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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Little similarity seen in today’s immigrants
The executive action President Obama was pressured into last fall was nothing short of a third amnesty for illegal immigrants. Ordinarily, it wouldn’t be a sound policy, but it was politically savvy for advocates to compare the unjust treatment against black Americans to help elevate public interest.
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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.
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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.”
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Churches battling Selma’s ongoing problem — poverty
The world’s eyes were again on this small Alabama city, the epicenter of the voting rights battle 50 years ago. However, the crippling poverty that faith and community leaders grapple with daily was largely overlooked amid the commemoration of the long ago fight to end the exclusion of black people from the ballot box. For those who live here, the big march and the powerful words of President Obama were a passing moment with little impact on conditions. As Pastor Reginald Wells put it in considering the spotlight that Selma has been in, “We’re not benefiting. Oprah (Winfrey) was just here. They just filmed the movie ‘Selma’ here and the world is enjoying Selma” this weekend.
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NCCU favored in MEAC tourney
North Carolina Central University is the heavy favorite to repeat as the MEAC basketball champion Saturday at the Norfolk Scope. The final game of the 13-school event is set for 1 p.m., with live ESPN2 coverage.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Virginia State University’s interim President Pamela V. Hammond and her husband, Gary John Hammond, celebrate VSU’s win over Lincoln University for the women’s title
Published on March 5, 2015
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General Assembly ends with stronger ethics law
Virginia’s 2015 legislative session is over. Lawmakers adjourned last Friday after passing legislation at the last minute aimed at tightening the state’s ethics rules for public officials and curbing sexual assaults on Virginia’s college campuses. The ethics reform proposal puts a $100 cap on gifts lawmakers can accept — including meals, entertainment and travel — from lobbyists and their clients, or others seeking to do business with the state. Lawmakers were spurred to reform the state’s ethics rules following the conviction last year of former Gov. Bob McDonnell on federal corruption charges.
