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EGACY

INSIDE

A hurdled parth to homeownership - 2 Fraudulent signatures fallout continues - 4 How it’s like to be a Catholic today - 8 The effects of landlord discrimination - 12

Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • Aug. 29, 2018

Richmond & Hampton Roads

LEGACYNEWSPAPER.COM • FREE

What’s really happening with the prison strike?

Action is limited so far, but organizers are cheering the media attention NICOLE LEWIS For several weeks, a group of inmates has been calling for a national prison strike to protest what organizers say are inhumane conditions inside the nation’s prisons.

Using contraband cell phones and with the help of outside volunteers, inmates in South Carolina and Alabama spread word of the strike on Facebook and Twitter and published their demands online and in prison newsletters. Organizers, both in and outside of the prison, say they encouraged inmates across the country to refuse to work or spend money to curtail the profits they say prisons and private companies make off their incarceration.

In the days leading up to the proposed start on Aug. 21, representatives for the strike said they anticipated demonstrations by inmates in as many as 17 states. But four days into the declared protests, they say they can confirm actions in only a handful of states. Organizers say they have confirmed accounts of participation at Northwest Detention Center, an immigration detention center in Washington; Folsom State Prison in California; McCormick Correctional Institution in South Carolina; and Toledo Correctional Institution in Ohio. They have relied mostly on the word of families and volunteers who have been in touch with participating inmates.

Yet despite the strike’s limited scope and the difficulty of corroborating the organizers’ claims, national and local media have covered the strike in earnest, some calling it “the largest national prison strike in US history.”

History shows that political actions by prisoners have had mixed results at best. Some prison reform advocates say that fear of

Supporters of the prison strike. reprisals coupled with the difficulty of communicating between prisons makes widespread action unlikely.

Still, some say the media attention is a small victory in that it has brought the issue of inhumane prison conditions to a wider audience.

Here is a guide to how the strike garnered national media attention and what it says about both the aims of the organizers and the challenges of reporting on America’s prison system.

How did inmates organize it?

Initially, there were talks among Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS), a self-organized collection of anonymous activists incarcerated throughout the United States, and other activist inmates to plan a strike in 2019. But they decided to move up the timeline after seven inmates died during a riot in April at Lee Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in South Carolina.

Members of JLS say the violence was a direct result of crowding at the prison, coupled with the practice of housing inmates from rival gangs on the same tier.

It isn’t the first time JLS has called for a strike. In 2016, a group of incarcerated activists known

as the Free Alabama Movement (FAM) called for a work stoppage on Sept. 9 to protest the slavery exception in the 13th Amendment, which bans unpaid servitude in the United States except as punishment for a crime. That year’s strike call was supported by JLS and by the International Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC), a socialist labor union that aims to unionize prison laborers. Committee members amplified the strike news on Twitter and Facebook, and wrote about it their prison newsletter.

To spread the word in 2018, JLS reached out to a woman named Amani Sawari. Though Sawari is not a veteran political organizer, she has crafted a campaign that put this effort in the national media spotlight.

She works for her church during the week and does hair on weekends, but for a year she wrote for a prison abolition newsletter called, “I Am We,” that is circulated in some prisons. She says JLS asked for her help in posting their demands online and serving as the strike’s official spokesperson.

A JLS member also reached out to an inmate who goes by the pseudonym,“Swift Justice,”

who has been imprisoned in Alabama for more than 20 years.

Justice frequently writes for the San Francisco Bayview, a black nationalist newspaper that also makes its rounds among inmates.

He communicates with the outside world using a contraband cell phone.

Justice supported the proposed strike plan, and promoted it on his Facebook and Twitter accounts. He also says he reached out to a few contacts at other prisons that he has made through his advocacy work. “It went big real quick,” he said.

IWOC and Sawari coordinated solidarity efforts outside. They have garnered more than 150 endorsements for the strike, many from local chapters of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and other left-leaning organizations.

And they have organized scores of demonstrations outside of prison facilities nationwide, which have been documented on the prison strike website. Members of IWOC and the endorsing organizations continued to spread word of the strike on Twitter, using the hashtag #August21.

Exactly how many inmates heard

(continued on page 17)

The LEGACY

2 • Aug. 29, 2018

News

One woman’s hurdled path to homeownership “I am so grateful to HOME because they helped me save my home.”

Gloria (last name withheld) began her career as a licensed practical nurse and quickly set her sights on advancing in her career. After earning her bachelor’s degree in nursing, she moved on to complete two advanced degrees – a master of science in nursing and health care administration, and a master of business administration.

Demanding much of herself drove her determination for success and propelled Gloria into leadership positions in the nursing field for the Virginia Department of Corrections and Virginia Department of Nursing.

With so much success in her professional career, and in her personal life as a wife and a mother, the Prince George County native never anticipated that returning to where she grew up would be accompanied with severe financial hardship. “I look back, and sometimes, like the song says, ‘I wonder how I got over, how did I make it over,’” she said, referring to the classic Mahalia Jackson gospel song, with a laugh.

She did not have the most pleasant memories of growing up in Prince

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George County, so agreeing to move back was not an easy decision. “I didn’t want to move back,” she says, after living most of her adult life in

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Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia.

“I grew up in Prince George County during forced segregation, and when I graduated high school I said I’d never move back to the South.”

But when her husband was diagnosed with a terminal illness, his wish was to return to Virginia and raise their four children here.

She remained in the house after her husband’s death and when she found love again, was in the relationship for 15 years. Though the couple never married, their finances became intertwined. When the relationship ended, Gloria says adjusting to one income was a challenge. But a tightening of her budget was just the beginning of a devastating streak of financial misfortune and adversity.

Her house burned down. She then had to endure the painful process of having debris cleared from the fire, hiring a builder to construct a new home on the same site, and the headaches that accompany insurance paperwork to get it all done. Her debt began to mount during this period because Gloria found out that the house was underinsured at the worst possible time – after the fire.

Once constructed, Gloria moved back into the house with her two youngest children. While she was happy to move into her new home

after being displaced for several months, she missed the home she had shared with her husband.

Problems with the new construction also soured her new homecoming and resulted in additional costs, contributing to the growth of her debt.

“I filed Chapter 13 bankruptcy and because of my misunderstanding, I stopped paying my mortgage because I thought it was included in the bankruptcy.” By the time she figured out that her home had not been included in the bankruptcy, she was three years behind on her mortgage. She contacted HOME and began working with a foreclosure prevention counselor. But distracted by her brother’s rapid health decline, she did not follow through on her paperwork.

“My brother was in and out of the hospital,” she says. “He died in December.” Through the hardship of caring for her brother and grieving his death, she says her foreclosure prevention counselor was sympathetic about her circumstances. But, she was also stern about the necessity of Gloria turning in her paperwork to save her home. Ultimately, Gloria’s counselor negotiated a loan modification. A process that can take more than 30 days took only a couple of weeks.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Aug. 29, 2018 • 3

Short of projected growth, local insurer pays back incentives for misreported, non-Va. jobs JONATHAN SPIERS Three years after it announced plans to quadruple its local workforce with the help of state incentives, a Henrico-based auto insurer has fallen short of that projection and is paying back funds it received for jobs that, it turns out, were created outside Virginia.

Elephant Auto Insurance recently paid back nearly $50,000 it was awarded through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), after informing the state’s economic development arm that 62 of 306 jobs the company created over the past three years were based outside of the commonwealth.

The repayment came soon after Richmond BizSense asked the company about its local employment count, which it had said would, by now, nearly quadruple what it was in 2015. That year Elephant and then-Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s office announced the company planned to add 1,173 jobs in three years at its local headquarters on Mayland Drive.

Three years later, as of last month, its local headcount totaled 564 – only 166 more than the 398 the company employed in the Richmond area at the time the announcement was made.

The additional jobs were to be eligible for incentives through VJIP, which would reimburse the company $800 for each employee added in the state over the three-year span.

Elephant requested the reimbursements for 306 jobs added in that time, amounting to just under $245,000 in incentive funding received, according to the Virginia Economic Development Partnership, which administers the program.

Late last month, Elephant CFO Jason Baham informed VEDP that that number was incorrect, citing a “clerical error” that he said the company had discovered.

In a letter dated July 30, Baham wrote to VEDP: “ … it appears that Elephant mistakenly submitted new jobs for Non-VA employees during the reporting process of the prior program that Elephant was enrolled in.”

After breaking down the numbers of what was and what shouldn’t

Elephant CEO Alberto Schiavon in the company’s Henrico headquarters. PHOTO: Jonathan Spiers have been reported and reimbursed, Baham said, “My sincerest apologies about this oversight, it was truly a clerical mistake.”

The next day, VEDP received the overpayment amount of $49,632 back from Elephant. The money will be returned to the VJIP fund, VEDP spokeswoman Suzanne Clark said.

In a statement, Elephant said the error was discovered when it reviewed its previously reported numbers after discussions with VEDP “to further identify program requirements.”

“Upon noticing a clerical error, Elephant immediately notified the VEDP and refunded them the overpayment,” the statement said. “Elephant is proud to be headquartered in Richmond and looks forward to continued headcount growth in Virginia.”

Clark said the repayment is the first VEDP has received from a recipient since it began administering VJIP in 2014. Last fiscal year, the program awarded a total of $6.9 million in incentives to 152 companies across the state.

Clark said the program has relied on companies self-reporting jobs

that they create in Virginia, but more-stringent verification policies approved this June and scheduled to roll out this fall are expected to improve the process.

Currently, companies are required to show proof of hires and are reimbursed 90 days after the job is created. Information provided to VEDP includes employee names, hire dates and job titles, as well as current full-time headcount and the average wage of the employees listed, Clark said.

This fall, VEDP expects to implement enhanced verification policies that its board approved in June, in the wake of VEDP reforms the General Assembly mandated last year following a critical report by the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission on VEDP’s operations, performance and accountability.

The enhanced policies for VJIP will be comparable to those VEDP uses to verify discretionary incentives, with companies’ submissions compared with quarterly payroll and tax reports that employers are required to file with the Virginia Employment Commission. The next quarterly reports are due in October, by which

time VEDP aims to implement the policies, Clark said in an email.

“Because the new verification process has not yet been fully implemented, the Elephant Insurance project was closed utilizing the previous approach,” Clark said.

