Richmond Free Press Sept. 29 - Oct. 1, 2022 edition

Second Street Festival canceled B2

Rihanna to perform at Super Bowl B2

Profits over patients Richmond Free Press

How hospital chain used poor neighborhood to turn huge profits

By Katie Thomas and Jessica Silver-Greenberg c.2022 The New York Times Company RICHMOND, Va.

In late July, Norman Otey was rushed by am bulance to Richmond Community Hospital. The 63-year-old was doubled over in pain and babbling incoherently. Blood tests suggested septic shock, a grave emergency that required the resources and expertise of an intensive care unit.

But Richmond Community, a struggling hos pital in a predominantly Black neighborhood, had closed its ICU in 2017.

It took several hours for Mr. Otey to be

transported to another hospital, according to his sister, Linda Jones-Smith. He deteriorated on the way there and later died of sepsis. Two people who cared for Mr. Otey said the delay had most likely contributed to his death.

“He should have been able to go to the hospital and get the treatment he needed,” Ms. JonesSmith said. “He should have been saved.”

Ringed by public housing projects, Richmond Community consists of little more than a strapped emergency room and a psychiatric ward. It

‘It is immoral to profit off the backs of Black and Brown residents under the guise of health care’

services, urging changes to the program.

In the letter the mayor released Tuesday on Twitter, he urged Secretary Becerra to investigate and to initiate changes to ensure any revenue derived from the program is used as intended “to expand health care access for low-income individuals.”

The mayor stated that “if the Biden administration is seri ous about “centering equity in all of its actions then it must rectify the unethical policy flaws” in that program.

He also wrote in a tweet that included the letter that he Mayor Stoney

Ambitious development plan for Diamond District gains city council approval

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Done deal.

With an 8-0 vote, City Council on Monday approved the projected $2.4 billion Diamond District in North Side that promises a new baseball stadium plus offices, hotels, homes, apartments, retail space, a public park and a gusher of construction and permanent jobs targeted to city residents.

The huge public-private development easily cleared its first hurdle with support coming even from two members who had initially failed to endorse it, Kristen M. Nye, 4th District, and Reva M. Trammell, 8th District.

Ms. Trammell, who initially

indicated she might vote against the project to protest the fail ure of city voters to support a $562 million casino resort for her South Side district, turned around and cast her vote for the project, saying, “I can’t be selfish, it’s for the good of the city.”

Council Vice President Ellen F. Robertson was absent.

A jubilant Mayor Levar M. Stoney applauded the vote that he said would “deliver the largest economic development project for the city, but also the most equitable, a project that will provide quality jobs, affordable housing and public amenities benefiting all.”

Before the vote, more than a dozen people spoke, most in support, including union

UR removes name of former slaveholder from law school

Free Press wire reports

Thomas C. Williams’ name has been removed from the Uni versity of Richmond’s school of law, following a vote by the university’s board of trustees last week and as part of a larger effort to disassociate the legacy of slavery and racism from the campus.

Mr. Williams attended UR when it was still Richmond Col lege from 1846 to 1849 and later served as a trustee during the 1880s. During his life, he operated tobacco businesses inside and outside Richmond through multiple companies, with 25 to 40 enslaved people reportedly owned as part of his enterprise.

The law school was established through donations from Mr.

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members who are happy that a significant share of the work is to be done by organized labor and city residents and that union wages are to prevail.

“Vote yes for forward pro gressing, yes for minority busi ness owners, yes for a Richmond we can all be proud of,” said Shemicia Bowen, a partner in the Richmond Black Restaurant Experience that will play a role in the retail and hospital elements.

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Virginia students protest Youngkin transgender policies

By Sarah Rankin and Matthew Barakat

The Associated Press McLEAN

Seeing double

Jamon Bonaparte, 9, displays a drawing of himself by JT the Cartoonist, a Church Hill artist. Along with visual art, performing arts and music were part of the family-friendly RVA East End Festival on Sept 24. Since 2016, the festival has raised more than $400,000 to support creative and performing arts at eight Richmond Public Schools located in the East End. Bravo!

Student activists held school walkouts across Virginia on Tuesday to protest Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s pro posed changes to the state’s guidance on transgender student policies, revisions that would roll back some accommoda tions.

Beginning Tuesday morn ing, students streamed out of their classrooms to decry the model policies unveiled ear lier this month. If adopted by school districts, the policies would require parental signoff on the use of any name or pronoun other than what’s in a student’s official record. They also say participation in certain

school programming and use of school facilities should be based on a student’s biological sex, with modifications offered only to the extent required under federal law.

“We decided to hold these walkouts as kind of a way to ... disrupt schools and essentially

have students be aware of what’s going on,” Natasha Sanghvi, a northern Virginia high school senior and member of the Pride Liberation Project who helped organize the resistance effort, told The Associated Press.

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Free COVID-19 testing, vaccines

Free community testing for COVID-19 continues.

The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations:

• Thursday, Sept. 29, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. - Southside Women, Infants and Children Office, 509 E. Southside Plaza; 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. - Fulton Neighborhood Resource Center, 1519 Williamsburg Road.

Call the Richmond and Henrico COVID-19 Hotline at (804) 205-3501 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday for more information on testing sites, or go online at vax.rchd.com.

Insurance company details cost of rebuilding Fox Elementary

By Jeremy Lazarus

The insurance company that provides coverage for Richmond’s school buildings has reaffirmed its commitment to replace fire-damaged William Fox Elementary School.

Roanoke-based VAcorp made the statement in

seeking to clear up confusion about the amount of funding it would provide to rebuild the historic structure at 2300 Hanover Ave. in the Fan.

A Feb. 11 fire of still undetermined origin destroyed the second floor and roof of the school that dates to 1911. At the time, the alarm system was malfunctioning.

According to School Board members, the company, which provides coverage for government-owned structures, has provided a preliminary estimate of $13 million as the cost to replace primarily the roof and top floor.

That is lower than the $23 million that an architectural consultant has estimated, the

members told the Free Press on condition of anonymity as the information was provided in a closed session.

“We believe that the information provided accurately represents the cost to rebuild the same

Matthew Barakat/The Associated Press

Students at McLean High School in McLean, Va., walk out of classes Tuesday. They joined student activists who walked out of schools across Virginia to protest Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed changes to the state’s guidance on district policies for transgender students that would roll back some accommodations.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Calling the practice “immoral,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney this week called on the federal government to crack down on nonprofit hospitals’ diversion of savings on medications away from the low-income communities it was designed to benefit.

Mayor Stoney issued his call for reform of the program known as Section 340B in reaction to a stunning New York Times article citing Bon Secours Mercy Health’s Richmond operations as a prime example of the misuse of the revenue from the drug pricing program.

The article alleged that Bon Secours used the savings 340B provides on the cost of medications to build up suburban operations while disinvesting in Richmond Community Hospital based in the city’s East End, which enabled Bon Secours to participate in the program.

“It is immoral to profit off the backs of Black and Brown residents under the guise of “health care,” Mayor Stoney wrote Tuesday to Xavier Becerra, U.S. secretary of health and human

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Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Richmond Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s response to New York Times report on Bon Secours

VCU nursing school receives $13M for student scholarships

University says ‘funds will help support diversity in health care over the next five years’

Free Press staff report

Philanthropists Joanne and Bill Conway have given The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Nursing its largest ever gift —$13 million—through its Bedford Falls Foundation-DAF.

The donation will enable the school to provide need-based scholarships for more than 1,000 undergraduate and doctoral students and help support diversity in health care over the next five years, according to VCU.

In 1987, Mr. Conway co-founded the Carlyle Group, now a multinational private equity, alternative asset management, and financial services corporation that manages $246 billion in assets. According to Carlyle’s website, Mr. Conway is interim CEO and nonexecutive co-chairman of Carlyle. (Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin is a former co-chief executive of the Carlyle Group.)

In 1997, the Conways established their charitable trust, the Bedford Falls Foundation, which provides funding primarily for social services, Catholic agencies and churches, health organiza tions, hospitals, and human services, according to various online websites.

“This gift will fundamentally transform the VCU School of Nursing program, allowing us to offer much-needed financial support to our students,” said Jean Giddens, Ph.D., professor and dean of the VCU School of Nursing and Doris B. Yingling Endowed Chair. “At a time when the nation is facing persistent nursing shortages, funds like these are particularly critical to ensure a strong and diverse future nursing workforce.”

Currently, more than 70 percent of undergraduate nursing students at VCU qualify for a need-based scholarship. The lat est gift will allow for doubling the total amount of scholarship support for students and increase the number of scholarships awarded by 37 percent over the next five years.

It also will amplify the impact VCU’s School of Nursing has on health care in Virginia and beyond as half of currently enrolled students are nonwhite and more than 90 percent of graduates work in Virginia, according to VCU.

Since 2019, the Conways have provided more than $18.5 million to support the VCU School of Nursing through their philanthropic vehicles.

“Nurses are essential,” Bill Conway said. “Joanne and I be lieve that, by reducing the financial burden for nursing students at VCU School of Nursing, the school will be better equipped to expand its programs to address the critical nursing shortage.

When nurses face a lower debt burden, they can more easily achieve their personal and professional goals.”

VCU School of Nursing enrolls 930 students in academic programs, from entry-level practice through to doctorate, with a mission to shape the future of nursing. The school’s undergraduate program is ranked No. 22 in the latest U.S. News & World Report Best Colleges rankings released earlier this month, placing it in the top 4 percent of all undergraduate nursing programs nationwide.

Kirby Carmichael honored with Richmond street sign bearing his name

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

For several decades Kirby David Carmichael spun the plat ters at Richmond radio stations, first at WANT-AM and then at WRVQ-FM, ran Sunday night skate parties that were safe havens for area youths, held holiday turkey and toy drives and promoted events, festivals and other beneficial activities.

Monday night, the legendary 6-foot-6 DJ known as the “tall man of soul” and “the rockin’ jock” received special recognition from City Council for his contributions to community better ment – one of three people who were honored.

The council voted 8-0 to authorize an honorary brown street sign bearing Mr. Carmichael’s name at 1100 Front Street in Highland Park, close to the former location of long gone WANT.

Before the vote, Mr. Carmichael, 76, who in recent years has streamed a Sunday afternoon jazz show over the internet, received a bevy of verbal tributes from council members and admirers, including two other well-known Richmond broadcast personali ties, Bill Blevins and James “Chocolate Chip” Johnston.

The council also honored late volunteer coach William “Bo” Jiggetts by voting to rename the baseball field at the Calhoun Center in Gilpin Court for him.

The vote was a belated tribute to the Jackson Ward resident who coached and mentored young athletes for 37 years in the public housing community.

The ordinance that passed cited Mr. Jiggett’s dedication “to the children of the community, not only as a coach but also as a provider of supplies, shoes, clothes, rides, and sound advice.” Two men he coached as youths, Jermaine O’Neil and Rodney Taylor, and a fellow volunteer coach, George Johnson, spoke glowingly about the support that Mr. Jiggetts provided to so many.

In a separate action, the council also unanimously approved expanding an Oregon Hill park named for abolitionist Samuel Pleasants Parsons, a Quaker who served as the first superinten dent of the state prison while also aiding escaping slaves as a conductor on the underground railroad.

Second Baptist Church receives award for health care outreach efforts

Free Press staff report

Second Baptist Church in South Side was recognized Monday for serving as a central hub for information, testing and vaccina tions during the pandemic from the Richmond City Council.

The Rev. Ralph S. Hodge, who has pastored the church for 20 years, accepted council’s Community Service Award on behalf of the congregation.

The church at 3300 Broad Rock Blvd. was honored for pro viding the Richmond Public Health District with free space to improve access to health care.

The award cites the partnership the church developed with the health district and its role “in helping dispel misconcep tions about COVID-19 and for facilitating the vaccinations of thousands of individuals across the city.”

Elvatrice Parker Belsches, is the curator, historian and researcher for “Forging Freedom, Justice and Equality,” a new exhibit at the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia that comemmorates the museum’s 40th anniversary.

Cityscape

Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

Divided into six parts, the show features photographs, firstperson narratives and artifacts from the museum and private collections. The six parts also look at Black life before the Civil War, including a ledger from the 1840s that offers insight into the experiences of free Black people in Richmond.

Other parts of the exhibit focus on the Black church, educa tional achievements and Black experiences in the military and in

the arts, sports and entertainment. The final part looks at the Black experience in business and in organizations and the role of Black newspapers and magazines.

Highlights of the exhibit, the museum stated, include the papers of George Lewis Ruffin, a Richmond native who in 1869 became the first Black graduate of Harvard University’s law school. He went on to become a Massachusetts judge and the first elected Black member of Boston’s City Council.

The exhibit, which is subtitled “A Survey of the History of the Black Experience in Virginia,” is open now through April 29, 2023, at the museum, located in Jackson Ward at 122 West Leigh St.

Lynx Ventures agrees to pay $500,000 for former school

New homes and apartments planned for South Side site vacant since 2013

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The 5-acre site where the decaying and long vacant Oak Grove Elementary School now stands in South Side is on its way to becoming a complex of apartments and townhouses.

Monday night, City Council voted 8-0 to approve the proposed sale of the building and grounds to Lynx Ventures, which plans to develop at least 220 income-restricted apartments and 15 new for-sale residences on the property at 2200 Ingram Ave. in the Oak Grove neighborhood.

Lynx won the nod over a nearby church that sought to buy the school to provide expanded space for its day care program.

Lynx Ventures previously indicated that $55 million would be invested, though the ordinance states that company would invest $45 million and secure $20 million in government low-income tax

credits and other resources to finance the development.

Barbara Starkey-Goode, president of the Oak Grove Civic Association that op posed the plan, urged council members to continue the ordinance so that opponents who were unaware of the scheduled vote could appear at a later meeting to express their views.

However, the area’s council represen tative, 8th District Councilwoman Reva M. Trammell, said the development has the support of people living near the old school that was shut down in 2013 after a replacement school opened. The empty building has become an unofficial haven for the homeless and attracted prostitution and drug activity, she said.

Attorney Brian Jackson, who represents the development firm, told the council more than 100 people who live near the building have signed petitions or provided letters of support for the development.

Lynx Ventures has agreed to pay $500,000 to purchase the site from the city. A council ordinance requires the funds to be used for improvement of remaining school buildings.

