Richmond Free Press March 9-11, 2023 edition

Free Press

Stoney’s $3B proposal

Funding designed to make Richmond more liveable, despite increased gas, water bills

McClellan

becomes 1st Black Virginia woman in Congress

By Stephen Groves The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Democrat Jennifer L. McClellan was sworn into the U.S. House on Tuesday, becoming the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy held a ceremonial swearing-in with Rep. McClellan, who was joined by her two children, on the chamber floor. Members on both sides of the House — Democrats and Republicans — stood and applauded when it was noted she was the first Black woman to represent Virginia in Congress.

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Record pay increases for Richmond city employees, along with hikes in spending on youth programming, affordable housing, public education and street paving.

Those are among the areas that Mayor Levar M. Stoney emphasized Monday as he rolled out his seventh budget plan since taking office and the first ever to top $3 billion as the financial blueprint for Richmond and presented it to City Council.

Mayor Stoney emphasized two elements of his proposed financial package for the 202324 fiscal year that begins July 1 that are of the most concern to the council and the public — the general fund into which taxes, fees and state funding flow, and the capital budget that includes spending on buildings roads and other infrastructure and mostly involves borrowing.

In his budget address, Mayor Stoney said his proposal, fueled by a $110 million jump in general fund revenue, which could be the largest single-year increase ever, seeks to continue the work to make Richmond a better, more equitable place to live.

The council plans to hold a public hearing 6 p.m. Monday, March 27, to hear public comments before considering amendments, and has set a schedule for approving the final package in early May.

The mayor’s proposal calls

Janet Rainey retires after 47 years of keeping records vital

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Keeping records of the births, deaths, marriages and divorces that occur in Virginia may seem like dull work.

Don’t tell that to Janet M. Rainey.

Retired as of Jan. 31, the 66-year-old spent her life in what she describes as an “intriguing field,” rising to lead the records office of the Virginia Department of Health for 18 years.

Ms. Rainey was the sixth state registrar since the office was established in 1912 and the second Black woman to hold the office’s top post.

Today, Ms. Rainey looks back at a 47year career that emphasized accuracy and attention to detail.

She participated in the technological revolution that computerized the records

collection and had a ringside seat on societal changes, ranging from racial integration to gay marriage.

VDH credits her with helping the Office of Vital Records evolve from a paper-based operation to a computer-driven information center that takes in and safely makes records accessible electronically at local health department offices and through the Department of Motor Vehicles offices.

“Her dedication to ensuring the integrity and security of the state’s vital records has benefited all Virginians. Hundreds of thousands of vital records requests are processed every year, and she and her team have worked tirelessly to make them more available,” said Dr. Colin M. Greene, outgoing state health commissioner.

“During her tenure, the state began recording marriages and divorces between

American Federation of government Workers union officials removed

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Turmoil in the 2,500-member union representing workers at the Richmond Veterans Administration Medical Center in South Side is offering a cautionary tale for city employees who are now in the process of unionizing.

Since 2019, two presidents and an acting president of Local 2145 of the American Federation of Government Workers have been removed.

At this point, the AFGE’s national president, Everett Kelley, has installed a trustee to handle the local’s affairs after a union investigative committee found “probable cause” to uphold member complaints of illegal spending from the local’s treasury. The committee also referred the evidence it found to the U.S. Department of Labor for review and potential

prosecution through the U.S. Department of Justice.

Separately, the Labor Department last year ordered that members of the local receive a refund of a dues increase that an administrative judge found was improperly imposed two years earlier.

The AFGE’s deputy counsel, Rushab Sanghvi, ahead of the ruling, stated in an email that the dues increase did not pass muster after finding that the president at the time, Gloria Dunham-Anderson, had not first put the dues to increase to a secret-ballot vote of the local’s members.

Mr. Kelley has not responded to a Free Press request for comment about the situation at the local.

But turmoil is not unusual for the AFGE, which represents 280,000 federal employees, or two-thirds of unionized

federal workers, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

In 2020, Mr. Kelley’s predecessor, J. David Cox, was forced to resign amid allegations of sexual harassment, sexual abuse and misuse of union funds for his personal benefit.

In a recent report titled “AFGE Corruption Warrants Investigation,” the arch-con-

servative Center for American Freedom found that AFGE ranks first among all unions for prosecutions for embezzlement and other criminal misdeeds.

But criminal prosecutions of union officials are not unusual. In 2022, the Department reported conducting more than 50 prosecutions of mostly

people of the same sex, which “is something I thought I would never see in my lifetime,” Ms. Rainey said, and changed birth records for those who had sex-change operations.

She also ensured that adoptions by two parents of the same sex were properly recorded after the Virginia Supreme Court in 2005 overturned a ruling by her predecessor, Deborah Little-Bowser, the first Black woman registrar, to prevent both parents from being named.

Ms. Rainey also was part of the office’s team that has worked to undo the damage from the 1924 Virginia’s Racial Integrity Act. That law allowed the state’s first vital records registrar, avowed racist Walter Plecker, to virtually eliminate

RPS to launch 200-day school year in July

By Holly Rodriguez

Fairfield Court Elementary School is the first Richmond Public School that will participate in the district’s 200-day school year pilot program, beginning July 24.

The School Board voted March 6 to launch the program. Funded by one-time dollars received as part of the American Rescue Plan, participation in the program is contingent upon a majority of teachers, staff and families being onboard. Fairfield received a 96 percent approval.

Three other elementary schools, Cardinal, Overby-Sheppard and Westover Hills, have been approved by the administration to participate as well. Cardinal and OverbySheppard are still counting votes of families willing to participate. At Westover Hills, with only 37 percent willing to participate, the pilot program will not proceed there.

Mr. Kamras said he will have the final vote count for Cardinal and Overby-Sheppard at the next School Board meeting. With the exception of the start date, students at schools participating in the 200-day school year will have the same scheduled holidays as their traditional 180-day peers, and will

Mayor Stoney

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, left, speaks during a ceremonial swearing-in of Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan on Capitol Hill, as her 12-year-old son, Jackson Mills, holds a family Bible from Rep. McClellan’s father, James F. McClellan Jr. Her husband, David Mills and their daughter, Samantha, 7, proudly take in the historical moment. Rep. McClellan succeeds the late Rep. A. Donald McEachin who died last November after a long battle with cancer. Rep. McClellan is the first Black woman to represent the Commonwealth of Virginia in the U.S. Congress.

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Janet M. Rainey, 66, retired Jan. 31 after working nearly a half century for the Virginia Department of Health. Ms. Rainey was the sixth state registrar since the office was established in 1912 and the second Black woman to hold the office’s top post.

Linwood Holton principal resigns

By Holly Rodriguez

Dr. Nikea Hurt resigned from her role as the principal of Linwood Holton Elementary School last week after being absent for several months on family medical leave. Her departure was about four months shy of her fifth anniversary as leader of the school.

Superintendent Jason Kamras’ office confirmed Dr. Hurt’s resignation without elaborating on a process for her replacement.

Dr. Hurt’s departure comes amid controversy and tension after more than 53 teachers left Holton during her tenure.

During a community meeting on Feb. 9, Mr. Kamras justified his earlier conclusion that the tensions at the school were partially attributed to a racial problem that had emerged in the community.

According to Mr. Kamras, after speaking with about 30 people in the school’s community, he believed that some Black parents were happy with Dr. Hurt’s leadership, while some white parents were not. In addition, he said several Black members of the staff felt disrespected by white co-workers.

Mr. Kamras has hired two racial conciliation facilitators who will hold four meetings this spring to work on resolving the racial issues believed to be present in the community.

Cityscape

Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

Richmond’s affordable housing remains elusive

By George Copeland Jr.

Vanessa DeYoung, the K-5 art teacher for Miles J. Jones Elementary School, said she recognized Ava Johnson’s talent when she was a kindergartner last year. “She had a natural ability for designing things, and her color palette was advanced for a kindergartener,” Mrs. De Young said. “

First grader’s art shows natural talent

By Holly Rodriguez

Ava Johnson, a first-grader at Miles J. Jones Elementary School, has won an award for the school division in the VCU Metro Arts show. Her work also has been part of an exhibit at Artworks Gallery on Southside.

This Saturday, one of her art pieces will be on display at the Richmond Public Schools Fine Arts Festival at Huguenot High School.

“I love going to art class,” Ava said in an Instagram video recorded by RPS. “I feel happy and excited when I make art. I make pictures for other people.”

Vanessa DeYoung, the K-5 art teacher for Miles J. Jones, said she recognized Ava’s talent when she was a kindergartner last year. “She had a natural ability for designing things, and her color palette was advanced for a kindergartener,” Mrs. De Young said. “We’ve been building upon that.”

Instead of using just one color, for example, Ava mixes colors to create new ones and does layering, which is an advanced technique for her age. And while her first-grade peers may struggle with scale and size, Ava utilizes the entire space she is given to produce her art.

While helping students recover from learning loss due to the COVID-19 pandemic has been a focus of K-12 public and private schools nationwide, Mrs. DeYoung said she has recognized another type of loss in students that is not as readily addressed in lesson plans.

“For a lot of the kids, since COVID, their imaginations have not been as nurtured,” she said. But with a mother who is a writer and illustrator, and a brother in the fourth grade at her school who will also have his artwork shown at the RPS Fine Arts Festival on Saturday, Ava comes from a creative family.

“Ava still has that sparkle, curiosity and wonder, and that’s another reason why she thrives in art class,” Mrs. DeYoung said.

Mrs. DeYoung said students need the arts because the curricula developed by those teachers reinforces the skills they need to use in academics.

“These kids needs hands-on with the arts — including music, visual arts and drama,” she said. “They are gaining confidence, using problem solving, developing fine motor skills, researching and writing in art class.”

Ava has indicated that she would like to do something artrelated in her career when she grows up. Mrs. DeYoung said her goal for her classes is not to make every student a future artist, but to nurture their creativity — something they will need no matter their career path.

“My room is a space that is a working art studio, a place they claim as their own,” Mrs. DeYoung said. “To come in and be with their peers and creating is magical.”

Clarification

Forestbrooke Apartments in South Side has been the subject of a series of complaints from residents about violations of the building code, Dr. Kevin Vonck, city director of Planning and Development Review, now acknowledges.

Dr. Vonck was quoted by the Free Press as stating that no complaints had been received against the complex since 2018 in an article regarding a proposed apartment inspection program published in the Dec. 29-31, 2022, edition.

He has acknowledged to the Free Press and previously to Virginia Organizing, which is assisting Forestbrooke residents, that he provided inaccurate information.

“We thought Richmond had a win” was a common refrain during a recent City Council meeting, as community and faith leaders called on council members to address ongoing issues with housing in Richmond and follow through on commitments made to address it.

More than 150 members of Richmonders Involved to Strengthen Our Communities attended a Feb. 27 City Council meeting to persuade council members to distribute funds for mobile home repairs and provide answers about an ordinance focused on affordable housing.

