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EGACY

INSIDE

Community responds to fatal shooting - 4 New approach to school desegregation - 6 Michael Curry’s royal wedding sermon - 8 Va. advocates campaign to reduce evictions - 9

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • May 23, 2018

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

Virginia seeks to curb rising number of missing persons TIANNA MOSBY CNS - Morgan Harrington went to a concert in Charlottesville in 2009 and did not make it home. Keeshae Jacobs was headed to a friend’s house in Richmond in 2016 but never arrived. Ashanti Billie disappeared after leaving for work in Virginia Beach in 2017.

Those three young women were among the hundreds of “missing person” cases investigated in Virginia over the past decade. Two of them – Harrington and Billie – were murdered; Jacobs has yet to be found.

Across the United States, as many as 90,000 people could be missing at any given moment, according to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The number increases substantially every year, according to the AWARE Foundation.

More than 240 adults are missing in Virginia, according to the Virginia State Police. In 2016, a fairly typical year, 14 names were added to the

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex Prince Harry and Meghan Markle wed in memorable ceremony Prince Harry and Meghan Markle became husband and wife on May 19 in a wedding ceremony that was full of sweet, inspiring, groundbreaking and memorable moments that spoke to the couple’s unique character.

The music sparked the most conversation. It intertwined both British and American tradiions, most notably the rendition of Ben E. King’s “Stand by Me”.

Another highlight was the ceremonial address offered by Bishop Michael Curry, an American preacher who is also the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church. During his speech, described more like a sermon, Curry repeatedly quoted Martin Luther King, Jr., and mentioned slavery and the healing power of love.

“Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up,” he said garning laughs from the congregation.

list. But last year, the list grew by 39 names – and so far this year, 17 more people in Virginia have gone missing.

State officials and organizations are looking to reduce the number of missing persons by creating a new alert system and raising awareness about the problem.

Legislation regarding missing persons is existing.

Currently, Virginia authorities issue alerts and mobilize search resources only when people of certain ages go missing: If the person is 17 or younger, the state can issue an Amber Alert or an Endangered Missing Child Media Alert.

If the person is 60 or older, the state can issue a Senior Alert, sometimes called a Silver Alert.

But Virginia hasn’t had an alert system to warn people to look for a missing adult between the ages of 18 and 59 – until now.

During the 2018 legislative

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The LEGACY

2 • May 23, 2018

Justice First Tour comes to Richmond A broad and diverse coalition of people, churches, and organizations across Richmond gathered on May 19th as part of the ongoing 10-state “Justice First Tour” to promote environmental, climate, racial, economic, criminal, health, housing, labor, and gender justice for all.

Saturday’s event highlighted community-based solutions to advance justice in Richmond and brought together a coalition of community groups committed to working together to fight for justice—including promoting a clean energy future that benefits all people regardless of race, income, or zip code.

“We envision a society where everyone has access not only to clean

air, water, and a stable climate, but also participates fully in a healthy, vibrant democracy” said Kendyl Crawford, Director of Virginia Interfaith Power & Light.

Richmond organizations were energized to join up with a regional movement for justice.

“Like many other aging southern cities, Richmond is facing a public health crisis due to unchecked pollution and a lack of vigilance over each resident's right to clean water. Currently. At least two elementary schools in the city have already been found to have lead in their drinking water and the most populated area in the "top 25 dirtiest Virginia zip codes" is a majorityblack area of Richmond,” said

Harrison Wallace, Virginia director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN), based in Richmond. “We at CCAN are proud to join this growing contingent of diverse and intersectional citizens and organizations for the Richmond stop of the Justice First Tour to stand up for our neighbors, our children, and our climate.”

Also on hand and speaking at the event was Del. Dawn Adams, who represents District 68 (City of Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield). In addressing the audience at the event, she said, "Now more than ever we must look at all forms of justice as simply a call for basic fairness; we must make public policy without discrimination or prejudice.”

In addition to building solidarity throughout the region, the Justice First Tour is calling for climate justice, forest protection, and an equitable transition to 100 percent

clean and renewable energy such as wind and solar power. It will also encourage participants to advocate for the adoption of an environmental bill of rights, modeled after one developed by the late South Carolina state Rep. the Rev. Joe Neal, in their respective states.

Organizers are modeling the “Justice First Tour” on other big-tent movements that have taken place throughout U.S. history, including the civil rights movement.

“A wide range of groups is working throughout the South to promote different aspects of justice, whether it be economic justice, racial justice, environmental justice, or gender equality,” said the Rev. Leo Woodberry, one of the tour’s lead organizers and executive director of the Florence, South Carolina-based New Alpha Community Development Corporation. “The only way to fully

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May 23, 2018 • 3

(from page 1) session, Del. Jerrauld “Jay” Jones, D-Norfolk, successfully sponsored HB 260, which will create an alert system for missing persons who are neither children nor senior citizens.

The new notification will be called an Ashanti Alert in honor of Billie Ashanti, who was abducted last year from Joint Expeditionary Base Little Creek, where she worked at a sandwich shop, and later found dead in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Jones’ bill received unanimous support in the House and Senate and from community groups and citizens.

“What was striking,” Jones said, “was the number of people who reached out to me saying this happened” – that they had a friend or family member who had gone missing.

Gov. Ralph Northam signed the bill into law in March. It will take effect July 1.

Under the new Virginia Critically Missing Adult Alert Program, law enforcement officials will be able to send a local, regional or statewide alert if they believe a missing person has been abducted and the “disappearance poses a credible threat” to the individual’s health and safety.

The Ashanti Alerts will go to the media, who then could inform the public to be on the lookout for the missing adult.

Jones’ measure wasn’t the only bill about missing persons proposed this legislative session.

Current law states that people who have been missing are presumed dead after seven years. Del. Emily Brewer, R-Suffolk, proposed HB 1565 to shorten the time span to two years; however, the proposal failed.

Morgan Harrington’s mother, Gil, with a self-portrait by her daughter.

Brewer’s bill would have significantly reduced the number of active missing person cases in Virginia by classifying about 75 of them as legally dead.

For people such as Keeshae Jacobs’ mom, Toni Jacobs, reducing the number of years before being presumed dead would be crushing.

Her daughter has been missing since September 2016, and she has not given up hope. Toni Jacobs continuously posts on social media, attends events to spread the word and advocates for other missing persons.

“I want people to know this is happening. It could be happening to not just my daughter but someone

else’s daughter,” Jacobs said.

She said she will not give up until her daughter is found.

Concerned parties have been raising awareness about the problem.

Last year, in an effort to support missing persons and their families, Virginia designated a day in April as Missing Persons Day. The second annual event was held April 28.

There are at least 240 people aged 18 and up who have gone missing in the state. They include 22 people from Richmond, 14 each from Norfolk and Chesapeake, and 13 from Virginia Beach.

The Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services created a resource guide for families on the first steps they should take when a member goes missing. According to the department, Virginia does not have a waiting period in order to file a missing person case. As a result, law enforcement agencies can send out an alert right away if they deem it necessary.

Across the nation, organizations have been formed to support efforts to find missing persons and to offer help to families.

Although putting faces on milk cartons was phased out by the Amber Alert system in the late 1990s, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children provides missing person listings by direct mail and online.

In Virginia, the AWARE

Foundation and Help Save The Next Girl seek to educate people about predatory violence and advocate for families of missing persons.

AWARE stands for “Always Watch and Recognize your Environment.”

The foundation works to connect people to search and rescue teams, events and law enforcement agencies.

Help Save The Next Girl, a nonprofit based in Roanoke, was founded by Gil and Dan Harrington after their 20-year-old daughter, Morgan Harrington, was abducted and murdered in Charlottesville.

Although Morgan went missing midOctober 2009, her remains were not found until the following January when a farmer was driving his tractor through an Albemarle County pasture.

The organization works to educate school- and college-aged women on the dangers of predatory crimes and how to protect themselves.

“There have not been a lot of families who speak about abduction, rape and murder of their daughters,” Gil Harrington said. “At the end, you are devastated. How do you be an advocate at that point?”

The Harrington family also provides emotional and other support to people who have a relative who has gone missing.

“I’ve helped a lot of families pay for funerals and electric bills because when they’re in court, they’re not making money,” Harrington said.