Separately, the council also voted 8-0 to reverse an internal city commission’s rejection of Virginia Union University’s placement of lighted logo signs on top of the Vann Tower, part of the historic Belgian Building that is home to the school’s gym and arts programs.

The Commission for Architectural Review had deemed the signs too large, too bright and too out of character to be allowed in the city old and historic district where the Belgian Building sits.

The council also approved shifting $4 million to fully fund construction of a replacement fire station for the 110-yearold station at 2223 W. Cary St. The action is the result of construction bids coming in well above city estimates.

RPS accepts Richmond lawyer’s pro bono services in facility dispute with city

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The Richmond School Board just gained some legal fire power in its dispute with City Hall over the fate of the 40-year-old Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center in North Side.

The board has accepted free legal services from Thomas M. “Tom” Wolf, managing part ner of the Richmond office of the Baltimorebased Miles & Stockbridge law firm.

Inducted into the Virginia Lawyers Hall of Fame earlier this year, Mr. Wolf will now represent Richmond Public Schools on matters related to the 6,000-seat basketball arena that has hosted RPS convocations and community events and also served as a temporary shelter during storms.

Mr. Wolf contests the city administra

tion’s view on the building that now oc cupies a key 4-acre parcel of the Diamond District at Arthur Ashe Boulevard and Robin Hood Road.

In a recent opinion, Mr. Wolf noted that RPS has operated the building since it opened in 1982 and that state law bars the city from taking any action until the school board votes to return the center to the city. He stated that his view is sup ported by a federal court decision.

In his view, any transfer of the build ing from RPS to the city would trigger a city ordinance that would require the city to put any proceeds from the sale of the center into a special fund to be used to improve existing schools.

The position is completely opposite to

the one that City Attorney Haskell C. Brown III has taken. In Mr. Brown’s view, the city holds title to the center, could authorize the building to be demolished to make way for redevelopment when it pleases and would not have to use any money from a sale of the land to benefit RPS.

City Council this week passed a resolu tion directing Mayor Levar M. Stoney’s administration to come up with ways to provide replacement space for the programs held at the Ashe Center.

According to the city, the Ashe build ing will remain in place for some years to come. That site is listed as part of phase 4, the final phase of the Diamond District development, which is projected to take at least 15 years to complete.

Fire Department’s grant funding will help reduce overtime hours, offset vacancies

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

The Richmond Fire Department is headed toward full staffing after securing a $13.7 million federal grant.

Fire Chief Melvin D. Carter said 72 firefighters could be hired using the funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

He said the focus will be to restore three 18-member truck companies and one 18-member engine company. Those along with nine other companies were disbanded since the 1970s due to a decline in the city’s population and as the city sought to save money using a “total quint concept” or trucks that carry ladders, water and hoses.

Quints eliminated the need for two dif ferent vehicles, the engine trucks that carry water and fire hoses and truck companies that carry the ladders.

Overall, the department lost nearly 100

positions through the years, with the big gest reduction occurring in the mid-1990s as the department became the first in the nation to completely shift to the quint concept under then-City Manager Robert C. Bobb. The concept is being abandoned as the quints are retired, and the depart ment returns to separate trucks.

“With the explosion of people moving into Richmond, the Fire Department has had difficulty keeping up with the additional demands for service,” said Keith Andes, president of the city firefighters union, Local 995 of the International Association of Fire Fighters.

“This grant enables the department to hire now rather than later to help meet the needs of our citizens,” Mr. Andes, a former firefighter, said.

He said the grant ensures additional staffing that will lessen “the voluntary and mandatory overtime our members have been

working to offset the vacancy rate we have had over the last several years. Close to $4 million was spent for overtime just last budget season by the department.”

Mr. Andes said the grant, along with new pay raises the city has just provided and the approval of collective bargaining that could start next year, makes “it a great time to be a Richmond firefighter.”

Chief Carter said the department currently has 48 vacancies, but expects to fill 28 posi tions Oct. 20 when the latest training class graduates. He said the department will still need to recruit, train and hire 20 additional people to be fully staffed.

“These 72 positions will be part of the ongoing recruiting process,” he said. Whether all 72 are hired remains to be seen as the city must agree to pick up the salaries of any personnel that are employed using the federal dollars after the grant is used up.

Regina H. Boone/Richmond Free Press

Mr. Conway

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Ambitious development plan for Diamond District gains approval

from A1

The vote clears the way for City Hall to finalize the deal that council also must approve with the selected development team, RVA Diamond Partners, a multiracial business coali tion led by Washington-based Republic Properties Corp., Hen rico County-based Thalhimer Realty Partners and Chicagobased Loop Capital.

Representatives of the team were surprised to gain unani mous support for what one called “an incredible oppor tunity.”

The deal hinges on the proj ect securing more than $100 million in capital to finance the infrastructure and the new stadium to replace the aging Diamond, home of the Rich mond Flying Squirrels, that Major League Baseball insists

UR removes name of former slaveholder from law school

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Williams’ family after his death, with UR naming the building after him in 1920.

“We recognize that some may be disappointed or disagree with this decision,” UR President Kevin Hallock and board members wrote in a message to UR last week. “We also recognize the role the Williams family has played here and respect the full and complete history of the institution.”

The change in the law school’s name, which will now be called the University of Richmond School of Law, followed the creation of a new policy for names on campus that prohibited the usage after those who engaged in or supported slavery.

This new policy came after UR students and faculty protested the lack of action when it came to buildings whose names were associated with segregation and slavery.

With this new renaming, UR has now changed the names of seven buildings on its campus in 2022 to remove connections to slavery, segregation and eugenics, including Brunet Hall, Freeman Hall, Jeter Hall, Puryear Hall, Ryland Hall and Thomas Hall.

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 walk-up COVID-19 vaccines at the following locations:

• Thursday, Sept. 29 & Oct. 6, 1 to 4 p.m. - Richmond Henrico Health District, 400 E. Cary St., Pfizer for ages 6 months and older, Moderna for ages 6 months to 5 years old and ages 18 years and older, appointments encouraged.

• Wednesday, Oct. 5 & Oct. 12, 1 to 4 p.m. - Henrico Health District West Headquarters, 8600 Dixon Powers Drive, Pfizer for ages 6 months and older, Moderna for ages 6 months to 5 years old and ages 18 years and older, 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 (1-877829-4682).

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 being shipped across the United States following approval on the federal level weeks earlier. The new Pfizer booster is approved for those aged 12 and up, while the new Moderna booster is for those aged 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.

New COVID-19 cases in Virginia dropped by 13 percent during the last week, according to the Virginia Department of Health, and data from the Virginia Hospital & Healthcare Association showed hospitalizations statewide fell by 8 percent.

Richmond and the counties of Chesterfield, Henrico and Hanover are still at medium levels of community COVID19. Universal masking is now strongly encouraged for 11 localities in Virginia.

On Monday, Pfizer and BioNTech submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration to approve their updated COVID-19 dose, which provides protection for the original and omicron variants, for children between the ages of 5 and 11.

A total of 1,452 new cases of COVID-19 were reported statewide Wednesday for the 24-hour period, contributing to an overall state total of 2,086,021 cases in Virginia since the pandemic’s outbreak. As of Wednesday, there have been 455,097 hospitalizations and 21,831 deaths statewide. The state’s seven-day positivity rate dropped to 11.9 percent on Wednesday. Last week, the positivity rate was 14 percent.

On Wednesday, state health officials reported that 72.6 percent of the state’s population has been fully vaccinated, while 82.7 percent have received at least one dose of the vaccine.

State data also showed that over 3.9 million people in Virginia have received booster shots or third doses of the vaccine.

Among ages 5 to 11 in Virginia, 337,087 have received their first shots as of Wednesday, accounting for 46.5 percent of the age group in the state, while 294,306 children, or 40.6 percent, are fully vaccinated and 51,986 children have received a third vaccine dose or booster, making up 7.2 percent of that age group.

As of Wednesday, 48,076 children from the ages of zero to four have received their first doses, making up 10.6 percent of the population in Virginia, while 33,056 are fully vaccinated, or 7.3 percent of the population. As of Wednesday, fewer than 172,980 cases, 1,032 hospitalizations and 15 deaths have been recorded among children in the state.

State data also shows that African-Americans comprised 22.1 percent of cases statewide and 22.9 percent of deaths for which ethnic and racial data is available, while Latinos made up 11.2 percent of cases and 4.9 percent of deaths.

As of Wednesday, Richmond reported a total of 56,902 cases, 1,203 hospitalizations and 538 deaths; Henrico County, 81,626 cases, 1,614 hospitalizations and 1,013 deaths; Chesterfield County, 90,957 cases, 1,654 hospitalizations and 817 deaths; and Hanover County, 26,171 cases, 801 hospitalizations and 320 deaths.

Compiled by George Copeland Jr.

must be ready for opening day in 2025 — the reason Loop Capital, the nation’s largest Black-owned investment bank, is on the team.

Though unmentioned Mon day night, Richmond, according to the term sheet, will pledge virtually all of the taxes the project is to generate to repay that debt, with the general fund benefiting only after that happens.

First envisioned more than 17 years ago, the development is to take place on 67 acres bounded by Arthur Ashe Bou levard, Interstate 64-95, Robin Hood Road, Hermitage Road and railroad tracks, which in past years was devoted to city and school system shops and offices.

Seeking to build on the exist ing boom in Scott’s Addition, the project is to be completed in four phases that could take 15 years or more.

The first phase alone is to include a projected $627 million in development, including the replacement stadium that is to accommodate 10,000 people and serve as a concert and events venue when the Flying Squirrels and Virginia Com monwealth University’s team are not playing. During the public comment period, one speaker expressed disappoint ment that the stadium would not accommodate women’s softball.

The first phase involves 21 acres of city land for which

the development has agreed to pay $16 million, and the sixacre Sports Backers Stadium the team is to buy from VCU.

While concern was expressed that the creation of the district will mean demolition of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center, that action would not happen until the fourth phase is ready to go.

Along with the stadium, the first phase is to include a 180-

room hotel; a 4-acre public park that would grow to 11 acres; 1,134 new apartments, 184 of which must for lower-income residents and 39 of which must be for public housing residents; 92 duplex-style for-sale homes, 18 of which must be affordable for lower-income residents.

Over time, developers say they project adding 1,700 more apartments; 65 more homes; two office buildings and an

other hotel. Retail space also is projected to triple, with the project also expanding parking from an initial 1,700 spaces to nearly 7,000.

In addition, the team is proposing to development a construction trades training center in South Side to help more city residents secure jobs on this project and others to follow.

Students protest Youngkin transgender policies

Continued from A1

Ms. Sanghvi said the existing, more permissive state policies, which were adopted under former Democratic Gov. Ralph Northam’s administration, had been powerful in helping students feel affirmed in their identities at school. The new ones made public earlier this month, she said, have the potential to harm “every single queer student in the state of Virginia.”

Defenders of Gov. Youngkin’s model policies, some of whom weighed in through an online public comment period that opened Monday, said the changes lent greater respect to the role of parents in their children’s lives. The new policies say school divisions may not encourage teach ers to conceal information about a student’s gender from his or her parents. They also say no school employee or student can be compelled to refer to other students in a way that violates their “constitutionally protected rights.”

“For too long, there has been a con stant abdication of parental rights and involvement in the public space with their children. This policy, in my opinion, enforces those rights of parents to have a proper say in their (children’s) upbringing, health and safety,” wrote Everett Gillus Jr., who declined further comment when reached by AP.

The Virginia Department of Education will review all of the comments submitted — over 17,000 were in by Tuesday morning — and may edit the guidelines before they are finalized by the state superintendent, said spokesman Charles Pyle.

The administration then expects school districts to adopt policies that are “consis tent with” the model, in accordance with a 2020 state law. Some districts in more liberal areas have signaled that they may not fully comply, raising the specter of lawsuits.

On the issue of enforcement, the state law is silent.

For Virginia school associations, the change in course has led to some uncer tainty. The Virginia Association of School Superintendents is set to meet with legal counsel to discuss the changes. The Virginia High School League, an athletics sanction ing organization that has a policy allowing transgender student athlete participation under certain conditions, is still “collecting information,” a spokesman said.

On Tuesday, aerial footage from a news helicopter showed hundreds of students pro testing outside two Prince William County high schools. Protests involving hundreds of students also took place elsewhere across northern Virginia and in the Richmond and Hampton Roads regions, and were planned in smaller, more rural districts, according to details provided to reporters.

At McLean High School, more than 300 students walked out of classes, chant ing, “Trans rights are human rights,” and, “D-O-E (Department of Education), leave us be!”

Casey Calabia, 17, a senior at McLean and an organizer with the Pride Liberation Project, said the changes, if enacted, would have a devastating effect on transgender kids who don’t have support at home. The student said it feels like the Gov. Youngkin administration is indifferent to the harm that could occur because they see it as good politics.

“We’re the punching bag,” the student said.

Another organizer, senior Ranger Bal leisen, said that as a transgender student, seeing the strong turnout at Tuesday’s protest was gratifying and “so great seeing the way this school has my back.”

Asked for comment on the protests, a spokeswoman for Gov. Youngkin empha sized that the new guidelines make it clear that when parents are part of the process, schools will accommodate the requests of children and their families.

“While students exercise their free speech today, we’d note that these policies

state that students should be treated with compassion and schools should be free from bullying and harassment,” spokeswoman Macaulay Porter said in a statement.

The previous state guidelines, which also drew protests and sparked heated school board meetings across the state, said schools should let students use names and gender pronouns that reflect their gender identity without “any substantiating evidence.” They also said students could participate in programming and access facilities in a manner consistent with their gender identity and urged schools to weigh sharing information about students’ gender identity with parents on a “case-by-case” basis, considering the health and safety of students.

Those guidelines also led to still-ongoing legal challenges from both sides of the is sue, and many school districts chose not to adopt them.

“Virginia right now is like a chessboard of moving pieces in this area,” Eden Heil man, legal director of the ACLU of Virginia, said in an interview Tuesday.

The group is still conducting a detailed legal analysis of the model policies but has several areas of concern, Heilman said, including whether the way the policy addresses bathroom use by transgender students could result in practices that vio late previous federal court decisions.

On the federal level, the Biden admin istration has been pushing for stronger protections for LGBTQ students, but it has faced sharp opposition from Republicanled states.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was asked about the walkouts at Tuesday’s media briefing. She offered a general statement of the president’s support for the LGBTQ community, though she said she wasn’t familiar with the details of the day’s protests.

