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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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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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City Council leadership to change?
Sources: Mosby has votes to be council president
City Council member Michelle R. Mosby could have the votes to become the first African-American woman to lead Richmond’s City Council.
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Alabama governor apologizes to 1963 church bombing survivor
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey has apologized to a survivor of a racist 1963 church bombing that killed four Black girls, calling the blast an “egregious injustice.” But the governor declined on Sept. 30 to pay restitution without legislative involvement.
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Help from high court
News this week of the traumatic death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray of Baltimore at the hands of police is both dismal and emotionally bruising. Mr. Gray, whose biggest crime in life was perhaps being a “joker,” as close friends reported, was nabbed by police after he looked them in the eye and ran. Sometime between being wrestled to the sidewalk, handcuffed and dragged into a police van and being taken unconscious by ambulance to a hospital 30 minutes later, his spinal column was nearly severed and his larynx crushed.
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Samuels to run for mayor?
Is Charles R. Samuels adding his name to the list of City Council members and others eyeing a run for mayor in 2016? While the six-year council representative insists that’s not the case, others are less certain about his intentions as potential candidates begin to line up. That includes council members Jonathan T. Baliles and Chris A. Hilbert, who both have indicated they are making plans to run. There also is talk that Council President Michelle Mosby also is interested. Richmond Delegate Delores L. McQuinn and state Secretary of the Commonwealth Levar M. Stoney also are being mentioned as potential candidates.
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No neutral ground
We commend the thousands of people who turned out Tuesday night in rallies in more than 600 locales around the nation to call for the impeachment of President Trump. We believe that the president must be removed from office before he causes further damage and irreparable harm to our nation’s democracy. This is not a time for neutrality. The gravity of what is being debated in Congress — and on the streets of our nation — is too critical for any American to turn a blind eye or deaf ear.
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College student feels new confidence with guide dog
La’Teia Randolph is extra thankful this year. The blind Richmonder now has a guide dog to help her get around — Della, a 2-year-old female Labrador retriever.
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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.
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Black women and pay inequality, by David W. Marshall
Taraji P. Henson is speaking out, and people are listening. It remains to be seen if the award-winning actor will become a catalyst for major changes within the entertainment industry, but her message is much needed.
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Beyond T-shirts and hoodies
Recollections of my 1995 article on the business of college athletics danced in my head when I heard the news about the University of Missouri football team’s refusal to play until the president of that university, Tim Wolfe, resigned or was dismissed.
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VCU professor’s documentary sheds light on Central State’s darkness
A new Richmond-made documentary will premiere this weekend with a view of the good, the bad and the ugly of mental health treatment for Black people in Virginia.
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JM speeds on after speed bump
Don’t worry, John Marshall High fans. The basketball still has plenty of air in it on the North Side.
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Bobby Brown maintains constant bedside vigil over Bobbi Kristina
ATLANTA The daughter of late pop star Whitney Houston and singer Bobby Brown was placed in a coma to stop brain swelling after she was found facedown and unresponsive in a bathtub in her Georgia home last weekend, family friend and gospel singer Kim Burrell told “Access Hollywood.”
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Love Stories
Follow your heart
I was the 28-year-old executive director of the Virginia United Negro College Fund, scouting locations in Richmond for the annual Lou Rawls Parade of Stars Telethon.
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VSU to meet CIAA champ Bowie State in Saturday's homecoming
Virginia State University has won five straight games with a relatively soft schedule. On Saturday, Oct. 19, easy street ends.
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Dominion’s new office tower for Downtown // This rendering offers a view, left, of a new, 20-story office tower Dominion Resources is moving to develop …
Published on May 20, 2016
