Reva rebels
Councilwoman gives out city officials’ cell phone numbers
City Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell registered her protest against new restrictions on City Council members directly contacting city administrative staff by publicly announcing the cell phone numbers of Mayor Levar M. Stoney and other top officials.
Probe finds Wilder engaged in ‘nonconsensual sexual contact’ with 20-year-old student
Virginia Commonwealth University now finds itself in the embarrassing position of both supporting and attacking one of its highest paid and most prominent faculty members, L. Douglas Wilder, the nation’s first elected black governor.
Richmond Public Library’s main branch goes through overhaul in way space is used
“We’re shaking off the dust,” said Scott Firestine, director of the Richmond Public Library. That’s his description of the changes sweeping through the Main Library in Downtown.
Families upset about late markers, poor service at Henrico cemetery
Adeline U. Clarke finally has the elaborate marker she paid to have installed at her parents’ graves in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Henrico County.
Federal appeals court strikes down state’s ‘habitual drunkard’ law
An 85-year-old Virginia law that allows alcoholics to be labeled “habitual drunkards” and locked up if found with liquor is unconstitutional, a Richmond-based federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.
Hearing postponed in Agelasto case
Henry W. “Chuck” Richardson and his attorney, David Prince, were ready for a legal fight in Richmond Circuit Court.
City’s lawyers ask for Hosea Fox’s lawsuit to be dismissed
City Hall is firing back at a Richmond concert promoter who has sued for a refund of the 7 percent admissions tax he paid on his events after another promoter, JMI, formerly known as Johnson Inc., was excused from paying the tax.
Coliseum referendum likely to make ballot
Richmond voters are likely to have a say on whether they want to make building new schools more of a priority than spending millions of dollars to replace the Richmond Coliseum in Downtown.
New city protocol irritates City Council members
The days of council members speaking directly to department directors and other City Hall staff to resolve a problem are over.
Lawsuit refiled seeking Agelasto’s immediate removal from City Council
The legal fight to immediately remove 5th District City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto from office continues, but he apparently will not receive any taxpayer money for his defense.
VCU goes tobacco free
Public streets and sidewalks now are virtually the last refuge for smokers on the Virginia Commonwealth University campus.
Problems with paths, grass persist at Monroe Park
Add Monroe Park to the list of troubled projects for the city Department Public Works.
Taylor to vie for Democratic nomination for city commonwealth’s attorney
Newly appointed Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Colette W. McEachin will have at least one challenger in her bid to replace her predecessor, Michael N. Herring, who is now in private legal practice.
Slot machines hit jackpot in stores around Va.
Andrea R. Hill is a self-confessed “slot machine grinder,” but she still hasn’t visited the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side to try her luck on the array of slot-style machines.
Councilman Agelasto asks for taxpayer money to pay his legal bills
Parker C. Agelasto has run up a hefty legal tab fending off lawsuits seek- ing to immediately remove him from his 5th District City Council seat now that he and his family have moved out of the district.
Family burial interrupted by lack of death certificate
The prayers had ended and Rose M. Stith stood near the open grave in Oakwood Cemetery steeling herself to watch her youngest son’s casket lowered. But, suddenly, a member of the March Funeral Home staff was telling her that the burial of 44-year-old Byron Monte Stith Jr. was off.
Coliseum referendum initiative progressing
The plan to replace the Richmond Coliseum remains stalled inside City Hall.
Preschool transportation plan may be more extensive, expensive than RPS planned
The free bus service Richmond Public Schools will offer to get more low-income parents to enroll their 4-year-olds in a state- supported preschool program is likely to have to be more extensive and potentially more expensive than originally envisioned.
Delegate McQuinn to host gun control rally July 7
Gun control supporters are invited to an East End church Sunday, July 7, to rally for legislation aimed at reducing gun violence ahead of a special session of the General Assembly to address the issue.
RRHA issues request for developer interest in public housing transformation
Damon E. Duncan promised to move “expeditiously” to transform public housing in the city after taking over as chief executive officer of the Richmond Redevelopment Development and Housing Authority two months ago.
Council approves City Hall gun ban; tighter security plan in the works
Fortress City Hall? Maybe. Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration, shaken by the May 31 massacre in which a Virginia Beach city employee killed 12 people and wounded four others at that city’s munici- pal center, is preparing to roll out a plan that could end the free and unfettered movement of the public inside Richmond City Hall and possibly in recreation areas, libraries and other city property.
And they're off: More than 1,200 race into Rosie's Richmond Gaming Emporium for the first day of betting
Slot machines are illegal in Virginia. But don’t tell that to Shannon Bratson, 52, or many of the 1,200 others who piled into the new Rosie’s Richmond Gaming Emporium in South Side Monday morning to try out the 700 new machines following speeches and a ribbon cutting.
City Hall again hit with overtime lawsuit
City Hall has spent more than $12 million since 2012 to settle lawsuits over its failure to pay required overtime to employees ranging from police officers to social workers, sheriff’s deputies and former mayoral bodyguards.
Air conditioning fixed at Broad Rock Elementary
The broken air conditioning system finally has been fixed at Broad Rock Elementary School, one of the newest public schools in Richmond.
Waiver expansion undermines RPS absenteeism policy
Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras has quietly undermined a Richmond School Board effort to crack down on the serious problem of chronic absenteeism by students.
Mayor introduces measure to ban guns from city buildings, parks
Mayor Levar M. Stoney wants to ban guns from city buildings, parks, recreation centers and other community facilities.
Rekindling memories of childhood and pal Arthur
For one group of men, Arthur Ashe Jr. is more than a tennis superstar and internationally recognized crusader for human rights and bringing awareness and resources to the AIDS epidemic.
