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Researchers uncover their tangled roots

Lemon Project symposium to help connect the past

Virginia lawyer and retired public official Viola Baskerville has been intrigued by her family’s roots for more than 35 years.

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Hundreds to benefit from payday loan settlement

Hundreds of low-income Richmond area residents will benefit from the settlement of a lawsuit challenging the lending practices of Advance ‘Til Payday, a company that charges up to 960 percent interest on loans of $100 to $300. The settlement will result in the dismissal of at least 50 garnishment actions and 800 judgments that Advance ‘Til Payday had obtained in court against borrowers who defaulted on the loans, according to Jay Speer of the Virginia Poverty Law Center, which brought the suit.

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Flint: A lesson in callousness

Flint, Mich., is impoverished. The auto plants have closed. Forty percent of the city’s 100,000 residents live below the poverty level. It is majority minority. It has been in fiscal crisis since 2011, with the state taking over budgetary control and a state-appointed “emergency manager” driving policy focused on cutting spending.

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More states are teaching financial literacy

Inside a high school classroom, Bryan Martinez jots down several purchases that would require a short-term savings plan: shoes, phone, headphones, clothes, and food. His medium-term financial goals take a little more thought, but he settles on a car — he doesn’t have one yet — and vacations. Peering way into his future, the 18-year-old also imagines saving money to buy a house, start his own business, retire and perhaps provide any children with a college fund.

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Swansboro Baptist partners with nonprofit to offer free meals

For Kevin Alston and dozens of other hungry South Side residents struggling with food costs, Swansboro Baptist Church is now the place to go for a free hot lunch.

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Charlottesville votes to remove Lee statue

A divided Charlottesville City Council voted this week to move a statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from the city’s Downtown and to rename Lee Square where it stands.

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Local designer ties down sneaker line

Sneakers have gone from the basketball court to the lifestyle of the rich and famous. Forget paying $75 to $130 for a pair bearing Michael Jordan’s name. Think, instead, of shelling out $500 to $1,200 for a pair of sneakers from Chanel, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Versace or other renowned fashion houses.

Hope for the ‘Cotton Curtain’

We won the Voting Rights Act of 1965 at Selma, combining the power of a principled mass movement led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and a compassionate president who did the right thing despite the heavy political price. What was that cost? President Lyndon B. Johnson said it best at the time when he told his aides that we’d “just lost the South for a generation.”

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More than 50% of African-Americans have high blood pressure under new guidelines

Well over half of all African-American adults will be classified as having high blood pressure under new streamlined diagnostic guidelines released this week, illuminating the heavy burden of cardiovascular disease in the population. Anyone with blood pressure higher than 130/80 will be considered to have hypertension, or high blood pressure, the American Heart Association and American College of Cardiology stated Monday in releasing their new joint guidelines.

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Black artists alliance to hold benefit online auction for COVID-19 relief

Members of the Black American Artists Alliance of Richmond are holding an online art auction from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday, June 6, to benefit CultureWorks’ COVID-19 Arts & Culture Relief Fund.

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Crusade for Voters to celebrate 65th anniversary with banquet Oct. 14

The Richmond Crusade for Voters, the area’s oldest Black political group, will mark its 65th anniversary with a scholarship banquet 6 p.m. next Thursday, Oct. 14, it has been announced.

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Obamas break ground for $830M presidential library

After five years of legal battles, gentrification concerns and a federal review, Barack and Michelle Obama dug shovels into the ground Tuesday during a celebratory groundbreaking on their legacy project in a lakefront Chicago park.

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From home, Virginians can keep an eye on legislators

It may not offer the drama of “House of Cards,” but an initiative at the Virginia Capitol is lifting the curtain on the workings of the General Assembly.

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Food fight

Highland Springs-based food ministry scrambles to generate new food sources after being shut out by Feed More

For the past year, Brian Purcell has stopped by the Kroger store in Mechanicsville four days a week to pick up unsold prepared food and bakery items the store otherwise would have thrown away.

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Changes at 2 North Side funeral homes

They may deal with death, but two venerable, African-American-owned funeral homes in North Side are getting new life. The former W.S. Watkins & Son Funeral Home at 2700 North Ave. has new owners who vow to rebuild the 84-year-old business.

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Visit museums, gardens and historical sites in Richmond and the world online

Richmond area museums are offering on- line activities, virtual tours and resources to youngsters and families as schools are out for the rest of the academic year and museums and other public venues have been closed during the coronavirus pandemic.

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City registrar to seek $1.2M for new voting machines

Richmond is close to resolving its voting machine problem. Less than two weeks after the state banned the touch-screen machines Richmond and 29 other localities have used for 10 years, the city’s Electoral Board has selected replacement equipment.

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City residents’ utility bills increase

Effective with the July bills, Richmond residents will be charged at least $8.70 more per month for public utilities, including water, sewer service, natural gas and stormwater controls.

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Price of first class stamp drops by 2¢

A postage stamp now costs 47 cents — a drop of 2 cents for a first class letter.