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System failure
RPS loses thousands of laptops
Richmond Public Schools wasted millions of federal support dollars buying 20,000 extra Chromebook laptop computers it didn’t need after going virtual during the pandemic, an internal audit has found.
VUU’s tower sign stays; scooter rentals advance
Virginia Union University can keep its logo shining at night from the top of a historic 60- foot tower on its campus.
Study estimates slavery museum would cost up to $220M
A hefty price tag would be attached to creating a national slavery museum on the site of the “Devil’s Half Aacre,” a once notorious slave jail that Richmonder Robert Lumpkin operated before the Civil War and that later became the birthplace of Virginia Union University.
RRHA reconsidering plan to demolish Creighton Court
The city’s key public housing agency is rethinking its vision of demolishing the six major public housing communities in Richmond and replacing them with “mixed-income” neighborhoods to end the concentration of poverty.
City Council recommends big pay raises for city employees
Coming this year: A major pay increase for city employees.
City Council OKs expensive NFL training center refinancing
Taxpayers cannot escape paying for the Washington pro football team’s summer training camp, a reluctant Richmond City Council has decided.
GRTC stands to get more money under mayor’s proposed budget
GRTC turns out to be one of the big winners in Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s proposed budget. The mayor is asking Richmond City Council to boost the total GRTC subsidy by about $1.65 million from the current level in a bid to keep the transit company solvent as it prepares for a major overhaul of its routes and to subsidize the new GRTC Pulse or Bus Rapid Transit service.
City Council approves funds for new police property center
The cramped and decaying storage area in Downtown where the Richmond Police Department holds guns, drugs and other evidence for court cases is finally on its way to being replaced.
Metropolitan Business League sells Jackson Ward headquarters
The Richmond area’s largest African-American business group has waved goodbye to its former home in Jackson Ward. The Metropolitan Business League last month sold its longtime headquarters at 2nd and Marshall streets to a subsidiary of Washington-based Douglas Development, which has been buying up chunks of Downtown for more than 10 years.
Virginia House-Senate disagreement threatens proposed minimum wage hike
One of the biggest fights in the waning days of the General Assembly involves raising the minimum wage from the current federal $7.25 an hour.
City Public Defender’s Office gets award, no pay supplement
The Richmond Public Defender’s Office received high praise Monday night from City Council.
Bus Rapid Transit
Can Richmond afford to maintain proposed expensive bus service?
Can Richmond afford to operate the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system that promises speedier travel and is described as the biggest revamp in public bus service in the city in at least 50 years?
City Council approves commission to review $1.4B Coliseum project
City Councilwoman Kim B. Gray scored a signal victory in securing an 8-1 vote Monday in support of her plan to create a commission of citizen experts to review the $1.4 billion plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum and redevelop at least 10 blocks of Downtown near City Hall.
Religious order reviewing bids on former Powhatan boarding school property
The future of a historic 2,200-acre property in Powhatan County, where thousands of African-American children once were educated in long-closed Catholic boarding schools, remains in limbo.
State auditor concludes city doesn’t need state intervention
Richmond can handle its financial problems without the state needing to hold its hand. That’s the conclusion the state auditor of public accounts reached after reviewing the city’s information on its financial operations and holding discussions with the city’s finance officials.
Bourne to push schools referendum in Gen. Assembly
A Richmond Democrat has volunteered to promote legislation to approve city voters’ call for Mayor Levar M. Stoney to craft a fully funded school modernization plan.
Stoney’s $3B proposal
Funding designed to make Richmond more liveable, despite increased gas, water bills
Record pay increases for Richmond city employees, along with hikes in spending on youth programming, affordable housing, public education and street paving.
$1.1M needed for new voting equipment
Richmond is hoping to borrow voting machines to use in the upcoming June 9 Democratic primaries. At the same time, the city voter registrar is seeking more than $1.1 million from the city government to buy new voting equipment to use in the November general election. The city is one of 30 localities facing an emergency situation involving voting machines. The upheaval is the result of Tuesday’s action by the state Board of Elections decertifying the WINVote touch-screen machines that the 30 localities have used in their elections for 10 years. The board’s action essentially bans the use of the WINVote machines in any future elections, including the June 9 primaries that will be held in Richmond and nine other localities.
Burn notice: Council approves Fire training in park
The Richmond Fire Department won its fight to replace 2 acres of lawn at the Hickory Hill Community Center in South Side with a concrete pad and a fire training facility where recruits can get experience dousing blazes.
Preddy D. Ray Sr., longtime affordable housing advocate who sought to keep people in their neighborhoods, dies at 69
In 1971, Preddy Drew Ray Sr. was among a group of nine Richmond college students who packed their bags and went to a Cincinnati conference on af- fordable housing and the role community groups could play.