Associated Press writer Collin Binkley in Washington contributed to this report. Ms. Rankin reported from Richmond.

Insurance company details cost of rebuilding Fox

Continued from A1

building,” said Chris Carey, VAcorp’s administrator.

But he said that figure is not set in stone. “If it is wrong, we would reconsider based on any information provided that supports a different cost,” he said.

He noted RPS has not issued a bid for the project with spe cific details, nor has it received responses that would provide better information.

“Neither you nor I know what is included in the pro jected costs and whether it is consistent with the current construction of the building.”

Mr. Carey continued, includ ing meeting current building code requirements, such as a sprinkler system.

However, he said he consid ers it “very unlikely that there

is a $10 million discrepancy to replace that building unless there are substantial upgrades being considered in the rebuild,” such as an expansion of the 58,220 square feet of space that stood above grade

before the fire. The school also has a basement that was not damaged.

In his view, based on a drop in building material prices, “our estimates are way closer than we are being given credit for. If

you consider the collapse of commodity costs, the cost of rebuilding Fox should be less than the reported 2021-22 cost of school building. For example, lumber costs are currently at 2019 levels.”

According to the Virginia Department of Education, school divisions spent an average of $294 per square foot to build new elementary schools during the 2021-22 school year.

However, Mr. Carey reaf firmed that VAcorp would keep its promise to replace the building that existed even if it cost more. That promise does not include paying for addons unrelated to building code requirements, he said.

He said VAcorp already has spent about $1 million on Fox, including spending “to shore up the existing walls that will be remaining.”

Richmond Free Press

A fire Feb. 11 of still undetermined origin destroyed the second floor and roof of Fox Elementary School in Richmond’s Fan District. The school dates to 1911.

Aerial view rendering of Diamond District development plan

Pride, prejudice and government extortion

Literary great Ralph Waldo Emerson once wrote, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”

That sums up the government preservationists who have focused their wrath on the signs that now sit at the top of the 165-foot bell tower on the campus of Virginia Union University.

Lighted at night, the signs installed on the four sides of the tower feature the VUU initials.

From the government’s description, you would think those signs featured bold, garish, blinking lights. Nope. They are tastefully designed signs that are lit only enough to make the letters vis ible.

So why has the state Department of Historic Resources extorted the university into paying $35,000 a year to keep the signs in place?

The reason: Dr. Hakim J. Lucas, president of the historically Black university, did not secure permission from the preservation arm of the city, the Commission for Architectural Review, before installing them. And the commission is hot about that.

As it turns out, the tower and the building to which it is attached are in a city Old and Historic District, which the commission governs. Under the rules, the commission has promulgated, the signs are larger and brighter than its rules allow in such a preservation district.

The commission may do a great job, but in this case, they are proving that Mr. Emerson was right.

Here is why. First, those appealing signs cover the damage that a major storm wreaked on the top portion of the tower, which includes air vents or louvers. Much of the bell tower now is clad in a protective covering after a storm also destroyed lighting that ran along the side.

Yes, the building was designed to be lighted.

Most importantly the signs help neutralize the white supremacist and racist origins of the tower and the building to which it is attached, which were created to house Belgium’s exhibit at the 1939 World’s Fair n New York and which now houses VUU’s gym and art programs.

The building’s exterior features sculpted artwork of semi-nude Africans frolicking in the Congo that Belgium owned and controlled at the time. It was supposed to illustrate how happy those “uncivilized” Africans were to be under Belgian control, just like the South promoted images of “happy” enslaved people in this country.

It was a cover-up of Belgium’s oppressive rule, the horrible abuses it meted out to natives who objected and its virtual enslavement of residents to exploit what is now the Republic of Congo’s mineral wealth.

Even so, VUU competed for the building when Belgium could not ship it home after being overrun by Germany at the start of World War II and won. The relocation to a Black university’s campus reduced the white supremacist sting, and the signs help further neutralize those racist origins by making a beacon for VUU.

Did the commission take racist purpose of the building into account? No. They foolishly focused on their guidelines barring signs of that sort instead of applauding the elegant solution VUU devised to cover the tower damage.

Instead of thinking through this individual case, the commission began demanding VUU take down the signs.

Fortunately, City Council on Monday refused that recommendation and instead voted 8-0 to override the commission and allow the signs to stay put.

That’s not the end, though.

Council still must approve a special use permit, and VUU must get a building permit. But the vote was an important first step.

The council’s action, though, will not get rid of that $35,000 punishment fee that the Depart ment of Historic Resources and its board are gleefully eager to impose to make an example of VUU to prevent others from trying to bypass the commission.

But knowing what we know about this building and what VUU did, this is just wrong. It is wrong for the state agency and its board to demand that fine, and it is wrong to collect it.

We believe any fair-minded and intelligent assessment would conclude those signs enhance and do not detract from the effort to preserve the building. VUU’s action damaged nothing other than the pride of some decision-makers.

Henrico County voters and the $511.4M question

Serving 340,000 people at the local government level can be a challenge. Differing populations can yield differing expectations when it comes to public services. In Henrico County, this is entirely expected – and also wholly wel comed. While decisions made at the local level are not always popular with every resident, one guiding principle is always our “north star”: doing what is right.

One can point to deci sion after deci sion of Henrico’s elected officials reflecting this premise, beginning with the most important service of all — educating our youths. Without fail, year after year, the needs of our school system are fully funded by our Board of Supervisors, a decision requir ing the lion’s share of taxpayer resources. This is not common in most localities.

In 2016, voters overwhelm ingly approved a bond referen dum that ultimately allowed the rebuilding of J.R. Tucker and Highland Springs high schools (the original Highland Springs High has now been converted into the county’s first full-service community hub now known as the Oak Avenue Complex), as well as the renovation of seven other aging schools to ensure children have the safest and most conducive learning environ

ments. These were expensive but necessary projects that were put forward – once again – because it was the right thing to do.

Henrico confronts its chal lenges head-on. There are numer ous examples in recent years, including:

• The handling of the COVID19 pandemic, in which the county

took the lead in the region and vaccinated over 160,000 people at Richmond Raceway;

•The Board’s decision to move forward with constructing the first detoxification facility of its kind in Virginia to assist with addiction recovery efforts for some of our most vulnerable residents and serve as an alterna tive to incarceration;

•Partnering with Woodland Cemetery in the restoration of this historic African-American cemetery; and

•Investing nearly $4 million in the past few years to renew Henrico’s focus on affordable housing, while also forcing appropriate maintenance and improvements at five of the county’s largest affordable hous ing complexes.

These recent or forthcoming accomplishments are examples of a local government confronting challenges rather than ignoring them and hoping they go away.

This fall, Henrico voters will be asked to choose “yes” or “no” on four questions that

will appear on the ballot, seek ing authorization to continue to build needed facilities. The questions propose the issuance of general obligation bonds to support projects in four distinct categories: schools, public safety, recreation and parks, and storm water drainage. The total funding proposed through these questions is $511.4 million – two-thirds of the amount, $340.5 million, would be for schools projects alone. Each project offered for consideration continues upon the theme of building infrastructure to improve the quality of life for all, and to do what is right for Henrico’s residents.

Continuing upon the mo mentum from the last bond referendum, most of these funds would be directed to rebuilding or renovating five schools built more than 50 years ago and in dire need of attention. The schools question also includes funding for three new schools — two new elementary schools as well as an incredibly excit ing “living building” on Wilton Farm in Varina, which would support the new environmental science-focused specialty center at Varina High School.

Outside of schools, an affir mative vote by Henrico voters would address new and renovated firehouses and parks, the training and physical safety of Henrico’s first responders, as well as the first significant investment in addressing a problem in Henrico that will only worsen over time: neighborhood and community

Exploiting the vulnerable for political advantage

There is always a new low for Trump Republicans. And that is pretty frightening.

Take the latest exercise in lawlessness, dishonesty and cruelty from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He chartered a plane to send dozens of mostly Vene zuelan asylum seekers from Texas to Mar tha’s Vineyard, an island com munity off the coast of Cape Cod in Mas sachusetts. He clearly was gleeful about the idea of sticking it to liberals and gloating about it on rightwing media.

It wasn’t even an original idea. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott had already been putting migrants on buses to cities like Washington, D.C., where they have been dropped off in front of Fox News and outside the vice president’s residence—a giveaway that the purpose is publicity.

The news of the Gov. DeSantis flight made it clear that he was exploiting vulnerable people for his own political advantage. And the more we learn, the worse it gets.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of people deceived into taking the flight says the migrants were approached in San Antonio by people pretending to offer hu manitarian assistance. They were promised that jobs, housin, and other assistance were waiting for them if they were willing to get on a plane.

None of it was true. These

vulnerable people were report edly told lies about where they were going, and given brochures with false information about help that would be waiting for them. Even worse, they may have unknowingly threatened their asylum claims by making it likely that they would miss scheduled court appointments.

Gov. DeSantis and his hench men hadn’t contacted govern

ment officials or nonprofit organizations in Massachusetts. It was a photo op. It was definitely political. And it was possibly illegal. The sheriff in Bexar County, Texas, has opened a criminal investigation into the false pretenses under which people were lured onto the planes. A lawsuit has been filed on the migrants’ behalf.

White House Press Secretary Karine JeanPierre slammed Gov. DeSantis for “alerting Fox News and not city or state officials about a plan to abandon children fleeing communism,” calling it “a cruel, premeditated political stunt.”

Of course, it’s not the first time that dishonorable politicians have exploited vulnerable people. In fact, racist white southerners who were resisting segregation in the early 1960s did almost the same thing to Black Americans 60 years ago.

The Washington Post recently highlighted that history. A group of segregationists organized “Re verse Freedom Rides” in 1962 as retaliation for the Freedom

Rides that carried civil rights activists throughout the South in 1961. According to the Post, “The plot was organized by white supremacist Citizens’ Councils in Arkansas, who bought radio ads and made fliers advertising the ‘opportunity’ to African-Amer icans.” One Arkansas woman and nine of her children were dropped off on Cape Cod near the President Kennedy family’s compound because she had been falsely told that Kennedy was going to greet them.

Sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?

Last year, journalist Adam Serwer published a book called “The Cruelty is the Point: The Past, Present, and Future of Trump’s America.” Serwer has made the point that Donald Trump is a symptom, not the cause, of a cruel streak in Ameri can politics. )

Gov. DeSantis’s scheme to deceive, manipulate, and harm vulnerable people seeking asy lum in our country is evidence that the cruelty wielded by Donald Trump and embraced by so many of his followers will continue to poison our politics if Mr. Trump or Gov. DeSantis or someone of their ilk is the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.

We should be outraged at the cruelty displayed by some of our leaders. Let us also be motivated, and optimistic, that we can outorganize and overcome them.

The writer is president of People For the American Way and Professor of the Practice at the University of Pennsylvania.

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.

flooding. Henrico also is partner ing with the Henrico Humane Society to operate a new “nokill” animal shelter and adoption center that the public will name. A list of all projects that would be funded with an assenting vote on the bond referendum can be found at henrico.us/bonds.

As with the 2016 bond referendum, all projects being proposed in the 2022 bond ref erendum would be funded within existing resources. Henrico’s tax rates would not increase.

The facilities associated with these four questions on the ballot this fall impact every corner of Henrico. If you are still unde cided as to whether you plan to vote in this fall’s election, we sincerely hope that this bond referendum gives you added reason to exercise your right to do so. Absentee voting started Friday, Sept. 23, and Election Day is Nov. 8.

The writer is Henrico Coun ty’s deputy county manager for administration.

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Ben Jealous

Biden’s strategy to end hunger in U.S. includes more benefits

By Colleen Long and Ashraf Khalil The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

The Biden administration is laying out its plan to meet an ambitious goal of ending hunger in the U.S. by 2030, including expanding monthly ben efits that help low-income Americans buy food.

The administration, in a plan released Tues day, also is seeking to increase healthy eating and physical activity so that fewer people are afflicted with diabetes, obesity, hypertension and other diet-related diseases. It said it would work to expand Medicaid and Medicare access to obesity counseling and nutrition.

“The consequences of food insecurity and diet-related diseases are significant, far reach ing, and disproportionately impact historically underserved communities,” President Biden wrote in a memo outlining the White House strategy. “Yet, food insecurity and diet-related diseases are largely preventable, if we prioritize the health of the nation.”

President Biden is hosting a conference this week on hunger, nutrition and health, the first by the White House since 1969. That conference, under President Richard Nixon, was a pivotal moment that influenced the U.S. food policy agenda for 50 years. It led to a greatly expanded food stamps program and gave rise to the Women, Infants and Children program, which serves half the babies born in the U.S. by providing women with parenting advice, breastfeeding support and food assistance.

Noreen Springstead, executive director of the anti-hunger organization WhyHunger, said the

whole-of-government nature of the summit will hopefully produce greater alignment across the multiple federal agencies that deal with hunger issues — from the USDA and Health and Hu man Services to the Bureau of Indian Affairs. That, ideally, would help Biden “set the North Star that nutritious food is a human right for all people.”

Ms. Springstead noted that a truly comprehen sive approach to hunger and nutrition would have

Millions of Americans will save on Medicare fees next year

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON

For the first time in a decade, Americans will pay less next year on monthly premiums for Medicare’s Part B plan, which covers routine doctors’ visits and other outpatient care.

The rare 3 percent decrease in monthly premiums—a sav ings of $5.20 for most—comes after millions of Medicare beneficiaries endured a tough year of high inflation and a dramatic increase to premi ums this year. Most people on Medicare will pay $164.90 monthly for Part B coverage starting next year.

“(To) millions of seniors

and people with disabilities on Medicare, that means more money in their pockets while still getting the care they need,” President Biden said Tuesday in a speech from the White House Rose Garden.

The decrease will help off set last year’s $21.60 spike in monthly Part B costs, driven in large part by a new Al zheimer’s drug. Aduhelm, administered intravenously in doctors’ offices, was introduced to the market last year with a $56,000 price tag. Medicare set strict limitations on the drug’s use earlier this year and the drugmaker has since cut the medication’s cost in half Medicare paid less for that

drug than it expected this year, helping shore up reserves that allowed the agency to set the Part B premiums lower for 2023. Other Medicare services and items were lower than expected, too, but Medicare officials did not answer The Associated Press’ questions for details on those savings.

