GRTC seasonal service to Kings Dominion starts May 23
GRTC is again providing seasonal express services from Downtown and South Side to the Kings Dominion amusement park in Doswell. The daily service is scheduled to start Saturday, May 23, and will continue through Labor Day, Monday, Sept. 7, according to GRTC officials.
$1M upgrade at Main Library in Downtown
Every day, dozens of people flood into the Main Library in Downtown to use public computers. They come to check emails, seek employment, do research and handle other activities in the online world, including paying bills and applying for visas.
CARE van drivers frustrated by poor scheduling, changing contracts
Frustrated riders who rely on GRTC’s CARE van service often blame the drivers for the spotty service that can make them miss or arrive late for doctors’ appointments, therapy, dialysis or other crucial appointments. But it turns out that the drivers of the CARE vans are just as frustrated.
Memorial Day holiday schedule
A list of closings and schedule changes for Memorial Day, Monday, May 25:
Walmart to cut greeters
Walmart “greeters” soon will be losing their jobs. After 35 years, the retail giant is eliminating the part-time positions reserved largely for retirees and disabled people. Greeters at Richmond area stores have been told their positions will end June 19.
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.
Attention deficit?
Busy school superintendent wants to teach college course
Busy school superintendent wants to teach college course
Richmonder recalls meeting legendary pitcher Satchel Paige
Thanks to Richmond Free Press reader Joe Brown for alerting and informing us that Satchel Paige’s legendary baseball career included an historic trip to Virginia’s capital city. In fact, the last time Paige hurled a horsehide in a competitive game just may have been at the old Parker Field, then home of the Richmond Braves — the AAA International League affiliate of the Atlanta Braves. The Diamond, home of the Richmond Flying Squirrels, was built on the site.
Federal appeals court gives workers greater protection against racial harassment
A Maryland waitress who was fired after reporting that a manager twice called her “a porch monkey” has become a key figure in bolstering protections for workers who face racial harassment and abuse on the job. A federal appeals court in Richmond is using the civil rights lawsuit that Reya C. Boyer-Liberto filed against the resort hotel where she worked in 2010 to bolster efforts of workers who seek legal redress for a hostile workplace — even when their complaint involves only one or two incidents.
Henrico hires Petersburg deputies
Henrico County Sheriff Michael L. Wade spotted a personnel opportunity when he learned that Petersburg was closing its jail.
5th Street traffic detour expected through mid-August
A portion of North 5th Street was closed Wednesday to start the second phase of work on the bridges beside the Richmond Coliseum.
Kaine, McClenney speaking at Sunday services
A U.S. senator and a newly elected Richmond General District Court judge are scheduled to speak at separate Richmond church services Sunday, May 17.
Not just another hip-hop show
The crowd at Jackson Ward’s Gallery 5 was treated to more than a hip-hop concert last Friday as The Cheats Movement presented “Lights, Camera, Action: A Celebration of Hip-Hop Film and Music.” It was an evening for the senses, starting with local artists Goldin, O_Bey and others performing their own independently produced music as clips from classic hip-hop movies streamed along a gallery wall. Later, a panel of experts, including hip-hop legend Queen Lisa Lee of the Zulu Nation, who starred in the classic hip-hop films “Wild Style” and “Beat Street” in the early 1980s, and Emmy Award-winning director Jesse Vaughan, talked about the current state of the hip-hop film industry and the opportunities available for aspiring hip-hop artists to produce independent films.
New city CAO gets $5,700 raise before job start
Selena Cuffee-Glenn just received a $5,700 salary bump — from $203,000 a year to $208,700 — though she will not start work as the city’s top administrator until Monday, May 18.
VCU’s Graham invited to NBA’s pre-draft event
Virginia Commonwealth University’s Treveon Graham is under the spotlight this week. The 6-foot-6, All-Atlantic 10 forward from Temple Hills, Md., was invited to participate in the NBA’s Pre-Draft Combine May 14 through16 in Chicago.
Mobile homes must meet city code
Re “Mobile home residents allege city’s actions discriminatory in HUD complaint,” May 7-9 edition:
Fallen Angels event remembered loved ones in Highland Park
Celebrating with joy and not grief, the neighborhood of Highland Park remembered the untimely deaths of loved ones in the local community. The Fallen Angels event included area residents and friends gathered at Ann Hardy Plaza on First Avenue in North Side.
GRTC should change provider of CARE van service
Re “Spotty CARE van service leaves riders in limbo,” April 30-May 2 edition:
The criminalization of poverty
The recent U.S. Department of Justice report on police and court practices in Ferguson, Mo., put a much needed spotlight on how a predatory system of enforcement of minor misdemeanors and compounding fines can trap low-income people in a never-ending cycle of debt, poverty and jail. This included outrageous fines for minor infractions, such as failing to show proof of insurance and letting grass and weeds in a yard get too high. In one case, a woman who parked her car illegally in 2007 and couldn’t pay the initial $151 fee has since been arrested twice, spent six days in jail, paid $550 to a city court and, as of 2014, still owed the city $541 in fines, all as a result of the unpaid parking ticket. The Department of Justice found each year Ferguson set targets for the police and courts to generate more and more money from municipal fines. And Ferguson isn’t alone. The criminalization of poverty is a growing trend in states and localities across the country.
First Lady tells Tuskegee to ‘rise above’
I hope people who attended Tuskegee University’s commencement May 9 got First Lady Michelle Obama’s message. I hope they paid more attention to what she said than how some news media organizations portrayed the First Lady’s speech to graduates of the historically black Alabama school. I don’t want them to think People magazine got it right when it ran as the headline her dismay over being pictured as a fist-pumping Black Panther on a cover of The New Yorker in 2008. It didn’t. And neither did CNN, which put this headline on its report of that speech: “Michelle Obama says she was held to different standard in ’08 campaign due to her race.” What she told Tuskegee’s graduates was much more profound.
