All results / Stories / Jeremy M. Lazarus
Tax law change to affect city utility customers
In an unexpected twist, Richmond’s utility customers could gain a few dollars of savings on their water, sewer and natural gas bills as the result of the tax overhaul bill that Congress passed last week and President Trump signed into law.
Richmond School Board will have nearly complete turnover
Jeff M. Bourne will be the only holdover when the Richmond School Board starts a new four-year term in January. The board’s current chairman and a deputy Virginia attorney general, Mr. Bourne, 40, received 63 percent of the vote in the 3rd District in North Side to easily defeat two challengers, Kevin A. Starlings and Jessee M. Perry and secure a second term. However, Richmond voters swept out three other incumbents and filled five vacant seats, ensuring eight new individuals — four African-Americans and four white people — will join Mr. Bourne in overseeing Richmond Public Schools when the board convenes for the first time next year.
New City Council has history-making membership
Along with welcoming two new members, City Council installed two veterans and allies of Mayor Levar M. Stoney in its top leadership posts Monday and reshuffled committee chairmanships.
City Hall’s most feared man is out
For 11 years, he was considered the most feared man at Richmond City Hall as he led a staff of 14 in ferreting out waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayers’ dollars. But that time is over for City Auditor Umesh Dalal.
Mayor uses ‘fake news’ moniker for media reports on Coliseum project
Is Richmond’s mayor adopting President Trump’s habit of labeling media reports he dislikes as “fake news”?
REA wins victory giving city teachers, staff collective bargaining authority
In a nearly unanimous vote, the Richmond School Board voted 8-1 Monday night to approve a resolution giving teachers and other school staff the power to establish a union and collectively negotiate for pay and benefits.
Developers want to convert old school into apartments
A $55 million apartment complex is being proposed to transform the long vacant Oak Grove Elementary School in South Side – but that plan is facing competition as well as pushback from the neighborhood civic association.
Mayor Jones proposes less than half initially planned for city police
Police Chief Alfred Durham is likely to get only half the money he had been promised to hire and train new recruits to help beef up staff at the Richmond Police Department.
Child care a major issue as RPS officials grapple with reopening plan
A 3-foot change could help working parents — most notably single mothers — keep their jobs or avoid the cost of expensive day care.
Troubles escalate for NAACP official
The president of the Chesterfield County Branch NAACP is facing more legal trouble. LaSalle J. McCoy Jr. was sent to jail Tuesday based on a finding he was in violation of the terms of his release on a previous charge of driving while intoxicated.
Activist claims no signs banning interstate hitchhiking invalidates his arrest
The Virginia Department of Transportation appears to be flouting a state law. That law, section 46.2-808 of the state code, requires the agency to post signs on entryways to the interstates stating that pedestrians, horseback riders, farm tractors, cyclists and mopeds are banned from using high-speed, controlled-access highways.
Joe Morrissey fights to save his law license on March 26
Once again, Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey is in a fight to save his law license. A three-judge panel is gearing up to decide his future to practice law.
City denies owing overtime pay to former mayor’s security detail
That is City Hall’s response to a lawsuit that four members of former Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ executive protection detail have filed alleging they were denied overtime pay when they worked more than 40 hours a week. The legal tussle over pay is now underway in federal court in Richmond and pits Richmond Police Officers Charles Battle, Errol Fernandez, Anthony Franklin and Eric Godfrey against the city.
Woman power
Female candidates claim victory in Tuesday’s primary elections
Female political power was on display in Tuesday’s primary elections in the Richmond area. In separate Democratic and Republican party contests, women repeatedly emerged as the candidates of choice among the voters who went to the polls, leaving male rivals in the dust.
Musician and mail carrier Harold Lighty Sr. dies at age 90
Harold Ronald “Van” Lighty Sr., who often received standing ovations after making his drums speak, was a fixture on the Richmond jazz scene for more than 60 years.
Richmond to get millions under federal American Rescue Plan package
The American Rescue Plan, which provided a $1,400 check to almost every adult in the country, is about to rain even more money on City Hall.
Hanging around
City still mulling offers for city-owned Confederate statues removed last year from Monument Avenue and other Richmond locations.
Richmond removed in 2020 almost all of the city-owned Confederate statues that marred the landscape with their white supremacist message. But getting rid of the statues is proving to be harder.
William Lomax, longtime barber in Jackson Ward, dies at 87
Longtime Richmond barber and NAACP stalwart William Lomax has died. Mr. Lomax, who was best known for his barbershop in Jackson Ward, succumbed to illness Friday, Dec. 21, in hospice in Henrico County. He was 87.
State NAACP, others lodge criticism of proposed redistricting lines
Flawed data and too little assurance of fair representation for Black voters in Richmond, Hampton Roads and other sectors of the state.
Wells Fargo to give $4M to HOME to expand black home ownership
Five years ago, banking giant Wells Fargo paid more than $200 million to settle documented government allegations that it deliberately charged African-American borrowers higher fees and interest rates on home loans.
