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Missed opportunity
Talk about a missed opportunity to put Richmond in the spotlight. We are talking about the celebration next week of the liberation of our city from the grip of slave power and the human oppression that was taken for granted since the nation’s founding. This should be a huge event. After all, Richmond was at the epicenter of a dramatic struggle for the soul of America. For four terrible years, the question of whether a flawed democratic nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal was debated in blood and cannon fire.
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Property values up in city
For the third year in a row, rising property values in Richmond will put Richmond City Council on the spot when it comes to collecting property taxes from owners of real estate.
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Lydia M. Jiggetts, prayer warrior and activist, dies at 70
Dr. Lydia Mercedes Jiggetts sought to help people in multiple ways. In the 1970s, she was part of a team of activists that helped force Richmond area radio and television stations to end their whites-only employment policies and open their doors to African-American talent.
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The Virginia Department of Transportation continues its bridge rehabilitation project at 1st Street over Interstate 95 in Jackson Ward. This section of 1st Street will …
Published on April 6, 2023
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Personality: Pam Mines
Spotlight on founder of nonprofit JP JumPers Foundation
Helping people in the special needs community is a labor of love for Pam Mines. “I am not the advocacy voice for the special needs community. I am simply a voice,” says the Chesterfield County resident.
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Super Tuesday redux
Lessons learned from Super Tuesday, the Democratic presidential primary contest held this week in Virginia and 13 other states and American Samoa, which was won overwhelmingly by former Vice President Joe Biden:
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Personality: DaNika Neblett Robinson
Spotlight on the board chair of the James River Writers
In 2015, DaNika Neblett Robinson found a new path to literary success. At the suggestion of her writing mentor, Stacy Hawkins Adams, she attended the annual James River Writers conference, in hopes of finding the inspiration she needed for her work.
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Critically acclaimed filmmaker John Singleton dies at 51
Director John Singleton, who made one of Hollywood’s most memorable debuts with the Oscar-nominated “Boyz N the Hood” and continued over the following decades to probe the lives of African-American communities in his native Los Angeles and beyond, died Monday, April 29, 2019, after suffering several strokes during the last two weeks. He was 51.
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Mayor Stoney proposes meals tax hike to support schools
Declaring that Richmond “is strong,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney called for “bold and courageous” action to deal with some of the city’s unmet challenges such as decaying schools and public housing.
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Racial justice and democratically governed schools, by Kenya J. Gibson
I am writing in response to a letter the Richmond School Board received this spring from the Virginia Department of Education regarding the body’s ability to effectively govern. It is a letter that I believe should concern us all.
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Area congregations remain cautious as COVID-19 runs its course
This time a year ago, Richmond area houses of worship were loaded most weekends with church members praying, greeting and embracing friends and swapping thoughts about family, neighbors, work, school and retirement.
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Jason Kamras must resign
Photos of Shawn Jackson, smiling proudly as he accepts his diploma on the Altria Theater stage, are hard to look at knowing that just minutes later the 18-year old would lay outside the downtown theater gasping for breath before dying from gunshot wounds.
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Richmond native successfully pitches at Black Ambition
For Leslie Winston III, it was a case of the third time is the charm when his company, Monocle, was named HBCU Grand Prize Winner at the 3rd Annual Black Ambition Demo Day on Nov. 9 at Spring Studios in New York.
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Virginia lawmakers approve budget, but Gov. Youngkin warns that changes will be needed
Virginia lawmakers wrapped up their 60-day legislative session Saturday by approving a two-year budget that includes pay raises for teachers and state employees, increases for education funding and extends the state sales tax to cover digital services.
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Faith and family inspire local nursing student
With a bachelor’s degree from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Nursing, Erin Norwood is ready to help others — and set an example along the way.
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Tonsils, talent and newborns
Richmond Community Hospital holds a special place in the hearts of many, including Edwina Richmond, a retired college professor with deep family ties to the city. Born at the hospital 76 years ago, Ms. Richmond has fond memories of the care she received there, from getting her tonsils removed to witnessing the hospital’s integral role in the neighborhood’s welfare, Richmond Free Press reporter George Copeland Jr. reports in this week’s edition.
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Powered by faith and family, gospel queen Sheilah Belle triumphs over illnesses
Richmond gospel queen Sheilah Belle is “pressing forward” through the health challenges that have dogged her for six months.
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Washington NFL team drops racist name
The most polarizing name in North American professional sports is gone.
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Virginia expresses ‘profound regret’ for history of lynchings
Outlining a “dark and shameful chapter of American history,” state legislators unanimously passed resolutions to “acknowledge with profound regret the existence and acceptance of lynching” in Virginia, where more than 80 people — mostly African-American men — were killed by mobs in the decades after the Civil War.
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Special VCU council offers plan for human remains from old medical research
A proper burial in a historic African-American cemetery, recognition on the Virginia Commonwealth University medical campus and continued research.
