Richmond Free Press February 2-4, 2023 edition

Mayor Stoney’s upbeat agenda: Increased home ownership, public safety, enhanced learning

As he launched his seventh year in office, Mayor Levar M. Stoney painted a rosy picture of a thriving city “filled with promise and hope … and purpose” Tuesday in delivering his State of the City address.

Along with noting a decline in poverty and growth in population, cultural resources and the economy, Mayor Stoney also laid out a series of new initiatives in the 45-minute speech he delivered to several hundred people at Main Street Station and to thousands of residents who tuned in online.

The city’s 41-year-old chief executive announced plans to launch programs that would enable Richmond students to continue their education at a community college; expand pre-school options in partnership with the YWCA; make home ownership more affordable; and boost public safety with the use of technology.

Leaving others to worry about a recession, the mayor emphasized the positives: “Business is booming; our financial house is in order; our streets our cleaner; and our communities are safer and

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‘black history in Virginia is Virginia’s story’ Museum exhibit explores freedom, justice, equality

By George Copeland Jr.

From a weathered slave auction block used in 19th Century South Carolina, to the military attire, documents and scientific tools of soldiers, teachers and doctors, each item in Jackson Ward’s Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia tells a story.

Whether those stories are as inspiring as the medical tools of Drs. Zenobia G. Gilpin and Isiah A. Jackson Sr., or as haunting as an 1854 deed of sale for a 6-year-old Black girl in Westmoreland County, they help deepen and expand the perception of Black history in Virginia.

The exhibition, “Forging Freedom, Justice and

Equality,” was intended to feature 40 items but soon grew to more than 100 photographs, documents and objects, collected from families, groups and private organizations throughout Virginia, including the museum itself and the personal collection of historian Elvatrice Parker Belsches, the exhibit’s curator.

Since its debut last September, “Forging Freedom” has been viewed by approximately 2,500 visitors thus far, according to museum officials.

“The exhibit is enlightening and inspiring,” said Ryan K. Smith, a professor in Virginia Commonwealth University’s Department of History, who visited on

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Impassioned calls for police reform at Tyre Nichols’ funeral

By Aaron Morrison and Adrian Sainz The Associated Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn.

Tyre Nichols ’ family and friends gathered Wednesday for a funeral that blended a celebration of his life with outrage over the brutal beating he endured at the hands of Memphis Police and heated calls for police reform.

The Rev. Al Sharpton and Vice President Kamala Harris both delivered impassioned speeches calling on Congress to pass the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act,

a broad package of police reforms that includes a national registry for police officers disciplined for misconduct, a ban on no-knock warrants and other measures.

Vice President Harris said the beating of Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, by five Black police officers was a violent act that went against the stated mission of police to ensure public safety.

City School Board, NAACP raise concerns about RPS budget proposal

By Holly Rodriguez

Superintendent Jason Kamras’ budget presentation during a School Board meeting last month launched the school division’s budget talks for the 2023-2024 school year, while also raising questions about budget allocations for RPS students.

“My main concern is again, a lack of sustainable academic needs,” Shonda Harris-Muhammed, 6th District, said in an email. I am deeply concerned that we are asking the leaders of City Council and the mayor for additional funding without the metrics to demonstrate what we have done and how we have allocated current funding.”

The School Board and Richmond City Council met last week for the first time in several years to discuss RPS funding needs. The School Board will meet several more times this month to further discuss the budget and a public hearing is set for Monday.

Ms. Harris-Muhammed is not the only Sschool Board member who has concerns and is calling for changes to the superintendent’s $35 million budget

increase over last year. Kenya Gibson, 3rd District, said while she agrees with budget dollars going toward

honoring the historic collective bargaining agreement reached for teachers and some RPS staff last year, she said resources are

needed to address student safety and chronic absenteeism.

“I am pushing for the board to hire an auditor that would focus on identifying issues related to school safety,” she said. “In the past year, we’ve had multiple fires; an autistic elementary school student was found wandering the streets; and students of a high school arrived one morning to see

“It was not in the interest of keeping the public safe, because one must ask, was not it in the interest of keeping the public safe that Tyre Nichols would be with us today? Was he not also entitled to the right to be safe? So when we talk about public safety, let us understand what it means in its truest form. Tyre Nichols should have been safe,” she said.

Rev. Sharpton said the officers who beat Mr. Nichols might have acted differently if there was real accountability for their

Morrissey banned from Henrico jail

By Debora Timms

Henrico County Sheriff Alisa

A. Gregory released a statement Tuesday confirming a Jan. 28 incident that led to the revocation of Sen. Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey’s, D-Richmond, visiting privileges to Henrico’s Jail West and Jail East for 90 days.

“At approximately 11 a.m., Mr. Joe Morrissey arrived with three young children and proceeded to leave them unattended in the lobby while he and an associate met with a client in our custody,” the statement reads.

In an accompanying incident report, Lt. G. Carey describes the children “running around, climbing on tables and chairs, and using the monitor to draw pictures.” At one point it reads, “Lt. Brown observed the youngest child exit the facility and walk

Ms. Gibson

By Jeremy Lazarus

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Mayor Levar M. Stoney delivers the State of the City address on Tuesday at Main Street Station.

Ms. Harris-Muhammed

Mr. Kamras

Andrew Nelles/The Tennessean via The Associated Press Vice President Kamala Harris sits with RowVaughn Wells and Rodney Wells during the funeral service for Wells’ son, Tyre Nichols, at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis, Tenn., on Wednesday.

Pioneering Harvard entrepreneur to be honored by Howard University

Free Press staff report

Lillian L. Lambert is being recognized by Howard University with its Alumni Award for Distinguished Postgraduate Achievement.

Mrs. Lambert was the first African-American woman to receive an MBA from Harvard University, The award, which was announced on Wednesday, Dec. 14, will be presented during the university’s annual Charter Day Dinner on Saturday March 4.

Ms. Lambert was born in Ballsville in 1940. After graduating high school, she moved North and worked for a few years as a maid and typist in New York and Washington D.C. before deciding to further her education.

In 1962, Ms. Lambert began working on her bachelor’s degree at Howard University, and after graduating in 1966, she applied and was accepted into the Harvard Business School.

She graduated from Harvard in 1969. From there, she worked several jobs over a six-year period, accumulating enough money to found Centennial One in 1976 in Landover, Md. The building services company ultimately grew and expanded into six states with more than 1,2000 employees and $20 million in sales.

Her memoir, “The Road to Someplace Better,” was published in 2010. An avid golfer, Mrs. Lamberts splits her time between Richmond and Sarasota, Fla.

Morrissey banned from Henrico jail

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through the parking lot. Lt. Brown exited Central Control and reported to the parking lot and retrieved the child.”

Sheriff Gregory’s statement says that the senator was approached by Sheriff’s office staff “on multiple occasions during the visit” and advised that for reasons of safety and security “minor children always must be accompanied by an adult at our jail facilities, including the lobby and parking lot.” It also supports staff accounts of the incident and states that Sen. Morrissey “became verbally abusive, made threatening remarks and acted in an aggressive manner to a lieutenant.”

Lt. Carey’s report goes on to detail a witness to the exchange and to make note that “the mother of the children Marina Morrisey (sic) entered the lobby and attempted to speak with myself in efforts to gain information. I, Lt. Carey informed Mrs. Morrisey (sic) that I strongly encourage her to speak with the investigations department of the Henrico Sheriff’s Office first thing Monday morning but could not go into details with her as to what took place. Mrs. Morrisey (sic) thanked me and exit (sic) the facility.”

A later phone call at 2:13 p.m. from one of Ms. Morrissey’s lawyers, Mary Elizabeth White of Fredericksburg, was also detailed. Lt. Carey’s report states “Mrs. White informed me that CPS has been notified and will be contacting someone here at the sheriff’s office and thanked me for handling myself in a professional matter (sic) and ended the phone call.”

A Free Press call placed to Ms. Morrissey to confirm these events was not returned prior to publication. The results of any custody hearing that took place were not immediately known. Liz Caroon of the Chesterfield County Police Department did confirm that the investigation into the allegations of child abuse “is still very much ongoing and there are no updates.”

Meanwhile, events have continued to unfold following the child abuse allegations Sen. Joe Morrissey, D-Richmond leveled against the boyfriend of his estranged wife more than two weeks ago.

On Jan. 25, the Virginia Supreme Court responded to a filing by Ms. Morrissey’s lawyers requesting a change of judge because of the potential bias that could result from a sitting judge presiding over a case involving a state legislator. The court informed the Chesterfield County Juvenile & Domestic Relations Court that it had appointed Judge Robert S. Brewbaker, Jr., a retired juvenile court judge, to preside over a hearing scheduled for this past Friday in which competing protective orders had been sought by both Sen. Morrissey and his estranged wife.

In a lengthy post on social media two days earlier, Ms. Morrissey again called her marriage to the senator “the biggest mistake of her life” and said she could “see now how he groomed me” when she began a relationship as a teenager with the man who was then in his mid-fifties.

Ms. Morrissey went on to post another denial of the abuse alleged by her husband and said the “welts” he claimed to see was actually a rash caused when her son was “placed and left in Pull-Ups and then a wet bathing suit while in Joe Morrissey’s care.” She added that their three children “did NOT corroborate a single allegation against my friend or me” during forensic interviews conducted by Child Protective Services.

Cityscape

At

Levar M. Stoney, interim Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards, Henrico Police Chief Eric D. English, Delegate Delores L. McQuinn, Richmond NAACP President J.J. Minor and various members of local police units came together at Jackson Ward’s Abner Clay Park on Jan. 30 to honor the life of 29-year-old Tyre Nichols of Memphis, Tenn. Mr. Nichols was a FedEx employee who died after being beaten by five Memphis police officers last month following an alleged traffic stop.

Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

City jail deputy shortages continue

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

“This feels like an emergency situation. It feels like we are in a crisis.”

That is the assessment of City Council Vice President Kristen N. Larson after she learned just how few deputies that Richmond Sheriff Antionette V. Irving now employs.

Speaking at council’s Public Safety Committee last week, the sheriff disclosed that of the 385 deputies she is authorized, she said just 215 secure the Richmond City Justice Center and fulfill other duties, such as providing courthouse security.

That is just 56 percent of her authorized strength, which some critics say is far too few.

Sheriff Irving confirmed she has 170 vacancies in the sworn ranks, up 10 from the 160 vacancies she reported last summer, with losses from retirements and resignations exceeding the hiring of replacements.

“It is still going in the wrong direction,” Sheriff Irving acknowledged.

She also reported 11 vacancies among the 100 civilians she is authorized.

Those deputies that remain are working longer shifts and mandatory overtime, the sheriff told the committee, to help her carry out her multiple duties, including housing prisoners.

Other work includes booking and releasing prisoners, providing security in the jail cafeteria and laundry and at the city’s three courthouses, transporting inmates to and from court, serving civil papers and managing evictions.

