Free press feb 22 24, 2018 issue

‘Black Panther’ pounces box office B2

Bubba Wallace takes 2nd place at Daytona A10

Richmond Free Press © 2018 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 27 NO. 8

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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c e l e b rat ing o u r 2 6 t h A nniv e r s ar y

February 22-24, 2018

Divine sounds

Foote family celebrates gospel radio station’s first anniversary

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Jeremy Lazarus/Richmond Free Press

Altony “Tiger” Foote Jr., left, and his father, the Rev. Altony Foote Sr., pose in the WQCN radio studio inside Faith & Love Fellowship Church in South Side. The gospel station reaches listeners over 105.3 FM and streaming on the internet.

Richmond radio station WQCN is marking its first anniversary of delivering gospel to fans in the area on 105.3 FM. Better known as “The Choice,” the station is the growing broadcast arm of the 150-member Faith & Love Fellowship Church based on South Side.

The studio and equipment are housed in a portion of the decade-old non-denominational church at 141 E. Belt Blvd., just a few blocks from Southside Plaza. The station’s broadcast tower sits on the property.

While Richmond has several other gospel stations, such as Praise 104.7 and Rejoice 990 AM and 101.3 FM, WQCN believes it’s a bit different because of its church tie.

“Commercial stations have to put money first to stay on the air,” said Minister Altony “Tiger” Foote Jr., 46, the station’s chief operating officer. “We don’t. We put ministry first.

We want to usher you in like a church, not be a gatekeeper that examines your production over your passion.”

It’s also a rare independent station in Richmond

with all African-American management.

Along with music, the 100-watt station broadcasts 26 different shows each week, most locally produced.

WQCN just added celebrity comedian Sheryl Underwood’s new show, “Spiritual Nourishment,” to its lineup, Mr. Foote said. He noted that the Gospel Music Workshop of America’s RVA Alliance of Gospel Music Professionals is making the station its official home, evidence the station is winning recognition for its community role.

The regular shows and the gospel focus has sparked audience growth since the station’s fledgling start on Feb. 12, 2017, when its only broadcast was a repeating one-hour compilation of music and the announcement of its call sign.

Mr. Foote estimates that at least 10,000 area residents tune in each week, along with thousands more listening over the internet. The station can be heard clearly in a 25-mile radius around the city, Mr. Foote said, or about the distance from Richmond to Ashland to the north and from Please turn to A4

Taxpayers on hook for $11.25M for NFL training camp

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Washington pro team quarterback Kurt Cousins, left, and linebacker Trent Murphy head toward the fans after an August 2017 session at the NFL team’s Richmond training camp on Leigh Street.

Richmond taxpayers are being handed an $11.25 million bill for the Washington pro football team’s summer training camp on Leigh Street.

That’s what it will cost to pay off the remaining $8.5 million debt on the 6-yearold building over 15 years, according to Selena Cuffee-Glenn, the city’s chief administrative officer.

The problem: The training camp, including the building that is partially occupied by Bon Secours medical offices, is failing to generate enough revenue to pay for operations and to pay off the $8.85 million the city advanced in 2012 to develop it.

The city borrowed the money on a fiveyear loan and now needs to refinance that Please turn to A4

School Board approves $303.3M budget plan

By Ronald E. Carrington

Richmond schools Superintendent Jason Kamras and the Richmond School Board are seeking $11 million more from the city to operate schools in the next budget year that will

begin July 1.

The proposal approved Tuesday night would provide a 2 percent salary increase for teachers and staff; add 17 teachers and counselors to provide better service to Latino students and others for whom English

Ora Lomax matched with new dialysis center

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The saga of Ora Lomax and her search for a new dialysis center has a happy ending after weeks of drama.

The 86-year-old NAACP activist has been reassigned to a new center after being booted from the West End Dialysis Center after 12 years.

Fresenius Kidney Care, the nation’s largest provider of the life-saving treatment and owner of the West End Center, moved her to another of its centers at 2521 Mechanicsville Turnpike in the Glenfield Business Center in Henrico County.

While still smarting about her involuntary discharge from the West End Center, Mrs. Lomax went to the new center for the Please turn to A4

is a second language; He said the plan fails and allow the hirto take into account ing of five parents city administration to link schools and warnings that extra parents. money would be in In addition, the short supply. Howproposal would elimever, his proposed inate 20 non-instrucamendments to retional positions and duce spending in a Mr. Kamras fund extra buses to few areas so dollars allow the school system to end could be shifted to other needs its hub system requiring high were ignored. school students to gather for bus The School Board’s spendpickup at elementary schools ing plan, if approved, would and restore pickup service at provide $303.3 million in traditional bus stops. school operating funds, or about The board voted 8-1 to send $12,635 for each of the school the budget plan to Mayor Levar system’s 24,000 students. This M. Stoney and the Richmond year’s operating budget proCity Council for approval, al- vides $292.2 million, or about though there appears to be little $12,175 per student. prospect, based on city budget The city is contributing $159 projections, that the increase million this year from its general will be approved. fund to the total and that would School Board member Jona- grow to $170 million if the than Young, 4th District, cast the School Board has its way. lone protest vote against a budPlease turn to A4 get he regards as irresponsible.

Gerald Herbert/Associated Press

Marla Eveillard, 14, weeps as she hugs friends before the start of a vigil at Parkland Baptist Church in Florida on Feb. 15, the day after the Douglas High School massacre in which 17 people were killed and many others were wounded.

Fla. school shooting survivors hoping to be catalyst for tougher gun laws Free Press wire reports

PARKLAND, Fla. Bodies of the dead were still inside Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., when the teenage survivors of the Valentine’s Day massacre began speaking out about gun violence.

The shell-shocked mostly white suburban teens stepped straight from the bullet-scarred school into the nation’s gun debate.

Rather than retreating into their private lives, the young people who saw classmates slain quickly became advocates for stronger weapons laws — drawing verbal fire from conservatives pushing to end restrictions on carrying concealed weapons.

Joined by young people in other cities, such as Washington, D.C., where supporters staged a lie-in in front of the White House, the Parkland survivors are planning marches and more demonstrations in Florida and elsewhere to highlight the need for greater gun control.

David Hogg, a senior and news director at the high school, recorded video of the Feb. 14 killing spree by a former student that left 17 dead and others wounded as he huddled in a room with fellow students.

“Imagine hearing bullets; it’s absolutely awful,” David said. “This is why people need to be politically active.

This needs to be a turning point.”

But will the new teen activism on gun control fade as has happened after previous massacres at Virginia Tech, Sandy Hook and a host of other places, such as the more recent Please turn to A4

Richmond Free Press

A2 February 22-24, 2018

Local News

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Cityscape Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

Lighting adds a ghostly touch to the Virginia War Memorial in this twilight view from 2nd Street near the Lee Bridge. The crane and materials on the hill evidence the $25 million construction project underway to expand the 62-year-old building that now pays tribute to the nearly 12,000 state residents killed in combat in World War II, Korea, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf. The work was initiated last year during the tenure of former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and is designed to add space to honor Virginians

Dance club sold to VCU for $3.5M For years, Nathaniel Dance III battled Virginia Commonwealth University to keep the popular dance club he established at 534 N. Harrison St. The son of state Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance of Petersburg, Mr. Dance repeatedly rebuffed VCU’s offers to purchase the building and then overcame the university’s efforts to get Mansion 534’s liquor license revoked on claims that the club was a nuisance.

After he won his case and remodeled the building in 2011, he and VCU established an uneasy détente.

But after years as a nightclub owner, Mr. Dance finally stopped saying no to VCU’s increasing offers.

Earlier this month, he gave VCU what it wanted — possession of the two-story building near Broad Street — but for a hefty price.

Through his Commonwealth Holdings Group, Mr. Dance sold the building to VCU for $3.5 million, or about four times its current assessed value of $819,000, according to city records. The sale was completed Feb. 8, records show.

The records also show Mr. Dance bought Mr. Dance the building in 2007 for $600,000.

Mr. Dance could not be reached for comment.

For VCU, the purchase corrals the last piece of privately held property on the stretch of Harrison Street.

The building, which features a colorful mural of four people with lasers shooting out of their eyes, is located near the Siegel Center and new VCU residences on Broad Street.

VCU’s acquisition also removes one of the last private clubs on the campus. VCU has spent years buying up and closing the dance clubs that were once a fixture on Grace Street between Laurel and Harrison streets.

VCU has not publicly indicated how it will use the 7,100-squarefoot building. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

Application deadline March 18 for Governor’s Fellows Program

College and graduate students have a little less than a month to apply to the Governor’s Fellows Program, an opportunity to learn firsthand about the workings of Virginia state government.

The program offers graduate students, rising college seniors and graduating college seniors the chance to learn directly under Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s cabinet secretaries and in various agencies throughout the executive branch.

Former Virginia Gov. Chuck Robb created the fellows program in 1982. Previous fellows have included Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney.

The deadline to apply for the program is March 18. The program’s directors will review applications and conduct interviews from March 26 through April 6.

The program runs from June 4 through Aug. 3.

Details and applications are available at http://governor. virginia.gov/fellows/.

Higgins in words, photos Noted photographer Chester Higgins, whose work has appeared in numerous publications including Newsweek, Essence, Life, Fortune and the New York Times, where he was a staff photographer from 1975 until 2014, talks about his life and career during an Artist Talk last Friday at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. Mr. Higgins’ work in the exhibit, “Like a Study in Black History,” is on view at the museum through May 6. As part of the 28th Annual National African-American Read-In, the museum will host several community leaders reading from African and African-American literature related to works in the permanent collection. The free event will be held 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22, at the museum, 200 N. Boulevard. Among the readers will be Mayor Levar M. Stoney, former Obama administration official Melody C. Barnes, Virginia Commonwealth University Assistant Professor Brandi Summers and consultant Dr. Betty Neal Crutcher, wife of University of Richmond President Ronald A. Crutcher.

who have died in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq and in the global war on terrorism. Also planned is an expansion of the education center and installation of 170 spaces of underground parking. The state is contributing $23.75 million, and the war memorial foundation is seeking to raise $1.25 million to provide the balance, according to officials. The new space is expected to open in April 2019. Location: 621 S. Belvidere St. overlooking Downtown and the James River.

City apparently losing money on vehicle registration fees

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Last year, the City of Richmond charged city vehicle owners a $33 annual registration fee for each of their cars, a $38 fee for each pickup or heavy-duty truck and $18 for each motorcycle.

Even though that was a record for the Richmond registration charge, each of those fees appears to have been a discount that saved vehicle owners money, but cost the city’s general fund an estimated $1.17 million.

It is unclear why residents are given a break on the registration fees that is still in place this year, according to city information.

Since May 2016, a city law has required that Richmond’s vehicle registration fee match the annual registration fee that the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles collects for the state.

But that has not happened.

The state registration fee is at least $7.75 higher than the city’s.

Since 2010, the yearly state vehicle registration fee has been $40.75 for cars,

$45.75 for pickups and $51.75 for heavier trucks, according DMV. The state fee to register a motorcycle is $28.75, $10.75 higher than the city’s fee.

Richmond’s vehicle registration fee has been collected by DMV since 2006, when a vehicle owners renew their state registration.

Paul Goldman, leader of the Put Schools First campaign, spotted the discrepancy as he combed through the city budget seeking money that could be earmarked for schools construction.

The Free Press confirmed that the state and city registration fees do not match.

Lenora Reid, the city’s chief financial officer, declined to comment. She referred the Free Press query to City Attorney Allen L. Jackson, who could not be reached for comment.

City officials are aware of the match requirement.

In 2017, city Budget Director Jay Brown advised Richmond City Council that the car registration fee had been raised to $33 to match the state. However, that does not

match the fee the DMV lists online.

For at least 26 years before the 2017 increase, the city fee for vehicle registration had been $23 for cars and $28 for vehicles heavier than 4,000 pounds.

According to DMV, Richmond had 129,796 cars registered as of June 30, 2017. Collecting an extra $7.75 per car to match the state fee would generate a bit more than $1 million.

DMV also reported 17,191 pickup and heavy trucks in the city; a $7.75 increase in their registration would generate an extra $133,230.

If the owners of the 3,508 motorcycles paid a city registration fee at the state rate, the city would gain an extra $37,711.

Collectively, the city would gain $1.17 million in new revenue.

The City Council appears unaware of the discrepancy between the city’s 2016 law and the amount actually charged for vehicle registration. No council member has ever questioned whether the city was meeting the requirement to match state registration charges.

Medicaid expansion moves ahead in House of Delegates

By Alan Suderman Associated Press

The change of heart comes after several new Democratic House lawmakers won election last year on a pro-expansion platform and the House GOP majority went from 66-34 to a Efforts to expand Medicaid to about 300,000 low-income narrow 51-49 lead. adults in Virginia continue to gain momentum, as Republican New Democratic Gov. Ralph S. Northam also has made House leaders on Sunday publicly embraced a form of expansion Medicaid expansion a top priority. that includes work requirements and copays.

“There’s no question that the political dynamics have The House of Delegates’ budget panel included changed,” said House Speaker Kirk Cox, a Republican Medicaid expansion in its roughly $100 billion, twowho represents Colonial Heights. year spending plan, which also includes a 2 percent House Republicans said they are more comfortable raise for state workers and teachers and a $50 million expanding Medicaid because of President Trump’s new cybersecurity training initiative. support for work requirements and because multiple The proposed budget of the Republican-controlled attempts by the GOP-led Congress to repeal President Senate Finance Committee did not expand Medicaid Obama’s health care law last year were unsuccessor tax hospitals to help pay the state’s share of expanful. sion costs like the House version. That left the Senate Delegate Kilgore “It’s here to stay and we felt the timing was right,” with less money to spend in areas like education, and said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Delegate its budget makes pay raises for state workers subject to avail- Chris Jones, a Republican who represents parts of Suffolk and able funding.

Chesapeake.

The support for Medicaid expansion in the House is a draThere have been several signs that the House GOP’s opposition matic departure from past years. Republican House leaders had to Medicaid expansion was softening. Sunday’s budget unveiling steadfastly blocked past Medicaid expansion efforts — a key comes a few days after Republican Delegate Terry Kilgore, a part of former President Obama’s Affordable Care Act — saying powerful Republican lawmaker from the state’s southwest coal its long-term costs were unsustainable. country, publicly voiced support for Medicaid expansion.

Gov. Northam said in a statement that he “respects” House Republicans’ insistence on work requirements and cost-sharing provisions, even if he doesn’t prefer that they be part of any expansion.

“I am encouraged by and supportive of our work together to bring about a new ‘Virginia Way’ on Medicaid,” Gov. Northam said.

Under the Affordable Care Act, states have the option of expanding Medicaid. Thirty-two states expanded Medicaid, while Virginia and 17 others rejected it, forgoing billions in additional federal dollars for hospitals and medical service providers.

But Medicaid expansion in Virginia is still far from a done deal and plenty of Republican lawmakers remain steadfastly opposed. The House and Senate will have to negotiate a compromise budget before the legislative session ends next month.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Tommy Norment of James City County said it’s unwise for Virginia to expand Medicaid given the uncertainty over whether the federal government will continue to pay at least 90 percent of expansion costs.

“There are so many uncertainties about Medicaid and Medicaid expansion right now that a more fiscally constrained approach is to not expand it at this point,” Sen. Norment said.

Republicans hold a slim 21-19 advantage in the Senate.

Republican Sen. Emmett Hanger of Augusta County supports Medicaid expansion; Democratic Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax holds the tiebreaking vote, meaning there’s enough support for Medicaid expansion in the Senate to pass on an up-or-down vote.

Sen. Hanger said he thinks Medicaid expansion will happen this year, but said he’s not willing to hold the budget hostage to make it happen.

Lawmakers could adjourn in March without passing Medicaid expansion but take up the issue in April when they return to Richmond to consider the governor’s amendments and vetoes.

Clement Britt “That might be a better plan,” Sen. Hanger said.

Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018

Nearly 46% of African Americans have some form of cardiovascular disease.

Your chances of contracting cardiovascular disease are almost one in two.

Your chances of dying from it are one in four.

Don’t wait until it’s too late to address your heart health. From consultation to complex cardiac conditions, VCU Health Pauley Heart Center is dedicated to helping you live your best life.

Cardiovascular disease Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of men and women.

On average, someone dies of the disease every 40 seconds.

40 The disease can cause a number of problems, mainly due to plaque buildup in the walls of the arteries.

Cardiovascular disease If left untreated, cardiovascular disease can lead to: • High blood pressure • Cardiac arrest • Congestive heart failure • Arrhythmia • Peripheral artery disease • Stroke

Risk factors The most common conditions that increase the risk of heart disease and stroke are high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity. Poor diet, physical inactivity, and excessive alcohol use can also put people at a higher risk for heart disease.

HEART HEALTH MONTH

Ways to combat cardiovascular disease: • Stop smoking • Adopt healthier eating alternatives • Manage cholesterol and blood pressure levels • Be physically active at least three or four times a week • Manage diabetes • Reduce stress • Limit alcohol intake

Call 800-762-6161 to schedule an appointment today. © 2018 VCU Health. All rights reserved. Sources: American Heart Association; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; United States Census Bureau.

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A4 February 22-24, 2018

Richmond Free Press

News

Foote family celebrates gospel radio station’s first anniversary Continued from A1

Richmond to Petersburg to the south.

But there have been inquiries and interest from as far away as India, said his father, the Rev. Altony Foote Sr., 69, the station’s general manager and pastor of the church he co-founded 10 years ago with his wife, Gloria Foote.

The station’s first birthday is worth celebrating, both said, because of the seven years it took to secure the license from the Federal Communications Commission.

In 2010, the church started the application process and was prepared to compete in the 2013 lottery the FCC held for new low-power stations. The church was one of the lucky winners in 2014, but it took another three years for the station to start broadcasting.

One big problem was finding a location, Mr. Foote said. At the time, the church was located in a rented storefront next door to a credit union. By 2014, the church that started with 12 members had more than 100 attending on Sunday and needed more space, Rev. Foote said.

Space became available in 2015, when the credit union decided to move and sell the building, including the storefront the church was renting. Rev. Foote said he was offered the first chance to buy the property for a discounted $350,000 and jumped at it, even though there was only $2,000 in the church building fund.

When he told the congregation in January that the church needed $100,000 for a down payment on a mortgage, he said he was stunned when members raised $120,000 in a matter of weeks, including $80,000 the first day of fundraising.

By October, the church had secured the 5,000-square-foot building.

The building needed renovation, Rev. Foote said. So he, a veteran heating and cooling mechanic, led family members and other volunteers in tearing out cashier

cages, installing the wiring, plumbing and HVAC systems, installing new sheetrock and fixtures and adding a fresh coat of paint.

“The church never closed,” Rev. Foote said. “People would walk past the work areas to come to services.”

It took nearly a year, and then Mr. Foote and his father hustled to assemble the equipment and get the studio ready before the Feb. 14, 2017, deadline the FCC set for the station to get on the air, Mr. Foote said.