The LEGACY

4 • May 23, 2018

Community responds after RPD’s fatally shooting LANA FERGUSON RVA MAG - Marcus-David L. Peters’ will never see his 25th birthday. He’ll never get to hug his mom again or teach biology at Tappahannock’s Essex High School to young, eager students.

Earlier, Peters was shot and killed by a Richmond police officer after crashing his car off Interstate 95/64.

According to published reports, Peters, who was naked at the time, was dancing and rolling around on the interstate. He then charged the officer, who deployed his taser to disable Peters. When the taser did not work, the officer pulled his gun and shot Peters in the abdomen.

Peters, who died hours later, was unarmed at the time of the incident.

Police have yet to say whether drugs, alcohol or any sort of mental disorder played a part in the incident.

“It’s always tragic when we lose a life in the city,” Mayor Levar Stoney said in an exclusive statement to RVA Magazine. “I expect the Richmond Police Department to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation and to share its findings with the public. In the meantime, our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Mr. Peters.”

Peters was the 399th person to be fatally shot in the United States this year by a law enforcement officer, according to The Washington Post’s Fatal Force database. The database organizes information from every fatal shooting in the nation by a law enforcement officer in the line of duty since 2015.

So far in 2018, 21 percent of the shooting victims were black men and at least 15 of them had a mental illness. Daryl Fraser, a licensed social worker, and professor at VCU

School of Social Work believes that some sort of mental disorder or episode could have played a role in this situation.

“Marcus Peters was a man,” he said. “I would hate for people to walk away from this situation just remembering him as a victim of police violence. I don’t want him to just be recognized as a naked man on the highway. I want people to know that mental illness can impact anybody regardless of whether you have a college degree or not. It affects you whether you are a black man or not.”

For Fraser, Peters’ story is personal.

When I look at that situation that young man could have been me,” he said. “That young man could have been my brother. He’s somebody’s son. He’s a teacher. He also graduated from the institution I graduated from. The institution that I currently teach at.

Frasier said these situations happen so much that there’s a vicarious trauma that comes along with it for him as a black man, it is hard to look at those things because he knows it’ll impact him later.

He also stressed it’s important for people to learn from Peters’ story, though, especially in regards to mental health. He said education on mental health is important because certain behaviors can be misinterpreted as aggressive or violent or bizarre.

“With Marcus Peters, the misinterpretation of those behaviors can lead to someone being killed that didn’t need to be killed,” Fraser said.

“Someone that might need help can end up a victim, they can be arrested, they can be physically hurt.”

Fraser said it’s particularly important for police officers to be able to recognize these behaviors.

“I do understand they have a duty to protect and serve, but if you have an interpretation of what a behavior is, you can have more empathy as opposed to feeling like you have to hurt or punish someone,” he said.

He said the community and the police need to reflect on the situation we’re now in and figure out how to work so what happened to Peters doesn’t have to happen to someone else’s son or daughter.

“I don’t want to just make it us versus them and us versus the police,” Fraser said. “There are ways that we can actually deal with and address this so somebody doesn’t have to lose their life. You have to have the right professionals to be able to handle that. People will quickly say a police officer has to be safe, and I get that, but this man was naked. There are ways to deescalate a person where you don’t have to take their life.”

The Richmond Police Department has been investigated for using excessive force two times within the last two weeks. In both incidents, the victim was an unarmed black male.

On May 6, McKhyl Dickerson was admitted to the hospital with contusions, abrasions, and other injuries that put him on crutches after an officer “slammed him against the wall and on to the ground,” according to his grandmother.

He is a 14-year-old student

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May 23, 2018 • 5

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Small - Medium (from page 4) diagnosed with autism and an auditory processing disorder – a condition that affects listening and comprehension – who was just trying to run home to his grandmother’s house like he was always taught to do.

Richmond activist and clinician Chelsea Higgs Wise has more than 10 years of experience as a mental health program provider.

She said it doesn’t appear like RPD is taking the steps to train everyone in the Crisis Intervention Training that is supposed to be taking place in police departments and that’s important to look at. She said there’s other factors, too, though.

“I’m a big believer that police brutality is rooted deeper than just the police system, it goes back to Jim Crow and the way that we look at black people and have been policed forever,” Wise said. “As far as Richmond, we’re the former capital of the Confederacy and so that is still very true in our own city.”

She said mental health is also a factor and it’s important to know police interact with black people with mental health illnesses all of the time, especially in Richmond with such a high rate of mental illness in the local black community.

African Americans are 20 percent more likely to experience serious mental health problems than the general population, according to the Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health.

“The whole idea of somebody being naked and being a threat speaks volumes to what Black Lives Matters means,” Wise said. “His black body was the biggest threat to him when he wasn’t armed with anything else.

Just his black body.”

Atari Maddox and Taneasha White began the Black Minds Matter

Project while they were students at VCU in 2016. The project does work online and in the community to focus on education about mental health in the black community and empowerment to exist freely within the society during the era of the Black Lives Matter Movement. They also have a radio show on WRIR. Maddox and White agree that education on mental health is an important part of combating police brutality. When it comes to mental health and stigma, Maddox added people of color are already at a disadvantage.

“Black people are already seen as one, criminals, and two, always being hyper-aggressive whether they are in a mode to be like combative,” she said. “Then, when you add having a mental disorder that’s like a triple negative. That in itself is very loaded. Mental health disorders are very common so there has to be a conversation about victimhood and mental disorder.”

White said people need to be more aware of their inherent biases and fix those.

“The fact that the people mistreated recently had mental health disorders magnifies how black bodies are automatically vilified when people can’t even recognize someone is mentally unstable and help, you’re automatically afraid or you’re automatically in danger,” White said. “You’re not even looking at this person as a person.”

Peters’ death has been ruled a homicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office and the internal investigation is still ongoing. According to a press release from the Richmond Police Department, the officer involved in the shooting was Michael Nyantakyi, a black male who is a 10-year veteran of the force. He is currently on administrative leave.

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Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Why America needs a new approach to school desegregation JERRY ROSIEK Despite all the time and effort invested desegregating the nation’s schools over the past half century, the reality is America’s schools are more segregated now than they were in 1968.

Keep that statistic in mind as the nation marks the 64th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education – the 1954 Supreme Court decision that famously mandated the desegregation of U.S. public schools.

If the vision of educational fairness expressed in the Brown decision is to be achieved, the nation must deal with the underlying driver of racial segregation in schools: the inclination of white citizens to hoard educational resources.

I make these arguments as one who has studied school segregation up close for over a decade.

Racial segregation has proved resilient over the last half century.

It circumvented court orders and reappeared in housing patterns shaped by school zoning policies.

It adapted by moving down to the classroom level to take the form of tracking students into gifted and talented programs or Advanced Placement classes. It has become alloyed with economic segregation so that low-income students and students of color end up concentrated in the same schools. The consequences have been predictably dire for students relegated to these increasingly underfunded and racially isolated schools.

Why school segregation persists The historical record shows that the desire for predominantly white The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 4 No. 21 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

educational spaces has undermined desegregation orders from 1954 to the present. For example, willfully resistant interpretations of the charge to desegregate “with all deliberate speed” in Brown v. Board delayed substantive action on school segregation for over a decade.

This resistance has only increased in sophistication and effectiveness over time. Carefully choreographed legal and political strategies slowed desegregation of schools. The 1992 Freeman v. Pitts Supreme Court decision made it easier to lift desegregation orders and opened the way for a national swing back toward racial segregation in schools.

This new segregation is not directly enforced by law, but indirectly through school zoning, housing patterns, and recently by neighborhood secessionist movements.

All of this permits affluent white families to continue to monopolize premium educational resources.

Charter schools have not been able

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Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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to slow this resurgence of school segregation. Neither did the federal No Child Left Behind law. In fact, there are reasons to believe both have made segregation worse.

Corrosive effects of segregation Students of color in racially isolated schools experience lower academic outcomes. Their dropout rates increase.

My own research has shown how school segregation communicates corrosive messages to students of color. My colleagues and I spent 10 years interviewing students in an Alabama school district that had its federal desegregation order lifted. These children watched as the district’s predominantly white leadership moved immediately to rezone and resegregate their schools.

Students assigned to the district’s underresourced all-black high school reported concluding that they were regarded as “bad kids,” “garbage people,” or “violent or something,” and therefore not worthy of investment.

