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City offers amnesty for past-due parking ticket penalties
Good news for people with old, unpaid Richmond parking tickets: City Hall will waive the penalties if the tickets are paid by Monday, Sept. 12.
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NSU’s Kai Cole named to VSID Division I All-State indoor track team
Kai Cole can pick ‘em up and lay ‘em down and his exceptional speed has been recognized all over Virginia.
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A Mother’s Day gift
Each year at this time, all good children — no matter their age — pause and figure out the perfect gift to give mom.
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What happens after graduation?, by Julianne Malveaux
Graduations are an exciting time for most families who will throng to auditoriums, gymnasiums, churches and outdoor settings bearing flowers, balloons and other goodies. They’ll likely go to lunch or dinner and share smiles and memories, congratulating the graduate on her achievement.
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Readers and officials react to the leak of a draft U.S. Supreme Court majority opinion concerning the overturning of Roe v. Wade
People everywhere have silenced, discounted, disparaged and cursed women long enough. We are the ones who engender children. We are the ones who are so connected to those children that we suffer with them.
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Sen. Bernie Sanders helps celebrate Starbucks workers’ unionization victory
The sounds of music, community and solidarity filled the National Theater in Downtown for several hours Sunday as visitors from Virginia and beyond, including U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, celebrated the unionization efforts of Starbucks employees in Richmond and nationally and ongoing work to improve labor conditions in the United States.
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Climate crisis increasingly a refugee crisis, faith resettlement groups say
For Monique Verdin, the apocalypse came in 2005.
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Scottie Barnes is NBA Rookie of the Year; ‘Bones’ Hyland ranks 8th among rookies in scoring
Scottie Barnes is the NBA Rookie of the Year, but don’t overlook former Virginia Commonwealth University star Nah’Shon “Bones” Hyland on the top newcomers list.
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Virginia AG launches investigation into Washington NFL team
Virginia Attorney General Jason S. Miyares has launched an inquiry into the Washington Commanders following allegations of financial improprieties raised by a congressional committee. Mr. Miyares, a Republican, disclosed his office’s investiga- tion in a letter to a team lawyer Monday, saying he viewed it
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Banking, the Black community and the Durbin Amendment, by Taikein M. Cooper
Access to banking, and all the opportunities it affords, is an absolute necessity for historically disenfranchised and marginalized communities. It’s how we pay for our everyday essentials, take out loans to start businesses or buy homes and attempt to build generational wealth to make the American Dream a reality.
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Speak out on transportation funding
The funding decisions local leaders make today impact our collective future. That’s why the Central Virginia Transportation Authority would like to hear from the public about a new proposed funding scenario that includes $276.4 million to improve the region’s bike, pedestrian, bridge and highway infrastructure.
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City Council approves design funds for a new George Wythe
Full speed ahead for a new George Wythe High School.
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End of an era
Hampton University President William R. ‘Bill’ Harvey is stepping down June 30 after 44 years at the helm
Hampton University, one of the nation’s first historically black institutions, was a small struggling four-year college on the banks of the Hampton River near the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay when an ambitious, young Dr. William R. “Bill” Harvey Jr. from Tuskegee Institute in Alabama was chosen as president of the institution.
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Personality: Bianca Stewart Williams
Spotlight on board president of Dress For Success Central Virginia
Whether it’s finding profes- sional attire for a job interview or receiving a guiding hand to stay employed, Bianca Stewart Williams is making sure area women are well-equipped and prepared for the world of work. Ms. Williams has been lead- ing Dress for Success Central Virginia as its board president since 2018, bringing to the community the not-for-profit organization’s mission of em- powering women to achieve economic independence by providing a network of sup- port, professional attire and development tools to help them thrive personally and professionally. “Thousands are disadvan- taged and need resources to gain employment and economic status,” Ms. Williams says. “Our purpose is to offer long- lasting solutions that enable women to break the cycle of poverty.” Ms. Williams joined Dress for Success in November 2015, three years after the Central Virginia affiliate was started. She says she was a client at first. After being displaced from her job, she volunteered helping women with suit fittings and started using the organiza- tion’s Career Services program, which provides help with career coaching, résumé reviews, job searches and interview practice. She landed a new job, and from that point, Ms. Williams says, Dress for Success has been “near and dear to my heart.” Currently, Dress for Success Central Virginia operates from 210 E. Clay St. in Downtown. But Ms. Williams wants to find a building the organization can
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Dr. Delores R. Greene, longtime educator and former VUU and VSU dean, dies at 86
Dr. Delores Ann Richburg Greene felt the call to be a teacher when she was just 4 years old and in pre-school. She would play school in the backyard of her Petersburg home, where she would provide instruction on reading to her neighborhood friends. From that beginning, Dr. Greene would follow her dream. In a career that spanned 57 years, she rose from a classroom teacher to become a dean in the College of Education at Virginia State University, her alma mater.