With the 70-foot tower yet to arrive, Mr. Foote said he and his father ran the station’s wire antenna up a 25-foot metal pole, turned on the equipment, stuck in the compilation CD that included the station ID, crossed their fingers and went out to Mr. Foote’s car to turn on the radio to see if they could hear anything on 105.3. To their joy, they did.

“We drove around the parking lot. And then over the next two days, we drove around the city, and we kept getting the signal,” Mr. Foote said. “For us, it was like getting a Christmas present.”

The FCC validated that the station was in operation and, a few weeks later, issued the license.

In many ways, the station, as well as the church, bring together their life experiences.

Rev. Foote was the lead singer and guitarist for the Traveling Stars, a part-time gospel group. Mr. Foote, when he was old enough, played drums for weekend gigs, he said.

The Foote family relocated from New York to Richmond in the late 1980s, as did Rev. Foote’s brother, Bishop Roy L. Foote, pastor of New Direction Evangelistic Church in Chesterfield County.

Rev. Foote and Mr. Foote opened a gospel music outlet called FooteSteps in 2001 in the storefront that would later become the first home of Faith & Love Fellowship Church.

Meanwhile, Mr. Foote, a graduate of

Virginia State University, also earned a certificate in radio engineering and studio techniques from Omega Recording Studios in Rockville, Md. For 15 years until the church needed to renovate the space, he said he recorded and produced hundreds of CDs for musicians and singers of all stripes in a studio he created in part of the storefront.

Mr. Foote also was involved in selling commercial time for several radio companies, including Radio One and Cox Media, getting an inside look at radio operations.

Other members of the Foote family also take part in the station.

Co-pastor Gloria Foote, a certified public accountant, is the station’s and the church’s chief financial officer and keeps track of the money, Rev. Foote said.

Mr. Foote’s wife, Tammie Foote, is the station’s marketing director, and their two sons, Altony III, 13, and Christopher, 8, produce a monthly show, “News Kids Can Use.” Mr. Foote’s sisters, Deshara Renée Lee and Nishone Foote, also do their parts.

Ms. Lee, a music producer, songwriter and gospel recording artist in her own right, is making plans for her own radio program, “In the Mid-Day with Deshara Renée,” while Ms. Foote hosts a regular talk show, “The Christian Coffee Shop.”

An uncle, Deacon John Snow Sr., hosts “The Quartet Hour” program; a niece, Adaija Hargrove, does voiceovers; and a brother-in-law, Jaki Lee, who owns a car detailing operation, conducts promotions for the station.

Most of the shows on the station are independent productions of ministers and others in the Richmond area who have needed a welcoming outlet for their programming.

Rev. Foote and Mr. Foote believe the future is bright for the station.

“The Lord has placed us here for a reason,” Rev. Foote said, “and the sky’s the limit for what we can and will do in the years to come.”

Taxpayers on hook for $11.25M for NFL training camp Continued from A1

debt to avoid default. The plan is to float a 15-year bond that will cost the city $750,000 a year.

City Councilman Parker C. Agelasto, 5th District, is among the many people distressed that taxpayers are being saddled with the debt, which flies in the face of promises made six years ago that the building and training camp would generate enough revenue to cover its expenses.

The land on which the building and training field sit is still owned by the state.

Mr. Agelasto believes there are two reasons the building is a flop for taxpayers.

First, he said the city’s Economic Development Authority, which owns the building, spent $2 million extra, partly to develop a park in an area where trees were removed and partly to finish the building’s second floor that remains largely vacant.

He also points to the agreement that the EDA signed with the team without any consultation with Richmond City Council.

The agreement that then-Mayor Dwight C. Jones helped craft requires the EDA, and the city, to pay the team $500,000 a year in services or cash. The team demanded that support to come to Richmond. The agreement also gives the team veto power over sponsorships and tenants, Mr. Agelasto said.

“This was a bad deal for the city,” he said.

The council is expected to approve the refinancing plan when it comes before the governing body on Monday, Feb. 26.

At the same time, a July 1 deadline is looming for the EDA, the city and the team to write a new agreement if the team continues to maintain its summer training camp in Richmond past 2020.

City Council again will not be consulted, but Mr. Agelasto wants to try to have council exert its influence.

He said he plans to introduce a resolution next Monday calling on Mayor Levar M. Stoney and the EDA to negotiate better terms, including elimination of the annual $500,000 payment and the team’s veto over sponsorships, or let the team walk away after the current agreement expires.

Mayor Stoney also has expressed concern about the previous agreement and promised to renegotiate the terms, although he has offered no specifics.

Mr. Agelasto said he hopes his council colleagues will support the resolution to show the team that Richmond could do without the camp if they are unwilling to provide better terms.

He also is urging the city administration to sell the building and apply the proceeds to pay down the remaining $8.5 million debt.

Florida school shooting survivors hoping to be catalyst for tougher gun laws Continued from A1

Evan Vucci/Associated Press

Student demonstrators stage a lie-in Monday outside the White House in Washington seeking tougher gun control laws.

shootings at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando or at the country music concert in Las Vegas?

The Parkland students say no. They say they want their generation to be the catalyst for change.

So far, the teens have sparred with gun rights activists on social media, given many television interviews and spoken at vigils that doubled as rallies for safer gun laws.

However, the jury is still out on whether this school shooting, or any of the other 17 that have occurred just since Jan. 1, will make a difference to lawmakers and government executives who are beholden to gun rights groups like the National Rifle Association.

President Trump offered condolences, but went to play golf

School Board approves budget plan Continued from A1

Put another way, the city’s contribution would grow from about $6,625 per student to about $7,100 per student.

With help from City Council, City Hall boosted spending on school operations by nearly $8 million in the current budget, one of the biggest increases since the Great Recession in 2008, according to Mayor Stoney.

But that is not expected to be repeated in the city’s 2018-19 budget when the council completes its work.

The council already has passed a resolution stating that its top priority in the new budget for 2018-19 would involve improving salaries for police officers and firefighters at a projected cost of $12 million.

Superintendent Kamras had presented a proposal Monday calling for a $9 million

increase in the city’s contribution, but had no problem with the School Board seeking more “because our kids deserve it.”

He also said that it was traditional for the School Board to seek far more than it would receive.

Separately, the board passed a five-year plan that called for spending more than $300 million in the next five years for new schools construction and renovation.

The vote again was 8-1, with Mr. Young again dissenting. He scolded his colleagues for proposing a plan that seeks to spend double the $150 million the city plans to make available through a 1.5 percent increase in the meals tax that City Council approved last week.

The board refused to modify its plan to limit spending to the projected city total, but instead agreed that the city had to find

more money to ensure that at least five schools would be built — a new George Wythe High, a new Elkhardt-Thompson Middle and three elementary schools, Greene, George Mason and Woodville.

Price tag: $215 million.

The future of the board’s spending plans for operations and facility improvement will be learned on Tuesday, March 6, when Mayor Stoney presents the city’s spending plans.

In other matters focusing on student securing and safety, the board was informed that at least two Richmond schools could not be locked down in the event of an emergency, such as an active shooter.

The board directed the administration to fix the problem in the wake of the Feb. 14 massacre at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Ora Lomax matched with new dialysis center Continued from A1

first time on Monday. She started dialysis there Wednesday.

“Everything seems nice,” she told the Free Press this week. “The people there are friendly. I’m glad I have a place to go to get dialysis.”

She said she also knows the center’s manager, whom she met years ago.

Dialysis is the process that removes waste and excess fluid from the blood of people like Mrs. Lomax whose kidneys have failed and no longer can do the cleaning.

The Free Press has been following Mrs. Lomax’s situation since she received notice Jan. 3 from West End center officials that she was being dropped from treatment because Mrs. Lomax of behavioral issues.

Mrs. Lomax denies that she has created problems requiring her to be moved.

At one point, Mrs. Lomax was told by a Fresenius social worker that no other dialysis center would accept her

and that she would have to go “from emergency room to emergency room” for treatment.

Meanwhile, retired Richmond General District Court Judge Birdie H. Jamison has been involved with Mrs. Lomax in working with Fresenius to find another dialysis center. She was not available for comment Monday on the move.

“The most important thing is to ensure she will have a new location for dialysis,” Judge Jamison said last Friday. She said she plans to monitor the situation to ensure that Mrs. Lomax’s transition to a new center “goes smoothly.”

at his Mar-a-Lago resort over the weekend rather than attend a funeral for one of the dead students. On Wednesday, he met at the White House with several of the Florida students and parents who had lost children.

As their meeting occurred, students participated in protests and walkouts outside the White House and at schools across the country. The outpouring of outrage over the shooting appeared to have forced the president to announce some action.

In the wake of the shooting, President Trump announced Tuesday that he would ask the Justice Department to write regulations banning “bump stocks” that turn a semi-automatic rifle into a fully automatic weapon.

However, the Parkland students remain unimpressed.

For them, such a change would have made no difference. The shooter, former Douglas High student Nikolas Cruz, 19, used a military-style AR-15 rifle that didn’t have a bump stock.

However, one was used by the shooter in the October massacre in Las Vegas.

Doubts also are being raised as to whether the President Trump was actually taking a meaningful step, though tiny.

Legal experts are questioning whether the Justice Department currently has the authority to write such a regulation if Congress does not pass legislation to implement such a ban. Moreover, the regulatory process, including public comment periods, is slow, meaning it could take months, if not years, to put such a regulation on the books.

President Trump also tweeted support for stronger background checks, even though during his first year in office, he weakened the national background check system and recently introduced a budget plan that calls for slashing financial support for that system by 15 percent.

Moreover, he worked with the Republican-dominated Congress just a year ago to eliminate new regulations spearheaded by former President Obama to make it harder for mentally ill people to buy guns.

Meanwhile, bills to strengthen gun control or improve the background check system remain bottled up in congressional committees.

The biggest impact from the shooting could be felt in the Sunshine State, a paradise for gun-rights advocates.

State Sen. Bill Galvano, a Republican and the incoming Florida senate president, said the state Senate was preparing a package that would propose to raise the age to purchase any firearm to 21, create a waiting period for purchasing any type of firearm, ban bump stocks and create gun-violence restraining orders that could prevent people like the Parkland high school shooter from purchasing weapons.

The Florida Senate also is considering giving law enforcement greater power to involuntarily hold someone considered a danger to themselves, Sen. Galvano said, and deputizing a teacher or someone else in schools so they are authorized to have a gun.

“We need to make sure everything is working and to learn from the experience,” said Sen. Galvano after visiting the high school.

But it may be a tough sell. One of Sen. Glavano’s colleagues, Sen. Dennis Baxley, said he’s skeptical about the package.

“Sometimes I wish gun-control advocates were right, that this would fix it, but it won’t. We have a terrible problem with obesity, but we’re not banning forks and spoons.”

Student activists hope they can do what adults have been unable to — pass meaningful legislation.

At a vigil for the victims, a crowd of more than 1,000 people, consisting largely of students, chanted, “No more guns! No more guns!”

An anti-Trump women’s group is urging gun control advocates supporters to stage a 17-minute walkout from schools across the country on Wednesday, March 14, to show solidarity with the Parkland students and “to protest Congress’ inaction to do more than tweet thoughts and prayers in response to the gun violence plaguing our schools and neighborhoods.”

Students from Parkland, meanwhile, are organizing a march on Saturday, March 24, in Washington called the “March for Our Lives” to call for change.

Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018

A5

Local News

Martin Luther King III brings message of hope to VCU

By Leah Hobbs

Be guided by your dreams, not distracted by your fears.

This was the message that Martin Luther King III offered to students, faculty and the community during his talk Sunday evening at Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Young people, you are the hope of the future,” Mr. King said. “Remember, every great leader, including Martin Luther King Jr., was once a young person who had doubts about what he or she could do. But they persevered with courage. Be courageous.”

Mr. King is founder and president of Realizing the Dream Inc., a nonprofit engaged in anti-poverty and global peace initiatives as an expansion of the work of his noted late parents, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King.

His talk at VCU, part of the university’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Celebration Week, was rescheduled from January because of snow.

He commended students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., for taking a stand against gun violence following the Valentine’s Day mass shooting at their school where a former student, armed with an AR-15 military-style rifle, killed 17 people.

“We can say it’s mental illness, but maybe it’s the climate that exists within our nation,” Mr. King said. “We have certainly created and sustained a culture of violence. Until we begin to change the culture, we’re not going to address these issues.”

Mr. King talked about his own experiences with gun violence. His father, Dr. King, was assassinated 50 years ago in Memphis, where he was advocating for striking sanitation workers. Six years after his father’s death, his grandmother, Alberta King, was gunned down in Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta by a man who intended to kill his grandfather.

“It did not deter me or distract me because I had to learn to dislike the evil act, but still love the individual,” he said. “I’m thankful for the spirit of love that teaches you to forgive. We

Ava Reaves

Martin Luther King III commends Florida students for their stand against gun violence and the impact of gun violence on his life during his talk Sunday at Virginia Commonwealth University.

need more of that attitude and behavior in our nation. It doesn’t take but a few good women and men to bring about change.”

He recounted how his mother taught him and his siblings that their father’s dream for America was shared by millions of people in the United States and all over the world.

“While nothing could take away the pain of losing my father at such a young age, there was

some comfort in knowing that he was loved by so many people of all races, religions and nations,” he said.

Even 50 years after his father’s death, people use the King holiday as a day of service to others, he said.

“We celebrated a dream that everyone can share — a dream of Americans of all races, religions, and cultures reaching out to one another

and working together to build new bridges of understanding, goodwill and cooperation,” Mr. King said. “In spite of all the divisions and animosity that plague our society, we still hold out the hope that reconciliation, even brotherhood and sisterhood, are still possible.

“We are called to do something every single day to … fulfill the dream.”

He said the ideals of freedom, justice and nonviolence championed by his father have a special resonance for Virginians in the wake of the bloody protests by white supremacists and neo-Nazis in Charlottesville last August in which 32-year-old Heather Heyer was killed and dozens of others were injured when a Confederate sympathizer drove his car into a crowd of counterprotesters.

“We’re a better society, a better nation, than the behavior that we’re exhibiting right now,” Mr. King said. “We have to find ways to inoculate America’s young people, in particular, to resist the toxic virus of racism, sexism, classism, homophobia, anti-Semitism, xenophobia and all forms of bigotry, which too often thrive where there’s poverty and social neglect.”

He urged the audience to make a firm commitment to nonviolent resistance.

“The haters and exploiters want counterdemonstrators to get suckered into practicing violence so they, too, can be demonized and discredited,” he said. “The moment an individual commits violence, even for a good cause, that person’s credibility is shredded. The quickest way to surrender your personal dignity and credibility is to engage in violence.”

He said despite the Charlottesville tragedy, he was encouraged by the results of November’s elections in Virginia in which voters, he said, rejected fear mongering and immigrant bashing, and upheld the spirit of tolerance, diversity, hope and healing.

“The rhetoric that Mr. Trump espouses is divisive,” he said of the president, “but it also clearly gives people a perception of who he is.

“We need to appeal to his heart,” he said. “If we can change and transform a George Wallace of Alabama, we certainly can work on the heart of President Trump.”

Va. MLK Commission kicks off community meetings March 1 at VUU

By Alexandra Sosik Capital News Service

The state’s Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Commission will observe the 50th anniversary of Dr. King’s assassination through 12 “Community Conversations” beginning in March, each one at a location the Rev. King visited in Virginia.

At these conversations, community leaders, religious leaders, historians, educators and residents will join members of the commission in reviewing Dr. King’s legacy and his time spent in the commonwealth.

According to spokesperson Lilly Jones, the conversations will reflect on Dr. King’s vision of a “beloved community” in each location today and ponder the question he penned in his 1967 book, “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community?”

Virginia Union University will host the first community conversation 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, March 1, at the Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center on the Lombardy Street campus.

Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan, who chairs the commission, will moderate a panel discussion with Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, D-Richmond; Dr. Corey D.B. Walker, dean of VUU’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology; VUU graduate student Jamar Boyd II; the Rev. Jim Somerville of First Baptist Church in Richmond; the Rev. Janie Walker of Richmond Hill; and Benjamin Ragsdale, a Richmond resident who met Dr. King twice while working in the civil rights and anti-war movements.

The roundtable discussions are part of the commission’s larger project, titled “King in Virginia.” In that project, historians, researchers and community members will gather and present information on Dr. King’s many visits to Virginia.

Dr. King, who received the Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent campaign against racism and segregation, spent time in Richmond, often speaking at VUU. In 1960, he led a march on the State Capitol, where he pushed for the reopening of public schools that were closed during Massive Resistance to desegregation that was ordered by the U.S. Supreme Court in the landmark Brown decision

in 1954.

The “King in Virginia” project will create a public online archive bookmarking the activist’s time spent in Virginia.

Other “Community Conversations” will be held: • At the University of Virginia’s Old Cabell Hall on March 13

• At First Baptist Church in Farmville on April 24 • At First Baptist Church, 727 Scotland St., in Williamsburg on June 6

• And on dates to be announced in Danville, Hampton, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg and Suffolk.

All events are free and open to the public.

For details, visit the commission’s website at http://mlkcommission.dls.virginia.gov/.

WHILE HENRY WAS DISCOVERING “THE LITTLE ENGINE THAT COULD”...

Dr. Yeh was discovering how to get his heart back on track.

From the day he was born, Henry slept day and night – far more than other babies. As a toddler, he didn’t walk, talk or play like other kids. He slept. His doctors wanted to ‘wait and see’ about the severity of his condition. But when his family moved to Richmond, Dr. Thomas Yeh and his team at the Children’s Hospital Foundation Heart Center discovered Henry had four serious heart defects that required immediate surgery.

Now, Henry is a thriving 2-year-old who loves playing with trains – because he knows he can, he knows he can. It’s stories like this that inspire our entire team to discover the best heart care for kids.

See Henry’s story at chrichmond.org/henry

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1/25/18 2:05 PM

Richmond Free Press

A6 February 22-24, 2018

News

Federal appeals court rules Trump travel ban unconstitutional Free Press wire report

President Trump’s latest travel ban on travelers from six largely Muslim countries is “unconstitutionally tainted with animus toward Islam,” a federal appeals court ruled last week, delivering another blow to the policy.

In a 9-4 vote, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond said on Feb. 15 that it examined statements made by President Trump and other administration officials, as well as the presidential proclamation imposing the ban, and concluded that it “second-guesses our nations dedication to religious freedom and tolerance.”

The 4th Circuit is the second federal appeals court to rule against the ban. In December, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals based in San Francisco found that President Trump exceeded the scope of his authority with the latest ban.

The 4th Circuit court upheld a ruling by a federal judge in Maryland who issued an injunction barring enforcement of the ban against people from Chad, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Syria and Yemen who have bona fide relationships with people in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court already has agreed to hear the travel ban case in April. In December, the high court said the ban could be fully enforced while appeals made their way through the courts.

