January 21 23, 2016 issue

Richmond Free Press © 2016 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 25 NO. 4

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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Report: Violent crime in Richmond down in 2015

JANUARY 21-23, 2016

Source: City Hall knew Adediran was managing church project

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

It was no secret at Richmond City Hall that city Public Works Director Emmanuel O. Adediran was doubling as project manager for a new $5.3 million sanctuary that First Baptist Church of South Richmond is building in Chesterfield County, the Free Press has learned.

According to a highly knowledgeable source, “everyone knew (Mr. Adediran) had been asked by the mayor to help with the church project.”

Mr. Adediran is a volunteer associate pastor at the church and one of at least six highranking city employees who is a member of First Baptist, where Mayor Dwight C. Jones is senior pastor.

The source spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized by the city to comment on the controversy concerning Mr. Adediran’s work for the church working at City Hall.

Despite allegations that he improperly did work for the church on city time, Mr.

Adediran actually had permission, the source insisted. While there apparently are no signed documents, Mr. Adediran followed protocol, the source said. In 2013, he verbally notified his superiors about his outside work on the church project and received permission to be involved with that development so long as it did not interfere with his city duties, according to the source.

At the time, Mr. Adediran’s city personnel evaluations rated him as conscientious and capable, and he had been promoted from his initial job as an operations manager to deputy director for general services, the source said.

He would be promoted to interim Public Works director and then department director after James A. Jackson, the for-

mer director, resigned in May 2015.

Mr. Jackson did not respond to Free Press requests for comment.

Mr. Adediran was counseled to avoid possible conflicts, such as driving a city car to the church site, the source said, but otherwise received no criticism for spending some time on the church development during city business hours. Email records show he sometimes used his city computer to communicate with companies working on the church site, according to City Auditor Umesh Dalal.

Some of those companies were found to have received city contracts, although no evidence has developed that this was more than a coincidence. However, Mr. Dalal determined that the church identified the companies by the same vendor numbers the city assigned to identify them.

Despite his double duty, Mr. Adediran “made sure that he got his work done. He stayed late and came in on weekends” to get assignments Please turn to A4

Mr. Adediran

Pulpit to politics, remembering Leonidas B. Young II

Family of fans Katrina Cheatham and her children, Camryn, 3, and Patrick, 5, enjoy the Freedom Classic basketball game last Sunday that pit Virginia Union University against rival Virginia State University at the Richmond Coliseum.

Please see story and more photos on A8 and B6.

By Joey Matthews

The Rev. Leonidas B. Young II rose from the pulpit of historic Fourth Baptist Church in the East End to the pinnacle of Richmond political power, serving as the city’s mayor from 1994 to 1996.

Elected to Richmond City Council representing the East End’s 7th District from 1992 to 1999, he was considered a rising political star by many at the time.

However, any aspirations he might have had for higher office evaporated when he was convicted of federal public corruption charges in February 1999.

Under suspicion for several years, he pleaded guilty to James Haskins/Richmond Free Press accepting money while mayor to promote the sale of city cemeteries to a private company, evading taxes by failing to report about $7,000 of illegal income on his federal taxes and obstructing justice by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press urging an ally to lie to meeting at City Hall. have worked 70 to 80 hours per week authorities about the cor- The Rev. Leonidas B. Young II ruption. He also admitted speaks to his congregation at New Ms. Drewry is exiting after 18 months crafting the budget proposal.

Kingdom Christian Ministries on in the position. She was the Prince George Mr. Westbay said his office is “under- to embezzling inheritance North Side in December 2014. school system’s budget chief for 14 years staffed,” even with Ms. Drewry in place. money from an elderly prior to coming to Richmond.

He said he would seek to quickly hire her couple in his church to help pay for extramarital affairs.

The day his trial was to begin, he pleaded guilty. Earlier that Ralph Westbay, assistant superintendent replacement and add a senior financial same morning, he resigned from City Council and his church of financial services for RPS, called her analyst in a newly created position to help soon booted him out as pastor. impending departure a “huge” loss, “be- fill the void.

He served about 18 months in a federal prison in South cause she’s the right arm … She’s the one In its budget, RPS is seeking about Carolina. who’s put the bulk of this work together $18 million more than the current budget After his release, he returned to his Richmond roots to found and put this budget together.” contains, a request that would increase He estimated that he, Ms. Drewry and Please turn to A4 two other analysts in the finance office Please turn to A4

Richmond Public Schools losing budget director during critical season

By Joey Matthews

Richmond Public Schools is losing one of its chief budget architects as the School Board and Superintendent Dana T. Bedden prepare to kick off their budget negotiations for fiscal year 2017 with Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Richmond City Council.

Betsy Drewry, RPS director of budget and planning, will leave her position Friday, Feb. 5, to become director of budget and finance for Prince George County, she told the Free Press at Monday’s School Board

Few African-Americans weigh in on Boulevard site

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Citizen comment is being welcomed as Richmond begins its push to create a master plan and find a private developer to transform 60 acres of municipal property on North Boulevard into apartments, offices and retail outlets that will provide a gush of tax revenue for city coffers.

“We want to hear from each of you,” Mayor Dwight C. Jones said Tuesday before leading a tour of the site long noted as the home of the Arthur Ashe Jr. Athletic Center, The Diamond baseball stadium, a soccer stadium and track, city vehicle repair shops and other operations of Public Works.

He urged people to express themselves by emailing Blvd.comments@Richmondgov.com. He also called on Richmond residents to participate in a survey the city will release soon or attend one or more of the six public meetings his administration plans to hold, the first of which was Tuesday.

“Your vision, added to the ground work that we’ve been preparing, will allow the Richmond community to get the maximum benefit from this site,” Mayor Jones said, in insisting that the process of deciding the future of the property “needs to be open” with “meaningful public input” before any decisions are made.

The city is investing heavily to ready the site. By its own estimate, nearly $20 million is being invested to clear out the old city repair shops — and it will take eight to 10 years to repay that cost from a successful development.

And it could take 15 to 20 years to fully develop the site, according to the city’s most recent estimate. If all goes well, the city would receive $8 million a year in new revenue from the site when the development is done, according to projections.

The property still is not fully cleared of the Public Works’ opera-

Michael Wallace/City of Richmond

Participants weigh in on Boulevard redevelopment at first public meeting Tuesday. Location: Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles headquarters.

tions. According to the administration, the city is pumping $8 million in new buildings on South Side to relocate the city’s radio, traffic signal and sign shop and the Public Works operations center.

One big question to be resolved is whether The Diamond — and the Richmond Flying Squirrels baseball team — will still have a home.

At Tuesday night’s public meeting, the mayor’s staff got an earful from an almost completely white crowd of about 100 people about the need to keep baseball at the site.

However, the mayor and his administration, based on several economic studies, want the stadium that now occupies prime land to go. His plan to move the stadium to Shockoe Bottom collapsed nearly two years ago.

The city acknowledges that its economic studies project that a baseball stadium could be located on the site.

If there is to be a stadium, “it would have to be entirely privately

financed,” said Lee Downey, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer for economic development. He said that’s the only way for the city to maximize its tax earnings from the site — and new revenue is a big part of what the Boulevard development effort is all about, along with boosting shopping options.

Another big question is what to do about the 4-acre Ashe Center, the Richmond school system’s aging combination gym and convocation center. During the tour, Mayor Jones indicated that the center, too, needs to go in order to maximize the site’s value. But he said he doesn’t know where money would come from to replace it at another site.

Meanwhile, one odd element that could remain at the Boulevard site is the Sports Backers Stadium, which occupies 7 acres in the middle of the site. Virginia Commonwealth University owns the property. At this point, the mayor said, the city essentially is not pushing for it to be relocated.

Bus Rapid Transit

Can Richmond afford to maintain proposed expensive bus service?

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Can Richmond afford to operate the proposed Bus Rapid Transit system that promises speedier travel and is described as the biggest revamp in public bus service in the city in at least 50 years?

That question now hovers over Richmond City Council, whose nine members are scheduled to decide Monday, Jan. 25, whether to give GRTC the green light to move the $49 million project from the drawing board to construction reality.

While the council earlier endorsed the project and set the planning for it in mo-

tion, no one is certain — given the cost — whether at least five council members are prepared to push the project forward at a time when the city is strapped for money to overhaul crumbling schools and deal with Mr. Burton other pressing infrastructure and service needs.

Building BRT is not the problem. The money is in hand to develop the system’s 14 stations, to overhaul traffic lights and

to buy buses. That includes $41 million in federal and state grants, plus the city’s share of $7.6 million and $400,000 Henrico County is to contribute.

What is not in hand — and may Mr. Marcus not be — is the money Richmond would need to keep the planned system running 18 hours a day on a 7.6-mile Please turn to A4

Richmond Free Press

A2 January 21-23, 2016

Local News

Congressional district change may cost city $60,000-plus Call it an unexpected expense.

Richmond might have to cough up between $60,000 and $80,000 to notify city voters that they have been moved from the 3rd Congressional District to the 4th Congressional District.

And that cost could be doubled if the U.S. Supreme Court overturns a lower court decision later this year and returns the city to the 3rd Congressional District.

The notification expense is one of the little-noticed consequences of a three-judge panel’s decision earlier this month to revamp the boundaries of the 3rd District after finding the district was illegally packed with black voters.

Under the old map in place since 2011, the city was split between the 3rd and 7th congressional districts. Now the entire city is to be in the 4th District under the map the three judges approved earlier this month.

That means Richmond’s 130,000 registered voters must receive an official notice of the change either from the local voter registrar’s office or the state Board of Elections.

What is known is that the notification would need to be done in March, just after the completion of the presidential primary and amid preparations for party primaries for the 2016 congressional elections.

It’s not just the cost of postage, which could run up to 49 cents per notice, but also the expense of printing and preparing the notices for mailing.

Richmond is not alone. Every locality that has voters whose congressional district has been changed is facing the notification issue. The court revamped a total of five congressional districts, including the 1st and 2nd along with the 3rd, 4th and 7th.

However, Richmond will be among those facing the biggest expense because it has one of the largest numbers of voters to be notified.

If the state does not pick up the cost, each locality would need to, election officials have said, and it likely would take an extra appropriation as the decision was handed down six months after the 2015-16 budgets were approved.

Edgardo Cortes, commissioner of the state Department of Elections, was not immediately available for comment about how the expense is to be handled. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

City Councilman Jonathan T. Baliles, left, Mayor Dwight C. Jones and members of the media check out one of the city’s police dogs during a tour of the new Richmond Police Canine Training & Community Complex. Location: 814 Forest Lawn Drive near John Marshall

Cityscape

Repaved areas of Chamberlayne Ave. uncover more defects

A repaved stretch of Chamberlayne Avenue already is falling apart, less than a year after being repaved for the world bike races held in Richmond last September. The problem pavement also undermines Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ claim that such paving for the races would last up to 10 years.

The seams in the new paving appear to be lifting or pulling apart on the stretch of Chamberlayne Avenue between the Interstate 95 bridge and Roberts Street on North Side. City workers already have filled a series of potholes on that stretch after the Free Press began raising questions.

In a November statement to City Council on the cost of hosting the races, Mayor Jones stated that of “approximately $2.96 million in (street paving) projects along race routes, approximately 90 percent ($2.66 million) were mill and overlay projects with an expected life of ten years.” Overall, 42.79 lane miles were repaved for the bike race, the report noted.

According to the city Department of Public Works, that stretch of Chamberlayne Avenue wasn’t reconstructed, but “was milled and overlaid,” the kind of work the mayor stated was to last up to a decade.

The department stated that the street would be reconstructed in areas where distress is detected.

The status of other streets repaved for the bike races is unknown. — JEREMY M. LAZARUS

Federal appeals court upholds $2M award Thousands of women who suffered injuries from a transvaginal mesh product that was implanted to resolve pelvic problems could benefit from a federal court decision.

A three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week upheld a jury’s award of $2 million to a woman who sued one of the manufacturers of the product, New Jersey-based C.R. Bard Inc. In an opinion written by Judge Roger L. Gregory, the panel rejected the company’s arguments for overturning the jury’s damage award.

The company appealed the August 2013 verdict of a federal jury in Charleston, W.Va., where 70,000 cases involving such products are being heard.