“The failure to provide accurate records to the Virginia Employment Commission can result in criminal and civil penalties. Accordingly, companies typically use care in providing the records, and the records are a valuable resource in verifying information provided to VEDP.” Because the incentives for Elephant were awarded after jobs were created, Clark said the discrepancy between the company’s projected and actual hires does not mean any incentive funding was lost as a result. It just means the state did not award – because Elephant did not request – additional funding that was available and budgeted based on the company’s projection.

When Elephant’s three-year incentive cycle ended this March, Clark said, “The remaining funds

(continued on page 4)

The LEGACY

4 • Aug. 29, 2018

Newspaper investigation: 4 dead people, nearly 60 fraudulent signatures found on Brown petitions

an independent, on the 2nd Congressional District ballot to siphon votes from their candidate, Elaine Luria. They filed a lawsuit last week and claim to have found enough fraudulent signatures to keep Brown’s name off the ballot.

A team of reporters from The Virginian-Pilot recently conducted a two-week investigation of the

petition signatures, trying to contact each voter listed on the dozens of pages submitted by five people paid

by Taylor’s campaign.

Reporters reached 115 of the 584 people listed – or a family member – by phone. Reporters were unable to contact the remaining 469, either because the name listed was illegible, no phone number could be found, or the person did not return messages.

Of those reached, 51 people – including several local Republican politicians – acknowledged signing the petition. Six others weren’t sure whether they did.

But 59 – more than half of those reached – declared the signatures to be fraudulent.

Of those reportedly forged names, four belonged to Virginia Beach men who died in recent years: Floyd Newkirk, Hugh Doy, Melvin Chittum and R. Stuart Cake.

Floyd Newkirk’s son, Eddie

Newkirk, was in the process of moving his mother from Virginia Beach to Scottsdale, Ariz., where he lives, when he learned that his late father’s signature had appeared on one of the petitions. The elder Newkirk was a retired Marine, Korean War veteran and longdistance truck driver who died in 2016 at the age of 83, according to his obituary.

Eddie Newkirk was disheartened to hear that his deceased father's name was used for political gain.

“I’m not surprised,” he said. “But I’m disappointed that someone would stoop to that level.”

Some of the fraudulent entries contained name misspellings. Others had addresses that the person hadn’t lived at in years written next to their names. One person was in the hospital being treated for throat

“We have employed many people since then, and we have invested in the Richmond community. Every year we spend tens of millions of dollars in salaries.”

The 2015 announcement said Elephant also would invest $2 million to expand its headquarters in the Deep Run I building it subleases from fellow tenant Allianz Global Assistance.

Schiavon would not discuss details of how that money was spent, though he said the full amount wasn’t used when the company subleased an additional 22,000 square feet of space on the building’s third floor in 2016, expanding its fourth-floor footprint for a total of 76,000 square feet of space.

Some of the funds were spent on outfitting the third-floor space with new desks, IT equipment and a conference room, according to the company. Schiavon said Elephant put an emphasis on investing in technology over reaching a certain staff level and taking advantage of the incentives.

“We’re growing efficiently,” he said.

In July, Elephant announced it had reached the 200,000 mark in vehicles insured in its six-state service area.

The company, which began in 2009, insures over 28,000 vehicles in the Richmond area specifically.

Elephant is a subsidiary of UKbased Admiral Group, whose brands include a UK version of Elephant and Compare.com, also based in Richmond. Elephant’s U.S. annual revenue totaled more than $207

million in 2017.

The company added a second office in 2017 in Texas, where it is active in addition to Virginia, Maryland, Illinois, Indiana and Tennessee.

Schiavon said Elephant is licensed to sell policies in more states and is considering expansions, though he would not go into specifics about the company’s growth goals.

VEDP’s Clark said it is not uncommon for companies that participate in VJIP to miss their announced employment projection.

“It often is the case that for the VJIP program, companies ultimately create more or fewer jobs than what is announced,” she said. “Indeed, at any company with substantial employment, the total number of employees moves up and down based on attrition, market demand, etc. The number of employees at any company location with 50 or more jobs rarely is a static number.”

Clark said by announcing a specific number, VJIP then can set a maximum amount that a company could receive for a particular investment project. Because VJIP incentives are reimbursements for jobs created and not paid up front, she said, “…there is no contractual requirement for the company to meet its projected job creation parameters and utilize the maximum VJIP funding allotted for the project.”

Clark also noted that Elephant could have added more employees in the three-year period than the 306 jobs submitted for reimbursement.

With 398 employees at the time of the announcement, the resulting total from the addition of those 306 jobs – 704 – is 140 jobs higher than the company’s current local headcount of 564.

Elephant also employs workers at the office it opened in Texas.

Companywide, it employs 637.

While Elephant’s repayment did not initiate the changes VEDP is making to its verification policies for VJIP, Clark said the scenario does illustrate the need for those policies.

“This situation primarily has reinforced the importance of the recently adopted VEDP Board policies that require enhanced verification of performance for companies receiving VJIP incentives, leveraging VEC data,” Clark said.

“Although not prompted by the Elephant situation, it is worth noting that administration of the VJIP incentive program is being shifted from VEDP’s Workforce Division to its dedicated Division of Incentives,” Clark said, adding that the latter division was required in last year’s VEDP reform legislation.

The year-old division is staffed with five full-time employees tasked with managing VEDP’s incentives program, she said.

“One benefit of having a centralized incentives function will be a consistent approach across all incentive programs administered by VEDP,” Clark said.

© RBiz

JANE HARPER & VICTORIA BOURNE Before submitting petitions to get congressional candidate Shaun Brown on the November ballot, workers were required to sign an affidavit on the back of each page.

They promised that they had witnessed the signature of each person named on the document. They also acknowledged that breaking this promise would make them guilty of a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $2,500 fine. Each affidavit also had to be notarized.

Yet, it’s been widely reported that some of the nearly 600 signatures submitted by campaign workers for one of Brown’s opponents – Republican U.S. Rep. Scott Taylor – were forged.

State Democrats believe that Taylor’s team was trying to get Brown, who is running as

(from page 3) available from the allotted budget for the project were returned to the VJIP account.”

In an interview at Elephant’s Henrico headquarters, CEO Alberto Schiavon acknowledged the difference in the projected and current staff levels, attributing the difference to a change in the company’s growth strategy since the announcement was made in mid-2015.

“We took part in the (incentive) program, and we received the funding only for the jobs that we created,” Schiavon said. “While the projections might have been different, we haven’t been given any money that wasn’t (for the jobs created).”

Schiavon, who was with parent company Admiral Group at the time of the announcement but wasn’t leading Elephant until he was named CEO last November, said the smaller headcount should not be interpreted as the insurer pulling back on its investment in its local presence and operations.

“We haven’t grown as much as (projected in the announcement), but I would argue that we have invested in the Richmond community way more than the article was suggesting,” Schiavon said, referring to BizSense’s report on the 2015 announcement.

“We have decided to go for a slightly different strategy and grow organically. We want to make sure that we grow intelligently,” he said.

Shaun Brown

(continued on page 5)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Aug. 29, 2018 • 5

(from page 4) cancer on the day he was reported to have signed. Another said she was out of town attending a graduation ceremony.

Many of those named are elderly people, including Floyd Felten of Virginia Beach, whose name also was misspelled. Felten’s daughter, Carol Campbell, said she's sure that her father didn’t sign.

“He’s 102,” Campbell said. “He really can't sign his name that well.”

Most of those who said they didn’t sign had no idea how their names ended up on the petitions. Some said they were Taylor supporters or Republicans, had given money to Taylor's campaign, were on an email list for him or had agreed to put his campaign signs in their yards.

Mary Lou Ferralli said she worked the polls for Taylor in his last election and may have given money to his campaign. Like many of those contacted, she was upset that her name appeared to have been forged, but said she still plans to vote for Taylor.

A few said they had soured on Taylor as a result. “I voted for him,” said Iva Compton. “But I won’t vote for him again.”

Among those who acknowledged signing the petitions were numerous employees of the Virginia Beach Sheriff's Office, a detail first reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

The investigation found 52 sheriff's employees listed on petitions submitted by Taylor’s campaign staff.

Virginia Beach Sheriff Ken Stolle, a Republican and former state senator, is a supporter of Taylor's but said he did not circulate the petitions.

The sheriff said in an emailed statement that it was his “understanding” that they were passed around during the workday by members of his staff, not the Taylor campaign members who signed affidavits on those pages.

If that’s the case, then those 52 signatures also were obtained illegally, said Rebecca Green, a professor at the College of William & Mary’s law school who runs the election law program.

“If a page got out of their (the circulator’s) hands and was sent around an office – that’s a violation,” Green said. “They’re supposed to witness each signature.”

Stolle said he routinely allows petitions to be passed around among his employees and encourages his staff to be engaged in politics and the community.

“I have never declined a request to circulate or sign a petition for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation, because I believe anyone

Democrats. He fired his campaign manager before the petition signatures came into question, and cut ties with his campaign consultant afterward.

Brown needed 1,000 valid signatures to be included on the ballot as an independent. Of the more than 1,900 that were submitted – including 1,350 turned in by her

Rep. Scott Taylor who wants to run should have the opportunity to do so,” he said.

One acknowledged signer contacted – Holly Tuthill of Poquoson – said she signed at a Poquoson Republican Party gathering she attended with her father. But Tuthill said she was misled about what she was signing and wouldn’t have if she had known all the details.

Tuthill said one of Taylor’s staffers came to the meeting and urged the group to sign. The man – who Tuthill described as pushy – told them that the candidate listed on the petition was an independent who “leaned right.”

“He told us we really need to back this person,” Tuthill said. “Many of us signed it blindly because he was one of us and we trusted him.”

Most of the signatures submitted by the Taylor supporters were obtained during a two-day blitz on June 8 and 9, just days before the June 12 filing deadline.

Brown, a Hampton businesswoman who ran as a Democrat against Taylor in 2016, has said she didn’t know that Taylor staffers were collecting signatures for her. She faces trial in October on charges that she defrauded the federal government through a summer meal program for children. She was tried on the charges in federal court earlier this month, but the case ended with a hung jury. She did not return a call t seeking comment for this story.

Taylor, a former Navy SEAL, is seeking a second term. Luria, a former Navy commander, is making her first run for political office. The 2nd Congressional District, considered one of the most competitive in the state, includes all of Virginia Beach and the state’s Eastern Shore, as well as Norfolk’s north side and several localities on the Peninsula, including Williamsburg and York County.