“Affordable housing is in crisis, and the people in this building have the power to do something about it,” said Don Coleman, pastor at East End Fellowship and RISC’s co-president. “We thought Richmond had a win, but we’re afraid that what Richmond has are two broken promises.”

According to the Partnership for Housing Affordability, a nonprofit organization that increases awareness about affordable housing issues:

• The current average cost of a home in Richmond is more than $300,000;

• Rents have risen in Richmond’s most affordable locations;

• In North Side and South Richmond, where rents normally have been hundreds less, prices are rising nearly almost twice as fast as other parts of the city;

• Overall, at the end of 2022, average

rental costs ranged from $1,045 in North Side to $1,611 in the West End. City Council had previously amended a housing ordinance in 2021 to send a dedicated stream of funding from a special reserve annually to the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. However, RISC members said the ordinance was not being followed, with an estimated $2.4 million slated to be transferred to the fund.

City officials also had allocated $300,000 for mobile home repairs as part of its budget for the 2023 fiscal year, but the money has not been distributed months after that budget went into effect. A call to Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s office about the funding was not returned by Free Press deadline.

The public petition was the latest development for RISC’s efforts surrounding the state of housing in the city; last fall they also petitioned City Council to take action. “The best time to fund affordable housing was 15 years ago” said Marty Wegbreit, a RISC member and appointee in the Affordable Housing Trust Fund’s supervisory board. “The next best time is today.”

In response, 8th District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell sought to make clear that the council does not have the power and autonomy to act on its own in the matter. She cited the council’s responsibilities as elected officials, and the need for answers from the city administration as critical considerations before decisions could be made.

“It’s a process you have to go through,” said Ms. Trammell, who spoke about the texts and calls she received from constituents to take action.

“All that money is in a trust fund. We do not write those checks.

“I just want to make sure that we’re not crucified for something that we didn’t do,” Ms. Trammell continued. “I think there needs to be another discussion and (to) bring the truth to the table.”

Council President Michael J. Jones, 9th District, stressed the need for a comprehensive plan for the allocated funds, and requested that the City administration produce a report about its approach to mobile home repair and other housing matters.

Mr. Jones tasked City Council’s Chief of Staff LaTesha S. Holmes and Chief Administrative Officer Lincoln Saunders to present their findings to City Council and the Land Use Administration.

RISC members were unconvinced by this choice, pointing to how long the fund has been part of city law without studies or reports to determine how it is best used.

“The ordinance has been on the books since 2008,” said the Rev. Ralph Hodge, pastor at Second Baptist Church South Richmond. “Now you need a study?”

RISC leaders plan to schedule meetings with council members Stephanie A. Lynch, 5th District, and Andreas D. Addison, 1st District, to discuss housing and funding. More meetings, and appeals with city officials also are planned.

DPU expects to soon restart disconnection of services

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Thousands of Richmond families could lose water service, sewerage and/or natural gas service in the coming months for failing to pay their bills.

The Department of Public Utilities has indicated that it will restart disconnections “this spring” for households who have run up bills and not take advantage of repayment options, although it has remained deliberately vague about the timing.

The plan to resume disconnections is included in the department’s response to a new audit that City Auditor Louis Lassiter has released on DPU’s payments and collections.

It is not clear how many households might be affected, but a report the department issued last summer to City Council indicated that as many as 6,300 households could be affected, or about 9 percent of the 66,500 DPU customers who have city water service.

DPU stopped disconnecting in March 2020 after the pandemic hit to help people stay in their homes, the audit noted, and also stopped referring unpaid bills to a collection agency. According to the audit, DPU has seen rapid growth since in uncollected utility bills despite receiving federal assistance on behalf of customers.

The audit found that as of June 30, 2022, when the 2021-22 fiscal year ended, DPU reported $25.4 million in unpaid bills, including late fees, that were overdue 90 or more days, or nearly six times the 2016-2017 level when DPU reported $4.53 million in bills that were unpaid for 90 days or more when it closed the books that year.

In the 2019-20 fiscal year, when disconnections were suspended, utility bills that

were 90 or more days past due jumped to more than $12 million, and the total of unpaid bills has grown each year since then.

Plenty of customers do pay. For fiscal 2021-22, DPU reported collecting $345.9 million from its three biggest utilities, with about $153 million being paid for water and wastewater treatment services, and the remainder, about $192 million, coming from the sale of natural gas.

Still, the $25.4 million in unpaid bills amounts to 7 percent of DPU’s current revenue.

The audit reported a total of $60 million was owed to DPU in unpaid bills as of June 30 when the fiscal books closed on 2021-22, but 41 percent of that money, about $25 million, involved customers who are listed as current and whose most recent payments apparently had not yet been received or recorded.

The remaining 59 percent of the money was recorded as past due for at least 30

days, with the lion’s share of the money owed to DPU being bills that had been unpaid for three months or longer.

The audit also found that DPU is billing based on estimated use of water and service for an increasing share of city customers.

Mr. Lassiter’s team found DPU had boosted estimating, particularly for water usage, because meters with radio transmitters are wearing out after 10 years of service and are not being replaced in a systematic way. The transmitters are only supposed to last 10 years, the audit noted.

The audit found service orders keep piling up from customers who find the billed estimates overstate usage.

The audit found that DPU had a backlog of 42,000 service orders as of June 30 relating to gas and water after closing about 4,700 during the 2021-22 fiscal year.

In its response, DPU stated that it has begun planning a meter replacement initiative.

DPU’s billing and collections audit, Feb. 28

• For 2016-2017, DPU reported $4.53 million in bills that were unpaid for 90 days

• As of June 30, 2022, DPU reported $25.4 million in unpaid bills that were overdue 90 or more days

• Who could lose water service? As many as 6,300 households, or about 9 percent of the 66,500 DPU customers who have city water service, according to a DPU report last summer.

• During the pandemic, DPU received over $21 million in funds from Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) and American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to assist utility customers with delinquent bills. These relief funds reduced the amount owed for fiscal year 2022.

• DPU offers payment assistance for low-income households through their MetroCare programs. There is an application process and if approved the applicant can receive up to $500 per service available once a year. All the funds for this program come from donations. In addition, the State and Department of Aging offer separate senior assistance and fuel assistance programs.

To read DPU’s full Feb. 28 billing and collections audit, please visit: http://rvagov. prod.acquia-sites.com/sites/default/files/2023-03/2023-09%20DPU%20Billing%20 and%20Collections%20audit%202.28.23.pdf

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

A city street sign leans at the corners of Shirley Lane and Westover

Funding designed to make Richmond more liveable

for a $949 million general fund, representing an unprecedented 13 percent jump from the current $838 million budget. The proposal calls for an expenditure of about $4,100 for each of the city’s 230,000 residents, an increase of $500 per resident from the current budget. He did not include any request for an increase or cut in any tax rates, but Richmond residents are anticipated to pay $106 more per year for water, wastewater, gas and stormwater services as a result of a proposed increase in basic rates.

Growth in consumer spending as pandemic worries recede helped propel revenue proposal, with the city projected to see a 22.5 percent jump in the sales tax on goods and services, a 19.2 percent increase in tax collections from restaurant meals. Another key is the continued growth in tax revenues on real estate, which the budget plan estimates will be up $61 million or 16.2 percent over the current levels. City employees, who are on the verge of unionizing, are among the biggest winners. Seeking to match Henrico County’s proposal, the mayor’s budget plan proposes investing $26 million to raise general employee pay 8 percent and provide at least an additional 5 percent increase for firefighters and police who got a major raises this year. His proposal also includes funding for new programs to

help employees buy homes and cover tuition costs for college.

He also proposed boosting the city’s contribution to Richmond Public Schools to $221 million, a 10 percent increase from the current $200 million that would largely cover the cost of raises for the already unionized teachers and other RPS employees.

His proposal represents a $70 million increase in city taxpayer contribution to RPS since he first took office in 2017.

The mayor’s proposal, though, would be at least $7.5 million less than RPS requested, forcing the School Board to make cuts in its spending plan. The mayor’s proposal also is $22 million less than the share that a now defunct council policy once promised.

Along with operating cash, the mayor, also as anticipated, included $200 million for RPS in the capital budget to develop a new George Wythe High School, now projected to cost $154 million.

To the delight of at least two council members, he also proposed providing an additional $15 million in the capital budget to cover the full cost of rebuilding burned-out Fox Elementary School in the Fan. The cost is pegged at $25 million, but RPS is only anticipating receiving $10 million from its insurance coverage.

“It is my hope that the Richmond School Board will act swiftly to start the construction of George Wythe High School and begin the process for construction of a new Fox Elementary,” Mayor Stoney said.

Other budget proposals include:

• $2.5 million to maintain the 44 existing school buildings, at least 13 of which are 100 or more years old.

• $14 million in the capital budget to address the city’s $200 million backlog of deferred maintenance.

• $10 million for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, which mostly aids developer financing of income-restricted housing and proposed that an additional $10 million be provided each fiscal year through 2028. If approved, the trust plans use part of the money to encourage building of affordable single-family homes.

• $500,000 for a new initiative to assist residents purchase manufactured housing or mobile homes, and $1.75 million toward the future development of a year-round homeless shelter.

• $6 million in the capital budget to enable development of a new building at the Southside Community Center in the 9th District. An existing appropriation of $15 million proved insufficient due to inflation in construction costs.

• $7 million for park improvements, plus $1 million to improve after-school programming at city recreation centers.

• $800,000 in additional funding to enable the city’s library system to cover the cost of providing Sunday operating hours at four libraries.

• $1.7 million to fund a tuition assistance program for Richmond high school graduates enrolling in a community college.

McClellan becomes 1st Black Virginia woman in Congress

Continued from A1

Virginia is now the 23rd state to be represented by a Black woman, according to a recent Pew Research Center analysis of historical records.

“It is a tremendous honor, not only when I think back on my own family history, and what my parents and grandparents and great-grandparents went through to make this possible, but the fact that I’m the first from Virginia, the birthplace of American democracy and the birthplace of American slavery, is kind of poetic justice,” Rep. McClellan told The Associated Press in an interview Monday.

Rep. McClellan recalled how her parents and grandparents faced Jim Crow-era obstacles just to vote. She said her grandfather had to prove he could read and find three white men to vouch for it. Her father, a pastor and professor, had to pay a poll tax to vote and kept the proof in his now-worn Bible. Her mother, the first woman in her family to attend school beyond eighth grade, did not vote until the 1965 Voting Acts Right was enacted.

“What sparked my interest in government was listening to them tell their stories, where they saw the best of government in the New Deal and the worst of government in Jim Crow,” she told the AP. “Those stories not only made me want to focus on making government a force for helping people and solving problems, but I’ll carry those

stories into the House chamber with me.”