Judge Gregory In the first jury trial involving transvaginal mesh, the jury awarded Donna Cisson of Georgia $250,000 in compensatory damages and $1.75 million in punitive damages. The punitive damages are to be split with the state of Georgia.

U.S. District Judge Court Joseph R. Goodwin accepted the verdict and the jury’s finding that C.R. Bard’s Avaulta Plus product was defective and that the company failed to warn of the defect.

Judge Gregory’s opinion found no merit in the company’s claims that Judge Goodwin had committed reversible error in his decision.

The mesh devices are used to treat female pelvic disorders, most notably pelvic organ prolapse, a condition in which internal organs fall out of place due to the loss of supporting muscles.

The mesh is surgically implanted to provide replacement support.

— JEREMY M. LAZARUS

High School. Officials held a ribbon-cutting Jan. 14 at the new facility. Richmond built the new $1.18 million facility with a grant from the Virginia Attorney General’s Office following the settlement of a national Medicaid fraud case.

Boy Scouts previously rebuilt the outdoor exercise and training area that is used by police K9 units from Richmond, across the state and elsewhere.

WE PURSUE

A FUTURE INGENUITY

DRIVEN BY

When we look to science, we are inspired by its endless potential to solve pressing problems. That’s why Professor Despina Louca is researching

Correction Michael C. Milner, right, is challenging Thelma J. Hunt’s election as the first female president of the Old Dominion Branch Local 496 of the National Association of Letter Carriers. An incorrect photograph identified as Mr. Milner accompanied an article in the Jan. 14-16 edition of the Free Press about the union election and his efforts to overturn the results. The Free Press regrets the error.

Slices of life and scenes in Richmond

innovative applications for superconductors—materials that have the potential to alleviate our global transportation and energy challenges.

By reaching a deeper understanding of our physical world at the smallest scale, we are developing new solutions to some of the world’s largest issues.

Learn more at virginia.edu/pursuit Mr. Milner UNVA-153-03d_RichmondFreePress_Despina_MECH.indd 1

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Richmond Free Press

January 21-23, 2016

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Richmond Free Press

A4 January 21-23, 2016

News

Source: City Hall knew Adediran managed project Continued from A1

finished on time, the source said.

Mr. Adediran has been keeping mum, but concerns about his work on the church project during city business hours have raised questions about whether Mayor Jones or those who belong to his church failed to keep a firewall between their church membership and their work for the city.

There are also questions about whether Mayor Jones used his position to help get members of his church hired for city jobs or protected them when problems arose.

The mayor has insisted he has kept his two roles strictly separate since taking office in January 2009 and that Mayor city employees who belong to First Baptist were hired on merit, not because of their connection with him or the church.

In a brief interview Tuesday, the mayor declined to comment on whether he had asked Mr. Adediran to serve as project manager on the new sanctuary.

“I don’t discuss church business,” Mayor Jones said.

He said he also was unaware if Mr. Adediran had sought permission from his city job superiors to work on the church project. “He was not a direct report (to me) so I don’t know,” the mayor said.

The controversy over Mr. Adediran’s role began when Mr. Dalal issued a report earlier this month alleging Mr. Adediran spent 38 hours during city business hours managing the church project in the past 18 months.

In his report, Mr. Dalal did not mention whether Mr. Adediran had received permission.

“I did not see any evidence of that,” Mr. Dalal said Tuesday when asked.

In the wake of Mr. Dalal’s report, Selena

Cuffee-Glenn, the city’s chief administrative officer, in concert with Mayor Jones, required Mr. Adediran to give up 38 hours of vacation time as punishment “out of an abundance of caution.”

Mayor Jones indicated that the mere appearance of a conflict of interest required action, even if Mr. Adediran had done nothing wrong.

So far, Mr. Dalal appears to have conducted the only investigation. City Council, which under the City Charter is empowered to look into misconduct on the part of any city officer or employee, including the mayor, has taken no steps to do so.

Separately, Commonwealth’s Attorney Michael N. Herring also has notified Mr. Dalal that his office would not undertake an investigation.

Jones Mayor Jones sent a request late last week to Col. W. Steven Flaherty, director of the Virginia State Police, requesting that the State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation review the auditor’s findings in the Adediran case.

Mayor Jones said Tuesday that he made the request because the case “has been going in a million directions, and I wanted to bring in an independent third party to review the matter.”

He said that in making the request, he was not suggesting that Mr. Adediran or anyone else has acted illegally. However, if an investigation should ensue and should anything improper be found, “we’ll deal with that,” the mayor said.

However, questions quickly arose about how serious the mayor is about a probe.

Under state law, the State Police can respond to requests only from the governor and a few other officials, such as a commonwealth’s attorney. A mayor is not among the officials authorized to request investigative help from the State Police.

The mayor acknowledged as much Tuesday,

Joey Matthews/Richmond Free Press

Backed by more than a dozen pastors at a news conference Tuesday outside City Hall, the Rev. Michael Jones of Village of Faith Ministries in Henrico County outlines the group’s complaints that Richmond’s daily newspaper has been unfairly critical of the black church in its reporting of city Public Works Director Emmanuel O. Adediran performing work at Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ church on city time.

but he said he has been told “the request has been received. We’ll see what happens.”

As of the Free Press deadline Wednesday, the State Police had not yet responded.

Separately, more than a dozen AfricanAmerican pastors held a news conference Tuesday outside Richmond City Hall to criticize the reporting of the Richmond Times-Dispatch on the Adediran case.

The Rev. Michael Jones, pastor of Village of Faith Ministries in Henrico County, but no relation to the mayor, said after the news conference that the pastors believe the daily newspaper has published comments about Af-

rican-American churches “that have no basis” and that disparage such churches. He was not specific. The pastors also expressed concern about the newspaper’s request for the church affiliation of city employees.

Rev. Jones and others said their purpose was not to defend the mayor and his dual role as a preacher-politician, but to protect an important community institution.

The Rev. F. Todd Gray of Fifth Street Baptist Church, Dr. Rodney D. Waller of FirstAfrican Baptist Church and Rev. Jones organized the event.

Staff writer Joey Matthews contributed to this article.

Pulpit to politics, remembering Leonidas B. Young II Continued from A1

and pastor New Kingdom Christian Ministries, where his ministry aimed to lift others who, like him, had lost their way.

On his redemptive path, Rev. Young had his rights restored in 2012 by thenGov. Bob McDonnell. He then cast his hat in the political ring one final time last June in an unsuccessful bid for the Democratic nomination to represent Richmond in the House of Delegates.

Rev. Young, a powerful and inspiring orator, is being remembered by the community for his years of pastoral and public service, his precipitous fall from grace and his resurrection as a faith leader following his death at a Richmond hospital Saturday, Jan. 16, 2016.

He was surrounded by loved ones when he succumbed to cancer at age 62. He had been diagnosed with the disease in December.

A wake will be held from 6 to 8 p.m. Monday, Jan. 25, at New Kingdom Christian Ministries, 3200 Dill Ave., on North Side.

Family, friends and others will memorialize his life at his funeral at noon Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Fifth Baptist Church, 1415 W. Cary St., where he

was baptized and ordained.

Shocked by the news of his death, about 150 congregation members gathered Sunday at New Kingdom to honor Rev. Young’s memory.

The Rev. Chris Moore, an assistant pastor at the church, told the worshippers, “We know God is good” and that should remain the foremost thought as members “weep and mourn.”

Jerome Barley, a church elder, echoed Rev. Young’s message of forgiveness. “He made mistakes and God lifted him up and he grew from there,” he said.

Mary Manning, a church member, vowed that even in grief, “the church will carry on” Rev. Young’s mission and honor his memory.

In a Facebook post, Richmond gospel singer Cora Armstrong stated, “Lee was a very powerful, passionate, loving man of God. He believed in second chances and not casting judgment on others.

“If you ever visited his church, then you already knew you were walking into God’s hospital where he told his worshippers, ‘No perfect people were allowed.’ He once told me that ‘going through the struggle not only can help you rebound, but you can come back stronger.’ ’’

Others in the community also recalled Rev. Young with mostly fond thoughts.

“I was stunned when I first heard that Lee Young died,” U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, who served on City Council with Rev. Young and later as Richmond mayor and then governor, stated in an email to the Free Press. “He was a man of significant gifts, and I saw firsthand when he was mayor how much he could accomplish.

“I never understood why, with so much to offer, he pursued an improper path instead of continuing on an upward public service trajectory,” he added.

“But his efforts after his incarceration were notable and noble and he became a strong example of how to use a second chance to get better,” Sen. Kaine continued. “In doing this, he inspired others to believe there was a second chance for them. I’ll think of that as his legacy.”

The Rev. Earl Brown of Fifth Baptist Church spoke of Rev. Young’s decades-long connection with the church, where his father, Leonidas Young Sr., still serves as a deacon.

“We remained good friends during his time of conflict,” Rev. Brown said.

“I was with him last Thursday in the hospital.”

He recalled him as someone dedicated to helping the downtrodden.

“Many in his congregation were formerly incarcerated like he was and many others were trying to overcome drugs. He brought many of them to the light and helped many of them to be rehabbed.”

Asked what Rev. Young’s legacy would be, Rev. Brown said, “It will be of forgiveness and of restoration, to show what God can do.

“He made a mistake,” he added.

“We all have made mistakes and he recovered from it and he never stopped until the illness.”

Born in Richmond in 1953, Rev. Young earned a bachelor’s degree in sociology from Virginia Union University in 1978 and a master’s of divinity degree in 1982 from Drew University in Madison, N.J. Following in the steps of his grandfather and great-grandfather, he became a clergyman. He was ordained at Fifth Baptist in 1975. His first pastorate started that same year at Bethel Baptist Church in Gloucester County.

He moved in 1979 to pastor New Hope Baptist Church in East Orange, N.J., and returned to Richmond in 1990, when he was installed as the sixth pastor at Fourth Baptist Church

on P Street, which, at 156 years old, is the oldest African-American church in Church Hill.

Dr. Emory Berry, the church’s current pastor and eighth in its history, recalled Rev. Young as “a friend and mentor” and “someone who was a phenomenal preacher and did a great job of inspiring people, motivating them and challenging them to be a better human being. He was very approachable and personable.”

Dr. Berry recalled how he went to Rev. Young’s New Kingdom church to preach in 2012. Several members of Fourth Baptist accompanied him.

“There was a moment of reconciliation,” Dr. Berry said, “when he apologized for any hurt he had caused them. There were a lot of tears shed and there was a lot of forgiveness in that room. That spoke a lot about his integrity and character.”

Rev. Young is survived by his wife, Sanya Young; daughters Ariel Young and Erika Williams; a son, Leonidas Young III; his parents, Leonidas Young Sr. and Cora Bell Young; three sisters, Jean Gilmore, Carolyn Hughes and Lora Hack; and a host of other relatives and friends.

Staff writer Jeremy M. Lazarus contributed to this article.

Can Richmond afford to maintain expensive bus service?

Continued from A1

route between Rocketts Landing and the Shops at Willow Lawn. An estimated 3,500 people a day are expected to use the service, many of whom ride the Broad Street Route 6 bus.

As the BRT will run mostly through the city, largely on Broad Street and Main Street with a new BRT bus starting every 10 to 15 minutes, Richmond will be on the hook to make up any costs that fares and other subsidies do not cover.

So far, GRTC has not produced a projected operating budget for BRT or disclosed the potential amount Richmond might have to spend each year to prevent deficits. Transit officials said this week that the first estimate should be ready for council by Monday.

However, the RVA Coalition for Smart Transit, an alliance of 10 civic groups and the Richmond Branch NAACP, has suggested that Richmond should plan to spend between $2.5 million to $5 million extra a year on BRT — sopping up desperately needed money for education, public safety, parks, street paving and other city needs.

The city already is struggling to keep GRTC buses rolling. This year and next year, the council has approved keeping GRTC service going with a $12.9 million subsidy — nearly 25 percent of the transit company’s budget — amid complaints about minimal service on evenings and weekends.

But more money will be needed in the next five years to keep GRTC’s 23 regular routes and 11 express lines operating at existing levels, even before BRT is taken into account.

A hint of the fresh costs that Richmond taxpayers might have to absorb came Tuesday when GRTC met with East End community leaders at the Neighborhood Resource Center in Fulton to show off plans for improvements to service in the East End. Every day, according to a GRTC study, more than 5,000 riders from Church Hill and Fulton board a bus on one of the seven routes serving that area and then transfer to the existing Broad Street Route 6 to travel to other destinations.