The lower Medicare premi ums were announced just as roughly 66 million Americans are waiting to see how much their Social Security checks might increase next year.

The cost-of-living increase to Social Security checks could be historic, roughly between 9 percent and 10 percent, ac cording to analysts.

to include a major commitment from charities and philanthropic foundations. It would also likely include raising baseline salaries and employers paying their workers “wages that are livable so that they’re not standing in a food line.”

Over the years, cuts to federal programs coupled with stigmas over welfare and big changes to how food and farming systems are run have prompted declines in access to food.

President Biden, a Democrat, is hoping this week’s conference is similarly transformative. But the goal of President Nixon, a Republican, also was “to put an end to hunger in America for all time.”

And yet 10 percent of U.S. households in 2021 suffered food insecurity, meaning they were uncertain they could get enough food to feed themselves or their families because they lacked money or resources for food, according to the Food and Drug Administration.

To succeed, President Biden needs buy-in from the private sector and an increasingly partisan Congress. Some of the goals sound reminiscent of former First Lady Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move initiative to tackle childhood obesity and promote healthy eating. The conference also will highlight the need for access to better, healthier food and exercise.

In response to President Biden plan’s release,

Partnership for a Healthy America hailed the emphasis on nutrition and health, saying that simply providing more food without prioritizing nutritional value would simply create different problems.

“We applaud the administration’s stated desire to shift from a mindset of treating diet-related diseases to preventing them from occurring in the first place,” the organization said in a state ment.

President Biden said in his memo that over the past 50 years, “We have learned so much more about nutrition and the role that healthy eating plays in how our kids perform in the classroom and about nutrition and its linkages to disease prevention.”

Under the White House plan, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program eligibility would be expanded, children would get better access to free meals, and summer benefits would be extended to more schoolkids. Such changes would require congressional approval.

The other tenets of the strategy include the development of new food packaging to truthcheck the “healthy” claims for some products, expanding SNAP incentives to select fruits and vegetables, providing more programs to encour age people to get outside and move, and boosting funding for research.

Join City of Richmond’s Department of Public Utilities for the Fall Citizens Academy.

Learn the business of water and gas utilities during this four-session Academy. Go behind the scenes and on tours to learn about DPU's day-to-day operations, natural gas, water treatment, stormwater operations and more!

Participants must be a City of Richmond resident or employee who is at least 18 years old.

Sessions are 5 pm - 7 pm on Tuesday, October 11, October 18, October 25, November 1.

Complete and submit the registration form by Wednesday, October 5. Space is limited.

For more information, call 804-646-6405, email DPUC@rva.gov or visit rva.gov/ public-utilities.

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Scan to register.

Evan Vucci/The Associated Press

President Biden speaks during an event on health care costs Tuesday in the Rose Garden at the White House.

How hospital chain used poor neighborhood to turn huge profits

does not have kidney or lung specialists or a maternity ward. Its magnetic resonance imag ing machine frequently breaks and was out of service for seven weeks this summer, said two medical workers at the hospital, who requested anonymity because they still work there. Standard tools like an otoscope, a device used to inspect the ear canal, are often hard to come by.

Yet the hollowed-out hospital — owned by Bon Secours Mercy Health, one of the largest nonprofit health care chains in the country — has the highest profit margins of any hospital in Virginia, generating as much as $100 million a year, according to the hospital’s financial data.

The secret to its success lies with a federal pro gram that allows clinics in impoverished neighbor hoods to buy prescription drugs at steep discounts, charge insurers full price and pocket the difference. The vast majority of Richmond Community’s profits come from the program, said two former executives who were familiar with the hospital’s finances and requested anonymity because they still work in the health care industry.

The drug program was created with the inten tion that hospitals would reinvest the windfalls into their facilities, improving care for poor patients. But Bon Secours, founded by Roman Catholic nuns more than a century ago, has been slashing services at Richmond Community while investing in the city’s wealthier, white neighborhoods, according to more than 20 former executives, doctors and nurses.

“Bon Secours was basically laundering money through this poor hospital to its wealthy out posts,” said Dr. Lucas English, who worked in Richmond Community’s emergency department until 2018. “It was all about profits.”

More than half of all hospitals in the United States are set up as nonprofits, a designation that allows them to make money but avoid paying taxes. Although Bon Secours has taken a financial hit this year like many other hospital systems, the chain made nearly $1 billion in profit last year at its 50 hospitals in the United States and Ireland and was sitting on more than $9 billion in cash reserves. It avoids at least $440 million in federal, state and local taxes every year that it would otherwise have to pay, according to an analysis by the Lown Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.

In exchange for the tax breaks, the IRS requires nonprofit hospitals to provide a benefit to their communities. But an investigation by The New York Times found that many of the country’s largest nonprofit hospital systems have drifted far from their charitable roots. The hospitals operate like for-profit companies, fixating on revenue targets and expansions into affluent suburbs.

Many of these hospitals have for years slashed staffing levels, leaving them unprepared for a flood of severely ill COVID-19 patients. Others, borrowing tricks from business consultants, have trained staff to squeeze payments from poor patients who should be eligible for free care.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Bon Secours Mercy Health said the hospital system had spent nearly $10 million on improvements to Richmond Community Hospital since 2013, including opening a pharmacy and renovating the cafeteria, emergency department and other areas. The chain also invested nearly $9 million since 2018 in the neighborhood surrounding the hospital, she said.

Bon Secours’ CEO, John M. Starcher Jr., made about $6 million in 2020, according to the most recent tax filings.

“Our mission is clear — to extend the compas sionate ministry of Jesus by improving the health and well-being of our communities and bring good help to those in need, especially people who are poor, dying and underserved,” said the spokesperson, Maureen Richmond. Bon Secours did not comment on Mr. Otey’s case.

In interviews, doctors, nurses and former executives said the hospital had been given short shrift and pointed to a decade-old de velopment deal with the city of Richmond as another example.

In 2012, the city agreed to lease land to Bon Secours at far below market value on the condition that the chain expand Richmond Community’s facilities. Instead, Bon Secours focused on building a luxury apartment and office complex. The hospital system waited a decade to build the promised medical offices next to Richmond Community, breaking ground only this year.

‘Glorified Emergency Room’

For Dr. Richard Jackson, 69, an internal medicine specialist whose family has been caring for patients in this city for more than a century, walking the mostly empty halls of Richmond Community Hospital is a painful reminder of what has been lost.

The hospital was founded in 1907 by Black doctors who were not allowed to work at the white

hospitals across town. In the 1930s, Dr. Jackson’s grandfather, Dr. Isaiah Jackson, mortgaged his house to help pay for an expansion of the hospital. His father, also a doctor, would take his children to the hospital’s fundraising telethons.

In 1980, Richmond Community moved to its current site in the East End neighborhood, where there was no other hospital. The modest building did not have an emergency room or a maternity ward. But in addition to the intensive care unit, it had specialists in cancer as well as heart and lung disease. Richard Jackson recruited many of them from Howard University, where he had attended medical school.

But in the 1990s, the changing health care industry threatened the hospital’s survival. Large insurance companies began requiring customers to use specific networks of hospitals and doctors, in a bid to pressure providers to lower their rates. Independent institutions like Community — as it is known in the neighborhood — could not compete with larger chains, and the hospital struggled to attract patients.

The doctors, who owned the hospital as part of a for-profit partnership, sold it to Bon Secours in 1995.

Bon Secours was one of the dominant play ers in Richmond, with major medical centers throughout the city. It initially invested in the hospital, opening the emergency department, according to a history of Richmond Community by Cassandra Newby-Alexander at Norfolk State University.

But as the years passed, Bon Secours began stripping the hospital’s services, including the ICU. The unit had only five beds, but doctors regarded it as the heart of the hospital, the place to provide critical care for the sickest patients and those recovering from major surgery.

Removing the ICU “really takes the meat and potatoes out of being a hospital,” Dr. Jackson said. “It’s a glorified emergency room.”

With the ICU closed, the hospital’s two lung specialists had nowhere to treat critically ill patients. They retired, and Bon Secours did not replace them. A team of cardiologists left a few years later. Other specialists, including gastroin testinal doctors and neurologists who were part of Bon Secours’ broader network, rarely treated patients at Richmond Community.

Doctors and nurses said that when they had protested the closure of the ICU and other cuts, Bon Secours argued that patients could still receive care at the chain’s other hospitals.

But that promise was undermined by the ar rival of the coronavirus, which disproportionately affected Black and low-income residents in the East End. In the census tract that includes Richmond Community Hospital, the COVID death rate has been 81 percent higher than the city’s overall rate, according to data provided by the Virginia Department of Health.

In the summer of 2021, as the delta variant surged through the city, a woman in the emer gency room with COVID declined and needed an ICU with a ventilator, according to three people involved in her case.

For hours, the staff couldn’t get her to an other hospital. Eventually, she was transferred to Memorial Regional Medical Center, also owned by Bon Secours, but died after arriving. Her death left some who had cared for her at Community wondering if she would have survived had she shown up at a different hospital.

Bon Secours declined to comment on whether the hospital’s lack of an ICU contributed to the COVID death toll.

The pandemic exacerbated a problem that doctors and nurses said they had long faced: getting patients access to other hospitals in the Bon Secours system.

The East End is home to Richmond’s largest Black population and, despite recent interest from real estate investors, lacks some basic services. In 2019, it got its first supermarket.

In some of the neighborhoods surrounding the hospital, more than half the households do not have a car, according to research done by Virginia Commonwealth University. The public bus route to St. Mary’s, a large Bon Secours facility in the northwest part of the city, takes more than an hour. There is no public transportation from the East End to Memorial Regional, 9 miles away.

“It became impossible for me to send people to the advanced heart valve clinic at St. Mary’s,” said Dr. Michael Kelly, a cardiologist who worked at Richmond Community until Bon Secours scaled back the specialty service in 2019. He said he had driven some patients to the clinic in his own car.

Richmond Community has the feel of an urgent care clinic, with a small waiting room and a tan brick facade. The contrast with Bon Secours’ nearby hospitals is striking.

At the chain’s St. Francis Medical Center, an Italianate-style compound in a suburb 18 miles from Community, golf carts shuttle patients from the lobby entrance, past a marble fountain, to

Bon Secours’ responds to New York Times article

As a faith-based, mission-driven health care ministry, Bon Secours works to extend the compassionate ministry of Jesus by improving the health and well-being of our communities. This mission is at the center of our organization – and builds on our century-old legacy of caring for all who come through our doors, especially the most vulnerable among us, stated Jenna Green, a Bon Secours public relations and communications manager, in an email response to the Richmond Free Press.

Our nonprofit ministry provides a wide range of services beyond traditional care delivery to support our communities — including but not limited to — mobile health clinics for the uninsured, forensic nursing services, transportation services in the East End, fresh food access, economic equity services and career development assistance — to support the health and well-being of the whole person. We are proud to provide access to quality care in the Richmond community and beyond. Equally, we firmly believe in the need for and benefits of investing in programs

their cars.

In December, Bon Secours kicked off a $108 million construction project at St. Francis to expand its ICU and maternity ward. Not long before that, Bon Secours broke ground on a free-standing emergency room that would be an extension of St. Francis in suburban Chesterfield County. The news release boasted that it would offer CT, MRI and ultrasound imaging.

Dr. Samuel Hunter, 81, who worked for more than four decades as a pathologist at Richmond Community until he left in May, said the disparity reminded him of his childhood in segregated Florida, where Black children like him learned from textbooks that white students had already used.

“I know what it feels like to have secondhand things,” he said.

A Lucrative Drug Program

When Bon Secours bought Richmond Community, the hospital served predominantly poor patients who were either uninsured or covered through Medicaid, which reimburses hospitals at lower rates than private insurance does. But Bon Secours turned the hospital’s poverty into an asset.

The organization seized on a federal program created in the 1990s to give a financial boost to nonprofit hospitals and clinics that serve low-income communities. The program, called 340B after the section of the federal law that authorized it, allows hospitals to buy drugs from manufacturers at a discount — roughly half the average sales price. The hospitals are then allowed to charge patients’ insurers a much higher price for the same drugs.

The theory behind the law was that nonprofit hospitals would invest the savings in their com munities. But the 340B program came with few rules. Hospitals did not have to disclose how much money they made from sales of the discounted drugs. And they were not required to use the revenues to help the underserved patients who qualified them for the program in the first place.

In 2019, more than 2,500 nonprofit and government-owned hospitals participated in the program, or more than half of all hospitals in the country, according to the independent Medicare Payment Advisory Commission.

Starting in the mid-2000s, big hospital chains figured out how to supercharge the program. The basic idea: Build clinics in wealthier neighbor hoods, where patients with generous private insurance could receive expensive drugs, but on paper make the clinics extensions of poor hospitals to take advantage of 340B.

Since 2013, Bon Secours has opened nine such satellite clinics in wealthier parts of the Richmond area, according to federal records. Even though the outposts are miles from Richmond Community, they are legally structured as subsidiaries of the hospital, which entitles them to buy drugs at the discounted rate.

The Bon Secours Cancer Institute at St. Mary’s, for example, administers cancer drugs to patients in an office suite on the tree-lined campus of St. Mary’s Hospital.

Thanks to 340B, Richmond Community Hospital can buy a vial of Keytruda, a cancer drug, at the discounted price of $3,444, according to an estimate by Sara Tabatabai, a former researcher at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.

But the hospital charges the private insurer Blue Cross Blue Shield more than seven times that price — $25,425, according to a price list that hospitals are required to publish. That is nearly $22,000 profit on a single vial. Adults need two vials per treatment course.

The way hospitals use the 340B program is “nakedly capitalizing on programs that are intended to help poor people,” said Dr. Peter B. Bach, a biotechnology executive and researcher whose work has shown that hospitals participating in the 340B program have increasingly opened clinics in wealthier areas since the mid-2000s.

Bon Secours did not disclose how much money it earned through the program but said the funds “help us address health disparities while provid ing community support and outreach.” It said it had provided nearly $18 million in free care to poor patients at Richmond Community Hospital since 2018. In 2020, the hospital provided $3.8 million in free care to low-income patients, or about 2.6 percent of its total expenses, slightly above the national average.

The federal agency that oversees the 340B program, the Health Resources and Services Administration, said that hospitals and clin ics were regularly audited and that the Biden administration had proposed requiring them to report how they spent profits generated through the program. Such a change would require congressional approval.