The longtime state lawmaker won a special electio n last month to represent Virginia’s blue-leaning 4th District, which stretches from Richmond south to the border with North Carolina. The seat was opened when Democratic Rep. Donald McEachin died weeks after being elected to a fourth term in November.

Rep. McClellan won’t shift the balance of power in the House, which is narrowly held by Republicanswith a 222-seat majority. Democrats have 213 seats.

Rep. McClellan called Rep. McEachin a “big brother” figure, starting with his mentorship of Black college students like her at the University of Richmond.

Rep. McClellan went on to become an associate general counsel at Verizon over a 20year career with the company. She also represented parts of the Richmond area in the General Assembly for nearly two decades and joined with McEachin in the statehouse to press a range of progressive goals.

She became a force behind many Democratic proposals, including bills to expand voting access, ensure abortion rights and curb climate change. She ran for governor in 2021 but lost in a crowded Democratic primary to Terry McAuliffe.

After Rep. McEachin’s death from the secondary effects of colorectal cancer, Rep. McClellan considered following

Free COVID-19 vaccines

Continued from A1

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, March 9, 2 to 4 p.m. - Cary Street, 400 E. Cary St., JYNNEOS shots. Walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged.

Wednesday, March 15, 3 to 6 p.m. - Second Baptist Church, 3300 Broad Rock Blvd., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months to 5 years old and 12 years and older, and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, and baby bivalent boosters. Walk-ups welcome but appointments encouraged.

Thursday, March 16, 2 to 4 p.m. - Cary Street, 400 E. Cary St., Primary Moderna shots for age 6 months to 5 years old and 12 years and older, and bivalent boosters for age 6 years and older, Primary Pfizer shots for age 6 months and older, bivalent boosters for age 5 years and older, Novavax primary shots for age 12 and older, and boosters for age 18 and older, and baby bivalent boosters. 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) 205-3501 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 10 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 10 percent since last week.

Compiled by George Copeland Jr.

in his footsteps again, as she did in 2017 when he vacated a seat in the state Senate. This time, though, she missed Rep. McEachin’s phone calls of advice.

“I really felt his absence,” Rep. McClellan said, adding that she ultimately decided she could build on his legacy. Rep. McClellan, the first Virginia state delegate to give

birth while in office, has two children. Speaking by phone over the background noise of children arriving home from school, Rep.McClellan told the AP she was ready “to bring

a brand new perspective as a Black mom, a Black woman and a working mom.” Associated Press writer Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.

Janet Rainey retires after 47 years

Continued from A1

Native Americans by labeling them as “colored.”

For 17 years, she and other team members worked with Native American families to correct their birth certificates to ensure they and other family members were properly listed as tribal members. Through her decades with the office, Ms. Rainey continued to personally help Virginians find and correct their records, VDH noted. Before Ms. Rainey retired, VDH cited her for assisting to properly list an 88-year-old whose birth was never recorded

As registrar, Ms. Rainey carried out a legislative mandate to connect Virginia’s vital records with the genealogy firms such as Ancentry.com, making records more available to individuals researching their family tree, VDH stated.

She also is credited with working with DMV to link that agency to the computerized records, which has enabled DMV to issue than 1 million birth certificates and other records to customers since 2013.

She also played a key role in creating an electronic system that makes it easier for doctors, medical examiners and funeral homes to file death certificates and enabling mothers to obtain a copy of a

newborn child’s birth certificate while in the hospital, VDH noted.

“It’s been an amazing ride,” Ms. Rainey said, whose only regret is that she was unable to complete making marriage and divorce information more available through court clerk’s offices and other sites before she left office.

It didn’t start out that way for the daughter of a farmer and a factory seamstress, who grew up in rural Chase City in Mecklenburg County.

Like several siblings before her, her parents encouraged her after she graduated from high school to go to Richmond to find a better life than was available in an area where agricultural or factory work were the main occupations.

With the support of two sisters who already had come to Richmond, Ms. Rainey said that she went to SmithdealMassey Business College to improve her office skills and landed a clerk typist job immediately after graduating in the VDH office that would be her workplace from then on.

Her initial tools were pencils, ink pens and hundreds of record books that had to be searched by hand.

“I wasn’t’ sure I liked it at first,” she said, but she began taking more of an interest with help from a mentor, Russell

E. “Rusty” Booker Jr., then an assistant registrar and later state registrar for 13 years. She said Mr. Booker helped her understand the importance of the work. Ms. Rainey said she began developing a passion for vital records after she was promoted to the section that worked on correcting primarily birth records. She said she was shocked to find out about the alterations of the facts of a person’s birth that Mr. Plecker and his successor, Estelle Marks, directed and became immersed in working with people to make corrections.

She rose to become assistant state registrar and took on the top post in 2004, first on an interim basis. She became the permanent director in 2006.

Some people hoped she would stay until she had served 50 years, “but that wasn’t me,’ she said with a laugh.

Instead, she looks forward to fishing, traveling and visiting with members of her family.

Still, she believes she made the right to decision to make her career in the records office.

“People will chase the dollar more so than the career,” she said. “Sometimes our careers may not pay a top dollar that we want, but it’s something that you can go home saying that you made a difference in somebody’s life.”

Continued from A1 local union officials across the country for financial crimes involving misuse of union funds.

Among the key reasons that union leaders can be tempted is most duespaying members do not attend meetings or participate in policy matters. Minutes for Local 2145 indicate that fewer than 50 members would attend monthly general meetings to participate in discussions and vote on spending.

Still, some AFGE members are very active and are making no secret of their concern about the operation of the Richmond local and other locals in the organization as well as the stewardship that Mr. Kelley and the national officers are providing.

Those members publicize their concerns in a Facebook group called “Stop the Corruption: AFGE Members Coming Together.”

At long stable Local 2145, the turmoil began in 2019 after Jennifer Marshall, who had been president for 20 years was apparently defeated in her bid for a sixth term, by Gloria Dunham-Anderson and a

slate of new people. Ms. Marshall went to the Labor Department with complaints about conduct of the election, which upheld her complaint and ordered a new election in 2021, which she won.

However, during Ms. Dunham-Anderson’s tenure, not only were dues raised, but her slate approved monthly payments for officers, rather than the quarterly payments that had been authorized by the bylaws.

An audit of the local’s finances also reported that during Ms. Dunham-Anderson’s tenure, bonus payments to members of her team for recruiting new members exceeded the reported number of people listed as joining the union.

Ms. Marshall had begun trying to clean up the financial situation after taking office again in 2022, only to be removed by Mr. Kelley within several months based on an assault complaint that the executive vice president, Mintina Minto, filed against her. Ms. Marshall has denied the complaint and is now battling for reinstatement.

Meanwhile, Ms. Minto moved up to acting president after Ms. Marshall was removed and ended up being removed for

a trustee following investigation of misspending complaints from members. In a report obtained by the Free Press, the chair of the investigative committee, Anita M.Autrey, president of AFGE Local 1923 in Baltimore, notified Mr. Kelley that the evidence indicated Ms. Minto “committed the alleged offenses. In addition others may be complicit.”

Ms. Minto vehemently denies any wrongdoing, telling the Free Press that allegations have been trumped up by a faction of union members who have oppose her and support Ms. Marshall.

Deneen Harris, a 20-year member of the local and an active member in Concerned Members of AFGE, told the Free Press, “I’ve never seen the local in the state it is in right now.

“The union was created to protect the rights of employees and hold management accountable,” said Ms. Harris, who has been a steward and held other offices in the local. “But this local is being destroyed from within. It is time for members of the local to hold those responsible for the financial problems we face and install officers with integrity to run the local.”

RPS to launch 200-day school year in July

Continued from A1

share the same last day of school.

In his presentation to the School Board at the Feb. 20 meeting, Mr. Kamras pointed to a study published in 2010 by the American Education Research Association that said “extending school time can be an effective way to support student learning.” The data is based on research conducted from 1985 to 2009. In addition, RPS students, like many public and private school students across the country, are struggling to recover from learning loss experience during the COVID-19 pandemic and are not performing on grade level. Mr. Kamras has previously said this program is a step in the direction of improving student performance.

Mr. Kamras also has repeatedly said four additional weeks of instruction may help students better retain the material they learn during the school year. For decades, research has shown students experience learning loss during summer break, known as the “summer slide.” This research identifies younger children and low-income students who are at highest risk of learning loss over the summer.

Families currently enrolled at an “RPS200” school who do not want to participate in the pilot can transfer their student out of the school and will be prioritized for placement at other schools, as long as space exists. Families can also opt their students into one of the pilot schools’ programs depending on availability. However, families

opting in or opting out of these schools will be required to provide their own transportation for their RPS students.

Principals and assistant principals will receive $15,000 bonuses; teachers and staff with contracts will move to 11-month contracts and receive a bonus of $10,000 every year of the pilot. And all staff participating in the program “will receive an additional $5,000 bonus if their school meets student outcome goals established at the beginning of the year and approved by the Superintendent.”

RPS is launching its program just as Chesterfield County Public Schools may end a similar program at two elementary schools: Bellwood Elementary and Falling Creek Elementary.

American Federation of Government Workers union officials removed

Henrico woman’s invention provides clearer thermometer reads

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Where do ideas for inventions come from?

For Henrico County resident Casaundra L. Pugh, the eureka moment came during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms. Pugh, a health aide, was stationed at a drive-through clinic aiming a digital thermometer at drivers and passengers who wanted to know if they had a fever, a sign they might be infected with COVID-19.

It was a hot sunny day in June 2020, and the glare of the sun made it difficult to read the results on the small screen, said the 55-year-old Newark, N.J., native.

“I found a piece of tape and put it over the top of the thermometer, and sure enough it provided a shield from the glare,” she said. “It worked. I tested it again the next day just to make sure.”

Now she and her daughter, Younniaa I.J. Williams, have taken the idea and gained a U.S. patent for an attachable, glare-reduction shield for digital thermometers.

Ms. Williams, 35, is familiar with the process. She has spent her career working in public relations for pharmaceutical companies, including

being involved in the process of commercializing new products and inventions.

When her mother called to ask for help, Ms. Williams knew what to do. They went through a company called InventHelp, which has a Richmond area office, to navigate the patent process and secure help with the design of a prototype.

Ms. Williams said she then contacted an overseas manufacturer she has worked with in commercializing products for companies who employed her to research how to transform the prototype design into an actual product.

She said she is reaching out to retailers who sell thermometers and also is seeking one or more investors who may help bring it to the market as a useful and saleable improvement.

Ms. Pugh, who also cares for elderly people with terminal illnesses in her home, said her fingers are crossed that her invention will become more than a prototype.

She said that she has had other creative ideas, but never acted on them, only to see others successfully bring them to market.

“I vowed that if I came up with something else, I was going to act on it,” she said. “Hopefully, it will work out.”

Toni Morrison honored with new stamp unveiled at Princeton

The Associated Press PRINCETON, N.J.