During the meeting, GRTC showed off plans for tweaks to the existing lines and for adding three shuttles to provide East End riders with direct and quick connections to the BRT — connections that City Councilwomen Cynthia I. Newbille, 7th District, and Ellen F. Robertson, 6th District, have demanded if the project is to receive their support.

Garland Williams, GRTC director of planning and scheduling, said Richmond would need to put up $1.2 million to $2.4 million over its current GRTC subsidy in order to put a shuttle system to the BRT in place. That extra subsidy would be needed, he said, even though GRTC plans to save $650,000 with adjustments to the regular bus routes, such as having buses on some routes use the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Bridge and Leigh Street to enter and leave Downtown.

Councilwoman Newbille, who considers the shuttle service essential to make BRT work for her East End constituents, acknowledged she might face trouble with her colleagues in gaining that kind of additional funding during spring budget talks.

“That’s why I have asked GRTC and its partners to go back and see what other savings can be found,” she said.

Art Burton, a community organizer and founder and director of the nonprofit Kinfolks Community that seeks to expand opportunity for Mosby Court residents, is skeptical that additional money will be available for the shuttle service.

“If council votes for the BRT without first assuring there is money for the shuttles, they will never happen,” he said. He said East End residents who are dependent on GRTC would need to see firm commitments to provide the shuttle service to blunt NAACP opposition.

To Jonathan Marcus, chairman of the RVA Coalition for Smart Transit, the BRT has too many flaws.

“To build BRT the way it is drawn defies common sense,” he said. Instead of improving

public transit, he said BRT could sink it with its demand for new subsidies to operate even though “it will hardly serve many new riders.”

Attracting new riders will prove difficult, he said, because GRTC has made no provision for commuters at either end of the line to park their cars and take the BRT to jobs in Downtown or elsewhere.

“This the only BRT plan in the country that does not provide park-and-ride space,” he said.

A better idea, Mr. Marcus said, would be to increase the number of buses on Broad Street Route 6 and equip them with smart technology

to trip traffic lights from red to green to speed up service. The BRT buses will be designed to do. That way, he said, existing stop stops could continue to be used, and there would be no need to buy the planned oversize BRT buses that will remove street parking in Downtown and eastern portions of Main Street and require elaborate stations.

The bottom line, he said, “is GRTC and the city need to go back and design a real service that will meet the needs of the residents who rely on public transit” or who would use GRTC if reliable service exists in their area.

RPS losing budget director Continued from A1

the total budget to about $290 million if it is approved by City Council in its entirety.

Dr. Bedden originally sought about $26.5 million in additional spending, but that was pared back, Mr. Westbay told the board, because of an infusion of about $3.3 million from Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s proposed budget and by readjusting a plan to upgrade pay for most teachers and other school staff over two years instead of one.

Mr. Westbay asked board members Monday to submit their final individual budget requests to him by Thursday, Jan. 21, in order to complete the final budget proposal by Monday, Jan. 25, when the board is scheduled to vote on the final proposal.

The budget proposal then is to be delivered to Mayor Dwight C. Jones on Feb. 1, Mr. Westbay said, just days before Ms. Drewry’s departure.

The mayor is scheduled to introduce his budget to City Council on March 7. The council then will have the task of approving a final budget.

Also at the meeting, the board interviewed 10 people who are seeking to fill the 1st District School Board seat left vacant by Glen Sturtevant, who left the board this month after his election

in November to the state Senate.

The School Board is scheduled to hold a public hearing 6 p.m. Monday, Feb. 1, at City Hall to receive comments on the candidates, then select the new district representative Monday, Feb. 8, who will be sworn in the following day.

The representative will serve until the School Board elections in November.

The 10 candidates are J.E. Dawson Boyer, an agent with Long and Foster Realtors and co-owner of Boyer’s Ice Cream and Coffee; Deborah A. Corliss, president of Whitford Corp. real estate company; Michael Dickinson, owner of Dickinson Entertainment, which operates adult clubs; Elizabeth B. Doerr, director of New Richmond Ventures, a venture capital firm; and Peggy A. Feldman, former state chief applications officer for the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Rounding out the candidates are Sonja A. Keeve, a former vendor analyst with WestRock Co.; Rupa S. Murthy, chief development officer with the YWCA of Richmond; Matthew Percival, an engineer with the Navy’s National Geospatial Intelligence Agency; Cody Sigmon, an eighth-grade English teacher at Carver Middle School in Chester; and Emily D. Turner, a fourth-grade teacher at Highland Springs Elementary School.

Richmond Free Press

January 21-23, 2016

A5

Local News

Violent crime in city down in 2015

By Joey Matthews

with the help of the Virginia State Police. After the annual sweep, 240 firearms were recovered, 585 arrests were made and another 366 individuals were apprehended who were wanted on warrants.

Motioning to the table, Chief Durham said, “These are some of the weapons used by people to take lives and settle disputes.” Then he added, “These only represent one month’s worth of weapons” recovered by law enforcement officers.

“We’ve got to get these guns off the streets,” Ms. Boone emphatically added. “I don’t want to see any more killings.”

As they discussed the city’s annual crime report from the preceding year, Chief Durham and Mayor Jones noted a 12 percent drop in violent crimes from 1,265 in 2014 to 1,116 in 2015.

They said it was the greatest percentage drop in seven years and the lowest level seen in the city in 45 years.

Mayor Jones called the decrease in violent crimes “the best news we could have as a community.”

The police chief and mayor also stated that 39 homicides were committed last year, compared to 42 in 2014.

Bucking the downward trend, there was a 2 percent increase in property crimes, from 8,531 in 2014 to 8,733 in 2015, including a 22 percent spike in thefts from vehicles.

Chief Durham also announced a new program, Gun250, designed to remove more illegal guns from city streets.

Scheduled to start in February, it would allow individuals who text tips that lead police to recover an illegally possessed gun to earn up to $250 in reward money.

Chief Durham said the department has secured the funds to provide initial reward money, but would ask businesses to donate for future rewards.

The chief and mayor also unveiled a public service announcement they made in an effort to reduce thefts from vehicles. In it, they encourage city residents to “take their stuff or someone else will.”

Mayor Dwight C. Jones and Police Chief Alfred Durham trumpeted a major decrease in violent crimes committed in the city during 2015 at a news conference last Friday.

But the grim reality of crime’s impact on the community was illustrated when Charlene Boone stepped to the podium during the officials’ announcement last Friday at the Richmond Police Training Academy.

With tears rolling down her face, Ms. Boone described the grief she has experienced since her 20-year-old son, Ke’Shawn Hargrove, was killed in August in an exchange of gunfire with two police officers during a foot chase that ended in a West End alley.

The officers, who were cleared of any wrongdoing after an investigation by the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, were responding to reports of a man carrying a gun in the neighborhood. Officer Ryan Bailey was struck in the arm by a bullet during the exchange and has since recovered.

“It was senseless for Ke’Shawn to be out there shooting at police officers when he had no business being out there,” his mother said. “He was a convicted felon and shouldn’t have had a gun.”

She said her son had been released shortly before the shooting from a juvenile detention center after spending five years there.

Chief Durham and other officers praised Ms. Boone, who while still in shock over her son’s killing, pleaded with angry community members to remain calm and not strike back at police officers or others after the shooting and said her son was at fault.

“It still hurts today,” Ms. Boone said of the loss of her son. “I miss Ke’Shawn so much. The media made him out to be some kind of a monster, but he wasn’t.”

As Ms. Boone delivered her heartrending story, a nearby table displayed more than 50 pistols, rifles and other firearms that Richmond police took off the streets during their annual Fugitives and Firearms Initiative in 2015

This is what Kanawha Plaza now looks like as it awaits $2.6 million in taxpayer-paid improvements to begin. All of the old concrete elements and benches have been cleared away.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Private money dries up for Kanawha Plaza project

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Last July, Richmond City Council gave Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ administration the green light to overhaul 35-yearold Kanawha Plaza, the three-acre park that sits across from the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.

The council acted after being assured that virtually all of the $6 million cost would come from gifts from big corporations and law firms located near the park.

But those assurances have turned out to be wrong.

In a memo dated Dec. 16, Selena Cuffee-Glenn, the city’s chief administrative officer, notified City Council that only tax dollars would be used. The Free Press obtained a copy of the memo last week.

Ms. Cuffee-Glenn noted that the mayor had approved shifting $1 million from a completed project — the preschool adjacent to the Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School — to fully fund the $2.66 million that would be spent on Kanawha Plaza. The remaining $1.66 million would come from previously appropriated funds, she stated.

While she did not explicitly mention that fundraising for the park has been unsuccessful, she provided no assurances to the council that additional money would be available — indicating the finished project would be far less elaborate than envisioned.

As best as can be determined, the Enrichmond Foundation, the city’s charity arm, never received or raised any of the money that Debra D. Gardner, deputy chief

administrative officer for human services, months earlier told the council would be available.

Foundation officials did not respond this week to a request for comment.

During the August groundbreaking for the park’s improvement, Ms. Gardner declared that “we can now fix a park that is very much in disrepair” based on the flood of expected contributions that have not materialized.

Separately, Ms. Cuffee-Glenn wrote that the mayor also has approved shifting another $661,328 left over from the King preschool to support plans to overhaul Monroe Park.

This is another project that was supposed to be heavily fueled with private donations raised by a private group, the Monroe Park Advisory Council. The group is to oversee the park after the work is completed. The effort has been controversial because it could force the homeless and their support groups to relocate.

The city already has chipped in $3 million, which is supposed to be matched by the advisory group, which is still believed to be more than $1 million short.

The mayor’s decision to boost the taxpayer contribution appears to raise the prospects for the project being accomplished.

The city charter grants the mayor and the CAO authority to shift funding from one capital project to another without consulting City Council as long as the changes do not increase the project budgets.

Health care enrollment event rescheduled for Jan. 30

With snow expected this weekend, Celebrate Healthcare has changed the date for its Richmond Enrollfest to Saturday, Jan. 30, for people to enroll in health insurance plans through the Affordable Care Act’s Federal Health Insurance Marketplace.

The event originally was scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 23.

The rescheduled event will be held from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Bon Secours training camp for the Washington professional football team, 2401 W. Leigh St. in Richmond.

For more information: Go to www.celebratehealthcare. net or call (757) 287-0277.

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Richmond Free Press

Frozen waterfall in Bryan Park

Editorial Page

A6

January 21-23, 2016

Accountability without games We lodged our grave concern last week in this space about the uncomfortably close relationship between the city’s director of public works and Mayor Dwight C. Jones’ church.

According to the city auditor, Emmanuel O. Adediran, a volunteer associate pastor at First Baptist Church of South Richmond, was working as a project manager on the church expansion while he was on the city’s time clock and dime at the Department of Public Works.

No sooner had we raised the question of whether state or federal authorities would investigate this possibly unholy and potentially illegal arrangement than Mayor Jones announced that he requested the Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation to review the case.

It was the right move — both for city taxpayers who deserve transparency and accountability, and for the mayor politically.

However, it now seems as though Mayor Jones has no authority under state law to bring in the State Police.

We hope that Mayor Jones’ call for an independent investigation is more than a political ploy to regain the trust of the public.

If the mayor is serious about having an independent — and hopefully impartial — agency scrutinize the citychurch relationship, then he needs to make that happen, whether through a formal request through the Richmond Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office or through Gov. Terry McAuliffe. Otherwise, a cloud will remain over his final months in office.

With at least six of the city’s top executives connected to Mayor Jones’ church, Richmond taxpayers are questioning how expansive the problem may be.

Too many unanswered questions remain about Mr. Adediran’s work on city time for the church and about three of the church project’s vendors that also have received city contracts.

The public trust is too important for Mayor Jones and his administration to leave these questions hanging. Already, we are seeing an erosion in private support for city projects, with Downtown corporations and firms pulling back on their promise to help fund improvements to Kanawha Plaza. What other fallout lurks as the city launches bigdollar plans to develop the Boulevard area?

A lack of transparency and accountability could harm the city’s future.

Primary vote Like bad pennies, Sarah Palin and Bill Clinton have turned up again.

This time, both are back on the campaign trail.

The former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate is stumping in her unique way for Republican presidential hopeful Donald Trump. The former president is on the stump for his wife, Democrat Hillary Clinton, who wants to return to the White House as president.

