combination of both.
Story
Richmond School Board adopts budget; cuts funds for academic improvement plan
The Richmond School Board adopted a $280 million operating budget that eliminates $4 million in numerous programs and services, but includes money for a plan to increase salaries to attract and retain teachers.
Story
Future of food
VSU Harding Street Urban Agriculture Center uses cutting-edge technology to grow fish, vegetables
A former recreation building in historic downtown Petersburg has been transformed by Virginia State University into an innovative center for urban food production.
Story
Armstrong tennis players honing their game
At Richmond’s Armstrong High School, the only girls sport involving a net has been basketball. After Armstrong High School merged with and moved into the former John F. Kennedy High School building on Cool Lane in 2004, girls tennis practically vanished. The sport had little traction previously at either school.
Story
60 years back, 60 years ahead
Education is the great equalizer, so it has been said. Take for example Irving L. Peddrew III. He was a teenage honors student at his all-black high school in Hampton whose future seemed limitless. He received offers to attend numerous schools across the nation. Yet he chose Virginia Tech in Blacksburg.
Story
Sen. Lucas flip-flops in Va. Supreme Court battle
Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. is still one Senate vote short of winning a General Assembly election that would move him from the Virginia Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court.
Story
African-American cemetery in Charlottesville to be restored
The Daughters of Zion Cemetery was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2010, but there are no markers telling of the Charlottesville cemetery’s cultural and historical significance. Instead, there’s trash and sinking and broken gravestones.
Story
VUU’s ‘hitting machine’ is winding up for final season
Whether it’s a battle of the brains or a battle of brawn, Virginia Union University’s Taylor Hamilton is a home run hitter.
Story
Planned school cuts causing pain
North Side resident Sherri Davis said she is concerned about planned budget cuts that may close schools, crowd classrooms and have parents scrambling to arrange transportation for their children. “It becomes a safety issue when you propose to put more kids in classes,” the mother of two Richmond Public Schools students told the Free Press on Wednesday. “It’s already hard enough for teachers to teach the large numbers of students they have in their classrooms.”
Story
Pounce
VUU Panthers drub the VSU Trojans 83-62 in Freedom Classic
If the Virginia Union University Panthers were homesick, it didn’t show. In the midst of an epic road trip, the Panthers looked comfortable and confident in routing host Virginia State University 82-62 in the 25th Annual Freedom Classic last Saturday at the VSU Multi-Purpose Center.
Story
City Council approves Salvation Army headquarters move; honors former park superintendent
The Salvation Army will be able to move its headquarters and shelter from Downtown to 1900 Chamberlayne Ave., next to a Wells Fargo bank branch.
Story
Black women rising despite decades of bias, by Julianne Malveaux
Women won the right to vote a century ago. On Aug. 18, 1920, the 19th Amendment passed. The white women’s equal rights struggle began in 1776, though, when Abigail Adams, the wife of our second president and member of the Constitution-drafting Continental Congress, sent her husband a letter. She urged him to “remember the ladies.” She further wrote, “All men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the ladies, we are determined to foment a rebellion and will not hold ourselves bound by any laws in which we have no voice or representation.”
Story
Laws as weapons of the unjust, by Oscar H. Blayton
We read in disbelief that a Black man who has already spent almost 23 years in a Louisiana prison for stealing a pair of garden clippers has now been denied any measure of mercy and must spend the rest of his life behind bars for his minor crime.
Story
Falwell being investigated after resigning as president of Liberty University
Liberty University is opening an independent investigation into Jerry Falwell Jr.’s tenure as president, a wide-ranging inquiry that will include financial, real estate and legal matters, the evangelical school’s board announced Monday.
Story
Sen. Jennifer McClellan announces her candidacy for governor
After 15 years in the General Assembly, Sen. Jennifer L. Mc- Clellan wants to play a bigger role in shaping state policy.
Story
Local high school-to-college talent picked for fantasy ‘Home Sweet Home’ hoops team
With a lull in the sports world, it’s time to announce Richmond’s all-time “Home Sweet Home” basketball team.
Story
New details emerge about Coliseum replacement plan
Richmond City Council President Cynthia I. Newbille, rushing to get the governing body to vote on the $1.5 billion Coliseum replacement plan in late February, authorized a $25,000 increase in the contract for a private consultant to conduct a review of the proposal for City Council without first gaining a council vote, the Free Press has learned.