Taylor has acknowledged that he knew his campaign workers were collecting signatures for Brown, but said it was because they thought Brown had been treated unfairly by

supporters – 1,030 were declared valid by the state board of elections.

Chris Piper, commissioner of the Virginia Department of Elections, said his office compares submitted signatures to the registered voter database to make sure each name and address listed belonged to a

(continued on page 17)

NOTICE TO THE PUBLIC OF A PETITION BY VIRGINIA ELECTRIC AND POWER COMPANY D/B/A DOMINION ENERGY VIRGINIA FOR A PRUDENCY DETERMINATION WITH RESPECT TO THE WATER STRIDER SOLAR POWER PURCHASE AGREEMENT PURSUANT TO § 56-585.1:4 F OF THE CODE OF VIRGINIA CASE NO. PUR-2018-00135 On August 17, 2018, Virginia Electric and Power Company d/b/a Dominion Energy Virginia (“Company”), pursuant to § 56-585.1:4 F of the Code of Virginia, filed a petition (“Petition”) with the State Corporation Commission (“Commission”) for a prudency determination with respect to the Company’s proposed power purchase agreement (“PPA”) with Water Strider Solar LLC, associated with an 80 megawatt (“MW”) solar facility to be located in Halifax County, Virginia (“Project”).

The Company states that the Project will be an 80 MW solar facility located in Halifax County, Virginia, developed by Cypress Creek Renewables, and interconnected to the Dominion Energy Virginia Transmission system. According to the Petition, the Company selected the Project through a competitive solicitation process. The Company states that it reviewed proposals for completeness and conformity to the request for proposals requirements, and a short list was developed. The Company further asserts that the Project offered the highest customer net present value of all the short-listed PPA proposals when compared to market purchases. The Company states that it executed a PPA on May 31, 2018, contingent upon receiving Commission approval. The Company states that it will recover the costs associated with the Project through base rates and the fuel factor, as applicable.

The Petition states that, if deemed prudent by the Commission, the anticipated commercial operations date for the Project is the fourth quarter of 2020 with a PPA term of 20 years.

The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing that, among other things, scheduled a public hearing to be held on October 15, 2018, at 1 p.m. 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 offer testimony as a public witness at this hearing should appear in the Commission’s courtroom fifteen (15) minutes prior to the starting time of the hearing and identify himself or herself to the Commission’s Bailiff. The public hearing shall reconvene on October 16, 2018, at 9:30 a.m., in the same location, to receive the testimony and evidence offered by the Company, respondents, and the Staff of the Commission (“Staff”).

On or before September 27, 2018, the Company, Staff and any respondent in this proceeding may submit a brief on legal issues raised by the Petition. On October 4, 2018, at 9:30 a.m., in the Commission’s second floor courtroom located in the Tyler Building, 1300 East Main Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, the Commission will receive oral argument on the legal issues raised by the Petition from the Company, Staff, and any respondent who filed a legal brief in this proceeding.

The Company’s Petition 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, Horace P. Payne, Jr., Esquire, Dominion Energy Services, Inc., Law Department, Riverside 2, 120 Tredegar 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 all documents filed in this case also are 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.

Any person or entity may participate as a respondent in this proceeding by filing a notice of participation on or before September 11, 2018. If not filed electronically, an original and fifteen (15) copies of the notice of participation shall be submitted to Joel H. Peck, Clerk, State Corporation Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118. 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-2018-00135.

On or before September 25, 2018, each respondent may file with the Clerk of the Commission and serve on the Staff, the Company, and all other respondents, any testimony and exhibits by which the respondent expects to establish its case, and each witness’s testimony shall include a summary not to exceed one page.

If not filed electronically, an original and fifteen (15) copies of such testimony and exhibits shall be submitted to the Clerk of the Commission at the address set forth above. Respondents also shall comply with the Commission’s Rules of Practice, including 5 VAC 5-20-140, Filing and service; and 5 VAC 5-20240, Prepared testimony and exhibits. All filings shall refer to Case No. PUR-2018-00135.

On or before October 8, 2018, any interested person may file written comments on the Petition with the Clerk of the Commission at the address set forth above. Interested persons desiring to file comments electronically may do so on or before October 8, 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 comments shall refer to Case No. PUR-2018-00135.

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 d/b/a DOMINION ENERGY VIRGINIA

6 • Aug. 29, 2018

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Bank overdraft fees strip over $11b from consumers annually CHARLENE CROWELL For many people, little things can in time lead to big problems.

When personal checking accounts are involved, transactions without available funds in checking accounts can trigger a series of fees that wind up taking a big bite out of the next paycheck. What’s more, many times consumers have no way of knowing the real cost until after a bank statement arrives weeks later.

Banks and other depository institutions market these fees as convenient ‘overdraft protection’ What they do to consumers is strip billions of dollars each year from personal checking accounts, while generating a lucrative, no-lose revenue stream for these institutions.

New research by the Center for Responsible Lending (CRL) finds that last year among the nation’s largest banks, overdraft fees were a $11.45 billion bonanza. Unfair Market: The State of High-Cost Overdraft Practices in 2017, analyzes both how overdraft fee revenue is generated, as well as the practices borne on the backs of America’s working poor.

“Instead of serving families fairly, banks are driving many customers deeper in a hole and often out of the banking system altogether,” said Pete Smith, the report’s author and CRL senior researcher. “Over the last 15 to 20 years, many financial institutions have betrayed the trust of their account holders by replacing what was once an occasional accommodation with an exploitative system of routine high-cost overdraft fees that drive account holders deep The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 4 No. 35 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

into debt.”

“Banks set up systems at every turn where they can maximize the revenue they generate with these fees,” continued Smith. “They've found a way to turn mistakes into a revenue source.”

Among the report’s key findings: The 2017 overdraft fees charged by the largest banks represent an increase above similar revenues recorded for both 2015 and 2016; The 20 banks with the highest volume of fees received $9 billion or approximately 79 percent of the total reported $11.45 billion for 2017; and Although a few banks do not charge fees for point-of-sale (POS) and/or ATM transactions, all 10 of the nation’s largest banks charge overdraft fees higher than $30 per transaction.

These fees also come with unfair or abusive bank practices designed to maximize revenues. For example, some banks allow five or more overdraft fees to be charged per day to customers. If the overdraft fee is $35, a single day’s overcharges could be $175 – that will be taken The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

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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by the bank from the next deposit or payroll. Consumers who rely upon debit cards for day-to-day purchases may unknowingly incur hundreds of dollars of charges in just a few days.

Other suspect bank practices add extended or sustained fees beyond the original overdraft fee. Yet another is to manipulate postings to customer accounts to generate the largest possible overdraft revenue.

Last summer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) also released an independent report on overdraft fees. The Bureau identified the consumers most prone to incur these fees: those who have less than $350 as an average endof-day account balance and have median credit scores of 600 or less.

About 20 percent of consumers with frequent overdrafts do not have a credit score and are considered ‘credit invisible’.

Under CFPB’s first director, this research was to become the factual basis for rulemaking. However, under Acting Director Mick Mulvaney, rulemaking plans have been shelved.

But where there’s a will, there’s also a way. Two U.S. Senators have co-sponsored legislation that if enacted, would crack down on overdraft fees.

Entitled, The Stop Overdraft Profiteering Act of 2018, the bill would: • Ban overdraft fees on debit card purchases and ATM withdrawals; Cap the number of overdraft fees on checks and recurring payments, with no more than six fees in a calendar year;

• Require that the amount of overdraft fees be reasonable and proportional to the institution’s cost of covering the overdraft; • Require that banks post transactions in a manner that minimizes NSF and overdraft fees; and • Improve consumer disclosures related to overdraft coverage by banks.

“Overdraft fees are a tax on paychecks already stretched thin,” said Ohio U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a co-sponsor of the bill. “This bill keeps hardworking Americans’ money in their pockets and stops big banks from slapping big fees on customers for small overdraft amounts.”

The other bill sponsor, Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey, added his comments as well.

“For millions of hard-working Americans, every day is a struggle – they find themselves one late check or unexpected expense away from financial free fall,” said Booker.

“Wages aren’t going up but the cost of everything else is, from prescription drugs to housing costs to pocketbook pain points like the fees banks charge consumers for overdraft services.”

“Worse yet,” continued Booker, “overdraft fees fall on those least likely to be able to afford them – individuals for whom a $35 overdraft charge could push them over the brink into financial ruin.”

Crowell is the Center for Responsible Lending’s deputy communications director. She can be reached at charlene.crowell@responsiblelending.org.

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Aug. 29, 2018 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Labor Day dealing

Labor Day weekend gives Americans across the country a three-day weekend to rest, travel and celebrate our freedom to labor.

Our jobs increased by two million people in 2017 and have continued to climb in 2018. Hourly wages have seen gains and the stock market has seen 20 months of phenomenal growth. Employers across the country need workers and job seekers have options.

Not everyone will travel on Labor Day and I would like to suggest an activity of Labor that will be mentally good for you and your entire family. Clean out your closet, basement, attic and garage.

For years Americans cram "stuff" into closets, basements, attics and garages. After all of these are filled to capacity we build storage barns in our yards. Next, we rent storage units to store more stuff. Have you noticed how many storage units are being built almost everywhere?

They are a big business. People that own storage units make big money because there is such a demand for them. The richest man in Kentucky is in the storage space business. We are talking about a state that has been rich in coal, natural gas and bourbon whiskey. Thus, this gives you an idea how many people are storing up stuff.

I inherited my mom and dad’s old house. It was my home place growing up and it has been a delight.

However after eleven years I’m still throwing stuff away. My family took what they wanted years ago, and a lot of clothes and things were given away or divided up but still yet there

was lots of things that mom, and dad in particular had stored up over the years. Just two weekends ago I cleaned out another old building of old tools to give and throw away.

My wife’s parents recently passed and left a house of four bedrooms, and a basement and garage filled with 76 years of “stuff”. We gave away, had yard sales, divided and divided among family and gave away more and literally had to throw a lot of things in the trash. The family sold this house so it had to be emptied.

Emptying a house of an entire life of collected items is hard work but emotionally draining. Every item, picture, garment, old gun, piece of china etc. have memories and it’s tough to just throw it in the dumpster.

Why do we collect and store so much “stuff?” Most of it is socked away in a closet or space and hardly used. We unpacked a large basement space of tools, old furniture and more that had not been touched in many years. Why do we do this? Because we think we might want or need it?