In 2020, the most recent year for which data is available, Richmond Community Hospital — including its satellite offices — had a profit margin of nearly 44 percent the highest in the

and services that address health disparities, social determinants of health and beyond. Since 2018, Bon Secours:

• Bon Secours has mMl improvements on the Richmond Com munity Hospital campus to better serve patients. This includes a new Good Health Pharmacy, increased access to care, lab expansions and digital mammography equipment. In addition, Bon Secours is currently investing an additional $21 million in Richmond Com munity Hospital, which includes a new Adult Behavioral Health Partial Hospitalization Program (the first of its kind in the East End), upgraded 3-D mammography services and a new MRI suite.

• Invested more than $19 million in community benefit to support organizations and initiatives throughout Metro Richmond, addressing the social determinants of health for residents. Of this amount, more than $8 million has been invested in Richmond’s East End.

• Committed to treating every patient who comes through its doors with dignity and respect, providing nearly $18 million in uncompensated care.

It is vitally important to understand that 340B is a pharma ceutical cost-savings program. It was created to support safety

state, according to an analysis by Virginia Health Information, a nonprofit group that collects financial data from hospitals.

That year, the hospital brought in more than $110 million in revenue, after expenses and losses were deducted, according to Virginia Health Information. According to two former Bon Secours executives familiar with the hos pital’s financial operations, the vast majority of Richmond Community’s profit since 2013 has come from the 340B program.

Bon Secours’ other hospitals have not done as well. St. Mary’s, considered the most prestigious Bon Secours facility in Richmond, brought in $83 million in 2020.

‘Unabashedly Profit-Oriented’

On a sunny October day in Richmond in 2012, two cheerleaders for Washington’s NFL team smiled for cameras as they gripped a large sign between them.

“Bon Secours Training Center,” read the sign, which combined the Bon Secours fleurde-lis logo with a bust of a Native American, the football team’s logo at the time.

The team, Bon Secours and the state of Virginia were unveiling a major economic deal that would bring $40 million to Richmond, add 200 jobs and keep the Washington team — now known as the Commanders — in the state for summer training.

The deal had three main parts. Bon Secours would get naming rights and help the team build a training camp and medical offices on a lot next to Richmond’s science museum.

The city would lease Bon Secours a prime piece of real estate that the chain had long coveted for $5,000 a year. The parcel was on the city’s west side, next to St. Mary’s, where Bon Secours wanted to build medical offices and a nursing school.

Finally, the nonprofit’s executives promised city leaders that they would build a 25,000square-foot medical office building next to Richmond Community Hospital. Bon Secours also said it would hire 75 local workers and build a fitness center.

“It’s going to be a quick timetable, but I think we can accomplish it,” the mayor at the time, Dwight C. Jones, said at the news conference.

Today, physical therapy and doctors’ offices overlook the football field at the training center.

On the west side of Richmond, Bon Secours dropped its plans to build a nursing school. Instead, it worked with a real estate developer to build luxury apartments on the site and delayed its plans to build medical offices. Residents at The Crest at Westhampton Commons, part of the $73 million project, can swim in a saltwater pool and work out on communal Peloton bi cycles. On the ground floor, an upscale Mexican restaurant serves cucumber jalapeño margaritas, and a Drybar offers salon blowouts.

The land next to Richmond Community Hospital, by contrast, remained inactive until February of this year, when Bon Secours broke ground on the complex.

Former executives at the chain said a series of management changes in Bon Secours’ Richmond region, coupled with a change in mayoral admin istrations, had distracted attention from the project. And a merger with an Ohio hospital chain in 2018 accelerated the push for higher revenues, according to former administrators and doctors.

“There was a major shift from being missionoriented to being unashamedly, unabashedly profit-oriented,” said Mr. Jones, the former mayor who helped broker the original deal.

Mayor ’s response

Continued from A1

regards Bon Secours misuse of the funds as “deeply troubling” and a violation of City Hall’s efforts to incorporate “equity into everything we do.”

He is not alone.

Richmond Congressman A. Donald McEachin is among lawmakers also call ing for a strong rules to govern the 340B program in the wake of the article.

Dating back to 1992, Section 340B allows qualifying health care operations serving low-income and rural areas to pay a reduced price for medications and charge full price to health insurers. The health operation retains the difference and is to use the revenue to improve health care, though the legislation and regulations, according to experts, pro vides few rules or guidelines.

More than 50,000 entities now participate, according to the government, including VCU Health, which has used the savings on medi cations to help cover the cost of a new adult outpatient center and a children’s hospital on the Downtown medical campus.

nets like Richmond Community Hospital, which deliver care to underserved communities.

Bon Secours is fully compliant with the federal 340B program and utilizes savings for community re-investment that aligns with the program’s regulations. As a pro vider in Richmond’s East End, 340B is critical to our patients.

Our team of dedicated, compassionate, associates, including clinicians and nurses, have and continue to work tirelessly to increase access to quality care — and to support programs that improve the well-being of communities across the Richmond area. Today, we continue to build on the legacy of our found ing congregation through our commitment to addressing health disparities, the social determinants of health and environmental factors that impact our communities, and disproportionately so, the poor and uninsured.

Bon Secours’ support of our mission is steadfast and unwav ering. To suggest that we don’t operate in full support of our important mission is without merit and we take issue with such baseless allegations.

Compiled by George Copeland Jr.

Black quarterbacks no longer few and far between

Black starting quarterbacks, once a rarity in the NFL and major col lege football, are popping up more and more.

Despite two significant injuries, nine Black QBs are now directing their NFL teams, and many more are likely to arrive soon.

And that doesn’t include two Pacific Islanders, Marcus Mariota in Atlanta and Miami’s Tua Tagovailoa.

Here are the NFL’s current Black QB starters:

Geno Smith (Seattle): In his 11th season out of West Virginia, Smith took over for the Seahawks following Russell Wilson’s move to Denver.

Jalen Hurts (Philadelphia): Fol lowing a stellar college career at Alabama and Oklahoma, he’s in his third year with the Eagles and second as a starter.

Patrick Mahomes (Kansas City): Is in his sixth season as the Chiefs’ signal caller and fifth as starter. The ex-Texas Tech All-American led KC to the 2020 Super Bowl crown.

Russell Wilson (Denver): Growing up in Richmond, Wilson starred at

Collegiate School and later at North Carolina State and Wisconsin before joining the Seahawks and leading its franchise to the 2013 Super Bowl title. He’s in his first season with the Broncos.

Lamar Jackson (Baltimore): A former Heisman Trophy winner at Louisville, Jackson has posted a 3813 record in five seasons with the Ravens and is the top running QB since Mike Vick.

Kyler Murray (Arizona): The top overall draft pick by the Cardinals in

2019, Murray transitioned from a baseball outfielder to full-time football while at Oklahoma.

Justin Fields (Chicago): The 11th overall draft pick coming out Ohio State, he’s in second season with the Bears and first as a full-time starter.

Jameis Winston (New Orleans): The former Florida State star played five seasons in Tampa Bay before coming to the Saints. He was replaced in Tampa by Tom Brady.

Jacoby Brissett (Cleveland): He’s keeping the position warm until De

shaun Watson returns later this season from a suspension. Watson ranked with the NFL’s elite while with Houston.

Brissett is with his fourth team after coming out of North Carolina State.

Missing in action are Dallas’ Dak Prescott, who broke a finger on his throwing hand in the Cowboys’ opener, and Trey Lance in San Francisco, who is out for the season with a broken ankle. Prescott is expected to return later in the season.

The college landscape is now brim ming with likely NFL-bound Black

quarterbacks.

The list starts with Alabama’s Bryce Young, who is pursuing a second straight Heisman Trophy. Young is in his third season with the Tide and eligible for spring draft.

Other collegians on the rise are C.J. Stroud (Ohio State), Caleb Williams (Southern Cal), Malik Cunningham (Louisville) and Hendon Hooker (Tennessee, after transferring from Virginia Tech), KJ Jefferson (Arkan sas), Anthony Richardson (Florida) and Pacific Islander Dillon Gabriel (Oklahoma).

A wildcard is Jackson State’s Shedeur Sanders, now in his second season tossing passes for his coach/ father Deion Sanders. He would not be eligible for the NFL draft until after the 2023 season. Sanders became first HBCU football player to sign a lucra tive NIL contract (with Gatorade).

The attitude toward Black QBs has changed dramatically. Since 2010, six Black QBs have won the Heisman Trophy (Young, Murray, Jackson, Cam Newton, Robert Griffin III and Winston). Mariota won in 2014.

VUU, now 4-0, returns to Lanier Field/Hovey Stadium to battle St. Aug’s Oct. 1 game is Lucille Brown Community Football Bowl Day

The last time Virginia Union University won a CIAA football championship was in 2001. At least for now, 2022 is looking like ’01 again.

But there is work to be done.

Coach Alvin Parker’s Pan thers improved to 4-0 last week with a come-from-behind, 3128 statement win on the road at Fayetteville State.

The victory total includes a

head-turning win on the road at then nationally No. 2 ranked Valdosta, Ga., State, and most recently against the CIAA preseason Southern Division favorite Broncos.

“It was a great program road win,” said Coach Parker. “Our guys showed a bunch of resilience after being down.

“Lots of different players made plays. We still have a few things to correct but it’s

nice to correct them after a victory.”

VUU returns to Lanier Field/ Hovey Stadium on Saturday, Oct. 1, to face CIAA rival St. Augustine’s at 1 p.m. It will be Lucille Brown Community Football Bowl Day.

The Falcons will come to Richmond as the heavy un derdog. St. Aug’s is 0-4 and coming off a home 36-20 loss in Raleigh to Bowie State.

VUU has the pedal to the medal with no signs of slowing down. The Panthers average 48.8 points per game and 390 yards total offense an outing.

Sophomore tailback Jada Byers leads all of NCAA Di vision II in rushing with 777 yards so far, and in touchdowns with 11.

The hard-to-tackle New Jersey native had 161 yards and three touchdowns on 31

carries in Fayetteville.

On the occasions in which VUU fails to score TDs, it relies on two of the CIAA’s top kick ers, place kicker Brady Myers from Orlando, Fla., and punter Marvin Holmes from Varina.

Myers kicked a decisive 44yard field goal at Fayetteville and is two-for-two on the year and 23 for 23 on extra points.

Holmes has averaged 43 yards on his 12 punts.

Pirates lose to Delaware 35-3 in first CAA match

There was no beginner’s luck in this case.

Hampton University’s first game in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) did not go well.

The Pirates were 35-3 losers to the University of Delaware, before 16,035 fans in Newark.

The Blue Hens outgained HU, 448 yards to 154, and had 27 first downs to the Pirates’ eight.

This was HU’s first CAA test after moving over this year from the Big South. The Pirates had previously competed in the CIAA and MEAC.

Hampton, now 3-1, will be idle this week before hosting the University of Maine on Oct.

8 at Armstrong Stadium at 2 p.m.

The Pirates’ only score at Delaware was on a fourth-period, 20-yard field goal by Axel Perez from Gardenia, Calif.

DeAndre Faulk from Suffolk had 14 tackles and Owashin Townsel added 12 to bolster the

HU defense.

The CAA ranks with the most rugged FBS conferences in the NCAA. From the CAA, James Madison won the national title in 2004 and ’16, Villanova prevailed in ’09, Richmond in ’08 and Delaware in ’03.

VSU Trojans trounce Livingstone, 37-7

There are many dual-threat (run-pass) quarterbacks in college football, but few triple threats.

Jordan Davis offers that added dimension (punting) to the upward-bound Virginia State University Trojans.

In Coach Henry Frazier’s first season in Ettrick, VSU is 3-1 with three straight, onesided victories. Led by Davis’ passing, running and, yes, punting, too, the Trojans trounced Livingstone, 37-7, in Salisbury, for their third straight win Sept 24.

Next up is a 6 p.m. kickoff Oct. 1 against Shaw at Rogers Stadium. Shaw is 2-2 but coming off consecutive CIAA wins over Bowie State and Elizabeth City.

Playing on Livingstone’s blue turf field (aka “Smurf Turf,”) Davis hit 18 off 30 passes for 251 yards and a touchdown. He rushed for 50 yards on 10 totes with two more TDS.

And when forced to punt, Davis’ foot accounted for three kicks worth 111 yards, including a 61-yarder.

Since the arrival of special’s play, and special team’s kick

ers, almost never is the QB used to punt these days. Davis, who alternated as VSU’s signal caller a year ago, did not start the season as the No. 1 QB on the depth chart and did not play in the opening loss at Lenoir-Rhyne.

He hails from Hylton High in Woodbridge and is the son of retired military George Davis and German mother Sandy.

The 5-foot-11, 210-pound junior was sur rounded by numerous other stars in the win at Livingstone.

Darius Hagans ran for 116 yards on 23 tries, with a TD. Hagans has now passed the 100-yard mark in three straight games and trails only Virginia Union’s Jada Byers in CIAA rushing stats.

Working with Davis, Roy Jackson and Tylique Ray each snagged four pass receptions for 80 yards each.

On defense, freshman Zacchaeus Laing from Ashburn had five tackles (including one for loss) and added an interception.

VSU and Shaw last played in 2019, with the Trojans winning, 35-0.

Despite spirited offense, NSU suffers 45-26 loss to St. Francis

Yes, there is good news. Norfolk State University football is still undefeated … in the MEAC, that is.

The Spartans won’t face a conference opponent until an Oct. 8 date in Baltimore with Morgan State.

That said, competing outside the conference has been a dreary experience thus far. NSU fell to 0-4 last week (all non-conference games) with a 45-26 loss to St. Francis, Pa., before 3,835 fans at Dick Price Stadium.

There’s more to come. The non-conference trail leads to Sacred Heart, Conn., this Saturday for a 1 p.m. kickoff. Sacred Heart is 2-2 and coming off a 38-31 overtime win over Dartmouth.

NSU enjoyed its best offensive output of the season against St. Francis, rolling up 396 yards total offense, including 254 on the ground.

Jason Wonodi, a freshman from Brockton, Mass., ran just

one time but made it count for an 81-yard touchdown. At Brockton High last year, Wonodi amassed more than 2,600 yards passing and running and accounted for 29 TDs. He also ran a 6.45 time for the 55-meter dash.