Nobel laureate Toni Morrison is now forever immortalized on a stamp honoring the prolific writer, editor, scholar and mentor that was unveiled Tuesday morning in a tribute at Princeton University, where she taught for almost two decades.

Guest speakers, some who had close personal relationships with Ms. Morrison and spoke over Zoom, included former President Obama, Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey, as well as the Librarian of Congress, Carla Hayden.

The monthslong series of events are paying tribute to Ms. Morrison, who died in 2019 at age 88. The tribute opened with a recording of Ms. Morrison’s voice playing in the auditorium, reciting a passage on Harlem from her 1992 novel “Jazz”: “Nobody says it’s pretty here; nobody says it’s easy either. What it is is decisive, and if you pay attention to the street plans, all laid out, the City can’t hurt you.”

Later, an all-Black acapella group sang the Black national

anthem “Lift Every Voice and Sing.”

The dedication was made by Michael Cadden, a longtime Princeton lecturer who co-taught courses with Ms. Morrison, and formerly served as chair of the Lewis Center of the Arts.

Mr. Cadden introduced Pritha Mehra, the chief information officer and executive vice president of the United States Postal Service, who said that the postal service is proud to commemorate Ms. Morrison.

“Our new stamp will be seen by millions, and forever remind us of the power of her words and the ideas she brought to the world,” Ms. Mehra said.

Photographer Deborah Feingold, whose portrait of Ms. Morrison taken for Time magazine’s Jan. 19, 1998, cover appears on the stamp, also spoke at the event. Ms. Morrison’s son, Ford Harrison, and his family were also in attendance Tuesday.

“Anyone who was lucky enough to meet (Morrrison),

knows that she was just as captivating in person as she was on the page,” said Ruha Benjamin, a professor of African-American studies who read a letter written by the Obamas. “We hope that this postage stamp would make her smile, that she would love the idea of helping us connect through writing once again,” she said.

“Toni may no longer be with us, but we know that her words will endure — challenging our conscience and calling us to greater empathy,” Ms. Benjamin said.

In 1993, Ms. Morrison became the first Black woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Casaundra L. Pugh, left, and her daughter, Younniaa I.J. Williams, show a photo of their invention, a glare-reduction shield for digital thermometers.

Talking trash

Just the facts.

That’s all that voters and television viewers want from Gov. Glenn Youngkin. And a little backbone and truth to go along with them.

Sadly, that’s not likely to happen as the Democratic Party of Virginia points out in a Wednesday evening news release titled, “First, Then, Now.”

The release (and its target) comes close to channeling one of Chris Rock’s zingers in his new Netflix comedy special. Like Mr. Rock’s brash, in-your-face routines, the release gets straight to the point.

“Youngkin’s Superintendent Scandal (So Far). First, thanks to Governor Youngkin’s astonishing incompetence, K-12 schools across the Commonwealth lost $201 million in state funding.”

It gets better.

“Then, a full three months later, Youngkin’s Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow, resigned her post, without explanation. Jillian Balow’s last day is March 9, the same day that Youngkin takes his roadshow of disasters to the national stage, joining Jake Tapper for a CNN Town Hall.

Last week’s Free Press featured an Associated Press article regarding Ms. Balow’s resignation in a letter to the governor that did not offer a specific reason for her departure. The AP article noted that the state’s Department of Education has faced criticism for recent missteps, including an error in a mathematical formula the agency provides to local K-12 school divisions that led schools to expect more state funding than they were set to receive.

“I am grateful and humbled to have had the opportunity to serve the children and families of Virginia and I continue to strongly support you and your vision for education in Virginia,” Ms. Balow wrote in her letter.

Gov. Youngkin’s press office did not respond to a question from The Associated Press about whether the governor asked Ms. Balow to step down, instead offering a one-sentence statement thanking her for her service.

The announcement didn’t go unnoticed by Virginia Democrats and neither did the governor’s failure to respond to the question.

“Meanwhile, the Virginia Republican Party dismissed the concerns of families and educators, calling the unusual and murky departure of Ms. Balow a “routine staff turnover,” according to the Virginia Democratic Party news release.

The release continues to note, “Now, Glenn Youngkin refuses to answer to Virginian parents, teachers, and students. When asked directly by CBS6, Glenn Youngkin refused to answer whether or not he asked for Barlow’s resignation – not once, not twice, but three separate times.”

Switch to the news release’s embedded video, click and listen to the governor’s attempt to answer a journalist’s question without answering the simple question: “Did you ask for her resignation?”

Showing his growing mastery of evasion, smooth talking and/or arrogance, here is how Virginia’s governor responded:

“So, first of all I want to thank the superintendent for her commitment to the Commonwealth. She stood for excellence ... she loves kids. I couldn’t ask for a better qualified (person). I wish her the best in all that she’s doing. One of the most important things we recognize is … learning loss during the pandemic. We have got to build back high expectations.”

The question is repeated.

The governor again evades the question, giving his own idea of an answer.

“We have got to build back high expectations,” he said, looking as earnest as he could muster. “We’re moving to find the next state superintendent of education. Part of what we are managing right now is a big transition … education is hugely important … We want to make sure we have the best person we can to do that. I’m just so appreciative of the superintendent’s commitment to the Commonwealth.

“Will you answer the question,” the journalist asked?

“Yes, next,” the governor responded.

Ahhhh. Slick.

Liam Watson, the Democratic Party’s press secretary, fails to mince words in his assessment of Gov. Youngkin’s response … or lack thereof.

“Virginia’s parents, teachers, and students all deserve better. They deserve better than Youngkin’s incompetence and they deserve better than his deflections and lies.”

Drop the mic.

U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, now a major figure in the House Republican Caucus, is calling for a “national divorce,” that would “separate by red states and blue states and shrink the federal government.”

Like her hero, Donald Trump, she claims widespread anonymous support for the idea:

“Everyone I talk to says this. From the sick and disgusting woke culture issue shoved down our throats to the Democrat’s traitorous America Last policies, we are done.”

This is a call for secession.

The last move for a “divorce” led to the Civil War, the bloodiest war in American history. If taken literally, it is treasonous.

The conservative former GOP Rep. Liz Cheney reminded Rep. Greene that “our country is governed by the Constitution. You swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution. Secession is unconstitutional.”

Rep. Greene is just vamping for the MAGA crowd, looking to create another splash to expand her audience on social media, and — not insignificantly — increase her online fundraising. She has offered no legislative proposal to divide the country, nor written up a declaration

Scott Adams, creator of the popular “Dilbert” comic strip, has faced a backlash of cancellations after a tirade on his YouTube livestream in which he described Black people as mem bers of “a hate group” from which white people should “get away.”

Instead, hundreds of newspapers, including the Chicago Tri bune, where I work, decided to get away— from “Dilbert,” even though it has ranked as one of the nation’s most popular comic strips.

A devastating blow hit the comic Sunday evening when its distributor, Andrews McMeel Universal, severed ties, citing the company’s policy of rejecting “commentary rooted in discrimination or hate.”

Discrimination? Hate? Dilbert? Who would have expected such ugly allegations would rise up around dutiful office drone “Dilbert,” his faithful pet-pal Dogbert and the other familiar characters in the 34-year-old strip, as well as a bonanza spinoff of “Dilbert” books, calendars and toys that decorate office cubicles around the globe?

Alas, things turned ugly after Mr. Adams posted a YouTube livestream last week in which he riffed on a Rasmussen Reports poll of racial attitudes.

My ears perked up as soon

of independence. She’s just babbling for effect — but the babble is revealing.

Like the segregationists of the South, a first target is education. Red states after secession, she suggests, “would likely ban all gender lies and confusing theories, Drag Queen story times, and LGBTQ indoctrinating teachers and China’s money and influence in our educa -

tion.” Blue states “could have government-controlled gender transition schools,” or even “Antifa communist training schools.” Again, this is babble, but it is echoed by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, leading contender for the Republican presidential nomination, and his much-ballyhooed war on “woke,” including how Black history is taught, what books can be in libraries, even what Advanced Placement courses are sufficiently politically correct for conservatives.

Rep. Greene also argues that after secession, red states could control their own elections. Then they would have “one day elections with paper ballots and require voter ID with only the red state citizens or even red state taxpayers voting.” Anyone from a blue state moving into a red state would have to wait five years or so to vote, time for

as I heard the name Rasmussen. The firm often has been accused of a pro-conservative, pro-Republican bias, but it also comes up with polling questions too provocative to be ignored by talk shows or sociopolitical columns like mine.

Or by YouTube livestreams

like “Real Coffee with Scott Adams,” in which Mr. Adams flew into a rage over a Rasmussen poll that found only a slim majority of Black Americans agreed with the statement, “It’s OK to be white.”

As a Black American who believes it’s quite OK to be whatever color the Almighty made you, I thought the question was “simple” and “uncontroversial,” as Rasmussen’s head pollster described it to The Washington Post.

But as a news junkie, I knew the phrase “It’s OK to be white” has a loaded history in light of today’s racial politics.

”It’s Okay To Be White” is a slogan popularized in late 2017 as a trolling campaign by members of the controversial discussion board 4chan, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The idea behind the campaign was to choose an apparently innocuous slogan and put it on fliers or websites in public locations and “own the libs,” as the alt-right calls anything that upsets liberals, thus “proving”

his or her cultural attitudes to acclimate to red state views.

This too is echoed in the systematic effort of Republicans — particularly in red states where they have a legislative majority — to suppress the vote, making it harder for urban and young voters to cast a ballot, to gerrymander districts to lock in partisan advantage, to purge election rolls to throw off minority voters, to open the floodgates to corporate and dark money and more. And it’s enforced by the right-wing justices on the Supreme Court gutting the Voting Rights Act and removing restrictions on big money in our politics.

Rep. Greene probably doesn’t realize it, but secession would leave most Southern states even more impoverished. Over one-third (37.7 percent) of Georgia’s revenues come from the federal government. Red states constitute eight of the top 10 states that gain much more revenue from the federal government than they pay to the federal government in taxes.

Citizens in several red states already suffer from more medical debt, worse medical care and lower credit ratings — and thus pay higher interest rates — largely because their Republican governors have refused to extend Medicaid to their citizens out of opposition to Obamacare.

that liberals don’t think it’s “OK” to be white.

In other words, it’s a trick question — and Mr. Adams, who leans quite conservative on such matters, appears to have been a bit too eager to fall for it. “If nearly half of all Blacks are not OK with white people ..., that’s a hate group,” he fumed in his livestream.

And, “The best advice I would give to white people is to get the hell away from Black people,” he continued. “... You just have to escape. So that’s what I did. I went to a neighborhood where, y’know, they have a very low Black population.”

In fact, the poll’s results were not all that clear. Some 53 percent of Black respondents agreed that it’s OK to be white, and only 26 percent disagreed. To reach his “nearly half of all Blacks,” Mr. Adams had to add the 21percent who were “not sure” to the group that flatly disagreed.