Despite advertising widely, Sheriff Irving said that filling the vacancies remains an ongoing challenge.

She said she is facing the same troubles as other law enforcement agencies in the city and elsewhere in trying to hire personnel.

The city’s Department of Emergency Communications, Preparedness and Response also reported being short -

handed. The department told the committee that it currently has 28 vacancies among its 911 dispatchers or one-third of its authorized strength of 85 people.

However, the department currently has 11 people in training and will have another 12 undergoing training in April. It also noted that it has no shortage of applicants for positions.

The sheriff continues to struggle to add new people. She told the committee that her newest training class only has six members. For Ms. Larson, the shortfall in staff is raising concern about safety at the jail, which has reported five prisoner deaths in the past 12 months and also has seen a number of attacks on deputies and inmates.

“We’re here to be supportive,” Ms. Larson, 4th District, told the sheriff. “What can we do to help? We are here to be supportive. We want you to be safe. We want your employees to be safe. We want the inmates to be safe.”

The sheriff said that the best help the council could provide would be to boost her budget so she could raise deputy pay and potentially “attract more people.”

Deputies in training start at $48,000 a year, she said, with a pay raise after they complete the academy. That represents a substantial increase from several years ago, but she said pay for Richmond deputies still lags behind pay offered by Henrico and Chesterfield counties by several thousand dollars.

Eighth District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, chair of the committee, agreed with Ms. Larson that the situation at the jail “looks like a

crisis.”

Ms. Trammell has publicly but unsuccessfully called for a state investigation of the city jail’s operation due to the deaths and injuries to deputies.

The state oversight agency for local jails continues to give Sheriff Irving’s operation positive reviews. The agency’s 2021 audit of the city jail found full compliance with state standards.

Ms. Trammell asked the sheriff if she had reached out to the state secretary of public safety or other jails and agencies who might provide some personnel or take some of the prisoners.

Sheriff Irving, an independent elected official who is not accountable to council, said she has.

“We’re not just sitting there,” she said.

But she said other jails are not willing to accept most of the inmates the Richmond jail houses.

Of the 603 inmates the jail averages daily, she said only 52 are facing trial for or have been convicted of a misdemeanor, a lower level offense.

The remainder are mostly charged with or have been convicted of “violent felonies,” she said.

While other jails are willing to take the misdemeanors, “that would not really help,” Sheriff Irving said. Most sheriffs she has talked with, she said, are uninterested in housing the Richmonders charged with serious crimes.

She said the population of those charged or convicted of felonies includes 131 people who are eligible for transfer to state prisons. She said the Virginia Department of Corrections has its own shortfalls in space and personnel and has

preferred to pay to keep them in the jail, for which the state reimburses $15 a day or just 10 percent of the actual cost.

“I wish I could hire 100 more people,” the sheriff said, but until that happens, she and her staff have no choice but to soldier on to maintain operations. “We can’t just put people on a bus and send them elsewhere,” she said.

In her view, morale is strong among those working at the jail.

“Our staff is proud of what we do, and they are making sacrifices to be there for their peers and partners” at the jail and at other venues.

Sheriff Irving said she has spread prisoners to additional cell blocks to reduce the potential for violence.

Despite the incidents that have occurred, Sheriff Irving said the goal of safety at the jail remains foremost. “There is no way that we want anything to happen to anyone’s child or parent or peer or sibling.”

But the shortage of deputies means “she cannot maintain minimum staffing,” said William J. Burnett, a Richmond police officer who ran the day-to-day operations at the jail under Sheriff Irving’s predecessor, C.T. Woody Jr.

He said Sheriff Woody needed at least 400 deputies to handle the full range of duties, with around 190 deputies detailed to provide round-theclock security at the jail and allow for deputies to have time off, take vacations and have time with their families.

Another 80 deputies were needed to handle booking, transport and security in the cafeteria and laundry, said Mr. Burnett, who is gearing up for a second attempt to unseat Sheriff Irving in 2025 after losing to her in the 2021 Democratic primary.

“This situation can only get worse,” he said, “if she keeps losing people at the current pace. And that could easily happen. There is a limit to how much overtime people can work before they burn out.”

City School Board, NAACP raise concerns about RPS budget proposal

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their school’s hallways covered in blood after an intruder break-in — clearly protocols aren’t being followed and it’s our responsibility to address this.”

She said though city funding is limited, there is a revenue surplus that should be put toward resolving these issues.

Decisions over allocation of proposed funds will lead the discussion in budget talks. But, concern over reducing unnecessary expenditures motivated Jonathan Young, 4th District representative, to propose some budget amendments, he said.

In a document he shared with the public, Mr. Young suggests measures to resolve 8,625 vacan-

cies that exist across the district’s elementary, middle and high schools, including closing five schools. Closing these schools will save expenditures on capital improvements desperately needed, while addressing RPS student vacancies. These closures, he said, would require those student populations to attend different schools, but he suggests giving those displaced students first choice in choosing which schools they want to attend instead of being told where to enroll.

“The real motivation is to re-think how we do school assignment — what I am suggesting is that we don’t tell the students where they have to go,” he said in a telephone interview with the Free Press. “I would like us to not only give priority to these student in choosing the

school they prefer, but also propose providing transportation to get students there.”

RPS currently has an open enrollment process where parents and guardians can enter students into a lottery to attend a school of their choice, instead of the school they are zoned for, each spring. Based on the number of seats available at a particular school, students are notified of their placement in the school, or, placed on a waiting list. When the school year starts, if a student is still on the waiting list for their school of choice, they must attend their zoned school if they are to remain with RPS.

While transportation is offered for students who attend their zoned schools, transportation is not currently provided for students attending

a school of their choice in the district.

The Richmond Branch NAACP issued a statement critical of Mr. Young’s proposal, stating: “We understand considering low enrollment, but where is the equity?”

The statement goes on to say “If Mr. Young proposed school closings, we expect that the plan will include building new schools to accommodate the change in enrollment. We also expect that the school district will address the bigger picture, which is the drastic decline in student enrollment ...”

In Mr. Young’s memo, he includes the number of vacancies at each school. But, he said choosing which schools to close and combine is not necessarily determined by the number of vacancies.

the invitation of Charles Willis, executive director of United Communities Against Crime, various officials including Gov. Glenn Youngkin, Mayor

Photos by Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Mrs. Lambert

“I wish I could hire 100 more people.”

— Sheriff Antoinette V. irVing

Mr. Burnett

Ms. Larson

Sheriff Gregory

Mayor’s upbeat agenda: Increased home ownership, public safety, enhanced learning

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healthier. In our quest to be the best city we can be, Richmond is winning.”

Praising council and the city employees for their efforts that he said are creating a more “efficient and effective government,” he spotlighted one his most significant accomplishments– the removal of all but one monument to the defenders of slavery.

“As you know, when I took office in 2017, the city was still honoring its symbols of hate oppression and division,” he said. “Not today. Today, Richmond is free of Confederate monuments,” except for the large stone monument to Richmond’s Confederate units that still sits on the lawn of the Marsh Courts Building in South Side.

To the delight of City Council President Michael J. Jones, who delivered the invocation, much of the speech focused on families as Mayor Stoney emphasized ways in which the city is heading into the future as the “Capital of compassion, where all can thrive.”

The college scholarship program is one example of that effort, said Mayor Stoney, the first member of his family to go to college. He said that he has tasked the Office of Children and Families to develop a pilot program called Pathways that would begin this fall to support Richmond Public Schools graduates.

The city, he said, will team with Reynolds Community College and the Greater Richmond Aspirations Scholarship Program (GRASP) on a program that “will pair a traditional scholarship with a monthly cash allowance, mentorship and additional supports so that more RPS graduates have the opportunity to achieve post-secondary success.”

He said the program will initially be allocated $1.5 million, based on commitments from the Community Foundation, Altria, CoStar and Dominion, and he challenged other businesses to invest “in the future of our kids.”

The new program is part of “our larger vision that I am calling the Richmond Commitment: We are committed to universal access to preschool; we are committed to quality after-school programming; and we are committed to higher education to set our kids up to succeed in life,” he said.

Mayor Stoney also noted that funding for the operation of the city’s public school has increased by 33 percent since he took office. During his tenure, RPS also has gained three new school buildings, and as the result of city initiatives, every elementary and middle school student has access to after-school programs.

Along with purchasing diapers and formula to aid families with babies, he noted the city has added 250 child care and preschool slots using federal dollars.

To build on that, he said the city would contribute $250,000 in American Rescue Plan funds to assist the YWCA in opening a previously announced Sprout School for 60 children age 2 months to5 years old in Oregon Hill.

He noted that Richmond also is spending $4 million in funds from its federal allocation to provide shelter to the homeless, more money and resources than the other localities in the Central Virginia.

On the homeownership front, the mayor cited the return of $18 million to city property owners as part of the work to make housing more affordable. He also cited the $18 million the city in federal funding the city is investing to help private developers meet the city’s goal of adding 1,000 lower rent

Free COVID-19 vaccines

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The Virginia Department of Health also has a list of COVID19 testing locations around the state at www.vdh.virginia.gov/ coronavirus/covid-19-testing/covid-19-testing-sites.

Want a COVID-19 vaccine or booster shot?

The Richmond and Henrico health districts are offering free vaccines for COVID-19 and more at the following locations:

• Thursday, Feb. 2 and Feb. 9, 2 to 4 p.m. - Cary Street, 400

E. Cary St., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months and older, and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, and bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, flu shots; JYNNEOS and flu shots only for Feb. 9 event, walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged.

• Tuesday, Feb. 7, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Richmond City Hall, 900 E. Broad St., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months and older, and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, and bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, flu and JYNNEOS shots, walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged.

People can schedule an appointment online at vase.vdh.virginia. gov, vaccinate.virginia.gov or vax.rchd.com, or by calling (804) 205-3501 or (877) VAX-IN-VA (1-877-829-4682).

VaccineFinder.org and vaccines.gov also allow people to find nearby pharmacies and clinics that offer the COVID-19 vaccine and booster.

Those who are getting a booster shot should bring their vaccine card to confirm the date and type of vaccine received. RHHD also offers at-home vaccinations by calling (804) 2053501 to schedule appointments.

New COVID-19 boosters, updated to better protect against the latest variants of the virus, are now available. The new Pfizer booster is approved for those age 12 and up, while the new Moderna booster is for those age 18 and older.

As with previous COVID-19 boosters, the new doses can only be received after an initial two vaccine shots, and those who qualify are instructed to wait at least two months after their second COVID-19 vaccine.

The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts are now offering bivalent Pfizer and Moderna boosters to children between the ages of 5 and 11 in clinics in the near future. Children in this age range will be eligible after at least two months since their last vaccine dose.

