All results / Stories / Joey Matthews
Mobile home residents allege city’s actions discriminatory in HUD complaint
The City of Richmond is engaging in a discriminatory campaign to force some of its most vulnerable Latino residents from their homes through an aggressive code enforcement campaign in the mobile home parks where they live. That’s what nearly 40 current or former residents at two South Side mobile home parks are alleging.
City schools start with teacher vacancies, new salad bars
Timothy Billups and his staff in the Richmond Public Schools Department of Human Resources began the summer with the daunting task of filling nearly 400 teacher vacancies. With school bells set to ring for the new RPS school year Tuesday, Sept. 8, they’ve whittled that number to well under 100. The latest tally submitted by Mr. Billups on Aug. 25 to the Free Press shows 76 vacant teacher positions — five in elementary schools, 41 in secondary schools and 30 in special education.
Toasting the new year
Staying clean, sober can be daunting during the holidays for those in recovery
Creativity runs in the family
Father-son artists share gifts with the community
Jerome W. Jones Jr. and his son, Jeromyah, share a deep passion for painting. Their works, many featuring portraits of noted people, provides uplift, education and motivation to untold thousands who have viewed them at exhibits and online.
Police brutality : ‘I will not tolerate it’
Chief talks tough on expectations of officer conduct
Richmond Police Chief Alfred Durham minced no words about how he won’t tolerate brutality and excessive use of force by officers under his command. “I’m going to tell it like it is. If there is riffraff in my department and you’re wearing a gun and a badge, you’re gone,” he told an audience of about 50 people at a public forum Tuesday night at Richmond’s Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School. “I will not tolerate it.” At this second “Peeps and Police Community Conversations” attended by mostly elderly and middle-aged adults, Chief Durham said that “several officers were disciplined” recently after they mishandled a situation inside a resident’s home. He did not elaborate.
Richmond Public Schools undergoes staff changes
Richmond Public Schools’ leadership team is undergoing a major makeover. Ralph Westbay, who helped craft the school system’s current budget plan as the assistant superintendent for financial services, is retiring May 1.
Schools chief calls for $ to change students’ futures
In his first “State of the Schools” address, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Dana T. Bedden told an audience of about 300 people Tuesday night that education was “my ticket out of poverty.” “Part of my childhood was spent growing up in the low-income housing of Jordan Park in St. Petersburg, Florida,” he said in an address delivered at the Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center on the Virginia Union University campus.
McDonnell makes history
History will surely remember Bob McDonnell. Just not the way he had envisioned.
State NAACP stays mum, ineffective
Monday marks six months since King Salim Khalfani was ousted Feb. 18 as the executive director of the civil rights organization. Still, there is no sign the Virginia State Conference of the NAACP is ready to replace its fiery former head or has any interest in doing so.
North Side man surprised to find his portrait in library exhibit
The Rev. Robert W. Oliver’s jaw dropped and his eyes lit up with delight when he walked into the Richmond Public Library’s Gellman Room in Downtown.
Raymond H. Boone, Free Press founder, to be honored
Raymond Boone Sr., who died at age 76 in June after battling pancreatic cancer, is being honored this week for his unflinching civil rights work by the Richmond NAACP.
Golf tournament benefits MetroCare program to help families with heating bills
Al Scott is by his own admission a golf addict. “I golf religiously,” Mr. Scott, the new deputy director of the Richmond Department of Public Utilities, told the Free Press Tuesday.
Speakers support race video and name change for Byrd Middle School
Henrico County Public Schools has not banned the video on racism that upset some parents and their children at Glen Allen High School and created wider community turmoil when the Henrico County School Board chairwoman and superintendent apologized for it being shown. In an interview Tuesday, Andy Jenks, spokesperson for Henrico County schools, told the Free Press, “No,” when asked if the video has been banned.
Golf tournament to benefit scholarship program
A day of golf will help raise money to provide scholarships for deserving Richmond Public Schools students who live in the city’s public housing communities.
Coalition of church groups, others help trailer park residents to improve homes
Father Shay Auerbach has a deep affection for the families that live in Rudd’s Trailer Park on South Side. Many of them attend Mass at the nearby Sacred Heart Catholic Church where he serves as pastor.
Richmond Ambulance Authority wins top U.S. award
The Richmond Ambulance Authority has earned national recognition for its innovations in pre-hospital care and community outreach.
Rudd’s Trailer Park sold; new owner takes over in April
Ronnie Soffee exchanged hugs and accepted well wishes from residents at Rudd’s Trailer Park early Saturday afternoon. He even shed a few tears as several people stopped by the office of the mobile home park at 2911 Jefferson Davis Highway.
141-year-old church clears $1M debt
The nearly 300-member house of worship on South Side held a ceremonial mortgage-burning ceremony.