Frankly the question as phrased itself is so unclear—Are you “OK”? Am I “OK”? — that I, too, am unclear and more than a little suspicious about the motives behind it.

Not to be left out of this toxic tiff, Twitter CEO Elon Musk chimed in with an odd defense of Mr. Adams, saying the “media is racist” and, without evidence, opined, “for a very long time, U.S. media was racist against nonwhite people, now they’re racist against whites & Asians.”

In other words, it’s all the media’s fault. Got it.

The Free Press welcomes letters

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

It’s easy to dismiss Rep. Greene who is just, as they say, “building her brand,” saying outrageous things to get attention like a petulant adolescent. But there is a real menace in the fear and loathing that she spews.

After the Civil War stopped the last secession, the plantation class used the Ku Klux Klan, a reign of terror and lynching to retake control, strip the newly freed slaves of their rights, and institute segregation — legal apartheid — on the South. They justified this with the kind of lies and slanders that Rep. Greene traffics in today. Their purpose was to suppress democracy and implant one-party rule — and for more than a century they succeeded. Rep. Greene’s performance may be “insanity” as Mitt Romney says, but it feeds fears and hate that are a far greater threat to a democracy.

Regina H. Boone reginaboone@richmondfreepress.com James Haskins, Rudolph Powell and Clinton A. Strane Vice President – Administration Tracey L. Oliver traceyoliver@richmondfreepress.com

Advertising Traffic Coordinator Cynthia Downing advertising@richmondfreepress.com classifieds@richmondfreepress.com

Advertising Fax: (804) 643-5436

‘Dilbert’ artist downfall, triggered by a reckless commentary

Jesse L. Jackson Sr.

Clarence Page

Richmond City Council invites community to thank a social worker during Richmond Social Work Month

Established last year by Richmond City Council and Mayor Levar M. Stoney, Richmond Social Work Month recognizes those who have dedicated their professional lives to helping improve the quality of life for others, especially those experiencing distress, through the delivery of positively impactful programs and services.

Social work is critically important to the lives, well-being, and sustainability of Richmond residents and the ongoing success of our thriving community.

Social work and the delivery of social service programs is a very involved, challenging, and demanding undertaking that can be overwhelming and emotionally draining and social work/ service professionals tirelessly work to help make the lives and outcomes of our communities the best they can be.

Social work is important in helping to fortify, build, and strengthen the capacities, resiliency, and stability of individuals, families, groups, communities, and society by establishing, developing, and delivering individual and collective development and empowerment programs and services that bring together and maximize available resources to assist social, educational, behavioral, health care, economic, cultural, and human development in supporting and improving

the individual and shared well-being, success, sustainability, and outcomes of others.

Public and nonprofit social work programs, policies, funding, and practitioners work on behalf of the public good in serving individuals, families, and communities and helping all persons, irrespective of race, gender, identity, or income, to have happier and healthier lives.

Locally, the Richmond Department of Social Services provides for the delivery of numerous social work programs and services on behalf of Richmond residents and its operations include the Division of Children, Families and Adults, which works on ensuring families and children are safe and secure in their own homes, in foster homes and throughout the community; the Office of Children’s Services Act, which helps provide child-focused services on behalf of troubled and at-risk youths; and, the Division of Economic Support and Independence, which provides residents in need with tools and opportunities that promote economic stability.

Richmond City Council thanks all those working on behalf of Richmond residents for their help in making our city an even better, happier, and more sustainable place to live, love, work, learn, play, visit and enjoy family.

RICHMOND CITY COUNCIL

Applause for Encore program

I hope that other surrounding counties and the City of Richmond are taking notice of the new program Henrico County is rolling out titled Encore, which was featured in the Free Press, March 2-4 edition. The program is trying to entice many of the county’s retired employees to come back and work at the same salary that they received upon retirement. I think this is a win-win for everyone. Henrico will fill some of their staffing shortages and retirees will get a supplemental income while working part-time hours.

In a time where there are shortages of staff and retirees stretching their paychecks to survive, this is a no-brainer. This program will also make the retirees feel appreciated, knowing that they have an avenue to return if they so desire. The cities and counties became great on the backs of the retirees who were dedicated and strived to make their locality

great. I retired from the City of Richmond with over 30 years of experience, but many times I feel underappreciated due to not getting a cost of living raise in years. There is an old say-

ing “out of sight out of mind.”

Let’s change the narrative with programs like this.

ERNEST PARKER JR. Richmond

Stories by Fred Jeter

Brad Daugherty makes history in Daytona race

In case you weren’t watching, a Black man won the Daytona 500. And it wasn’t Bubba Wallace, NASCAR’s most prominent Black driver.

The winning driver Feb. 19 was Ricky Stenhouse of JTG Daughtery Racing, owned by Brad Daugherty and the husband-wife team of Tad and Jodi Geschickter.

Thus, Daugherty becomes the first Black principal owner of a Daytona champion.

“Man, we’ve made history,”

Daugherty told NASCAR.com. “This is historical, and nobody can take that from us or take that from me.

“I’m so proud and look forward to hoisting more trophies with my team.”

If the name Brad Daugherty sounds familiar, it should to sports fans outside the racing world.

From Black Mountain, N.C., Daugherty is the 7-foot former basketball star at the University of North Carolina and with the

NBA Cleveland Cavaliers from 1986 to 1996. He was the No. 1 overall draft choice (by Cleveland) in 1986 and went on to average 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Cleveland. He was a five-time NBA All-Star whose No. 43 was retired by the Cavs. He wore No. 43 as a player in honor of his racing idol, Richard Petty. Daugherty has been much involved with racing since

retiring from basketball. He began as a television announcer and eventually assumed more responsibility.

Driving himself was out of the question.

At 7-foot, he would have been a full six inches taller than the tallest driver in the history of the top series, 6-foot-6 Buddy Baker.

To squeeze into a tight cockpit, most drivers are well under 6 feet. Stenhouse is 5-foot-9, which is about average.

Women’s soccer league drafts high schooler Alyssa Thompson

Alyssa Thompson is an 18-yearold high school senior with a professional soccer contract.

On March 2, Thompson became the first high school girl to be drafted first overall by the National Women’s Soccer League.

Of Filipino and Peruvian ancestry, she was drafted No. 1 by her hometown NWSL team, Angel City FC. The pro season starts March 25.

The 5-foot-4 forward scored 48 goals in 18 games last season for Harvard-Westlake High School in Los Angeles. She also played for Total Futbol Academy, and excelled in track, running one of the top 10 100-meter times in California.

Thompson, who had earlier committed to attend Stanford University, plans to finish high school online.

Baseball players’ hits, strikeouts nearly uniform

Tahraun Hammond is to Virginia State University baseball what Shohei Ohtani is to the major leagues.

From Japan, Ohtani pitches and hits up a storm for the Los Angeles Angels. He’s the best two-way player in baseball history.

Hammond performs similar heroics for VSU Coach Merrill Morgan.

Heading into this month for the 6-4 Trojans, Hammond is now hitting .442 (19 for 43) with nine stolen bases in 10 tries.

On the mound, the 5-foot-9 sophomore from Tappahannock has a 1.72 earned run averages with 22 strikeouts

in 15.2 innings. When he’s not pitching, he’s a skilled infielder with a powerful throwing arm.

The Trojans have a 44-game mix ‘n’ match regular season schedule of schools from various conferences. Only Lincoln and Claflin from the CIAA sponsor baseball.

Since there are not enough CIAA teams with baseball programs, VSU will compete at the end of the season for the New South Conference title.

VSU won the New South crown a year ago with Hammond playing a major role in Elizabeth City. Other New

South affiliates include Thomas Nelson Community College, Newport News Apprentice School, Mid-Atlantic Christian, N.C., and Salem, W.Va.

Before anyone says “What about Babe Ruth?” regarding two-ways players, here’s what happened.

Ruth was primarily a pitcher from 1910 to 1919 with Boston. Once he went to the outfield with the New York Yankees in 2020, the left-hander pitched only five games in 13 seasons.

Ruth was never a full-time hitter and pitcher like Ohtani is now for Los Angeles and Hammond for VSU.

26-0

Black Mountain is in the extreme western end of North Carolina where stock car racing is much more popular than basketball.

Good naturedly, Daugherty told the media, “there are about 5,000 to 6,000 people in Black Mountain and only about 100 African-Americans — all of ’em my cousins.”

As for Wallace at Daytona, he’s had better days in his Toyota. Wallace finished 20th out of 40 racing for the 23XI Race Team (pronounced 23-11) owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin.

Brad Dagherty was the No. 1 overall draft choice (by Cleveland) in 1986 and went on to average 19 points, 10 rebounds and four assists for Cleveland. He was a fivetime NBA All-Star whose No. 43 was retired by the Cavs.

Antoine Davis approaching Pete Maravich’s scoring record

It might not be over yet for Antoine Davis.

The Detroit-Mercy graduate student guard came up three points short of tying Pete Maravich’s NCAA Division I career scoring record on March 2. Davis was held to 22 points in Detroit’s loss to Youngstown in the second round of the Horizon League tournament. Maravich scored 3,667 points in three seasons at LSU more than a half century ago. Davis now has 3,664 points in five seasons in Detroit.

So, it’s over? Maybe not. Detroit (14-19) is exploring the possibility of playing in the 16-team College Basketball Invitational (CBI) post-season tournament in Daytona, Fla.

There is a $27,500 entry fee into the single-elimination event. UNC-Wilmington won the event last year and in 2010 VCU was the champ.

With just one more game, Davis (averaging about 29 per outing) would surely pass Maravich and become college’s all-time scorer — with an asterisk attached.

JM’s basketball dominance excites crowds, community

John Marshall High School’s boys’ basketball team is heading into the State 2A Finals with enough momentum to move a mountain.

“I think that if we come to play, good things will happen,” said Justices Coach Ty White.

JM, now 26-0, certainly “came to play,” and then some in regionals and the state quarterfinals.

Probably never in the history of the VHSL playoffs has a team looked more dominant. The Northsiders swept through the Regionals by routing Prince Edward 124-41, Thomas Jefferson 104-47 and Brunswick 113-51.

Then came a 98-27 rout of Strasburg on March 3 at Huguenot before a packed house. The semis were Monday against Brunswick.

JM will play Radford in the finals

6:30 p.m.

Saturday, March 11, at VCU’s Siegel Center.

The Class 2 boys will follow the Class 2 girls final at 4:30 p.m.

Best in the U.S. MaxPreps.com top 10 boys high school basketball teams.

Poll as of Feb. 28.

John Marshall, Richmond 26-0

Duncanville, Texas 29-1

Long Island Lutheran, N.Y. 18-2

Centennial, Calif. 29-3

St. John’s, Wash. D.C. 28-2

Camden, N.J. 23-3

Imhotep, Pa. 24-3

Paul VI, Va. 28-2

The Highlands, Texas 29-3

Ben Davis, Ind. 26-0 dering about their “place in history,” regarding the greatest teams ever from Richmond area and around the state.