Jordin Lennon had 80 yards on 10 carries, and quarterback Jaylan Adams passed for 142 yards and two TDs.

Tyler Long led the defense with 12 tackles, including 1.5 sacks.

Of the six MEAC football playing members, only North Carolina Central (4-0) has a winning record to date.

Despite early failures, NSU still has a chance to win the MEAC and represent the conference at the Celebration Bowl on Dec. 17 in Atlanta.

South Carolina State won last year’s Celebration Bowl, defeating Jackson State of the SWAC.

Spearheading the defense at Fayetteville were Demontay Rhem and Shamar Graham with 14 tackles each.

The toughest games ahead figure to be at Bowie State on Oct. 15, home against Chowan on Oct. 29 and then against much-improved Virginia State in Ettrick in the Nov. 5 regular season finale.

The last time VUU started 4-0 was in 2007 under Coach Arrington Jones. The Panthers went on to win their first six that season.

Virginia Union has won 11 CIAA football crowns, trailing Morgan State (18), Virginia State and Winston-Salem (12 each) and North Carolina A&T and Shaw (five each). Bowie State has won the last three.

Before 2001, VUU’s last CIAA title was in 1986.

VUU, VSU early favorites for CIAA men’s basketball

If preseason predictions prove true, the men’s basketball teams at Virginia Union and Virginia State universities can expect banner seasons.

Both VUU and VSU have three men on the preseason All-CIAA Team, as voted on by coaches and sports informa tion directors. Predictions were unveiled earlier this week at Media Day in Baltimore.

Representing VUU on the 10-man team are Keleaf Tate, Raemaad Wright and Robert Osborne. VSU’s picks are Francis “BJ” Fitzgerald, James Love III and Terrence Hunter-Whitfield.

VUU was selected tops in the Northern Division, with VSU second. Defending champ Fay etteville is first in the Southern Division and first overall.

On the women’s side, Vir ginia Union is picked seventh and Virginia State 10th out of the 12 schools. Lincoln is picked first overall.

Ny Langley and Taniah Johnson were VUU’s first team picks.

Stories by Fred Jeter

Geno Smith Jalen Hurts

Patrick Mahomes Russell Wilson

DeAndre Faulk

Jordan Davis

Jason Wonodi

In the metaverse, surgeons will practice hundreds of times before seeing patients.

Meta is helping build the metaverse so surgeons will get extra practice in realistic settings. The metaverse may be virtual, but the impact will be real.

Personality: DaNika Neblett Robinson Spotlight on the board chair of the James River Writers

In 2015, DaNika Neblett Robinson found a new path to literary success. At the sugges tion of her writing mentor, Stacy Hawkins Adams, she attended the annual James River Writers conference, in hopes of finding the inspiration she needed for her work.

There, Dr. Robinson found aid for her writing skills, pitched her idea to others, and ultimately wound up hiring one of the conference’s speakers as her editor for her novella, “The Metamorphic Journey.” The experience at the confer ence, as she describes it, was critical for her and her writing community.

“Being a part of a writing community allowed me to see one of my dreams of becoming a published author come true,” Dr. Robinson says.

Now, Dr. Robinson is helping maintain a space for Richmond writers with stories to tell, as the James River Writers’ latest board chair. With nearly 500 members in the organization and the goal of supporting local writers in innovative ways, she works with staff on programs that ensure representation for all.

James River Writers’ efforts allow them to reach a wide com munity through partnerships and programs online and off, from writing contests and shows to poetry slams and more. This diversity of choice is key to Dr. Robinson’s vision for the group — “No limits. No boundaries. All are welcomed.”

“I want to create spaces where people can experience freedom in writing and not pigeonhole others or themselves to believe being a writer en compasses a limited number of genres,” Dr. Robinson says.

As with many organizations, James River Writers’ efforts were stymied by COVID-19, and the initial wave of the pandemic led Dr. Robinson and other lead ers to employ online methods for programming and support as the group faced a decline in membership throughout the early months.

While James River Writ ers has regained some of its members in the years since, Dr. Robinson believes the im pact of the pandemic has had deeper effects on local writers in general, and James River Writers specifically. She sees a change in the tastes and needs of the community that they are still exploring and trying to address.

“It’s fabulous to be able to chat on Zoom with people from California, Texas, and Minnesota,” Dr. Robinson says. “But it’s challenging to antici pate how to best continue as a community and what funding opportunities will support our programs.”

Regardless of the pan demic’s impact, Dr. Robinson is enthusiastic when it comes

to James River Writers’ future. The group’s 20th anniversary conference is coming soon, with a large suite of guests and programs for attendees she and other members are excited to have as part of the event. She also plans to take some time off on her own and rest, given the many roles and responsibilities she juggles in her life.

For writers just starting out, Dr. Robinson has plenty of advice, from not obsessing too much with the end product, to the importance that writing has for getting projects off the ground. She also stresses the importance of building rela tionships within the literary community, and her journey is a testament to how valuable those connections can be.

“Being a writer can be lonely but being connected to a literary community inspires you to see the many opportunities ahead, some you may not have even considered.”

Meet a literary leader for Richmond area writers and this week’s Personality, DaNika Neblett Robinson:

Volunteer position: Board chair, James River Writers.

Occupation: Chief business officer, Virginia Common wealth University School of Pharmacy.

Date and place of birth: March 29 in Richmond.

Where I live now: Chester field.

Education: Doctorate in educa tion; master’s in public admin istration, bachelor’s in religious studies, bachelor’s in business administration.

Family: Married with two biological children, four bonus children, and one son-in-love.

James River Writers (JRW) is: Community!

When and why founded: JRW was established in 2002 by three co-founders: David L. Robbins, Dean King and Phaedra Hise. They saw the need to support the growth of the region’s literary community.

Basically, their focus was the James River Writers Confer ence, which was first held in October 2003. They believed Richmond had enough talent that if they built something for writers, writers would come together. And they were right.

So many talented writers from the Richmond area attend the annual conference.

The 20th annual James River Writers 2022 Conference is Oct. 7- 9.

For details, visit https:// jamesriverwriters.org/confer ence2022/

How and why I became in volved: In 2015, my writing mentor, Stacy Hawkins Adams, suggested that I attend events sponsored by JRW, particularly their annual conference. At

that conference, my eyes were opened to a new world that fed my soul. Being a part of a writing community allowed me to see one of my dreams of becoming a published author come true. I was able to pitch my book idea to an agent as well as learn writing tips that brought my characters to life. Most importantly, I was able to connect with a speaker/attendee who I eventually hired to edit my novella, “The Metamorphic Journey.”

Why I accepted board chair position: I am a leader who loves to use my administrative experience to enhance organi zations that I am a member of. Also, I earned a nonprofit management certificate from the L. Douglas Wilder School of Government and Public Af fairs at Virginia Commonwealth University and use that knowl edge as I work with the James River Writers’ staff to build a flourishing organization.

Number one goal as board chair: To support the writing community in innovative and creative ways. I want to cre ate spaces where people can experience freedom in writing and not pigeonhole others or themselves to believe being a writer encompasses a limited number of genres. Or that they become a writer when society says they are a writer, after reaching some manmade pin nacle of success.

Strategy for achieving goals: I work with the staff to inspire them to create programs where writers of all backgrounds can see themselves represented. Young writers. Seasoned writ ers. Poets. Academic writers. People of color writers. Speech writers. Published writers. Un published writers. LGBTQIA+ writers. Indigenous Peoples writers. No limits. No boundar ies. All are welcomed.

Most important thing we have done since we were founded: Built an organization of 500 members—that really says community! Our membership

dropped with the start of the pandemic, but it’s steadily climbing, and we have 500 members in our sights. We’ll be there again soon!

Biggest hurdle JRW has faced: Navigating the pandemic. Like most organizations, we’ve had to instantly learn how to put everything online while ensuring that our programming provides the support and inspiration that our literary com munity desires. People’s tastes and needs have changed, and in some ways, our members them selves don’t quite know what they want yet. It’s fabulous to be able to chat on Zoom with people from California, Texas and Minnesota. But it’s challeng ing to anticipate how to best continue as a community and what funding opportunities will support our programs.

JRW partners with: Anyone in the community who loves words! We judge an annual contest for the Virginia High School League, are sponsor ing a poetry slam with Rich mond’s Poet Laureate Roscoe Burnems, helped the Virginia State Library with a series of Book Breaks featuring Virginia authors, provided ideas and sup port for Richmond Magazine’s Writer in Residence series on Instagram and, additionally, work with them every year on a literary contest. We’re help ing the Poe Museum with an upcoming poetry contest and often work with the Visual Arts Center.

Youth writers’ involvement and JRW: We make our pro grams affordable for students. Our monthly Writing Show is only $5 and a student member ship is $25 instead of $45. The program that attracts the most young people is our conference, and we try to offer as many scholarships as possible. For several years we’ve partnered with Richmond Young Writers to showcase the young authors of their Picture Book Project at our conference. High School students get to attend the con ference and sign and sell their books, just like other authors!

Black and Brown writers and JRW: We believe in showcas ing our entire community on stage. Our conference has a diverse lineup of literary super stars, which you can see just by glancing at the conference home page. Also, we offer an nual conference scholarships, first to individuals from under served populations. I personally have looked for opportunities to support the attendance of HBCU students at our upcom ing conference. I want them to dream about the possibilities of being a writer just like I did. The annual conference will

ignite a passion within them to complete their next project. It did for me.

Practical advice for aspiring writers: Your project starts with one word. Don’t think too far into the future about the end product. There will be plenty of time to fine tune what you have written. Just start writ ing and the vision for the end product will come alive. Be ing a writer can be lonely but being connected to a literary community inspires you to see the many opportunities ahead, some you may not have even considered.

Ways to get involved: Show up! One of the easiest points of access is Writers Wednesday. It’s usually the second Wednes day of the month (Oct. 19 is an exception), often online, and always free. It’s a great way to network, ask questions, and relax with people who under stand writing. We also have a form on our website for people who want to volunteer, and our newsletter always has the latest on events and opportunities.

Upcoming events: The 20th annual conference! We’re so excited to have Beth Macy headlining and Stephanie Foo of NPR doing a plenary ses sion on harnessing trauma in your writing. We’ll have online master classes, so people any where in the world can learn from masters like Ryka Aoki and Amina Gautier. Plus, we’ll have a free poetry reading in person at the Visual Arts Center featuring Nick George, Michel ande Ridoré, and Sheree Renée Thomas with Rosa Castellano moderating.

A perfect day for me is: Tak ing a moment to reflect while listening to the crashing waves of beach water.

What I am continuing to learn about myself during the pandemic: I need to take better care of my physical and emotional health.

Something about me that people may not know: I’m very shy and it takes a lot of energy for me to engage with people, but I enjoy it.

What inspires me to write: It’s therapy. All of my writing starts as a journal entry.

A quote that inspires me: “To thine own self be true” — Wil liam Shakespeare.

My friends describe me as: Inspiring.

At the top of my “to-do” list: Self-care. I plan to completely disconnect in December. My mind, body, and spirit are in desperate need of a time out.

Best late-night snack: No latenight snacks for me; it doesn’t agree with my stomach.

The best thing my parents ever taught me: Remain humble and show love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 from the King James

Bible reads, “And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.” This is what inspires me to give back to the com munity. My accomplishments don’t make me; sharing my resources is what makes me. Whether those resources are time, knowledge, or financial.

I am blessed to be a blessing. Maya Angelou stated, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you make them feel”. The only way people can feel genuinely seen or heard is that you con nect with them, the individual. That can only be accomplished through humbleness and love. I’m a living witness.

The person who influenced me the most: My children. I was 16 when I became pregnant with my son, and 21 when I gave birth to my daughter. My children inspired me to dream bigger because I never wanted my decisions as a young mother to disappoint them.

Besides, it was important for me to show them that dreams do come true. You don’t have to accept the label that society puts on you.

Most inspiring writer for me is: Any writer who can grab my attention in less than a minute and provide me takeaways that I can immediately apply to my life so that I can become a better version of myself.

Book that influenced me the most: To be honest, the only book that has influenced me is the Bible. I started as a Sunday School teacher at the age of nine. Studying the Bible regularly prepared me with the knowledge needed to teach others and lessons to live by. It serves as the foundation of my leadership style.

What I’m reading now: I am that person who reads multiple books at one time. Right now, I am reading:

• “Self-Care for Black Wom en: 150 Ways to Radically Ac cept & Prioritize Your Mind, Body, & Soul” by Oludara Adeeyo

• “Feeding the Soul (Because It’s My Business): Finding Our Way to Joy, Love, and Freedom” by Tabitha Brown

• “Just as I Am: A Memoir” by Cicely Tyson.

Next goal: Continue to em brace opportunities to rest. I’ve always engaged in mul tiple activities that feed my soul. My professional work, teaching tomorrow’s leaders, and serving in board posi tions all put a smile on my face but being intentional about resting, completely disconnecting has always been challenging for me and I want to do better. I no longer want to be a self-care hypocrite … one who encourages others to do it without ensuring I do it myself.

Happenings

2nd Street Festival canceled

Free Press report

The Richmond Free Press has been informed that the 34th 2nd Street Festival scheduled Oct. 1-2 is canceled. The popu lar annual event celebrates the history of Jackson Ward and its heyday as the heart and soul of the Black community.

“Like you all, I’m sure, we’ve been watching Hurricane Ian for days, hoping against hope that it would not be the massive and potentially deadly weather event that it clearly has become,” said Lisa Sims, in a Sept. 28 email message to Venture Richmond trustees that was provided to the Richmond Free Press. Ven ture Richmond is the Downtown booster group that produces the festival.

“While we are extremely lucky to

be a few states away from the serious issues Florida is facing, we also know that this weekend promises massive amounts of rainfall and potentially strong wind gusts for our area,” said Mrs. Sims.

“After consulting meteorologists, vendors, contractors, security, and other event planners, we’ve concluded to the best of our ability that the event, if held, would not be successful. We also must put the safety of our patrons, artists, vendors, contractors, and staff foremost, and the threat is simply too great.

“As you can imagine this has not been an easy decision for us. Our small but mighty staff, especially our events team, works for a year on this beloved community festival, and our patrons look forward to it every year. To say we’re

Rihanna to headline next Super Bowl halftime show

By Jake Coyle The Associated Press

NEW YORK

Rihanna will take center stage at February’s Super Bowl halftime show.