New COVID-19 cases in Virginia fell 34 percent during the last week, according to data from the Virginia Department of Health, while data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association showed hospitalizations statewide dropped 15 percent since last Wednesday. Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Hanover and Henrico County are now all at medium levels of community COVID-19 as of last week. Sixteen localities in Virginia are ranked at high community COVID levels, while 62 were ranked at medium as of last week.

A total of 848 new cases of COVID-19 were reported statewide Tuesday for the 24-hour period, contributing to an overall state total of 2,251,890 cases in Virginia since the pandemic’s outbreak.

As of Tuesday, there have been 457,988 hospitalizations and 23,108 deaths reported statewide.

State data also shows that African-Americans comprised 22.1 percent of cases statewide and 22.1 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made up 11 percent of cases and 4.5 percent of deaths.

Reported COVID-19 data as of Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

apartments a year.

But he said many families are like his. “The opportunity to own a home and created generational wealth was never really in the cards for us,” said Mayor Stoney, whose father worked as a school janitor and maintenance worker before his death at age 49.

He said the opportunity is even more difficult with prices soaring as investors snap up much of the available housing, skewing the market and limiting the support for new homeowners.

One way to address that is to do more to help residents buy their first home with down-payment assistance and funding to reduce mortgage interest, he said.

He said he has set a goal of increasing 2,000 new homeownership opportunities in the city by 2030, working in partnership with the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing Authority and other community groups involved with housing.

“In the coming months,” the mayor said his administration would finalize the action plan that would focus “on building, preserving and protecting homes” while also creating sustainable home ownership opportunities, which drew praise from City Council’s leading advocate for affordable housing, 6th District Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson.

Ms. Robertson helped launch the first city-supported program promoting home ownership while serving as executive director of a nonprofit housing group in Highland Park. She said this year, the city has set aside $2 million in its Affordable Housing Trust Fund for the purpose of aiding new homebuyers.

She said the program would continue to develop so long as the mayor kept his promise to provide $10 million a year to the fund, with $8 million going to support development of incomerestricted apartments and the remaining $2 million to support homebuyer initiatives.

The mayor also highlighted efforts to deal with the violence that continues to plague some sections of the city. In January, Richmond had five homicides along with a string of other shootings, according to police reports.

“The cornerstone of a thriving community is safe neighborhoods and streets,” the mayor said. “In Richmond, we have to be tough on crime and tough on the root causes of crime.”

He said to help recruit and retain people, the city, with council’s support, has invested $22 million in pay increases for police officers and firefighters, the most significant pay increase ever for

first responders. In the current year, police, fire and emergency communications have received a record $177 million.

Still, police remain shorthanded. Mayor Stoney said that new technology will play a bigger role. He said that a $750,000 state grant the city just received will enable the city to develop a Real Time Crime Center, now in use in other major cities like Las Vegas and Miami.

“Think of this as an ‘air traffic control’ for officers in the field,” the mayor said. Using cameras and computers, the center will enable the Police Department to “maximize the efficiency and speed of investigations, helping to lock up violent offenders and locate illegal guns.”

He said technology is already at work. In 2022, he said, the Summer Gun Violence Initiative “used data to divide our city into 29,000 micro areas,” enabling police to identify specific locations with the highest rates of violence and enabling the department to deploy additional resources to those specific places.

One result was a 54 percent reduction in murders in those areas, he said, and an overall drop of 34 percent into homicides citywide, he said.

In the past year, using such data-driven techniques, Richmond police seized 1,000 illegal guns and made 235 felony arrests through Operation Red Ball, he said.

He also urged the public to help the fight to reduce crime and violence by locking their cars and ensuring that any guns are secured inside. Last year, he said, 741 guns were stolen from parked cars in the city that were left unlocked.

Mayor Stoney said Richmond is better addressing individual mental and behavioral health issues through the Marcus Alert system while also adding new green spaces, installing new street lights addressing blight and building up after-school programming to improve safety.

In other words, he said, the city “is being intentional, results oriented and better than before.”

He said the city also is seeking to address last year’s record 28 traffic fatalities with a 90-day enforcement campaign involving city and state police, with the goal of reducing aggressive, impaired and inattentive driving.

“Overall, we’ve come a long way these past six years,” the mayor said. “The state of the city is better than its ever been. And I say, ‘Our best is yet to come!’”

Museum exhibit explores freedom, justice, equality

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opening day and pointed to the clothing, the stories of free men in antebellum Virginia, and the history of academic achievement as particular strengths of the exhibit.

“Given the news and educational environment today, the exhibit shows how necessary it is to learn these stories.”

“Forging Freedom” covers six different themes, including African-American life in Virginia before the Civil War, their part in the military, the role of religion in shaping Virginia’s Black community, and the successes of that community culturally, academically and economically.

A curator and historian who has brought more insight into the lives of Maggie L. Walker and Virginia Randolph, and served as in-studio researcher for the Steven Speilberg film “Lincoln,” Ms. Belsches was contracted by the museum to identify, acquire and research pieces for an exhibition depicting centuries of Black history in Virginia, as a guest curator, museum educator and historian.

Her work has not gone unnoticed.

“It was wonderful to witness it,” said Janis Allen, president of the Historic Jackson Ward Association, who attended the opening in September and has seen the exhibit several times since then. “The excitement that night was just palpable.”

In addition to individuals or couples who view the exhibit, Ms. Belsches has guided numerous civic and cultural groups since the opening.

And while she plans to bring in even more groups, she still delights in the excitement of those on the tour, and sees it as vindication of both the work done and the power of the lives and stories spotlighted.

“When you marry powerful storytelling with sound scholarship,” Ms. Belsches said, “the results are public history at its finest.”

In organizing the exhibit, a major goal for Ms. Belsches was to showcase aspects of African-American history in Virginia

that are unknown or rarely discussed. The work of educators at historically black colleges teaching students scientific and technical trade skills or social justice efforts before emancipation are among the areas emphasized. These stories are featured alongside people such as Danville native Camilla Williams, the first known Black woman to have a leading role in a major opera company, and a vocal professor at Indiana University Bloomington from 1977 to 1997. Also featured is Richmond native George Lewis Ruffin, the first African-American graduate of Harvard Law School in 1869, the first Black Boston City Council member in 1875 and the first Black judge in Massachusetts in 1883.

For Ms. Belsches, the stories and lives on display are not just great stories that challenge misconceptions of AfricanAmerican history in Virginia. They also are “guideposts to success for today” for the public and community.

“The role of education historically and the role of the Black church, coupled with a profound sense of collectivism enabled Blacks to found and lead pioneering banks and organizations nationally in the wake of freedom,” Ms. Belsches said. “Compelling examples of social justice initiatives before freedom came and the ability to overcome unjust laws and practices offer extraordinary narratives.

“I want visitors to walk away with the firm belief that if these people born before and in the wake of freedom could accomplish these feats, with faith, education and collectivism all things are possible today!”

Besides providing new perspectives of African-American history in Virginia, “Forging Freedom” is a key part of the Black History Museum’s 40th anniversary. The museum was founded in 1981 by Carroll Anderson Sr. and debuted in 1991 at 100 Clay St. with roughly 500 items, documents and artifacts. It moved to its current location at 122 W Leigh St. in 2016.

For those who have seen the exhibit, the critical role of the museum in the creation of the exhibit, and finding and maintaining this history is clear.

“There was plenty of information that I had never heard of before and several parts of the exhibit were almost unbelievable,” said Richmonder Lynne Clark Rozier, a graduate of Hampton University and Howard Law School who attended the show’s opening with several of her Hampton classmates to support Ms. Belsches, also a fellow classmate.

“Our history is so rich and we have not been taught the depth of our contributions to this country. Thankfully, the Black History Museum and historians like (Elvatrice) are up to the task,” said Mrs. Rozier.

“The exhibit offers another great reason to visit the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia,” Mr. Smith added, “which is itself an unparalleled architectural setting and community resource.”

The exhibition will end April 29, yet plans already are underway to preserve the touring experience for the future. For her part, Ms. Belsches hopes to create a video showcasing the featured items. Meanwhile, the museum will continue to digitize its own collection while also seeking a permanent executive director.

Ms. Belsches anticipates heightened interest in the exhibit during Black History Month as word of mouth and curiosity draw more people to the West Leigh Street facility.

“Black history in Virginia is Virginia’s story,” said Mary C. Lauderdale, the museum’s director of collections who has worked at the museum for more than 25 years. “It is integral to the success of the state and of folks understanding what it is to be an African-American and to be an American.

“And that is our mission — to preserve the stories, to tell the stories, the untold stories, and how they are integral to the story of Virginia and the United States.”

Calls for police reform at Tyre Nichols’ funeral

Continued from A1

actions. He also said he believes that if Mr. Nichols had been white, “you wouldn’t have beat him like that.”

“We understand that there are concerns about public safety. We understand that there are needs that deal with crime,” Mr. Sharpton said.

“But you don’t fight crime by becoming criminals yourself. You don’t stand up to thugs in the street becoming thugs yourself. You don’t fight gangs by becoming five armed men against an unarmed man. That ain’t the police. That’s punks,” he said, to rousing applause from the crowd.

The Rev. J. Lawrence Turner called Mr. Nichols “a good person, a beautiful soul, a son, a father, a brother, a friend, a human being” who was gone too soon and “denied his rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, denied the dignity of his humanity, denied the right to see the sun set another day, to embrace his mother, hang out with his friends, hold his child, and the right to grow old.”

“As we celebrate Tyre’s life and comfort this family, we serve notice to this nation that the rerun of this episode that makes Black lives hashtags has been canceled and will not be renewed for another season,”

Rev. Turner said. “We have come and we shall overcome.”

Tiffany Rachal, the mother of Jalen Randle, who was fatally shot by a Houston police officer in 2022, sang a rendition of the classic gospel standard “Total Praise” to rousing applause from the congregation and the Nichols family.

“All of the mothers all over the world need to come together, need to come together to stop all of this,” Ms. Rachal said.

Mr. Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, fought back tears as she spoke of her son.

“The only thing that’s keeping me going is that I truly believe that my son was sent here on assignment from God. And I guess now his assignment is done. He’s gone home,” she said.

She also urged Congress to pass the law named after George Floyd. Members of his family and others who have been killed by police attended the funeral, including Breonna Taylor, Botham Jean and Eric Garner.

“We need to take some action because there should be no other child that should suffer the way my son — and all the other parents here have lost their children — we need to get that bill passed,” Mrs. Wells said. “Because if we don’t, that blood — the next child that dies, that blood is going to be on their hands.”

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who represents Mr. Nichols’ family, referred to the graphic video showing the officers punching, kicking and beating Mr. Nichols, even after he lay helpless on the ground.

“Why couldn’t they see the humanity in Tyre?” he asked.

In the three weeks since Mr. Nichols’ death, five police officers were fired and charged with murder. Their specialized unit was disbanded. Two more officers have been suspended. Two Memphis Fire Department emergency medical workers and a lieutenant also were fired. And more discipline could be coming.