In its ruling, the 4th Circuit said the ban has a “much broader deleterious effect” than banning certain foreign nationals. The ban, the court said, “denies the possibility of a complete, intact family to tens of thousands of Americans.”

“On a fundamental level, the Proclamation second-guesses our nation’s dedication to religious freedom and tolerance,” Chief

Judge Roger L. Gregory wrote for the court in the majority opinion.

American Civil Liberties Union Deputy Legal Director Cecillia Wang, who argued the case before the court, said she was not surprised by the ruling.

“The Constitution prohibits government actions hostile to a religion,” Ms. Wang said.

The International Refugee Assistance Judge Gregory Project, one of the groups challenging the ban, said the policy has had a “devastating impact” on U.S. families waiting to reunite with their family members and foreign students seeking educational opportunities in the United States.

“Today’s ruling affirms that they are being unjustly targeted by this ban,’” said Mariko Hirose, the group’s litigation director.

The administration has said the ban is President Trump a legitimate measure to protect national security.

During a hearing before the 4th Circuit in December, Deputy U.S. Assistant Attorney General Hashim Mooppan told the judges that the president has broad authority to bar foreign nationals he believes would be detrimental to the interests of the United States. He said the latest restrictions were the product of a global, multiagency review that found the specified countries do not share enough security-related information with the United States. He said the ban is designed to protect the nation from

terrorism and other threats.

In a dissenting opinion, Judge Paul Niemeyer said the 4th Circuit’s ruling was an attempt to “second-guess U.S. foreign policy, in particular, the president’s discretionary decisions on immigration, implicating matters of national security.”

Judge Niemeyer said the majority should have based its decision on the text of the presidential proclamation alone and not statements President Trump made on the campaign trial and after he became president.

“The danger of this new rule is that it will enable a court to justify its decision to strike down any executive action with which it disagrees. It need only find one statement that contradicts the official reasons given for a subsequent executive action and thereby pronounce that the official reasons were a pretext,” Judge Niemeyer wrote.

The ruling was the second time the 4th Circuit has rejected a travel ban. In May, the court cited President Trump’s remarks on Muslim travelers while rejecting an earlier version of the ban, finding it “drips with religious intolerance, animus and discrimination.”

President Trump announced his initial travel ban on citizens of certain Muslim-majority nations shortly after taking office in January 2017, bringing havoc and protests to airports around the United States. A federal judge in Seattle soon blocked it, and courts since then have wrestled with the restrictions as the administration has rewritten them.

The latest version blocks travelers from the listed countries to varying degrees, allowing for students from some, while blocking other business travelers and tourists, and allowing for admissions on a case-by-case basis.

City receives only one proposal for Coliseum replacement

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

How much will it cost taxpayers?

That remains the unanswered question as City Hall moves to review the one and only proposal submitted to replace the 46-year-old Richmond Coliseum with a modern $200 million arena and tackle other development in a 10-block area around the building, including a new hotel and housing.

The Coliseum is located in the blocks bounded by 5th, 7th, Clay and Leigh streets.

Despite claims that developers across the country would be eager to take on this kind of big project, Mayor Levar M. Stoney announced that the sole response came from a local development group led by Thomas F. “Tom” Farrell II, chairman, president and chief executive officer of Richmond-based utility giant Dominion Energy.

The details of the proposal Mr. Farrell’s group brace the Farrell proposal, has sought to quell has spent two years preparing were not made speculation that development of a modern public in last Friday’s announcement. It came 17,500-seat arena would require significant just days after the mayor won City subsidy from the city.

Council backing to raise the city’s In his announcement, Mayor Stoney meals tax to pay for constructing said the city would not guarantee the possibly four new schools. debt repayment and that any city conMayor Stoney said city staff would tribution to operations of the coliseum go over the Coliseum proposal to and other elements of the project would determine “if it is in the best interest come from tax revenue increases that of the city.” the full project would generate, not He expects that determination to from existing resources.

Mr. Farrell be made within 30 days, and if it is However, similar arenas in other positive, he said the city would work on craft- cities require major public subsidies to remain ing agreements to carry out the proposal and viable. According to several studies, big arenas then send the documents to Richmond City do not generate enough income to cover their Council. expenses, most notably operations and the repayThe mayor, who is said to be eager to em- ment of money borrowed for construction.

Life is better with friends.

Sandra Sellars / Richmond Free Press

Teacher Recruitment Job Fair (Invitation Only)

Friday, March 9 , 2018 2 pm - 6 pm

Call today to learn more!

Experience independent retirement living in a community where neighbors become friends!

Arthur Ashe Center ( 3001 N. Boulevard • Richmond 23230 )

Areas of Interest • Science • Business & Info Tech • Elem Ed PK-6 • ESL • Gifted & Talented • Family and Consumer Science

• Library Media • Math • Music • Reading • School Psychologist

• Spanish • Speech Pathology • Special Education • Technology Ed • Visually Impaired • English

Highly qualified candidates seeking employment are encouraged to apply to be interviewed during the recruitment event.

Interviews will be offered by invitation only. To apply, please access the Richmond Public Schools’ website at: www.rvaschools.net.

Under Featured Links, click on Employment Opportunities and under Job Listings apply to the appropriate posting (Recruitment Fair Elementary, Secondary or Exceptional Ed).

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New grads and others interested in becoming teachers are encouraged to apply as well.

The Virginian

Applicants are required to complete the online application at www.rvaschools.net, copies of supporting credentials to include a valid teaching license, transcripts and resume.

Richmond, VA | 804-414-8568

Applicant may contact Department of Human Resources at 804.780.7859 for additional information.

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Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018

OFFSHORE ENERGY Means Major Local Job Opportunities

By Jack Gerard President and CEO American Petroleum Institute

America’s natural gas and oil industry supports

Whenever offshore energy policy is in the

Speaking from her state’s experience, former

10.3 million U.S. jobs overall -- and counting. A

spotlight, two questions arise: Is it safe? And do

Democratic U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu of Louisiana

recent report projects the industry could create

we really need more energy right now?

explained that it’s possible to balance energy production with other important coastal

almost 1.9 million job opportunities by 2035, including hundreds of thousands projected to

The fact is offshore operations are safer today

economic activities like fishing and tourism: “You

be held by women, and African American and

than ever before thanks to new technologies,

can have a coast that is a working coast for

Hispanic workers.

real time data analysis, and rigorous safety

fisheries, commercial, recreation, eco-tourism,

standards. Immediately after the 2010 Gulf

barges, ships, tourism, hotels – we have it all…

Offshore energy development offers the

of Mexico incident, the natural gas and oil

We have men and women graduating from

opportunity to generate major job growth

industry launched a methodical safety review,

high school that are going to work in the oilfield

– especially in coastal states. Opening

working closely with members of Congress

and they don’t make minimum wage. They

additional areas to safe and responsible

and multiple federal agencies. More than 100

can make $80, $90, $100,000 a year. And that

development, as the Interior Department

standards were created or strengthened, and

means a lot to their families, and it sends a lot of

recently proposed, could also bring extra

we launched the Center for Offshore Safety

kids to college from south Louisiana.”

revenue to coastal states and further reduce

to ensure continual safety improvements and

dependence on overseas energy.

systematic monitoring.

For non-coastal areas that haven’t benefited from tourism, offshore energy development can be a revitalizing economic lifeline across the state. In a hearing last year, South Carolina State Sen. Stephen Goldfinch explained that “it is imperative that you remember places like Andrews and Conway, and Georgetown, South Carolina, where the ‘golden egg’ of tourism hasn’t helped eradicate poverty. For those who live in Andrews and Conway and Georgetown, oil and gas would be their ‘golden egg,’ bringing non-seasonal, high-paying jobs – that don’t require a college degree – and hope for a prosperous economic future for the generations to come.”

Next is the question of urgency. Considering the United States leads the world in production and refining of natural gas and oil, should expanding offshore exploration be a priority right now?

Absolutely. We didn’t reach our current level of energy security overnight. Given the long lead time necessary in offshore development, it’s good common sense to keep as many options on the table as possible in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico, Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic. Decisions we make today determine our energy security 15 years into the future, and beyond.

A recent Washington Post article on U.S. energy security stated, “The current abundance has erased memories of 1973 gas[oline] lines, which raised pump prices dramatically, traumatizing the United States and reordering its economy.”

Our success may erase those memories, but it doesn’t erase the need to move forward.

Eighty percent of U.S. voters support increased domestic natural gas and oil production, and government projections show we’ll need it.

Natural gas and oil will supply an estimated 60 percent of U.S. energy needs in 2040, and worldwide energy demand will jump almost

Natural gas and oil are integral to innovations that safely and efficiently supply

30 percent in the coming decades. It’s time

our daily energy needs, as well as the modern products that make our lives

we take advantage of the wealth of offshore

safer, healthier and more convenient. Natural gas and oil also boost innovation

energy waiting to be safely unlocked, to create

in manufacturing and various other fields that support growth, prosperity,

jobs and ensure American energy security.

discovery and human advancement. The future belongs to innovators.

The natural gas and oil industry is committed to cultivating a more diverse workforce, which will be critical to fostering the innovation, collaboration and ideas needed to propel society forward. Through 2035, African American and Hispanic workers are projected to account for close to 40 percent of the more than 1.9 million job opportunities within the industry. A robust workforce will make the industry stronger, equipping us to serve the families, businesses and communities who rely on affordable, reliable natural gas and oil every day.

Because diversity powers innovation.

Visit us at PowerPastImpossible.org. © Copyright 2018, all rights reserved.

A7

Richmond Free Press

Mushrooms in the West End

Editorial Page

A8

February 22-24, 2018

A child shall lead them We are transfixed by the passion and activism of the students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Fla. They refuse to be cowed by the bloody Valentine’s Day massacre at their high school in which a former student armed with an AR-15 military-style rifle killed 17 people and wounded the bodies and souls of hundreds of others.

Instead, they are speaking out and demanding tougher gun laws in America so that students won’t have to be afraid to walk into schools every day worried whether someone with a weapon will open fire.

They are angered by local police and FBI missing and mishandling warnings about the 19-year-old perpetrator, Nikolas Cruz, and frustrated by the inaction of state and federal politicians.

So between the funerals for classmates and teachers, they are demonstrating outside the school and at the Florida statehouse. Through the power of social media, they have sparked protests by students at schools across the nation and kindled a nationwide student walkout on March 14. On March 24, they are planning “March for Our Lives” in Washington, all calling for tougher gun laws.

Their actions have attracted the backing of such big names as Oprah Winfrey, director Steven Spielberg and actor George Clooney. On Monday, and again on Wednesday, Washington high school students staged a lie-in outside the White House fence.

“If anything, we’re not going to let the 17 bullets we just took take us down,” Douglas High junior Cameron Kasky told the media on Sunday. “If anything, we’re going to keep running, and we’re going to lead the rest of the nation behind us.”

Some people and politicians are quick to dismiss the efforts of the young people as a flash in the pan, noting that the flurry of effort for stricter gun laws following the horrific mass shootings at Virginia Tech in 2007, Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut in 2012 and at the country music concert in Las Vegas last October had no tangible results.

But while lawmakers in Congress and statehouses across the country, including Virginia, may be tone deaf, or bought and sold by the political donations of the National Rifle Association, the clear, compelling and impassioned arguments by the Florida students cannot be ignored. Time and again, this nation has witnessed the power of young people to effect change even when adults and old people cannot.

Consider this: • On April 23, 1951, 16-year-old Barbara Johns led a student walkout at Moton High School in Prince Edward County to protest the deplorable, substandard conditions at the racially segregated public school. That student strike against separate and unequal education led to the Virginia lawsuit that became part of the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision in 1954 by the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down racially segregated public schools.

• On Feb. 1, 1960, four students from North Carolina A&T College sat down at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, N.C., and asked to be served, challenging the store’s “whites-only” policy. Despite being hit, spit on and doused with ketchup, mustard, sugar and other condiments, the students, whose numbers grew, continued the sit-ins for six months until the store finally changed its policy. By June 1960, sit-ins and demonstrations led by students at 49 other colleges had erupted at segregated lunch counters and department store restaurants in 39 Southern cities, including Richmond. The students’ efforts were successful in overturning racist policies.

• On May 1, 1963, more than 1,000 students from elementary through high school skipped class and marched in downtown Birmingham, Ala., to end segregation. They defied their parents and school officials and were arrested by the hundreds. The next day when hundreds more students turned out in protest, police Commissioner Bull Connor responded with violence. Fire hoses and police dogs were turned on the students and billy clubs were used to beat and arrest them.

The chilling, bloody images were broadcast across the nation. The Children’s March or Children’s Crusade, as it is now known, ended on May 10, 1963, when city officials promised to desegregate downtown stores and release all the protesters from jail.

• Student-led protests and demonstrations across the nation are credited with spurring the July 1971 change in the U.S. Constitution granting 18-year-olds the right to vote. Young people were angered that they could be drafted at 18 to fight and die in Vietnam, but weren’t allowed to vote. They wanted a voice in the political process and in selecting politicians who were deciding their fate. Through their activism, and the vote of the people in 38 states, the 26th Amendment became law of the land.

Since the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, more than 1,600 mass shootings — shootings of four or more people — have taken place in the United States. More than 1,800 people have been killed and more than 6,400 have been wounded.

Congress has refused to budge, even on basic, common sense gun control measures such as universal background checks for gun purchases and banning bump stocks used to turn semiautomatic weapons into automatic killing machines.

Their failure to act to protect the people of this nation has jaded even the hardest-working adult activists.

That’s where the young people are important. We believe the Florida students’ actions and passion will galvanize the nation, leading to a sea change among even the most recalcitrant lawmakers.

As President Richard Nixon said in 1971 when he signed the 26th Amendment into law at a White House ceremony attended by 500 newly eligible 18-year-old voters: “The reason I believe that your generation, the 11 million new voters, will do so much for America at home is that you will infuse into this nation some idealism, some courage, some stamina, some high moral purpose, that this country always needs.”

We believe in and support the courage and stamina of the young people from Florida, and call on every individual to support their high moral purpose to strengthen the gun laws in this nation.

As they have said, “Enough is enough.” Tougher gun laws are what this country needs.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

‘Black Panther’ claws away racism “The film serves as a breath of fresh intellectual air, especially amid today’s sociopolitical climate. It is the power of representation in its best form.

It is empowerment on a higher level. It is inspiration to a different degree. It is black excellence exemplified that will leave audiences yearning to inhabit Wakanda forever.” — Tonja Renee Stidhum, film critic As long as there have been movies, there have been movie heroes.

F r o m Douglas Fairbanks’ swashbuckling heroes like Zorro and Robin Hood in the 1920s, to Luke Skywalker in the 1970s to Harry Potter in the 2000s, the movies have always provided inspiration and role models for young people and a source for fantasy and imagination.

Most of these figures, as one might expect, have been white and male.

That is why the blockbuster superhero film “Black Panther,” which opened last week, is such a significant milestone.

Few films have been more joyously anticipated, with advance ticket sales breaking

records. The character, created for Marvel Comics by Stan Lee in 1966, already had generations of fans. Its A-list cast and crew include a number of Academy Award and Golden Globe winners and nominees.

Setting aside its cultural impact, “Black Panther” has been hailed as one of the best-acted, best-directed, best-created superhero movies of all time.

But let us not set aside its cultural impact. Representation of women and people of color

Marc H. Morial in film also has been an issue as long as there have been films. Actor and playwright Dylan Marron a few years ago introduced a web series titled “Every Single Word,” which highlights the shockingly small amount of dialogue spoken by actors of color in mainstream films. The entire Harry Potter series — more than 1,200 minutes of film — includes precisely 5 minutes and 40 seconds of what Mr. Marron calls “POC talk time.” In 2015 and 2016, we took the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to task for the woeful lack of diversity among Oscar nominees.

Too often, even when women and people of color have significant roles in film, negative

stereotypes are reinforced. The Bechdel Test, named for cartoonist Allison Bechdel who popularized it, determines whether a work of fiction features at least two women characters who speak to each other about something other than a man.

Only half of all films pass this test.

Screenwriter and novelist Nikesh Shukla proposed the Shukla Test, which determines “two ethnic minorities talk to each other for more than five minutes about something other than race,” and New York Times critic Manola Dargis devised a variation, the DuVernay test, named for African-American film director Ava DuVernay, which asks whether “AfricanAmericans and other minorities have fully realized lives rather than serve as scenery in white stories.”

“Black Panther” doesn’t just pass these tests, it shatters the very precepts on which they rest. The significance of a powerful, intelligent, wealthy and resourceful black hero cannot be overstated.

The women of Wakanda, Black Panther’s fictional African kingdom, are the true force behind the throne, and are as complex, varied and layered as white male characters usually are given the freedom to be.

When the first black actress to win an Academy Award,

Gun tragedies and inaction We woke up the morning after the Florida high school tragedy hearing that 95 percent of the American people support stronger background checks before someone can buy a gun.

That sounds like a no-brainer because only 4 percent of the people oppose these checks. That leads one to believe that most of the Congress represents somebody other than the 95 percent who elected them.

As the day went by, U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida said, “We need to wait for all the facts to come in.”

Seventeen innocent people had just been murdered by a 19-yearold white male terrorist with a gun that should’ve been regulated.

My best friend, the late Dick Gregory, who was one of the smartest, most perceptive men I’ve ever known, said long ago, “This thing (meaning the destruction of our nation) may be too far gone to turn around.”

These insane gun lovers seem to think they need all kinds of military-style weapons to shoot rabbits and other poor little animals. I don’t get it. They yell Second Amendment rights no matter what the cost is. They’re the same ones who call themselves “right to lifers.” They’re willing to cause the greatest risk

to our children’s lives in order to own any gun, while innocent people continue to be mowed down all too frequently.

Imagine how many parents got up the morning after the Florida school massacre and how they felt sending their babies to school — to a place where no children are safe these days. I wonder how parents explained why their children had to go to

Dr. E. Faye Williams such a scary place. Did they say, “You have to go because 4 percent of the people have more rights than you have, so we can’t keep guns out of your school”?

Women have marched and resisted since they realized what a mistake they made in voting for No. 45. Isn’t it time we take unified action for our children?

Every time we hear of a tragedy like the one in Parkland, Fla., we get all riled up for a few days and, except for the parents who are directly affected, we move on to something else without resolving the lastest crisis. I see the mothers of Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin and the babies at Sandy Hook Elementary School and others who are still grieving over the loss of their children. They spend every day of their lives trying to prevent people who shouldn’t have guns in the first place from getting them so eas-

ily. These murderers get them from gun shows, the internet and from crooks on the street with no background check. More of us need to be helping to get stronger laws passed.

Let’s expose the enablers who represent the 4 percent and vote them out of office. We know who those lawmakers are, which ones are on a “tear down every safety measure” path and telling us now is not the time to discuss guns.

Let’s assure these families that we’ll stand with them in every election. Let’s begin making sensible gun control an issue before giving up our vote in the next election.

But for the grace of God, these horrible murders could be someone we know and love.

We have an obligation to send people like Sens. Rubio and Charles Grassley and House Speaker Paul Ryan home soon.