Sarah Palin and Bill Clinton each lug with them plenty of baggage, too much to detail in this space and so much we would like to forget.

It was a given, however, that the public would be seeing Bill Clinton making speeches and appearances for Hillary Clinton. After all, they are still married.

But Sarah Palin …

Either Mr. Trump is desperate or he wants to tap into the airhead vote.

Two weeks out from the all-important Iowa caucuses, we believe The Donald wants to flush out supporters by any means necessary in this first major test of voter support.

Voters in Virginia will have the opportunity to cast a ballot for their choice for their nominee in the Republican and Democratic primaries on Tuesday, March 1.

Participation in the primary election is essential if you want your voice to be heard in the selection of a candidate to run for president.

If you are not registered to vote in Virginia, you have until Monday, Feb. 8, to register in order to cast a ballot in the primary.

Additionally, Virginia law allows 17-year-olds to vote in the March 1 primary if they will turn 18 by the general election on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Apology please We are waiting for all the haters out there to apologize to President Obama.

The “birthers,” as they have been dubbed, made such a clamor in challenging where President Obama was born and whether he legally was able to hold the office of president of the United States.

Even as we near the end of the president’s second term, some die-hard birthers still insist that his birth record from Hawaii is fake and that he was actually born in Kenya, the homeland of his father.

The U.S. Constitution says that only “natural born” citizens can be president.

Enter Republican presidential contender Ted Cruz, who was born in Canada. But Sen. Cruz and his supporters say he’s eligible to be president because Sen. Cruz’s mother was a U.S. citizen. His father was born in Cuba.

Using Sen. Cruz’s claim that a natural-born U.S. citizen includes a person born anywhere in the world to a mother who is a U.S. citizen, then President Obama is owed a big apology.

President Obama’s mother was born in Kansas and was a U.S. citizen.

Let’s see what the birthers say and do now.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Flint: A lesson in callousness Flint, Mich., is impoverished.

The auto plants have closed.

Forty percent of the city’s 100,000 residents live below the poverty level.

It is majority minority. It has been in fiscal crisis since 2011, with the state taking over budgetary control and a state-appointed “emergency manager” driving policy focused on cutting spending.

Flint residents are Americans, but like many impoverished Americans, they are forgotten. And state officials led by Gov. Rick Snyder have shown that they consider the residents disposable.

In Flint, the water supply has been poisoned by lead. Police are now delivering bottled water door to door. But it may be too late for hundreds of kids who already are suffering from elevated levels of lead in their blood. The damage done is irreversible, with lifelong consequences, includ-

ing lowered intelligence and long-term mental and emotional damage.

How did this happen? The emergency manager — accountable only to the governor and state officials — decided to save money by switching Flint’s

Jesse L. Jackson water supply from Lake Huron to a cheaper source, the Flint River. Only the river had been poisoned by waste from nearby factories for generations. The toxic wastes not only turned the water brown, it corroded the aged pipes of Flint’s water system, unleashing lead into the water. Federal law required that the water be treated, but that would have cost $100 a day, so it was not done.

Parents began to complain of rashes and hair loss. The state’s environmental quality agency denied there was a problem.

High-level state officials knew that the water supply was poisoned for six months before declaring an emergency. Finally, a Flint pediatrician tested the

blood of children and discovered lead levels double and even triple the prior amounts. State officials denounced her work before realizing the truth could no longer be hidden.

Finally, Gov. Snyder ended the denial. He declared an official emergency and, four days later, called for delivering bottled water. The head of his environmental agency resigned.

Gov. Snyder apologized for the catastrophe, but calls for him to resign continue to build.

Flint is not alone. Across America, in ghettos and barrios, reservations and rural valleys, the poor are isolated and too often forgotten. Systems basic to civilization — plumbing, water systems, schoolhouses, garbage collection and treatment, roads and public transport — are in squalor, lacking even the investment to keep them up to minimum standards. Impoverished neighborhoods often lack hospitals, grocery stores and decent public spaces. The poor are left to fend for themselves, rising to attention only when violence breaks out, when innocents are shot, when tragedies like Flint

The white man’s rage Have you heard? Apparently large numbers of American adults are “angry” about their own circumstances and about where they think the country is headed. For months, numerous politicians, pollsters and pundits have touted this anger as an important factor in the line-up of who’s supporting who in both the Republican and Democratic presidential primary campaigns.

So, you could say that anger is all the rage (pardon the pun) now in considering the state of American society. Or, to put it in fashion and political terms, anger is the new black.

But, to be more precise, it’s really white Americans’ anger that’s the new black.

A survey of 3,000 Americans released this month by NBC News and Esquire magazine found that 54 percent of white people say they’ve grown more outraged during the past year.

That compares with 43 percent of Latinos and 33 percent of black Americans who say so. Nearly three-quarters of white Americans say they get angry upon hearing or reading something at least once a day, compared to 66 percent of Latinos and 56 percent of African-Americans.

Further, while 45 percent of black people say the American dream is alive, just 35 and 34 percent of Latinos and white people agree, respectively.

The survey, appropriately titled “American Rage, “ explores what these and other findings mean in limited but fascinating

detail. Its opening passage declares that from “their views on the state of the American dream (dead) and America’s role in the world (not what it used to be) to how their life is working out for them (not quite what they’d had in mind), a plurality of whites tend to view life through a veil of disappointment.”

Lee A. Daniels But, the survey bluntly states, white people’s expressed anger about these things is the “anger of perceived disenfranchisement — a sense that the majority has become a persecuted minority, the bitterness of a promise that didn’t pan out — rather than actual hardship.” It notes parenthetically, “If anger were tied to hardship, we’d expect to see non-white Americans — who report having a harder time making ends meet than whites — reporting higher levels of anger. This is not the case.”

In that regard, the passage concludes: “Indeed, despite having what many would consider a more legitimate case for feeling angry, black Americans are generally less angry than whites.

Though they take great issue with the way they are treated by both society in general and the police in particular, blacks are also more likely than whites to believe that the American dream is still alive; that America is still the most powerful country in the world; that race relations have improved over the past eight years; and, most important in the context of expectations, that their financial situation is better than they thought it would be when they were younger. Their optimism in the face of adversity

suggests that hope, whatever its other virtues, remains a potent antidote to anger.”

The NBC News-Esquire survey, in effect, reaffirms the findings of numerous polls over the years of a prevalence of “optimism” and “hope” among black Americans. Given the serious problems bedeviling African-Americans as a group, some researchers have found this mystifying. But the “mystery” solves itself if one substitutes for “optimism” and “hope,” the word “equanimity.”

“Poise. Aplomb. Equilibrium. Balance. Level-headness.

Presence of mind. Self-assurance. Self-command. These are some of the synonyms for equanimity,” I wrote in a previous column. “They are rarely, if ever, used in the public discourse to describe the behavior of any group of black Americans. Yet black Americans have always displayed extraordinary poise in their struggle” to overcome the discrimination and injustice they faced in the past and continue to face in the present.

It’s not that they’re not “angry,” as the NBC News-Esquire survey points out. But the black freedom struggle was built and still rests on anger that is governed by hope, compassion for others, a rejection of violence and, above all, a commitment to democracy.

That standard makes me wish those conducting this very important survey had asked one additional question of those white people who now view life “through a veil of disappointment”: Where is your patience, your discipline, your poise, your optimism? Where is your faith in America?

The writer is a longtime journalist based in New York City.

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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.

become public.

The cost of this callousness — in lives lost, disease, mental damage, crime, drugs, hopelessness — are immense. This isn’t about money. We pay more on the back end — in prisons and emergency rooms, cops and guards and addiction centers — than we would have to spend on the front-end investments that would give every child a chance.

Conservatives continue to call for dismantling environmental regulations. They slash budgets for policing violations by corporations or cities. They want to slash support for poverty programs and block-grant them to the states and localities.

The next time you hear that rap, think of Flint, its poorest children betrayed by state officials. Think of Flint, deprived even of safe water in order to save a few bucks. Think of Flint and investigate your own community. The horrors of Flint are not exclusive to that city.

The writer is founder and president of the Chicago-based Rainbow PUSH Coalition.

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Richmond Free Press

January 21-23, 2016

A7

Letters to the Editor

Is it really about the tree?

Several years ago, I was in Seattle and visited the AfricanAmerican museum there. They had a display on Maggie L. Walker, and as a Richmonder, I was the proudest person in the museum.

Fast forward to the community meeting on Jan. 12 to discuss the unveiling of the Walker statue in Richmond and get community input on what they would like to see. I was saddened by what I heard. This gathering took me back nearly 20 years to when the statue of Arthur Ashe was being discussed at a similar forum.

With the Ashe discussion, some people didn’t think that his statue warranted a place on Monument Avenue. Others felt it needed to be put in a more secluded place, a place that was more African-American central.

We cannot let history repeat itself as we honor Maggie L. Walker. Mrs. Walker is not only a Richmond (s)hero, but a (s)hero and a model for Virginia and all of the United States.

What she did to combat Jim Crow in the United States cannot be compared to anyone’s work. Coming from the meager beginnings that she did and rising to the level of her success is

an example of what we say America is all about. Why should we be so hesitant to display that in the glory that we do with others? She should be honored and she should not have to share that with a tree.

Are people using the tree as a reason to dim that light? How can a statue of such an important person disrupt one’s business when in truth it will attract business? Is it really about the tree?

Mrs. Walker should be highlighted in the best way possible.

Let us learn from the past and as Spike Lee would say, “Do the right thing.” Let us honor Maggie L. Walker, who gave so much to so many and she did it for the right reason. We have an opportunity to make Richmond proud as well as make a statement that we are moving into the 21st century as a leader for change.

Please Mark Your Calendars for the

4th Annual State of Black America Address On Saturday, January 23, 2016 31st Street Baptist Church - 823 N. 31st St. 9:30AM - 3:00PM

Keynote Address by noted author, journalist and former Richmond Free Press columnist Peter Bailey who was also a close personal friend of Malcolm X. To register your family, church group & for more info email AALSCommittee@gmail.com or call 1-888-440-5397

The School Board of the City of Richmond will hold a public hearing on Monday, February 1, 2016 to receive comment on the following candidates to fill the vacant 1st District seat. The hearing will convene at 6:00 p.m. in the School Board Room on the 17th floor of City Hall. For information regarding the process, please contact the School Board Office at 780-7716.

Rev. Dr. Sylvester L. Turner Richmond The writer is pastor of Pilgrim Baptist Church and a member of the Maggie L. Walker High School Class of 1969.

Candidates: J. E. Dawson Boyer Deborah Corliss Michael Dickinson Elizabeth Doerr Peggy Feldman

Presidential candidates profess to love the Lord but ignore message Re editorial “Fat Cat Tuesday,” Jan. 7-9 edition: Too many people who profess to love the Lord show by their actions that their true love is money when the CEO of Walmart has a salary 1,034 times that of the median employee salary. He is someone who doesn’t mind losing his soul so long as he can gain the whole world.

The entire slate of Republican candidates for president profess to love the Lord while ignoring Christ’s admonishment about greed.

Christ tells us to not pile

up treasures on Earth. Because our hearts are where our treasures are, Christ tells us that we cannot serve God and material wealth. Christ told the young man to sell his wealth and to follow Him. The young man chose his material wealth.

Christ condemned the scribes and Pharisees who stole other people’s homes and then for a pretense made long prayers.

Christ condemned the scribes and Pharisees for extortion and excess. Christ told them if they had done it unto the least of these, they had done

it unto Him. The entire slate of Republican presidential candidates not only ignore Christ’s message, they make excuses for the pretend prayers by talking about how they “earned” such exorbitant amounts of earthly wealth.

These candidates pretend to care about hunger while keeping federal minimum wages low to create the hunger.

They steal homes, pensions, salaries and savings from others while pretending to make long prayers.

Will the CEO of Walmart

Pursuant to the Americans with Disabilities Act, any person requiring special accommodations to participate in this proceeding should contact the Clerk of the School Board no later than three (3) business days prior to the meeting at (804) 780-7716. If you are hearing or speech impaired, please contact the agency by calling the Americans with Disabilities Act Office TTY line at (804) 780-6226.

be looking up to heaven and begging Lazarus for a drink of water?