Perhaps worse, the black students in the newly resegregated school read the harm being done to them as intentional and often saw no hope of redress. One student remarked: “I feel like this is an injustice, the way we were brought here to fail. And now it is becoming a reality. I think five or 10 years more down the line it’s going to be horrible. Seriously, it’s going to be horrible.”

Where schools have been desegregated, the negative academic effects are significantly

reduced. Rucker Johnson, associate professor in the Goldman School of Public Policy at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that desegregation raises income levels and wealth accumulation across generations, and even improves health outcomes across students’ lifespans.

The psychological effects of desegregation, however, are more complicated. Desegregating schools provides more balanced access to resources, but puts students of color in schools staffed primarily by white educators who still often harbor implicitly and explicitly racist attitudes. Children of color pay a price for this.

For white students, school desegregation has no measurable negative effects on academic performance and graduation rates.

Meanwhile, school desegregation provides many positive social effects for all students, including reduction of racial prejudice and generally becoming more comfortable around people of different backgrounds.

Possible remedies So, what lessons have been learned from America’s failed efforts to desegregate its public schools?

The first is that the desire for racially segregated schooling evolves in response to efforts to promote racial equity in schools. This implies that lawmakers should not presume integration of schools will help communities “outgrow racism.”

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May 23, 2018 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Are Americans crazy?

Has America simply gone crazy?

We never want to think that we are a bit crazy or that people we love are experiencing craziness but it is reality. America has an overwhelming problem with craziness or I should say mental health issues.

Over a 12-month period, 27 percent of adults in the U.S. will experience some sort of mental health disorder, making the U.S. the country with the highest prevalence.

Mental health disorders include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and substance abuse. Over one's entire lifetime, the average American has a 47.4 percent chance of having some kind of mental health disorder. Yes, that’s almost one in two.

The projected lifetime prevalence is even higher: for people who reach age 75 it is 55 percent. World Health Organization data does not take into account eating disorders, personality disorders, and schizophrenia; the incidence of these disorders together is about 15 percent in the U.S., according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

The incidence of mental health disorders varies widely across the globe, and determining the patterns is tricky. After the U.S., Ukraine, Colombia, New Zealand, Lebanon,

and France have the next highest rates of mental health disorders of any kind, all falling between 18.9 percent and 21.4 percentin a 12-month period. Japan, the People's Republic of China, Nigeria, and Israel have the lowest rates (between 6.0 percent and 7.4 percent), especially for depression. For substance abuse, the U.S. is up there, but not the highest: We are topped by South Africa and Ukraine. As with the U.S., when you look at lifetime prevalence in any country, the risk for any disorder goes way up.

Despite ongoing research, the predictors of mental health disorders are still evasive, even for the most common, like depression. While a nation's wealth factor would seem to have an impact, it's clear from the data that the relationship is complex.

Ron Kessler, Ph.D., the Harvard researcher who headed much of the WHO’s mental health research, says that by and large people in less-developed countries are less depressed: After all, he says, when you’re literally trying to survive, who has time for depression? Americans, on the other hand, many of whom lead relatively comfortable lives; blow other nations away in the depression factor, leading some to suggest that depression is a “luxury disorder”.

There is a zero cure for mental health issues. However, here are some suggestions for improvement.

Have a daily schedule. Get up and go to bed routinely. Get adequate sleep but you don't need more than seven to eight hours. Engage in meaningful activity daily.

Work a job.

Work in a garden.

Clean your house.

Mow grass. Pull weeds.

Go to school. Have some type of daily exercise. Breaking a little sweat

every day is healthy. Engage in meaningful relationships at church, a club, work or with friends and family.

We all need real people in our lives.

Limit your technology, television and social media time. Too much can drain and depress you.

If you have mental illness or family members suffering from mental illness get it out on the table and start talking about coping, a strategic plan, counseling and working together to make life manageable.

Ignoring it only results in everybody going crazy.

Dr. Glenn Mollette

On school gun violence My heart absolutely wants us to take action. But I understand why people are so frustrated. Obviously, condolences to the folks in Santa Fe. But I think people across America want more than condolences.

I don’t think there’s a single bill that will stop these tragedies. [T] here needs to be a combination of increased school security — which I would not include in terms of arming teachers.

That is the wrong direction.

I think more mental health training for particularly these troubled youth, boys in the high school age area.

And I think we need reasonable restrictions on guns.

Background checks, as I’ve said [before]... I think we need to look at assault weapon bans. We’re the only nation in the world that has this many guns awash in our society, and consequently we have more of these tragedies than any other nation around. And my hope would be for some of my Republican colleagues, that they would allow their positions to evolve.

U.S. Sen. Mark Warner (Va.)

(from page 6) Desegregation orders, where needed, need to be permanent.

Second, geography has always been used as a proxy to preserve school segregation. Communities need housing policies that effectively inhibit the creation of racially and economically segregated neighborhoods.

Third, adequate and equitable funding is needed across school districts. There is nothing magically educational about sitting next to a white person in school. The primary problem is the way resources disproportionately follow white bodies.

Finally, the teaching profession must be fully diversified. Fifty-one percent of students entering public schools are persons of color, but more than 80 percent of teachers are white. Placing children of color in predominantly white schools and counting on color-blind professionalism to protect them is not an adequate plan. Research conducted by my colleagues and I reveals how this approach misunderstands the way racism operates and leaves children of color exposed to psychological and pedagogical harm.

America’s school systems need to recruit, support and retain teachers who identify with the experiences of the students they serve.

Additionally, all teachers must be educated to recognize the constantly evolving forms of segregation in the nation’s school systems, to protect students from its worst effects and to join the struggle to build a better system.

The writer is professor of Education Studies, University of Oregon

8 • May 23, 2018

Faith & Religion

The LEGACY

Bishop Michael Curry’s Royal Wedding Sermon Full text of ‘the power of love’ In a message, which took to church not only those in attendance at the royal wedding of Britain’s Prince Harry, 33, and American actress Meghan Markle, 36, on May 19 — but millions watching from across the world — Bishop Michael Bruce Curry preached on the “redemptive power of love.”

Curry, the first black presiding bishop of the American Episcopal Church encouraged all receiving his message to discover the power of love to make of “this old world a new world.”

For many, his impassioned sermon — punctuated with themes of politics, social justice, civil rights and quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. and the controversial Catholic theologian Pierre Teilhard de Chardin — was a highlight of the historic matrimonial ceremony.

There’s much to be said about the message delivered at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle, but we’ll let you read it for yourself.

Here’s the full transcript of Curry’s “The Power of Love” sermon: And now in the name of our loving, liberating and life-giving God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen.

From the Song of Solomon in the Bible: Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death, passion fierce as the grave. Its flashes are flashes of fire, a raging flame. Many waters cannot quench love, neither can floods drown it.

The late Dr Martin Luther King Jr once said, and I quote: “We must discover the power of love, the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world a new world, for love is the only way.”

There’s power in love. Don’t underestimate it. Don’t even oversentimentalize it. There’s power, power in love.

If you don’t believe me, think about a time when you first fell in love. The whole world seemed to center around you and your beloved.

Oh there’s power, power in love.

Not just in its romantic forms, but any form, any shape of love. There’s a certain sense in which when you are loved, and you know it, when

Bishop Michael Bruce Curry delivering the sermon during the wedding ceremony of Britain’s Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex and U.S. actress Meghan Markle in St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.

PHOTO: OWEN HUMPHREYS/AFP/Getty Images someone cares for you, and you know it, when you love and you show it - it actually feels right.

There is something right about it. And there's a reason for it. The reason has to do with the source. We were made by a power of love, and our lives were meant - and are meant - to be lived in that love. That’s why we are here.

Ultimately, the source of love is God himself: the source of all of our lives. There's an old medieval poem that says: “Where true love is found, God himself is there.

The New Testament says it this way: “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is of God, and those who love are born of God and know God. Those who do not love do not know God. Why? For God is love.”

There’s power in love. There’s power in love to help and heal when nothing else can.

There’s power in love to lift up and liberate when nothing else will.

There’s power in love to show us the way to live.

Set me as a seal on your heart... a seal on your arm, for love is as strong as death.

But love is not only about a young

couple. Now the power of love is demonstrated by the fact that we’re all here. Two young people fell in love, and we all showed up.

But it’s not just for and about a young couple, who we rejoice with.