But Wednesday was about Mr. Nichols, a skateboarder and amateur photographer who worked making boxes at FedEx.

Mr. Nichols was the baby of their family, born 11 years after his closest siblings. He had a 4-year-old son and worked hard to better himself as a father, his family said.

Mr. Nichols grew up in Sacramento, Calif., and loved the San Francisco 49ers. He came to Memphis just before the coronavirus pandemic and got stuck. But he was fine with it because he was with his mother, Mrs. Wells, and they were incredibly close, she said. He even had her name tattooed on his arm.

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Senseless

Horrific. Brutal. Senseless. Inhumane.

Those are just some of terms that apply to the savage and fatal police beating of amateur photographer and young father Tyre Nichols during an unjustified January traffic stop in Memphis, Tenn.

In a case that has drawn national attention, five police officers are facing murder charges for essentially beating Mr. Nichols so badly he succumbed to injuries, while others are being fired or relieved of duty.

What lessons can be learned from an awful situation in which officers who were supposed to serve and protect apparently turned into executioners?

One big lesson is that body cameras are essential because police officers lie. Before the circumstances were investigated, the Memphis department put out a phony statement blaming the victim.

It took the family paying for a private autopsy and the department’s internal review of the footage on the cameras that the officers wore to change the situation.

The same kind of official false narrative was issued in the George Floyd case in Minneapolis until a witness released her camera footage of the police killing on social media.

Police lies are all too common in Richmond, unfortunately, as defense attorneys can tell you.

Just this week, a case alleging that a man named Oliver Holley assaulted a police officer was dismissed when a prosecutor found that the body camera footage undermined city Police Officer Samuel Yoon’s sworn statement about the circumstances.

Another lesson is that elite units with free rein to go after criminals too often become a liability. Memphis, which will send officers to prison and wind up paying millions of dollars in compensation to the Nichols family, is just the latest example of the backfire that can happen.

The officers charged with murder in the Nichols case were members of the “elite” Scorpion Unit that new Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis created and unleashed in 2021 as homicides spiked in the city to 300.

She and other city officials turned a deaf ear to complaints about the unit’s harsh tactics while boasting of the felony and misdemeanor arrests the 40 hard-charging younger officers were generating. No one in authority cared who the unit tormented until Mr. Nichols died.

Memphis NAACP President Van D. Turner Jr. made an apt comment in the Nichols case: “We want crime addressed in our communities, but we don’t need to kill innocent people to do it.” Nor do we need police to create bogus charges to justify putting handcuffs on those who do not deserve it.

If police officers are serious about creating a trust bond with residents, then they need to be more involved in building relationships so people feel comfortable providing essential tips and information that ensure the right people are targeted.

Lessons in photo ops

The front page of the Free Press’ Jan. 26 edition shows Gov. Glenn Youngkin and his wife, First Lady Suzanne Youngkin, surrounded by adorable first-graders at Richmond’s Carver Elementary School.

For some Free Press readers, the image is striking compared to Gov. Youngkin’s words last October when national test scores revealed that Virginia’s fourth-grade students had fallen behind in reading. The Republican governor, who recently marked his first-year anniversary in office, largely dumped the blame for the dismal scores on former Virginia administrations led by Democrats. Gov. Youngkin also noted that lower proficiency standards brought on by Democratic leadership and virtual learning caused by COVID-19, further contributed to the “catastrophic” test results.

After reading the governor’s comments last fall, a Free Press editorial urged him to leave the Virginia Executive Mansion and visit classrooms to glean firsthand how bright many public schools students are and to see how hard their teachers work.

Yet, in seeing Gov. Youngkin’s photo in the Jan. 26 Free Press, a reader, also known as a state legislator, chastised us for giving the governor a platform for “photo ops” while ignoring his hardline stance on gun violence, public safety and equity measures, along with a litany of other issues facing the Commonwealth.

We do not agree, but we get it.

We also reminded the reader/legislator that the Free Press is fully aware and intentional in everything that we publish even though we sometimes fail to get everything correct and even though we sometimes miss salient issues in our reporting.

We further informed the legislator that our readers are astute and intelligent. We present the news and leave it to them to interpret it as they wish.

Or, to borrow a phrase from the late North Carolina A&T State University President Warmoth T. Gibbs, “We teach our students how to think, not what to think.”

In short, we strive to present Free Press opinions and perspectives in this space—our editorial pages. Readers are free to respond to any and all content published by the Free Press. We encourage our audiences to call or write us whether such communication is civil, polite or sprinkled with a few choice words.

February is Black History Month. At the end of the day, let us remember what volumes of discourse and research have taught us about Black-owned publications such as the Free Press.

“The Black press has always been a source of Black American political power, and even among the most commercial ventures, it is a defender of shared values and interests. The story of these institutions is one of ever-present challenges—to secure financial resources and to fend off public and private efforts to silence or control them.”

— Dr. Jane Rhodes, Black Studies scholar, University of Illinois, Chicago.

In remembrance

Happy Birthday

February 2, 1938 - June 3, 2014

Richmond Free Press

Founder - Publisher- Editor Your voice is silent, but the influence of your wisdom and pursuit of justice — with excellence — continues to challenge the Richmond Free Press and its readers to speak up and speak out for the voiceless, the powerless and the economically disenfranchised.

Richmond Free Press Team

Gun violence and the disease behind it

We’ve had more mass shootings this year than we’ve had days this year.

It’s sad to imagine that Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park will join a list with Uvalde and Buffalo and Orlando and Charleston and Sandy Hook and Columbine, reference points for a national epidemic we haven’t mustered the will to end despite decades of tragedies.

But they likely will unless we can confront both the symptom that is gun violence and the underlying disease that causes it.

I shoot for sport, and I’ve trained others to shoot. I live in a coastal community in Maryland where hunters and hikers share wild places and work together to preserve them.

I also live not far from the Capital Gazette’s offices, where a man armed with a shotgun and angered by newspaper stories about him killed five and injured

two five years ago. For generations, many in my family have served in law enforcement. I support common sense steps to keep guns out of the hands of those who have demonstrated they shouldn’t have them.

We all know that list by now—more thorough background checks, bans on assault weapons and unnecessarily large magazines, red flag laws that allow guns to be taken

away from those who are risks to others or themselves, and penalties for gun owners who fail to keep them out of the hands of children, teens and mentally unstable people.

Fighting the disease at the root of the violence demands that we address it like the public health crisis it is. I realized that as a graduate student at Oxford when I started exploring rates of suicide in the United States. Almost unfettered access to guns, particularly handguns, has a lot to do with the num-

bers. If you try to kill yourself with a firearm, you’re much more likely to succeed. While suicides among young Black men sparked my research, I learned that white men over 55 were more likely to die of suicide with a gun than Black men 15 to 30 were to kill each other with a gun. You would never have known that from the media and popular culture at the time.

What pushes those two trend lines in the same direction are shared causes – hopelessness, economic uncertainty, downward mobility, and addiction all made more painful by social isolation. Those same factors feed the cultural and political polarization that has many wondering about the future of our republic.

Let’s not accept the isolation so many feel and the polarization we see in our public discourse as reinforcing and insurmountable. Let’s be determined to act now to find the solutions we can agree on – even gun owners overwhelmingly support some regulations, just as

Woodson’s wisdom

Carter Godwin Woodson, The Father of Negro (Black) History, remains an invaluable source of historic information and critical thinking, which prepares today’s young AfricanAmericans to confront and challenge the persistent racism that continues to plague the national psyche.

Ninety years ago, when most sources of public information characterized African-Americans as ignorant, non-contributing and subhumans who had no legitimate place in American society, Carter G. Woodson was a vocal champion of African-American contributions to the nation and the reconstruction of a new, positive mindset among African-Americans. In my opinion, the 1933 publication of his “The Mis-Education of the Negro” is one of the most important literary works introduced to African-Americans and this nation.

Among his notable quotations (and one of my favorites) is: “If the Negro in the ghetto must eternally be fed by the hand that pushes him into the ghetto, he will never become strong enough to get out of the ghetto.” In the context of my interpretation, the ghetto is not a location, it is a mindset. In that same context, feeding is more than food, it is the constant barrage of information that molds our thinking.

During this year’s celebration of Black History Month, we must re-evaluate the information or lack thereof, we and our children are being fed. The real destruction of a race begins with the destruction of its children. Mr. Woodson states: “As another has well said, to

handicap a student by teaching him that his black face is a curse and that his struggle to change his condition is hopeless is the worst sort of lynching.”

Fast forward to January 2023 in America. As recently reported by ABC’s Averi Harper, members of the (Ron) DeSantisappointed Florida Department of Education rejected the optional AP African-American Studies program in a letter to SAT test administrators, the College Board—incorrectly claiming that the program “significantly lacks educational value.”

Given appropriate thought and consideration, this offensively bold assertion negates the presence of African-Americans in this nation. This is not a new or unexpected phenomenon, but one must ask how this position affects the student who sees no evidence of “self” in her/his educational process.

This “theft” of history may be codified in Florida, but it is replicated in so many other academic jurisdictions. A lack of relevant knowledge by teachers or their direct intent to ignore or exclude Black History from local curricula delivers the

majorities support helping those with mental health needs.

I’ve seen this happen. When I was young, my dad organized a peer counseling program for abusive men, with 80 men taking part every six weeks. Men grew not only more empathetic but more humane. Some eventually wanted to do more together and formed Whites Interrupting Racism in our community. It was one of many lessons my dad taught me – that how we treat each other in our lives shapes what we’ll permit in the structures of our country.

Ben Jealous is the incoming executive director of the Sierra Club, the oldest and most influential grassroots environmental organization in the country.

same result.

Mr. Woodson opines, “Those who have no record of what their forebears have accomplished lose the inspiration which comes from the teaching of biography and history.” Or even worse, “If a race has no history, if it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world, and it stands in danger of being exterminated.”

Mr. Woodson echoes my greatest fear, “The education of the Negroes, then, the most important thing in the uplift of the Negroes, is almost entirely in the hands of those who have enslaved them and now segregate them.” If we accept this reality, we have limited choices in our plan to resolve this problem.

I submit that when/where our numbers are sufficiently large or when we can collaborate with other “out” groups to exert our influence, that we do so. White supremacy is sustained and enlarged with the exclusion of the historic contributions of those they wish to demean. The historic reduction of their self-aggrandizement only diminishes their truth of superiority.

When our numbers are insufficient to exert that measure of influence, we must do it the old-fashioned way — we must value, learn, and then teach our history. No one will do this for us. No one else has a vested interest.

The writer is president of The Dick Gregory Society president emerita of the National Congress of Black Women.

The Free Press welcomes letters

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Enrichmond article ‘is inaccurate and misleading’

Jeremy Lazarus’ Jan. 26, 2023, article, “It’s complicated” is a one-sided story that provides little clarity.