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Fight to preserve historic New Market Heights Battlefield from development wins white flag
Around 7 a.m., Sept. 29, 1864, five regiments of U.S. Colored Troops charged Confederate defenses under withering fire and dislodged troops dug in at New Market Heights in Eastern Henrico — about a mile east of what is now Interstate 295. Fourteen Black soldiers and two of their white officers ultimately were awarded the Medal of Honor for their valor in the savage fight that cost 161 Union lives and left another 666 soldiers wounded.
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End of the road for free rides on GRTC?
GRTC’s current free fare program was supposed to remain in place through June 2025, but now is at risk of ending far sooner. The regional bus company eliminated fares soon after the pandemic hit in March 2020 with the help of state and federal grants. That change has helped regular bus riders save thousands of dollars in transit costs. The program appeared on course to be extended for an ad- ditional three years after the state awarded GRTC an $8 million grant five months ago. Now transit advocates are raising alarm that the no fare program could end as soon January 2023 for lack of financial backing, most notably from City Hall. According to transit advocates, Mayor Levar M. Stoney, who has repeatedly stated he would keep GRTC fare-free through his term, has put the zero-fare initiative at risk by failing to keep his pledge to provide the required matching funds for the grant. Without notice, he rejected the request of his new internal Of- fice of Equitable Transit to include $1 million in local matching funds for the state grant in his proposed budget for 2022-23. Nor has he indicated any plans for the city alone, or in concert with its regional GRTC partners, Chesterfield and Henrico coun- ties, to provide the matching $3 million required in 2023-24 and the matching $5 million required in the 2024-25 fiscal year. At a news conference on Tuesday, Mayor Stoney defended his decision. He first told reporters that GRTC has “plenty of money” and can cover the match itself. He said the 2020 hike in the regional sales and gas tax to boost funding for transportation through the new Central Virginia Transit Authority, or CVTA, has increased regional support for public transit to record levels. Later in the news conference, the mayor asserted that his spending plan actually includes the $1 million, which was not broken out. That also was the statement given to the Free Press by the mayor’s press secretary, Jim Nolan. However, the only increase in subsidy his proposed budget plan provides to GRTC is $600,000. His proposal is to increase the current GRTC subsidy of $8 million to $8.6 million, still about half the $16 million the city provided GRTC yearly before the General Assembly created the CVTA two years ago. That $6 million increase, he stated in the budget message he delivered to City Council in early March, is needed to meet a state requirement that was part of the CVTA legislation. Under that requirement, localities in the authority must raise the transit subsidy yearly to reflect the increase in inflation recorded by the Consumer Price Index. Some of that increase in city subsidy also is earmarked for new bus shelters. The first warning that the zero-fare policy might not survive came in an April 18 post on the Greater Washington blog that was filed by Wyatt Gordon, a policy manager for land use and transportation at the Virginia Conservation Network. According to Mr. Gordon, the mayor and his administration rejected the request from the new internal Office of Equitable Transit to provide the $1 million in matching funds, putting the zero-fare initiative at risk. The Rev. Benjamin P. Campbell, GRTC board chairman, confirmed that the free fare service could end sooner than anticipated if additional funds are not provided. He noted that federal CARES Act money that has helped support the program is drying up and the continuation of free fares would require a financial commitment from the city and the two counties to cover the increasing cost. He said the big question for GRTC’s board is whether free fares are sustainable. The advocacy group RVA Rapid Transit is urging City Council to save the zero-fare program for at least another year by adding $1 million to the GRTC subsidy to protect riders — a majority of whom live well below the median income — from a major hit to their pocketbooks. In an email, Faith Walker, the group’s executive director, called on the council to embrace 1st District Councilman Andreas D. Addison’s amendment to add the $1 million when the governing body meets Friday, April 22, to complete its work on the city’s 2022-23 operating budget. That budget goes into effect July 1. Mr. Addison supports fare-free transit and believes the city can afford the cost, but it is not yet clear that he can muster a five-member majority to back the $1 million additional GRTC subsidy. Ms. Walker called it a matter of equity — a topic the mayor has preached about—noting that half the regular bus riders have incomes at or below $25,000 a year, with at least one in four hav- ing incomes of $10,000 a year or less. Removing transit fares has helped boost the standard of living for those riders, she stated. Council members have advanced more than $22 million in budget amendments, including the proposal to boost the GRTC subsidy. But the members have shown little appetite to date for making cuts in the mayor’s spending plan to pay for their proposals, and at this moment, have only about $2.7 million in additional funds to spend.
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More fresh regionally grown produce headed to school cafeterias
More fresh lettuce, tomatoes and other regionally grown produce could be headed to the cafeteria meals served to students in schools in Richmond and Henrico and Chesterfield counties.