Angela C. Lewis Clerk

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General Assembly A message from Senator Donald McEachin

Last week I took the oath of office to begin my third term in the Virginia State Senate. I take this responsibility very serious – to serve my constituents and to honor the Constitution of both the United States and Virginia. My job is to make Virginia a better place to live, work and raise a family, to improve our local communities and to improve the lives of Virginians.

Partnering with Governor McAuliffe, we have created over seniors. It seems to me that our newspaper I can think of to let 88,000 jobs in the Commonwealth and have had almost $10 government is all right with the people know how seniors are billion in capital investment just in the past two years. By creatway Comcast is treating seniors. being treated by Comcast. ing a new Virginia economy we are improving and solidifying Maybe it’s because no one is Something needs to be done our future. We are diversifying our jobs and getting businesses speaking up for them. about it. from out of state and even from abroad to invest here, creating Well, I’m here to tell you good-paying jobs for our citizens. I will continue to partner with that I will be their voice and THELMA SOTO the governor on these important goals and, particularly, to bring jobs back to our this letter will be sent to every Wilmington, Del. region for our families.

This year, along with job creation, I have several other legislative priorities.

NOTICE TO Making Virginia a welcoming, and healthy place will encourage businesses to CITY OF RICHMOND RESIDENTS come here and bring good jobs. I continue to advocate to close the coverage gap There will be bot h a De mocrat ic Party primary to provide affordable quality health care for up to 400,000 Virginians. By expanding Medicaid, not only will we provide accessible health care, but we will bring and a Republica n Part y prima ry on: our federal tax dollars back home to Virginia. We will keep hospitals open and TUES DAY, MARCH 1 , 2016 Voters will have to choose in which primary that they wish to participate, as solvent so health care will be available in more Virginia communities. Moreover, state law only allows them to participate in one of the two primaries. jobs will be created in communities, restoring economic health.

Voters wishing to participate in the Republican Party primary will have to I have introduced legislation to create an inventory of toxic waste sites and sign a pledge before they may vote in that primary. A copy of the pledge can be found at www.richmondgov.com under the Voter Registration to raise the fines on those who create toxic spills. Virginians deserve to know if a department. dangerous chemical spill has happened in their community, risking their health The purpose of these primary elections is to nominate the party and safety. Any company who creates such a spill should face real and significant candidates that will appear on the ballot in November for the offices fines so the state can clean up the danger and make the place livable again. The of President and Vice President of the United States. fines have not been raised in so long that now many companies find it cheaper to just allow the spill and risk the fine.

Any qualified resident of the Commonwealth of Virginia who will be 18 by November 8, 2016 may register and vote in this primary.

All Virginians deserve the opportunity to succeed and to be judged on the Polling places will be open for voting from job by their work performance, not by other characteristics. My Human Rights 6:00 AM to 7:00 PM Non-Discrimination Act adds sexual orientation and gender identity to the list PHOTO ID IS NOW REQUIRED AT THE POLLS of characteristics for which state employees cannot be fired. We need to have the Visit www.elections.virginia.gov for details on photo ID There are two polling place changes for this election: best workforce and that means judging workers on their ability to do the job.

• Residents of precinct 810 will vote at the Celebration Church and I have also introduced legislation that requires schools to use other methods Outreach Ministry, 5501 Midlothian Turnpike; and to do everything they can before suspending students out of school or ex• Residents of precinct 911 will vote at the Community Building, Southside pelling them. Children need to be in school, not wandering the streets aimlessly, Regional Park, 6255 Old Warwick Road. much more likely to get into trouble. We need to ensure that we are working with THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THIS ELECTION IS: problem students, not just throwing them out the door to fend for themselves.

Monday, February 8, 2016 Persons with DMV issued ID CAN NOW REGISTER TO VOTE OR Gun violence is a problem that seems to be growing with a mass shooting seemUPDATE their voter registration ONLINE and paperlessly at ingly every week. While this issue has many roots, one simple help is to ensure www.elections.virginia.gov.

Register in person in room 105, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street between 8:00 AM that violent criminals and those dangerously mentally ill cannot purchase a gun. and 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, except holidays. Applications are also in all Every gun purchase should require a background check to ensure the buyer has city post offices, libraries, and DMV. The Office of the General Registrar ■ will mail End the inconvenience of empty newspaper boxes, fighting not been prohibited from firearm purchases. My Universal Background Check bill applications upon request.

Voter registration applications must either be postmarked or in the Office of the will subject all buyers to the simple ten minute State Police Background Check General Registrar by 5 PM on the deadline date. the weather and hunting down back copies. and close those gun-buying loopholes.

THE DEADLINE TO APPLY FOR AN ABSENTEE BALLOT ■ just a few of the bills I am bringing forward THROUGH THE MAIL IS: Also, support theThese FreearePress.

We’re always working for this you.year to help our Tuesday, February 23, 2016 community, improve our future and support our families. Thank you for the The deadline to apply and vote an absentee ballot in person is 5:00 PM, Saturday, privilege of serving you in the General Assembly. If I can be of any service, please February 27, 2016, except in the case of certain emergencies or military personnel. do not hesitate to contact me at district09@senate.virginia.gov or 698.7509.

In addition to its normal business hours, the Office of the General Registrar will also be open from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, February 27, 2016.

More information on the General Assembly Session can be found on my website at www.donaldmceachin.com

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Richmond Free Press

A8 January 21-23, 2016

Sports Stories by Fred Jeter

VUU takes game from VSU by 2 to claim Freedom Classic win Long-limbed and athletic, Ray Anderson is gifted with excellent speed, quickness and jumping ability.

Yet he does some of his best work standing still.

In helping Virginia Union University win the Freedom Classic 70-68 over Virginia State University last Sunday at the Richmond Coliseum, Anderson left the Trojans in a “foul” mood.

Anderson’s 32 points — including 12 for 16 at the foul line — was the difference as VUU improved to 9-9 overall and 2-4 in the CIAA. It was the Panthers’ third straight win and ended a three-game losing streak over two seasons to VSU. “It feels good. It’s the first time I’ve beat State since my freshman year,” said Anderson.

In seeing the VSU Trojans fall to 11-4 overall and 6-1 in the CIAA, here’s VSU Coach Lonnie Blow’s assessment: “Anderson is a great player. And when he gets it going, he’s capable of having a big night. But we can’t be putting him on the line 16 times. You’ve got to make him earn it.”

But saying it — not fouling Anderson — and doing it are two different tasks.

Anderson leads the CIAA in scoring average (21.9 points) and is fourth in the 12-team league in free throws attempted (118).

The lithe, lean 6-foot-3 junior from Wilmington, Del., has taken more than twice as many free throws as any other Panther. It’s his uncanny athleticism, forcing defenders to reach and grab, that earns him so many tickets to the free throw line, where he hits 75 percent.

“I feel I can always beat my man off

No. 3 is No. 1 Ray Anderson wears No. 3 for the Virginia Union University men’s basketball team while Kiana Johnson wears No. 3 for the VUU women.

Coincidentally, both lead the CIAA in scoring.

Starting this week, Anderson was averaging 21.9 points per game; Johnson, 26.9 points per game.

the dribble,” Anderson said. “That’s what I’d rather do.”

Wearing jersey No. 3, Anderson rarely settles for three-pointers. He is just 5-for31 behind the arc for the season.

Anderson averaged about 15 points as both a freshman under Coach Luqman Jaaber and as a sophomore under Coach Tony Sheals.

He’s on course to enter the conversation about VUU’s all-time performers.

First-year Coach Jay Butler says, “Ray has one of the best pull-up jumpers I’ve seen.”

Being cautious, Butler adds, “To be considered with the great players to come through here, he needs to be a better defensive player. You’ve got to play both ends of the floor.”

Anderson made a defensive statement on the final play of the Freedom Classic game against VSU. After hitting one free throw to make it 70-68, with 17 seconds left, VSU charged down the floor with a chance to tie or win.

Foiling those plans, Anderson slapped the ball away from a VSU guard and Danny McElroy snagged the loose leather to secure the win.

McElroy, who had eight points and a

team-high nine rebounds, is among numerous transfers to the Panthers. A native of Cincinnati, McElroy came to VUU from Bowling Green University in Ohio.

Another take-notice newcomer is guard Timmone Whatley, a transfer from Harcum College in Pennsylvania, who became eligible to play during spring semester.

Whatley had six points, six rebounds and, according to Butler, “ran the show.”

John Mitchell, a 6-foot-9, 225-pound transfer from ASA College in New York City, adds an imposing presence in the paint. Mitchell had three points, four rebounds and two blocked shots in just 11 minutes.

VSU guard Kevin Williams bunched eight of his 20 points into the game’s final 2 minutes. “I was on attack mode,” he said. Williams added six rebounds, three assists and two steals.

Elijah Moore, a 6-foot-8 junior, added 19 points and nine rebounds. Like Anderson, Moore is a candidate for CIAA Player of the Year.

VSU outrebounded VUU 50-38, but the Trojans suffered 21 turnovers against the Panthers’ pressure.

VUU turned its defense into offense with 15 steals, including four each by McElroy and Ke’Andre Gibson.

What’s next?

• Vi r g i n i a U n i o n U n i v e r s i t y a t Lincoln University of Pennsylvania, 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23.

• Virginia State University plays Elizabeth City State University at Daniel Gymnasium in Ettrick, 4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23. Military Appreciation Day.

James Haskins/Richmond Free Press

Virginia State University’s Javon Moore, No. 5, is fouled

by Virginia Union University’s Devin Moore who attempts to block the shot during Sunday’s Freedom Classic at the Richmond Coliseum. The game was a squeaker, with the VUU Panthers defeating the VSU Trojans 70-68.

Pistons retire ‘Big Ben’ Wallace’s No.3

Ben Wallace wasn’t heavily recruited out of high school in Alabama. Nor was his name called in the NBA draft following a career at Virginia Union University.

Despite that, he goes down as one of basketball’s all-time greats on the low post.

“Big Ben’s” No. 3 jersey was retired last Saturday by the Detroit Pistons — the franchise he helped to the 2004 NBA championship.

Wallace was joined at the gala event (the Pistons defeated Golden State at the Palace at Auburn Hills) by his wife, Chanda, daughter Bailey, and youngest son Bryce.

Detroit fans that hadn’t seen Wallace in years were surprised at his close-cropped hair. As a Piston, he was famous for his Afro and headband.

“It still grows big and fluffy,” he told his adoring audience, “but it’s very, very white.”

Ben Wallace acknowledges cheering fans during the Detroit Pistons’ halftime ceremony retiring his No. 3 jersey. The ceremony was held last Saturday at The Palace.

Chris Schwegler/Detroit Pistons

As a nice touch, the public address system sounded the deep chime — a play on the iconic Big Ben clock tower chime in London — that was a trademark during his career in the Motor City.

Wallace began college at Cuyahoga Community College near Cleveland. It was a tip from former VUU great Charles Oakley that led to him transfer to VUU. Oakley had met Wallace years before at a camp, was impressed with his potential and notified VUU Coach Dave Robbins, who kept in touch.

Wallace helped VUU to a 28-3 record and a trip to the NCAA Division II Final Four as a senior.

He wasn’t drafted, however, and played in Italy before hooking up with the NBA Wizards in 1996.

The 6-foot-9, 225-pounder joined the Detroit Pistons in 2000, where he

developed into one of the NBA’s most feared interior defenders.

The four-time All-Star finished with 6,254 points, 10,482 rebounds and 2,137 blocked shots and is Detroit’s all-time leader in blocks.

He was named four times the NBA Defensive Player of the Year. Only Dikembe Mutombo has won the award as many times.

The only other numbers retired by Detroit are those of Joe Dumars (4), Dennis Rodman (10), Isaiah Thomas (11), Vinnie Johnson (15), Bob Lanier (16), Dave Bing (21) and Bill Laimbeer (40).

Wallace, who finished his NBA career with Detroit in 2012, is considered a legitimate candidate for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame when he becomes eligible. Not bad for a kid that was twice overlooked.

VCU Rams prevail Hiring one, firing one among NFL black coaching ranks in overtime against UR The Cleveland Browns have turned to III has been mentioned as a possible adjourneyman Hue Jackson to jumpstart the dition. stalled franchise.