This article contains inaccuracies and misleading statements, including the assertion that John Mitchell joined Enrichmond in 2021. However, according to Enrichmond’s IRS form 990 filings, Mr. Mitchell appears to have joined the board in 2017. This makes Mr. Mitchell partially accountable for Enrichmond’s collapse, yet the article does not pursue this line of questioning.

Mr. Lazarus also fails to provide context for the city’s revocation of Enrichmond funding, stating that this action “further undermined” the nonprofit. This implies that the city’s decision was unwarranted. On the contrary, for years, many descendants have highlighted Enrichmond’s lack of meaningful community engagement and poor cemetery stewardship. Enrichmond’s history of mismanagement is further evidenced by the city’s decision in July 2019 to take back control of the 17th Street Market after local vendors spoke about being neglected or pushed out by Enrichmond.

The article also states that Mr. Mitchell’s “foundation has secured an agreement with the Virginia Outdoors Foundation (VOF)...” However, there are no details about the scope, duration or amount of funding from either Mr.

Mitchell or VOF. VOF provided substantial funding to Enrichmond despite concerns raised by descendants and others about Enrichmond’s inadequate stewardship. Given this prior criticism, and the potential use of tax dollars, it is imperative that we know the details of any agreement VOF has made to fund activities at East End and Evergreen cemeteries.

It is disappointing that Mr. Lazarus seemingly did not think this story warranted interviews with other descendants and community members. We agree that East End and Evergreen are vital parts of Richmond’s history that must be preserved. To properly take on that task requires input from the broader descendant and African-American communities to determine the future of these sacred spaces. It requires a proper accounting of what failed previously in order to ensure a successful path forward which is open, transparent, and inclusive.

To ensure openness and transparency, the public depends on media institutions like the Richmond Free Press to thoroughly and accurately shine a light on issues. It is unfortunate that “It’s complicated” does not meet that standard.

THE DEScEnDAnTS cOuncIL OF GREATER RIcHMOnD VIRGInIA

Let’s talk Social Security instead of about Morrissey

Instead of wasting time, energy, resources and newsprint on calling for Sen. Joe Morrissey to resign, I suggest you focus your efforts on changing a common practice that leads to perpetual inequality.

Everybody completely overlooks the perpetually damaging effects of annual Social Security c ost-of-Living Adjustments (cOLAs) because they seem fair, since the same percent is used across the board. But the amounts given to those who receive low benefits compared to those who receive higher benefits are very different and even figure into the continuance of unequal cOLA amounts year after year, a major factor in the continual growth of income inequality.

In 2022 some recipients received as little as $300 a month, while others received more than $2,600 a month. This discrepancy is due to everyone receiving benefits based on his or her contributions during their working life and is fair because those who paid in more should get more back. What is not fair

are the amounts generated by multiplying these benefits by the same percentage in order to enable recipients to cope with inflation.

For example, the recent 8.7 percent cOLA increase meant an increase of $26 or $260 a month, depending on whether you received $300 or $2,600. Does the $2,600 recipient need 10 times as much to cope with inflation as the $300 recipient? The opposite is true and should be addressed by basing cOLAs on the actual amount of increase in buying essentials likes food, prescriptions, gas

and shelter. Please focus on exposing legislative practices that contribute to income inequality and institutional racism rather than the innocuous behavior of one of our elected representatives.

Sen. Morrissey is not alleged to have committed any crimes and has paid the penalty for all the crimes he has committed. We owe him forgiveness, not condemnation. And we need to focus on larger issues that affect us all.

SHIRLEy DESIMOnE, PH.D. Richmond

As we approach the midpoint of the 2023 General Assembly Session one of the biggest battles brewing is over what to do with the identified additional $3 6 billion available in the budget this fiscal year

Our first priority must be to ensure the General Assembly fully funds its public education system and meets the growing mental health needs of Virginians

We should then focus on providing tax relief to families with children

The past few years have been difficult for families particularly with rising costs In November a Census Pulse Survey showed that 44% of Virginia s households with children indicated that they are having a difficult time paying typical household expenses, such as food, rent or mortgage, car payments, medical expenses, and student loans This economic insecurity impacts children s learning growth and development

The expanded federal Child Tax Credit provided under the American Rescue Plan proved a valuable tool in reducing child poverty which fell to just 9 percent in Virginia in 2021 Parents reported spending funds received from the credit on food diapers school supplies and other family needs

With so many parents concerned about supporting their kids, it s no surprise that 72% of Virginians support the Child Tax Credit on a bipartisan basis

Unfortunately the expanded federal Child Tax Credit expired at the end of 2021

It’s time to take action at the state level

That s why I introduced legislation this session with Senator Adam Ebbin (DAlexandria) and Delegate Kathy Tran (D-Fairfax) to create a state Child Tax Credit, which would provide a refundable tax credit of $500 per child for families making $100,000 or less

This would help an estimated 737,000 families in Virginia address the rising costs of raising

The tax credit would have an immediate impact on families for example covering the costs of over 16 months of gas bills or 313 gallons of gas 3 448 diapers or over a month s worth of groceries We saw how transformative the American Rescue Plan Act s temporary expansion of the federal Child Tax Credit was for families with children, reducing child poverty to record lows We know that a vast majority of Virginians support this measure and we know a growing number of them are feeling insecure about the ability to cover their children’s basic needs We also know that we have the resources available to make the Child Tax Credit a life-changing reality for so many families

Now is the time to provide proven relief to Virginia families from rising costs and I am proud to champion this legislation on behalf of the children and families here in Richmond and across the Commonwealth

I look forward to updating you on the Child Tax Credit and other issues before the General Assembly in the coming weeks To learn more and stay engaged contact me or my staff at district09@senate virginia gov or (804) 698-7509

2022, in Case No. PUR-2021-00282. Through its Petition, Dominion seeks to recover projected and actual costs related to compliance with the mandatory renewable energy portfolio standard program (“RPS Program”) established in the Virginia Clean Economy Act (“VCEA”).

Pursuant to Code § 56-585.5 C, Dominion is required to participate in an RPS Program that establishes annual goals for the sale of renewable energy to all retail customers in thein accordance with the schedule set forth in Code § 56-585.5 C. The statute permits Dominion to apply renewable energy sales achieved or RECs acquired in excess of the sales for RPS Program compliance from resources it does not own, the Company shall be entitled to recover the costs of such RECs pursuant to Code §§ 56-249.6 or 56-585.1 A 5 d. Code § 56-585.1 A 5 d, as amended by the VCEA, provides that a utility may petition the Commission for approval of one or more rate adjustment clauses for the timely and current recovery from customers of:

[p]rojected and actual costs of compliance with renewable energy portfolio standard requirements pursuant to § 56-585.5 that are not recoverable under subdivision 6.

The Commission shall approve such a petition allowing the recovery of such costs incurred as required by § 56-585.5, provided that the Commission does not otherwise In its Petition, Dominion states that it will meet the annual requirements of the RPS Program through the retirement of RECs that will be sourced from a combination of RECs generated from Company owned renewable energy facilities, RECs generated from renewable energy facilities owned by an entity other than the utility with which the Company has entered into a power purchase agreement, long-term REC only contracts, and market purchases. The Company states that it may bank the RECs generated by Virginia facilities from 2021 through 2024 for use in 2025 when the requirement for Virginia-located resources begins. determined the projected volume of RECs that the Company would need to utilize from its bank or purchase from the market. For any RECs the Company would need to purchase or utilize from the bank, the Company states it multiplied the volume of RECs by a weighted average price in order to determine the cost of the gross purchases and banked RECs needed for the Rate Year. The Company expects to need approximately 10.9 million RECs during the Rate Year, approximately 109,000 of which it says must come from distributed energy resources. According to the Company, once it determined the total costs of RECs to be recovered in this proceeding, it applied a Virginia jurisdictional allocation.

The revenue requirement for Rider RPS includes both a Projected Cost Recovery Factor and an Actual Cost True Up Factor. In this proceeding, the Company seeks approval of a Projected Cost Recovery Factor Revenue requirement of $104,343,202, and an Actual Cost True-up Factor revenue requirement of $6,862,761, for a total revenue requirement of $111,205,964 for the Rate Year. If the proposed Rider RPS for the Rate Year is approved, the impact on customer bills would depend on the customer’s rate schedule and usage. According to Dominion, implementation of its proposed Rider RPS on September 1, 2023, would decrease the monthly bill of a residential customer using 1,000 kWh per month by approximately $0.28 compared to the current Rider RPS. Interested persons are encouraged to review the Petition and supporting documents for the details of these and other proposals

The Commission entered an Order for Notice and Hearing in this proceeding that, among other things, scheduled public hearings on Dominion’s Petition. On April 17, 2023, at 10 a.m., the Hearing Examiner assigned to this case will hold a telephonic hearing, with no witness present in the Commission’s courtroom, for the purpose of receiving the testimony form on the Commission’s website at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting; (ii) by completing and emailing the PDF version of this form to SCCInfo@scc.virginia.gov; or by calling (804) 371-9141. This public witness hearing will be webcast at scc.virginia.gov/pages/Webcasting

An electronic copy of the Company’s Petition may be obtained by submitting a written request to counsel for the Company, Elaine S. Ryan, Esquire, McGuireWoods LLP, Gateway Plaza, 800 East Canal Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219, or eryan@mcguirewoods.com Commission, c/o Document Control Center, P.O. Box 2118, Richmond, Virginia 23218-2118. Such notice of participation shall include the email addresses of such parties or their counsel, if available. The respondent simultaneously shall serve a copy of

Rail agency begins historic cemetery review for estimated 22,000 souls

By Jeremy Lazarus

It took nine months, but the Federal Railroad Administration is keeping its promise to take a fresh look at a historic Black cemetery in Richmond and its potential impact on proposed rail improvements between Richmond and Washington.

Lenora McQueen, an advocate for the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground at 5th and Hospital Streets where some of her ancestors are buried, said she has been notified that the FRA has formally reopened the Section 106 review.

That section of a federal law requires government agencies to identify, protect and prevent damage to historic buildings and sites before any work on government financed projects can be undertaken — such as

the potential addition of new rail lines to boost passenger train speeds.

The completed report initially done for FRA failed to recognize the extent of the long-forgotten cemetery where an estimated 22,000 Black people were buried between 1816-1879.

The cemetery apparently was the largest publicly owned cemetery of its kind in the country before it closed, said Ms. McQueen.

The reopening comes after City Council approved the acceptance of two properties from the Sauer Corp. on 7th Street that will bolster the city’s effort to create a trail to connect the burial ground on Shockoe Hill with the original African Burial Ground at 15th and East Broad streets and a slavery memorial heritage campus that

VMHC to spotlight civil rights hero Curtis Harris and Great Dismal Swamp

Free Press staff reportThe Virginia Museum of History and Culture will feature the following films at part of its Black History Month programming:

is proposed for land adjacent to Main Street Station.

