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Youngkins’ announce high school essay contest

Gov. Glenn Youngkin, First Lady Suzanne S. Youngkin and the Virginia Council on Women have announced the 13th Annual Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics and Healthcare (STEAM-H) essay contest. The contest is open to female high school seniors who plan to pursue a STEAM-H career at a community college, four-year college or university, trade or technical school, online or through certificated STEAM-H courses.

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Standing up

“It was February 1, 1960. They didn’t need menus. Their order was simple. A doughnut and coffee, with cream on the side."

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Fixing our broken drug pricing system, by Dr. Greg Gelburd

As a recently retired physician, I felt relief for patients across the commonwealth when Virginia legislators recently passed bipartisan measures, Senate Bill 274 and House Bill 570, to create a Prescription Drug Affordability Board. This board would be empowered to finally rein in skyrocketing prescription drug costs that make medicine inaccessible to too many patients. By signing this legislation into law, Gov. Glenn Youngkin can prioritize the health and well-being of Virginians.

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Ho-ho-hold on ... the holiday scammers are out there, by Charles Taylor

As the holiday shopping season winds down, there’s still time to pick up a few bargains online – and time to get fleeced.

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Convenience stores shut down Virginia Lottery sales in protest for skill games

Organizers say hundreds of stores participate

At Krunal Patel’s convenience store outside Richmond, a row of Queen of Virginia skill games has been powered off and turned around against a wall.

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No, Donald, you’re not being persecuted like the Scottsboro Boys, by Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan

The Scottsboro Boys were victims of racism; Donald Trump, conversely, has long been known for his racism

“War Is Peace, Freedom Is Slavery, Ignorance Is Strength.” So wrote George Orwell in 1984, his famous dystopian novel about authoritarian- ism. The book gave us the term “Orwellian,” describing situations where facts are ignored, truth is turned on its head, and 2+2=5. Now, almost 75 years after its publication, the United States is confronting its own brush with authoritarianism, by prosecuting former President Trump for his attempt to seize power after losing the 2020 election.

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Personality: DaNika Neblett Robinson

Spotlight on the board chair of the James River Writers

In 2015, DaNika Neblett Robinson found a new path to literary success. At the suggestion of her writing mentor, Stacy Hawkins Adams, she attended the annual James River Writers conference, in hopes of finding the inspiration she needed for her work.

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The role of Blackness in the Hamline Islamic art controversy

We’ve heard little about the students who initiated the complaint and why they objected to a painting of the prophet.

In early October, Erika López Prater, a professor at Hamline University in Minnesota, showed her online Islamic art history class an image of the Prophet Muhammad. A Muslim student in the class complained, citing Islamic tradition barring representations of the prophet. Other students joined in to express their view that this incident was part of a larger problem of Islamophobia on campus. The administration agreed, and eventually Ms. López Prater’s contract to teach during the spring semester was rescinded.

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Sacrifice for success

Parents of student athletes willingly go, and pay for, the extra mile(s)

Willie Starlings, 50, became a sports parent when his son, Joel Starlings, played flag football as a 4-year-old at Hotchkiss Field Community Center in Richmond.

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Teacher shortages in high-poverty schools, by David W. Marshall

There is no way one can put a price on the value of a child’s education. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, “Philanthropy is commendable, but it must not cause the philanthropist to overlook the circumstances of economic injustice which make philanthropy necessary.”

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No debt deal = doom

The clock is ticking on a potentially serious financial crisis that could affect you and your family.

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‘We can no longer remain silent’

Coalition wants Bon Secours to increase investments in area’s poor communities

Sparked by a New York Times expose, a new coalition hopes to rally the East End community to pressure nonprofit Bon Secours Mercy Health to rebuild critical care services at Richmond Community Hospital and better meet the health needs of low-income communities.

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MLK Day celebration in Petersburg to include special proclamation

A special program honoring the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the 50th anniversary of the city declaring a holiday in the slain civil rights leader’s name, begins 3 p.m., Jan.15 at the Petersburg Public Library, 201 W. Washington St.

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‘It is immoral to profit off the backs of Black and Brown residents under the guise of health care’

Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s response to New York Times report on Bon Secours

Calling the practice “immoral,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney this week called on the federal government to crack down on nonprofit hospitals’ diversion of savings on medications away from the low-income communities it was designed to benefit. Mayor Stoney issued his call for reform of the program known as Section 340B in reaction to a stunning New York Times article citing Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Richmond operations as a prime example of the misuse of the revenue from the drug pricing program.

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Police union up for a vote

Hundreds of officers in the Richmond Police Department are voting on whether to make the Richmond Coalition of Police their union bargaining agent, the Free Press has learned.

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Dr. Cora S. Salzberg, a state, national and international champion of education, dies at age 81

Dr. Cora Slade Salzberg, a leader in promoting higher education in Virginia and the leader of The Links’ national program aimed at aiding underachieving K-12 students to become more successful in school, has died.

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Councilwoman hopes proposed changes to City Charter find support

Under proposed changes to the City Charter or constitution, City Council would gain new authority over housing subsidies and real estate tax relief to residents with low to moderate incomes, in addition to setting its own compensation and modi- fying zoning. Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch hopes to gain unanimous support from her eight colleagues at the Monday, Dec. 11, council meeting for the changes she has negotiated with Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration. If passed by the council, the package would be sent to the General Assembly for approval in the upcoming 2024 session. Many of the changes follow recommenda- tions that a council-created Richmond City Charter Review Commission submitted Aug. 2 after a year of study. As the most significant package of charter changes proposed since the 2004 creation of a mayor elected citywide, the amend- ments do not address the current relationship between the council and the mayor ahead of the 2024 elections for the governing body and chief executive. The biggest proposed change could well be the tax and housing initiatives that the charter review commission did not address. The proposed Section 2.09 amendment would allow the city to defer property taxes and tax increases for qualifying low or moderate income property owners, using the definition of such individuals established by the Virginia Housing Development Authority, now known as Virginia Housing. Such a program could allow the taxes to accumulate over time to be paid off from proceeds after the property is sold. In addition, the proposed charter change would authorize the city to create a program that could help such qualifying individu- als buy a home or receive rental subsidies. The city also could use state or federal funds to advance such initiatives. The charter amendment also would declare the creation of programs that could provide funds directly to individuals for housing to be “in the furtherance of a public interest” to get

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Playwright aims to open hearts and minds with premiere production

Brittany Fisher left her native Virginia for New York in 2021 to attend Juilliard’s Lila Acheson Wallace American Playwrights Program. Now graduated, she is still based in New York, but she never stays away for long. Her family won’t let her.

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Some striking UAW members carry family legacies

As Britney Johnson paced the picket line outside Ford’s Wayne Assembly plant, she wasn’t just carrying a sign demanding higher pay and other changes. Autoworker jobs have long been a pillar of the Black middle class in America, and the strikes and the fight for higher wages have had even deeper significance for workers like Johnson.

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Schools are trying to get more students therapy. Not all parents are on board

Derry Oliver was in fifth grade when she first talked to her mom about seeing a therapist.