In Cincinnati, Coach Jackson served as The 50-year-old Jackson, most recently offensive coordinator under Marvin Lewis offensive coordinator for the Cincinnati and was credited for grooming Andy Dalton Bengals, is accepting what has been the into a Pro Bowl quarterback.

NFL’s version of mission impossible.

The Browns will pick second, after Since 1999 when the “new” Browns were Tennessee, in the April 28-30 draft held born in Northeast Ohio, the franchise has in Chicago. Jared Goff, who passed for 43 gone 87-185, with just two playoff games touchdowns this past season at California, is (losses in 2002 and 2007).

Coach Jackson considered a leading quarterback prospect.

Coach Mike Pettine, after two years on the Coach Jackson becomes Cleveland’s sidelines, was fired after going 3-13 this last season as second black coach following Romeo Crennel (24-40 the latest casualty on the coaching merry-go-round. record, 2005-2008).

Also fired was Ray Farmer, the Browns’ general The original Cleveland franchise that won eight manager. Farmer, who is African-American, has been All-American Football League (AAFL) and NFL titles, replaced by Paul DePodesta, who has mainly a base- 1946-1964, moved to Baltimore in 1996, becoming ball background. the Ravens.

Coach Jackson becomes Cleveland’s eighth coach since Jim Brown, Marion Motley, Leroy Kelly, Paul 1999, the sixth since 2007 and third since 2013.

Warfield, Bobby Mitchell and Ozzie Newsome were This is Coach Jackson’s second head coaching among original Browns Hall of Famers. job. He was let go after posting an 8-8 mark with the Oakland Raiders in 2011.

Current African-American NFL coaches A former star quarterback at the University of the (With year hired) Pacific in California, Coach Jackson was an assistant at Marvin Lewis, Cincinnati, 2003 Pacific, Cal State-Fullerton, Arizona State, University Mike Tomlin, Pittsburgh, 2007 of California-Berkeley, and Southern Cal. Jim Caldwell, Detroit, 2014 He also spent a season with the London Monarchs Todd Bowles, New York Jets, 2015 of the World Football League.

Hue Jackson, Cleveland, 2016 Moving to the NFL in 2001, Coach Jackson worked for Washington, Atlanta, Baltimore, Oakland and Current African-American NFL general managers Cincinnati on two separate occasions.

(With year hired) The NFL’s black coaching fraternity gained one in * Ozzie Newsome, Baltimore, 2002 Coach Jackson but lost another in Lovie Smith, who was dumped by Tampa Bay after going 2-14 and 6-10 Jerry Reese, New York Giants, 2007 the past two seasons.

Reggie McKenzie, Oakland, 2012 Smith also was fired previously after posting a 89-87 Rick Smith, Houston, 2012 record with the Chicago Bears from 2004 to 2012.

Doug Whaley, Buffalo, 2013 Smith’s successor in Tampa, Dirk Koetter, has a Sheldon White, Detroit, 2015 (interim) potentially elite quarterback in Jamies Winston. * NFL’s first African-American to hold that position Coach Jackson’s task in Cleveland is more challenging.

Note: Martin Mayhew was fired in Detroit during the Quarterback Johnny Manziel, a top pick in 2014, has been 2015 season and Ray Farmer was let go in Cleveland following 2015. disappointing on and off the field and might be traded.

Former Washington quarterback Robert Griffin

Anyone who has ever played the arcade game Whac-A-Mole can understand the frustration of Virginia Commonwealth University’s basketball foes.

Each time you knock down one mole — in VCU’s case, containing one high scorer — another pops up.

Consider: Point guard JeQuan Lewis, the assists leader, averages 9.9 points per game. But in the Rams’ 94-89 overtime win at the University of Richmond last Saturday, Lewis erupted for a career high 29.

Justin Tillman, known best for rebounding, averages 6.1 points.

However, the Rams’ “Dr. Detroit” from the Motor City had a careerbest 27 points in VCU’s win over Fordham University, treating fans to a wide array of dunks.

Mo Alie-Cox averages 9.3 points.

But in the Rams’ win over North Florida, the defensive-minded center had 19 points.

Doug Brooks, another ace defender, averages 4.8 points. But in VCU’s win at St. Louis, the Floridian netted 11 points.

Clearly, sticking to a scouting report can get you in deep trouble when facing Coach Will Wade’s Rams.

Expect the unexpected.

The Jan. 16 victory over UR before a roaring full house at the Robins Center was the Rams’ eighth straight win and fifth in a row in the Atlantic-10 Conference.

The Rams prevailed at UR despite sub-par shooting from overall leading scorer Melvin Johnson. The normally reliable senior from New York City was 6-for-19 overall and 0-for-7 behind the arc.

Rams play Virginia Commonwealth University will host Atlantic-10 rival St. Bonaventure University 2:30 p.m.

Saturday, Jan. 23, at the sold-out Siegel Center. The game will be televised on the NBC Sports Network.

The win over the Spiders improved VCU’s overall mark to 13-5 and road record to 4-1, with the lone loss coming at the ACC’s Georgia Tech.

VCU’s recent success has been without starting forward Jordan Burgess, who has been idled by a broken finger.

Johnson is the season’s leader with an 18.4 points norm, followed

by Kory Billbury’s 12.3 points.

Johnson also leads in steals (32), three-pointers (65) and free-throw accuracy (89 percent). Tillman is tops in rebounds (5.8 average) in just 15 minutes per night.

Brooks is second with 31 steals in just 18 minutes per contest. Alie-Cox’s 29 blocked shots is a team high.

Following a frustrating 5-5 start, in which the Rams dropped cliffhangers to five power teams, Wade’s first season is unfolding nicely.

VCU is the likely favorite in every game here on except for probably at Davidson on Jan. 29, at George Washington on Feb. 27 and at Dayton on March 5.

The Rams have proven to be very good. You just never know which one will pop up, front and center, on a given night.

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to me to think that they will never be found out.

Person who influenced me the most: Besides my parents, the late civil rights attorney Samuel W. Tucker and current Congressman Robert C. “Bobby” Scott.

What I’m reading now: Federal code of regulations.

My next goal: To raise the awareness of the importance of Charles Sidney Gilpin to the thespian community. Mr. Gilpin’s acting career is said to have launched the careers of renowned playwright Eugene O’Neill and the legendary actor Paul Robeson.

And yet very few people in his hometown know anything about him. There should be at least one theater in his hometown named in his honor. I would love to work with someone or a group of someones to make that happen with a component that also educates Richmond Public Schools students about him.

of the

Education: Bachelor’s degree, Virginia Commonwealth University.

Family: One son, Tobias R. Estes.

Occupation: Community strategist with A Lillie Original Community Strategy, a for-profit designed to build communities.

How I got news that I was an award winner: I was informed by David J. Harris, managing director of the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race & Justice at Harvard Law School.

What is needed to stop the violence in communities: Violence will stop within our community after the disinvestment of our community is restored and behavior rapport building among our neighbors begins anew. This re-engagement of behavior rapport development must be led in plain sight by the leaders of our community consistently.

Communities can do more if: The expectation is set with a profound focus on humanity. Imagine if we greeted each other every day with a pleasantry and affirmation how different to the good our disposition would become. The hostility among us would have no choice but to go away. We can then remain consistent with our community work.

I first decided to become an advocate for social justice because: I have always had a passion for equity of approach and have worked to make those things happen.

My high school Black Humanities Club hosted German exchange students and during the 1970s that was

a big deal. We pulled it off with the students really being appreciative of the cultural humanity education experience.

My definition of justice and peace: A state of consciousness that allows our every living moment to emanate from a place of pure love among one another no matter what. When we can have that type of desire for every human is when the outward manifestation of our improved morale will be felt among each of us. Competition and hatred will cease to exist is my thought and fervent prayer.

What motivates me: The presence of God in my life.

In a perfect world, my job would be: Doing what I do now. I am a community strategist.

What makes me tick: Is an extension of my community work. It is making sure that we as community leaders work to re-apply the better options for our children to make better choices in order to improve the quality of their life. No child should believe that they should kill and/or harm another human in this world.

Definition of success: Is a personal experience of being content with the daily work that I do to improve humanity one person at a time according to the need at that time. If it is beyond what I am humanly capable of doing, then my next job is to pray for that individual and let God Almighty do the work.

My friends say: “Don’t talk to Sam (her family’s nickname for her) unless you want to hear the truth.”

Best late-night snack: Peanut butter and saltines.

Perfect day: Watching old movies.

Perfect evening: Talking on the phone with some of my longtime friends in order to stay connected on life happenings.

I start the day with: Meditation and prayer.

Nobody knows that I: Love a good piece of paisley patterned clothing.

The one thing I can’t stand: Is for a person who is lying

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Lillie A. Estes first got involved in efforts to improve the community as a high school student in Newport News.

Friends urged her to join the NAACP Youth Council.

Decades later, her community betterment work continues in Richmond, where she has been a resident for many years and active with several advocacy groups.

Ms. Estes says the 2010 murder of her son, John Williams II, just three days shy of his 24th birthday further fueled her efforts. She calls his death, and that of other young people, “an indictment of our city leadership.”

“When our children are growing up, they have such limited options. We’re duty bound to provide better options so our children will make better choices,” she says.

Among her efforts: Ms. Estes serves on the advisory board of the city’s Maggie L. Walker Initiative for Expanding Opportunity and Fighting Poverty. The group presented an action plan to Mayor Dwight C. Jones in 2013 to help alleviate poverty in Richmond, where one in four city residents lives at or below the poverty level. The mayor’s Office of Community Wealth Building, whose task is to help implement povertyfighting initiatives, grew from those recommendations.

She also serves on the board of the Virginia Poverty Law Center.

Ms. Estes recently was feted for her community service by another group in which she’s active — Mothers for Justice and Equality, a national group based in Boston whose mission is to empower mothers to end violence in the streets.

The group presented her with its Mothers of Courage Award in Boston in November at its conference, “Mothers Against Violence: Empowering Women to Action.”

“I was deeply honored and humbled,” Ms. Estes says of winning the award.

She joined the group in 2006.

“We, as an organization, are moving in the direction of galvanizing the mothers of children adversely impacted by violence within our communities nationwide to be the change agents that assist in transforming our communities,” she says.

This week’s Personality is the courageous Lillie A. Estes: Date and place of birth: Aug. 6 in Hampton.

100 North 5th Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219

r v RICHMOND

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If you require any special accommodations, please contact Tameka Jefferson at 646-6936 or Tameka.Jefferson@RichmondGov.com.

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B2 January 21-23, 2016

Happenings Dr. Franklin issues call to action Wyatt T. Walker at Community Leaders Breakfast to be honored

By Joey Matthews

The state’s No. 1 cheerleader, Gov. Terry McAuliffe, drew enthusiastic applause as he delivered impassioned remarks and extolled a bipartisan approach to solving the state’s problems at the 38th Annual Community Leaders Breakfast last Friday honoring the life and legacy of the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Virginia Union University alumna Florence Neal Cooper Smith of Richmond delivered touching remarks to the capacity gathering at the Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center at Virginia Union University after she was honored with the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Lifetime of Service Award for decades of advocacy work on behalf of those with sickle cell anemia.

And Dr. Robert M. Franklin, president emeritus of Morehouse College in Atlanta, issued a clarion call to action in his eloquent keynote address.

Those were among the highlights at the community event that brought together hundreds of public officials, civil rights advocates, corporate and faith leaders, educators and members of the community to honor Dr. King and continue the call for community action to fulfill his dream.

Several speakers at the breakfast praised former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder, who attended the event, recognizing that Jan. 13 marked the 26th anniversary of the VUU alumnus being sworn in as the nation’s first elected African-American governor.

When he was in the state Senate, Mr. Wilder spearheaded a nearly decade-long effort to have Dr. King’s birthday established as a state holiday. It was signed into law in 1984 by then-Gov. Charles S. “Chuck” Robb, and later became a national holiday, celebrated for the first time in 1986.

The annual breakfast hosted by VUU, with the support of corporate sponsors, has been a highlight of local commemorations.

The Rev. Tyler C. Millner of Morning Star Holy Church in Martinsville collaborated with the late Dr. Grace Pleasants to expand the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday from an annual worship service into the current Community Learning Week.

“We did this as a celebration of Dr. King, but also to educate and inform leaders what they should be concerned with when they went back to their communities,” the Rev. Millner told the Free Press.

