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City Council besieged with requests for more money
As it wades into the details of city spending, Richmond City Council, as usual, is finding itself besieged with pleas for additional funding from departments that feel shortchanged by Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s spartan budget proposal.
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COVID-19 must be addressed through the lens of equity, by Rep. Donald McEachin
The last few weeks have been difficult for us all. And in these incredibly challenging and scary times, we all are having to make great sacrifices to ensure that we defeat COVID-19 as quickly as possible.As non-essential workers across Virginia are working remotely, children are distance learning for the remainder of the academic year and families isolate from one another to conquer this viral enemy, we all are discovering new ways to come together.
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Chicago team in league of their own
Jackie Robinson West baseball stands out for two glaring reasons: Because it is so good and because it is all black.
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State Dems’ budget offers eviction protection, utility bill relief
A key protection against evictions would be restored and a new round of funding would flow to utilities to cover unpaid customer bills under legislation advancing through the Democrat- controlled Virginia General Assembly.
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Old Moore Street School continues to deteriorate during inaction over future
Jerome Legions is preparing to go on the warpath over the condition of historic Moore Street School.
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Growing rift
City Council members angered by their colleagues’ action on Coliseum replacement proposal
The divisions among City Council members over the Coliseum replacement plan appear to be hardening.
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Construction to begin on North Side apartments at site of former church
Enterprise Community Development was scheduled to formally launch construction on a four-story complex of 66 affordable apartment units in North Side, on Thursday, May 4.
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Starting date nears to replace George Wythe
The first construction work on a replacement for the aging George Wythe High School could begin by late summer.
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Town hall meeting to include VUU president, other City officials
The future of the Richmond Community Hospital, the cost of utilities and crime in the city will be the focus of an upcoming town hall in Richmond’s 3rd District on Wednesday, March 20, at Linwood Holton Elementary School at 1600 W. Laburnum Ave. from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
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City plans to add shelter space
City Hall is moving forward to acquire a 57,000-square-foot office-warehouse at 10 W. Belt Blvd. in South Side to expand shelter capacity for the homeless.
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Elkhardt school to close for good
Elkhardt Middle School may be converted to apartments or offices one day. But the building is finished providing classroom space for public school students. The end came Feb. 12 when the final bell sounded dismissal. With help from 50 volunteers, teachers packed up the next day, beginning the move of students to Clark Springs Elementary School to finish the year. Clark Springs will open as the new Elkhardt as soon as the snow emergency passes. Leaky steam pipes have allowed health-threatening mold to infest the Elkhardt building. But the cost of making the building usable again is too great,space use.
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New delivery service starts in Richmond
For a flat delivery fee of $1.95 and the cost of the goods, Richmonders can get diapers, toilet paper, beverages and snacks delivered to their home between noon and 4 a.m. seven days a week.
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McAuliffe expands rights restoration
Eric Branch still owes the state government more than $9,000 in court costs and fees from a 1988 felony conviction that sent him to prison for nearly five years.
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RPS threatens to close 5 schools
“It’s ridiculous.” That was the response Wednesday from Jakela Cannon, the mother of a John B. Cary Elementary School kindergarten student in the West End, to a cost-cutting plan introduced this week by the Richmond Public Schools administration that seeks to close Cary, three other elementary schools and Armstrong High School. The proposal would move those students to other existing schools in the district and consolidate three unidentified alternative schools into one.
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Lumpkin’s Jail site to get new life
After years of neglect by the city, the site at Lumpkin’s Jail is headed toward a multimillion-dollar makeover. The jail site was a holding pen for enslaved people in Shockoe Bottom that later served as the launching ground for Virginia Union University.
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Free Press receives Facebook Journalism Project grant
The Richmond Free Press has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Facebook Journalism Project to boost local journalism during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Dems pull out big guns to energize virtual convention for Biden
Democrats launched the third day of their virtual national convention on Wednesday, with headliners broadening the focus from a multipart rebuke of President Trump to an energizing message of change in boosting former Vice President Joe Biden’s presidential bid.
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VUU Panthers meet VSU Trojans Saturday at Hovey Field
Virginia Union University football Coach Alvin Parker feels like his team has taken an unfair beating — not on the field, mind you, but in the polls.
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City Council spars over voter advisory referendum on $1.5B Coliseum plan
Richmond residents were lining up Wednesday to speak their minds on Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s $1.5 billion Coliseum replacement and development plan for Downtown at the second of two special City Council meetings in two days.
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The ridiculous retiring Republicans, by Julianne Malveaux
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson needed Democrats to narrowly avert the government shutdown that loomed if Congressional budget legislation was not passed by Saturday, March 23. Many Republicans did not vote for the budget legislation; Democrats saved the day.