New police chief promoted from the ranks
Six police chiefs have come and gone since William C. “Will” Smith joined the Richmond Police Department as a patrolman in 1995.
RPS officials fail to explain faulty, fluctuating graduation figures
There has been a sudden surge in the number of students graduating from Richmond Public Schools — and not just from Armstrong High School. RPS officials this week are reporting that 963 seniors received their diplomas during recent graduation ceremonies from the city’s nine high schools.
Nuns sell St. Emma and St. Frances property
A historic Powhatan County estate that was once home to two Catholic residential schools for African-Americans, including a military academy for boys, now belongs to a Petersburg area businessman.
RPS whistleblower to be moved to another school
A Spanish teacher who blew the whistle on student grade-changing by officials at Lucille Brown Middle School in Richmond will not be fired.
RPS officials offer free bus service in bid to boost preschool enrollment
Free bus transportation. That’s the carrot the Richmond School Board is offering in a bid to boost enrollment in its shrinking preschool program called the Virginia Preschool Initiative, or VPI.
U.S. Supreme Court upholds Virginia’s redrawn House of Delegates districts
Virginia voters and candidates now can have full confidence in the boundaries of the redrawn House of Delegate districts ahead of the Nov. 5 general election to fill the 100 seats.
Candidates throwing hats into ring for 5th District seat
The first candidates have begun to emerge in the race to succeed Parker C. Agelasto as the 5th District representative on Richmond City Council.
Technical problem thwarts court case to remove Agelasto from office
Fifth District City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto gained a reprieve Tuesday from an effort to immediately remove him from the city’s governing body. Richmond Circuit Court Judge W. Reilly Marchant refused on Tuesday to consider a former councilman’s request for a temporary injunction that would have ended Mr. Agelasto’s tenure before his planned departure on Nov. 30.
New Coliseum plan to launch Monday?
Will this be the City Council meeting at which Mayor Levar M. Stoney introduces ordinances on the Richmond Coliseum replacement plan?
Grand Slam: Arthur Ashe Boulevard
Politics, personalities merge in this historic moment honoring late hometown hero
Richmond is preparing to pull out all the stops to celebrate native son Arthur Ashe Jr. as it renames one its major streets in his honor.
Armstrong graduation figures better than initial report
Armstrong High School is providing best evidence that more seniors are graduating from Richmond Public Schools this year than the public could have expected given the pessimistic projections released three weeks ago by Superintendent Jason Kamras and his staff.
Retired judge honored with Carrico Award
For 32 years, Judge Wilford Taylor Jr. served on the bench in his hometown of Hampton. State judges have saluted the retired jurist with the 2019 Harry L. Carrico Outstanding Career Service Award for his work on the bench.
HOME challenges Chesterfield apartment complex policy in federal court
How far can a landlord go in banning people with felony or serious misdemeanor convictions as tenants? A new federal lawsuit seeks to find out. The fair housing watchdog Housing Opportunities Made Equal filed the suit in U.S. District Court in Richmond June 4 to challenge a Chesterfield County apartment complex’s policy banning anyone “who has ever been convicted of any felony” from becoming a tenant.
Bike lanes proposed for 1st Street
Busy 1st Street in Jackson Ward would be reduced to one lane for traffic under a city proposal to install bike lanes on the west side of a roadway that is a significant link between North Side to Downtown and routes to South Side.
Facial hair? Richmond Police uniformed officers now have the OK
If you see uniformed Richmond Police officers sporting beards and mustaches, they have the OK of the top brass. Interim Police Chief William C. Smith made it possible. He quietly amended the department’s grooming policy to allow patrol officers to grow and wear neatly trimmed beards, goatees and mustaches.
RPS attendance officers cut without placement assistance
Butler Peterson has spent the past five years visiting families of truant Richmond Public Schools students to improve their attendance. That’s just one of the jobs he has held in his 18 years with RPS and why he hoped to be considered for one of the school-based attendance liaison positions that is to replace his role as an attendance officer.
RPS official says LEED standards haven’t returned big savings
Richmond Public Schools’ chief operating officer confirmed a Free Press finding that building new schools to a national energy standard has failed to pay off in energy savings. Darin Simmons told the Richmond School Board on June 3 that building Huguenot High and three other schools to the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED gold standard has not resulted in “significant” savings.
Agelasto’s council fate may rest with hearing
Parker C. Agelasto’s service on Richmond City Council is now in the hands of a Richmond Circuit Court judge after months of controversy over the 5th District councilman’s move to a home outside the district.
Upset: Challenger ‘Joe’ Morrissey garners Petersburg support to handily beat incumbent Sen. Rosalyn Dance in Tuesday’s primary
Challenger Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey, proving tougher and more resilient than his critics anticipated, cruised Tuesday to a surprisingly easy victory over incumbent state Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance of Petersburg in a Democratic primary election.
Top prosecutor stepping down
Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring has quietly left his mark on the criminal justice system in Richmond.
3 Democrats seeking the party’s nod for open Henrico County sheriff’s position
Three Democrats will face off in the Tuesday, June 11, primary. All three are seeking the party’s nomination in the race to succeed Henrico County Sheriff Mike Wade, who announced in February that he will not seek re-election.
2 area primaries for House of Delegates will be among races to watch
The battle for control of the 100-member Virginia House of Delegates will start to heat up next week as voters go to the polls in 19 party primaries to choose nominees to run in November.
Tuesday’s primary elections feature Dance-Morrissey contest
Voters on the east side of Richmond will play a big role next week in what has become one of the state’s hottest primary contests.