Maybe the children will want it? Or, maybe the grandchildren will want it? It’s amazing how very little of our things our children want. Most of them want their own stuff and seldom want the old. Some people do of course but by and large more is thrown and given away than handed down and used by future generations.

Often, so much of the stuff we save is junk, so who wants to take our junk to their house and store it in their basement?

Do yourself and your family a favor. Start cleaning out your storage spaces now and give it away yourself.

You’ll know where it’s going. Do your giving while you are living then you know where it's going. Haul the junk to the dump. Have a yard sale and whatever you have left you will know more about what it is and where to find it. Plus, when you are dead and gone your children well be able to rest on Labor Day and not spend their weekend cleaning out all your old clothes and old stuff that you

didn’t take care of yourself.

There is something really nice about having a closet where you can really see and know what is in that closet. Or it’s nice having a garage or an attic where most of it has been cleaned out and organized and only contains what you really need. When you get it done sit back and drink a cold glass of lemonade and give thanks for the things you have and the labor that provided the “stuff” you really need and enjoy.

Glenn Mollette

The reality is...

Between her new “tell-all” book and her use of taped conversations to promote it, Omarosa Manigault Newman (former “assistant to the president and director of communications for the Office of Public Liaison”) has the White House in a tizzy.

President Donald Trump publicly refers to her as a “crazed, crying lowlife” and a “dog.” There’s quite a bit of pearl-clutching over one recording which seems to have been made in the White House Situation Room, where some of the government’s most secret stuff gets discussed.

All of which is par for the course in Trump’s America.

I can understand why some people were surprised when a reality TV personality got elected president.

I can understand why some people were surprised when that reality TV personality president hired another reality TV personality (in fact, someone he had twice reality-TV”fired”) to work at the White House.

What I can’t understand is why anyone would expect two reality TV personalities to stop acting like reality TV personalities just because their new show broadcasts from a new set at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Is there a serious side at all to these made-for-reality-TV melodramatics? Yes. The Trump campaign organization has invoked the arbitration clause of its nondisclosure agreement versus Omarosa, and rumors (stoked by

Trump, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, and others) imply another NDA specific to her White House employment but generalized beyond the bounds of protecting classified information.

Exposing the likely existence of that second NDA, along with hopefully successfully defying it, makes Omarosa the current frontrunner for the title of “Best, Maybe Even Only, Public Servant Produced by the Trump Administration.”

The sustaining fiction of American government is that citizens and taxpayers are the real employers -the ultimate bosses -- and that even the top-most government employees are answerable to us.

Fictions like that can only be stretched so far. The idea that Donald Trump can legally interpose himself between Omarosa’s desire to dish on White House life and our desire to listen to her do so stretches this particular tale to the breaking point. A shift manager at McDonald’s doesn’t get to swear the cooks and cashiers to silence should the corporation’s CEO happen along with questions for them.

If it was up to me, the Oval Office and the entire West Wing of the White House would be covered 24/7 by publicly accessible live-streaming web cameras. They claim to work for U.S., remember? The employees don’t get to hide from the employers.

What they do on the clock, and how they do it, is our business, not their privileged secret.

Of course, it’s not up to me, and the fiction will likely survive even without turning the White House into an uncut (and probably even more boring) version of “Big Brother” or “Keeping Up With the Kardashians”. But Omarosa’s book and its promotion campaign are turning into a much-needed test case for just how far from transparency the executive branch can go without the public, and possibly the courts, finally putting our feet down.

Thomas L. Knapp

The LEGACY

8 • Aug. 29, 2018

Faith & Religion

‘It’s really hard to be a Catholic’: The pain of reading the sex abuse report

Responding to a grand jury report on sex abuse by clergy in Pennsylvania, the Vatican called for accountability for both abusers and those who permitted abuse to occur.

CAMPBELL ROBERTSON & SHARON OTTERMAN PITTSBURGH — John Cabon stood quietly and crossed himself before a statue of the Virgin Mary outside St. Paul’s, the mother church of the Pittsburgh Diocese.

“I keep the faith” said Cabon, 64, on the way to noon Mass. His sister, he said, had left the faith when explosive revelations of sexual abuse rocked the Roman Catholic Church in 2002. He had refused. “You don’t really believe everything, you know.”

But inside the church, there was no escaping the abuse scandal, which has entered a new chapter after monstrous revelations were released in a grand jury report recently, describing the abuse of more than

1,000 young people at the hands of hundreds of priests in Pennsylvania.

The priest at St Paul’s spoke of “horrendous and evil acts,” “moral failure” by church leaders, and the “grief, sadness, feelings of betrayal, even anger” that followed. One woman wept silently in her pew.

In Pittsburgh — site of some of the most ghastly acts in the report — and in dioceses around the country, Catholics grappled with the report’s findings.

Some had stayed with the church after explosive revelations of priest abuse over a decade ago, which implicated leaders but prompted promises by the church hierarchy of atonement. And now came descriptions of priests engaged in rape and child pornography for

decades, using “whips, violence and sadism,” and in one case joining together in a secret cabal of abusers.

Even more painful, the report contained accounts of bishops who had actively defended the accused priests.

“I think right now it’s really hard to be a Catholic,” said John Gehring, the Catholic program director of Faith in Public Life, a national network of faith leaders.

“Everywhere you look, things seem to be falling apart.”

The fallout is not limited to Pennsylvania.

In Nebraska’s Diocese of Lincoln, the bishop has apologized in recent days for his handling of misconduct allegations against priests, including one he told “not to be alone with females” and another who he said had an “emotionally inappropriate,

non-sexual relationship with a 19-year-old male.”

A Catholic school in Baltimore will no longer be named for William H. Keeler, the cardinal who died last year and was once seen as a champion for sexual abuse victims but who was singled out in the grand jury report for failing to take action on more than one priest accused of abuse.

Recently, Cardinal Seán O’Malley, archbishop of Boston and chairman of the Vatican’s Commission for the Protection of Minors, announced that he will not be attending the World Meeting of Families in Dublin this month, a major event the pope will attend.

In a statement, Cardinal O’Malley

(continued on page 9)

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Aug. 29, 2018 • 9

Pastors asked to ‘Call the Nation to Its Conscience’ Sunday, Sept. 2, has been declared as “Social Justice Sunday” in black churches across the United States.

“Social Justice Sunday” will serve as the kick-off to the “Call to Conscience - Forward to Action” event to be held Sept. 5 and 6 in Washington DC. “Historically the Black Church has been the conscience of the nation,”, said Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, president of the Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. “The Black Church called and challenged the nation to live up to its words and creeds, to be its best self,” said Jackson.

Little for the advancement of blacks in this country was achieved without the leadership and participation of the Black Church. The first protest movement in the United States was led by Richard Allen, a freed slave, who led blacks out of St. Georges Methodist Church in Philadelphia because of discrimination, and founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Since then the Black Church has led efforts to advance the cause of blacks. The leadership of the Abolitionist Movement, birth of the NAACP, Civil Rights Movement and other efforts were led by religious leaders. The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s was led by ministers who were advocates for social justice.

This activism led to the Civil Rights

(from page 8) said that he must remain in Boston to handle issues at St. John’s seminary in Brighton, Mass. Last week, he placed the rector on leave and launched an investigation into the seminary’s culture following allegations of sexual misconduct at the school.

A recent Wednesday was also the day that Catholics celebrated the assumption of Mary into heaven. The dissonance was not lost on people.

“Here we are, on the Feast of the Assumption, and Jesus is looking at his mother and saying, ‘Look what they have done to my church,’” said Jessica Bede, a parishioner of Our Lady of Peace Church in Manhattan, which was shuttered in a round of church closings. “They have chewed it up.”

Along with others interviewed, Bede said she believed the church leadership had not been living up to its people. Several said that if church leaders had trusted in the unshakable faith of the parishioners, they would not have engaged in such extraordinary cover-ups. But the leaders had fallen short, again.

In Boston, Barbara Bowe, a nurse

Bishop Reginald T. Jackson Act, Voting Rights Act, Equal Opportunity Act, and a host of other successes. In fact, the greatest period of growth in the Black Church occurred when the Black Church was more socially active.

“In the current environment, there is an urgent need for the Black Church to again be socially active,

and black preachers to be faithful to their prophetic calling,” said Bishop Frank Madison Reid III, chair of Social Action for the AME Church.

“We are disappointed that there are some of our colleagues who have proven to be ‘professional prophets’ who tell the king what he wants to

who had grown up in Catholic schools, said she had fallen away from the church. And with the latest round of revelations, she seemed unlikely to return anytime soon.

“As far as priests and nuns being believed, that’s gone,” she said. “The authority is gone.”

A few blocks away from the white cross towering above the pastoral center of the Archdiocese of Miami, Mirta Criswell, 77, was loading dollar-store provisions into the back of a sedan. Of the report, she said, “I believe it 100 percent.”

Criswell said the sex abuse scandal that began in Boston in 2002 had been painful enough, but the latest reports had left her ever more exasperated. While the scandals would not erode her commitment to the faith, she believed they showed that some of the church rules needed to be revisited.

“The Catholic Church has to change,” Criswell said. “They have to let their priests marry, to have a family. Humans need sex.”

But others said the report was just more evidence of the frailty of humans, and that it would not shake their faith.

“There’s a lot of bad apples, and they’ve got to be cleaned out,” said Robert Romano, 62, after praying at Holy Innocents Church on West 37th Street in Midtown Manhattan. But, he added, “I’m not coming to church for a priest. I’m coming because in my heart, there’s something else.”

A few Catholics even saw the revelations, as horrific as they were, as cause for hope.

“This is a very good and healthy thing,” said David Williams, leaving noon Mass at St. Paul’s in Pittsburgh. The report was indeed terrible, he said, and he assumed more was to come.

It was painful on a personal level: One of his 15 children is a priest, and one of his grandchildren is in seminary in Rome. But at 88 years old, Williams said he has seen plenty of bad in his time, and he was fully optimistic that the church would be healed. “You can’t atone without facing the fact that you have sinned,” he said.

The pain among Catholics was nationwide, but there was a special anguish in Pittsburgh, where many knew one or more of the 99 priests from the diocese listed in the report.

“To flip through the pages and have

hear, rather than being prophets of God and telling the king what he needs to hear,” Reid said.