The new Section 106 review is taking place as the federal, state and local governments work on plans to add a third set of tracks to enable higherspeed trains to run between Main Street Station in Virginia’s capital city and Union Station in the nation’s capital.

The existing freight tracks have long run through the lower portion of the once sprawling cemetery that the city and others quickly forgot after it closed. The city also allowed an interstate highway and other buildings to take over the site.

The FRA had issued notices last April of its plans to consider revamping its previous Section 106 review based on new information about the

cemetery, which has secured state and federal recognition as a historic site as a result of the efforts of Ms. McQueen and history supporters.

“It is my sincere hope and

that the Shockoe Hill African Burying Ground will be given the care, honor, respect, recognition and protection that it so desperately deserves,” Ms. McQueen stated as a result of

the new review. The burial ground, she noted, “has suffered so greatly and for so long. It deserves to be known, to be seen openly, honestly and in its entirety.”

A new George Wythe High School will cost a record

show

By Jeremy Lazarus

The cost of replacing George Wythe High School has ballooned to $154.6 million, far more than anticipated.

Chesapeake-based RRMM Architects, which is handling the design work, recently provided that estimate to the School Board and Mayor Levar M. Stoney in updating the development of the building that is projected to have room for 1,800 students and bear a new name.

The cost of the new school, data from the Virginia Department of Education show, is on track to be a record for the state in per cost per square foot or cost per student.

to develop that building.

Rev. Harris

Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. – “The Hero from Hopewell: The Rev. Curtis W. Harris and the Civil Rights Movement.” Just three months before Curtis Harris was born, the Virginia State Legislature passed the Racial Integrity Act, which banned interracial marriage down to “a single drop” of African blood. His inspirational story follows him from Dendron to Hopewell and then to the forefront of America’s civil rights battles, arm in arm with the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. This lecture will be a virtual event. The lecture will be recorded and streamed on YouTube and Facebook.

Feb. 16 at noon – “ Dismal

Freedom.”

Based on RRMM data, the new high school would cost $86,111 per each of the students and $543 per square foot.

The School Board had hoped to keep the total cost around $116 million for the new building in retaking control of building construction two years ago, a move that created a significant conflict with Mayor Stoney’s administration and City Council.

in March is to include authorization for Richmond Public Schools to borrow $200 million for construction of new schools, part of the $800 million that the city has pledged to provide for new school buildings through 2040. The past two capital budgets that the council has approved shows the $200 million as being made available during the upcoming fiscal year that will start July 1.

Fourth District School Board member

Join Brent Morris for a lecture examining the lives of the maroons living in the Great Dismal Swamp and their struggles for liberation. Tickets are required for in-person admission. Tickets are not needed if you would prefer to view the lecture live on YouTube or Facebook. In-person attendees are invited to meet the author at the book signing immediately following the lecture.

Mr. Morris

At the time, the mayor’s team led by Robert Steidel, deputy chief administrative officer for operations, estimated the cost of the new school building would run $140 million, a figure that was received with skepticism from School Board members at the time but which now appears to have been on target.

The city has made sure the funding will be available. The 2023-24 capital budget that the City Council is to receive

Jonathan Young, a leader in pushing for School Board control of construction, acknowledged that the RRMM price tag for the new high school came as a surprise.

The cost is about 50 percent more than Henrico County paid to build the new Tucker and Varina high schools, which opened in the fall of 2021. Those schools cost nearly $100 million each.

And if the numbers prove correct, the total would be double the cost of the current Huguenot High School, which opened in 2016. The city spent about $75 million

Mr. Young said the cost of the new high school would reduce the money available for other needed building projects, such as redeveloping a former tobacco factory in South Side into a career and vocational high school. According to RRMM, the design of the new high school is nearly complete. Expectations are for RPS to submit permit requests to the city by May 15 and to post requests for a contractor to build by Aug. 1.

The goal, according to RRMM and RPS, is to award the contract and give the selected team notice to proceed by Nov. 1.

The RRMM timeline surprisingly indicates that it could take three years to prepare the new site and build the new high school, with completion anticipated by Nov. 1, 2026. Demolition of the existing building and construction of new athletic fields on that site are anticipated to take an additional year, according RRMM.

Push for rental inspection program appears to gain traction

Properties yielding high-volume complaints, code violations would be targeted

By Jeremy Lazarus

Maybe the third time is the charm when it comes to a rental inspection program for Richmond.

City Council’s agenda for the Monday, Feb. 13, currently lists a resolution that calls on City Hall to develop a program of apartment inspections — the third effort to get such a program underway in the past 15 years.

Fifth District Councilwoman Stephanie A. Lynch introduced the proposal with two other members, Council President Michael

J. Jones, 9th District, and Councilwoman Ann-Frances Lambert, 3rd District, in this new effort to create such a program.

The Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee on Jan. 26 sent the proposal to the full council with a recommendation for approval. The committee includes its chair, 1st District Councilman Andreas D. Addison, vice chair and 6th District Councilwoman Ellen F. Robertson and Ms. Lambert.

The goal is to ensure that Richmond residents who rent live in properties that meet state building code standards.

The resolution calls for. Lincoln Saunders, the city’s chief administrative officer, and his city staff to develop an inspection program by June that would be sent to the council for consideration.

Based on a state law permitting localities to develop such programs, the resolution calls for creating a data-driven program that would allow the city to target areas that generate the highest

number of formal complaints or code violations.

According to the resolution, Mr. Saunders is to propose residential inspection districts for such areas so that inspectors could undertake code compliance inspections. Apartment complexes in the inspection districts would be subject to inspection at least once every four years and more often based on complaints.

The resolution also calls for flexibility to enable inspections of apartment houses that are located outside of inspection districts. The resolution states that the inspection process should be set up so it triggers compliance inspections of non-inspection district apartment buildings that were found to be deteriorating, are already in blighted condition or have building code violations that affect “safe, decent and sanitary living conditions.”

The three council patrons hope that this initiative will have greater success than proposals that council members introduced in 2007 and 2014 that died for lack of support from five members.

Population growth continues to widen affordability gap in Richmond

By Debora Timms

The need for more and varied affordable housing continues to grow in the Richmond region. Population increases are contributing to greater demand and rising prices are placing cost burdens on renters and homebuyers alike. This is according to the 2020-2022 Richmond Regional Housing Framework released last week by the Partnership for Housing Affordability (PHA).

The 204-page report used demographic data and housing supply trends to identify issues impacting housing access and affordability. PHA executive director Jovan Burton pointed to the fact that these issues continue to strain the ability of the region to house its workforce.

“Four out of five of the most common jobs in our region provide incomes that cannot afford median rent or housing prices in the Richmond area,” Mr. Burton said in a recent phone interview.

This forces workers to pay sometimes 50 to 60 percent of their wages toward housing, which is not sustainable, or deal with commutes of an hour or more as they search for housing within their budgets.

“Choice has been largely diminished for a lot of households,” Mr. Burton added.

Another issue can be seen among Richmond’s fastest growing population — seniors. This is an issue that is not unique to Richmond. It also is one that’s not going away.

“Lack of affordable housing options is causing many of our seniors to age in place,” Mr. Burton said. “Often this means seniors on fixed incomes are living in homes that are bigger than they need and that are not equipped for their changing health needs.”

One impact of seniors staying in their homes is that it lowers the stock of housing suited for larger families. That stock also has been impacted by increased home buying demand in recent years. Many property owners sold their single-family rentals, which the PHA

report states has resulted in a loss of over 3,000 two- and three-bedroom homes from the rental market.

Some areas have also seen rental increases up to $300 over the past two years with the steepest increases among multi-bedroom apartments. Taken together, it is much more difficult now for renters with children to find housing, much less affordable housing.

While more than 4,300 new below-market apartments were built since January 2020, this was offset by the expiration of subsidies for 1,600 non-market apartments. PHA estimates almost 39,000 affordable homes are needed to fully eliminate rent burden for low-income renters.

“Those gains represent a tremendous amount of work,” Mr. Burton said. “But we need more targeted investment and drastically more participation from the private sector.”

One strategy that can help with the supply side is to move away from the traditional ideals of single-family homes. Denser housing in

areas where that makes sense — housing such as row houses, quadplexes and sixplexes — would allow greater living options to more residents.

Another action undertaken in Richmond and other areas with some success has been using publicly owned land and abandoned buildings to create new, first-homebuyer opportunities.

There are also zoning changes under consideration that would allow for more additional dwelling units such as granny flats. These can provide seniors with more living options or opportunities to generate supplemental income.

“Despite many of the uphill battles we face in the region,” Mr. Burton said, “these types of efforts can continue to build greater progress in the Henrico, Chesterfield and Richmond City communities.”

The full 2020-2022 Richmond Regional Housing Framework report can be accessed at https://pharva.com/project/2020-2022-dataupdate/.

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Lenora C. McQueen, a Texas resident who has led a four-year fight to preserve and protect the burial ground where relatives are buried and who has pushed for the cemetery’s recognition and designation as a national historic site, joined Mayor Levar M. Stoney in June 2022 in unveiling a new state marker for the historic Shockoe Hill Burying Ground, the long forgotten public cemetery for 22,000 Black people at 1305 N. 5th St. at the entry to Highland Park.

$86,111 per student, data

George Wythe High School

Stories by Fred Jeter

Dominique Bailey leads John Marshall in basketball and college credits

From the bleachers, it’s easy to see that Dominique Bailey is a multitalented guard for John Marshall High’s undefeated Justices.

What spectators can’t see about Bailey, from afar, is just as interesting.

Bailey is that rare high school athlete who already is thriving in college classrooms.

Say what?

The 16-year-old junior guard participates in the Dual Enrollment Program (Advance College Academies) through J. Sargent Reynolds Community College’s downtown campus.

“I take two college classes in the morning downtown, then take the bus to JM for the afternoon,” said Bailey, who has a nearly 4.0 grade point average.

John Marshall Coach Ty White added this:

“Dominique will be getting his associate college degree about

the same time he’s graduating from JM.”

The 6-foot-2 Bailey leads the Northsiders in college credits and much more. On the hardwood, he’s also first in assists, steals and taking charges.

“Dominique is the heart and soul of our team,” Coach White said. “He’s a warrior. He embraces the game and makes all our other players better.”

In helping the Northsiders to a 19-0 start and No. 2 national ranking by MaxPreps.com, Bailey averages seven points, four rebounds, four assists and four steals an outing.

“I like to feel I’m the glue guy,” Bailey said. “I’m motivated to do things on a high level.”

The “D” in Dominique might stand for defense. Working tirelessly with fellow guard Damon “Redd” Thompson, it’s Bailey’s in-your-face, lockdown defense that really sets him apart.