“We’re excited and I think the city of Richmond is, too,” Coach White said. “We’ve been getting sellout crowds.”

By tipoff, there were no empty seats (or standing areas) at Huguenot on March 3 for the mismatch with rural Strasburg from the Shenandoah Valley.

The most excitement came during halftime of the girls’ game when the JM boys put on a high-wire dunking show worthy of the NBA Slam-dunk Contest.

They saved some dandy ones for the actual game, too, with about 14 various stuffings.

Coach White said he and his team are won-

Coach White asked a veteran reporter how he thought the current Justices would stack up against the 1973 and ’74 Petersburg teams, with Moses Malone, that went 50-0.

Coincidentally, Coach White played for Petersburg many years after the Malone era.

The long-ago PHS teams had many one-sided victories, but did have to work hard at States at the University of Virginia. The ’73 Wave defeated Halifax, 59-51, in the Group AAA finals while the ’74 PHS squad edged West Springfield, 50-48.

Another team that might be considered for “best all-time” might be the 1975 state champion Thomas Jefferson Vikings, coached by Dave Robbins.

TJ featured Keith Valentine (who signed with North Carolina), Otis Fulton (Virginia), Mike Perry (Richmond) and Monty Knight (VCU).

Then there was the George Wythe squad that lost to Cave Spring and NBA bound J.J. Redick in the 2003 AAA finals. Those Bulldogs featured Tyree Evans, Jesse Pellot-Rosa and 6-foot-10 Shawn Taggart. There are others “best” contenders that could be talked about.

This year’s Justices are led by 6-foot-7 senior Dennis Parker Jr. who has signed with North Carolina State.

Coach White calls Parker “the best player in Virginia without a doubt.”

Parker, who broke into Coach White’s lineup as a freshman, is so versatile he could be the best

player on the floor at any position.

And get this: There may be “the next Malone” in the making in 6-foot-8 JM freshman Latrell Allmond, who already has multiple scholarship offers from some of the nation’s top college programs.

Allmond, who is as athletic as he is towering, has been invited to the Team USA Mini-Camp to be held in Houston during the NCAA Final Four.

Junior guards Damon “Redd” Thompson Jr. and Dominique Bailey apply relentless defensive pressure often leading to transition scores.

And then there is springy, velvet-smooth 6-foot-6 Jason Rivera, a transfer from Queens, N.Y. Rivera can score from outside the arc and is likely the team leader in theatrical throwdowns. He’s an alley-oop waiting to happen.

JM won last year’s state title, defeating Radford 82-43 in the finals at the Siegel Center. It would appear the remaining schools in this year’s State field (including Radford) are playing for second place.

If the Siegel Center was Skull Island, JM would be Kong.

JM’s Lady Justices lose to Clarke County High

The John Marshall High girls saw their outstanding season end Tuesday night in Strasburg. Coach Virgil Burton’s Lady Justices lost 62-51 to Clarke County of Berryville in the State Class 2 semifinals on a neutral site. JM, finishing 20-7, had won seven straight games prior to Tuesday. Clarke will now play 4:30 p.m. Saturday for the state title at VCU.

On March 2, Alyssa Thompson became the first high school girl to be drafted first overall by the National Women’s Soccer League.

Heading into this month for the 6-4 Trojans, VSU’s Tahraun Hammond is now hitting .442 (19 for 43) with nine stolen bases in 10 tries.

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

John Marshall High School senior Dennis Parker Jr. reaches for his father as his mother watches following his Oct. 26 announcement that he’s attending N.C. State University.

Antoine Davis

In 2022, retired Army Col. Alexander L. Taylor Jr. committed himself to a different kind of military service. A trial attorney, Mr. Taylor joined Richmond’s Military Retirees Club during its 50th anniversary celebration in June.

He says that hearing Charles H. Taylor, his uncle and the club’s last surviving charter member, speak to the assembled members prompted him to join the nonprofit organization. Since its inception, the MRC’s community work has included scholarships for teenagers, leadership awards for JROTC students, Thanksgiving meals for the homeless and more.

While serving as the MRC’s business manager, Mr. Taylor discovered the organization’s need for more funding. He offered the MRC ideas to help raise more money and volunteered to chair the MRC’s first ever Fundraising Gala. Members were receptive.

“It was my time to continue their legacy of service,” says Mr. Taylor, whose father, Alexander L. Taylor Sr., once was part of the MRC’s leadership.

Mr. Taylor says funds raised during this year’s April 15 gala will go toward improvements to the MRC headquarters at 2220 Sledd St. The building, at least 50 years old, is in need of a more modern interior and exterior. Updated features would include new doors, new awnings, a new security system and cameras, improved insulation, renovated bathrooms, flooring and signage.

Mr. Taylor hopes to raise at least $200,000 over the next few years.

Funds raised also will ensure the continuation and expansion of the MRC’s programs.

The upkeep of the MRC building, the largest minorityowned building for a nonprofit organization in Richmond, according to Mr. Taylor, is important beyond its use to the club.

Personality: Alexander L. Taylor Jr.

Spotlight on Military Retirees Club fundraising chair

The Richmond Crusade for Voters, the Richmond NAACP, and Veterans of Foreign Wars all have used the building recently or in the past.

“Modernizing our building in this way enhances the quality of the environment, both inside and outside the building,” Mr. Taylor says. “And we could become a model for other buildings in the Richmond area.”

Besides his responsibilities for the Fundraising Gala, Mr. Taylor also will lead a new suicide prevention program at the MRC. He believes the MRC is uniquely positioned to provide assistance to veterans at risk or facing mental health challenges.

“The whole point of the club is to give them something to live for, give them a sense of purpose,” Mr. Taylor says. “Through community service, through social interaction, you have methods that keep us active.”

Mr. Taylor acknowledges that balancing his new roles with his legal career and other responsibilities can be challenging. However, he takes it all in stride, intent to do his part for his fellow service men and women while continuing his family’s MRC legacy.

“It’s tough, but I’m going to make it work,” Mr. Taylor says.

Meet a Military Retirees Club leader and this week’s

Personality, Alexander L. Taylor Jr.:

Volunteer position: Chair, Military Retirees Club Fundraising Gala.

Occupation: Trial attorney, Alex Taylor Law.

Date and place of birth: Oct. 26 in Richmond.

Where I live now: Richmond.

Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Virginia; juris docotorate, Richmond Law School; master’s, Army War College.

Family: First Lt. (Promotable) Alexander L. Taylor III, (Trae); Joseph G. Taylor.

The Military Retirees Club (MRC) is: A nonprofit organization consisting of retired military veterans who are still serving their community in the Richmond Metropolitan area. What many people do not know is that our club members have programs such as scholarships for teenagers, leadership awards for JROTC students, Toys for Tots, and a new Suicide Prevention Program that I also plan to help lead.

When and why founded:

The MRC was founded in 1972 to maintain a sense of comradeship among military retirees, and the opportunity to strengthen bonds and relations with the community at large.

Founders: Leon Ellis and Joseph Steward.

Want to go?

What: MRC’s Fundraising Gala

When: 4 to 9 p.m. April 15, 2023

Where: Military Retirees Club, 2220 Sledd St., Richmond, VA 23222 Details: Three-Star General Darrell Williams, who is the new president of Hampton University, is our honored guest speaker during our reception. Additionally, CBS 6’s newest anchor/reporter, Genienne Samuels will serve as our MC. We also expect a number of elected officials, CEOs, and other special guests on this very special occasion. How to attend: Call (804)321-3188 to purchase tickets.

The board president is: Lawrence Coclough; our president is Earl Reid. My military service: I served both on active duty and in the Army Reserve in the Judge Advocate General Corp (Army Lawyers) and held several leadership positions including Commander, Military Judge and Staff Judge Advocate. I then led Huguenot High School’s JROTC program for three years. How I became involved in the MRC: I made my decision to join in June of last year at our 50th Anniversary. I saw my uncle, First Sergeant (Ret) Charles H. Taylor, who at age 90 is the only surviving charter member of the club and who fought in the Korean and Vietnam wars and earned two Purple Hearts, speak eloquently and motivationally about the history of the club without one note. My father, Master Sergeant (Ret.) Alexander L. Taylor, Sr., had also been a successful leader with MRC. Now it was my time to continue their legacy of service. I am proudly wearing his MRC blazer in the photo for this article. How other military retirees can get involved: They can visit our website at https://

mrcclub.org to get more information and then call our office at (804) 321-3188.

How my involvement impacts the community and me: I lean on my faith and utilize my education, leadership skills, and my resourceful friends with similar attributes, to assist where I believe I can be most effective.

For example, Richard Williams and I are two of the cofounders of the UVA Richmond Walter Ridley Cain Scholarship, that now has more than $2 million for African-American Students to attend UVA. Thus, Richard was the first person I thought of when I volunteered to lead MRC’s Fundraiser. I relish challenges and working with people like Richard and the men and women of MRC who are relentless in their commitment to our club and our community.

Number one goal or project as Fundraising Gala chair: Raise at least $200,000 over the next few years.

A perfect day for me is: Praying, working out, calling my mom en route to court (great pep talk), successfully representing someone in court or getting a personal injury case settled, going to office to prepare for court the next day while motivating my staff and interns,

communicating with my sons just because I am still dad, and getting in bed at a reasonable hour so that I can start all over again the next day.

Something about me that people may not know: My next physical challenge is to ride my bike 100 miles in one day before my next birthday.

A quote that inspires me:

“As you seek your way in the world, never fail to find a way to serve your community. Use your education and your success in life to help those still trapped in cycles of poverty and violence.” — Gen. Colin L. Powell

My friends describe me as: Tenacious.

At the top of my “to-do” list: Be the best father, boss, and leader I can be while still “finding a way to serve your community.”

Best late-night snack: Chocolate ice cream.

The best thing my parents ever taught me: My father taught me how to be both tenacious and confident, regardless of obstacles and the naysayers. My mother taught me a lot about faith and patience.

Book that influenced me the most and how: “Brother’s Keeper, Words of Inspiration for African American Men,” by Rod Terry. I was inspired the most by the quotes from men like Frederick Douglass, Dr. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela, Booker T. Washington and Colin Powell. Their words are inspiring and thought-provoking.

Next goal: Help develop the next generation of leaders at my office and at other organizations such as Concerned Black Men of Richmond, a mentoring organization here in Richmond that I co-founded in 1986. I believe I can get some help from the members of MRC and my fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha, to assist me with this goal.

CONNECTED TO WHAT SPARKS CONVERSATION.

