All results / Stories / Jeremy M. Lazarus
2020 early voting requiring city registrar to think outside the ballot box
Lines of voters wrapped around City Hall waiting to cast ballots? That’s a distinct possibility, according to Richmond Voter Registrar Kirk Showalter as she looks ahead to the 2020 presidential election.
VUU receives $50,000 from Florida couple
Mr. Nathaniel Green, who grew up in Richmond’s Fulton neighborhood, said the new fund carries the Fulton name to recognize neighborhood residents who attended VUU, as well as the VUU graduates who taught him in city schools that served Fulton.
Minimum wage protesters take it to the street
They were among 10 people who staged an impromptu sit-in in the 2300 block of Mechanicsville Turnpike in front of a McDonald’s restaurant — blocking traffic on the major artery last Thursday.
City Councilman Michael J. Jones files again to run for House of Delegates
Pastor and City Councilman Michael J. Jones will try again for a seat in the House of Delegates.
Councilwoman calls for audit of defunct foundation
The chair of City Council’s Education and Human Services Committee plans to seek a financial audit of the collapsed Enrichmond Foundation, which previously played a crucial role in providing support for city parks and recreation.
Lucille A.B. Roane, voting proponent, former detective, dies
Richmond voter advocate and former city police detective Lucille Aurelia Brown Roane has died. Mrs. Roane, who was the first Black president of the Richmond Metropolitan Area Chapter of the League of Women Voters and the third Black woman to serve on Richmond’s police force, succumbed to illness Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2023. She was 94.
Richmond native rapper Brax lives on in mural to be unveiled
A new mural will be unveiled this weekend in North Side celebrating Braxton Trenae Baker, a Richmond-born rapper who performed as Brax and made a major splash on social media before her death last year at age 21.
City voter registrar may be out
Kirk Showalter’s 25-year tenure as Richmond’s voter registrar may be coming to an end.
Andrea Peyton Sharpe, bookkeeper, dies at 73
Brothers Jerry F. “Jay” Sharpe Jr. and Devron N. Sharpe run very different businesses in the Richmond area. But the one person each trusted to keep their books was their mother, Andrea Peyton Sharpe.
Khalfani returns to Richmond in advocacy role
The former executive director of the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP is the newest member of the lobbying team of the Richmond- based Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, a coalition of 750 faith groups that advocates for economic, racial and social justice.
David N. Smith, former banking executive and state official, dies at 66
David Nathaniel Smith wanted to be a journal- ist but found his road to success in commercial sales and banking.
Richmond NFL Hall of Famer donates $500,000 to Morgan State University
Morgan State University was good to Willie Lanier. Now Mr. Lanier is being good to Morgan State. The historically black university in Baltimore announced that Mr. Lanier has given a $500,000 gift to establish the Willie E. Lanier Sr. Endowed Lectureship in Business Ethics.
Turmoil, charges rock Chesterfield NAACP
The president of the Chesterfield County Branch NAACP is facing a charge of assault in the wake of a bizarre incident in which he sought to block a critic from attending a branch meeting, which usually is open to the public. LaSalle J. McCoy Jr. was arrested Saturday on a misdemeanor charge and released on his own recognizance in the case that has embarrassed both the branch and the state NAACP, Virginia’s oldest and largest civil rights group.
Customers left hanging after dry cleaner shuts down
Lonnie McLaurin took two jackets, two shirts and two pair of pants to a dry cleaner in Highland Park at the end of April. When he returned a week later to pay his bill and pick up his clothes, he hit a surprising roadblock — a padlock on the front door of the shop. He could see his clothes covered by plastic hanging on a rack in the front of the store, but no one was there to let him in.
Christy Coleman leaves American Civil War Museum
Christy Coleman is leaving Richmond to become executive director of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, a state agency that operates museums that focus on the original English colony at Jamestown and the American Revolution Museum at Yorktown.
Maggie Small to dance in ‘Portrait of Billie’
Maggie Small is excited and honored to be portraying Billie Holiday in next week’s opening show of the Richmond Ballet’s new season.
Bike lanes proposed for 1st Street
Busy 1st Street in Jackson Ward would be reduced to one lane for traffic under a city proposal to install bike lanes on the west side of a roadway that is a significant link between North Side to Downtown and routes to South Side.
Newport News House race still up in the air
Control of the Virginia House of Delegates remains unsettled. At the last minute, the state Board of Elections postponed Wednesday’s drawing to decide the winner of a Newport News House seat.
Richmond jail staffing shortage blamed for rise in injured deputies, inmates
In the past four weeks at the Richmond City Justice Center, one deputy had his shoulder dislocated after he was thrown to the ground while trying to stop two prisoners from assaulting another inmate. Another deputy was head-butted by an inmate after refusing to provide the inmate with another prisoner’s food tray, according to information provided to the Free Press. In addition, the Free Press has learned another inmate was stabbed during this period, apparently the fourth this year. And early Monday, the jail reported to Richmond Police the third death of an inmate this year, though the identification was not released. For the second time since late October, an inmate who was transported to the John Marshall Courts Building was found to be carrying a concealed blade, according to information provided to the newspaper.
Woman says former executive who defrauded city also fooled her
Sharon B. Holmes is relieved that a retired senior executive in the Richmond Department of Public Works is going to prison for engineering a scheme that ripped off the department for $600,000.