It’s more than that.

Jesus of Nazareth on one occasion was asked by a lawyer to sum up the essence of the teachings of Moses, and he went back and he reached back into the Hebrew scriptures, to Deuteronomy and Leviticus, and Jesus said: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself.”

And then in Matthew’s version, he added, he said: “On these two, love of God and love of neighbor, hang all the law, all the prophets, everything that Moses wrote, everything in the holy prophets, everything in the scriptures, everything that God has been trying to tell the world ... love God, love your neighbors, and while you're at it, love yourself.”

Someone once said that Jesus began the most revolutionary

movement in human history.

A movement grounded in the unconditional love of God for the world - and a movement mandating people to live that love, and in so doing to change not only their lives but the very life of the world itself.

I’m talking about power. Real power. Power to change the world.

If you don’t believe me, well, there were some old slaves in America’s Antebellum South who explained the dynamic power of love and why it has the power to transform.

“They explained it this way. They sang a spiritual, even in the midst of their captivity. It’s one that says ‘There is a balm in Gilead...’ a healing balm, something that can make things right.

“There is a balm in Gilead to make the wounded whole, there is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul.’

“And one of the stanzas actually explains why. They said: ‘If you cannot preach like Peter, and you cannot pray like Paul, you just tell the love of Jesus, how he died to save us all.’”

“Oh, that’s the balm in Gilead! This way of love, it is the way of life. They got it. He died to save us all.

“He didn’t die for anything he could get out of it. Jesus did not get an honorary doctorate for dying. He didn’t... he wasn’t getting anything out of it. He gave up his life, he sacrificed his life, for the good of others, for the good of the other, for the wellbeing of the world... for us.

That’s what love is. Love is not selfish and self-centered. Love can be sacrificial, and in so doing, becomes redemptive. And that way of unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive love changes lives, and it can change this world.

“If you don’t believe me, just stop and imagine. Think and imagine a world where love is the way.”

Imagine our homes and families where love is the way. Imagine neighborhoods and communities where love is the way.

Imagine governments and nations where love is the way. Imagine business and commerce where this love is the way.

Imagine this tired old world where

(continued on page 9)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

May 23, 2018 • 9

Advocates launch campaign to reduce evictions As soon as Professor Matthew Desmond’s Eviction Lab revealed that Virginia has five of the top 10 highest eviction rates among large U.S. cities, groups throughout the state began trying to determine how to change what this data says about the lack of housing stability in Virginia. The Virginia Housing Commission, local governments and members of the legal community have all started talking about how to reduce these eviction rates. On May 22, 2018, members of these groups and others, including property managers and leaders of the faith community, came together for the initial meeting of the Campaign to Reduce Evictions (CARE). Led by the Virginia Poverty Law Center, CARE held its kick-off meeting from 3 at the First Baptist Church, 2709 Monument Ave. in Richmond.

“The focus of this meeting will be on presenting our initial data,” said Kate Howell, assistant professor at the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs at Virginia Commonwealth University and head of the CARE data team.

“Since Richmond has the highest rate of evictions of all the large Virginia cities, we began with a case study of Richmond, looking closely at the characteristics of the neighborhoods where evictions occur most often,” said Howell adding that they hope to be able to do the same analysis of the four other eviction heavy cities in

Virginia, all of which are in Hampton Roads.

“We also want to make sure everyone understands how evictions occur in Virginia, so we’ll talk briefly about the eviction process,” said Christie Marra, Virginia Poverty Law Center attorney.

Marra emphasized that the discussion of the legal process would be purely informational. “While we know there are debates to be had regarding whether the process can be changed to help tenants avoid evictions, we’re not inviting that debate at this initial meeting.” She added that both the data team and one of the work groups would be looking closely at current laws and court processes.

“I expect that some law reform proposals, possibly including legislation, will come out of CARE, and I hope that everyone involved will add their voice to future discussions about those proposals,” she said.

In addition to the law reform and data work groups, CARE will develop work groups to look at services provided to help people avoid evictions and at the supply of and demand for affordable housing across Virginia.

“The problems created by evictions affect all of us. There is a real cost to our communities, whether it’s the actual cost to the families who are evicted and the property managers and sheriff’s departments who

carry out evictions, or the hidden costs to service providers and local governments who must deal with their aftermath. So it’s crucial for all of us to be involved in crafting the solutions,” said Sim Wimbush, executive director of the Virginia Housing Alliance and a member of the CARE Steering Committee.

Tonya Kernodle, a CARE Steering Committee member who advocates for and is a tenant herself,

emphasized the emotional toll evictions can take.

“Generally, when we consider the cost of eviction, we measure economic loss by dollars and cents.

Tenants who are impacted by the eviction epidemic not only experience the fiscal impact, but too often, a substantial devastating emotional loss. They’ve lost the place they call ‘home’,” she said.

(from page 8)

God. My brothers and sisters, that’s a new heaven, a new earth, a new world, a new human family.

And let me tell you something, old Solomon was right in the Old Testament: that’s fire.

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - and with this I will sit down, we gotta get you all married - French Jesuit Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was arguably one of the great minds, great spirits of the 20th century.

Jesuit, Roman Catholic priest, scientist, a scholar, a mystic.

In some of his writings, he said, from his scientific background as well as his theological one, in some of his writings he said - as others have - that the discovery, or invention, or harnessing of fire was one of the great scientific and technological discoveries in all of human history.

Fire to a great extent made human civilization possible. Fire made it

possible to cook food and to provide sanitary ways of eating which reduced the spread of disease in its time.

Fire made it possible to heat warm environments and thereby made human migration around the world a possibility, even into colder climates.

Fire made it possible - there was no Bronze Age without fire, no Iron Age without fire, no Industrial Revolution without fire.

The advances of fire and technology are greatly dependent on the human ability and capacity to take fire and use it for human good.

Anybody get here in a car today?

An automobile? Nod your heads if you did - I know there were some carriages. But those of us who came in cars, fire - the controlled, harnessed fire - made that possible.

I know that the Bible says, and I believe it, that Jesus walked on the water. But I have to tell you, I did

not walk across the Atlantic Ocean to get here.

Controlled fire in that plane got me here. Fire makes it possible for us to text and tweet and email and Instagram and Facebook and socially be dysfunctional with each other.

Fire makes all of that possible, and de Chardin said fire was one of the greatest discoveries in all of human history.

And he then went on to say that if humanity ever harnesses the energy of fire again, if humanity ever captures the energy of love - it will be the second time in history that we have discovered fire.

Dr King was right: we must discover love - the redemptive power of love. And when we do that, we will make of this old world, a new world.

My brother, my sister, God love you, God bless you, and may God hold us all in those almighty hands of love. - NPR

love is the way. When love is the way - unselfish, sacrificial, redemptive.

When love is the way, then no child will go to bed hungry in this world ever again.

When love is the way, we will let justice roll down like a mighty stream and righteousness like an ever-flowing brook.

When love is the way, poverty will become history. When love is the way, the earth will be a sanctuary.

When love is the way, we will lay down our swords and shields, down by the riverside, to study war no more.

When love is the way, there's plenty good room - plenty good room - for all of God’s children.

“Because when love is the way, we actually treat each other, well... like we are actually family.

When love is the way, we know that God is the source of us all, and we are brothers and sisters, children of

Christine Marra

10 • May 23, 2018

The LEGACY

Fight hunger in Petersburg by serving as a location for the Summer Food Service Program Petersburg City Public Schools is seeking community groups and sites to serve as summer locations where children can come for free breakfasts and lunches. Camps, classes, day cares and other programs could serve as sites where Petersburg children who are 18 years old or younger can eat free breakfasts and lunches this summer.

The nutritious meals will be provided to the sites at no cost so that they can be provided to children at no cost. More than a dozen sites served almost 30,000 meals in Petersburg last summer, and the school system hopes to reach more children in more locations this summer.

June 12 is the deadline to apply to be part of the Summer Food Service

Program. Community members and groups who believe that no child should be hungry are urged to contact Donna Johnson, supervisor of school nutrition, at dojohnson@ petersburg.k12.va.us or 804-861-4806.

During the school year, Petersburg schools provide free breakfasts and lunches for all students and will continue to do that in summer school programs.

Del. Dawn Adams

(from page 2) achieve these objectives is to band together and support one another.