Black college network to broadcast VUU weekend game

Virginia Union University fans can enjoy basketball with their lunch this Saturday.

BCSBN TV cameras are coming to Barco-Stevens Hall for the Panthers’ noon tipoff against Elizabeth City. BCSBN is short for Black College Sports Broadcasting Network.

Led by senior forward Robert Osborne, VUU has won seven straight games and leads the CIAA North. Osborne had 22 points and 10 rebounds in VUU’s 73-70 win over Shaw Jan. 28

at Barco-Stevens. On the season, Osborne averages 20.4 points (first in CAA), 8.8 rebounds (second) with 70 assists (fourth) and 56 percent shooting (second). He’s also 81 for 122 (66 percent) at foul line.

The 6-foot-5 Hermitage High graduate would seem a lock to be the CIAA Player of the Year.

TV cameras have been kind to coach Jay Butler’s Panthers. VUU already has played twice this season on BCSBN, with wins over Virginia State and Bowie State.

Newark next stop for HU, NSU match

Hampton and Norfolk State universities are packing their bags and taking their “backyard rivalry” on the road again.

The HBCUs, with campuses just 16 miles apart, are traveling to Newark, N.J., Feb. 4 to collide in the Invesco QQQ Classic at the Prudential Center.

HU vs. NSU will tipoff at 5 p.m. and be followed by Morgan State vs. Delaware State. TNT will provide TV coverage.

These road trips aren’t brand new. On Dec. 17, NSU defeated HU, 78-66, in the Chris Paul HBCU Classic in Las Vegas.

Despite their similarities, the schools compete in different conferences. Norfolk State is a member of the MEAC

while Hampton is under the umbrella of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA).

Under Coach Robert Jones, NSU is having a much better season. In search of a third straight MEAC crown and trip to NCAAs, the Spartans started the week 14-7 overall and 4-2 in MEAC. NSU has two All-MEAC and perhaps Player of the Year candidates in fifth-year

McDonald’s games to include “Bronny” James

LeBron “Bronny” James Jr. will soon display his basketball talents on a national stage.

The eldest son of NBA icon LeBron Sr. will play in the prestigious McDonald’s All-Star Game on March 28 in Houston.

James Jr., currently a senior at Sierra Canyon High School near Los Angeles, will play for the West Squad at the Toyota Center. ESPN 2 will provide TV coverage.

LeBron “Bronny” James Jr.

Of the 24 athletes who will match

jump shots and dunks, the 6-foot-3, 180-pound James Jr. is the only one who has not yet made a college commitment.

James Jr.’s list of “finalists” includes UCLA, Southern Cal, Oregon, Michigan and Ohio State. LeBron James Sr. had made a verbal commitment to play for Ohio State before opting for the NBA.

James Sr. was the McDonald’s MVP in 2003 in Cleveland before nearly 19,000 fans.

student Joe Bryant (16.6 points per game and hitting 84 percent at foul line) and gradu

ate student Kris Bankston (14.3 points, 7.3 rebounds, 73 percent from field).

In its first season of CAA play, Hampton is just 5-16 overall and 2-7 in conference. But the Pirates have won their last games two over Monmouth and Delaware.

In the victory over Delaware, 6-foot-6 sophomore Jordan Nesbitt had 31 points, eight rebounds and five assists. Nesbitt, a native of St. Louis, transferred to HU after one sparkling season at St. Louis University. Following the 2022 season, he declared for the NBA draft, but later removed his name from the list.

Kimaiyo goes the distance for NSU

“He’s our best defender,” Coach White said. “I think the best defender in the country.”

“In the country?” a newsman asked.

“You heard what I said,” Coach White replied.

Coach White noted that in a victory last month over powerhouse Grayson High of Georgia, “Dominique held their best player 15 points under his average.”

It is clear that JM is a heavyweight in a lightweight division. It is not by choice but, rather, based on school enrollment. Class 2 is the second lowest of the state’s six classifications.

On its way to last year’s Class 2 State title, JM won its six post-season games by an average of 39.8 points.

There was no ’20-’21 season. In ’19-’20, The Justices won their postseason matchups by a 38.2 point norm.

A similar script is shaping up this go-round.

JM has much on the table to accomplish. The Justices hope to finish a rare undefeated season (perhaps the first ever by a City school) and perhaps tack on a national title in March or April. Records are fuzzy on Maggie Walker and Armstrong from the segregated VIA era.

There are several national high school tournaments, with perhaps the most prestigious being the GEICO in Fort Myers, Fla.

No local public school has never won a national title and it is unlikely any city school has been undefeated.

“We want to make history,” Bailey said.

Miles Mallory’s blocking sets records

Warning: Trying to score inside against Miles Mallory can be hazardous to your shooting percentage.

The bouncy, long-limbed, 6-foot-5 Randolph-Macon College senior has set both school and conference records for blocking shots.

He increased his career collection of rejections to 237 recently in a Yellow Jacket’s win over Roanoke in Salem.

In that game the Beltsville, Md., native had three blocks to go with 16 points, 18 rebounds plus five assists as R-MC, ranked No. 2 in NCAA Division III, improved to 17-1.

Mercyline Kimaiyo

Mercyline Kimaiyo is all about long distances. The Norfolk State University endurance athlete hails from Kaptagat, Kenya, and runs long distances for the Spartans. On Jan. 28, Kimaiyo, a sophomore, won the 5,000-meters at the VMI Winter Classic in the time of 17:53.93, three seconds ahead of the runner-up.

Earlier in January, Kimaiyo won the mile race at the HBCU Showcase in New York.

PGA tour event to honor Marcus Byrd

Marcus Byrd has been chosen to receive the Charlie Sifford Memorial Exemption for the upcoming PGA Genesis Invitational in Pacific Palisades, Calif. Event host Tiger Woods made the official announcement. The PGA tour event will be contested Feb. 16-19 at the Riviera Country Club. The Golf Channel and CBS will provide TV coverage.

A native of Washington, D.C., Byrd is a former standout at Middle Tennessee State and now a regular on the Advocates PGA tour.

Charlie Sifford was the first Black golfer to compete on the PGA regular tour. The exemption in his honor goes each year to an up-and-coming minority golfer.

That broke the previous Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) mark of 236 held by Guilford’s Ben Strong. Long ago Mallory broke the R-MC record of 174 set by Pat Holland, 1988-91.

A leading candidate for ODAC Player of Year, Mallory began this week with 1,229 career points and 756 rebounds to go with his return to sender messages.

State schools’ career shot block leaders. Not all schools list this in their records and few tallied blocks prior to the mid-1970s.

Marcus Byrd

Jordan Nesbitt

Miles Mallory

Charlie Sifford

Dominique Bailey

Amy Black fell in love with tattoo art after getting her first tattoo as a college student at Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

“My love with getting tattoos and tattoo culture grew alongside what I was studying in college,” the former oil painting and anatomy student said. “It’s a fun to put art on your body.”

Turned off by large cities such as New York and Los Angeles, Ms. Black decided to move to Richmond. “I had apprenticed [in tattoo artistry] for a little bit and when I got to Richmond, I was working coffee shop jobs, trying to figure my life out,” she said. “I was 25 and attempting to ‘adult.’”

She was hired for administrative work at Alive Gallery, a local tattoo shop owned by Timothy Hoyer. Soon after, Ms. Black became Mr. Hoyer’s business partner for what became Alive Tattoo, and in 2005, she became the sole owner of the shop and renamed it Amy Black Tattoo.

In her work, she eventually recognized the need for “nipple and areola repigmentation” or “nipple and areola tattooing” as a part of breast reconstruction for patients who’d had mastectomies and were recovering from battling breast cancer.

In 2010, Ms. Black launched Pink Ink Fund, a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing grants for people who desire to get a tattoo to make their breasts or chest look more realistic. Although reconstructive surgery may include a rebuild of the areola and nipple on the breast or chest, the natural coloring and pigmentation often is not there. A small number of artists do this type of tattoo work, and Pink Ink Fund provides grants to help people in need get reconstruction tattoos from her or other tattoo artists.

Ms. Black said she does about one reconstructive tattoo per week, and feels fortunate to be able to do what she

Personality: Amy Black

Spotlight on Pink Ink Fund founder

loves. She plans to extend the reach of Pink Ink Fund to the Black, Indigenous and People of Color population. And, she feels fortunate to be in the position to be an artist living in a city where she can make a living as an artist and enjoy her work while making a positive difference in the lives of cancer patients.

“When you are younger, you have to cast a wider net in your work and while you love it, you have to do more projects that you don’t really want to,” she said. “But as the years progress, the way I work, I start to narrow in more and more on the projects I want to do.”

And with Pink Ink Fund, Ms. Black is helping cancer patients rebuild their self image and rebuild their lives. Ms. Black also is an ally and supporter of the LGBTQIA community, and does mastectomy tattoos for transgender clients

Meet a positive body art advocate and this week’s Personality, Amy Black:

Volunteer position: Founder/ President of Pink Ink Fund 501(c)(3).

Date and place of birth: Jan. 10 in Korea.

Where I live now: Richmond.

Occupation: Tattoo artist, artist, writer, ceramicist, charity founder.

Education: Fine arts major, Columbus College of Art and Design in Columbus, Ohio.

Pink Ink Fund is: A 501(c) (3) with a focus on providing one-time micro grants to those in need for their mastectomy tattooing. The grants are intended to include those at/below poverty level, military, first responders and their families, and people in the BIPOC and LGBTQIA community.

When and why I founded the organization: Pink Ink Fund was founded in 2010 to help bridge the gaps insurance does not cover for decorative mastectomy tattoos and/ or nipple tattooing done by practitioners outside of their insurance network.

How the name was chosen: Pink is the globally recognized color for Breast Cancer Awareness Month (October in the U.S.); “ink” to associate it with the tattoo process.

A decorative mastectomy tattoo is: Related to a person’s mastectomy surgery/surgeries and anything outside of getting a natural/realistic human nipple tattoo.

How Pink Ink Fund decides who to support: A social worker and/or someone from the client’s doctor’s office nominates them. Military and first responders automatically qualify, so we just need verification of their occupation from the person nominating them.

Otherwise, we choose our recipients according to the information provided to us, particularly those who are in the most financial need (close to or below poverty level, generally). Other special cases also will be considered.

How many people does Pink Ink Fund support during the year: Currently there is no cap to the number of grants we give out and we have only given out a few.

How support is given to clients during this sensitive process: They contact a social worker or nurse navigator or someone from their doctor’s office. A medical professional nominates the client/patient to take the stress off of the candidate. We look at the information and give the micro grant. The recipient can use it for anything related to the procedure, including lodging, transportation or the mastectomy tattoo itself. We leave how the funds are used up to the recipient of the grant.

How design and artwork are chosen: Pink Ink Fund does not endorse any specific tattoo artist or get involved with the tattoo designs themselves. The grant recipient is responsible for this part.