Jackson explained that the Bible is filled with scriptures that speak to social justice. “God wants His church to be about social justice, to not only praise Him, but also to serve Him,” said Jackson. “Hear the words of Jesus, ‘Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth, as it is in Heaven.’

In the midst of increased and blatant racism, anti-immigration, need for criminal justice reform, income inequality, voter suppression, and efforts to undermine our democracy, the Black Church must again call the nation to its conscience.”

In addition to the sermon, other components of the worship service will focus on social justice. The music, scriptures and litany will all be related to social justice.

The pastors said they hope that “Social Justice Sunday” will motivate worshippers to be active and involved in their communities, and the work of God’s kingdom on earth. “The church at its best, is not the church gathered, but the church scattered,” Jackson said. “When after hearing God’s Word, you leave the Lord’s House, to go into the Lord’s world, to make a difference in the Lord’s name.

“Let’s gather on ‘Social Justice Sunday’ and then depart to do justice in God’s name.” a name leap out at me like that, you know, my childhood priest,” said Brett Sullivan Santry, 44. He grew up as an altar server, later lapsing in his faith while going through a divorce. More recently, drawn by Pope Francis and inspired by his daughter’s education in Catholic schools, he felt as if he might be turning back to the church. And then, on Tuesday, he read the report.

“Painfully, to realize almost a sense of relief that it hadn’t been an altar server that he’d abused,” he said of his childhood priest, the Rev. George Koychick, who was described in the report as having molested multiple underage girls.

Santry was not sure what this would all mean for his faith, or for his daughter’s. He still identified as Catholic and saw all the genuine good the church had done for them.

“For that I’m thankful,” he said.

“But now someday I’m going to have to explain to her, you know —” he paused to think of the right word — “this. We may have a conversation at some point in the future about this.

What the hell do I say?” © NYT

10 • Aug. 29, 2018

The LEGACY

“Spring on Jupiter,” mural for Tiny Victory, Wing Chow

Fresh Paint: Richmond muralists tell the story of Virginia from prehistory to today SAFFEYA AHMED A handful of Richmond artists will be creating murals inspired by the history of Virginia – and you’ll be able to see the mural-making process live and on-site.

“Fresh Paint: Murals Inspired by the Story of Virginia” intertwines Richmond history with street art, as muralists take inspiration from the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s 9 million item collection.

With artifacts ranging from photographs to World War I uniforms to stills for making alcohol, every piece is inspired by an item of their choice.

“This is an expression of [the] history happening outside of our museum,” said Andrew Talkov, vice president for Exhibitions and Publications. “And so we wanted to bring that into our museum. [These] objects have a deeper, broader story to tell.”

For muralist Amelia Langford, “Fresh Paint” is right up her alley. As an avid storyteller through intricate, black-and-white illustrations, graphic designs, and murals, Langford is ready to infuse her unique artistry with the historical account of her artifact.

“I am a vessel of storytelling.

There’s always a story that drives

my work…every little piece that’s in there, is there for a reason,” Langford said. “And now, [I want to] tell the story of Virginia.”

The 28-year-old Richmond native draws much of her inspiration from ecosystems and 18th and 19thcentury naturalists. Although she isn’t ready to reveal her historical object of inspiration yet, Langford said she is excited to see street art meld deeper with Richmond art history.

“I’ve been painting murals for 15 years,” Langford said. “Street art was, at one point, something that was frowned upon. But in today’s culture, it’s something very accepting and it brightens a community [like] Richmond. We have over 100 murals from artists all over the world and locally [becoming] a part of our community and our modern-day culture.”

“Fresh Paint” will feature 10 artists: Mickael Broth, Nico Cathcart, Wing Chow, Hamilton Glass, Chris Hulburt, Amelia Langford, Austin Miles, Toobz Muir, Noah Scalin, and Ed Trask. With distinct artistic styles, each muralist’s artifact will be displayed next to the finished mural for viewers to see where the inspiration came from. Some of the specific artifacts to be highlighted

include a 1921 photograph of social reformer Janie Porter Barrett, an automobile made early in Virginia, a sword from a Civil War battlefield near Petersburg, and a hat worn at the 2017 Women’s March.

Abstract artist Wing Chow plans to connect her personal style with a historical photograph of the Natural Bridge, a geological formation in Rockbridge County that forms an arch. Chow’s art is characterized by amorphous, flowing forms and a cooler-toned palette – blues, greens, purples – and sometimes, the occasional pop of orange or pink. Talkov said the curators were particularly intrigued to see how her artistic style would marry with that of historical Virginia. “[Chow] doesn’t have a lot of historical pieces in her portfolio,” Talkov said. “But we really thought seeing her art style applied to historical objects and stories would be interesting.”

Wing Chow was drawn to the photo by the scale of the story it tells. She said, “More so than just the history of Virginia, [the photograph] relates to the history of the world as a whole.” She added, “You see these giant, geological formations that took millions of years to form and

there’s this sublime quality about it.

It’s incredible to realize that [these structures were] formed so many years before we could even fathom… and you come to terms with the fact that our lifespans are so short.”

As a firm believer in creating through consciousness and infusing spirituality into her work, Chow plans to symbolically depict the Natural Bridge as a portal into the metaphysical. Or as she puts it, “portals into other ways of thinking.”

Alongside “Fresh Paint,” VMHC will launch the exhibit’s companion publication, called “The Story of Virginia: Highlights from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture,” compiling a survey of Virginia history into photographs.

The collaborative exhibition offers Richmonders the chance to watch these stories of Virginia history come to life as muralists paint their creations. As the artists create, their workspace will be open for people to observe and meet the artists. The featured artists will be working on their pieces between Sept. 10 and Oct. 12.

“Fresh Paint” will officially open on Oct. 27 and will be on display through April 14, 2019. © RVA MAG

www.LEGACYnewspaper.com

Aug. 29, 2018 • 11

Peabo Bryson still ‘Stands for Love’ STACY M. BROWN Peabo Bryson grew up in South Carolina reading black-owned newspapers like the Palmetto Leader and the Lighthouse and Informer.

And, the legendary crooner who’s new album, “Stand for Love,” this month, said he felt comfortable opening up to the Black Press about his award-winning career, latest CD, and his 7-month-old son whom he spent the better part of an hour-long interview cooing over. “[Mainstream] news is hard to trust. I want to be the king of real news, not fake news,” Bryson, 67, said with a hearty laugh.

“Growing up in the black culture meant reading black newspapers and it also meant that you were a cat in a room full of rocking chairs and if you emerged from that room, you really were something,” he said.

Bryson sat on the front porch of his Buckhead, Georgia home, watching a family of deer roam by as the southern sky above turned dark because of an impending storm.

Having recently completed his 21st studio album with the legendary production duo of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, Bryson said he was as excited as ever for his new music and accompanying tour that will have him travel all over the United States and to Japan.

First, however, he wanted to talk about his son.

“I have such a beautiful family and my little man … I can tell you it’s like watching a mini version of myself. Almost every single aspect of him reminds me of me,” the proud father said.

One of the premiere vocalists in music over the past 40 years, Bryson has earned two Grammy Awards and two Academy Awards – he’s also responsible for a memorable 1992 Oscar night performance with Angela Lansbury and Celine Dion as they earned rave reviews for their performance of the title track from the movie, “Beauty and the Best,” which won Best Original Song.

With hits that included duets with Natalie Cole, Roberta Flack and Regina Belle, Bryson has the distinction of being the first artist in music history to have separate records topping four different charts.

He believes his new album, “Stand for Love,” has even more hits, particularly because of the added touch of Jam and Lewis.

“Excited doesn’t begin to describe what it’s like working with them. The first thing you notice is the absence of ego and self-importance,” Bryson

“[Celebrities] become invulnerable and that’s what they think success is but the hardest thing to navigate for a human being is not adversity, it’s success itself. Every single virtue you’ve ever had or everything you’ve ever hoped to achieve. Look, I treat every human being that I come in contact with the way I want to be treated and look, I buy my own toilet paper.”

For Bryson, the new album is just

Ask Alma Peabo Bryson said of the producers who have worked with Prince, Michael Jackson and many others.

Together, Jam and Lewis made Janet Jackson an international icon.

“My challenge to them was, ‘Can you make me current without destroying what has taken me a lifetime to accomplish?’” Bryson said.

“I asked them if they could put me in today’s conversation about music, to make me valid to be in a conversation. I couldn’t think of anyone else.”

Even prior to its release, the new album has caught on.

The lead single, “Love Like Yours and Mine,” has rocketed to No. 3 on Billboard’s Adult R&B list and the second single, “All She Wants to Do is Me,” has already been featured on the Showtime hit series, “The Chi.” Part of Bryson’s success can be credited to his being able to say no in a world where everybody is accustomed to hearing the opposite, he said.

“I was saying no to drugs long ago. Some might have called me a ‘goody-two-shoes’ and a bunch of other things but I tend to look at it as being young and pragmatic as opposed to young and restless,” Bryson said.

The singer, who’s career has yielded such hits as “Feel the Fire,” “Tonight I Celebrate My Love,” and “Can You Stop the Rain,” also has kept the proper perspective on celebrity and real life.

“There are two things you have to understand about celebrity and success,” Bryson said.

“One is, fame is not real. You have to accept that. Fame really for an artist is everybody else’s perception of you, but you. Everybody else’s perception is valid except for yours if you adapt that. In terms of success, everything that you have can be taken a way from you in the next five seconds.

Dear Alma, I work with a woman who came to work and said her sister died. She didn’t have enough time off so I and another woman donated time to her so she could take off for the funeral and still be paid.

To make this long story short, I have a friend of a friend who’s her friend and she said she doesn’t even have a sister. I can’t believe she lied about something like that.

I think she should be fired, because she’s a liar. I’m not sure how to bring it to the attention of her supervisor. I told my co-worker, who also volunteered time and she is mad too, but she doesn’t want to tell on her. She said maybe she’s having some problems.

I think we all have problems but we shouldn’t make up lies about the death of loved ones. I cannot stand to work with her or see her face, because she can’t be trusted.

What do you think I should do?

Should I contact human resources or tell her boss directly?

Signed: No Good Deed

one more thing he’s grateful for.

“At this stage of my life, I appreciate things more completely and it’s not just regular gratitude,” he said.

“I’m starting to appreciate the concept of second-hand grace and I’m not sitting around waiting for that big grace. To have this kind of success and a 7-month-old to carry my name and to marry my best friend … yes, I’m grateful,” he said.