That is what this tour is all about.

We will not work in silos; we will not compete for attention; we will not allow others to divide and conquer the justice movement. We are committed to working together to put Justice First.”

Saturday’s event was organized by New Alpha Community Development Corporation, Dogwood Alliance, and the Sierra Club along with local co-hosts Virginia Interfaith Power and Light, Virginia Union University, New Virginia Majority, Virginia Civic Engagement Table, Virginia Organizing, First Alliance Consulting LLC, Mothers Out Front Hampton Roads, United Parents Against Lead, Sierra Club Virginia Chapter, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Equality Virginia, B.A.A.D (Blaize'N Awareness Against Drugs), Virginia Conservation Network, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and People Demanding Action, Each stop along the tour will include organizing events with local community groups, providing an opportunity to elevate issues of local concern and highlight communitybased solutions and leadership to advance justice and equity. The tour will conclude in August in Atlanta, which has established a 100 percent clean energy goal.

Following the tour, the Justice First movement will focus on boosting the South’s participation in the People’s Climate March in October, and on getting out the vote in support of justice in the November midterm elections.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

May 23, 2018 • 11

Music & visual arts take center stage at RVA East End Festival

Councilwoman Cynthia I. Newbille & the Frankling Military Academy band, to the right.

A nonstop extravaganza of music, arts, food and fun is planned for Richmond’s RVA East End Festival 2018, returning for a third year on Friday, May 25 from 5-9 pMmM and Saturday, May 26 from noon-9 p.m. at the 17th Street Farmers Market.

The theme, “Sights and Sounds of Our Future,” promises a sumptuous feast for the senses during the Memorial Day weekend.

This free family event features two packed days of exciting arts and musical performances by local professionals as well as some of RVA’s talented youth musicians, dancers and visual artists. Attendees also can browse among many food and beverage vendors, along with exhibits of sponsors, boutique businesses and other community organizations. Special attractions for kids include Paw Patrol characters, RVA Hoop House, Jenn B-The Balloon Lady, and PBS Kids Ready to Learn, to name a few.

The Brass Quintet and a String Ensemble from The Richmond Symphony Orchestra will kick off the event on Friday at 5 p.m., followed by an eclectic mix of stage performances over the two days that are too

numerous to list. A full list of artists performing at the festival, along with the vendors and exhibitors, can be found at www.rvaeastendfest.org.

Proceeds from the festival support the music and visual arts programs at the following Richmond Public Schools located in RVA’s East End community: Bellevue Elementary, Chimborazo Elementary, Fairfield Court Elementary, George Mason Elementary, Woodville Elementary, Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School, Armstrong High School and Franklin Military Academy.

“As a result of the inaugural festival in 2016, East End elementary schools went from seven violins among them to enough instruments for a full classroom set of string instruments in each school,” said the Rev. Marilyn Heckstall, pastor of Asbury Church Hill United Methodist Church and 2018 festival chair.

She noted that other uses of financial resources from the past two festivals were to purchase new gowns and tuxedos for music groups

at two schools, as well as buying and repairing band instruments. “Our goal for 2018 is to exceed $100,000 in proceeds to support cultural arts initiatives in our East End schools,” she said.

As one of the festival’s ardent champions, Richmond City Councilwoman Cynthia I. Newbille (7th District) has been an instrumental catalyst for this event that celebrates creativity and unites the East End community around engaging kids in the arts.

“The East End Festival has introduced hundreds of students to all aspects of the cultural arts in their elementary, middle and high schools,” she said. “It is truly lifechanging when students can learn and grow together by experiencing the power of music and the arts.”

Bon Secours Richmond Health System, a major partner for the festival, believes that the event helps to build strong relationships among diverse community stakeholders, the East End residents and the local businesses including Bon Secours

Richmond Community Hospital.

“The festival creates a positive synergy that provides a sustainable foundation for leadership in this vibrant area of Richmond,” said Becky Clay Christensen, director of community partnerships in mission services for Bon Secours Richmond Health System.

Other partners supporting the festival include Enrichmond Foundation, the City of Richmond, Richmond Public Schools Education Foundation, Richmond Memorial Health Foundation, FWL & Sons, Stone Brewing, Richmond Magazine and The Richmond Symphony.

Individuals both inside and outside the East End community have made donations on the website and there will be a bucket collection during the festival.

Volunteers are needed to help on the weekend of the event and can sign up here. For more information about the RVA East End Festival 2018 or to make a donation, contact rvaeastendfest@gmail.com or visit www.rvaeastendfest.org.

12 • May 23, 2018

The LEGACY

Tuition and student debt increasing in Virginia ADAM HAMZA CNS — Most students who graduated from Virginia’s public colleges and universities last year left not only with a degree but also with a financial burden: an average student loan debt of about $30,000.

At Virginia Commonwealth University, once among Virginia’s most affordable institutions, students owed an average of about $31,000, according to the state’s most recent statistics. As college and university tuition continues to rise, new laws that take effect this summer aim to help students get a grip on how much they owe.

Tuition increases have become the norm as decreases in state funding have pushed universities to boost prices to cover costs. These tuition hikes coincide with statewide trends in higher education costs and student loan debt.

At VCU, officials are proposing an increase of $844, or 6.4 percent, in tuition and mandatory fees for the coming academic year as part of the 201819 budget, said Karol Kain Gray, vice president of finance and budget.

Other institutions — among them Virginia Tech, the University of Virginia and the College William & Mary — also are raising tuition. Tech approved a 2.9 percent hike in tuition and mandatory fees, U.Va. adopted a 2.5 percent increase in tuition and William & Mary enacted a 6.5 percent rise in tuition for incoming in-state undergraduate students. Current students will continue to pay the tuition in effect when they were admitted.

From 2007 to 2017, college tuition and fees in Virginia have increased each year by an average of $578, or 6 percent. During the decade, VCU’s tuition and fees have increased annually by an average of $743, or 8.4 percent.

This year, in-state undergraduate students at VCU paid $13,624 in tuition and mandatory fees. That was the fifth-highest amount among Virginia’s 15 four-year public colleges and universities. VCU’s tuition has more than doubled — it’s up 120 percent — since the 2007-08 school year. Back then, in-state undergraduates at VCU paid $6,196 — the fifth-lowest amount in Virginia.

At a recent forum hosted by the VCU Student Government Association, Gray outlined the university’s budget goals and explained how the school uses its funds and why it needs a tuition increase. About 40 people attended the session, including students, staff and members of the Board of Visitors.

For VCU, the 6.4 percent increase is part of a $33 million request to fund its “highest priority” needs and other academic and administrative priorities.

Some of the high-priority needs, according to Gray, are raises for teaching and research faculty and adjuncts, and additional need- and merit-based financial aid for undergraduates.

VCU’s average instructor salary of $49,000 is lower than other four-year institutions in Virginia.

Tech, U.Va., George Mason University and William & Mary have average instructor salaries between $53,600 and $63,700, according to the American Association of University Professors 2016-17 report on university salaries.

“We have to start looking at where we’re going and at having reasonable increases to support the things we deserve to have,” Gray said. “This hurts

our ranking, it hurts our [faculty] retention and it’s a morale issue.”

Tripp Wiggins, an 18-year-old VCU freshman, said he came to the forum looking for fiscal transparency from the university. He left feeling like there wasn’t enough information about why VCU is relying on tuition as its primary source of revenue.

“I feel like I understand how the funds are being managed,” Wiggins said. “But I still don’t have a clear understanding why the burden [of education costs] is going towards student tuition when there are other ways of getting revenue.”

Public good to a private benefit?

In Virginia, the state shares the cost of education with students by providing general funds to universities. Universities then set tuition based on how much state funding they will receive. This educational and general fund is used to finance faculty salaries, financial aid and improvements to classrooms and academic buildings.

In 2004, Virginia set a cost-sharing goal: The state would cover 67 percent of the educational cost, and students would cover the remaining 33 percent through tuition. But it hasn’t worked out that way.

According to the 2017-18 tuition and fees report by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, students are paying for 53 percent of the cost of their education, with the state picking up 47 percent.

Changes in state funding and the economy have pushed universities to increase tuition and fees to maintain their academic standards and growth, officials say.

At the VCU budget forum, Dr. Charles Klink, senior vice provost for student affairs, said this represented a shift in the perception of higher education overall.