They so easily blame all gun tragedies on mental health when they know perfectly well they haves no intention of putting more funds into legitimate mental health issues.

Let’s elect more people like Sen. Chris Murphy who said these tragedies are a consequence of our inaction. Let us not be the ones who are guilty of inaction. The National Rifle Association doesn’t stand a chance against the people united on this important issue.

The writer is national president of the National Congress of Black Women Inc.

The Free Press welcomes letters The Richmond Free Press respects the opinions of its readers. We want to hear from you.

We invite you to write the editor. All letters will be considered for publication. Concise, typewritten letters related to public matters are preferred. Also include your telephone number(s). Letters should be addressed to: Letters to the Editor, Richmond Free Press, P.O. Box 27709, 422 East Franklin Street, Richmond, VA 23261, or faxed to: (804) 643-7519 or e-mail: letters@richmondfreepress.com.

Hattie McDaniel, faced criticism in the 1940s for accepting roles that reinforced negative stereotypes, she retorted, “Why should I complain about making $700 a week playing a maid?

If I didn’t, I’d be making $7 a week being one.”

Thankfully, the world of Wakanda is light years from the plantations where Mrs. McDaniels’ “Mammy” character bowed and scraped to the character Scarlett O’Hara in “Gone With the Wind.”

I’m thankful that our children have the opportunity to see themselves on screen as kings and queens, warriors, scientists, artists and most importantly, the heroes of their own stories.

The writer is president and chief executive officer of the National Urban League.

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Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018

A9

Letters to the Editor

New idea for old schools problem Re “Feeding schools’ budget: City Council approves 1.5% meals tax hike for schools construction,” Free Press Feb. 15-17 edition: If you are not involved in public finance, you might never have heard of a Tax Increment Financing District, or a TIF District.

Surprisingly, no one has previously suggested using a TIF District to help pay for modernizing Richmond’s public schools.

TIF Districts regularly are used by politicians to reward contributors who put their private money into projects like the proposed Richmond Coliseum development.

Publicly, Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney is mum on a Coliseum-area TIF District. But the investors know he has no choice if he wants their money.

The financial theory behind a TIF District is pretty simple: A new coliseum would generate new activity in the surrounding Downtown area. Such activity would produce new tax revenues, such as meals taxes, property taxes from increased land value and the like.

Under the TIF concept, some or all of the new revenue the city would collect — and which would not exist without the development — can be used to pay off the private construction debt incurred by investors.

Using public tax dollars to pay off private debt is often controversial. Usually, if you borrow to open a business, the debt is paid from your profits, not from the city taxes your business activity creates.

But what if Richmond could use the TIF District concept to come up with the estimated hundreds of millions of dollars it needs to renovate or replace its decrepit schools? And what if the state pitched in to support this effort?

Indeed, Section 58.1-608.3 of the Virginia Code already says the state will share certain sales tax revenues with projects like Richmond’s proposed coliseum development.

Surely schools are a higher priority. Why not share sales tax revenue on school construction materials or income taxes

on the labor?

Richmond also could create TIF districts around each school to be modernized and dedicate increases in business taxes and in property taxes resulting from the improved school as a stream of revenue to help repay the borrowing that made it happen.

Bottom line: If it’s OK to create a TIF District to use public dollars to pay off private debt for a new coliseum, then we should similarly us TIF District public tax dollars to pay off public school construction.

The TIF District concept has the potential of producing $25 million to $30 million without heaping a new burden on the poor, as the mayor’s regressive meals tax plan does.

PAUL GOLDMAN Richmond The writer is leader of the Put Schools First campaign in Richmond.

U.S. lawmakers part of dream or nightmare?

I, too, am a dreamer. I dream of a time when we have a government that works for the average American — and not just for corporate America — without working at the expense of the average American.

Most of our politicians on both sides of the aisle are continuing to give us a steady diet of nightmares while pretending to care about us.

You don’t have to have guns to gun down a lot of Americans. Evil laws will do the job much better and faster while profiting the lawmakers who pass them and their real constituents — the Wall Street crowd.

Hillary Clinton and too many politicians like

her are fully owned by the big banks such as Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo. Hillary Clinton was handsomely paid while making speeches to Goldman Sachs. I’m sure that she is proud of those speeches. Let the general public see the text of those speeches.

Mrs. Clinton held her 2016 Presidential Convention at the Wells Fargo Convention Center in Philadelphia. Did you hear her once denounce Wells Fargo for its evil banking practices? Will any Wells Fargo executives who instituted those evil, illegal banking practices be going to prison any time soon?

The Russians, Saudi Arabia, the man on the

moon — have been responsible for all of our problems, according to the Democratic politicians. They will point the finger anywhere but where it needs to be pointed — right back at them!

If you dream of good government being brought to us by our Democratic politicians,

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General Assembly A message from Senator Jennifer McClellan

Web Address: McCollumatLaw.com E-mail: rudy@mccollumatlaw.com

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In addition to my legislative activities, being a member of the General Assembly has afforded me the opportunity to serve on, G and a now Chair, the Virginia General Assembly's Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Commission. Created in 1992 to honor L the t memory and legacy of Dr. King, the Commission continues his h work through educational, historical and cultural programs, public policy analysis, and public discourse on contemporary p issues. is Events of 2017 have left us with a sharper awareness of the work E that remains to be done to achieve Dr. King's "Beloved t Community," a global vision, in which all people can share in the wealth of the earth. As described by the King Center in Atlanta:

In the Beloved Community, poverty, hunger and homelessness will not be tolerated because international standards of human decency will not allow it. Racism and all forms of discrimination, bigotry and prejudice will be replaced by an all-inclusive spirit of sisterhood and brotherhood. In the Beloved Community, international disputes will be resolved by peaceful conflict-resolution and reconciliation of adversaries, instead of military power. Love and trust will triumph over fear and hatred. Peace with justice will prevail over war and military conflict.

On August 11th and 12th, 2017, this dream felt painfully distant when a display of hatred in Charlottesville resulted in the senseless deaths of Heather Heyer and Virginia State Police Pilot Lt. H. Jay Cullen and Trooper-Pilot Berke M.M. Bates.

ANN GARNETT MILLER Clarksville

Where does it end?

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Fifty years after Dr. King's death, the Commission will remember his legacy and his influence in Virginia in a series of Beloved Community Conversations held in each of the Virginia localities Dr. King visited. The Commission will join community leaders, religious leaders, historians, educators, and members of the community to reexamine Dr. King's time in the Commonwealth, reflect on his vision of a Beloved Community in that locality today, and ask, as Dr. King did in his final book, "Where do we go from here?" All events are free and open to the public.

The first Beloved Community Conversation will take place March 1, 2018, at the Perkins Living and Learning Center at Virginia Union University in Richmond, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. I will moderate a panel discussion that includes Virginia Union graduate student Jamar A. Boyd II, Delegate Delores McQuinn (70th District), Benjamin Ragsdale, who was present when Dr. King visited Richmond, Rev. Dr. Jim Somerville of First Baptist Church in Richmond, Virginia Union Vice President Dr. Corey Walker, and Rev. Janie Walker of Richmond Hill. I invite you to join in this important conversation.

Future Beloved Conversations will take place throughout 2018 in Charlottesville, Danville, Farmville, Hampton, Hopewell, Lynchburg, Newport News, Norfolk, Petersburg, Suffolk, and Williamsburg.

Don't Miss Don't Miss One Word

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For more information on this important project, visit us online at http://mlkcommission.dls.virginia.gov/kinginvirginia.html or ■ https://www.facebook.com/VAMLKCommission/, or contactboxes, Lily Jones at (804) 698-1886 End the inconvenience of empty newspaper fighting orthe ljones@dls.virginia.gov. weather and hunting down back copies.

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Virginia 2018

venture to New York to get a wonderful job and be valued as a good employee. But my heart was always with home.

As black Americans, we are good people and deserve — and shall get — respect. Some people could do better and will simply by being given a chance, a pep talk, a loan, having a vision. We must involve ourselves in positive organizations. We must take a stand for our children. Education is the only way out, even in today’s era.

History is still being made. A beautiful young black woman is being married in May to a prince in England. Black millennials are head of many global companies today. Most of our black men are responsible, trying and doing the right thing by their families and the community. Everyone needs to be encouraged at times and uplifted.

Black Americans, keep the old way alive by telling your stories. It will help educate the young ones today so that they will be proud and appreciative of their heritage and culture.

Here we go again with this gun violence. Another 17 young lives lost and 15 injured in the high school shooting in Parkland, Fla. There were 26 people killed in the church in Texas, nine people in the church in South Carolina, 25 children in Sandy Hook, 32 at Virginia Tech, 19 people at Columbine, 58 people in Las Vegas.

Where does it end? When is it OK to buy and own as many guns as you want as long as you have the money to purchase them?

If we keep housing the perpetrators for years in jail and don’t enforce the law because of who they are, we will always be racially divided and the killings will continue.

We have to start a movement to stand up for ourselves. The judicial system won’t do it, nor will the police or the government. We need to stop feeding the gun pushers’ businesses and make a future for our children — all children.

It’s not fair that gun pushers’ bottom lines are filling the graveyards and tearing up families and breaking hearts. This has to stop.

We have to band together.

You never get over the emptiness of losing a family member.

It’s always there waiting for you around a corner, through the night, in your dreams — rather in your nightmares.

NAOMI GAYLE SAUNDERS Richmond

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Passing along history February is Black History Month, with plays, programs and famous songs sung like “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

As black Americans, we are free to do wonderful things to make contributions to our community and our world.

There is the wonderful National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, with exhibits that take you through time from slavery to the present. Everyone should visit this museum to learn and appreciate history.

Seniors, please continue to help the youths by telling them about history. Tell them in a way that they will understand that today is a different era and, hopefully, a better world for all. They can start businesses and work in any field they desire after attending college.

I believe if youths are told the correct way about what seniors had to endure back in the day, they will learn to appreciate what is before them today, like simply going to Hardee’s and sitting to have a meal, being able to rest overnight at a hotel and being able to pass the test and work at the post office.

In the past, I and so many others had to

dream on.

Isaac Asimov and Gene Roddenberry gave us great science fiction. Our Democratic lawmakers give us great political fiction!

Also, support the Free Press. We’re always working for you.

Paid for and authorized by Jennifer McClellan.

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Richmond Free Press

A10 February 22-24, 2018

Sports Stories by Fred Jeter

Russell Wilson to play pro football and baseball?

Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson and Brian Jordan juggled playing in the NFL and baseball at the same time.

Now former Richmonder Russell Wilson, best known as the star quarterback for the NFL Seattle Seahawks, is considering double duty, too.

If it works out, Wilson could celebrate his return to baseball against the Richmond Flying Squirrels.

Traded on Feb. 7 from the Texas Rangers to the New York Yankees organization, Wilson, a second baseman, is expected to attend spring training in Tampa, Fla., with the Yankees’ Class AA affiliate, the Trenton Thunder.

The New Jersey team is in the Eastern League with the Flying

Squirrels. The Flying Squirrels open their season April 5 against the Trenton Thunder, with the first of four games at Trenton’s Arm & Hammer Park.

The Thunder is scheduled to play four games at The Diamond in Richmond starting May 10.

“While football is my passion and my livelihood, baseball remains a huge part of where I came from and who I am today,” Wilson told the Associated Press.

Wilson played baseball as well as football and basketball at Collegiate School in Western Henrico County and was drafted by the Baltimore Orioles out of high school.

He did not sign, choosing to accept a football-baseball schol-

NASCAR’s Bubba Wallace finishes 2nd at Daytona Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. is making racecar history.

The 24-year-old AfricanAmerican driver finished second Sunday at the prestigious Daytona 500, behind Austin Dillon.

In doing so, he became the: • Highest finishing rookie ever at Daytona.

Bubba • Highest finishing AfricanAmerican driver ever at Daytona. The best previous win by an African-American at Daytona was 13th by Virginian Wendell Scott in 1966.

Wallace also is the first African-American driver to have a full-time ride on the top NASCAR circuit — now called the Monster Energy Cup — since Scott in 1971.

Wallace is driving the famed No. 43 Chevrolet Camaro for Richard Petty Motorsports. Petty won more races than any other driver in Wallace history.

After his historic Daytona performance, a teary Wallace received a long hug from his mother, Desiree, as they stood before the press corps.

“I just try so hard to be successful in everything I do,” Wallace told the media.

“My family pushes me each and every day, and they may not even know it. But I just want to make them proud.”

In Sunday’s race, which was marred by wrecks, Wallace finished 0.002 seconds ahead of Chesterfield County’s Denny Hamlin, who took third.

The race also will be remembered as the farewell drive for Danica Patrick, the most prominent female driver in NASCAR annals.

Patrick, who wrecked and finished 35th, had announced she was retiring after Daytona.

arship to North Carolina State University.

In parts of three baseball seasons at North Carolina State, he hit .282, with five homers and 30 runs batted in.

Wilson transferred to the University of Wisconsin as a senior and was drafted, again in the fourth round, by the Colorado Rockies. He played two seasons in the Rockies’ low minors with Tri-City, Wash., and Asheville, N.C. In 315 at-bats, he hit .229 with five homers.

Russell Wilson His baseball rights were traded from the Rockies to the Texas Rangers in 2013. He attended the Rangers’ spring training in Surprise, Ariz., for two seasons but never played in the Texas franchise.

The 5-foot-11, 215-pound, Wilson signed a four-year contract with the Seattle Seahawks worth $87.6 million in July 2015.

Only a handful of athletes have ever played baseball and football during the same time on the highest level.

Sanders played in the NFL with five teams from 1989 to 2005. He competed on five big league baseball teams between 1989 and 2001.

Jackson played in the NFL with the Los Angeles Raiders from 1987 to 1990, and with three Major League Baseball teams from 1986 to 1994.

Following his career at the University of Richmond, Jordan played big league baseball from 1992 to 2006 and in the NFL from 1989 to 1991.

Sanders and Jordan, defensive backs in the NFL, and Jackson, a running back, were all outfielders on the baseball diamond.

It might be tougher for a quarterback, considering all the leadership and tactical requirements.

John Elway, the NFL Hall of Fame quarterback with the Denver Broncos, played one season of minor league baseball in the Yankees organization with Oneonta, N.Y., in 1982. Elway starred in football and baseball at Stanford University.

Baseball still will be in full swing when Seattle opens its NFL training camp July 30 in Renton, Wash.

VUU football Coach Alvin Parker hits ground running Virginia Union University’s new football coach has hit Lombardy Street running.

Since being introduced as the Panthers’ coach on Dec. 18, Alvin Parker has completed his coaching staff, signed his first recruiting class, arranged the spring football schedule and, perhaps best of all, averted the kind of player mutiny often associated with a coaching change.

His new assistant coaching staff: Co-defensive coordinators will be Marcus Hilliard and Edward Pointer, both former assistants with Coach Parker at Elizabeth City State University.

“Both were my first choices,” Coach Parker said. “Together, they will bring a physical and precise style of defense. They combine over 30 years of coaching experience, 15 years as coordinators. They are also great recruiters and technicians.”

Other new coaches will be Nigel Rios (secondary), Monterio Hand (receivers), Diego Ryland (running backs) and Troy Shaffer (special teams).

Returnees will be Mike Morita (run-game coordinator/offensive line), Sam Davis (equipment) and Bernard Rucker (special assistant).

Marcus Hilliard Rucker has been Edward Pointer with VUU football in various capacities since 1970, weathering numerous coaching eras.

Another “coach” on campus, at least unofficially, is one of the most successful sideline supervisors in HBCU history.

That is VUU Athletic Director Joe Taylor, who compiled a 232-97 record from 1983 to 2012 at Howard, Virginia Union, Hampton and Florida A&M universities. He was 60-19-3 at VUU from 1984 to 1991.

Few know the business of running a football program better than Taylor.

Recruiting: Starting from scratch, Coach Parker signed 15 players, including high school seniors and junior college transfers, from six states and the District of Columbia.

The lone local signee is 6-foot, 240-pound defensive end Landon Jones from Hermitage High School in Henrico County.

Khalil Wright from Washington’s H.D. Woodson High School is the only quarterback on the list.

The signee from the longest distance is 295-pound defensive tackle Tre’Mario Bivens from Saddleback College in Mission Viejo, Calif.

Coming soon: Spring football drills open March 19 and conclude April 14 with the Maroon-Gray intrasquad game at Hovey Field. A total of 15 workouts are slated.

Player retention: Coach Parker expects all the underclassmen from last year’s squad to return. Frequently schools suffer transfer losses during a coaching transition.

“There were no casualties,” he said. “When I came on board, the players adjusted well to my style and bought in wholeheartedly, which is very rare in this day and time.”

The list of returnees includes quarterback Darius Taylor,

who passed for 1,953 yards and 22 touchdowns in nine games.

Taylor will be a senior.

Looking back: VUU was 6-4 overall and 5-2 in the CIAA in what was former Coach Mark James’ final season. The 2017 season concluded with a painful 40-39 loss to CIAA champion Virginia State University. Coach James was 26-15 overall in four campaigns but failed to reach the CIAA championship game.

Towering Andre Walker helping VUU push past the competition

Virginia Union University boasts its own version of “Andre the Giant” in 6-foot-11 Andre Walker.

After a sputtering start, the senior transfer from Hofstra University is aiding VUU’s push toward a No. 2 seed for the CIAA Tournament that starts Feb. 26 in Charlotte, N.C. “Andre struggled with his confidence at first, but he has a good skill set and he gives us a defensive presence inside,” said VUU Coach Jay Butler.

Walker enjoyed his best game as a Panther last Saturday with 14 points and eight rebounds in a 79-54 win over Lincoln University of Pennsylvania at Barco-Stevens Hall.

Before that, he had seven points and four rebounds in the Panthers’ road win against Bowie State University on Feb. 10, and six points and four rebounds in the down-to-the-wire loss Feb. 7 at Virginia State University.

Defensively, Walker is a towering obstacle in the path of the opposition.

“Locking down the paint, contesting every shot, has always been my first priority,” said the 22-year-old criminal justice major from Gaithersburg, Md. “If the ball comes in there, you need to send it out.”

In just 13 games and 131 minutes, he is second among the Panthers with 13 blocked shots. Jordan Thornton’s leading 15 blocks has been in 23 games and 285 minutes.

Andre Walker

“It’s not just the shots he blocks. He alters a lot of shots, too,” Coach Butler said.

Walker shares time on the low post with Thornton, a 6-foot-8 junior, and 6-foot-6 senior Devin Moore.

Coach Butler calls it “center by com-

mittee.”

That doesn’t mean two couldn’t be on the floor at same time, depending on matchups.

Walker, who wears size 16 sneakers, was already 6-foot-8 in ninth grade at Clarksburg High School in Maryland. As a sophomore, he transferred to The Bullis School in Potomac, Md., where he played on three straight Interstate Athletic Conference championship teams.

