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Families plead for more information on missing loved ones
Richmonder Toni Jacobs wishes that her missing daughter could have gained the kind of national and social media exposure that the family of 22-year-old blonde Gabby Petito experienced.
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Personality: Mollie S. Reinhart
Spotlight on founder of Befriend
With COVID-19 still a clear and present danger, building and maintaining human connection can be difficult. It’s a need that Mollie S. Reinhart and the orga- nization she founded, Befriend, seek to address.
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David N. Smith, former banking executive and state official, dies at 66
David Nathaniel Smith wanted to be a journal- ist but found his road to success in commercial sales and banking.
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Singer Sarah Dash, co-founder of Labelle, dies at 76
Singer Sarah Dash, who co-founded the all-female group Labelle—best known for the rau- cous 1974 hit “Lady Marmalade”—has died. She was 76.
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Metropolitan Opera makes history with first work by a Black composer
“We bend, we don’t break. We sway!” sings the chorus in the second act of Terence Blanchard’s “Fire Shut Up in My Bones.”
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Flexibility for whom?, by Julianne Malveaux
I had not planned to have a policy conversation when I boarded my connecting flight from Detroit to D.C.
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‘I don’t like where things are headed’ with U.S. Supreme Court
Former President Trump added three conservative justices to the U.S. Supreme Court during his tenure in office.
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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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Personality: Kisha Beaner Howcott
Spotlight on founder and CEO of Clothed by Love Mentoring
The new school year brings all kinds of concerns for students, even without the threat of an ongoing pandemic. And while some concerns require specific solutions, the need for clothing is being met thanks to a mobile boutique, courtesy of Kisha Beaner How- cott and her group, Clothed by Love Mentoring.
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VUU’s Jada Byers turns on the speed
Expectations were sky high for Jada Byers and, so far, he has lived up to them.
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City registrar takes heat for delay in opening satellite voting locations
Keith G. Balmer, Richmond’s new voter registrar, was rushing to start early in-person voting next week at two satellite locations—City Hall in Downtown and the Hickory Hill Community Center in South Side.
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Why Virginia Republicans will lose in November
One needs to look no further than last year’s presidential election results in Virginia to understand why Republican Glenn Youngkin will lose the gubernatorial race this No- vember.
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Personality: Lawrence E. West Jr.
Spotlight on founder of Black Lives Matter RVA
For many, the removal of the statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the pedestal where it stood for more than a century was a symbolic moment that could herald further progress and change. For Lawrence E. West Jr., founder of Black Lives Matter RVA, the removal was something more substantial and critical.
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Inside Met Gala, where there’s always someone more famous
U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe had just gotten her beverage at the bar at the edge of the room. She looked back at the throbbing crowd of celebrities packed into the center of the airy Petrie Court, where the Met Gala was holding its cocktail reception.
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’Monumental Conversations:’ RPS launches new, free app offering insight into community feelings about Confederate statues that lined Monument Avenue
A new mobile app gives people the ability to hear the stories of the generational resistance of Black Richmonders to the Confederate statues on Monument Avenue that once stood as symbols of the white “Lost Cause” narrative.
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Pandemic forcing Black morticians to bury their own in profession
When the last mourners departed and funeral director Shawn Troy was left among the headstones, he wept alone.
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Lessons taught at the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame
Nine teams passed on Paul Pierce in the 1998 NBA draft, and if you think he doesn’t remember each and every one of them, then you don’t know Paul Pierce.
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‘Antiracist public health approach’ needed to substance abuse, by Marc H. Morial
“He was a Hollywood star with an off-Broadway paycheck that mostly went up his nose. He was a pacifist with a barroom- brawl, razor scar down the middle of his face. He played a sneering killer but started his career in dance tights. On set, he was Omar Little, the Robin Hood of the hood feared by fictional street thugs who feared nothing else. Off it, he was an aimless soul begging for someone — anyone — to love and accept him for who he was, not who he played.” — Kevin Manahan, Newark Star-Ledger
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From hatred to hope
The 131-year old, 12-ton bronze symbol of white supremacy honoring Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Monument Avenue is taken down as scores watch in person and online
An empty pedestal covered with colorful anti-racist slogans. That’s all that remains of the state’s greatest symbol of white supremacy – the statue of the traitorous Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee riding his horse, Traveller.
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Personality: Melanie K. Frank
Spotlight on board chair of the Full Circle Grief Center
During COVID-19, grief has become a greater presence in the lives of many people with the large numbers of people stricken with, hospitalized by or who succumbed to the virus. For Richmonders struggling with this part of life, Melanie K. Frank and the Full Circle Grief Center have been working to be a helping hand.