When and where she enters

The joy, camaraderie and pride expressed by Virginians and thousands of others throughout the United States to Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan becoming the first Black woman elected to represent Virginia in the U.S. Congress continued to pour in the day after her official swearing-in ceremony in Washington on Tuesday, March 7.

Before and after Rep’s McClellan’s high-volume historic moment, there was an undeniable constant: her beaming and radiant smile. So much so that it prompted numerous posts on her Facebook page:

“Keep that smile and that wonder and that belief that anything is possible when we work together. It’s what made you a leader as a state senator. It’s why you’ll be a leader in the U.S. House,” said one Richmonder. “We watched!! We cried!!! We smiled… we thank God,” another fan posted.

“Congratulations! That smile says it all,” wrote her Delta Sigma Theta sorority sister, Danette Porter!

“Thanks for taking us on this trip with you,” another constituent posted. “Your enthusiasm and excitement (are) contagious. We are lucky to have you representing us in D.C.”

PROJ EC T

A VCU Special Commission on Slavery and Justice

Please join us at a learning and feedback session as we map VCU’s path to acknowledge and reconcile the university’s past and its plans to build a better and brighter future.

Tuesday, March 21, 2023

6:00 p.m.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Middle School Cafeteria* 1000 Mosby St., Richmond, Virginia

Project Gabriel was launched in spring 2023 to report, reconcile and heal the wounds caused by VCU’s historic ties to the institution of slavery. This effort is so named after an enslaved Richmond man who organized a rebellion in 1800 intended to end slavery in Virginia.

This commission will be deliberate in its efforts to guide VCU on a path toward reckoning with its past, engaging with its present and strengthening all communities for the future.

Preregistration is encouraged at projectgabriel.vcu.edu/events by March 17.

Feedback can be submitted online at projectgabriel.vcu.edu/contact There will be additional opportunities to engage in the coming months.

*Guests should use the building’s rear entrance to access the cafeteria directly. For special accommodations, please email projgabriel@vcu.edu

Wednesday,

Hosted by Mayor Levar Stoney

B. Carr Carrie E. Coyner Charniele

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, right, leads Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan into a room on Capitol Hill for the ceremonial swearing-in filled with news photographers to document the moment with her husband, David Mills and two children, Jackson (12) and Samantha (7), who were waiting for them to arrive Tuesday.

Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan has a quiet moment with her mother, Lois McClellan, 90, of Petersburg who joined her daughter during a brief time when family, friends and staff members could all gather to celebrate prior to the official swearing-in ceremony on Capitol Hill.

The official sign outside of Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan’s new office is in place. Her office is on the fourth floor of the Rayburn House Office Building.

Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan, center, pauses for a photo with her sisters, Julie McClellan of Midlothian, left, and Jean McClellan-Holt of Chesapeake.

Photos by Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

During a private gathering prior to Rep. Jennifer L. McClellan’s official swearing-in ceremony, she poses for a group photo with her new Congressional staff, many of whom served on the late Rep. A. Donald McEachin’s staff.

New documentary commemorates James Solomon Russell

The James Solomon Russell – Saint Paul’s College Museum and Archive will host a dinner and documentary premiere from 4 to 7 p.m. Saturday, March 25, at the Gateway Event Center at Virginia State University.

The commemorative dinner will precede the premiere of a documentary about the life of James Solomon Russell that was produced and directed by actress and St. Paul’s College graduate Nicci Carr.

Mr. Russell was born enslaved in Mecklenburg County in 1857. He would become an Episcopal priest and educator, founding what would become St. Paul’s College in Law-

renceville in 1888.

In 2020, following a push by the museum’s board of directors, the General Assembly honored Mr. Russell by establishing March 28 as James Solomon Russell Day in Virginia.

Tickets for the free dinner event are currently sold out online, but there is a waiting list at https://forms.gle/zyJPhXMHcapwaCaVA. If tickets become available closer to the event, people on the wait list will be contacted.

There also will be a special James Solomon Russell Day service at Saint Stephen’s Episcopal Church in Petersburg at 10 a.m. Sunday, March 26.

A box office KO: ‘Creed III’ debuts to $58.7M

The Associated Press

“Creed III” punched above its weight at the domestic box office in its first weekend in theaters. The MGM release knocked “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” out of first place and far surpassed both

Thank You

expected the film to open in the $30 million range. The first “Creed” debuted to $29 million in 2015 and “Creed II” opened to $35 million in 2018.

Michael B. Jordan made his directorial debut with “Creed III,” which pits his character Adonis against a childhood

tested the movie and it tested great, but the public responded so resoundingly to it,” said Erik Lomis, MGM’s head of distribution. “Everything went right here starting with the movie itself ... It was just up to us not to break it when they gave it to us and we didn’t.”

Strong reviews helped “Creed III,” which is currently sitting at an 87 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while audiences gave it an A- CinemaScore. The audience was largely male (63 percent), diverse (36 percentBlack, 28 percent Latino, 23 percent white and 13 percent Asian/other) and young (55 percent between 18 and 34), according to exit polls.

Over 80 percent of general audiences said the film was a “definite recommend.” With Black audiences, that number ballooned to 89 percent.

“I’ve been doing this a long time and that’s rarefied air,” Mr. Lomis said. “People love the movie.”

billion last year, and could have simply released “Creed III” on its streaming service with a limited theatrical run. But they chose theatrical, and it paid off.

“Amazon threw their weight behind this movie like only they can do,” Mr. Lomis said. “They supercharged the campaign with marketing support across all their verticals on the platform and beyond the platform. That shows a commitment to the theatrical business model from Amazon and MGM, which I think should be exciting to everybody.”

The company’s next major theatrical release is the Ben Affleck-directed “Air,” starring Matt Damon, out next month.

“Ant-Man 3” slipped to a distant second in its third weekend in theaters with $12.5 million from North America and $22 million internationally. The Marvel and Disney film’s global cume now stands at $419.5 million.

industry expectations and the opening weekends of the first two movies in the franchise.

Playing in 4,007 locations in North America, “Creed III” earned an estimated $58.7 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. Going into the weekend, analysts

friend, Dame, played by Jonathan Majors. It’s the first in the Rocky/Creed films to not feature Sylvester Stallone, who chose not to return because of creative differences.

“This is beyond all of our expectations. And we knew that we had something special — we

It’s also the most expensive “Creed” film, with a reported production budget of $75 million, compared to the others which cost $35 million and $50 million. Internationally, “Creed III” earned $41.8 million from 75 markets, making its global debut $100.4 million.

It’s a big moment for Amazon, who acquired MGM for $8.5

Year after the slap, Chris Rock punches back in Netflix special

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press

A year after Will Smith smacked him on the Academy Awards stage, Chris Rock finally gave his rebuttal in a forceful stand-up special, streamed live on Netflix, in which the comedian bragged that he “took that hit like Pacquiao.”

The 58-year-old comedian on Saturday night performed his first stand-up special since last year’s Oscars in a much-awaited sequel that had all the hype — and more — of a Manny Pacquaio prizefight. “Chris Rock: Selective Outrage,” streamed live from the Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, marked Netflix’s first foray into live streaming. But it was also a long-awaited comedy counterpunch to Academy Awards infamy.

venerated pitch man for advertisers.

“I’m not dissing Snoop,” Mr. Rock said. “The last thing I need is another mad rapper.”

But an hour into his set, Mr. Rock closed the special with a torrent of material about the notorious Academy Awards moment.

“You all know what happened to me, getting smacked by Suge Smith. Everybody knows,” Mr. Rock said. “It still hurts. I got ‘Summertime’ ringing in my ears.”

While Mr. Smith has apologized and repeatedly spoken about the incident since last March, Mr. Rock has avoided all the usual platforms where celebrities often go to air their feelings. He never sat down with Oprah Winfrey, and turned away the many media outlets that would have loved to land an exclusive in-depth interview.

Third place went to Universal’s “Cocaine Bear,” which added $11 million in its second weekend in theaters to bring its domestic total to $41.3 million.

Young Richmond-area artists who want to polish their portfolios while in high school have a new opportunity to do so, courtesy of ART 180 and its Atlas Artist Residency.

Applications for the nextAtlas Artists are now open for students in the 9th, 10th and 11th grade.

The program will provide 10 students an eight-week residency over the summer, which will include materials, studio space and a stipend of $1,350. The students’ residency will finish with a public exhibition of their work.

Applications will be accepted until Thursday, March 16. Links to apply or more information can be found at www.art180.org/ student-artist-residency.

Mr. Rock, performing in all white and with a Prince medallion around his neck, immediately touched on last year’s Oscars while riffing on “wokeness,” hypersensitivity and what he called “selective outrage.”

“I’m a not a victim, baby,” Mr. Rock said. “You will never see me on Oprah or Gayle crying. You will never see it. Never going to happen.”

But Mr. Rock did use his encounter with Mr. Smith to shape and enliven his second stand-up special for Netflix. Some of his best material was on their physical differences.

“We are not the same size. This guy does movies with his shirt off,” Mr. Rock said. “You will never see me do a movie with my shirt off. If I’m in a movie getting open-heart surgery, I got on a sweater.”

“He played Muhammed Ali,” added Mr. Rock. “I played Pookie in ‘New Jack City.’”

Will Smith, right, hits presenter Chris Rock at the Oscars on Sunday, March 27, 2022, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Mr. Rock became the first artist to perform on Netflix live with a global streaming event last Saturday.

“You never know who might get triggered,” Mr. Rock said. “Anybody who says words hurt hasn’t been punched in the face.”

But Mr. Rock then launched into a series of wide-ranging topics examining contemporary issues, including virtue signaling, high-priced yoga pants, the Duchess of Sussex, the Kardashians, abortion rights, the Capitol riot and what he called America’s biggest addiction: Attention.

“We used to want love, now we just want likes,” said Mr. Rock.

Mr. Rock, who also riffed on how he’d respond if his father transitioned to a woman (he would support him, Mr. Rock said), made clear “Selective Outrage” was not going to be just a Will Smith show. Only occasionally did Mr. Rock’s material dovetail with the 2022 Oscars, like it did when Mr. Rock joked about the oddity of Snoop Dogg becoming such a

The Associated Press

Ultimately, Mr. Rock suggested he was just caught in the crossfire in Mr. Smith’s relationship with his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. It was a joke that Rock told about Ms. Pinkett Smith that prompted Mr. Smith to stride on stage and strike Mr. Rock. The comedian on Saturday referenced Ms. Pinkett Smith’s earlier confessions of having an “entanglement” with another man while married.

“I did not have any entanglements,” said Mr. Rock. “She hurt him way more than he hurt me.”

“I love Will Smith,” Mr. Rock added. “Now I watch ‘Emancipation’ just to see him get whooped.”

Before dropping his microphone and holding his arms up triumphantly, Mr. Rock left the crowd with one last zinger. Mr. Rock said the reason why he didn’t physically retaliate at the Oscars was because “I got parents.”

“And you know what my parents taught me?” he said. “Don’t fight in front of white people.”