At Hofstra University, Walker found

Senior salute The Virginia Union University Panthers will celebrate Senior Day Saturday, Feb. 24, with a 4 p.m. game against Chowan University at BarcoStevens Hall.

Panthers team members making their home-floor farewell will be Kory Cooley, Jimmy Paige, Devin Moore, Micah Thomas, Todd Hughes and Andre Walker.

himself playing behind 6-foot-9 Lithuanian Rokas Gusty, who is among the nation’s top rebounders.

After exploring various college options, Walker chose VUU, calling it “a perfect fit.”

“A friend from the AAU circuit called me about Andre,” Coach Butler said, adding he remembered Walker as a high school player during his tenure coaching the women’s basketball team at the University of the District of Columbia.

There aren’t many athletes of Walker’s dimensions around the CIAA. The only player listed as taller is 7-foot Lamous Brown, who comes off the bench for Johnson C. Smith University. Chowan University’s starting center, Bosnian Dino Muminovic, is 6-foot-11.

While height can be an overwhelming plus on the basketball floor, there are drawbacks, Walker said, especially at bedtime.

“I’ve been dealing with that all my life — hanging my feet off the side of the bed,” he said with a laugh. “You just try and sleep at an angle.”

Walker, who lost a few credits in the college transfer, is on course for graduation next year. He hopes to play ball professionally abroad. But wherever he goes, he will proudly take a diploma with him. He is the first person in eight known generations of his family to attend college.

Being a “giant” is nice, but having a sheepskin can mean even more.

‘The Biscuit Man’ kneads track ambition at Huguenot

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Tailey Tofoi

At the Bojangles restaurant where he has a part-time job, Tailey Tofoi good-naturedly refers to himself as “The Biscuit Man.” On the running track, the Huguenot High School junior has come to be known as one of the fastest young runners around Richmond—and perhaps in all of Virginia.

“I love to feel the wind in my face when I run. It feels good,” he said.

Tofoi would be an interesting story even if he couldn’t outrun his competitors to the finish line.

For starters, there is a fashion statement. The 5-foot-8, 150-pound Falcon wears a gold necklace — a family heirloom — with a pendant shaped like the African continent.

Tofoi was born in the Liberian capital of Monrovia on Africa’s west coast. Along with his parents and siblings, he moved across the Atlantic to Central Virginia when he was just a tot.

“I don’t remember anything before second grade,” he said. “But we’ve got family all over” the United States.

Among his first memories are playground races around his home and elementary school.

“I saw I could run faster than the others,” he said.

It didn’t stop there. He excelled in a low-

profile track and field program at Richmond’s Boushall Middle School.

“I think I won everything but the shot put,” he recalled.

That set the stage for his Huguenot High debut.

“Tailey (pronounced Talley) was the fastest kid on campus from day one,” said Huguenot Coach Wesley Arthur.

“He has tremendous natural ability. Plus, he’s willing to do any workout you give him on his own. He has a great work ethic.”

Tofoi enjoyed his brightest day ever in spikes on Feb. 8 at the Division 4, Region 5 meet at the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center.

Creating his own breeze, he won the 55 meters in 6.7 seconds, besting a field of 21 runners. Then he added the 300 meters in 39.16, topping a field of 18.

On top of that, he had energy to place second in the long jump (20 feet, 2.5 inches).

At Huguenot, he works diligently with Coach Arthur, who ran at Virginia Commonwealth University, and also sprint Coach Kyle Fuller, a former Virginia Military Institute standout.

“Tailey will continue to improve,” Coach Fuller said. “We’re building for the future. Next year, watch out!”

Next up this winter is the state Indoors 4A meet Feb. 23 and 24 at Roanoke College in Salem. Tofoi is a serious contender in the 55 meters and 300 meters.

Outdoors this spring, he’ll transition to 100 meters and 200 meters for sure, and might also kick up his heels in the 400 meters, in which he has already broken 50 seconds on a relay.

Tofoi is the son of Dewin Tofoi, an employee at Moody Middle School in Henrico County, and Amos Tofoi, who is retired. An older sister is a recent Huguenot grad, while a younger brother is next door at Elkhardt-Thompson Middle School.

As one might expect, Tofoi is also a promising football player despite never having played the sport on an organized level prior to Huguenot.

Because of complications, he did not play football this past fall, but plans to as a senior.

Between classes and track, he worked during the past year at Bojangles on Hicks Road in Chesterfield County.

“I do a lot of different things there,” he said, “but they call me ‘The Biscuit Man.’ That’s my title.”

If the Falcon flash produces tasty biscuits as quickly as he wins track medals, hungry customers should be well satisfied.

February 22-24, 2018 B1

Section

B

Richmond Free Press

Happenings

Personality: Tim Seibles Spotlight on Virginia’s poet laureate Tim Seibles’ love affair with writing began at an early age.

As he grew up in Philadelphia, his mother, Barbara Seibles, didn’t believe he was wildly talented, but encouraged him to write because it would be a good talent to have. She thought the more he wrote, the better his writing would become, he recalls.

One the other hand, his dad, Thomas Seibles, was a practical man. In his father’s world, an educated black person should try to pursue a profession — law, medicine or architecture.

His father would always talk to him about being his own boss, he recalls.

“No one could tell you what to do,” he says his father told him. “He would say, ‘Son, you would have your own time, your own schedule, your own thoughts and ways of doing things.’ ” As his interests became more literary, his parents didn’t stand in his way, although they questioned the practicality.

“To their credit, if they thought I had a passion, they would not try to stop me,” he says. “My mother said, ‘You have to have some way to make a living. If you only write poems, you are not going to be a millionaire.’ ” Today, Mr. Seibles, an English professor at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, is Virginia’s poet laureate. He was appointed to the two-year post by former Gov. Terry McAuliffe and will serve in that role until June.

He follows in the esteemed path of past state poet laureates such as Rita Dove, Joseph Awad and Kelly Cherry.

In addition to teaching graduate courses at ODU, Mr. Seibles visits other colleges and schools around the state reading his work and sharing his love of writing and poetry.

He encourages young people to express themselves and hone their craft.

Writers, he says, serve a function in society because they can say things that many people are afraid to say.

“Unfortunately, politicians — those who are invested in protecting their chance to be re-elected — often don’t say what they know. They often don’t tell the truth in a risky way,” he says.

But as a poet, “you can say what you see,” he continues.

“If you are a sensitive and thoughtful person, hopefully some of what you write will carry news that many people feel. Your words become the voice for many people who may not have the ability to write or the opportunity to write or speak. So I thinks that poets can service society by giving a voice to people that may not have a voice.”

While poems may not affect legislation, he says, they can crystallize ideas and attitudes “and that keeps the ideas in the light.”

Mr. Seibles has several collections of poetry. “Fast Animal,” published in 2012, won the Theodore Roethke Memorial

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by Tim Seibles A carpet of light, the ocean alive < half a moon muting the stars.

I tell myself despair is just a bad attitude: Get up, I say. Look — and the shimmer spends its name in my head.

Poetry Prize and was nominated for the National Book Award. In 2013, he received the PEN Oakland Josephine Miles Award for poetry.

His work also has been featured in numerous anthologies.

Being Virginia’s poet laureate has “made me more visible” and broadened his audience, Mr. Seibles says. “I have more opportunities to read at more Virginia colleges and high schools.

“If there are a few more book sales, that’s lovely,” he continues. “Most poets are not going to get rich from book sales. You can do OK, but it’s nothing like a best-selling novel.”

His influences stem from enjoying the work of his peers, both those living and dead. He talks particularly about Ai, a woman poet who is AfricanAmerican and Japanese, who wrote in other people’s voices, and Pablo Neruda, a Chilean poet and politician, whose poems range from playful to sharply political.

It’s also important to him to reach people in the African diaspora.

“Most black writers would like to have more engagement” with historically black colleges and universities, Mr. Seibles says. “Surprisingly, many black writers have not been invited to HBCUs, which is completely baffling. At HBCUs, African-American poets are among family, talking about something that the family would understand fully.”

He acknowledges that some people are intimidated by poetry. But, he says, “go to poetry assuming that you will understand it. I think poetry can be enjoyed by everyone.”

Meet Virginia’s poet laureate and this week’s Personality, Tim Seibles:

workshops.

Top honors: Poet laureate of Virginia and finalist for the 2012 National Book Award.

What I want my students to get: I hope students in my classes develop a love for language and poetry, which will make them more attentive to themselves and the life around them.

Date and place of birth: Philadelphia in 1955.

Current residence: Norfolk.

Occupation: Professor of English, Old Dominion University.

Community involvement: I visit many high schools. I also teach community writing

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Alma maters: bachelor of arts in English, Southern Methodist University; and master’s in writing, Vermont College of Fine Arts; and honorary doctorate from Misericordia University.

Family: Parents, Thomas Seibles III and Barbara Seibles; brother, Thomas Seibles IV. Why I became a teacher: The people who had the greatest impact on my life were teachers, and I wanted to have such an impact on people.

Teaching philosophy: In a nutshell, I try to address subjects in both intellectual and emotional terms. I try to address whatever the subject is in such a way as to invite students to care about the subject. Caring is an emotional thing, so to do this, you must show a student how a particular issue connects to his/her life.

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Best thing my parents ever taught me: My parents taught me to believe in myself and persist in every worthwhile endeavor — a crucial creed to live by.

Person who influenced me the most: The two most influential people in my life are Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Jimi Hendrix. Both were tender loving spirits who risked a lot to enact their belief in the human heart.

Book that influenced me the most: “One Hundred Years of Solitude” by Gabriel Garcia Marquez still awes me.

What I’m reading now: “Toussaint Louverture: A Biography”

by Madison Smartt Bell.

Next goal: To put out audio recordings of my poetry.

First poem and why: I cannot remember when or why or what.

Main inspiration: Life is the fundamental inspiration for me. So much happens to each person during his/her life. I try to write about the things that strike me as important, things that make us larger in some way or simply more awake. I am compelled by many subjects — memory, sexuality, race, the realm of the Sacred, family, love, the process of becoming a self and consciousness itself.

When someone reads a poem I have written, I hope they feel more in touch with their emotions and more willing to explore questions and/or subjects that they’ve neglected or had never imagined as significant. Poetry is a vehicle for discovering one’s own life and its connection to other lives and things beyond.

How I start the day: I usually start the day by reading and then writing, working on some of my own poetry or, perhaps, an essay.

A perfect day is: A perfect day for me would involve time to write, time to think and time to exercise intensely — and, of course, time for love.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: Something people might not imagine me doing is playing the guitar, which I practice often.

Top on my “to do” list is: My “to do” is to perform with a band in a public place.

How friends describe me: My friends probably think of me as somewhat crazy but fun — and I hope kind.

A quote that I’m inspired by: I often think of the line, “What’s madness but nobility of soul at odds with circumstance?” It’s from Theodore Roethke’s poem, “In A Dark Time.”

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Richmond Free Press

B2 February 22-24, 2018

Happenings

Courtney Jones

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Above, Richmond City Councilman Michael J. Jones takes a selfie with students who accepted his challenge to perform a kind act for others and then received free tickets to last Thursday’s premiere of “Black Panther” at Bow Tie Movieland in Richmond. Left, crowds wait for the theater to open Saturday at the Bow Tie Movieland for the superhero film.

‘Black Panther’ pounces on box office Free Press staff, wire report

“Black Panther,” the Disney and Marvel Studios’ epic superhero film featuring a largely African-American cast and director, is blowing away audiences and box offices, raking in record amounts from its opening weekend while gaining praise from former First Lady Michelle Obama.

During the film’s Presidents’ Day weekend opening, “Black Panther” took in $242 million, making it the second highest, four-day U.S. opening of all time.

It even topped the hugely popular “Star Wars: The Last Jedi,” but came in just behind the No. 1 “Star Wars: The Force Awakens.”

Disney also reported on Tuesday that the film’s international total reached $184.6 million, led by South Korea and the United Kingdom.

Around the country, movie theaters with sold-out shows, long lines and

fans decked out as characters from the film were commonplace.

The film, directed by Ryan Coogler, stars Chadwick Boseman as King T’Challa, ruler of Wakanda, a technologically advanced society in Africa.

He comes in conflict with Michael B. Jordan’s Eric Killmonger, who intends to take over the throne. Letitia Wright, Lupita Nyong’o, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira and Daniel Kaluuya also star.

On Presidents’ Day, the former first lady offered high praise on Twitter: “Congrats to the entire #blackpanther team!” Mrs. Obama tweeted.

“Because of you, young people will finally see superheroes that look like them on the big screen. I loved this movie and I know it will inspire people of all backgrounds to dig deep and find the courage to be heroes of their own stories.”

In Richmond, 9th District City Councilman Michael J. Jones bought

out a theater at Bow Tie Movieland for a private screening of “Black Panther” on Thursday night, giving away 200 tickets to mostly young people who had committed random acts of kindness for others.

“The goal was to show that we can be the every day heroes and make a difference in somebody’s life,” Mr. Jones told the Free Press on Tuesday.

“I am still taken aback by the impact it had on young people who came out and wanted to be part of something special and unique. The movie had so many great themes.”

Among those who took up Mr. Jones’ challenge to make a difference and attended the film’s local premiere were members of the Huguenot and George Wythe high schools’ basketball teams, students from Virginia Union and Virginia State universities and members of Village of Faith Ministries, the church where Mr. Jones is senior pastor.

Even Mr. Jones had to do something kind for others to get a ticket.

He said he purchased 50 tickets to an earlier show Thursday and gave them to parents of youngsters at Southside Community Center, which is located in his district.

“I told them thanks for being there for their children,” he said.

He ended up seeing the movie twice more during the weekend with family and friends.

Playing a major role in the film’s success is Ruth E. Carter, a 1982 Hampton University graduate, who designed the costumes.

Ms. Carter, 57, has a breadth of experience, with film credits for her work on Spike Lee’s “Malcolm X,” Ava DuVernay’s “Selma” and Reginald Hudlin’s “Marshall,” in which Mr. Boseman also starred as the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

In 2017, Ms. Carter was nominated

Looking back, looking forward

New photo exhibition at Black History Museum & Cultural Center of Virginia shares stories from a bygone era

By Samantha Willis

A sense of dignity emanates from the faces peering out of the searing, black and white photos mounted in the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia’s upstairs exhibition space.

African-American men and women — doctors, educators, ministers, musicians, some well known and some not — pose in carriages and automobiles, while others clutch hard-earned diplomas, eyeing the viewer confidently.

All of them gaze through time in the museum’s new photographic exhibition, “Yesterday’s Stories, Today’s Inspiration,” on display through May 2018.

“We chose the title because we know there are many historical figures people know about — Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Barack Obama,” said Adele Johnson, the museum’s interim executive director. “And they certainly have made many contributions to American history and to black history.

However, there are many, many more who have made contributions who are unsung heroes.”

The work of two such heroes, Richmond photographers George O. Brown and James Conway Farley, features prominently in the exhibition. Both photographers are themselves part of the showing’s historically rich narratives. Mr. Brown and Mr. Farley operated Jefferson Fine Art Gallery together in Richmond starting in 1895. They won awards at the 1907 Jamestown Tercentennia, and were nationally renowned photographers “bar none,” said researcher and educator Elvatrice Belsches, the exhibition’s curator.

In the early 1900s, Mr. Brown was distinctly positioned among award-winning black photographers nationwide, including James VanDerZee of New York City and Addison Scurlock of Washington, Ms. Belsches said.

“George O. Brown began training as a photographer in the 1870s,” according to Ms. Belsches, opening his own studio, Old Dominion Gallery, after his venture with Mr. Farley.

Want to go?

What: “Yesterday’s Stories, Today’s Inspiration” photo exhibit.

Where: Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, 122 W. Leigh St. in Jackson Ward.

When: Opening reception 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, Feb. 23.

Details: Free opening reception, but registration required at www.blackhistorymuseum.org or (804) 780-9093.

Mr. Brown’s children, Bessie Gwendola Brown and George Willis Brown, joined their father’s business; Bessie operated the studio until 1969.

Photos by the Browns depict decades of black Richmond through the 1950s, including social and religious events, fraternal organizations and portraits of some the city’s best known citizens like banker and businesswoman Maggie L. Walker. Many of these are included in the Black History Museum exhibition.

Also on view are class photos of students at historic Richmond educational institutions such as Armstrong High School, Hartshorn Memorial College and Virginia Union University.

Ms. Belsches said the Browns’ photos in the exhibition — one shows a group of men in tuxedos, their expressions stately and dark skin gleaming against the snowy white of their shirts — span nearly 100 years.

“One hundred years of photographs, 100 years of visual storytelling; it’s simply amazing,” she said.

Michael G. Brown of Richmond, the great-grandson of George O. Brown and the grandnephew of Bessie Gwendola Brown, said he views his relatives “as visual historians.”

“They captured the lives, deaths and day-to-day experience of black people in the Richmond area,” said Mr. Brown, a political consultant and former head of the state Board of Elections.

“At the same time, they were entrepreneurs,” he said of his forebearers. “Their work left a visual record of what

for an Emmy Award for her costumes in the TV adaptation of Alex Haley’s “Roots.” She is the first African-American to be nominated for an Academy Award in costume design — with two nominations for “Malcolm X” in 1993 and “Amistad” in 1998.

Her interest in costume design started at Hampton University, where she took on the role of costume designer after not being cast in a play.

While she was a theater arts major, she took a fashion course in another department and took on costume design roles with the university’s traveling dance troupe.

Later, she went to Los Angeles to pursue costume design for the stage and was introduced by a college friend to a new director, Spike Lee, who urged her to gain experience in the film industry. It changed her life. She worked on 14 of Mr. Lee’s films, with her first job as head costume designer on “School Daze.”

Robert Battle

by Brown Studio, circa 1925.

was happening in the black community … that they were able to survive and to move forward, irrespective of the limitations put on them by society.”

Mr. Brown’s late brother, Albert W. Brown, also chose photography as his life’s work, working Photo courtesy of the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia for various studios throughout his career, including Miller & Rhoads and Caston Studios. He died in April 2009.

Work by other photographers, such as Frances Benjamin Johnston, whose arresting images of early Hampton University students are hauntingly beautiful, round out the collection of more than 150 photos, including a cache of rare originals.

Forgotten traditions of the community appear in the exhibition, Ms. Belsches said.

“Many people don’t know that some black churches used to have Sunday school orchestras, full bands with all of these instruments. We have a photo of Sixth Mount Zion’s Sunday School orchestra dating in 1925.”

The photographs act as a prism, casting in multifaceted ways how African-Americans lived, worked and sought to be remembered.

“There’s a pride, a determination, a persistence about these photos,” said Ms. Johnson.

Ms. Belsches agreed, adding that the photo exhibition aims to elevate the stories of the black experience as told through the lenses of black photographers.

“They’ve given us a visual, historical record, yes,” she said, “but their artistry is also on full display.”

‘Pocahontas’ comes to Va.

By Ronald E. Carrington

More than 400 years after Pocahontas’ burial at St. George’s Church in Gravesend, England, near the mouth of the River Thames, the Pocahontas Project will honor and tell her real life story.

