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Coliseum project expected to be key in mayor’s State of the City address
The currently stalled $1.4 billion plan to have Richmond taxpayers build a new and bigger Richmond Coliseum as a way to attract new development to blocks near City Hall is anticipated to be a centerpiece of Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s second State of the City speech.
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Free students from burden of college debt
Columnists
The reaction — shock, joy, disbelief, euphoria — revealed the importance of billionaire Robert F. Smith’s stunning gift, when he announced unexpectedly that he would pay off the college debts of Morehouse College students graduating this year. His gift literally changed the prospects and the lives of the vast majority of those 396 graduates.
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Work begins in Creighton Court
Work is finally underway to restore heat in 12 buildings in the Creighton Court public housing community, a failure of a basic service that has come to symbolize the deteriorating state of Richmond’s “public housing stock.”
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Operation Bold Blue Line
Youngkin plans to reduce homicides, shootings with more police, higher pay
What’s the solution to the spate of shootings and violence that appears to be on the upswing in Richmond and across the state?
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Changing the trajectory
RRHA ushering in new initiatives for jobs, health and safety
Steven B. Nesmith promised to transform the operation of Richmond’s public housing and the opportunities for residents when he assumed leadership of the authority last fall.
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Hurricanes and public policy
Hurricane Harvey did everything people said it would do and more. It either drowned or swallowed everything it touched in Corpus Christi, Houston and Beaumont, Texas, the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and a bunch of other places. Already, estimates say that Harvey may be our nation’s costliest disaster to date, costing at least $190 billion, or about 1 percent of our gross domestic product.
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Court moves closer to declaring Va. law unconstitutional linking court fines to driver’s license suspensions
For more than two decades, people who cannot pay court fines and costs in Virginia automatically have had their driver’s licenses suspended.
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New boss at VSU
Hampton provost to take reins
Pamela V. Hammond is on track to become the first woman to lead Virginia State University in the school’s 132-year history, the Free Press has learned.
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$2.1M federal grant to help acquire new riverfront parkland
City Hall and a regional conservancy group are on track to receive a $2.1 million grant to support the expansion of park space along the James River.
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Housing group acquires Church Hill property for project
A former church social services center known as Citadel of Hope is to be the centerpiece for a new affordable housing development in Church Hill.
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1 vendor? ‘This is ridiculous!’
Re “Only 1 black-owned food vendor at NFL training camp,” Free Press July 27-29 edition: Only one black food vendor at the NFL training camp in Richmond? This is ridiculous!
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City electoral board recruiting 200 new election officers
In anticipation of the November elections, the Richmond Electoral Board is recruiting 200 people to increase the number of sworn officers of election at city polls.
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Hayden is new Librarian of Congress
The U. S. Senate has confirmed Dr. Carla D. Hayden as the 14th Librarian of Congress. The 74-18 vote for the nominee of President Obama for the key position came on July 13. Dr. Hayden is the first African-American and first woman to hold the position. Her appointment at the Library of Congress is for 10 years.
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Byron E. Howlett Sr., former head of Richmond Heritage Federal Credit Union, dies at 73
Byron E. Howlett Sr. led the modernization of the Richmond Heritage Federal Credit Union during his 19 years as the second president and chief execu- tive officer of the oldest African-American financial institution still in operation in Richmond.
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Nitika and Joshua Achalam may be staying home, but they are staying busy. They are outside their home in Fulton with their chickens, Octavia Butler …
Published on April 16, 2020
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Surviving — and thriving — through the pandemic, by Dr. Dwaun J. Warmack
Before the unimaginable disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Claflin University was teeming with unbridled optimism, buoyed by the recognition the university and the men’s basketball program had received during the 2020 CIAA Basketball Tournament in Charlotte, N.C.
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Braves enjoy homegrown talent with Michael Harris
Rising star could be National League Rookie of Year
Major League Baseball teams toss their fishnets all over the globe in hope of landing talent. No distance is too far. Other times teams get lucky and find what they’re looking for in their own backyard.
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Mother Emanuel shooter gets 9 life sentences in S.C. state court
With Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof getting nine life sentences in state court on top of a federal death sentence, his prosecutions are finally over — and some relatives of the nine parishioners he killed at a historically black church say they can finally begin to heal.
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Supply and demand
City’s ‘housing crisis’ calls for 23,000 affordable living spaces
Seeking to put fresh emphasis on an issue that has been on the agenda for at least a decade, City Council on Monday followed through and joined Mayor Levar M. Stoney in “declaring a housing crisis in the city of Richmond.”
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Sacrifice for success
Parents of student athletes willingly go, and pay for, the extra mile(s)
Willie Starlings, 50, became a sports parent when his son, Joel Starlings, played flag football as a 4-year-old at Hotchkiss Field Community Center in Richmond.