“Selective Outrage” is Mr. Rock’s second special for Netflix, following 2018’s “Tamborine.” They’re part of a two-special $40 million deal Mr. Rock signed with the streamer in 2016.

MGM via The Associated Press

Michael B. Jordan made his directorial debut with “Creed III,” which pits his character Adonis Creed against a childhood friend, Dame, played by Jonathan Majors.

A brief history of the Black church’s diversity, and its vital role in American political history

worshippers.

With religious affiliation on the decline, continuing racism and increasing income inequality, some scholars and activists are soul-searching about the Black church’s role in today’s United States.

For instance, on April 20, 2010, an African-American studies professor at Princeton, Eddie S. Glaude, sparked an online debate by provocatively declaring that, despite the existence of many African American churches, “the Black Church, as we’ve known it or imagined it, is dead.” As he argued, the image of the Black church as a center for Black life and as a beacon of social and moral transformation had disappeared.

Scholars of African-American religion responded to Dr. Glaude by stating that the image of the Black church as the moral conscience of the United States has always been a complicated matter.

As historian Anthea Butler argued, “The Black Church may be dead in its incarnation as agent of change, but as the imagined home of all things black and Christian, it is alive and well.”

the Americas, Europeans forcefully baptized the enslaved into the Christian faith despite many of them adhering to traditional African religious systems and Islam. European slave traders dismissed Africans as “heathenish” to justify their enslavement of Africans and the coercive proselytization to Christianity.

while reinforcing their enslavement.

Over time, evangelical Protestant groups followed suit in their proselytization of the enslaved community, most notably during the First and Second Great Awakenings, the Protestant religious revivals that

swept across the American nation in the mid-18th and early 19th centuries.

Denominations that form

the Black church

Episcopal Bishop

Dr. Glaude

Other Black Methodists founded two other denominations — the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in 1821 and the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church in 1870.

Ms. Wells

The Church of God in Christ, the largest Black Pentecostal denomination in the United States, was founded by Charles Harrison Mason, a former Baptist minister, in 1897 and incorporated in 1907.

OURCHURCH’S

As a scholar of Christian theology and African-American religion, I’m aware of this long history of the Black church and its contribution to American politics. Its story began in the 15th and 16th centuries, when European empires authorized the capture, auction and enslavement of various peoples from across the coast of Western and Central Africa.

Origins of AfricanAmerican Christianity

As millions were transported through the “Middle Passage” to

In the 1600s, British missionaries traveled throughout the American Colonies to convert enslaved Africans and the Indigenous peoples of the continent. Originally, however, white slave holders were hesitant to convert enslaved Africans to Christianity because they feared that Christian baptism would lead to the enslaved Africans’ freedom, causing both economic ruin and social upheaval. They widely supposed that British laws mandated the freedom of all baptized Christians, and thus white slaveholders initially refused to grant missionaries permission to instruct enslaved Africans into the Christian faith.

By 1706, six colonies had passed laws that declared that Africans’ Christian status did not alter their social condition as slaves. Consequently, missionaries created “slave catechisms,” modified religious instruction manuals that instructed enslaved Africans about Christianity

Both during and after the end of slavery, African-Americans began to establish their own congregations, parishes, fellowships, associations and later denominations. Black Baptists founded first the National Baptist Convention USA, in 1895, the largest Black Protestant denomination in the United States. The National Baptist Convention of America International and the Progressive National Baptist Convention were founded years later.

The first independent Black denomination, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, which was formalized in 1816, grew out of the Free African Society founded by Richard Allen, a former enslaved man and Methodist minister, in the city of Philadelphia in 1787. Mr. Allen and his colleague Absalom Jones walked out of St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church after white members demanded that Mr. Allen and Mr. Jones, who had been kneeling in prayer, leave the ground floor and go to the upper balcony, which was designated for Black

Other Black Christians belong to mainline Protestant denominations. Additionally, there are 3 million Black Roman Catholics in the United States, and a smaller number of African Americans who attend Eastern Orthodox churches. Moreover, a number of African-Americans belong to independent nondenominational congregations, while others belong to white conservative evangelical, Pentecostal and charismatic churches.

Contributions to American politics

The Black church has played a vital role in the shaping of American political history. African-American churches provided spaces for not only spiritual formation but also political activism. Black churches were spaces where slave abolitionism was envisioned, and insurrections were planned. Black preachers such as Denmark Vesey and Nat Turner were actively involved in attempted and successful slave insurrections in the South.

“BACK IN SERVICE”

During the Reconstruction era, the African Methodist

Our doors are open again every Sunday @ 11:00 am. BRBConline.org or YouTube (Broad Rock Baptist Church)

Henry McNeal Turner served as one of the first African-American legislators for the state of Georgia. Bishop Turner was famous for his scathing critiques of American Christianity and the nation at large. Ida B. Wells was an investigative journalist and educator who wrote extensive accounts of the lynchings of Black people in the South, fought against Jim Crow policies, and advocated for Black women’s right to vote. An active churchgoer, Ms. Wells also organized and led Bible study classes for young Black men at Grace Presbyterian Church, a predominantly Black church founded in 1888 in the city of Chicago.

Many Black Christians participated in the Civil Rights Movement, including Bayard Rustin, an openly gay Quaker, who was instrumental in organizing the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom on Aug. 28, 1963. Despite his contributions to advancing Black people’s freedom, Mr. Rustin was pushed to the background by his peers because of his homosexuality.

legal scholar, civil rights and gender equality advocate and poet. Ms. Murray compiled an extensive collection of laws and ordinances that mandated racial segregation and wrote extensively on women’s rights.

An influential institution

The Black church is far from monolithic. Its members hold different theological positions and hail from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds, education levels and political affiliations.

Ms. Murray

Some African-American Christians did not participate in efforts to end racial segregation, fearing violent backlash from white people. Today, Black Christians are divided over other social justice issues, such as whether to support LGBTQ equality. Nevertheless, African-American Christians have drawn insights from their experience of enduring racism and their Christian faith to contest racial subjugation and advocate for their freedom and human dignity. Despite the rise of the religiously unaffiliated or “Nones” within the African-American community, the Black church, I believe, continues to be an influential institution.

Pauli Murray, the first Black woman to be ordained in the Episcopal Church, was a lawyer,

The writer is a Ph.D. candidate in religious studies at the University of Virginia.

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

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Every Sunday At: BRBConline.org or YouTube(Broad Rock Baptist Church)

“MAKE IT HAPPEN”

Pastor Kevin Cook

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Dr. Cheryl Easter 2604 Idlewood Avenue, Richmond, Va. 23220 (804) 353-6135 • www.riverviewbaptistch.org

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VCU heads to New York as No. 1 seed for A-10 championship

VCU has been chewing up the competition of late, but it’s still hungry for more. Now it yearns to take a juicy bite out of the Big Apple.

The VCU basketball team heads to New York with hopes of a lengthy stay.

The Atlantic 10 regular season champs will carry a 23-7 overall and 15-3 Atlantic 10 record to this week’s tournament at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

No. 1 seed VCU opens Thursday at 11:30 a.m. to play the winner of the Davidson-St.

Bonaventure match. The game will be televised on the USA Network. Friday is an off day. Should Coach Mike Rhoades’ Rams survive the Thursday quarterfinal, they would advance to Saturday’s semifinals at 1 p.m. on CBS Sports network.

The championship game is 1 p.m. Sunday on CBS with the winner moving on to the NCAA March Madness. The Rams have won six straight and looked impressive in so doing. But there is always worry.

Last year VCU was knocked out in the first round. And while VCU has dominated the A-10 since joining in 2012, it has won the tournament just once, in 2015. If VCU stumbles in Gotham, it would be at the mercy of the selection committee to receive an at-large bid. The Rams’ NET (NCAA power rankings) in the mid 60s would make their atlarge chances iffy.

If the Rams don’t go to the NCAAs, they are assured an NIT berth by virtue of their A-10 title.

Losing streak mars NSU’s MEAC entry

In another week or so, Norfolk State will either be kicking up its heels at the NCAA Big Dance, or dejectedly asking, “What if?” Norfolk State, 20-10 overall and 9-5 in conference, is looking to continue its winning streak to three years at the Wells Fargo MEAC tournament, but it won’t

be easy.

Coach Robert Jones’Spartans have won the last two year-end events (and automatic bids to the NCAA) at nearby Scope. This time, however, they’ll have to do it as the No. 3 seed, and riding a losing streak.

NSU opens 8 p.m. Thurs-

day against No. 6 seed Coppin State.

If NSU survives Thursday night, they will play in the 8 p.m. semifinals on Friday. The title game is set for 1 p.m. Saturday on ESPN2.

The Spartans enter tournament play on a two-game skid.

shall not limit any powers vested in the City of Richmond. Additional terms may be announced at the time of sale. Individuals owing delinquent taxes to the City of Richmond, and defendants in pending delinquent tax cases, are not qualified to bid at this auction. Bidders must certify by affidavit that they do not own, directly or indirectly, any real estate with outstanding notices of violation for building, zoning or other local ordinances.

TRANSIT SYSTEM

GREATER RICHMOND TRANSIT COMPANY

EMPLOYEE PEER SUPPORT SERVICES

QUICK QUOTE #12007

GRTC Transit System is seeking bids for Purchase of Transit Shelters, Benches and Trash Cans. Interested suppliers may download a copy of Quick Quote #12007 by calling Jamel Harper at (804) 358-3871, Ext 345. Bids are due prior to 3:00 pm on March 10, 2023. All inquiries pertaining to the request or any questions in reference to the solicitation documents should be directed to:

Jamel Harper Procurement Specialist (804) 358-3871, extension 345

Automation Engineer, Glen Allen, VA. Analysis, design, development & execution of Automation Test Scripts for testing s/w apps. Apply online w/Data Concepts, LLC at http://dataconcepts-inc.com/Jobs.aspx

Thank you for your interest in applying for opportunities with The City of Richmond. To see what opportunities are available, please refer to our website at www.richmondgov.com.

EOE M/F/D/V

Data Analysis Manager – Capital One Services, LLC in Richmond, VA; Mult pos avail: Manage quant & qualt analysis & dvlpmnt of complex data structures to generate bus insights & spprt strategy. To apply, visit https://capitalone.wd1. myworkdayjobs.com/Capital_One and search “Data Analysis Manager” or “R162622”.

Hospitalist, Richmond, VA. Examine, treat & admit patients w/ medical conditions in an inpatient setting. Participate in daily rounding. Write progress notes, discharge planning & collaborate w/ appropriate consultant to optimize patient care. Mail resume to J. Fleming, VCU Health System Authority, 830 E. Main St., Suite 200, Richmond, VA 23219.

Part-Time Custodian 15 hours per week

Salary Commensurate with Experience

REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL

The University of Virginia Baseball Equipment and Sponsorship RFP#UVA-00075PW032023

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