The singer, who declined to perform in the 2019 Super Bowl halftime show out of solidarity with Colin Kaep ernick, will headline the 2023 Super Bowl, the NFL announced Sunday along with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation and Apple Music. Rihanna posted an image on Instagram of an arm outstretched holding an NFL football.

“Rihanna is a generational talent, a woman of humble beginnings who has surpassed expectations at every turn,” said Jay-Z, whose Roc Nation is an executive producer of the show, in a statement. “A person born on the small island of Barbados who became one of the most prominent artists ever. Self-made in business and entertainment.”

The Super Bowl will take place at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Ariz., on Feb. 12. After years of Pepsi’s sponsor ship, the upcoming halftime show will be sponsored by Apple Music.

Rihanna earlier said she turned down a similar op portunity for the 2019 Super Bowl that was ultimately headlined by Maroon 5. At the time, many artists voiced sup port for Mr. Kaepernick, the former San Francisco 49ers quarterback who protested police brutality

“I couldn’t dare do that. For what?” Rihanna told Vogue in

2019. “Who gains from that? Not my people. I just couldn’t be a sellout. I couldn’t be an enabler. There’s things within that organization that I do not agree with at all, and I was not about to go and be of service to them in any way,” she said of the league.

Mr. Kaepernick accused the NFL of colluding to keep him out of the league in a case that was eventually settled in early 2019.

In 2019, the NFL partnered with Roc Nation (which man ages Rihanna) to help pick performers for the Super Bowl and strategize on the halftime show. The widely acclaimed 2022 halftime show featured Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg,

sorely disappointed is an understatement. I hope you understand and support our decision.”

This year’s show was to feature an array of performers, a hair fashion show, an antique car display, as well as activities for children and artist, merchandise and food vendors for the tens of thousands who were expected over the two days.

As its name indicates the festival would have taken over the once prominent com mercial area on 2nd Street north of Broad and spill into side blocks.

Hip-hop pioneer Grandmaster Flash was to lead the festivities, along with Ban Caribe, the jazzy Marvin Taylor Experience, the line dance prince Carlos Viera and the Johnny Lee Long Band, among others.

Miss VSU adds title of Miss HBCU

Free Press staff report

Joy Watson, Miss Virginia State University, is now the queen of the historically Black colleges and universities.

Ms. Watson was named Miss HBCU on Saturday at the National Black College Alumni Hall of Fame Foundation’s annual event in Atlanta.

Ms. Watson, who will graduate in May with a degree in mechanical engineering technology with a minor in dance, was elected as the 94th Miss VSU in April in a vote of the student body.

Virginia Museum of History & Culture hosts wine festival

Wine lovers can celebrate Virginia Wine Month at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture’s second annual Virginia Vines wine festival Saturday, Oct. 15, from 6 to 9 p.m. at the Virginia Museum of History & Culture, 428 N Arthur Ashe Blvd.

Early bird tickets will be sold through Oct. 1.

This year’s event will feature wine selections from some of Virginia’s best wineries and vineyards, live jazz from the Wel don Hill band, food trucks, and after-hour access to museum galleries — including VMHC’s newest exhibit which focuses on the history of brewing, distilling, and fermenting in Virginia, “Cheers, Virginia!”

Jordan Strauss/Associated Press file photo Rihanna, shown at an event for her lingerie line Savage X Fenty in Los Angeles last year, is to star in the Super Bowl halftime.

Eminem, Kendrick Lamar and Mary J. Blige.

With sales of more than 250 million records world wide, Rihanna ranks as one of the best-selling female artists ever. Her last album was 2016′s “Anti.” Rihanna

last performed publicly at the Grammy Awards in 2018.

In the years since, Rihanna has occasionally teased her music return. Earlier this year, she had her first child with the rapper ASAP Rocky.

UR hopes to eliminate campus stigmas about mental health

Free Press staff report

The University of Rich mond is joining the fight to improve mental health outreach and eliminate its stigma on college campuses, through a new partnership with Hilinski’s Hope Foundation ahead of its third annual College Football Mental Health Week.

The partnership was an nounced Monday, with UR’s involvement starting Oct. 1 and ending Oct. 8. UR joins over 115 colleges in the United States that have partnered with Hilinski’s Hope, a foundation started by Kym and Mark Hilinski in honor of their son, Tyler, a former Washington State University quarterback,

who died by suicide.

“We are incredibly honored that over 115 schools nation wide will be participating in this year’s mental health week to fight stigma and increase resources on campuses,” said Kym Hilinski, co-founder of Hilinski’s Hope, in a statement.

“While conversations around mental illness can be tough and at times uncomfortable, it is absolutely critical for the well-being of our student athletes.”

As part of College Football Mental Health Week, UR plans to use at least one of Hilinski’s Hope’s programming options, from adding lime green ribbons to all their players’ helmets to honor those lost or suffering

in silence.

UR also will encourage solidarity among students, alumni, parents and fans or take an internal assessment to see how well the college is ad dressing mental health in honor of those lost to or suffering from mental health issues as part of this partnership.

“College Football Mental Health Week is an incredible way to destigmatize and sup port student-athlete mental health,” said Rachel Turk, UR’s psychologist for athletics. “Every student-athlete should know that they are important and they are not alone.”

More information is avail able at www.hilinskishope.org/ cfb-mental-health-week.

Bands across the Commonwealth will show their skills

Midlothian High School will be the center of Virginia’s marching band community this Saturday, Oct. 1, during the 15th Annual Showcase of Bands.

The Midlothian High School Trojan Band and Steve Corns at RSM will co-host the showcase, where bands from across the state will compete by performing their field

SICKLE

shows, celebrating their skills and schools.

Midlothian High is at 401 Charter Colony Parkway.

Bands scheduled to participate in the event include Appomattox, Broadway, Cosby, Cumberland, Glen Allen, Gooch land, Hermitage, Nottoway, Prince Edward County, Prince George and Powhatan high

schools.

The gates at Midlothian High will open to the public at 3 p.m. Attendee admission costs $10 for those age 13 and older, $5 for ages 5 to 12 and free for ages 4 and under.

For more information, visit www. MidloBand.org/Showcase, or call (804) 301-1469.

Although the modern era of Virginia winemaking is less than 40 years old, winemaking was listed among the possible revenue generating industries considered by the settlers at Jamestown. In 1611, Virginia Governor Thomas Dale established a 3-acre vineyard to test native grapes such as scuppernong (muscadine) and Catawba. In 1619, the House of Burgesses passed “Acte 12” requiring every male householder to plant 10 vines of European grapes for making wine, although the European vines brought to Virginia ultimately failed to grow.

Today the state is one of the top five wine-producing regions in the country with more than 300 wineries. From the rocky mountain slopes to sandy waterfront shores, Virginia’s five geographic regions support more than 28 varieties of grapes on over 4,000 acres.

For more information about Virginia Vines or to purchase tickets, visit VirginiaHistory.org/events

Gov. Youngkin recognizes October as Virginia Wine Month

Gov. Glenn Youngkin invites Virginia wine lovers from across the Commonwealth and the U.S. to celebrate Virginia Wine Month. October signals the peak of harvest for more than 300 wineries and vineyards as the next vintage of Virginia wine is underway.

“Our local Virginia wine industry continues to flourish and is an integral part of the Commonwealth’s rich agricultural and tourism sectors,” stated Gov. Youngkin in a news release. “Virginia Wine Month is a chance for Virginians and visitors alike to celebrate and show support for the hard-working farmers and winemakers responsible for bringing world-class wines into your glass.”

Virginia Wine Month is the nation’s oldest consecutive wine month and attracts mil lions of tourists to the region. Consistently ranked within the top 10 wine regions in the U.S, Virginia Wine generates an estimated $1.73 billion in economic impact and over 10,400 jobs for the Commonwealth, according to a recent study.

This Virginia Wine Month features a limited edition wine release of Cornus Virginicus, a special collaboration between the First Lady of Virginia Suzanne S. Youngkin and Barboursville Vineyards. The wine was crafted in celebration of Virginia agri culture and will include a donation to Virginia 4-H and Virginia Future armers of America. To learn more, visit virginiawine. org/pages/cv.

For interviews and more information about Virginia Wine Month, please contact Annette Boyd at 804-402-1896 or annette. boyd@virginiawine.org

They need specific blood types that match their own to minimize the risks of repeated transfusions.

African American blood donations are best for these patients.

Rudy McCollum

Gov. Youngkin

Directed by DeMone Seraphin East Coast Regional Premiere

off its Broadway run!

THEATRE Downtown

A

Starring Cynthia F. Carter, C. Kelly Wright, and Desirée Roots!

BY DOUGLAS LYONSBY DOUGLAS LYONS

to help

who need

appointment to donate.

Happenings

Fall’s triple treats

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

It was mindfulness mixed with music and pride last weekend in the state’s capital. The RVA East End Festival, VA Pride Fest and Project Yoga Richmond were triple treats throughout Richmond Sept. 24-25, offering loads of energy and excitement for audiences that stretched from Henry L. Marsh Elementary School in the East End to Brown’s Island Downtown by the river.

At least one of the events, the VA PrideFest, had been felled by the COVID-19 pandemic, but was fueled this year by a star lineup that included Bounce Rapper Big Freedia and Leikeli47

and Rose’ from “RuPaul’s Drag Race.” The event also spotlighted local talent as did the East End Festival, which featured local professionals including members of the Richmond Symphony.

With plenty of mats and meditation, Project Yoga Richmond had its last “Saturday Salutation” Sept. 24 at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. The final class is Sept. 30.

No doubt we all agree that, no matter where you were the first fall weekend in Richmond, there was no shortage of things to do, people to see and fun to be had. Fall in!

Family fun at State Fair

Photos by Ellis Henderson II

The State Fair of Virginia kicked off Sept. 23 at Meadow Event Park in Doswell. Fairgoers from throughout the Commonwealth, and as far away as New Orleans and other major cities, enjoyed activities focusing on agriculture, forestry and fun. Thaddeus Smith and his family, top left, drove from Newport News on Tuesday to spend the afternoon at the fair. Anicia King and family, also from Newport News, grabbed early dinner from one of the fair’s food vendors. Animal competitions, creative art exhibits and culinary contests are among several events that will continue at the fair until it ends Oct. 2.

Greening project at South Side church designed to reduce pollution

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Nearly 50 trees are now growing in a portion of the parking lot of Branch’s Baptist Church, 3400 Broad rock Blvd. in South Side.

A historic church that traces its roots to 1814, Branch’s undertook the groundbreaking effort to replace asphalt and concrete with trees as a partner in the “Greening Southside richmond Project.” The Chesapeake Bay Foundation initi ated the project with financial support from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

The purpose of the overall project, according to the Chesapeake Bay Foundation is to reduce pollution and cool down the area. The work at the church represents one of the first and largest demonstrations of the greening project.

As initially reported in the online rVA Hub, the church worked with the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and its partners to remove 22,700 square feet of hard covering. The soil then was compacted. The soil that emerged was enriched over several months, with church volunteers working with professionals to plant the trees.

The planting space included 14,400 square feet of formerly unused asphalt for parking and 5,000 square feet previously occupied by a deteriorated basketball court, the foundation

reported.

The remaining 3,300 square feet was developed within the well-used portion of the parking lot by removing the concrete barriers in front of spaces, the foundation noted.

The new plantings, the foundation stated, features a mix of trees, including black gums, Sweetbay magnolias, maples, oaks, pines, river birch and service berries. The river birch replaced the concrete barriers in the parking lot.

Fourth Baptist Church minister says he will resign

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Dr. William E. Jackson Sr. plans to step down as pastor of historic Fourth Baptist Church in Church Hill.

Dr. Jackson announced his resignation dur ing Sunday services and told the congregation that he expected to depart in 30 days.

His decision to leave the pulpit after more than four years appears to have been prompted by a Sept. 19 congregational vote that rejected his proposal to remove trustees and the Finance Committee that opposed some of his initiatives, including incorporating the church.

Supervised by a court-appointed commissioner, the final tally showed 77 percent of the 171 participants voted against Dr. Jackson’s plan.

As of Monday, the trustees, who would play a key role in the search for a replacement, were still awaiting a formal letter of resignation from the church’s ninth pastor since its founding in 1859 before the Civil War. Dr. Jackson began his tenure on Aug. 1, 2018.

Episcopal Diocese of Chicago’s first Black female bishop takes office

By Emily McFarlan Miller Religion News Service

LoMBArD, Ill.

Everyone would have under stood if Bishop Paula E. Clark had stepped away from her call to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago, said her fellow bishop, Mariann Edgar Budde of Washington, D.C.

Just weeks before she was set to take office in April 2021, Bishop Clark experienced a brain bleed while exercising. Surgery followed, postponing her conse cration to June, then to August, then indefinitely as she worked through speech, physical and occupational therapies.

As Bishop Clark regained her health, her husband, Andrew McLean, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma and died in November.

“Paula never once wavered, not once,” said Bishop Budde in a sermon at the worship service celebrating Clark’s ordination and consecration as bishop on Saturday, Sept. 17, at the Westin Chicago Lombard Hotel in this Chicago suburb.

“Now Paula knows how to let go when that’s what’s best, but she never let go of you, Diocese of Chicago, and she never let go of the call that God placed on her heart and yours.”

Bishop Clark is the first female and first Black bishop to lead the Chicago diocese.

The Sunday after her conse cration, she took her seat in the chair, called a cathedra, symbolic of her position, at a worship service at St. James Cathedral in Chicago.

“The process of confirming a new Bishop in the Diocese of

Chicago has been long, challeng ing, sometimes heartbreaking, but always guided by God,” Bishop Clark wrote in a letter of welcome to those who attended her ordination.

“I would like to thank the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago for your steadfast loyalty and faith. You have believed in me, prayed for, comforted, and encouraged me even through dif ficult times. You have held fast to your faith and showed me what God-centered leadership really is. Most of all, you have kept the faith and overcome, despite repeated setbacks.”

Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, head of the Episcopal Church, served as chief conse crating bishop during the ordina tion service.

Bishop Curry and the rev.

Anne B. Jolly, president of the Diocese of Chicago’s standing committee, had said repeatedly they expected Bishop Clark to eventually serve as bishop.

Bishop Budde never doubted it, either, she said.

