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Queen Harrison to host Queen Track Classic in Richmond for girls
Girls will not only be the main attraction, they will be the only attraction for the inaugural Queen Track Classic, named for Queen Harrison, the former Hermitage High School track standout and 2008 Olympic runner.
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Herring launches online program to help teens with police interactions
A new interactive program, “Give It, Get It: Trust and Respect between Teens and Law Enforcement,” is Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring’s latest initiative to help educate teens about their rights and responsibilities when interacting with law enforcement.
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Global warming is real, by Jesse L. Jackson Sr.
Record fires in Oregon and California. Floods in Houston and New York. Deadly winter storms in Texas. Droughts across much of the west. Flash floods in England and Germany. Blinding dust storms in China. One hundred year cyclones devastate Fiji and Indonesia. Deadly droughts across sub-Saharan Africa. Wildfires in Greece and Italy.
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‘Reading Riders’ starts summer routes
In 2015, Reading Riders, Richmond Public Schools’ mobile library program promoting literacy among youngsters in kindergarten through fifth grade, started with a bus full of books, five scheduled stops in students’ Richmond neighborhoods and about 10 to 15 teacher volunteers at Oak Grove-Bellemeade Elementary School.
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Settlement reached in South Side mobile home suit
The war over mobile homes in Richmond appears to have ended in a truce. Under a settlement approved Monday in federal court, the City of Richmond has agreed to modify an aggressive code enforcement program that led to the condemnation of dozens of mobile homes in the past three years, displacing mostly Latino families.
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VUU president accused of fraud
Dr. Hakim J. Lucas was supposed to be the ideal fit when Virginia Union University’s board named the 40-year-old as the historic institution’s 13th president in August.
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Protest over teacher transfers
Dozens of angry teachers, parents and students protested Richmond Public Schools’ plan to move 10 teachers from four elementary schools into classrooms at other schools in the district. Teachers held signs proclaiming “Save Our Teachers,” “Our Students Deserve Better” and “Teacher Power!” Their protest mounted at Monday’s meeting of the Richmond School Board is against the school administration’s process known as “leveling,” which Superintendent Dana T. Bedden explained is to provide more equitable teacher-student ratios in schools across the district.
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Keeping land in the family, by Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan and Parker C. Agelasto
As Virginia and America continue the long overdue work of addressing structural inequity, our Commonwealth has taken one significant step toward fixing a leading cause of loss of land and wealth for African-Americans.
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City introduces 4 new executives
Four people have been named to executive positions at City Hall, including one charged with ferreting out fraud, waste and abuse of taxpayer dollars.
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National NAACP suspends Frank J. Thornton, Henrico Branch president
In an extraordinary action, national NAACP President Derrick Johnson has suspended for a year the membership of Frank J. Thornton, president of the Henrico Branch NAACP and son of Frank Thornton, chairman of the Henrico County Board of Supervisors.
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Former School Board member mounts campaign to oust principal
How much influence should parents and the community wield in deciding who should run a public school? That question is at the heart of a dispute over the leadership of Blackwell Elementary School on South Side.
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Absenteeism at RPS is down 1.8 percent, but remains high
Chronic absenteeism among school-aged children who miss 10 percent of days or more due to excused and unexcused absences continues to plague school systems, including Richmond Public Schools, throughout the country.
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Candidates contend for school board seats amid increasingly politicized backdrop
All 140 seats in the General Assembly are up for election this year — but that’s not the only thing Virginians will be voting for on Election Day. Nearly 600 candidates are vying for school board seats over an increasingly politicized backdrop. Most of the school board races in more populous areas are contested, but a majority of the races are uncontested, according to a Cardinal News analysis. In some districts the candidates have been endorsed by political parties, although the candidates run as independents.
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As diversity, equity and inclusion comes under legal attack, companies quietly alter their programs
Sophia Danner-Okotie’s has ambitious plans for her Nigerian-inspired clothing line but a sense of dread has punctured her optimism as she watches a legal battle being waged against a small venture capital firm that has provided funding instrumental to her boutique brand’s growth.
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Legal freedom fighters
At 75, ODBA’s struggle for justice continues
When black lawyers from across Virginia gathered in Richmond last week to mark the 75th anniversary of the Old Dominion Bar Association, far more than nostalgia was on their minds.
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Showing up and showing out
HBCU football attracted more fans this season
Football attendance was way up this season at Norfolk State University and Hampton University.
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New UR program offers beer brewer certificate
Responding to the explosion of breweries in Central Virginia, the University of Richmond will begin offering this fall a yearlong program to train professional brewers.