All results / Stories / Jeremy M. Lazarus
Finally
Bon Secours opens new East End medical facility
A battered Bon Secours Mercy Health is promising increased investments in health care in Richmond’s East End in pushing back against critics claiming the giant health care system has diverted savings on expensive drugs away from the community to wealthier areas.
Joe locks up win, gets cold shoulder
Delegate Morrissey back in General Assembly
Joseph D. “Fighting Joe” Morrissey is back in the General Assembly.
Spotty CARE van service leaves riders in limbo
Roderyck Bullock has somewhere to go almost every day, but he doesn’t always make it. His ride sometimes arrives late. Occasionally, it doesn’t show up at all.
Opportunity time
Richmond mayor’s race hit by 11th-hour surprises
The Richmond mayor’s race has been turned topsy-turvy as the days count down to Election Day next Tuesday, Nov. 8. As the apparent front-runner, Joe Morrissey, scrambles to contain a new sex scandal with fierce denials, one of his six rivals, City Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles, announced Wednesday he has ended his bid for the city’s top post. Trailing far behind in recent polls, Mr. Baliles issued a message to his supporters on his campaign website that he was dropping out.
Va. SCLC lauds racist U.S. attorney general for civil rights work on anniversary of Dr. King’s death
Sending shockwaves through the civil rights community, leaders of the Virginia affiliate of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference used the anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a co-founder of the national group, to honor what many would view as his nemesis, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
Stoney offers $681M budget
Spending plan raises trash fee, utility rates but avoids tax hike
Richmond Public Schools teachers and city police officers and firefighters would gain pay raises, but most city employees would have to make do with their current wages.
Source: City Hall knew Adediran was managing church project
It was no secret at Richmond City Hall that city Public Works Director Emmanuel O. Adediran was doubling as project manager for a new $5.3 million sanctuary that First Baptist Church of South Richmond is building in Chesterfield County, the Free Press has learned. According to a highly knowledgeable source, “everyone knew (Mr. Adediran) had been asked by the mayor to help with the church project.”
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.
Slot machines hit jackpot in stores around Va.
Andrea R. Hill is a self-confessed “slot machine grinder,” but she still hasn’t visited the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side to try her luck on the array of slot-style machines.
New book reveals details about Mary Lumpkin and the slave jail that became VUU
The stories of enslaved Black women largely have been erased from American history.
Feeding schools’ budget
City Council approves 1.5% meals tax hike for schools construction
On July 1, people dining out in Richmond will pay an extra 1.5 percent in tax on their prepared meals. The projected extra $9 million in annual tax revenue will be used to repay $150 million the city plans to borrow to build up to four new schools in Church Hill and South Side to replace aging and decaying buildings.
Pushback: Individuals, coalitions raising questions, opposition to mayor’s $1.4B Coliseum development plan
As Mayor Levar M. Stoney and representatives of the Navy Hill District Corp. stump throughout the city to marshal support for the $1.4 billion plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum, resistance is beginning to appear.
‘I’m done’: Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham announces his last day on the force will be Dec. 31
“I’m done. I don’t have another position waiting.” So said Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham after publicly announcing Tuesday he will retire effective Sunday, Dec. 31.
It’s a sweep!
Virginia elects Democrats to top posts, other offices
In a result seen as a wholesale rejection of a president many see as unfit, and a message to the political party that has backed him, fired up Virginia voters ensured Democrats retained control of the top tiers of state government and replaced at least a dozen seasoned Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly to boot.
Capital of compassion
Mayor Stoney’s upbeat agenda: Increased home ownership, public safety, enhanced learning
As he launched his seventh year in office, Mayor Levar M. Stoney painted a rosy picture of a thriving city “filled with promise and hope ... and purpose” Tuesday in delivering his State of the City address.
Dreams deferred
Hopewell brothers jailed 72 days until charges dropped
At first, the story seems all too familiar. Two Hopewell teenagers rob two pedestrians at gunpoint near a private school, but are quickly caught when responding police officers scour the area and arrest them a few minutes later as they are buying sodas and pastries at a nearby convenience store. With police boasting about having strong evidence, the teenage brothers are kept in jail for two and a half months — twice refused bond because they are charged with a crime of violence involving a weapon. But just as suddenly, the case evaporates. The evidence does not stand up, and the brothers are freed to resume their lives.
City booted from Rep. Scott’s 3rd District in judicial order
Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott no longer will represent Richmond in the U.S. House of Representatives if the decision of a three-judge panel sticks.
Head of the class!
Richmond Public Schools teacher Rodney A. Robinson, who mentors and inspires students at the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, wins 2019 National Teacher of the Year
Rodney A. Robinson, the 40-year-old history and social studies teacher who inspires students each and every day inside the Richmond Juvenile Detention Center, where he has worked at the Virgie Binford Education Center since 2015, has been named 2019 National Teacher of the Year.
Marker recognizing city’s liberation by Union troops near Civil War’s end damaged in East End
An accident or act of intentional vandalism?
Fairfax battles sexual assault allegation
Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, a 39-year-old rising star in the state Democratic Party, is battling to save his political career after being hit with a shocking allegation of sexual assault that dates back 15 years.