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Historic hospital tops endangered sites list
Preservation group deems Richmond Community Hospital at risk
A key part of Richmond’s African-American history. A criticalvresource at a time of medical segregation. A place where many who worked, were born, or said goodbye to loved ones. And now, one of Virginia’s many endangered historical sites.
Rev. Thomas S. Simmons, a ‘people’s pastor,’ dies at 80
The Rev. Thomas S. Simmons always was willing to help somebody — anybody. “He truly never met a stranger,” his daughter, Angela Simmons Cason said. “Once you met him, he loved you and you loved him.”
Review: Usher shines at star-studded 2024 Super Bowl halftime show
Wedding bells ring after
Usher emerged at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium for the Super Bowl halftime show seated on a throne, joined by a marching band and a trove of Vegas performers — but stayed its center.
AMC Theatres issues apology, talks with Barber, will meet next week in Greenville after he was forced to leave over chair
AMC Theatres has issued a statement of apology and will meet with Bishop William J. Barber II after he was escorted out of its Greenville theater when he was not allowed to use his own chair to watch a movie, according to WNCT 9 television in Greenville, N.C.
Wildcats’ Byrd is the word
Armstrong’s standout athlete feels ‘capable of doing anything’
There was only one No. 5 on the Armstrong High football roster, but it must have seemed like four to the Wildcats’ opponents.
Biden ‘continues to be fit for duty’ his doctor says after president’s annual exam
President Biden “continues to be fit for duty,” his doctor wrote Wednesday after conducting an annual physical that was closely watched as the president seeks re-election.
Personality: Coleman Wortham III
Spotlight on Children’s Hospital Foundation board chairman
Through decades of change and evolution, Coleman Wortham III has been a steadfast part of Richmond’s child care community.
Personality: Sean David O’Brien
Spotlight on ART 180’s board president
Sean David O’Brien loved Richmond from the time he came to the city as a University of Richmond undergraduate student.
Equal justice, even for Trump, by Clarence Page
Yusef Salaam, whom you may remember as one of the exonerated Central Park Five, had only one word to tweet to those who wanted to know his feelings about the indictment of Donald Trump: “Karma,” he offered. Karma? I’ve heard about it. Drawn from concepts of re- birth in Indian religions, I’ve been advised to think of kar- maasaformof cosmic justice: Good deeds and intent lead to good karma and happier re- births while bad karma may lead to times that are not so jolly. Mr. Salaam was one of five Black and Hispanic teenagers wrongfully imprisoned for the 1989 rape of a white woman in New York’s Central Park, a case that later was explored in a 2019 Netflix series “When They See Us” and a PBS documentary “The Central Park Five.” In 1989, before any of the five teens had been tried, Mr. Trump, then a major Manhat- tan real estate developer with a bottomless appetite for self- promotion, took out full-page newspaper ads calling for the death penalty to be reinstated in New York. Adding kerosene to public anger at the time, the ads were reported to have played a major role in securing a conviction. So did false confessions, it turned out, since no DNA linked them to the crime scene and their descriptions of the victim didn’t match. Mr. Salaam served nearly seven years in prison before he and the other wrongfully accused teens—Antron McCray, Kevin Richardson, Raymond Santana and Korey Wise—were Clarence Page exonerated in 2002. Serial rapist Matias Reyes, already in prison, confessed to the assault and DNA confirmed his admission. Ah, how the mighty have fallen. The presumption of inno- cence until proved guilty seemed almost nowhere to be seen in Mr. Trump’s world when the Central Park Five case raged across the headlines and boiled over into a national media frenzy. Yet, as Mr. Salaam mentions in his tweet, Mr. Trump—for whom “apologetic” is not part of his brand—never has apologized. Still, he seeks the presumption of innocence he has denied to others. So be it. Let’s see how well his innocence claims hold up. For now, Mr. Trump’s chants of “Lock her up” in his 2016 race against Hillary Clinton come to mind. Now that it is he who faces what has been reported to be more than 30 counts related to business fraud in a sealed indictment from a Manhattan grand jury, I wonder: Can chants of “Lock HIM up” be far behind? Still, the stress test to which the former president has put our crimi- nal justice system offers a valuable opportunity to view fairness in our system with new eyes. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, the ultraconservative Repub- lican from Georgia, suddenly has become a major advocate for inmates of the District of Columbia jail, now that their ranks were joined by detainees from the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol. Interesting, I said to myself. Since the alleged insurrectionists are mostly white and the D.C. jail’s traditional population is overwhelmingly Black, maybe now they can see how the other half lives. Unsurprisingly, they were shocked. The jail’s conditions, were so bad that 34 of them sug- gested in a letter to federal court last fall that they would rather be moved to Guantanamo Bay. Detainees, through their lawyers, raised concerns that included threats from guards, standing sewage, and skimpy food and water. A federal judge held top jail officials in contempt after they delayed prompt medi- cal care for a Capitol defendant in their custody. Things have gotten better, spurred partly by Rep. Greene and other congressional visitors. But the irony of how it took 40 or so Capitol rioters to get more attention and action than the jail’s roughly 1,400 total inmates is not lost, especially on the inmates of color. Rep. Greene, seldom known for understatement, visited the jail and likened the rioters inside to “prisoners of war,” implying that they were being punished for their politics. Actually they’re being held for a lot more than that. Don’t forget the physical assaults on Capitol Police with pepper spray, bear spray and riot shields, just for starters. Equal justice for all is a cherished ideal in the American system, a system they tried to disrupt. We must do all that we can to preserve that ideal, even for those who try to destroy it. The writer is a syndicated columnist and senior member of the Chicago Tribune edito- rial board.
