Breakfast with Bernie
Bernie Sanders had breakfast in New York with the Rev. Al Sharpton just hours after trouncing Hillary Clinton in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential nominating contest Tuesday. His meeting with the iconic civil rights leader marked the recognition by Mr. Sanders that his campaign must swiftly broaden its base of support if he has any chance of mounting a long-term challenge to Mrs. Clinton, who consistently polls better among African-American voters.
City Council on board with Bus Rapid Transit
Let’s roll on this project. That’s the message Richmond City Council sent this week on Bus Rapid Transit, also known as “Pulse.” Envisioning BRT as a start to creating a modern regional public transit system, council members voted 7-1, with one abstention, to give the green light to the $49 million project to speed up transit service primarily along the Broad Street corridor.
Tree decision expected Feb. 13 on Maggie Walker statue site
That controversial question is expected to be decided this weekend as plans move forward to create a statue of Richmond great Maggie L. Walker at Broad and Adams streets — the Downtown intersection now dominated by a rare live oak tree. The decision on whether to keep or remove the tree is to be made by the Richmond Public Arts Commission’s seven-member Site Selection Committee, the commission disclosed Tuesday.
Sen. Lucas flip-flops in Va. Supreme Court battle
Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr. is still one Senate vote short of winning a General Assembly election that would move him from the Virginia Court of Appeals to the state Supreme Court.
Boyer named to 1st District seat
John Edward “Dawson” Boyer was selected by the Richmond School Board on Monday to fill the vacant 1st District seat.
School Board holds nose to approve overcrowding plan
Members of the Richmond School Board approved a $19.1 million plan designed to help address huge overcrowding problems at several South Side schools.
Stained by dishonor
Henrico student launches growing effort to remove segregationist’s name from school
Jordan Chapman said her jaw dropped in incredulous disbelief the day she learned in her Hermitage High School history class about the late Harry F. Byrd Sr., the former Virginia governor, U.S. senator and avowed white separatist for whom H.F. Byrd Middle School in Henrico County is named.
Guns a safety issue
On the holiday for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gov. Terry McAuliffe stood in front of hundreds of gun violence prevention supporters and activists and told them that “we are not finished” making Virginia a safer place.
Loan agencies can sometimes help
Re ‘Paydazed in RVA: High-fee loan traps Henrico man,” Jan. 28-30 edition: Many people come up short of money. It is an unfortunate situation to be in, especially when you are on a fixed income. I am 56 and was diagnosed in June 2007 with an incurable disease, and was placed on treatment for the rest of my life. I live on $959 monthly from government disability.
Richmond deeply divided
Our desire to live closer to our families and a burgeoning restaurant scene brought my husband and I to Richmond only 14 months ago, despite a commute to Washington each day for work. We first moved into a Shockoe Slip apartment and then purchased our first home together in the Fan District.
Snow removal a joke
All men are created equal, unless you live on South Side.
Standing on sacred ground
Three unarmed black men encountered a group of white men walking down a dirt road in Slocum, Texas, on July 29, 1910. Without warning, and with no reason, the white men opened fire on the black men. And, for two days, white men simply slaughtered black people. Eight deaths have been officially acknowledged, but historians who have studied the Slocum Massacre say that it is likely that dozens more were killed, with some saying as many were killed in Slocum as in Tulsa, Okla, in 1921, and those numbers range into the hundreds.
Trump gets trumped in Iowa
Ever since Donald Trump entered the Republican presidential race, I have been waiting to see him lose. I wanted to see how he would handle it. Humility, after all, is not an emotion with which The Donald appears to be intimately familiar. Remember when his rival Ben Carson, the retired brain surgeon, was running neck and neck with him in polls back in November, occasionally beating him? “How stupid are the people of Iowa?” Mr. Trump raged about Dr. Carson in a Fort Dodge rant. “How stupid are the people of the country to believe this crap?”
Lessons from Iowa
Now that the Iowa presidential caucuses are over, what can voters in Richmond, a majority African-American city, learn from the political choices of a lily-white state of cornfields and livestock that produced evangelist Robert Schuller and TV mom Donna Reed?
Community groups announce anti-violence summit on Feb. 11
Over the years, countless well-intentioned individuals and groups have organized rallies, prayer vigils and community meetings to stem the tide of violence in Richmond. While the number of homicides and violent crimes in the city has declined during the past 15 years, too many Richmond residents still suffer as victims.
Richmond native, author to deliver message of chastity
Author and Richmond native Ivy Julease Newman is returning home this weekend to encourage teens and single adults to pursue a lifestyle of chastity in order to maintain a closer relationship to God. First, she is scheduled to deliver her message of sexual abstinence to young women ages 13 through 18 on Friday, Feb. 5, at a workshop she designed, “Redefining Chastity.”
Political cartoonist Keith Knight to speak Feb. 4 at VCU
Political cartoonist Keith Knight is scheduled to deliver the 14th Annual Virginia Commonwealth University Libraries Black History Month Lecture titled, “They Shoot Black People, Don’t They? From Ferguson to NYC, Political Cartoonist Keith Knight on Police Violence in the U.S.”
Conference to focus on Virginia’s Rosenwald schools
John Tyler Community College and Preservation Virginia will host Virginia’s Rosenwald Conference from 9 a.m. to noon Friday, Feb. 19, at the college’s Chester campus at 13101 Jef- ferson Davis Highway. The conference will bring people together who are interested in saving Virginia’s remaining Rosenwald Schools and their histories.
Black History Month Expo to highlight Petersburg events
Petersburg is planning an expo, movie viewings, spokenword and other dramatic presentations, a bus tour and read-in as part of its Black History Month commemoration.