“Being in the presence of Paula Clark and watching her in action is like taking a master class in Christian leadership. That was true before all that transpired in the last 18 months, and it is even more so now,” Bishop Budde said in her sermon.

A native of Washington, D.C., Bishop Clark previously served as canon to the ordinary and chief of staff under Bishop Budde in the Diocese of Washington. She pursued the priesthood after the death of her mother, who

did not approve of women’s ordination.

But the Diocese of Chicago, Bishop Clark said after her elec tion, “really captured my heart.” The diocese includes 122 con gregations and more than 31,000 baptized members in northern and west-central Illinois.

Bishopo Clark succeeds Bishop Jeffrey D. Lee, who was unable to attend Saturday’s service.

But Bishop Lee recalled Bishopo Clark’s election in December in a statement on the diocese website, saying, “Even as we peered through our Zoom screens at one another, navigating the unfamiliar territory of a virtual bishop election, your sense that she was called to serve with you,

that the Holy Spirit was drawing you together, was palpable. It was a joyful occasion.”

Saturday’s service also was full of joy — a quality Bishop Clark brings to everything she does, Bishop Budde said.

The Diamano Dancers and Drummers performed a West African dance called lamba as they processed into the service alongside Episcopal, ecumeni cal and interfaith clergy from across the Chicago diocese and beyond.

More than 20 clergy followed Bishop Clark from Washing ton, D.C., where she is “much beloved,” said Canon AnneMarie Jeffery of the Diocese of Washington.

About 125 members of the Union of Black Episcopalians had come from across the country the night before the ordination for a reception to revel in the church’s celebration of people of color. Even more had ar

rived Saturday morning, said the Very rev. Kim L. Coleman, president of the Union of Black Episcopalians.

They wanted to show a “tan gible representation of our love” for the new bishop as she leads the diocese, where, Coleman pointed out, the Union of Black Episcopalians’ first president, the rt. rev. Quintin Ebenezer Primo, Jr., once served as suf fragan bishop.

“She (Bishop Clark) over came and is an example for us, so it’s a very proud moment,” rev. Coleman said.

Many clergy danced and clapped as they processed, their smiles clear even under face masks.

Moore Street Missionary Baptist Church

Remembering the Past and Reimagining the Future; From Generation to Generation

Dr. Jackson

Emily McFarlan Miller/Religion News Service

Bishop Paula Clark smiles after her ordination Sept. 17 as the first female and first Black bishop to lead the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago.

Kenny Fletcher Photo

Members of Branch’s Baptist Church help plant a tree on the church property in 2018.

Highland Springs High School’s induction ceremony to honor athletes

By Fred Jeter

Highland Springs High School will honor its Class of 2022 Wall of Fame inductees Oct. 6-7. The event is tied around a home football game against Patrick Henry High School.

The induction banquet will be Oct. 6 at Four Points by Sheraton on Laburnum Avenue. Inductees will be honored again at halftime of the Oct. 7 football game.

The Class of ’22 honorees include: Joseph Bryant (wrestling), Joseph Ellison (football and track), Unithia Banks McGruder

Sex abuse allegations spread against cheerleading coaches

By James Pollard The Associated Press

Sprawling allegations of abuse against cheer leaders reached Tennessee on Monday in a case that escalates the accusations facing some of the sport’s top institutions.

An adult coach sexually assaulted teenage boys at Premier Athletics, according to alle gations in a federal lawsuit filed in Memphis that is similar to a previous complaint against Rockstar Cheer in South Carolina.

In both cases, attorneys said leaders at Varsity Spirit, which runs competitions, and the U.S. All Star Federation, the country’s cheerlead ing governing body, failed to provide a safe environment for athletes.

The lawsuit, brought anonymously by two teenage boys and one boy’s mother, alleges that a Premier Athletics coach sent nude pictures and masturbation videos and instigated nonconsen sual sexual acts.

The coach has not been charged, and The Associated Press is not naming him. Varsity and USASF did not immediately respond to email requests seeking comment.

In a statement to the AP, Premier Athletics Knoxville West said it was “inaccurately impli cated” in the lawsuit, in which the majority of the allegations are said to have occurred before current ownership purchased any gyms.

In the statement, Premier Athletics said it heard June 26 from an athlete who reported receiving inappropriate photos from the coach. According to the statement, Premier suspended the coach and immediately made a report to local law enforcement and USASF, neither of whom substantiated the complaint. Premier fired the coach, according to the statement.

Premier said it heard Sept. 18 from one athlete

Continued from previous page

creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” JANICE WHITAKER, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” ALBERT STEW ART ARCHER, JR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” JOHN SAMUEL PAGE, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” ROSALIE WILSON, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” LILLIAN PAGE HARRIS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” JOYCE H. SMITH, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” LAKEITA SMITH WALLER, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” FRANCELLA H. COLEMAN, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” MARGIE PAGE THOMPSON a/k/a MARGIE

FRANCES THOMPSON, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” EMMETT THOMPSON, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,”

ESTHER PAGE WALLER, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,”

BERNARD C. WALLER, SR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” BERNARD C. WALLER, JR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,”

ELVIRA LUMPKIN, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,”

ARTHUR LUMPKIN, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,”

BENJAMIN LUMPKIN, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as

“Parties Unknown,”

(basketball), Cliff Stone (golf), Gary Frank (coach), Lamont Folsom (track).

Also, Jamar Abrams (basketball), Brandon Rozzell (bas ketball), Jay Threatt (basketball), Antoine Hopkins (football) and Jarvis Threatt (basketball).

that another athlete had a “physical relationship” with the coach. After reporting that allegation to local law enforcement and USASF, Premier said, it did not contact the alleged victim’s family to avoid any accusations of interfering with an investigation.

Premier Athletics received reports in late May or June, but the coach continued to access the gym as recently as this month, according to the boys in the lawsuit.

Even after USASF added the coach to its ineligible list, the boys allege, he continued to participate in private lessons with minors on the gym’s premises. In a July message, the coach told one of the plaintiffs that the gym manager told him he would not be fired, according to the boys in the lawsuit.

Also in July, USASF sent the coach a report notifying him of the allegations. That same week, the boys allege in the lawsuit, the coach worked at camps run by the Universal Cheerleaders Association, which was established by Varsity founder Jeff Webb, and remained a Varsity representative.

The boys stated in their lawsuit that USASF and Varsity endangered athletes by failing to re port the misconduct to local law enforcement.

At a news conference Tuesday, the plaintiffs’ lawyers said that “insular” systems within the cheer industry make it difficult for athletes to report misconduct. These institutions, the lawyers said, have set up an intentionally convoluted process. Lawyers noted that local gyms must become USASF members to participate in Varsity competitions.

“Varsity and the companies that it empowers have an endowment that is funded on the backs of these athletes,” attorney Jessica Fickling said. “The athletes and their families pay copious amounts of money to ensure that this sport

Attorney Alexandra Benevento, center, speaks with reporters Tuesday during a news conference announcing a cheerleader abuse lawsuit filed in Tennessee. continues. And for that money they are given a promise that they are going to be safe, that the environments that they cheer in, the gyms and competitions, will be safe. And yet, those environments are ill-equipped to handle these kinds of allegations.”

Lawyers with the Strom Law Firm said Tuesday they are aware of other potential vic tims and seek to expedite this case. Attorney Alexandra Benevento said the allegations are part of a greater “culture of oversexualization in cheer.”

Attorney Bakari Sellers also said he prepared

“This is not just something that happens in Greenville,” Sellers said. “This is not just something that happens in Knox County. This is something that’s happening all around the country.”

Adrian Sainz in Memphis contributed to this report.

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities

DORIS LUMPKIN, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” CANDACE L. HARRIS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” GRACE L. JOHNSON, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” ROBERT CLINTON LEWIS, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” JUANITA L. STRAUSS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” JAMES E. STRAUSS, SR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” JOYNETTE E. STRAUSS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” CLIFTON LUMPKIN, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” HERSCHEL PAGE, SR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” ANNIE KING PAGE, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,” HERSCHEL PAGE, JR., if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” MELVIN PAGE, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” ALICE “MISSY” PAGE LATHAN, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,”

FLOYD LATHAN, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,”

ALICE H. HARRIS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,”

HERSCHEL HARRIS, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” CHERYL HARRIS ADAMS, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-intitle as “Parties Unknown,”

(

MELVIN R. HILL, if he be living or if he be dead, his heirs, devisees, creditors, and successors-in-title as “Parties Unknown,” CORA THORNTON, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successorsin-title as “Parties Unknown” and MARIAN SMITH, if she be living or if she be dead, her heirs, devisees, creditors, and successorsin-title as “Parties Unknown,” Defendants. CL22-4998

ORDER OF PUBLICATION

The object of this suit is to approve the partition and/ or sale of a parcel of land located in Henrico County, Virginia commonly known as two (2) acres - 1821 Verna Court, Henrico, Virginia 23228, Parcel ID No. 778-7609099 and close to one (1) additional acre of land owned by Alfred Page (collectively, the “Property”). It appearing that there may be additional heirs of the Property who are now unknown parties, it is hereby ORDERED that:

(1) Those unknown heirs appear before this Court on or before 10/14/22 at 10 a.m. after due publication of this Order of Publication (this “Order”) in the Clerk’s Office, Circuit Court, Henrico County, Virginia and do what it is necessary to protect their interest herein.

It appearing that by the affidavit filed according to the law that there are parties unknown, it is hereby ORDERED that:

1) The unknown parties of interest appear before this Court on or before 10/14/22 at 10 a.m. after due publication of this Order in the Clerk’s Office, Circuit Court, Henrico County, Virginia and do what is necessary to protect their interest. Should any such person with an interest fail to file a response as provided above, such failure shall not preclude the person of that interest from appearing on the date set for presenting evidence as to such person’s interest in the Property.

I ask for this:

Gerald W.S. Carter VSB No. 29792

HARRELL & CHAMBLISS LLP Eighth & Main Building 707 East Main Street, Suite 1000 Richmond, Virginia 23219 804.915.3224 (direct dial) 804.915.3244 (direct fax)

Email: gcarter@hclawfirm.com

Counsel for E. Michael Harris, Gertrude H. McDonnough and Sherwood A. Harris

BIDS

COUNTY OF HENRICO, VIRGINIA

CONSTRUCTION BID

ITB #22-2395-8JL

Replacing HVAC Units at Laburnum Elementary School Due: October 18, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

For additional information visit: https://henrico.us/ finance/divisions/purchasing/ solicitations/

COUNTY OF HENRICO, VIRGINIA CONSTRUCTION BID

ITB #22-2421-9JL Bryan Parkway & Bloomingdale Area (SH-02D, Part 2, Phase 1)

Sewer Rehabilitation Due: October 20, 2022 at 2:00 p.m.

For additional information visit: https://henrico.us/ finance/divisions/purchasing/ solicitations/

LICENSES

Play Makerz, LLC Trading as: Play Makerz LLC 1115 Hull Street Richmond, VA 23234

The above establishment is applying to the V IRGINIA A LCOHOLIC B EVERAGE C ONTROL (ABC)

AUTHORITY for a mixed beverage license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

Play Makerz LLC, owner

Date notice posted at establishment: September 23, 2022

NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www. abc.virginia.gov or (800) 552-3200.

Red Lagoon, LLC Trading as: Red Lagoon 617 2nd Street Richmond, VA 23219-1311

The above establishment is applying to the V IRGINIA A LCOHOLIC B EVERAGE C ONTROL (ABC)

AUTHORITY for a Retail Restaurant Beer and Wine On and Off Premises Mixed Beverage license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

Jeffrey Hamlin, owner Date notice posted at establishment: September 26, 2022 NOTE: Objections to the issuance of this license must be submitted to ABC no later than 30 days from the publishing date of the first of two required newspaper legal notices. Objections should be registered at www. abc.virginia.gov or (800) 552-3200.

TRANSIT SYSTEM

GREATER RICHMOND TRANSIT COMPANY

PURCHASE OF TRANSIT SHELTERS, BENCHES AND TRASH CANS

Invitation For Bid

GRTC Transit System is seeking bids for Purchase of Transit Shelters, Benches and Trash Cans. Interested suppliers may download a copy of IFB 215-22-13 from

Jamel Harper at (804) 358-3871, Ext 345. Bids are due prior to 3:00 pm on October 13,

documents should be directed to:

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

www.richmondgov.com. EOE M/F/D/V

NewMarket Services Corporation seeks 1 Senior SAP BW Specialist to analyze how data processing & SAP warehousing can be NewMarket organization & analyze business & IT requirements, procedures, & problems. Position requires Bachelor’s degree in CompSci,

developing & designing IT Data Warehouses

Job located in Richmond, VA. Applicants should apply at Shawn.Boone@newmarket.com.

Technical Lead: Post based in Glen Allen, VA. Analyze, dsgn, dvlp, test, & implmnt biz apps using Informatica Data Qlty, Informatica PowerCenter. Dvlp Data Integration Pipelines using Python. Dvlp & maintain cmplx SQL queries, BTEQ scripts, procdrs & create data marts in Teradata. Utilize Erwin to dsgn Data Model & dvlp cmplx mapping sys. Dsgn & implmnt Automation framework using Python, Unix Shell Scripting & PowerShell. Prfrm requirement analysis, analyze user reqs, & enhance existing sys. Engage in complt S/w Dvlpmt Life Cycle (SDLC) & create & execute app architecture plans. Engage in data migration activities & create end-to-end dvlpmt strategies for onprem to IICS & Google Big Query solutions. Create Dashboards & Implmnt Biz Intel Rprting Solution using Tableau & BO, SSRS, & Crystal Rprts. Req Bachelor’s Deg or Equiv (will accept any combo of edu & exp determined equiv to a bachelor’s deg) in Comp Info Sys or Info Tech w/ two yrs of exp in the job offered. Job reqs trvl and/or relocation to var unanticipated client sites in the U.S. Mail resume to Global Sumi Technologies Inc., Attn: HR Department, 11549 Nuckols Road, Suite B, Glen Allen, VA – 23059

SUBSCRIBE

For your convenience, the Richmond

in

Richmond Free Press

Adrian Sainz/The Associated Press

documents this weekend for an unnamed federal agency. The lawsuit comes toward the end of a month that has disturbed families within the cheer industry after similar accusations from plaintiffs represented by Strom Law Firm against well-known coaches in South Carolina.

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