“At one point people saw higher education as

a public good. Now it seems more like a private benefit,” Klink said.

For students paying for their education through loans, lawmakers in the most recent General Assembly session passed new laws to protect borrowers from drowning in debt.

Sen. Mark Obenshain, R-Rockingham, introduced legislation that would help students manage their federal loans, while Del. Marcia “Cia” Price, D-Newport News, sponsored a bill to create a student loan ombudsman. Both bills have been signed by Gov. Ralph Northam and will take effect July 1.

Obenshain’s bill, SB 568, requires public colleges and universities to provide students with an annual statement about their federal loans. This statement includes how much money they have borrowed so far, the potential amount they will owe and estimated monthly payments.

“I want to ensure that college students know how much they are actually borrowing and how much it will cost them in interest so that hopefully we can help get under control the overwhelming debt that our students often face upon graduation,” Obenshain said.

Price’s bill, HB 1138, created a state student loan ombudsman within SCHEV. According to the bill summary, this office is will be an advocate for borrowers by helping them understand their rights and responsibilities under their loan. The office also will review and attempt to resolve complaints from borrowers.

There are other methods universities can use to keep tuition hikes low while maintaining growth.

Gray said one way is increasing the number of out-of-state and international students, who pay higher tuition.

At VCU, for example, 10 percent of students are from out of state, according to SCHEV reports.

Tech and U.Va. enroll about 30 percent from outside Virginia.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

May 23, 2018 • 13

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF A FILING BY VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY OF ITS INTEGRATED RESOURCE PLAN CASE NO. PUR-2018-00065 On May 1, 2018, Virginia Electric and Power Company (“Dominion” or “Company”) filed with the State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) the Company’s Integrated Resource Plan (“IRP”) pursuant to § 56-599 of the Code of Virginia (“Code”).

An IRP, as defined by § 56-597 of the Code, is “a document developed by an electric utility that provides a forecast of its load obligations and a plan to meet those obligations by supply side and demand side resources over the ensuing 15 years to promote reasonable prices, reliable service, energy independence, and environmental responsibility.” Pursuant to § 56-599 C of the Code, the Commission determines whether an IRP is reasonable and in the public interest.

Dominion states that it serves approximately 2.5 million electric customers in Virginia and North Carolina and that the Company’s combined service territory in these two states covers approximately 30,000 square miles. As indicated in its IRP, Dominion is a member of PJM Interconnection, L.L.C. (“PJM”), a regional transmission organization in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The Company states that the IRP was prepared for its service territories in Virginia and North Carolina, which are both within the PJM region.

According to the Company, the IRP encompasses the 15-year planning period from 2019 to 2033 and is based on the Company’s current assumptions regarding load growth, commodity prices, economic conditions, environmental regulations, construction and equipment costs, demand-side management programs, and many other regulatory and market developments that may occur in the future.

Dominion states in its filing that the Company’s objective in developing the IRP was to identify the mix of resources necessary to meet future energy and capacity requirements in an efficient and reliable manner at the lowest reasonable cost while considering future uncertainties.

Section 56-599 of the Code requires, among other things, that an IRP evaluate: (i) the effect of current and pending environmental regulations upon the continued operation of existing electric generation facilities or options for construction of new electric generation facilities; and (ii) the most cost-effective means of complying with current and pending environmental regulations. With respect to the regulation of carbon dioxide emissions from electric generation by the federal Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”), the IRP recognizes that the EPA published a proposal in October 2017 to repeal the Clean Power Plan (“CPP”) and that in December 2017, the EPA issued an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking to solicit input on whether it should proceed with a replacement rule. The Company asserts that it no longer believes the CPP to be a “current” or “pending” regulation; however, the Company includes a build plan under the CPP and the resulting net present value analysis in the 2018 IRP. The Company states it has also assessed a generic federal carbon program in the 2018 IRP. The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing in this case that, among other things, scheduled a public hearing at 1 p.m. on September 24, 2018, in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, to receive the testimony of public witnesses. Any person desiring to testify as a public witness should appear at the hearing location fifteen (15) minutes prior to the starting time of the hearing and contact the Commission’s Bailiff. A public hearing will convene on September 25, 2018, at 9:30 a.m., in the same location, to receive the testimony and evidence offered by the Company, respondents, and the Staff on the Company’s IRP. The public version of the Company’s IRP and the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing are available for public inspection during regular business hours at each of the Company’s business offices in the Commonwealth of Virginia. Copies also may be obtained by submitting a written request to counsel for the Company, Jennifer D. Valaika, Esquire, McGuireWoods LLP, Gateway Plaza, 800 East Canal Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. If acceptable to the requesting party, the Company may provide the documents by electronic means.

Copies of the public version of the IRP and other documents filed in this case are also available for interested persons to review in the Commission’s Document Control Center located on the first floor of the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, between the hours of 8:15 a.m. and 5 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays. Interested persons also may download unofficial copies from the Commission’s website: http://www.scc.virginia. gov/case.

On or before September 17, 2018, any interested person wishing to comment on the Company’s IRP shall file written comments with Joel H. Peck, Clerk, State Corporation Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118. Any interested person desiring to file comments electronically may do so on or before September 17, 2018, by following the instructions on the Commission’s website: http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case.

Compact disks or any other form of electronic storage medium may not be filed with the comments. All such comments shall refer to Case No. PUR-201800065.

On or before July 13, 2018, any person or entity may participate as a respondent in this proceeding by filing a notice of participation. If not filed electronically, an original and fifteen (15) copies of the notice of participation shall be submitted to the Clerk of the Commission at the address above. A copy of the notice of participation as a respondent also must be sent to counsel for the Company at the address set forth above. Pursuant to Rule 5 VAC 5-20-80 B, Participation as a respondent, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and Procedure (“Rules of Practice”), any notice of participation shall set forth: (i) a precise statement of the interest of the respondent; (ii) a statement of the specific action sought to the extent then known; and (iii) the factual and legal basis for the action. Any organization, corporation, or government body participating as a respondent must be represented by counsel as required by Rule 5 VAC 5-20-30, Counsel, of the Rules of Practice. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR-2018-00065. For additional information about participation as a respondent, any person or entity should obtain a copy of the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing.

All documents filed with the Office of the Clerk of the Commission in this docket may use both sides of the paper. In all other respects, all filings shall comply fully with the requirements of 5 VAC 5-20-150, Copies and format, of the Commission’s Rules of Practice.

The Commission’s Rules of Practice may be viewed at http://www.scc.virginia.gov/case. A printed copy of the Commission’s Rules of Practice and an official copy of the Commission’s Order for Notice and Hearing in this proceeding may be obtained from the Clerk of the Commission at the address above.

VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY

14 • May 23, 2018

The LEGACY

Va. launches Hampton Roads Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign Attorney General Mark Herring and fellow members of the Hampton Roads Human Trafficking Task Force this week launched a new regional human trafficking awareness campaign. The campaign includes billboards placed on major highways in the region and digital advertising, both aimed at encouraging victims or those with information about possible human trafficking to contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center’s hotline.

In November 2016, Herring announced a $1.45 million grant that would help fund the Hampton Roads Human Trafficking Task Force, which then launched in January of 2017. The Office of the Attorney General partnered with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security

Investigations (HSI), Samaritan House, the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Virginia State Police, and law enforcement agencies from Newport News, Hampton, Norfolk, Virginia Beach, Portsmouth and Chesapeake for the task force.

Human trafficking—a $150 billion global criminal enterprise, according to the International Labor Organization—is increasingly on the radars of law enforcement, politicians and nonprofits across the country.

Statistics show the problem is worse in Virginia, and in the Richmond area, than in many other states and localities.

In 2017, Virginia ranked 15th in the United States for the most reported cases of human trafficking for sex and cheap or free employment. Last year, the state reported 156 cases, and 70 percent of those were sex trafficking, according

to the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

Richmond ranked ninth nationwide in the number of calls per capita to the hotline, according to the organization’s 2017 report on the 100 most populous U.S. cities.

Virginia Beach ranked 71st for calls per capita and Norfolk was 77th.

The Richmond region’s location at the junction of Interstates 64 and 95 makes the area an attractive place for traffickers, as does its large tourism and hospitality industry, said the Richmond Justice Initiative, a faith-based, anti-trafficking group.