The community breakfast kicks off a series of events now organized by Living the Dream Inc., under the direction of the Rev. Ricardo Brown of Fifth Baptist Church in the West End. In his remarks, Dr. Franklin outlined “three zones of moral action” that are imperative to address in today’s climate that he said is complicated by the realities of prejudice and racism, economic inequality,

Dr. Robert M. Franklin, president emeritus of Morehouse College, delivers his message focused on the last book written by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., “Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community.”

corrosive politics and vicious and destructive violence.

“First, the zone of police and community relations. Where they are frayed, moral leaders must step into place where there is mistrust and fear with visions and values of interdependence, respect and

ing “care, discipline and moral education for our young people. That is the responsibility of the village elders and anchor institutions, families, schools, congregations and community organizations,” he said.

He said “whites must grapple with white privilege and myths of supremacy, a benefit not requested or earned but merely conferred by social systems and codes with deep roots in a racist past.”

“Blacks,” he added, “must wrestle with torturous memories, legacies, policies and social demons of the past. These demons assume many forms, including a sense of victimization that promotes self-pity and stagnation and self-destruction. Blacks must avoid the traps of internalized oppression and self-hatred,” he said.

The third zone, Dr. Franklin said, “calls us all out of our ethnic and economic enclaves to the high and demanding work of re-engineering, reforming and rebuilding our institutions and policies by diverse coalitions of people working for the common good.”

He said such institutions should include “the state, the market, the independent sector and the faith community.

“It is heavy lifting that involves challenging old and long-standing and unexamined assumptions about our institutional norms,” Dr. Franklin said. “We must ensure greater inclusiveness and equity in our institutions.”

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Virginia Union University President Claude G. Perkins, left, and Dr. W. Franklyn Richardson, chairman of the VUU Board of Trustees, present the MLK Lifetime of Service Award to VUU alumna Florence Neal Cooper Smith of Richmond for her work on sickle cell anemia testing and awareness in Virginia and across the nation.

hope,” he said.

He spoke of a partnership between the New Jersey NAACP and police in which 130 police chiefs from that state underwent implicit bias training by the NAACP, while NAACP leaders from units around the state went through police simulator training. The efforts helped each group understand better the perspective of the other, he said.

Secondly, Dr. Franklin called for provid-

In brief remarks, Dr. Perkins talked about VUU’s history, noting that it’s grounded in a mission to instill in its students a desire to advocate for “social justice, human dignity and equality.”

He noted that VUU students perform thousands of hours of community service each year throughout the Richmond area.

“Today, our challenge is to remain committed to serve our community to make it a better place,” he said.

Lack of diversity prompts Oscar boycott announcement Reuters

Director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith plan to boycott next month’s Academy Awards ceremony because black actors were shut out of nominations.

The Academy acknowledged this week that it needs to do more to promote diversity after the Oscar nominees for acting that were announced last Thursday lacked black performers for a second straight year.

Almost immediately, disappointed fans and activists revived the Twitter feed #OscarsSoWhite that emerged in 2015.

Mr. Lee, director of numerous movies, including “Do the Right Thing” and 2015’s “Chi-Raq,” said he timed his announcement Monday of the Oscar ceremony boycott with the national holiday commemorating slain civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “How Is It Possible For The 2nd Consecutive Year All 20 Contenders Under The Actor Category Are White? And Let’s Not Even Get Into The Other Branches,” Mr. Lee wrote under the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag.

“40 White Actors In 2 Years And No Flava At All. We Can’t Act?!” tweeted Mr. Lee, who was awarded an honorary Oscar in November.

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) Mr. Lee President Cheryl Boone Isaacs said the Academy, which awards the Oscars, had made changes in recent years to drive diversity. But “the change is not coming as fast as we would like,” she said. “We need to do more.”

Ms. Isaacs, who is African-American, called for “big changes,” saying she was “heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion” in this year’s crop of nominees.

“In the coming days and weeks, we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about muchneeded diversity,” Ms. Isaacs said.

Mr. Lee said his decision to stay away from the ceremony was meant as no disrespect

Kappa Alpha Psi pride Sen. A. Donald McEachin of Henrico County, standing center, joins his brothers of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day at the organization’s 8th Annual Virginia Legislative Day at the State Capitol. Fraternity members came from locales across the state, including

to Oscar emcee Chris Rock and producer Reginald Hudlin, both of whom are AfricanAmerican, or to AMPAS officials.

Ms. Pinkett Smith, who appeared in two “Matrix” movies, also said she would skip the Feb. 28 ceremony.

“Maybe it’s time we pull back our resources and we put them back into our communities. And we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit, that are just as good as the so-called mainstream,” she said in a video posted on Facebook.

Her husband, Will Smith, who stars in the football injury drama “Concussion,” and Idris Elba, who portrayed an African warlord in “Beasts of No Nation,” were among the actors snubbed this year.

The cast and director of hip-hop biopic “Straight Outta Compton” also were left out.

The boycott statements came after comedy “Ride Along 2,” starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart, pushed “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” from its position atop the weekend box office.

at VUU events

Civil rights icon and Virginia Union University alumnus Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker will be honored at events on the campus of his alma mater Thursday, Jan. 28, through Saturday, Jan. 30.

The commemoration of the former chief of staff to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is the first “Legacy of a Legend” weekend. It is being organized by the Gamma Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha Dr. Walker Fraternity, to which Dr. Walker has belonged for more than 70 years and Dr. King was a member, and the Wyatt Tee Walker Education Foundation, according to organizers.

The Rev. Jeremiah A. Wright will speak at the kickoff event, “Bridging the Gap Community Worship Service,” from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, in the Allix B. James Chapel at VUU’s Coburn Hall.

Now retired, Rev. Wright was President Obama’s pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago for more than 20 years and was once described by the president as his spiritual adviser.

The Rev. Michael L.W. Moore of Mount Vernon Baptist Church in the West End is serving as the worship leader.

The worship service is free and open to the public.

At 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 30, several speakers will pay tribute to Dr. Walker and his illustrious career at the “Wyatt Tee Walker Scholarship Luncheon” at the Claude G. Perkins Living and Learning Center on the VUU campus.

Speakers will include VUU President Claude G. Perkins; Dr. Boykin Sanders, professor of New Testament Studies and Greek at VUU’s Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology; Mark S. Tillman, national president of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity; and the Rev. Grady Powell, a former pastor at historic Gillfield Baptist Church in Petersburg, where Dr. Walker began his pastoral career in 1953.

Tickets for the luncheon are $75.

Also during the weekend, scholarship awards will be presented to current high school seniors.

For more information or to purchase luncheon tickets: Ryan Bell, (804) 928-2135.

Award-winning poet Sonia Sanchez to speak Saturday at Film Festival The Afrikana Independent Film Festival is introducing its “Evening with an Icon” film series with award-winning poet Sonia Sanchez.

Ms. Sanchez, 81, will participate in an audience discussion about her life and work after a screening of the documentary about her, “BaddDDD Sonia Sanchez.”

The screening and discussion will be 7 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 23, at the Grace Street Theatre, 934 W. Grace St. The Birmingham, Ala., native has authored more than a dozen books of poetry, as well as short stories, critical essays, plays and children’s books. She was a recipient of the 1993 Pew Fellowship in the Arts.

Ms. Sanchez emerged as a seminal figure in the 1960s Black Arts Movement, raising her voice in the name of black culture, civil rights, women’s liberation and peace as a poet, teacher, activist and early champion of spoken word.

She has won numerous honors, including the Langston Hughes Poetry Award in 1999.

She now travels the globe as a speaker and is a visiting professor at the Shomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.

Tickets are $15 in advance, or two for $25. At the door, tickets will be $20.

In case of inclement weather, a tentative snow date has been

Photo by Cleve Packer

Richmond, Petersburg and Charlottesville, to attend the event Monday hosted by Sen. McEachin. Brian J. Moran, state secretary of public safety and homeland security, spoke to the men about issues such as civil rights, criminal justice reform and background checks at gun shows.

scheduled in March.

T h e Afrikana Independent Film Festival is a RichmondMs. Sanchez based festival dedicated to showcasing independent films by and about people of color from around the world, with a special focus on the global black narrative, according to the organization.

The event is sponsored in part by the Virginia Film Office, Virginia State University, the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Humanities & Social Science Research, the VCU Department of African-American Studies and Women & Gender Studies, the University of Richmond film and literature departments, Croaker’s Spot restaurants and artist S. Ross Brown.

For more information: (804) 349-2798, www.afrikanafilmfestival.org or email info@ afrikanafilmfestival.org.

VMFA to continue jazz café Enjoy the smooth sounds of jazz for free at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.

An eclectic mix of jazz ensembles is scheduled to perform from 6 to 9 p.m. each Thursday at the Dominion Jazz Café at the museum, 200 N. Boulevard.

New sponsorship by Dominion Resources will allow the museum to continue its jazz programming for the next three years without charge.

The events are presented in conjunction with the Richmond Jazz Society.

The Doctors of Jazz will perform Thursday, Jan. 21, followed by the Triple Crossing Jazz Project on Thursday, Jan. 28.

Information: www.vmfa. museum.

Richmond Free Press

B3

January 21-23, 2016

Faith News/Directory

Seek solutions to today’s problems in working to realize Dr. King’s dream of South Richmond, encouraged attendees to bring more young people to events like the “I came to help keep his memory and his Mass Meeting so that they can understand “that dream alive. This is the least I can do after somebody went through some fire hoses, some what he did for us,” said Barbara Moon after folks were killed and some folks were fighting attending the 38th Annual Mass Meeting on just so we could have a right to vote.

Monday that honored the life and legacy of Dr. “We need more voices, we need more leaders Martin Luther King Jr. to address those who are living below poverty The retired Richmond Public Schools teacher levels and those who don’t have a voice and was among a few hundred people who braved those who are marginalized.” sub-freezing temperaShe cited the maytures to attend the or’s efforts to alleviate inspiring community poverty through the gathering at Cedar Office of Community Street Baptist Church Wealth Building that is of God in the East End designed to implement on the national holiday poverty-fighting inihonoring Dr. King. tiatives and the Center The predominately for Workforce Develyouth-led event feaopment that provides tured inspiring music job training. and a stirring message Several young peofrom Dr. Alvin Edple also distinguished wards, a former mayor themselves serving in of Charlottesville who leadership roles at the is the pastor of Mount event.

Zion First African Among them was Baptist Church in Henrico High School that city. junior Taylore Harris, His keynote meswho served as the worsage, “The Need For Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press ship leader; Glen AlMore Dreamers,” was Dr. Alvin Edwards, pastor at Mount Zion First len High School junior based on Dr. King’s “I African Baptist Church in Charlottesville, Jalah Mack, who read Have a Dream” speech delivers impassioned remarks at Monday’s a moving tribute to delivered on Aug. 28, Mass Meeting to honor the life and legacy civil rights icon Rosa 1963, to more than of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. at Cedar Street Parks; and Highland Baptist Church of God in the East End. 250,000 people at the Springs High School Lincoln Memorial in Washington. sophomore Jayla Hill, who led a prayer of comHe called Dr. King’s dream “a reflection of what mitment to fulfill Dr. King’s dream.

God would have the universe to become,” where All three were contestants in the 2015 Miss there is “equality and the pursuit of life, liberty Unity Pageant sponsored by the faith group and the pursuit of happiness” for all people.

Sisters United of Richmond, which awards Dr. Edwards drew his message from the biblical scholarships to students. Taylore Harris was story of Joshua in which God instructs Joshua the pageant winner. following Moses’ death to take the Israelites into Performing at the event were 11-year-old twins the Promised Land, promising “I will be with you; Paris and Endya Burton of Chesterfield County I will never leave you nor forsake you.” and their cousin, 10-year-old Jacqueline Dobbins “The question that haunts me is what has of Richmond, known as “3T Diamonds,” who sang happened to the dream and dreamers today?” Ron Kenoly’s “If You Can Use Anything, Lord,” he asked. and Destiny’s Child’s “Stand Up For Love.”

He called on the audience to become involved Later, Quincy Harmon,15, on the keyboards in their homes, jobs, communities and schools and his 13-year-old brother, Malcolm, playing “to make them better places.” the drums, performed instrumental versions of Dr. Edwards said present-day dreamers should Pastor Charles Jenkins’ “My God Is Awesome” seek solutions to alleviate poverty, work to reform and Tamela Mann’s “Take Me to the King.” a discriminatory criminal justice system, help Members of the Upsilon Omega and Alpha those addicted to drugs and alcohol, advocate Eta chapters of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority for educational equity and seek racial unity served as ushers. “where we care about one another.”