Dear No Good Deed, Ah what, excuse me? How about the first person that has never told a lie at work take two steps forward! Um, that’s alright, you don’t need to make room. Don’t get me wrong, lying about your sister’s death is jack-shickity. But what does that have to do with you? Should you contact HR or tell her boss? Tell her boss what?

I truly understand this to be a grown-up matter, so why don't you take a grown-up approach. Ask her, straight up, did your sister pass away? If she says, “yes,” offer your condolences and go back to your desk.

Maybe in her mind, her sister did die, a sorority sister, step-sister, sister in Christ. She may have a cousin she loves like a sister. We don’t know her circumstances or what was in her heart. Ok, yeah, I’m stretching it and, it appears, she did, too. But right here is where I’ll cut her some slack and us a slice of patience and understanding.

This is serious business that ain’t really none of your business. I’m clear on you’re A and B options, so let’s consider my C option: Spend time doing the best job you were hired to do at your own desk. With whatever few extra minutes you have, kick it up a notch, and go the extra mile.

If you focus on the work on your desk and the responsibilities in your own office, you won’t have time to walk down the hall carrying “buckets of you being upset” to the boss’ office. You feel me? What has happened with this woman is between her, her boss and human resources. Stay out of it! I know you’re mad about your time and you feel like she has used and abused you, but, you know what – what goes around comes around.

You were trying to be a blessing and you’ll be blessed for it.

Don’t look for her to repay you.

Your good works will come back to you, in good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over.

12 • Aug. 29, 2018

The LEGACY

New study: Landlord discrimination is making the affordable housing crunch worse ANDREA RIQUIER Landlords frequently discriminate against would-be tenants who use the vouchers distributed by the government to help low-income Americans get better access to rental homes, according to a new study.

Housing choice vouchers are meant to enable low-income families and individuals obtain affordable housing outside of “areas of poverty or minority concentration.” Participants can use the vouchers as payment, or supplemental payment, for a rental unit. In the midst of a housing crunch so severe that some analysts call it a crisis, the study’s findings, that a preferred mechanism of easing that burden isn’t helping, is striking.

The study was sponsored by the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the government agency that administers the Housing Choice Vouchers Program. It was carried out by the Urban Institute’s Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy center.

It found that landlords often reject tenants who intend to use vouchers – if they even bother to turn up for showings. For would-be tenants,

searching for housing with vouchers is “time-consuming and frustrating,” the researchers wrote. On average, across the country, the researchers screened more than 90 rental advertisements to get approved to rent a unit with the use of a voucher.

The researchers read through more than 341,000 rental ads in five metro areas in order to identify units for which they could test landlord behaviors. They did that by sending a pair of “testers” – one using a voucher, one not – to track how landlords behave.

As the researchers wrote, “This pilot study’s findings show that landlords are not passive actors in the HCV program. They have incredible power in deciding if

voucher holders can use housing benefits and, ultimately, where voucher holders can live.”

The denial rates for voucher holders were so high, in fact, that the researchers found they could not accurately assess the role of race or ethnicity in landlord decisionmaking.

There may be some hope, however.

Denial rates in metros like Fort Worth and Los Angeles were many times higher than those in Newark and Washington, D.C., where there are local legal protections against discrimination on the basis of voucher use, suggesting that such laws do have an impact and could be expanded.

It’s important to note that there’s

no national law prohibiting landlords from refusing to rent to tenants with vouchers. Under the Fair Housing Act, landlords can’t turn down a tenant based on race, color, national origin, sex, religion, disability, and family status – but voucher status isn’t among those considerations.

The researchers also suggest that landlord be “encouraged” to participate in the program, and even “recruited” through the use of stronger financial incentives or removal of perceived disincentives.

More to the point, the program’s payment standards could be increased to bring the amount voucher holders can pay more in line with market rents, the researchers said.

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Aug. 29, 2018 • 13

Rep. Clyburn: Democrats that want to win in November must advertise in the Black Press STACY M. BROWN While there’s at least a perceived growing number of Democrats who say they want to replace California Rep. Nancy Pelosi as the Democratic leader in the House of Representatives, South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn has emerged as a favorite among his peers to become the first African American to hold that position.

In an exclusive interview with the NNPA Newswire, the 25-year congressman said that, while he’s ready for the challenge, Democrats currently have much bigger fish to fry.

“The first order of business is to win the [midterm] elections on November 6,” Clyburn said. “That’s what I’ve been concentrating on.”

Clyburn and Congressional Black Caucus Chair Cedric Richmond each told the NNPA Newswire that they’ve identified 37 districts across the country they believe can be won

by Democrats this year, which would wrest control of the House from Republicans.

“We feel, with the right kind of effort, we can win,” Clyburn said.

Clyburn listed three keys to success this November.

The first key, Clyburn said, is to prioritize the black vote; Democrats can’t afford to take the African American vote for granted.

The secondly, the Democrats shouldn’t rely on an anti-President Donald Trump wave to get out the vote. Finally, Clyburn said that candidates must advertise in the Black Press , if they want to win in November.

“We are also talking about districts where Barack Obama won twice and where Hillary Clinton also won, but these voters don’t turn out for the so-called ‘off-year elections,’” Clyburn said. “We can’t let these voters feel like we’re taking them for granted.”

Clyburn, 78, said he was recently taken aback by one candidate, who said that he could win the Black vote by running on an anti-Trump platform.

“Wait one second,” Clyburn said that he told the individual. “We can’t just go around being ‘Republicanlight.’ We have to be out there putting forth an alternative message,

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) for our base, and we have to reach out to black voters and let them know we’re not taking them or any of our base for granted.”

To that end, Clyburn said advertising campaigns must largely include the Black Press.

“It’s very, very important…

Chairman Richmond and I have had candidates in and we’ve been telling them that one of the best ways to demonstrate that you’re not taking the black vote for granted is to advertise in the Black Press,” Clyburn said.

The National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA) is the oldest and largest trade group representing the Black Press, comprised of more than 200 blackowned newspapers operating in the the United States.

“I’ve been in [the Black Press]. My daughter and I ran a newspaper down South, so I know that candidates tend to take Black media for granted,” Clyburn said. “They tend to judge black media the same way they do other media and you just can’t do that, because the business model is totally different.”

Each Sunday after attending Morris Brown A.M.E. Church in Charleston, S.C., Clyburn said he and other churchgoers habitually pick up the local black-owned newspaper.

“People tend to pay attention to

the headlines, the stories and the ads in the Black Press so it’s vitally important that candidates know this,” Clyburn said.

A former history teacher, Clyburn said Trump’s obsession with dismantling Obama’s legacy is reminiscent of tactics employed

by Andrew Johnson to demean his predecessor, Abraham Lincoln.

Johnson, who was impeached by House, had a vision of America as a white man’s government, according to historians.

“If you remember, it’s the same kind of reaction Johnson had to Lincoln and I remember sitting alone once in the Oval Office with Obama and I told him that this would be the kind of reaction he could expect,” Clyburn said. “[Obama] was never going to get the kind of respect for his presidency that was shown to presidents before him,” Clyburn said. “The narrative that exists in this country is that there are certain things that black folks are not supposed to do and one of those things is becoming the president of the United States and [President Trump] and his administration, feel they have to do whatever they can to wipe out any semblance that Barack Obama was ever president of the United States.”

Clyburn continued: “[Trump] has a deep-seated hatred for people of color and it manifests itself every day.”

Though he doesn’t support or agree politically with former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman, Clyburn said he was deeply troubled when Trump referred to her as a “low life” and a “dog.”

“I’m the father of three daughters and I’m deeply insulted by the president of the United States referring to an African American women the way he referred to her,” he said. “Politics aside, I’m insulted that the president of the United States would denigrate the office in this way.”

Clyburn continued: “The president asked an important question when he was running, ‘What do we have to lose?’ Well, we have lost dignity and the respect of the presidency, because of his coarseness in the office. When you lose respect, you’ve lost about everything there is to lose.”

While he still supports Pelosi, Clyburn said that if the Democrats take back the House, he’s up for the job as speaker.

“I have always supported her, but I have always remembered a sermon I heard my father give a number of times,” Clyburn said. “That sermon stayed with me and he said, ‘keep your lamps trimmed and burning to be ready when the bridegroom comes.’

“My point is, I’ve never forgotten that sermon so I keep my lamp burning so I’m ready.”

14 • Aug. 29, 2018

The LEGACY

Va. AG Herring urges Congress to close ‘deadly’ fentanyl loophole

Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring last week joined a bipartisan coalition of 52 state and territory attorneys general to call on Congress to help end the opioid epidemic and close a loophole that allows those who traffic deadly fentanyl to stay a step ahead of law enforcement. Since 2009, Virginia has seen fentanyl overdose deaths increase by 1,337 percent.

“I remain committed to combatting the opioid crisis that is affecting communities across the Commonwealth and the country,” said Herring. “Fentanyl has become the biggest driver of the rise in overdose deaths in Virginia and far too many Virginians are still losing their lives and loved ones to this dangerous drug. Fentanyl can be deadly in microscopic doses, which makes it a threat to law enforcement and first responders who are investigating or trying to treat an overdose. It’s also indistinguishable from heroin and other opioids, meaning that a user can suffer a fatal overdose on any use without even realizing what they are taking.

We need to make it as hard as we can for criminals and drug dealers to get their hands on this deadly drug, which is why I am urging Congress to close this loophole.”

Herring sent a letter to Congress in support of S. 1553 and H.R. 4922, Stopping Overdoses of Fentanyl Analogues (SOFA) Act. Fentanyl is currently a Schedule II controlled substance. However, outside of careful supervision, fentanyl and analogues manufactured illicitly can be lethal.

The SOFA Act, if passed by the U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives, would eliminate the current loophole which keeps the controlled substance scheduling system one step behind those who manufacture fentanyl analogue and then introduce these powders into the opioid supply. The SOFA Act utilizes catch-all language which will allow the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) to proactively schedule all newly-modified fentanyl analogues.

Fentanyl is a particularly dangerous drug because even the smallest of doses can be fatal and, in many cases, it is indistinguishable from heroin. It can be hundreds of times more powerful than morphine and much more powerful than heroin. In Virginia alone, 2,182 people have died from a fentanyl overdoes since 2007. Additionally, cartels have begun to import chemicals from China to create their own homemade batches of

fentanyl that they then sell on the streets. Importing these chemicals from China has made it even more difficult for law enforcement officials to crack down on the drugs because of complicating factors like Chinese chemical control laws, import laws, and the dark web where people can easily buy and sell the ingredients needed to make these drugs.