While there is not an official estimate on the number of trafficking victims in the United States, the Polaris Project, a nonprofit nongovernmental organization that runs the hotline, estimates the number to be in the hundreds of thousands.

NN School Board appoints new superintendent

Dr. George Parker, III The Newport News School Board appointed Dr. George Parker, III as superintendent of Newport News Public Schools effective July 1, 2018.

Dr. Parker currently serves as the superintendent of Caroline County Public Schools in Virginia.

Dr. Parker brings a wealth of experience to Newport News Public Schools having served diverse student populations in Virginia Beach and Caroline County. He has increased access to college and career opportunities; expanded STEM education initiatives; increased student access to technology; and partnered with businesses for student internships. Under his proven leadership, Newport News Public Schools will continue to be an innovative and transformative school division.

Dr. Parker’s career in education began in 1983, following a fouryear career in the Navy. He served as a teacher, assistant principal, principal and assistant superintendent of secondary schools in Virginia Beach City Public Schools before being named superintendent in Caroline County in 2015. He received his bachelor of arts degree in computer science from Norfolk State University; his master of arts degree in educational leadership from Norfolk State University, and his doctor of philosophy in education leadership and policy studies from Virginia Tech.

The School Board conducted a national search to fill the superintendent position after the retirement of Dr. Ashby Kilgore. The search included 44 applicants from 32 states including 13 from Virginia.

May 23, 2018 • 15

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Residents discuss concerns about police stops AYA DRIOUCHE CNS — About 30 residents of the predominantly African-American Blackwell neighborhood voiced their frustration recently over what some see as discriminatory police stops and other interactions with Richmond police officers.

The residents gathered at the Blackwell Community Center for a meeting organized by New Virginia Majority and other groups, which have been pushing the Richmond Police Department to release data on traffic stops, the use of stop-and-frisk methods and other tactics.

“Traffic stops and stop-and-frisks are conduits for the mass incarceration of black people in Richmond and across America,” said Assaddique AbdulRahman, community organizer for New Virginia Majority.

After months of prodding by New Virginia Majority, the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Advancement Project and Southerners on New

Ground, the RPD began publicly releasing data on the use of force and complaints. The data includes the race and gender of civilians involved, as well as where the incidents occurred.

In addition, community members have secured a commitment from the RPD to start releasing data on stopand-frisks and traffic stops.

Dr. Liz Coston, a VCU sociology professor and board member with the Virginia Anti-Violence Project, reported on the complaint data released by the RPD. In 2017, the department received a total of 109 complaints: Forty, or about 37 percent, came from citizens.

The rest were departmental complaints – for example, if an officer observes or oversees something they think is improper, they would report that internally to the authorities.

Coston called the data “problematic,” noting that there were a number of open cases. That may explain why

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Today, 130,000 Virginians are living with Alzheimer’s, and 400,000 are caregiving for someone who has it. We must effectively prevent and treat Alzheimer’s disease soon and support those impacted by it until researchers achieve this goal.

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VCU professor Liz Coston discussing use of force and complaint data. people don’t go to the police when they have issues with an officer’s conduct, she said.

“This isn’t a process that gets resolved quickly. A third of the complaints hadn’t been resolved by the end of 2017, and this is probably also something that’s off-putting for citizens in making those complaints,” Coston said.

“The amount of time that it takes is problematic. Of course it takes time to investigate, but at the same time, people don’t want to complain and feel like that’s not doing anything,” she added.

Coston said that if the complaints had a positive outcome, people would probably feel confident about going to the police to report issues they have had with a police officer.

There are a number of ways community members can gather data missing from the RPD’s statistics, Coston. For example, she said, advocacy groups could canvass neighborhoods, knock on doors and conduct surveys.

“The bottom line is people don’t want to go to the police, so these are all

routes of gathering data – whether it’s people’s stories or numbers,” Coston said.

Abdul-Rahman said the No. 1 issue in the community is its relationship with the police. “Many of the residents live in fear and feel that their community is targeted,” he said.

Port Johnson, who attended the Blackwell meeting, agreed that some neighborhoods are treated differently than others.

Johnson recalled visiting three police precincts – two in predominantly black neighborhoods and one in a white neighborhood. She said the precinct in the white neighborhood provided surveys for residents, asking if they had any concerns.

The precincts in the two black didn’t provide a way for residents to share their thoughts or concerns, Johnson said.

Johnson said she believes that holding community meetings and discussing possible solutions is vital.

“Transparency allows for remediation, authenticity and justice,” she said.

16 • May 23, 2018

Calendar 5.23, 8:30 a.m.

The Chesterfield Chamber of Commerce Smarter Business Series, Village Bank and UPS presents “Digital Marketing Boot Camp” facilitated by Surefire Local – Marketing Cloud based out Vienna.

The series will be about Social Media, How Do You Know Digital Marketing Is Working? and other marketing tools.

The Smarter Business Series will take place at Chesterfield Career & Technical Center, 13900 Hull Street Road, Midlothian. There is breakfast & networking. Tickets are available for the series, cost range from $39 to $59 per person.

Surefire Local multiplies your marketing efforts by helping you see and strengthen all your online activities from a single platform – so you can finally get the kind of quality leads you really want.

For more information or to register you can visit www. chesterfieldchamber.com or give us call at 804-748-6364.

The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

Black Lives Matter memoir is the next Ongoing Exhibitors are needed for KingOne Book, One Richmond selection Lincoln Park Day taking place on The University of Richmond has selected “When They Call You A Terrorist: A Black Lives Matter Memoir” by Black Lives Matter co-founder, Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha bandele for its common reading selection for the 201819 academic year.

“Khan-Cullors weaves the themes of poverty, race, the criminal justice system and activism throughout this memoir,” said Holly Blake, associate dean for outreach education and development. “The book reveals how and why Khan-Cullors committed her own life as an artist and activist to addressing issues that disproportionately affect communities of color.”

One Book, One Richmond is a campus-wide effort that encourages students, faculty, staff and members of the Richmond community to read and discuss a selected book on a social justice issue. Past selections have examined nationalism, mass incarceration, food insecurity and poverty.

“We are hopeful that conversations about the book link to conversations about our continued efforts to foster a thriving and inclusive community,” said Adrienne Piazza, One Book, One Richmond committee chair. “Our campus community will engage in a year-long, campus-wide dialogue related to the book, a dialogue that spans curricular and co-curricular spaces.”

One Book, One Richmond is led by the Bonner Center for Civic Engagement with a committee of students, faculty and staff representing all five academic schools as well as departments across campus. Programming will take place throughout the academic year and will be announced at a later date.

Saturday, June 2 from noon to 5 p.m.

Community organizations are encouraged to participate with an exhibit representing your agency and mission. Exhibitors are also asked to provide one hands-on activity for children at your booth during the festival. This can be a craft, a game, an interactive reading station, a sports challenge, group art activity, etc. Accepted exhibitors are provided one 15’ x 15’ space with tables and chairs. Organizations interested in exhibiting at the event can complete an application online at bit.ly/2IS3u3c . There is no fee for exhibitors.

King-Lincoln Park Day is an afternoon showcasing all the recreational opportunities offered at King-Lincoln Park (600 Jefferson Ave., Newport News) and the surrounding community. The event features a broad range of free activities for all ages including make-and-take crafts, free Bingo (ages 55 & up), community exhibits, and live entertainment. Kids can enjoy free face painting, a moon bounce, a giant slide, and an obstacle course.

There will be free snow cones and free cotton candy for everyone to enjoy.

For additional information, call 757-926-1400. Updates and announcements (including weatherrelated announcements) will be posted on Facebook.

M ...advertised here. oments &e m o r i e s

Submit your calendar events by email to: editor @legacynewspaper.com.

Include the who, what, where, when & contact information that can be printed. Submission deadline is Friday.

May 23, 2018 • 17

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Bikes on trains available at Richmond Main Street Station Amtrak, for the first time, now allows passengers to reserve and board their bicycles at downtown Richmond’s Main Street Station (RVM).

The pilot program began May 18 and will allow the current bicycle and baggage service between Newport News and Boston on the Amtrak Northeast Regional train to be provided at Main Street Station, offering a new, safe, and direct option to cyclists riding the Virginia Capital Trail between Richmond and Williamsburg (WBG), as well as direct access to the many amenities and attractions near both city centers.

The Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT) have joined forces to bring the new service, which comes amid national recognition of May as National Bike Month.

“The commonwealth is proud to offer this new service to our passenger rail customers in

DRPT Director Jennifer Mitchell Virginia,”said DRPT Director Jennifer Mitchell. “Bicycle service at Main Street Station will provide safer and easier access to the

Capital Trail and of Virginia’s great cultural and historic attractions.

We are confident this pilot program will build off the success of the Capital Trail, which has positively contributed to the local economies along its route.”

In addition to the current bicycle and baggage service on the route, as well as Capital Trail Access, Richmond-Main Street Station also provides direct and convenient access to multi-modal transportation connections in downtown Richmond, including the Greater Richmond Transit Company’s new Bus Rapid Transit system, The Pulse, which begins service June 24th and will also accommodate bikes.

The pilot extension service will not affect current arrival and departure schedules along the route. Space is limited to six bicycles in each direction.

Customers must reserve in advance by booking online at amtrak.com/virginia.

Bicycle reservation fees apply in addition to normal ticketed fares.

The pilot program is currently limited to travel between RichmondMain Street station and other staffed Amtrak stations in Virginia along the Newport News to Washington, D.C. state-sponsored corridor. The pilot will conclude October, 2018. DRPT will evaluate its success throughout to determine if year-round operation and connectivity to other stations north of Washington, D.C. is feasible.

Passengers may continue to bring bikes aboard the train at staffed stations between Newport News and Boston, including: Richmond-Staples Mill, Alexandria, and Washington, D.C. The Newport News to Boston Northeast Regional train connects Virginia to and from major northeast destinations like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York City, where bicycle and baggage services are also available.

Serving Richmond & Hampton Roads 409 E. Main St. #4 (mailing) • 105The 1/2LEGACY E. Clay 409 E. Main St. #4 (mailing) • 105 1/2 E. Clay St. (office) Richmond, VA 23219 Richmond, VA 23219 804-644-1550 (office) - 1-800-782-8062 804-644-1550 (office) • 800-783-8062 (fax) ads@legacynewspaper.com ads@legacynewspaper.com

18 • May 23, 2018

Classifieds STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA COUNTY OF FLORENCE South Carolina Department of Social Services, Plaintiff, vs.

) IN THE FAMILY COURT OF THE ) TWELFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT ) DOCKET NO.: 2018-DR-21-435 ) ) SUMMONS AND NOTICE ) ) Yolanda Cooper ) Legrant Walker ) John Doe ) ) AND ) ) Ja’Quan Sincere Nirule Walker ) DOB: 06/30/2001 ) Minor under the age of 18 ) ______________________________ ) TO DEFENDANT: Yolanda Cooper: YOU ARE HEREBY SUMMONDED and served with the complaint for Termination of Parental Rights (TPR) and Notice of the TPR hearing in and to the minor child in this action, the original of which has been filed in the Office of the Clerk of Court for FLORENCE County 181 N. Irby St., Suite 2700, Florence, SC 29501, a copy of which will be delivered to you upon request; and if you choose to answer the complaint, to serve a copy of which will be delivered to you upon request; the undersigned attorney for the plaintiff at Hailey P. Turnblad, 2685 S. Irby Street, Box A, Florence, SC, 29505 within thirty (30) days following the date of service upon you, exclusive of the day of service.

YOU ARE FURTHER NOTIFIED that: the TPR hearing in this matter is scheduled for July 10, 2018 at 10:30 a.m. at the Florence County Judicial Center, 2nd floor, located at 181 N. Irby St., Florence, SC 29501. ____________________________________ Hailey P. Turnblad, Attorney for Plaintiff South Carolina Department of Social Services 2685 S. Irby Street, Box A Florence, SC 29505 (843/ 669-3354/ (843) 673-9247 Bar No.: 76365 Florence, South Carolina April, 25_, 2018

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NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN THAT THE CITY OF RICHMOND BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS 1 issue (May 9, 2018) - $154 Will hold a Public Hearing in the 5th9 Floor Room, 2 issues (May & 16) Conference - $308 City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, VA-on June 6, 2018, 3 issues (May 9, 16 & 23) $462 4 issues (MayChapter 9, 16, 23 $616 Code: to consider the following under 30&of30) the- Zoning

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BEGINNING AT 1:00 P.M. Includes Internet placement We’ll the work so you Pleasedo review the proof, make any needed changes and return b 21-18: An appeal of the Oregon Hill Neighborhood Association, Please review the proof, make any needed changes and return by fax or e-mail.

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decisionsOkorX_________________________________________ determinations of the city zoning administrator administering the zoning ordinance related to height, setback, yard and parking of the pending POD application for 801-815 OkStreet, with changes _____________________________ West Cary 104-110XSouth Laurel Street, and 812 Green Alley, City File #867, including without limitation such orders, requirements, decisions or determinations contained in the REMINDER: Deadline is Fridays @ 5 p.m.

March 1, 2018 signed comment letter. The specific section numbers of the Zoning Ordinance being appealed are 30-438.3, 30-438.5, 30-440.6, 30-630.3, 30-710.1, 30-710.3, 30-710.4, 30-1220.19, 30-1220.123 and 30-1220.137.

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Serving Richmond & Hampton Roads construct a new single-family detached dwelling (#808 ½) at 808 Excellent Benefits ½ and 810 WEST CLAY STREET. 409 E. Main St. #4 (mailing) • 105 1/2 E. Clay St Flatbed Richmond,Exp. VA 23219 22-18: An application of Kylan & Suzy Shirley for a building 804-644-1550 (office) • 800-783-8062 (fax Nice Sign-on-Bonus. permit to construct a new single-family detached dwelling (#612) ads@legacynewspaper.com at 610 WEST 26TH STREET. Training Available Roy W. Benbow, Secretary Phone: (804) 240-2124 Fax: (804) 646-5789 E-mail: Roy.Benbow@richmondgov.com

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IF YOU HAD AN IVC FILTER PLACED FOR BLOOD CLOTTING, 2010 -present Please review the proof, make between any needed changes and return by 409 E. Main St. #4 (mailing) • 105 1/2 E. Clay St. (office) time, you may be entitled to compensation.

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VA Attorney 23219 Charles H.Johnson opportunities with The City of Richmond. Richmond,Call: X______________________________________ 804-644-1550 (office) •Ok1-800-762-806 (fax) 1-800-535-5727 To see what opportunities are available, please ads@legacynewspaper.com refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

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INVITATION FOR BIDS IFB #SCC-18-010-ITD NetScout Hardware and Training The State Corporation Commission (SCC) is seeking sealed bids to establish a contract through competitive bidding with a qualified source(s) to provide NetScout Hardware and Training for the State Corporation Commission. An electronic copy of IFB# SCC-18-010-ITD can be obtained at the following website: http://eva.virginia.gov.

The State Corporation Commission welcomes and encourages bids from small, women and minority-owned businesses, including bids from small, women and minority-owned prime contractors as well as prime contractors who propose to use small, women and minority-owned subcontractors.

Ad Size: 4.6 Deadline inches (2iscolumn(s) REMINDER: @X5 2.30 p.m. in One of the strong benefits ofFridays newspaper advertising is that newspapers a 1 Issue (May 16) offer - $50.60 variety of ways toRate: target a particular $11 per column inch audience.

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May 23, 2018 • 19

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The LEGACY is looking for a reliable, highly-motivated, goal-driven sales professional to join our team selling print and digital advertising in the Richmond and Hampton Roads areas.

Duties include: Building and maintaining relationships with new/existing clients Meeting and exceeding monthly sales goals Cold calling new prospects over the phone to promote print and online advertising space

Qualifications: Proven experience with print (newspaper) and/or digital (website) advertising sales; Phone and one-on-one sales experience; Effective verbal and written communication skills, professional image and; Familiarity with Richmond and/or Hampton Roads areas.

SERVICES DIVORCE–Uncontested, $395+$86 court cost. No court appearance. Estimated completion time twenty-one days.

Telephone inquiries welcome-no obligation. Hilton Oliver, Attorney. 757-490-0126. Se Habla Español. BBB Member.

Compensation depends on experience and includes a base pay as well as commission.

The LEGACY is an African-American-oriented weekly newspaper, circulation 25,000, with a website

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