The theatrical project, “Gravesend,” uses the Native American’s life story as the centerpiece for a multilevel academic and community program designed to inspire hope and purpose for the audience.

The play, written by Londoner Kieran Knowles, is slated for its global premiere in Virginia in July.

British actress Yasmine Hassabu, who will portray Pocahontas, was in Richmond last week as part of her research for the role.

“The real history of (Pocahontas) is so fascinating and so rich,” the 27-year-old Ms. Hassabu said during a Free Press interview. “I don’t know why someone would go down a fairy tale route like Disney has done.

“What Pocahontas stands for — the power, the strength and bringing communities together — makes the play very hopeful.”

During her stay in Richmond, Ms. Hassabu visited with Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan of Richmond at the Pocahontas Building off Capitol Square where General Assembly members now have their offices.

She also was slated to see the portrait of Pocahontas that hangs in the Governor’s Mansion; tour the newly renamed Virginia Historical Society on the Boulevard, now the Virginia Museum of History & Culture with Pocahontas expert Bill Rasmussen; visit Henricus, the early English settlement along the James River where Pocahontas lived for a while and converted to Christianity; and meet with students at Franklin Military Academy in Richmond’s East End. Students from Franklin Military Academy, who traveled last year to Gravesend, England, with the Pocahontas Project, met Ms. Hassabu during a table reading of the play. They were accompanied on the trip, organized by Richmonder Rick Tatnall, founder of Replenish Richmond,

by Virginia Indian Chiefs Steve Adkins, Ken Adams and Anne Richardson.

“The Virginia tour will add to Yasmine’s understanding and appreciation for Pocahontas as she visits and explores where Pocahontas was born, raised and developed into one of the most influential women in history,” Mr. Tatnall said.

The daughter of Chief Powhatan, who was head of a network of tribal nations in Virginia’s Tidewater region, Pocahontas was noted for her association with the colonial settlement at Jamestown.

Historically, she is known for saving the life of John Smith in 1607 by placing her head upon his own when her father raised his war club to

Ronald E. Carrington/Richmond Free Press

British actress Yasmine Hassabu, right, who will portray Pocahontas in the play, “Gravesend,” meets Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan last week outside the state office building off Capitol Square that bears the Virginia Indian woman’s name.

execute him. In return, Capt. Smith established trading agreements with the tribes.

In 1614, she converted to Christianity and was baptized “Rebecca,” marrying colonist John Rolfe in April of that year. The marriage led to the “Peace of Pocahontas,” a peace treaty between the English and the Powhatan Indians that lasted until 1622.

In 1616, she traveled to England with her husband and infant son, Thomas, and became ill and died in 1617 while en route back to Virginia.

She was 22 and was buried at Gravesend.

Theories abound about the cause of her death, ranging from pneumonia, smallpox and tuberculosis to poisoning.

The play, “Gravesend,” is slated to open at the Thomas Calhoun Walker Education Center in Gloucester, close to Werowocomoco, the tribal headquarters of the Powhatan tribe where Pocahontas was born and raised. More than 20 performances are to be scheduled around Virginia.

One of the Pocahontas Project’s goals is to “share the experience” with schoolchildren through donations for youngsters to see the play during the Virginia tour.

“Theater is so motivating, inspiring and creates hope in people,” Ms. Hassabu said. “But a lot of the time, the people who should see the story, or who the story is all about, are the people, for whatever the financial reason, cannot go.”

Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018 B3

Faith News/Directory

U.S. speedskater Maame live in Reston. An instructor Biney, 18, has a smile that can suggested Ms. Biney was too light up any room, a giggle fast for figure skating and should that has charmed Olympic try speedskating instead. audiences and a joy that her With the Olympics in sight, coaches say has carried her so she moved seven months ago to far in her athletic career at such Salt Lake City, where the U.S. a young age. national team trains and where But, Ms. Biney explained in she lives with a host family her Instagram profile, that her while finishing her senior year smile “doesn’t mean my life is of high school. perfect.”

Her breakout performance “It means I appreciate what I came in December at the Olymhave and what God has blessed pic trials, when she dominated me with.” both races — and cheered so Ms. Biney already has made hard after her win that she fell history as the first black woman down on the ice laughing. to qualify for a U.S. Olympic Afterward, she posted on Rick Bowmer/Associated Press speedskating team.

Instagram, “I want to start off Maame Biney celebrates her win in the women’s Her trademark smile faltered 500-meter race during the Olympic short track by thanking God. I am so sure for a moment early Feb. 13 speedskating trials in December in Kearns, Utah. that none of this would have when she was eliminated from happened if it wasn’t for him. … the quarterfinals in the 500-meter race, her best event. And she I also want to thank God for giving me the passion to do this.” was still positive after coming in last in her 1,500-meter short She also thanked her friends, her fellow skaters, her host famtrack heat. ily, her dad — and God again, for giving her dad the strength to “I just have to wait four more years to be able to get back wake up and drive her to practice for years. And she thanked her into this big stage. I can’t wait,” she said. “church family,” though she didn’t mention to which church or Ms. Biney was born in Ghana, where her mother and brother denomination she belongs. still live. She started skating at age 5, when her dad, Kweku “Without your prayers for safe travels and successful comBiney, pointed out a roadside sign for a “learn to skate” event petitions I honestly don’t believe that my dad and I would have when she first visited him in Northern Virginia, where they now made it this far,” she wrote.

“The Church With A Welcome”

Sharon Baptist Church

Dr. Dwight C. Jones & Dr. Derik E. Jones Invites You to Join The First Baptist Church of South Richmond

Black History Month 8:30 a.m. ....Sunday School 10:00 a.m. ...Morning Worship

“The People’s Church”

2018 Theme: The Year of Transition



Sundays:

Morning Worship Church School Morning Worship

8 A.M. 9:30 A.M. 11 A.M.

Church School Morning Worship

8:30 A.M. 10 A.M.

6:30 p.m.

Prayer and Praise 7:00 p.m.

Bible Study

e ercies iisr  a.m. ul ile Su :0 p.m. ie oore Sree o 

Zion Baptist Church 2006 Decatur Street Richmond, VA 23224 zbcoffice@verizon.net

d

Dr. Robert L. Pettis, Sr., Pastor Sunday Service 10 a.m.

Church School 8:45 a.m.

Wednesday Bible Study 7p.m.

Transportation Services (804) 859-1985 “Reclaiming the Lost by Proclaiming the Gospel”

21st Annual Cultural Heritage Festival 2018 Theme: “Forgotten Figures” told in art, song, drama, dance, poetry, and oration.

Watch his- and her- stories come alive!

400 South Addison Street Richmond, Va. 23220

(near Byrd Park)

(804) 359- 1691 or 359- 3498 Facebook Fax (804) 359- 3798 sixthbaptistrva www.sixthbaptistchurch.org

2040 Mountain Road • Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 Office 804-262-0230 • Fax 804-262-4651 • www.stpeterbaptist.net

Celebrating 100

Years of Collective Pastoral Leadership at Second Baptist lewis Hill brown

Spiritual Enrichment Series Established 1846

Heritage Celebration Saturday, February 24, 2018 4:00 PM Presentation: “Black Inventors” Mr. James Wright Lecture: Black Church and Black Theology Dr. Corey Walker Music and repast

PaneliSTS: emily Corbin Douglas Harris kenyatta M. Poole lindsey Harris James Giles nadia anderson allen robinson otha Carpenter

Second Baptist Church

1701 Turner Road, North Chesterfield, Virginia 23225 (804) 276-0791 office (804)276-5272 fax www.ndec.net

nd 22 Founders &

Dr. Corey Walker

Church Anniversary

Mid-Day Bible Study 12 Noon Prayer & Praise 6:30 P.M. Bible Study 7 P.M. (Children/Youth/Adults)

Friday, February 23, 2018 at 7:00 p.m.

Sunday, March 18, 2018 Mass Choir Anniversary 10:45AM

1 p.m.

Pastor Kevin Cook

Thursdays:

Unity Sundays (2nd Sundays):

Message #4: Plenty Good Room Various Scriptures



“MAKE IT HAPPEN”

Worship Opportunities

 BLACK HISTORY MONTH MESSAGE



Early Morning Worship ~ 8 a.m.

Sunday School ~ 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship ~ 11 a.m.

4th Sunday Unified Worship Service ~ 9:30 a.m.

Bible Study: Wednesdays, 11:30 a.m. & 7 p.m.

Sermons Available at BRBCONLINE.org

Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor

Sunday, February 25, 2018 10:45AM ñ Praise & Worship Message by: Pastor Bibbs

ile Su

5106 Walmsley Blvd., Richmond, VA 23224 804-276-2740 • 804-276-6535 (fax) www.BRBCONLINE.org

Wednesdays

St. Peter Baptist Church

Youth

8:45 a.m.

10 a.m.

Broad Rock Baptist Church

New Deliverance Evangelistic Church

A 21st Century Church We Embrace Diversity ó Love For All! With Ministry For Everyone

Church School Worship Service

Pastoral search - DeaDline aPril 14, 2018 info at www.tmcbc.org

Noon Day Bible Study

8775 Mount Olive Avenue Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 (804) 262-9614 Phone (804) 262-2397 Fax www.mobcva.org

Theme for 2018-2020: Mobilizing For Ministry Refreshing The Old and Emerging The New



WedneSday 12:00 p.m. Bible Study 7:00 p.m. Bible Study

Tuesdays

(Romans 8:28-29)

11:00 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

Every 3rd Sunday 2nd Sunday, 11 a.m.

Mon. 6:30 p.m.

Tues. 11 a.m. - 1 p.m.

Wed. 6:45 p.m.

Wed. 4:30 p.m.

Wed. 6:00 p.m.

Thurs., 11:45 a.m.



Sunday 9:00 a.m. Sunday School 10:00 a.m. Worship Service

8:30 a.m.

Sunday School 10:00 a.m.

Morning Worship

Rev. Darryl G. Thompson, Pastor

Sixth Baptist Church

1408 W. eih Sree  ichmo a. 0 804 5840

Serving Richmond since 1887 3200 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23223• (804) 226-1176

Sundays

Dr. Wallace J. Cook, Pastor Emeritus  Rev. Dr. James E. Leary, Interim Pastor



11:00 AM Mid-day Meditation

Thursdays Wednesdays 1:30 p.m.

6:00 p.m. ..... Prayer Service Bible Study 6:30 p.m. ..... Bible Study

Mount Olive Baptist Church

216 W. Leigh St. • Richmond, Va. 23220 Tel: 804-643-3366 • Fax: 804-643-3367 Email: ebcoffice1@yahoo.com • web: www.richmondebenezer.com

 

6:30 PM Prayer Meeting

sunday, February 25, 2018

1858

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

Tuesday Sunday 10:30 AM Bible Study 9:30 AM Church School 6:30 PM Church-wide Bible Study 11:00 AM Worship Service 6:30 PM Men's Bible Study (Each 2nd and 4th) (Holy Communion Thursday each 2nd Sunday) Wednesday (Following 2nd Sunday)

Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor

Ebenezer Baptist Church

Twitter sixthbaptistrva

Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You”

500 E. Laburnum Avenue, Richmond, VA 23222 www.sharonbaptistchurchrichmond.org (804) 643-3825

Trip to September 10-21, 2018 For more information contact the Holy Dr. Cheryl Ivey Green, 804-233-7679 or Land execministries@fbctoday.org

Sunday Worship Sunday Church School Service of Holy Communion Service of Baptism Life Application Bible Class Mid-Week Senior Adult Fellowship Wednesday Meditation & Bible Study Homework & Tutoring Scouting Program Thursday Bible Study

Good Shepherd Baptist Church 1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223-6624 • Office: (804) 644-1402

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Olympic speedskater credits success to God’s blessings

Sunday, February 25, 2018 10:00aM Worship Service Guest Preacher: Dr. Corey Walker, Dean Virginia Union University, School of Theology repast after Worship

Cheryl Hughes earl Benjamin, Jr. Charlene Hinton

1400 Idlewood Avenue Richmond, Virginia 23220 Telephone: (804) 353-7682 Fax: (804) 358-0698 sbcwestend@comcast.net www.SBCWestend.com Dr. James Henry Harris, Pastor

Bishop G. O. Glenn D. Min., Pastor Mother Marcietia S. Glenn First Lady

Sunday 8:00 a.m. Sunday School 9:00 a.m. Worship Service

Wednesday Services Noonday Bible Study 12noon-1:00 p.m.

Sanctuary - All Are Welcome!

Wednesday Evening Bible Study 7 p.m. Prayer

Saturday

8:30 a.m. Intercessory Prayer • Corporate prayer count: 131 • Noonday bible study count: 60 • Night bible study count: 86

You can now view Sunday Morning Service “AS IT HAPPENS” online!

Also, for your convenience, we now offer “full online giving.”

Visit www.ndec.net.

Friday, March 2, 2018 7:30 PM • Sunday, March 4, 2018 9:00 AM Tune in on sunday morning to wTvr - channel 6 - 8:30 a.m.

Thursday & Friday radio Broadcast wrEJ 1540 am radio - 8:15 a.m.- 8:30 a.m.

THE NEw DElivEraNcE cHrisTiaN acaDEmy (NDca)

ENROLL NOW!!!

Accepting applications for children 2 yrs. old to 4th Grade Our NDCA curriculum also consists of a Before and After program.

Now Enrolling for our Nursery Ages 6 weeks - 2yrs. old.

For more information Please call (804) 276-4433 Monday-Friday, 9am-5pm

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To advertise your church: Worship Service • Gospel Concert Vacation Bible School Homecoming • Revival

call 804-644-0496

Richmond Free Press We care about you and Richmond.

Richmond Free Press

B4 February 22-24, 2018

Obituaries/Faith Directory

Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker remembered at service

By Leah Hobbs

He served as president of the Petersburg Branch NAACP, leading nonviolent protests The life and impact of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker against segregated public facilities, including was remembered Saturday during a memorial the city’s public library, swimming pool and service for the noted civil rights leader and lunch counters at the bus terminal. He was arminister held at Petersburg’s Gillfield Baptist rested 17 times.

Church.

He and his wife of 67 years, Theresa Ann “I wonder if the people of Petersburg are aware Walker, his college sweetheart, were “Freedom of your place and significance in American, dare Riders,” protesting segregated interstate public I say, global history, for it was here transportation by riding buses with inthat God chose Dr. Walker to work in terracial groups into Southern states in the arena of history,” Dr. Joseph N. defiance of Jim Crow travel laws.

Evans, dean of the Morehouse School He played a key role in devising of Religion in Atlanta, told the gatherboycotts and demonstrations for Dr. ing of more than 300 people.

King, including the August 1963 “So we come here today to this March on Washington for Jobs and citadel of the faith to pay tribute to Freedom, and raising money to supthe man.” port the SCLC’s crucial civil rights Dr. Walker Dr. Walker, 88, who served as work.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s chief strategist in He also was instrumental in circulating Dr. his role as executive director of the Southern King’s famous “Letter From Birmingham Jail,” Christian Leadership Conference in the 1960s, written in April 1963. died Tuesday, Jan. 23, in Chester, where he Later, as pastor of Canaan Baptist Church lived for the last 14 years. in Harlem from 1966 until a stroke forced his After earning his bachelor’s degree in chem- retirement in 2004, he led the church’s developistry and physics and a master’s in divinity from ment of affordable housing, retail stores and a Virginia Union University, he began his ministry senior services center. He also founded a charter and activism in Petersburg, where he was pas- school in Harlem. tor of Gillfield Baptist in 1953, along with Mt. Dignitaries, including 4th District CongressLevel Baptist Church in Dinwiddie. man A. Donald McEachin, state Sens. Rosalyn

R. Dance of Petersburg and Jennifer L. McClellan of Richmond, and Mayor Levar M. Stoney, attended the service, while an officiant said the Walker family has received letters of tribute and sympathy from former President Clinton, U.S. Sens. Tim Kaine and Mark Warner, Congressman John Lewis of Georgia, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Virginia Gov. Ralph S. Northam and Lt. Gov. Justin E. Fairfax, to name a few.

Dr. Evans described how Dr. Walker and Dr. King met on the campus of Virginia Union University in the 1950s.

“Who would have thought, and how could we see, that he would plan the movements of

seats of power to fight oppression and to provide access to the least of these, and to ensure the rights of every man are protected and that access is provided without regard for a person’s ethnicity was what Dr. Walker was all about. When he saw the generations that came behind him fulfilling that, he was extremely proud.”

Dr. Jones said he was proud when Dr. Walker and his wife joined his church, First Baptist, in recent years.

Dr. Walker, who served on the faculties of three seminaries and was interim dean of doctoral studies at Union Theological Seminary in New York, published several books in the field of ethnomusicology and was viewed as an authority on African-American sacred music.

The music-filled memorial service included an arrangement by Dr. Walker of the spiritual, “Somebody’s Calling My Name.” The Rev. Nolan Williams Jr., chief music editor of The African-American Heritage Hymnal, for which Dr. Walker wrote the introduction, also offered a musical tribute.

“The memory of Dr. Walker calls on us to continue contemplating the world not as it is, but as it might be,” said Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press Dr. Ronald A. Crutcher, Left, the family of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker and others attending last Saturday’s memorial service for the late civil rights icon president of the Univerjoin hands to sing “We Shall Overcome.” Dr. Walker’s wife of sity of Richmond, where 67 years, Theresa Ann Walker, second from left in front pew, Dr. Walker’s papers and was his college sweetheart. Above, Dr. Dwight C. Jones, senior artifacts will be available pastor at First Baptist Church of South Richmond and a former to scholars and the public Richmond mayor, talks about his mentor, Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, for research. during the memorial service.

“Because of all that our time that changed history,” he said. he shared with us, we do not fear the loss of Dr. Walker was a mentor to many, including the memory of Dr. Walker,” he continued.

Dr. Dwight C. Jones, a VUU graduate and senior “He bequeathed his life’s work to our students pastor of First Baptist Church of South Richmond, and to scholars of all ages so that they may who represented Richmond in the Virginia House be inspired by his messages of equality and of Delegates and served eight years as Richmond’s hope. We are humbled by our mission and mayor until December 2016. will mind his treasure and preserve his legacy “After all, to have (African-American) may- for all days.” ors and governors and congressmen and even a A symposium in Dr. Walker’s honor is being president was what he fought for as a freedom planned to introduce the collection to scholars fighter,” Dr. Jones said. “That blacks could sit in and the public next fall, Dr. Crutcher said.

Lerone Bennett Jr., noted historian of black America, dies at 89

Free Press wire reports

Perhaps no other voice — or pen — captured the real life of Africans and AfricanAmericans like Lerone Bennett Jr., the former editor of Ebony and JET magazines.

The historian and journalist whose prolific writings detailed the history and essence of black America died Wednesday, Feb. 14, 2018. He was 89 and suffered from advanced vascular dementia.