The heroin and prescription opioid epidemic has been a top priority for Herring, noted his office. He and his team continue to attack the problem with a multifaceted approach that includes enforcement, education, prevention, and legislation to encourage reporting of overdoses in progress, expand the availability of naloxone, and expand access to the Prescription Monitoring Program.

He has supported federal efforts to improve the availability of treatment and recovery resources and made prescription drug disposal kits available across the Commonwealth.

Attorney General Herring recently outlined his recommended next steps for combating the crisis, focusing on law enforcement initiatives, support from the medical community, and recovery, treatment, prevention and education. He and his team also continue to participate in a multistate investigation into

the practices of additional drug manufacturers and distributors to determine what role they may have played in creating or prolonging the crisis and what accountability they should face.

Herring and his team have handled 117 cases against heroin and fentanyl dealers and traffickers involving more than 667 pounds of heroin (302 kilograms) worth more than $37 million on the street. These cases against dealers and traffickers have involved 39 overdose victim fatalities as well as 47 overdose victims who survived.

The attorneys general who signed this letter include Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Aug. 29, 2018 • 15

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More U.S. adolescents up to date on HPV vaccination CDC reports show “encouraging” signs for preventing future cancers The number of adolescents who are up to date on HPV vaccination – meaning they started and completed the HPV vaccine series – increased five percentage points from 2016 to 2017, according to results from a national survey published in a recent releaser of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR).

In 2017, nearly 66 percent of adolescents aged 13-17 years received the first dose to start the vaccine series, and nearly 49 percent of adolescents received all the recommended doses to complete the series.

“This vaccine is the best way to protect our youth from developing cancers caused by HPV infection,” said CDC Director Robert R. Redfield, M.D. “Vaccination is the key to cervical cancer elimination.

I’m pleased to see parents are taking advantage of this crucial public health tool and thank the clinicians who are working to ensure all children are protected from these cancers in the future.”

While HPV vaccination rates are increasing, there is room for improvement as many adolescents have not received all the recommended doses of the HPV and meningococcal conjugate vaccines.

One of the new reports show that 51 percent of adolescents have not completed the HPV vaccine series, and 56 percent of adolescents have not received both doses of meningococcal conjugate vaccine.

Also, fewer adolescents in rural areas, compared with youth in urban areas, are getting the HPV and meningococcal conjugate vaccines.

The number of adolescents who received the first dose of the HPV vaccine was 11 percentage points lower in rural areas compared to urban areas. The number of adolescents receiving the first dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine was 7 percentage points lower in rural areas compared to urban areas.

“While we understand it can be a challenge for some clinicians in rural areas to stock all recommended vaccines, these clinicians can still play a critical role in their patients’ health and protect them from serious diseases by referring them to other vaccine providers,” said Nancy Messonnier, M.D., director of CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases.

In addition to a yearly flu vaccine, CDC recommends three vaccines for all preteen boys and girls: meningococcal conjugate vaccine to

protect against meningitis; HPV vaccine to protect against HPV cancers; and Tdap booster to protect against whooping cough.

Another report in MMWR found that oropharyngeal cancer (cancer of the back of the throat) is the most common HPV-associated cancer in the United States. Between 1999 and 2015, rates of oropharyngeal cancer increased in both men and women, but more in men. The report also found that in 2015, roughly 43,000 men and women developed an HPV-

associated cancer (cancer in the part of the body where HPV is often found). Additional analyses estimate that HPV causes 79 percent, or about 33,700 cases, of these cancers every year.

Fortunately, HPV vaccination could prevent 90 percent or 31,200 cases of cancers caused by HPV from developing in the United States each year. Since the HPV vaccine was introduced more than 10 years ago, HPV infections and cervical precancers (abnormal cells on the cervix that can lead to cancer) have

decreased significantly. Because of the long interval between HPV infection and the development of cancer, it will likely take decades to assess the impact of vaccination on HPV-associated cancers.

The two reports help remind parents and clinicians to ensure preteens are protected against cancers caused by HPV, whooping cough and meningitis. Clinicians and parents should also ensure teens get a booster dose of the meningococcal conjugate vaccine at age 16.

16 • Aug. 29, 2018

Calendar Aug. 31, 10 a.m.

September is National Suicide Awareness Month and the Newport News Department of Human Services, Youth Services division, is sponsoring a suicide prevention training geared towards teens, parents/guardians, and professionals working with youth.

Visit South Morrison Family Education Center, 746 Adams Dr., to learn how to better recognize the warning signs of suicide and how to get help for family or friends dealing with suicidal thoughts.

A licensed counselor is facilitating the workshop and a few guests will share their personal stories of how they have been affected by suicide.

The workshop is free to attend and registration is available online at https://bit.ly/2MN7GTA .

8.31, 2 p.m.

The Newport News Division of Emergency Management is now accepting applications for the upcoming Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) course.

This class provides training that allows you to help yourselves, your family, neighbors, and colleagues during a disaster or emergency when professional first responders are either overwhelmed or cannot reach you immediately.

The training is free to citizens and the deadline to enroll is Aug. 31. The first 25 applications will be accepted on a first come, first served basis.

To read more about the class or to download an application, visit the CERT website. Applicants must fill out the application electronically and email it to dperry@nnva.gov.

Applications completed by hand will not be accepted.

CERTs are not intended to replace professional first responders, however, when seconds and minutes count the informed decisions and skilled actions taken by everyday citizens can reduce suffering and save lives.

Orientation for the class is on Sept. 11 at 6 p.m. at South Morrison Family Education Center, 746 Adams Drive. Online Prerequisite Training begins upon the receipt of an application and must be completed no later than Sept. 11.

The LEGACY

COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

NAMI education program The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Central Virginia will sponsor a Free Family-to-Family Education Program specifically for families of persons diagnosed with serious mental illness. The 6-week series of classes take place on Wednesday and Thursday of each week starting on Aug. 29 from 5:30 - 8 p.m., at Poplar Springs Hospital, 350 Poplar Dr, Petersburg.

The course will cover information about schizophrenia, the mood disorders (bipolar disorder and major depression), panic disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder; coping skills such as handling crisis and relapse; basic information about medications; listening and communication techniques; problem-solving skills; recovery and rehabilitation; and self-care around worry and stress. The curriculum has been written by an experienced family member mental health professional and the course will be taught by NAMI family member volunteers who have taken intensive training as course instructors. The co-teachers will be Sarah Smoot and Jennifer Giles.

“This course is a wonderful experience!” says program director Kathy Harkey, “It balances basic psycho-education and skill-training with emotional support, self-care and empowerment. We hope families with relatives who have a serious mental illness will take advantage of this unique opportunity.”

The course is designed specifically for parents, siblings, spouses, teenage and adult children, and significant others of persons with severe and persistent mental illness. The course is not appropriate for individuals who themselves live with one of the major mental illnesses. NAMI-CVA offers a separate course, Peer-to-Peer education, for individuals who live with one of the major mental illnesses.

The NAMI Family-to-Family Education Course is free. For more information or to register, call the NAMI Family-to-Family Education Program Coordinator, Jeff Conley at 804-285-1749 or email jeff.conley@ namicentralvirginia.org.

Sex Offender Helpline The helpline provides support to communities on issues related to accessing sex offender registration information; responsible use of information; sexual abuse prevention resources; and accessing crime victim support services.

The tips program provides the public an opportunity to report registrants who are failing to comply with registration requirements.

Tips can also be provided at www.parentsformeganslaw.org.

This program is not intended to be used to report police emergencies.

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

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

9. 19, 5 p.m.

A visual feast for the eyes, this is not your grandma’s church-basement craft show! Gallery at First UU, the 53rd annual Fine Arts and Crafts show and sale opens Wednesday, Sept. 19 and runs through Sunday, Sept. 23.

Sponsored by the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond, at 1000 Blanton Ave., Richmond, Gallery at First UU is one of Richmond’s longest running juried fine arts and crafts exhibition and sale. The show features an eclectic mix of oil paintings, watercolors, lithographs, fiber art, lamps, photographs, prints, pottery, sculpture, furniture, jewelry, stained glass, paper, wood, wearable art, weaving from 175 local and regional artists.

All aspects of the show are run by volunteers, from the jurors, to the administrators, to the designers, to the “muscles,” to the publicity.

Our congregants transform from ordinary daytime professionals such as actuaries and lawyers, teachers and IT geeks, to denizens of the arts, turning the award-winning openspace floor plan of First UU into a first-rate art gallery and exhibition space.

LowCo food truck will be at the show Friday at 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday at 12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

Gallery at First UU Arts and Crafts Show and Sale is housed in the award-winning, contemporary building of the First Unitarian Universalist Church of Richmond.

Prices range from ten dollars to several thousand dollars. There is no admission charge to the show.

For more information, call 804-3550777 or email gallery@richmonduu. org or find the on Facebook at GalleryAtFirstUU.

Aug. 29, 2018 • 17

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(from page 1) the call for the strike is impossible to say. But on Aug. 21, the anniversary of the killing of political activist George Jackson in a California prison in 1971, the idea of a large scale prison strike had already made its way from prison periodicals and leftist blogs into the mainstream media.

What has the media coverage focused on?

On the first day of the strike, Sawari appeared on Democracy Now alongside an IWOC representative to discuss the strike’s goals with Amy Goodman. NPR and its affiliates reported the strike on several of their news programs.

The Washington Post wrote about the strike and published a companion opinion piece by criminal justice columnist Radley Balko.

The Guardian, New York Magazine, Vox.com, Al Jazeera, BBC World News, Mother Jones, and many other outlets have all covered the strike and its goals. Most have focused on demands for prisons to eliminate what the organizers call “modern day slavery,” in which inmates perform labor for little or no pay.

Nick Tabor at New York Magazine declared that the strike “will likely turn out to be the largest and most ambitious prison strike in U.S. history, eclipsing even the 2016 protest in which 24,000 prisoners participated.”

The number of prisoners who struck in 2016 is unconfirmed. And the 2018 numbers so far do not suggest the strike will be larger and more robust than past efforts. Still, organizers note that the media coverage has

(from page 5) person who is registered and qualified to vote in the coming election. Piper said he could not comment on specifics about the Brown case because of the pending investigation.