Richmond Symphony celebrates MLK weekend with three concerts
Dr. Henry Panion III, a Grammy-award winning arranger, composer, conductor, educator and producer, has worked with artists across the musical spectrum.
A lifetime of racism makes Alzheimer’s disease more common in Black Americans
Constance Guthrie is not dead yet, but her daughter has begun to plan her funeral.
Love Stories
The Free Press proudly presents its annual Valentine’s Day feature. It shares the Love Stories of five Richmond-area couples.
Personality: Margaret Rose ‘Meg’ Medina
Spotlight on National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature
Amid ongoing campaigns against certain kinds of literature in the United States, Margaret Rose “Meg” Medina has been given a new platform and new responsibility to champion the value of the written word.
Migos rapper Takeoff dead after Houston shooting, rep says
The rapper Takeoff, best known for his work with the Grammy-nominated trio Migos, is dead after a shooting early Tuesday outside a bowling al- ley in Houston, a representative confirmed. He was 28. Kirsnick Khari Ball, known as Takeoff, was part of Migos along with Quavo and Offset. A representative for members of Migos who was not authorized to speak publicly confirmed the death to The Associated Press. Police responded shortly after 2:30 a.m. to reports of a shoot- ing at 810 Billiards & Bowling, where dozens of people had gathered on a balcony outside of the third-floor bowling alley, police said. Officers discovered one man dead when they arrived. An AP reporter at the scene observed a body loaded into a medical examiner’s van around 10 a.m., more than seven hours after the shooting. Security guards who were in the area heard the shooting but did not see who did it, a police spokesperson said. Two other people were injured and taken to hospitals in private vehicles. No arrests have been an- nounced and few details were released about what led up to the shooting, but Houston po- lice planned a news conference
Trailblazer
Bettie Elizabeth Boyers Cooper’s actions spurred City’s full school desegregation
Bettie Elizabeth Boyers Cooper, who helped end Richmond and Virginia’s determined efforts in the 1950s to maintain racially segregated public schools, has died.
Goldman prepares to sue over casino
In mid-June, Richmond City Council voted 8-1 to select RVA Entertainment Holdings LLC as its preferred choice to operate a resort casino in the city — setting the stage for a second attempt to win city voter support for a gambling operation that was defeated two years ago. However, political strategist Paul Goldman believes the no-bid award to the company could violate a provision of the state constitution as well as the Virginia Public Procurement Act. He said he is preparing a lawsuit to test whether the city was required to go through a bidding process before making what amounts to a perpetual right for that company to operate the casino.
A ‘woke’ military? Don’t forget the messy race relations that got us here, by Clarence Page
Recent Republican moves to limit diversity training and transgender rights and other hot button controversies stemming from the annual defense authorization bill remind me of my own days in uniform back when some of those diversity policies were being created.
A 6-year-old said ‘I did it’ after shooting his teacher at Virginia school, warrants say
In the moments after a 6-year-old shot his teacher in a Virginia classroom last January, the boy made statements, including “I shot that (expletive) dead,” and “I did it. I got my mom’s gun last night,” according to recently unsealed police search warrants.
Recovery and reflection
Hawaii works to identify wildfire’s 107 dead
Hawaii Hawaii officials worked painstakingly to identify the 107 people confirmed killed in wildfires that ravaged Maui and expected to release the first names Tuesday, even as teams intensified the search for more dead in neighborhoods reduced to ash.
Slavery was good?
Africans were so lucky to be captured, shipped in torturous conditions away from their homeland, stripped of their languages, kinship, religion and culture and bound into perpetual servitude in America so that they could learn “useful skills.” Pretty preposterous, right? Not for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
