Community colleges to host driver training for CDLs
Community colleges in Richmond and across the state are moving to become hubs for obtaining a commercial driver’s license, or CDL. Under a program announced Aug. 27 by Gov. Ralph S. Northam, community colleges are to be a one-stop shop where students can get required classroom training and hands-on vehicle experience and take the tests to obtain learner’s permits and CDL licenses.
Free small business course to start Sept. 19
“Mine Your Business,” a nine-week course on creating and running a small business, launches Thursday, Sept. 19, and aims to bring business fundamentals, coaching by mentors and the chance to win money to pump into a new venture.
City council candidates to meet in back-to-back forums
The eight candidates running to replace 5th District City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto will have two chances next week to impress voters at candidate forums where they will respond to questions.
Hearing on Coliseum referendum petitions still up in the air
Richmond Circuit Court Chief Judge Joi Jeter Taylor so far has not set a new hearing to consider whether city Voter Registrar Kirk Showalter wrongly threw out more than 2,000 petition signatures and keeping a nonbinding advisory referendum on the Richmond Coliseum replacement project off the Nov. 5 ballot.
Saving the past
Bradford family descendants, supporters work to protect old Sons and Daughters of Ham Cemetery
Dense woods fill much of a largely uncelebrated and essentially abandoned African-American burial ground in Henrico County that had been best known in recent years as a practice area for University of Richmond runners.
Opening Bell
Richmond Public Schools students, parents, teachers and officials were up bright and early and full of optimism Tuesday morning for the beginning of the new school year.
Activist to head U.N. AIDS Office
The United Nations Office on AIDS has named a longtime activist on women’s issues to head the global health agency.
Reframing the history of slavery in Angola and U.S.
If the United States has 35,000 museums, a writer asked in 2014, why is only one about slavery? And if the wealth of this country was built on the backs of enslaved people from Africa, why has that story been vastly under-reported in our media, in our schools and in our political discourse?
Changing Hanover school names ‘won’t change a thing’
Letters to the Editor
Re “Hanover County NAACP files federal lawsuit over schools’ Confederate names,” Free Press Aug. 22-24 edition: The Hanover County Branch NAACP’s federal lawsuit over Hanover schools with Confederate names is on specious grounds.
Cityscape:Slices of life and scenes in Richmond
A line of people marches along a portion of the Richmond Slave Trail beside the James River on their way from the Old Manchester docks to Downtown.
Free Press SOL article 'does a tremendous disservice' to RPS students
Letters to the Editor
Re “Down again: Student achievement drops again for Richmond Public Schools, according to 2018-19 SOL test results,” Free Press Aug.15-17 edition: The article published in the Free Press will likely lead many readers to believe that Richmond Public Schools’ Standards of Learning test scores decreased across the board last year.
Jay-Z buys in — sells out
“Power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love” - Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Recovering from Ferguson
“The city’s personal-responsibility refrain ... reflects many of the same racial stereotypes found in the emails between police and court supervisors. This evidence of bias and stereotyping, together with evidence that Ferguson has long recognized but failed to correct the consistent racial disparities caused by its police and court practices, demonstrates that the discriminatory effects of Ferguson’s conduct are driven at least in part by discriminatory intent in violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.” – U.S. Department of Justice Civil Rights Division, Investigation of the Ferguson Police Department, March 2015
Missy Elliott honored at MTV Awards
Missy Elliott, the rapper-singer-songwriter-producer-dancer and Portsmouth native whose music videos have moved the needle over the last two decades, was honored at the 2019 MTV Video Music Awards, where Taylor Swift also took center stage with her gay pride anthem, “You Need to Calm Down.”
Alzheimer's Association to hold annual conference Sept. 19
The Greater Richmond Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association will host its annual conference on dementia, Live Well with De- mentia, from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 19, at Mt. Gilead Full Gospel International Ministries, 2501 Mt. Gilead Blvd. in Chesterfield County.
Benefit basketball game Saturday at Hermitage High School
The nonprofit Assist Student Athletes Foundation will host a showcase for Richmond area high school basketball players ahead of the start of classes, it has been announced.
2019 AfroFest RVA Aug. 31 at Pine Camp
AfroFest RVA, which celebrates the culture and diversity of area immigrants from African nations, will be held noon to 5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 31, at Pine Camp Cultural Arts and Community Center, 4901 Old Brook Road.
VUU hosts panel discussion of 400th anniversary of the first Africans
Virginia Union University is observing the 400th anniversary of the first Africans being brought to English North America with a series of panel and roundtable discussions this week that are free and open to the public.
Happily Natural Day set for Saturday in South Side
The 17th Annual Happily Natural Day returns this weekend with workshops on hemp growing, Kemetic Yoga and colorful head wraps and a celebration of breastfeeding babies, according to organizer Duron Chavis.