WHRO public radio first broke the news of the alleged forgery, saying it had found five fraudulent signatures, including one from a man who died two months before he supposedly signed the document.

The next day, a special prosecutor was appointed to oversee an investigation into the claims. A week after that, the state Democratic Party filed their lawsuit, and included 35 affidavits from people who said they never signed the petitions. A hearing on the case is scheduled Sept. 5 in Richmond Circuit Court, during which the Democrats will ask a judge to block the printing of the ballots until their claim is resolved.

The investigation found five people associated with Taylor’s campaign listed as being among the circulators of the petitions: Heather

been dramatically different this year.

“We were not expecting this,” said Krystal Rountree, a spokesperson for JLS. “We have had so much media that we can not handle all the requests. In 2016 it was way different. I was on Al Jazeera two days ago talking about the strike and the reporter asked me if the strike was a success. I said ‘are you kidding me, I am on Al Jazeera talking about something the prisoners have brought out.’ ” Some outlets simply reposted unchecked information put out by the outside strike organizers, including details about how many prisons are participating. Others balanced the organizers’ accounts of the strike with official statements by state corrections departments.

The Marshall Project reached out to several corrections departments as well as the Federal Bureau of Prisons. So far, officials in South Carolina and Florida, as well as the BOP, say they have no confirmed work-stoppages, contradicting the organizers’ claims. Officials in Washington, Ohio, California, and North Carolina have yet to respond to requests for comment.

When questioned about the opposing narratives, Sawari responded, “many inmates are taking part in ways that might be less visible, such as refusing to spend money in the prison commissary.”

So was the strike simply a PR stunt?

No, organizers say, but generating media attention was a main goal.

“The long term goal is really about bringing awareness to the issues,” said Rountree. “No one is deluded and

thinks that after Sept. 9 we are going to have all these changes to the system.”

Criminal justice reform advocates point out that inmates can’t freely choose how to spend their time, and that the fear of retribution by prison officials undermines any attempt at mass demonstration. "What is far more significant, is that thanks to cell phones and prison newspapers like the Bayview and Prison Legal News, people responded with a coordinated articulation of what the problem is and what the demands are,” said Heather Ann Thompson, author of the Pulitzer Prize winningbook about the Attica uprising, “Blood in the Water.”

“Whether or not they are able to stage a walkout because of fear of reprisals doesn’t matter as much as the public recognition of how bad the nation’s prisons really are,” she said.

So what are the takeaways?

First and foremost, the call for a strike and the subsequent media attention underscores how difficult it is to learn or understand what is happening in prisons across the country.

“Prisons are black boxes,” said David Fathi, who serves at the director of the ACLU prison project. “There is very little information available about what happens in prisons.”

The United States does not have a regulatory body like the ones in Canada or France that are tasked with monitoring prison conditions and reporting information to the public. Without the oversight, lawsuits filed by inmates are one of the main ways details about prison conditions become public knowledge.

Second, many of the organizers of the strike say that they are just getting started, and that incarcerated people should lead in the movement for criminal justice reform. Organizers noted plans for upcoming campaigns to restore voting rights to incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people and are continuing to write, tweet, and build coalitions both inside and outside of prisons. They are encouraged by the support they have received from organizations like the ACLU and Vera Institute for Justice.

And finally, some advocates say the proposed strike and the resulting media coverage could mark a crucial turning point in criminal justice reform efforts. Nick Turner, president of Vera, likened the strike and the media attention to the Black Lives Matter movement. Though police shootings were nothing new, he said, it was video footage of police killing unarmed black men and women that ignited public outrage.

In turn, the public outrage put pressure on public officials which ultimately led to the White House commissioning a Task Force on 21st Century Policing.”

But no one could possibly point out an analogy within the prison system that would allow the same thing to happen,” he said. “The media calling attention to the strike, making sure the story is being told about what it is like to live in a prison and see the dehumanization, actually allows people to come to a conclusion about whether their own assumptions about prisoners are right or wrong.”

Guillot, Lauren Creekmore, Roberta Marciano, Daniel Bohner and Nicholas Hornung.

Federal Election Commission records show that Creekmore, Marciano and Hornung each received payments from Taylor's campaign this year that were listed as payroll disbursements.

Creekmore received five payments totaling $6,036; Marciano got three for $3,097; and Hornung got two for a total of $2,041, the records show.

Guillot was paid for campaign consulting, getting a one-time payment of $1,215. A person named Orville D. Bohner, who has the same address that Daniel Bohner listed on his affidavits, got $600 over three installments, the records showed.

None of the signatures associated with Hornung were reported to be fraudulent by the people contacted, and only one submitted by Bohner was questioned.

Guillot, who served as chief of staff and campaign manager for former Republican state Del. Rocky Holcomb, had the most that were

questioned, with 29 being reported as fraudulent. She also was the only one who had the names of dead people listed on her submitted petitions.

Thirteen people claimed that signatures submitted by Marciano were forged, and 12 said the same about signatures handed in by Creekmore.

Reporters sought comment from each of the staffers, but was unable to reach them.

Taylor spokesman Scott Weldon refused to say whether any of them were still associated with the campaign.

“With respect to the efforts by some in our campaign to assist Ms. Brown in getting on the ballot, there is an investigation that is ongoing, and it obviously would not be appropriate to comment at this time,” Weldon wrote in an emailed response.

Roanoke Commonwealth’s Attorney Don Caldwell, the special prosecutor chosen to oversee the investigation, declined to discuss details while the case is pending. He did say that the inquiry is already under way

and that he doesn’t expect it to be completed until after the election.

If the prosecutor determines there’s enough evidence to support charges in the case, they likely would include felonies such as filing false statements or perjury, said Matthew Shapanka, an attorney in Washington, D.C. who specializes in political law.

“It really depends on the facts and what they find,” Shapanka said. “If they find blatant fraud, they may refer it.”

A similar case was prosecuted in Virginia in 2013 against two people who submitted thousands of fraudulent signatures in an effort to get former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich on the 2012 presidential ballot.

Adam Dustin Ward of Martinsville pleaded guilty to 36 counts of filing false statements and perjury, and Jennifer Derreberry of Bassett pleaded guilty to one count each.

Both received suspended prison sentences and were placed on five years probation.

18 • Aug. 29, 2018

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2006 HONDA CRF100F JH2HE03096K507399 Phone: (804) 240-2124 REMINDER: Deadline is Fridays @ 5 p.m.

2006 KIA SEDONA KNDMB233666051991 Whether it’s Fax: (804) 646-5789 2007 CHEVROLET COBALT 1G1AK55F177108484 2002 MERCEDES-BENZ S430 WDBNG70J72A291661 E-mail: Roy.Benbow@richmondgov.com zoning inserts 2007 BUICK RENDEZVOUS 3G5DA03L47S583090 2000 DODGE DAKOTA 1B7GG22X6YS537990 by zip code or 2003 YAMAHA YZFR1 JYARN10E93A009896 2005 CHEVROLET COBALT 1G1AK52F957591532 using a niche 2002 CHEVROLET MALIBU 1G1ND52J72M682747 1994 BUICK LESABRE 1G4HP52L5RH554891 publication to 2002 NISSAN MAXIMA JN1DA31A12T301579 1985 FORD E150 1FTEE14H3FHB90710 1972 MERCEDES-BENZ 450SL 10704412004447 target a certain Resource Information Help 1994 HONDA ACCORD JHMCD5647RC044130 2004 VOLKSWAGEN JETTA 3VWSK69M64M079377 ethnic group 1988 LOAD RITE BOAT TRAILER 1PHALEP18J1001099 for the Disadvantaged and 2002 ISUZU TROOPER JACDS58X027J03292 or behaviorally 2005 CHEVROLET MALIBU 1G1ZS52F65F104425 Disenfranchised (RIHD) 2007 VOLKSWAGEN PASSAT WVWTK93C47E051693 targeting a 2005 TOYOTA COROLLA 2T1BR32E75C485842 1992 GEO PRIZM 1Y1SK5460NZ056176 certain group 2001 CHEVROLET MALIBU 1G1ND52J016171786 P.O. Box 55 2000 FORD CONTOUR 3FAFP6638YM114160 on a newspaper 1998 VOLVO S70 YV1LS5678W1540203 Highland Springs, Virginia 23075 2002 FORD FOCUS 1FAFP34322W203330 website, (804) 426-4426 SEIBERT’S is now accepting newspaper vehicles on consignment!

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AUCTIONS Estate Auction: 540+/- acre farm offered in 10 tracts. 2 Tracts Sell Absolute. Located in the Maywood section of the Sinking Creek Valley in Craig County, Virginia. Long frontage on Sinking Creek. Ideal for farming, building sites, recreational/hunting, horses or a weekend retreat. Partially restored large log home. Auction held September 25, 4 PM at the Simmonsville Volunteer Fire Department - 5783 Cumberland Gap Road, Newport, VA 24128. For more information go to woltz.com or call 800-551-3588. Woltz & Associates, Inc. (VA #321) Real Estate Brokers & Auctioneers EDUCATION/CAREER TRAINING AIRLINES ARE HIRING – Get FAA approved hands on Aviation training.

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156- Procurement 0824 HAMPTON SOLICITATION CITY OF HAMPTON Thursday, September 27, 2018 Remote Generator Monitoring 2:00 p.m. ET – ITB 19-20/TM System. Mandatory Pre-bid Meeting September 6, 2018, 10:30am at Facilities Maintenance 231 Springfield Ave. Hampton VA 23669

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For additional information, see our web page at http://www.hampton.gov/bids-contracts A withdrawal of bid due to error shall be in accordance with Section 2.2-4330 of the Code of Virginia. All forms relating to these solicitations may be obtained from the above listed address or for further information call; (757) 727-2200. The right is reserved to reject any and all responses, to make awards in whole or in part, and to waive any informality in submittals.

Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned and Veteran Businesses are encouraged to participate.

Karl Daughtrey, Director of Finance

EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY NOTICE We are pledged to the letter and spirit of Virginia's policy for achieving equal housing opportunity throughout the commonwealth.

We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap.

For more information or to file a housing complaint, call the Virginia Housing Office (804) 367-8530 or (888) 551-3247.

For the hearing-impaired, call (804) 367-9753 or e-mail fairhousing@ dpor.virginia.gov.

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