Among his many hardhitting and compelling works was “Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America,” first published in 1962. In it, Mr. Bennett traces black history from its origins in Western Africa, through the transatlantic journey and slavery, the Reconstruction period, the Jim Crow era and the Civil Rights Movement.

Mr. Bennett would go on to pen at least 10 books, including the 2000 book titled “Forced into Glory: Abraham Lincoln’s White Dream,” which, for some, shattered centuries-old myths about the 16th president’s involvement in the freedom of slaves.

“Smart man and great author. His book (about Lincoln)

changed my life,” publishers, editors said comedian Sinand journalists.” bad. “‘Before the Mr. Bennett was Mayflower’ educatborn Oct. 17, 1928, ed me about the need in Clarksdale, Miss. to research our true His parents divorced history.” when he was young.

Others, too, exHe grew up in Jackpressed their sadson, Miss., where he ness about his death began writing for the and gratitude for his Mississippi EnterMr. Bennett work. prise, the black newsMr. Bennett counted as an paper, at age 12. He worked elegant scholar and freedom on the student newspaper at fighter who used the power Morehouse College, publishing of his pen to awaken millions some of the early writings of of people to the true history Martin Luther King Jr., who of African people in America also was a student there. and throughout the world, said After graduation in 1949, Mr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr., presi- Bennett worked for the Atlanta dent and CEO of the National Daily World, another black Newspaper Publishers Associa- publication, before moving to tion, which represents more than JET magazine in Chicago as 200 African-American owned an associate editor in 1953. A newspapers. year later, he moved to its sister His “journalistic genius publication, Ebony magazine, will be missed, but his con- and became senior editor in tributions to documenting the struggles and triumphs of black men, women and children will continue to be cherished by generations far into the future,” Mr. Chavis said.

“The NNPA salutes the living legacy of Lerone Bennett Jr. with a commitment to pick up his pen and put it into the hands of today’s freedom fighting

James Woolfolk, retired owner of Woolfolk & Sons Seafood, dies at 95 The longtime owner and operator of a popular seafood restaurant in Church Hill has died.

James W. Woolfolk Jr. ran Woolfolk & Sons Seafood for decades with his wife, Theresa, and their children in the 1600 block of Mechanicsville Turnpike.

In 2011, he and his wife closed the restaurant and retired.

Mr. Woolfolk died Sunday, Feb. 11, 2018.

He was 95.

His life was celebrated Saturday, Feb. Mr. Woolfolk 17, at Eastminster Presbyterian Church in the Mosby Court community.

In addition to his wife, survivors include two sons, Clayton Godbold and Kermit Woolfolk; his sister, Louise Neal; 11 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

1958. Later, he became executive editor.

His career at Ebony spanned nearly 50 years, working with Johnson Publishing Company founder John H. Johnson to establish Ebony’s voice.

“Lerone was not just essential in the formation of Ebony’s historic trajectory, he was a pillar in the black community,” said Linda Johnson Rice, daughter of the late Mr. Johnson and now Ebony’s chief executive officer.

Mr. Bennett’s other books include “What Manner of a Man: A Biography of Martin Luther King Jr.” published in 1964, “Black Power U.S.A.: The Human Side of Reconstruction, 1867-1877” in 1967 and “The Shaping of Black America” in 1975.

He served as an early adviser to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American

History and Culture and at one time served on President Clinton’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.

His footprints are enshrined at the International Civil Rights Walk of Fame in Atlanta.

In an oral history recorded for the National Visionary Leadership Project in 2010, Mr. Bennett talked about a three-part approach to affecting change: “Every black person is obligated to try to do what he does as well as any person who ever lived can do it, or any person who ever lives can do it; then to try to save one — just one — person if you can,” he said.

“And then to struggle to destroy a system which is multiplying black victims faster than all the black intellectuals and the black leaders in America can talk about. I see those three things connected.”

Helena V. Hicks

February 27, 1918 – August 17, 2014

Happy 100th Birthday

May the Angels sing to you the most joyous chorus of ‘Happy Birthday’ as you celebrate with your precious son, James

Forever in Our Hearts Daughter: Alma Grandchildren: Joy and Spike

Riverview

Baptist Church 2604 Idlewood Avenue Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 353-6135 www.riverviewbaptistch.org Rev. Dr. Stephen L. Hewlett, Pastor Rev. Dr. Ralph Reavis, Sr. Pastor Emeritus

SUNDAY SCHOOL - 9:45 A.M. SUNDAY WORSHIP SERVICE 11:00 A.M.

Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities

CEMETERY

FLOWER REMOVAL

SPRING CLEAN-UP

March 1-15, 2017

Owners of lots and grave sites in City-owned and operated cemeteries are reminded that according to City Code all flowers, decorations and non approved vases must be removed from lots and grave sites

by March 1. This is to allow for the Cemeteries Division of the Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities to conduct its annual spring cleanup.

According to City Code, any items left on the ground can and will be collected and disposed of by cemetery staff.

New flower arrangements may be placed on grave sites and on lots after March 15.

Floral arrangements that are on monuments or memorials, or in vases on monuments or memorials, do not need to be removed for the cleanup.

All flowers that are not in vases on the headstones will be removed City-owned cemeteries include Barton Heights, Shockoe Hill, Oakwood, Riverview, Maury and Mount Olivet.

QUESTIONS?

Call 804-646-1401 or 804-646-1402, Monday - Friday 8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018 B5

Legal Notices City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, March 12, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2018-016 As Amended To authorize the special use of the property known as 900 St. James Street for the purpose of a building with nonresidential uses on the first floor and up to 12 dwelling units on the upper floors, upon certain terms and conditions. The property is located in the R‑53 Multifamily Residential District.

The City of Richmond’s Master Plan currently recommends Institutional and Single‑Family (low density) land use for the property. Primary Institutional uses include places of worship, private schools, universities, museums, hospitals and other care facilities.

(Richmond Master Plan, p. 135). The primary uses for Single‑Family (low density) land use include single‑family detached dwellings at densities up to seven units per acre and residential support uses such as churches, parks, and recreational facilities (p. 133). The density of the proposed development is approximately 14 units per acre.

Ordinance No. 2018-039 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute a Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Agreement between the City of Richmond, Virginia, and the Sheriff of the County of Hanover, Virginia, for the purpose of establishing cooperation between the City’s Department of Police and the Sheriff in the furnishing of certain law enforcement services. (COMMITTEE: Public Safety, Tuesday, February 27, 2018, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2018-040 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer, for and on behalf of the City of Richmond, to execute a Law Enforcement Mutual Aid Agreement between the City of Richmond, Virginia, and the City of Petersburg, Virginia, for the purpose of establishing cooperation between the City of Richmond’s Department of Police and the City of Petersburg’s Police Department in the furnishing of certain law enforcement services.

(COMMITTEE: Public Safety, Tuesday, February 27, 2018, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so.

Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at www.Richmondgov. com and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candice D. Reid Interim City Clerk City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL Public Notice Notice is hereby given that the City of Richmond Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, March 5, 2018 at 1:30 p.m. in the Fifth Floor Conference Room of City Hall and the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, March 12, 2018 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances:

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and limited public and semi-public uses. The proposed density of the development would be approximately 96 units per acre. Neighborhood Commercial land uses consist of office, personal service and retail uses, intended to provide the daily convenience shopping and service needs of adjacent neighborhood residents. No residential density is specified for the Neighborhood Commercial land use designation.

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so. Copies of the full text of all ordinances are available by visiting the City Clerk’s page on the City’s Website at www.

Richmondgov.com; the Main City Library located at 101 East Franklin Street; and in the Office of the City Clerk, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Candice D. Reid Interim City Clerk

Divorce VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF HENRICO COUNTY LOLITA JONES-EPPS, Plaintiff v.

KENNETH W. EPPS, Defendant.

Case No.: CL17005158-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony.

It is ORDERED that Kenneth W. Epps appear at the above-named court and protect his/her interests on or before March 26, 2018.

A Copy Teste: HEIDI S. BARSHINGER, Clerk VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER TARA CULTON, Plaintiff v.

MARK PRATT, Defendant.

Case No.: CL18000458-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 9th day of April, 2018 at 9:00 AM and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER KRISSY MASON, Plaintiff v.

ROSCOE MASON, Defendant.

Case No.: CL18000185-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of living separate and apart without any cohabitation and without interruption for a period exceeding twelve months.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 14th day of March, 2018 at 9:00 AM and protect his interests.

A Copy, Teste: FRANK D. HARGROVE, JR., Clerk I ask for this: Dorothy M. Eure Counsel for Plaintiff VSB# 27724 8460 Mount Eagle Road Ashland, VA 23005 (804) 798-9667

PROPERTY

Ordinance No. 2018-041 To authorize the special use of the properties known as 1218, 1224, 1226, and 1228 East Brookland Park Boulevard for the purpose of permitting a multifamily dwelling containing up to 76 dwelling units, upon certain terms and conditions. The properties are situated in a UB Urban Business District, a UB-2 Urban Business District, and the PE-8 Meadowbridge Road and Six Points Parking Exempt Overlay District. The City’s Master Plan recommends Single Family Low Density and Neighborhood Commercial land use for the properties. Single Family Low Density land use primarily consists of single-family detached dwellings at densities up to seven units per acre.

It includes residential support uses such as schools, places of worship, neighborhood parks and recreation facilities,

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HENRICO JOHN W. KRECKMAN, and LOLITA D. KRECKMAN, Plaintiffs, v.

Carol Martin, Sharon Hampton, TimOTHY Hampton, GregORY Hampton, Alan Hampton,and THE VARIOUS BENEFICIARIES, DEVISEES, SUCCESSORS AND ASSIGNS OF WILLIE B. HAMPTON, DECEASED, AND OTHER PARTIES,WHO MAY HAVE AN INTEREST IN THE PROPERTY AS DEFINED HEREIN, WHOSE NAMES AND LAST NAMES AND ADDRESSES ARE UNKNOWN, AND MADE PARTY DEFENDANTS

BY THE GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE PARTIES UNKNOWN, Defendants.

Case No.: CL17001635-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The above-styled suit seeks a judicial order declaring that certain real property located at 2614

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Lindbrook Drive, Richmond, Virginia 23228 and more particularly identified as: (a) Tax ID Parcel No. 777-751-4911; (b) All that certain lot or parcel of land lying and being in Henrico County, Virginia, being a portion of Lot No. 112 as shown on the Revised Plan of a Portion of Hilliard Park made by Thornton L. Mullins, Certified Civil Engineer, dated July 24, 1941, and recorded in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Henrico County, Virginia, in Plat Book 18 page 65 and more fully described as follows: Beginning at a point on the northern line of Lindbrook Drive (a.k.a Linbrook Drive), which point is marked by a rod and is at the point where the dividing line between Lots 111 and 112 as shown on the above mentioned Revised Plan of a Portion of Hilliard Park intersects with the said northern line of Lindbrook Drive (a.k.a Linbrook Drive); thence proceeding eastwardly along the said northern line of Lindbrook Drive (a.k.a Linbrook Drive) as it curves slightly to the right, the arc of a circle having a radius of 556.40 feet, a distance of 80.00 feet to a rod; thence leaving Lindbrook Drive (a.k.a Linbrook Drive) and proceeding North 37 degrees 29 minutes 40 seconds West 200.00 feet to a rod; thence South 61 degrees 06 minutes 18 seconds West 79.93 feet to a rod; thence South 37 degrees 29 minutes 40 seconds East 200.00 feet to the point of the beginning. (hereinafter referred to as the “Property”) is rightfully and properly owned by Plaintiffs, who have title to the Property by adverse possession.

The persons whose interests are potentially affected in this suit are any beneficiaries, devisees, successors or assigns of Willie B. Hampton (“Hampton”), a previous owner of the Property who died in 1997.

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that there may be unknown parties potentially claiming an interest in the abovereferenced Property who cannot be located or identified after due diligence, and their names and addresses remaining unknown, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants appear on April 2, 2018 at 9:00 AM in this Court to protect their interests.

Entered 1/26/18 An Extract Teste: HEIDI S. BARSHINGER, Clerk WE ASK FOR THIS: Courtney Paulk (VSB No. 45523) Kelly Bundy (VSB No. 86327) Hirschler Fleischer, A Professional Corporation The Edgeworth Building 2100 East Cary Street (23223-7078) Post Office Box 500 Richmond, Virginia 23218-0500 Telephone: (804) 771-9500 Facsimile: (804) 644-0957 E-mail: cpaulk@hf-law.com kbundy@hf-law.com Counsel for John W. and Lolita D. Kreckman

Will Book 52 page 7 first to his wife, who is upon information and belief deceased, and then to their seven unnamed children, last owner of record of said property, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

deceased and HOWARD K . G L A S COC K , u p o n information and belief deceased, Trustees on a deed of trust filed in the records of the Richmond Circuit Court at Deed Book 699C page 304 on October 2, 1975, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

GEORGE L. LIPSCOMB, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL17-6052 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 3205 P Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number E0000805/003, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owners of record, against George L. Lipscomb and Shirley A. Lipscomb.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, GEORGE L. LIPSCOMB, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that said owner, SHIRLEY A. LIPSCOMB, who has been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to her last known address, has not been personally located and has not filed a response to this action; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that GEORGE L. LIPSCOMB, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in interest, SHIRLEY A. LIPSCOMB, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-470 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 115 Lipscomb Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number S0000151/012, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, T RI - S TAT E H U S K IE S , LLC.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

GEORGE SMITH, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-463 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 2640 Belt Boulevard, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number C009-0480/054, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, George Smith.

An Affidavit having been filed that said GEORGE SMITH, owner per a deed filed in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Deed Book 192 page 10 on 24 February 1928, said George Smith having devised this property in a will probated on 14 June 1955 in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Will Book 52 page 7 first to his wife, who is upon information and belief deceased, and then to their seven unnamed children, last owner of record of said property, whose post-office address is not known, and who has not been located despite the diligent efforts of counsel for the City of Richmond to do so, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, whose names are unknown, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that GEORGE SMITH, owner per a deed filed in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Deed Book 192 page 10 on 24 February 1928, said George Smith having devised this property in a will probated on 14 June 1955 in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Continued on next column

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

CLARINE B. TAYLOR, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-465 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 2 West Leigh Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number N0000104/027, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owners of record, Clarine B. Taylor, Andrea L. Brandon, and Robert Taylor.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owners, CLARIN E B. TAYLOR, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, ANDREA L. BRANDON, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, and ROBERT TAYLOR, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that WATSON M. MARSHALL, upon information and belief deceased and HOWARD K . G L A S COC K , u p o n information and belief deceased, Trustees on a deed of trust filed in the records of the Richmond Circuit Court at Deed Book 699C page 304 on October 2, 1975, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that CLARIN E B. TAYLOR, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, ANDREA L. BRANDON, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, ROBERT TAYLOR, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, WATSON M. MARSHALL, upon information and belief

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

JOSEPH BAGBY, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL17-5573 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 509 North 28th Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number E0000528/025, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Joseph Bagby and Hudie Bagby.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owners, JOSEPH BAGBY, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, and HUDIE BAGBY, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that ELIZABETH ANN BAILEY, EARL BAILEY, JR, HUDIE LAVERNE BAILEY, and STUART LEROY BAILEY, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that JOYCE BARBOUR PULLER aka J O Y CE B A I L E Y a n d ANTHONY BAILEY, who may have an ownership interest in said property, who have been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to their last known address, have not been personally located and have not filed a response to this action; that JOSEPH MICHAEL BAILEY, who may have an ownership interest in said property, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that JOSEPH BAGBY, upon information and belief deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, HUDIE BAGBY, upon information and belief deceased, or her heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, ELIZABETH ANN BAILEY, EARL BAILEY, JR, HUDIE LAVERNE BAILEY, STUART LEROY BAILEY, JOYCE BARBOUR PULLER aka JOYCE BAILEY, ANTHONY BAILEY, JOSEPH MICHAEL B A I L E Y, a n d P a r t i e s Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq.

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City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-466 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 1313 North 22nd Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number E000-0616/021, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

WILLIAM E. FISHER JR., et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL17-5619 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 1316 Overlook Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number S0071180/023, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, William E. Fisher, Jr.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, WILLIAM E. FISHER JR, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that WILLIAM E. FISHER JR, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

CALVIN BOOKER, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL17-5827 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 1429 Mechanicsville Turnpike, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number E000-0768/034, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, Calvin Booker.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, CALVIN BOOKER, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action; that CALVIN ARTIS, JANET WRIGHT, JANET WRIGHT, and TONYA WILLIAMS, who may have an ownership interest in said property, who have been served by posting and by mailing a copy of the complaint to their last known address, have not been personally located and have not filed a response to this action; and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with Continued on next column

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a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that CALVIN BOOKER, who upon information and belief is deceased, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, CALVIN ARTIS, JANET WRIGHT, JANET WRIGHT, TONYA WILLIAMS, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

filed that said owner, TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-467 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 1824 North 28th Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number E012-0426/002, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-469 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 2304 Fairfax Avenue, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number S000-0550/004, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC.

An Affidavit having been filed that said owner, TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, has not been located and has not filed a response to this action and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that TRISTATE HUSKIES, LLC, an entity not appearing in the records of the Virginia State Corporation Commission and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-468 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 2403 Everett Street, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number S000-0565/013, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, TRI-STATE HUSKIES, LLC.

An Affidavit having been Continued on next column

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING CITY OF RICHMOND, Plaintiff, v.

GEORGE SMITH, et al, Defendants.

Case No.: CL18-464 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to subject the property briefly described as 2520 Belt Boulevard, Richmond, Virginia, Tax Map Number C009-0480/022, to sale in order to collect delinquent real estate taxes assessed thereon in the name of the owner of record, George Smith.

An Affidavit having been filed that said GEORGE SMITH, owner per a deed filed in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Deed Book 192 page 10 on 24 February 1928, said George Smith having devised this property in a will probated on 14 June 1955 in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Will Book 52 page 7 first to his wife, who is upon information and belief deceased, and then to their seven unnamed children, last owner of record of said property, whose post-office address is not known, and who has not been located despite the diligent efforts of counsel for the City of Richmond to do so, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, whose names are unknown, have not been located and have not filed a response to this action, and that any heirs, devisees, assignees, successors in interest, successors in title and/or any creditors with a current or future interest in said property, have not been identified and/or served despite diligent efforts to do so and are defendants to this suit by the general description of “Parties Unknown.”

IT IS ORDERED that GEORGE SMITH, owner per a deed filed in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Deed Book 192 page 10 on 24 February 1928, said George Smith having devised this property in a will probated on 14 June 1955 in the records of the Chesterfield Circuit Court at Will Book 52 page 7 first to his wife, who is upon information and belief deceased, and then to their seven unnamed children, last owner of record of said property, or his heirs, devisees, assignees or successors in title, and Parties Unknown, come forward to appear on or before MARCH 22, 2018 and do what is necessary to protect their interests in this matter.