How Pink Ink Fund’s work impacts a cancer patient’s mental health following their surgery: Every patient has a unique story. The general result is about helping them continue to heal from their cancer experience and giving back to clients the power of making decisions about their own body. This is not just for women. Why?: While the number is a lower percentage compared

with females, men get breast cancer, too. The fatality rate is much higher in men due to a lack of awareness and education, and many doctors misdiagnose it and/or assume the symptoms are not breast cancer.

How Pink Ink Fund reaches people from all communities: Pink Ink Fund continues to use social media for outreach and actively works to partner with like-minded organizations to extend outreach. We especially look to connect with social services and nurse navigators to reach those most in need of care and financial help.

How Pink Ink Fund is funded: Most funds come from individual donations; other funding comes in the form of grants and groups who raise money for charities.

How to connect with Pink Ink Fund: Email is best: pinkinkfund@gmail.com

How I start the day: A hot mug of tea, mindfulness, daily Buddhist meditations, prayers and taking care of my dog!

A perfect day for me is: Getting another day to experience being alive and working on myself and my health, and helping others.

Something I love to do that most people would never imagine: Play video games. I have played video games since I was very young and at almost 50 (years of age), I still find their art and creativity entertaining, and they are great for decompressing after work. A quote that inspires me: “For as long as space endures, and for as long as living beings remain, until then may I too abide, to dispel the misery of the world.” — Shantideva (also a favorite prayer of His Holiness the Dalai Lama).

At the top of my “to-do” list: Become the best person I can be for myself and others and to be as economically and socially conscious as possible while doing it.

Best late-night snack: Popcorn.

Best thing my parents taught me: True love and compassion reaches beyond all boundaries and differences between people.

Person who influenced me the most: The Dalai Lama. Book that influenced me the most: There are multiple.

Here’s a few: “The Doors of Perception” by Aldous Huxley, “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson, and “The Universe in A Single Atom” by His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

What I’m reading now and my takeaway: “The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human,” by Siddhartha Mukherjee. I just started it, but I love the way the author writes and I love reading about new advances in medicine while comparing it to old practices and mindsets. It’s opening up new avenues and thought patterns for researchers and medical professionals. It examines ways to go back to the building block of humans and finding ways to affect the cell via cell therapies that older systems cannot compete with in order to bring about cures and healing that did not previously exist. It’s highly enlightening and inspiring.

Next goal: To continue to be as good of a person as I can be; to continue to exercise kindness and compassion on all levels as much as possible; to continue to create art and find new avenues for my creativity; and to uphold my hope to always help others when and where I can. I hope to bring Pink Ink Fund’s assistance into more communities in need, as well as raise awareness for its existence and availability to BIPOC and economically challenged communities.

Trevor Noah returns as Grammy host with comfort, nervousness

The Associated Press

Trevor Noah feels more comfortable hosting the Grammy Awards for a third-straight year, but the former “The Daily Show” host still has some nervousness about leading the ceremony with big-time acts like Beyoncé, Adele and Harry Styles looking on.

“The nerves come in because you’re standing in front of not just some of the best, but some of the biggest performers in the world,” said the Emmy winner.

Mr. Noah expects his diligent preparation to get him through Sunday’s show.

“Nerves are part of what I do,” the comedian said.

Mr. Noah returns for his third hosting stint at the Grammys, which airs live from Crypto. com Arena on Sunday, Feb. 5, on CBS and Paramount+. The ceremony returns to Los Angeles after relocating to Las Vegas for the first-time ever because

of rising COVID-19 cases and the omicron variant.

“I was relieved Trevor came back because it makes my job more enjoyable and easier,” said Ben Winston, the show’s executive producer. He called Mr. Noah an “absolute pro” who he said can pivot gracefully at any moment on a night celebrating music’s best.

Michael Jackson’s nephew to star in King of Pop biopic

By The Associated Press NEW

YORK

Michael Jackson’s 26-yearold nephew, Jaafar Jackson, will play the King of Pop in the planned biopic “Michael” to be directed by Antoine Fuqua.

Lionsgate announced Jaafar Jackson’s casting Monday for the film being produced by Oscarwinning “Bohemian Rhapsody” producer Graham King. Mr. Jackson is the second-youngest son of Jermaine Jackson, Michael’s brother. He’s put out music of his own. In 2019, he released his debut single, “Got Me Singing.” “Michael” will be his acting debut.

“I met Jaafar over two years ago and was blown away by the way he organically personifies the spirit and personality of Michael,” Mr. King said in a statement. “It was something so powerful that even after conducting a worldwide search, it was clear that he is the only person to take on this role.”

On Instagram, Mr. Fuqua shared a black-and-white photograph of Mr. Jackson in character. Mr. Fuqua added in a statement that Mr. Jackson “has a natural ability to emulate Michael and such a great chemistry with the camera.”

On Twitter, Mr. Jackson said he’s “humbled and honored to bring my Uncle Michael’s story

“He reassures me on a stressful night when a set hasn’t been built in time and I say to his ear ‘Sorry about that. I need to life.”

“Michael” will be an authorized portrait of the pop star, who died in 2009. The film, scripted by “Gladiator” and “The Aviator” screenwriter John Logan, is being produced with the cooperation of the singer’s estate.

“Jaafar embodies my son,”

you to go an extra 90 seconds because Lady Gaga’s orchestra isn’t in.’ He’ll just naturally flow, make a joke, get up and sit at somebody’s table and chat with them,” Mr. Winston said. “That’s a very difficult task which very few people could do — and definitely can’t do with his comedy and charm that Trevor has.”

Mr. Noah said each year of hosting the Grammys has offered a different experience because of the logistical challenges stemmed from the pandemic. But he said the intimate but socially-distanced in-person award show in 2021 helped him build a rapport with music stars — especially when telling his jokes.

Last year’s ceremony in Las Vegas was a hybrid model that included fans.

“Every year, I notice that I develop a different rapport with the people in the room,” he said. “That opens you up

to a few more jokes and a few more conversations in a way where people understand the context of who you are in relation to them. It means you get to have a little bit of fun without anybody feeling like you’re dunking on them.”

As a music fan, Mr. Noah is looking forward to checking out the popular performers who will hit the stage including Bad Bunny, Mary J. Blige, Sam Smith, Lizzo, Steve Lacy and

Brandi Carlile.

Beyoncé heads into the ceremony with a leading nine nominations, including record and song of the year nods for her song, “Break My Soul.”

Kendrick Lamar has the secondmost nominations with eight, while Adele and Carlile enter the show with seven nods.

Mr. Styles, Ms. Blige, Future, DJ Khaled, The-Dream and mastering engineer Randy Merrill each received six nomi-

nations. “We love having Trevor because he’s so darn good at it,” said Harvey Mason Jr., the CEO of the Recording Academy. “He is so personable, he’s so funny. I don’t know how he does what he does. He never stumbles, he never hesitates. He’s always so earnest and heartfelt. He’s also a music guy. You see him when he’s not on camera. He’s singing, he’s dancing, he’s rapping. I feel like he’s one of us now.”

Katherine Jackson said in a statement. “It’s so wonderful to see him carry on the Jackson legacy of entertainers and performers.”

“Michael” is to begin shooting this year.

Black History Month

Trevor Noah

Jaafar Jackson Michael Jackson

Faith leaders react to Tyre Nichols police video beating with grief, goals

By Adelle M. Banks Religion News Service

Religious leaders reacted swiftly — with legislative appeals and collective grief — to the release of video footage of police officers beating Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died days after a traffic stop in Memphis, Tenn.

Church of God in Christ

Presiding Bishop J. Drew Sheard, whose historically Black denomination has its headquarters in Memphis, issued a statement Jan. 27 addressing the “shocking death” of Mr. Nichols, a 29-year-old FedEx worker who died on Jan. 10 in a local hospital.

“We understand the frustration and outrage of citizens at the brutal nature of the death of yet another Black man by those committed to serve and protect,” Bishop Sheard said in comments released in writing and via video. “Our heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to his family and friends during this difficult time.”

He said his denomination commends the police department’s quick termination of officers involved in the beating and the “appropriate charges” filed against them.

“We unequivocally applaud the daily commitment of most police officers and appreciate their willingness to put their lives on the line,” Bishop Sheard added. “However, we cannot ignore that many individuals have experienced unjust targeting, humiliation, loss of physical freedom, physical harm, and even death at the hands of relatively few officers.”

Other faith leaders expressed grief and offered prayers for Mr. Nichols’ family, as well as called for national and state legislation. Some

questioned whether the video of the police beating of Mr. Nichols should be watched.

Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Michael Curry grieved that there was “not one Good Samaritan” who would immediately offer medical assistance to a severely wounded Mr. Nichols but expressed appreciation for those who have protested peacefully and continue to seek the “justice for all” proclaimed in the Pledge of Allegiance.

“While we grieve, we cannot give in or give up,” Bishop Curry said in a statement. “Just throwing up our hands in despair is not an option lest we leave a brother, a sister, a sibling on the side of the road again. No, let more Good Samaritans arise so that Tyre Nichols’ death will not be in vain.”

Southern Baptist Convention President Bart Barber, who said his “heart goes out to the Nichols family,” wrote a thread

Riverview Baptist Church

Good Shepherd Baptist Church

of comments on Twitter urging Christians “filled with the fruit of the Spirit” to consider entering police forces.

“If law enforcement is God’s calling upon your life but your heart overflows with compassion for someone crying out to his mother while being beaten to death, embrace that calling while maintaining that compassion,” he said. “You can make a difference.”

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who eulogized Mr. Nichols on Wednesday, expressed gratitude for the Justice Department’s opening of a civil rights investigation after Mr. Nichols’ death.

“The sad reality is police brutality will be an everpresent threat for Black and Brown Americans unless cops continually see that those who use blunt force will go to jail,” Mr. Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, said in a statement. “They need to understand that a badge isn’t

a shield that lets them kill someone during a traffic stop. And the only way to do that is through convictions and legislation.”

Progressive National Baptist Convention President David Peoples criticized the “rabid disregard for human life and the sheer abuse of

public trust” by the five officers depicted in the video.

“The culture of policing in America is violent, unaccountable, and anti-Black, even when it involves Black police officers,” he said. The police officers involved in the beating of Mr. Nichols are Black.

In a statement Friday, President Biden cited the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that would hold law enforce-

ment officers accountable for their actions.

“That is why I called on Congress to send the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act to my desk,” the president said. “When they didn’t, I signed an executive order that included stricter use of force standards and accountability provisions for federal law enforcement, as well as measures to strengthen accountability at the state and local level.”

St. Peter Baptist Church

Protesters

Jan. 27 in

Tenn., as authorities release

video depicting five Memphis officers beating Tyre Nichols, whose death resulted in murder charges and provoked outrage at the country’s latest instance of police brutality.