An Extract, Teste: Edward F. Jewett, Clerk Gregory A. Lukanuski, Esq. City of Richmond, Office of the City Attorney 900 E. Broad Street Richmond, VA 23219 804-646-7940 VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE CITY OF RICHMOND PAUL MASON, JR, an incapacitated adult by JEWISH FAMILY SERVICES, a public guardianship program, his Guardian and Conservator, PLAINTIFF, v.

DONALD L. PETRI, JR., and COATES & DAVENPORT, P.C., Judgement Creditor, and CITY OF RICHMOND, Tax Lien Creditor, DEFENDANTS. NOTICE OF SPECIAL COMMISSIONER’S SALE OF Tax Parcel Numbers W0190082002 & W0190092003 also known as 4619 & 4620 AUGUSTA AVENUE

Pursuant to a decree of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, Virginia, made and entered on August 31, 2017, in the partition suit brought by Paul Mason, Jr, An Incapacitated Adult By Jewish Family Services, A Public Guardianship Program, his Guardian and Conservator, against Donald L. Petri, Jr., et als., on Monday, February 26, 2018 @ 9:00am the under signed Special Commissioner will offer for public auction to the highest bidder at the front door of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond, Virginia, located at 400 North Ninth Street, John Marshall Courts Continued on next column

B6

Richmond Free Press

February 22-24, 2018

Sports Plus

Highland Springs’ Jada Walker inherits mom, dad’s basketball genes

By Fred Jeter

If anyone was ever born to shoot, dribble and pass a basketball, it might be Jada Walker.

Her family tree likely has hoops on each branch and perhaps a 3-point arc surrounding the trunk.

With great expectations, Jada arrived this season as a freshman guard at Highland Springs High School in Henrico County and she hasn’t disappointed.

“Jada is very talented and very smart basketball-wise. She gets that from mom and dad,” said Springers Coach Franklin Harris.

In spurring Highland Springs to an 18-3 regular season record, the quickas-a-blink 5-foot-6 southpaw averaged 18.3 points, five steals, four assists and three rebounds per contest.

A perennial state title contender, the Springers commenced 5A regional play earlier this week.

Jada’s rare gift of being able to dominate on the hardwood was inherited from both sides of her family.

Her father, Jonathan Walker, holds Virginia Union University’s record for assists in a single season (220 in 1989) and helped the Panthers to two CIAA crowns. His No. 11 jersey was retired and is hanging in a place of honor in VUU’s BarcoStevens Hall.

Jada wears No. 11 for Highland Springs, honoring her dad.

Jonathan Walker previously served as the head men’s coach at Cuyahoga Community College near

Cleveland.

Jada’s mother, AnnMarie Gilbert, is the ultrasuccessful women’s basketball coach at VUU, with a stunning 78-10 record in three seasons. At one juncture, her husband, Jonathan Walker, served as her assistant coach.

Coach Gilbert played ball in college. She averaged 31 points during her final two seasons at Oberlin College in Ohio, leading the NCAA Division III school in scoring as a junior. Oberlin retired her No. 22 jersey.

Born in Ann Arbor, Mich., Jada says her first basketball memories are from age 4 or 5, when her mom was an assistant coach at Michigan State University.

“I remember we had a little basket in the house that I dunked on,” she said with a giggle of recollection.

Nowadays, Jada does just about everything but dunk for the Springers and for her offseason travel team with the Hampton-based Boo Williams Summer League.

She’s in line to become a top tier NCAA Division I prospect.

“I’ve already offered Jada a scholarship to Virginia Union. She hasn’t accepted,” Coach Gilbert said, joking.

Jada jumps in to work out with the Lady Panthers and more than holds her own, both playing the game and in racing wind sprints.

One day former Panthers men’s Coach Dave Robbins wandered into the VUU gym while the Lady Panthers were practicing.

“I figured (Jada) was on our (VUU) team,” Coach Robbins said. “I thought she was small, but good.” At the time, Walker was in the eighth grade.

The Walker family lives in Western Henrico County. Jada has a younger brother, Jaden, a seventhgrader who plays on the Brookland Middle School basketball team.

Last year as an eighth-grader, Jada led Brookland Middle School to the Henrico County finals. In the championship game, she netted 46 points in a loss to Fairfield Middle School, the primary feeder to Highland Springs High.

Hermitage High School is her neighborhood school, but she chose Highland Springs High to study in its Advance College Academy and to join Coach Harris’ juggernaut basketball program.

Coach Harris said he got the uplifting news that Jada would be coming his way in August. She had visited several other high schools.

“Jada is a great kid and we’re trying to play down the notoriety,” Coach Harris said. “We don’t want there to be any pressure.

She just loves being a high school student.”

The Springers have been to the State 5A finals three of the last four years, each time losing to Princess Anne High School of Virginia Beach at the Siegel Center in Richmond.

There was concern this might be a rebuilding season for Highland Springs because of the loss of three

NCAA Division I signees from last year’s 26-2 team—Camarie Gatling at George Mason University, Cece Crudup at University of North Carolina-Greensboro and Jennifer Coleman at the Naval Academy.

With newcomer Jada exerting plenty of gusto, the Springers never lost their victory rhythm.

The team’s only losses this season have been to St. Frances Academy of Baltimore, Millbrook High School of Winchester and private schools powerhouse Trinity Episcopal in Richmond.

The three schools besting Highland Springs were a combined 68-4 starting this week.

“My goal is to win a state championship,” said Jada, who fashions her game after WNBA star Diana Taurasi. “We’re facing a lot of tough competition, but I like a challenge.”

Highland Springs would seem to be up for any challenge — including PrincessAnne High — with Jada spearheading its quick-striking attack.

The only problem is that college coaching tends to be nomadic profession. Many suspect Coach Gilbert, who guided VUU to the NCAA Division II finals last winter, may be offered a coaching position with a Division I school and the family will move.

While Coach Harris wishes the very best for the family, replacing Jada would be no easy task.

“We’re holding our breath,” Coach Harris said.

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities Continued from previous page

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Building Richmond, VA 23219, the following described real estate: Parcel One As described as 0.143 +/- AC plus improvements Tax W0190082002 and further described in Deed Book 265 at Page 144 as that certain lot, piece or parcel of land with all improvements thereon and appurtenances thereunto belonging, lying and being in the City of Richmond, Virginia, known as 4621 Augusta Avenue, situate in the southeast intersection of Augusta Avenue and Blacker Street, having a frontage of 50 feet on the South line of Augusta Avenue and running back within parallel lines 125 feet, the western line being the eastern line of Blacker Street, to an alley 15 feet wide and being Lots 1 and 2 of Block 16 on the plan of Monument Avenue Park as shown on a plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 10, Pages 52 and 53, in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Henrico County, Virginia.

Parcel Two As described a s 0 . 0 7 2 + / - AC Ta x W0190082003 and further described in Deed Book Deed Book 265 at Page 144 all that certain lot, piece or parcel with all improvements thereon and appurtenances thereunto belonging, lying and being in the City of Richmond, Virginia, designated as Lot Three (3), Block Sixteen (16) on the plan of Monument Avenue Park as shown on a plat thereof recorded in Plat Book 10, Pages 52 and 53, in the Clerk’s Office of the Circuit Court of Henrico County, Virginia beginning at a point on the south line of Augusta Avenue distant thereon fifty (50) feet east of its intersection with the eastern line of Blacker Street; thence running eastwardly along and fronting on the south line of Augusta Avenue twenty-five (25) feet; thence extending back southwardly from said front between parallel lines one hundred and twenty-five (125) feet to an alley fifteen (15) feet wide.

Terms of Sale: Property sold “As Is, Where As”. Property to be conveyed by Special Warranty Deed. Sale-SUBJECT TO COURT APPROVAL. Minimum bid increases of $100/bid. Bidders must prequalify on day of sale with Special Commissioner or provide cash, cashier’s check or certified funds payable to Edward F. Jewett, Clerk of the Circuit Court of the City of Richmond to the undersigned.

Minimum deposit of $2,500.

If sale is approved by court, closing to occur, failure to close within thirty (30) days will result in forfeiture of deposit.

Time is of the essence.

Additional terms may be announced time of sale For additional information contact: T.O. Rainey, III, Esquire HILL & RAINEY ATTORNEYS 2425 Boulevard, Suite 9 C o l o n i a l H e i g h t s , VA 23834 Phone: (804) 526-8300 Fax: (804) 526-2872

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Plaintiff, v.

CASE NO. CL17-4958-8 $ 310.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JAMES BURWELL, SR.; CASE NO. CL17-3501-8 $ 873.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND DOMISHEK FORBES; CASE NO. CL11-2509-8 $ 3,210.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TYRONE GRIFFIN; CASE NO. CL14-2523-8 $3,066.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND KEITH HOWARD; CASE NO. CL15-2226-8 $622.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TERRANCE LEE; CASE NO. CL16-5064-8 $702.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JOSE MINOTTAHURTADO; CASE NO. CL17-2294-8 $2,276.50 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND DWAYNE SWINSON; CASE NO. CL10F-1993-8 $1,765.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MELVIN THORNE; CASE NO. CL10F-2313-8 $1,757.37 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND ERIC PHILLIPS; CASE NO. CL10F-2476-8 $1,361.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JUSTIN PAYNE; CASE NO. CL10F-4636-8 $1,310.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MICHAEL CLAIBORNE; Defendants.

ORDER The object of the above captioned suits is to forfeit to the Commonwealth the described property or currency pursuant to VA. CODE ANN. § 19.2-386 et. seq. (which includes former Section 18.2249) (Michie 1999).

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that due diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Commonwealth to ascertain the whereabouts of the Defendants and effect service of process, without success, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants do appear on or before March 29, 2018, at 11:30 a.m. in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North Ninth Street, and do what is necessary to protect his or her interests.

I ask for this: J. Andrew Johnson (VSB#41587) Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney

DANNIS JOHNSON; CASE NO. CL14-3224-1 $777.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND EUGENE MAYO; CASE NO. CL14-869-1 $618.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND COREY PERRY; CASE NO. CL15-1725-1 $1,667.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MARIO RIVAS-CABALLO; CASE NO. CL13-2792-1 $550.15 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TRAVONN WIGGINS; CASE NO. CL10F-1734-1 $190.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENY, AND DARRON STEPHENS; CASE NO. CL10F-1994-1 $888.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND STEPHANIE MAY; CASE NO. CL10F-2018-1 $163.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MAURICE GAINYARD; CASE NO. CL10F-2306-1 $101.72 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND RAMONA HAMMOND; CASE NO. CL10F-2314-1 $106.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND LINWOOD HASKINS; CASE NO. CL10F-3218-1 $173.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TYRELLE PARKER; CASE NO. CL10F-3345-1 $521 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND LAFONIA MASON; CASE NO. CL11-2393-1 $220 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MILTON MORRIS; Defendants.

ORDER The object of the above captioned suits is to forfeit to the Commonwealth the described property or currency pursuant to VA. CODE ANN. § 19.2-386 et. seq. (which includes former Section 18.2-249) (Michie 1999).

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that due diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Commonwealth to ascertain the whereabouts of the Defendants and effect service of process, without success, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants do appear on or before April 12, 2018, at 9:00 a.m. in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North Ninth Street, and do what is necessary to protect his or her interests.

I ask for this: J. Andrew Johnson (VSB#41587) Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney

STATES CURRENCY AND MICHAEL MARROW; CASE NO. CL11-4395-2 $250.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND PAUL MILBERRY; CASE NO. CL16-5066-2 $435.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TEMONTEKE MORRIS; CASE NO. CL11-2394-2 $170.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND FORREST PRYMAK; CASE NO. CL13-3503-2 $385.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TERRENCE ROBINSON; CASE NO. CL10F-4097-2 $975.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND RAKEISHA ROBERTS; CASE NO. CL10F-4638-2 $2,259.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JACQUELINE KENNARD; Defendants.

ORDER The object of the above captioned suits is to forfeit to the Commonwealth the described property or currency pursuant to VA. CODE ANN. § 19.2-386 et. seq. (which includes former Section 18.2-249) (Michie 1999).

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that due diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Commonwealth to ascertain the whereabouts of the Defendants and effect service of process, without success, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants do appear on or before April 6, 2018, at 11:00 a.m. in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North Ninth Street, and do what is necessary to protect his or her interests.

I ask for this: J. Andrew Johnson (VSB #41587) Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney

$ 870.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND KHIRY JOHNSTON; CASE NO. 10F-1989-4 $249.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND DALTON PIERCE; CASE NO. CL17-2938-4 $804.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND CARLTON SMITH; CASE NO. CL10F-2005-4 $111.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND DEVIN ARCHIE; CASE NO. CL10F-3347-4 $132.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND SAMUEL SINGLETON; CASE NO. CL10F-4091-4 $483.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND KELVIN REAVES; CASE NO. CL10F-5344-4 $202 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND QUANTREC MEADOWS; Defendants.

ORDER The object of the above captioned suits is to forfeit to the Commonwealth the described property or currency pursuant to VA. CODE ANN. § 19.2-386 et. seq. (which includes former Section 18.2249) (Michie 1999).

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that due diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Commonwealth to ascertain the whereabouts of the Defendants and effect service of process, without success, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants do appear on or before April 9, 2018, at 1:00 p.m. in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North Ninth Street, and do what is necessary to protect his or her interests.

I ask for this: J. Andrew Johnson (VSB #41587) Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Plaintiff, CASE NO. CL11-2813-1 $ 105.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JOHNNIE EATON; CASE NO. CL17-4511-1 $ 1,666.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND OLAJUWON ELLEBY; CASE NO. CL11-5816-1 $ 979.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND DAVID GRAHAM; CASE NO. CL11-2386-1 $ 876.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY AND

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Plaintiff, v.

CASE NO. CL17-5127-2 $348.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TERRANCE ADAMS; CASE NO. CL17-5202-2 $2,244.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND KEVIN BYARS; CASE NO. CL11-2192-2 $546.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JAVARE HARGROVE; CASE NO. CL11-5796-2 $244.00 IN UNITED

STATES CURRENCY, AND ABDUL-YASEEN MUHAMMAD; CASE NO. CL 11-5800-7 $ 309 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND TONI DOUGLAS; CASE NO. CL17-3913-7 $1,205 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND LEON GREEN; CASE NO. CL17-3500-7 $6,112.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND ALBERT GRUMBLATT; CASE NO. CL15-1355-7 $3,268.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND BRIAN HARRIS; CASE NO. CL16-4635-7 $890.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JUSTIN HART; CASE NO. CL11-5814-7 ONE LOT OF ELECTRONICS, AND BRYSON NEWSOME; CASE NO. CL17-3571-7 $787.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND ANGELIQUE PARKER; CASE NO. CL15-1723-7 $160.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JOSE RUBIO; CASE NO. CL10F-1724-7 ONE LOT OF ELECTRONICS, AND KAHLID BASKERVILLE; CASE NO. CL10F-2016-7 $18,899.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY AND RYAN NICHOLS; CASE NO. CL10F-4635-7 $700.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND WAYNE BARNES; Defendants.

ORDER The object of the above captioned suits is to forfeit to the Commonwealth the described property or currency pursuant to VA. CODE ANN. § 19.2-386 et. seq. (which includes former Section 18.2249) (Michie 1999).

It appearing by affidavit filed according to law that due diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Commonwealth to ascertain the whereabouts of the Defendants and effect service of process, without success, it is therefore ORDERED that the Defendants do appear on or before March 28, 2018, at 11:00 a.m. in the Circuit Court for the City of Richmond, John Marshall Courts Building, 400 North Ninth Street, and do what is necessary to protect his or her interests.

I ask for this: J. Andrew Johnson (VSB #41587) Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney

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CURRENCY

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Plaintiff, v.

CASE NO. CL13F-5109-4 $ 270.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND CARLOS BROWN; CASE NO. CL11-1309-4 $ 213.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MYISHA GIBBS; CASE NO. CL17-463-4

VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE CITY OF RICHMOND JOHN MARSHALL COURTS BUILDING COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA Plaintiff, v.

CASE NO. CL17-1773-7 $ 3,220.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND MARVIN ADAMS; CASE NO. CL17-4664-7 $ 442.00 IN UNITED STATES CURRENCY, AND JAMAR BLACKWELL; CASE NO. CL16-4907-7 $ 628.20 IN UNITED

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Thank you for your interest in applying for opportunities with The City of Richmond.

To see what opportunities are available, please refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

EOE M/F/D/V Mount Olive Baptist Church in Glen Allen, Virginia is seeking a part-time on-call Custodian.

Applicants can pick up an application from the church office or submit a resume to: Mount Olive Baptist Church 8775 Mount Olive Ave. Glen Allen, Va. 23060 Attention: Personnel Please visit the church’s website at www.mobcva.org to view the complete job announcement for this position.

A Criminal History Background Check is required.

Part-time Music Worship Coordinator and Music Worship Leader

Riverview Baptist Church is seeking a Music Worship Coordinator who will direct the Male and Gospel Choirs and a Music Worship Leader for the Youth/Teen Choir. Musicians must be able to sight read, read music and have strong performance competencies on the piano, organ and keyboard. Applicants should possess excellent communication, organizational and interpersonal skills. Salary is commensurate with experience. The application is available at www.riverviewbaptistch.org. Return application with resume to Riverview Baptist Church, ATTN: Personnel Ministry, 2604 Idlewood Avenue, Richmond, VA 23220. Salary commensurate with experience (TBD) Closing Date: Until Filled

The Fifth Baptist Church Summer Ministry is seeking interested persons that love working with children to fill full time positions.

The dates of camp are June 18 - August 24, 2018.

Experience working with children preferred.

Send resumes via email, fifthbc@mail.com or mail to: Fifth Baptist Church, 1415 West Cary Street, Richmond, VA 23220 ATTN: Summer Camp Director

Business seCReTARY

eBeneZeR BAPTisT CHuRCH, in downtown Richmond, seeks a Business Secretary to provide secretarial services, plan and coordinate workload priorities to support the Pastor and church operations. Applicants must have excellent computer and office equipment skills; good communication and customer service skills; organizational and administrative skills, and be able to adapt to change. Applicants must have a minimum High School Diploma or Equivalency. At least 2 yearsí experience working in a church or office setting is preferred. Applicants may apply by sending resume and cover letter to Ebenezer Baptist Church, ATTN: Personnel Committee, 216 W Leigh St., Richmond, VA 23220, or to ebcoffice1@yahoo.com.

The City of Richmond announces the following project(s) available for services relating to: RFP W170024815 – Training Management Software Due Date: March 16, 2018 at 3:30 p.m.

Receipt Location: 900 East Broad Street, Room 1104, 11th Floor, Richmond, VA 23219 Information or copies of the above solicitation is available by contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website (www.RichmondGov. com), or at 11th Floor of City Hall, 900 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. Phone (804) 646-5716 or faxed (804) 646-5989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to participate in the procurement process.

For reference purposes, documents may be examined at the above location

To advertise in the

Richmond Free Press call 644-0496