The Mass Meeting was organized by Living In brief remarks, Dr. Cheryl Ivey Green, the Dream Inc., led by its executive director, the executive assistant to Mayor Dwight C. Jones Rev. Ricardo Brown of Fifth Baptist Church in and executive minister at First Baptist Church the West End.

Honoring Virginia A.M.E. churches

By Joey Matthews

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Riverview

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

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

Ten-year-old Jacqueline Dobbins, from left, and her twin 11-year-old cousins, Paris and Endya Burton, also known as the “3T Diamonds,” perform Monday at the annual community Mass Meeting celebrating the King holiday.

“The Church With A Welcome”

Sharon Baptist Church 22 E. Leigh Street, Richmond, VA 23219 • 643-3825 thesharonbaptistchurch.com Rev. Dr. Paul A. Coles, Pastor

8:00 a.m. .... Morning Worship 9:30 a.m. .... Church School 11:15 a.m. ...Morning Worship

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

Photos by Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Moore Street Missionary

Baptist Church

1408 W. Leigh Street • 358-6403

Dr. Alonza Lawrence

Mount Olive Baptist Church Rev. Darryl G. Thompson, Pastor

2016 Theme: The Year of Restoration



Pastor

Sundays

Church School 8:30 A.M. Morning Worship 10:00 A.M.

Sundays

8:00 a.m.

Early Morning Worship 9:30 a.m.

Sunday School 11:00 a.m.

Morning Worship

Tuesdays

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

Noon Day Bible Study

Wednesdays

6:30 p.m.

Prayer and Praise 7:00 p.m.

Adult Bible Study

Tuesdays

Bible Study 12 noon

Wednesdays

New Mercies Ministry 6:00 A.M. Youth Bible Study 6:00 P.M. Adult Bible Study 6:30 P.M.

New Deliverance Evangelistic Church

Mission Statement: People of God developing Disciples for Jesus Christ through Preaching and Teaching of God’s Holy Word reaching the people of the Church and the Community.

SUNDAYS

Faith leaders from Virginia African Methodist Episcopal churches, below, stand as members of the House of Delegates applaud them Tuesday at the Virginia General Assembly. Bishop William P. DeVeaux, presiding prelate of the A.M.E. Church’s Second Episcopal District that includes Virginia, North Carolina, Washington and Maryland, left, also was recognized by the legislature. Lawmakers presented him with a resolution honoring more than 120 A.M.E. churches in Virginia for more than 175 years of “ministry and service to the nation and to the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.” The resolution was sponsored by Delegate Jennifer L. McClellan of Richmond and Sen. A. Donald McEachin of Henrico County.

THURSDAYS 1:30 p.m.

Bible Study

1701 Turner Rd. North Chesterfield, Virginia 23225

20TH FOUNDERS & CHURCH ANNIVERSARY “Building Monuments for Present and Future Generations”

“WHAT MEAN THESE STONES”

Scripture: Joshua 4: 21-24

SUNDAY, JANUARY 17 & 24, 9:00 AM NEW DELIVERANCEEVANGELISTIC CHURCH

ANNIVERSARY BANQUET SATURDAY, JANUARY 23, 5:00 PM

THE OMNI RICHMOND 100 S. 12TH ST. RICHMOND, VA 23219 br

at e 2 0 Y

s

Mother Marcietia S. Glenn, First Lady

Bishop G.O. Glenn, Pastor

(804) 276-0791 office • (804) 276-5272 fax • www.ndec.net

� �

Richmond Free Press

B4 January 21-23, 2016

Faith News/Directory

Sheriff Woody gives final salute to deceased veterans

By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Two soldiers and a sailor who died in Richmond will be buried next week with full military honors thanks to help from Richmond Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. He is teaming up with the state Department of Veterans Services to inter the three enlisted men in the Virginia Veterans Cemetery in Amelia County at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 26.

The men had no connection to the city jail. Their

Sheriff Woody

� �

bodies had been unclaimed by family and friends, the sheriff said.

“While they may have lost contact with loved ones, they most certainly have not lost the gratitude of the nation for their service,” he said.

Their cremated remains have been held at Chiles Funeral Home in Richmond as investigations were undertaken to determine their background, according to Tony Pham, an attorney for the Sheriff’s Office.

Mr. Pham said that with help from the state veterans

agency and the nonprofit Missing in America website, it has been determined that the trio were honorably discharged veterans who qualified for burial in a state veterans cemetery.

The urns containing their ashes will be buried in a single coffin, but there will be a marker for each veteran, Mr. Pham said.

He declined to disclose the names of the men. He said that at the request of the veterans agency, the names would not be released until after the service.

Petersburg bomb dog remembered in service

The Petersburg Sheriff’s Office paid a final tribute this week to a faithful deputy — Tex, a bomb detection dog.

The German shepherd was fondly remembered by his colleagues at a memorial service Wednesday afternoon in the office of Petersburg Sheriff Vanessa Crawford.

A member of the sheriff’s staff for five years, Tex died of a sudden illness Sunday, Jan. 17, according to his partner and handler, Cpl. Myron Green.

“Tex was a great asset to the community and to law enforcement in and around the city of Petersburg,” Sheriff Crawford stated Monday in announcing his death.

In 2010, Tex went through the State Police’s K9 academy, where he was trained to sniff out bombs and explosive devices, the sheriff stated. He assisted Petersburg police and other area departments at crime scenes and participated in educational programs for adults and children.

Tex

Funerals & Cremations

Over time, some things change.

But, our tradition of providing service of the highest caliber has remained the same for over 100 years while serving Richmond and surrounding areas with dignity and excellence.

115 E. Brookland Park Blvd., Richmond, Virginia 23222 Toll-Free: 1-888-603-3862 | Phone: 804-321-9095 Fax: 804-321-1033 | www.scottsfuneralhome.com

Richard A. Lambert, Sr., President/CEO

Ebenezer Baptist Church 1858

“The People’s Church”

216 W. Leigh St. • Richmond, Va. 23220 • Tel: 804-643-3366 Fax: 804-643-3367 • Email: ebcoffice1@comcast.net • web: ebcrichmond.org Sunday Worship Sunday Church School Service of Holy Communion Service of Baptism Life Application Bible Class Mid-Week Senior Adult Fellowship Wednesday Meditation & Bible Study Homework & Tutoring Scouting Program Thursday Bible Study



11:00 a.m.

9:30 a.m.

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

Mon. 6:30 p.m.

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

Wed. 7:45 p.m.

Wed. 4:30 p.m.

Wed. 6:00 p.m.

Thurs., 11:45 a.m.

Dr. Levy M. Armwood, Pastor  Dr. Wallace J. Cook, Pastor Emeritus

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



Early Morning Worship ~ 8 a.m.

Sunday School ~ 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship ~ 11 a.m.

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

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

Radio Ministry: Sunday: 9:30 a.m. {1540 AM}

“MAKE IT HAPPEN” Pastor Kevin Cook

New Deliverance Evangelistic Church

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

20 th NDEC Founders’

St. Peter Baptist Church FirstM iBaptist Church dlothian

Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor

13800 Westfield Dr., Midlothian,VA 23113 804-794-5583 • www.fbcm1846.com

Service Times Sunday

Church School 9:45AM Worship 11:00AM

Tuesday

Bible Study 12 Noon

Sundays: Morning Worship Church School Morning Worship

& Church Anniversary!

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

Unity Sundays (2nd Sundays) Church School 8:30 A.M. Morning Worship 10 A.M.

Wednesday Youth & Adult Bible Study 7:00PM Prayer & Praise 8:15PM

Van Transportation Available, Call 804-794-5583

Worship Opportunities

Rev. Pernell J. Johnson, Pastor

Thursdays: Mid-Day Bible Study 12 Noon Prayer & Praise 6:30 P.M. Bible Study 7 P.M. (Children/Youth/Adults) 2040 Mountain Road • Glen Allen, Virginia 23060 Office 804-262-0230 • Fax 804-262-4651 • www.stpeterbaptist.net

Good Shepherd Baptist Church 1127 North 28th St., Richmond, VA 23223-6624 • Office: (804) 644-1402 Dr. Sylvester T. Smith, Pastor “There’s A Place for You” Tuesday Sunday 10:30 AM Bible Study 9:30 AM Church School 6:30 PM Church-wide Bible Study 11:00 AM Worship Service 6:30 PM Men's Bible Study (Each 2nd and 4th) (Holy Communion Thursday each 2nd Sunday) Wednesday (Following 2nd Sunday) 6:30 PM Prayer Meeting

2003 Lamb Avenue Dr. Arthur M. Jones, Sr., Pastor (804) 321-7622 Church School - 9:30 a.m.

Worship Service - 11:15 a.m.

Bible Study: Tuesday - 9 a.m.

Wednesday - 7 p.m.

Thirty-first Street Baptist Church

Prayer Services: Wednesday (1st & 3rd ) 7 a.m.

Every Wednesday 8 p.m.

C

With Mission, Growth, Prayer, Purpose, Vision We Are Growing In The Kingdom As We Grow The Kingdom with Word, Worship and Witness

Sunday, January 24, 2016 10:40 AM Worship and Praise 11:00 AM Divine Worship Message by: Pastor Sermon Series: Prayer Power #4

3:30 PM Combined Ushers Anniversary

Message by: Rev. Kevin Sykes and St. James Baptist Church

Rev. Dr. Yvonne Jones Bibbs, Pastor

Twitter sixthbaptistrva

400 South Addison Street Richmond, Va. 23220

Facebook sixthbaptistrva

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

(near Byrd Park)

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

Attendance - 78 Sanctuary - All Are Welcome!

Wednesday Evening Bible Study 7 p.m.

Attendance - 158

. Theme: , “Building Monuments for Present and Future Generations” “What Mean These Stones” Scripture: Joshua 4:21 - 24

Sunday, January 24, 2016 9:00 AM - NDEC Saturday, January 23, 2016

Banquet

You can now view Sunday Morning Service The Omni Richmond Hotel “AS IT HAPPENS” online! 100 S. 12th St., Richmond, VA 23219 Also, for your convenience, For more information we now offer and to purchase your banquet “full online giving.” tickets go to: www.ndec.net Visit www.ndec.net.

Baptist Church

Theme for 2016: Becoming a Five-Star Church of Excellence

Wednesday Services

Saturday

Triumphant

Sixth Baptist Church

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

8:30 a.m. Intercessory Prayer

11:00 AM Mid-day Meditation

Communion - 1st Sunday

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

o

everence e with e evanc R ing Dr. Morris Henderson, Senior Pastor bin ❖

SUNDAYS Church School 9:30 a.m.

Morning Worship 10:30 a.m. ❖

WEDNESDAYS Bible Study 12:00 p.m. & 7:00 p.m. ❖

MONDAY-FRIDAY Nutrition Center and Clothes Closet 11:30 a.m. & 1:00 p.m.

823 North 31st Street Richmond, VA 23223 (804) 226-0150 Office www.31sbc.org

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

call 804-644-0496

Richmond Free Press The People's Paper

Richmond Free Press

January 21-23, 2016 B5

Legal Notices/Employment Opportunities City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, February 8, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2015-265 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $300,000 from the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and to appropriate the amount of $300,000 to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to a new special fund of the Judiciary – Other City Courts agency called the Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court Program special fund by $300,000 for the purpose of supporting and enhancing services provided to addicted offenders assigned to the Richmond Adult Drug Treatment Court Program. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-266 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $46,650.00 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 20152016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services by $46,650.00 for the purpose of providing foam team training for fire and emergency services personnel. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-267 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept funds in the amount of $53,350 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management; to transfer $53,350 in matching funds from the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 General Fund Budget, Department of Fire and Emergency Services account; and to appropriate the total amount of $106,700 to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services by $106,700 for the purpose of increasing awareness in emergency preparedness and providing foam team training for fire and emergency services personnel. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2015-268 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $65,000.00 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 20152016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services by $65,000.00 for the purpose of providing materials for community outreach and preparedness training related to acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events.

(Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2016-009 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept funds in the amount of $18,750 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services; to transfer $56,250 in matching funds from the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 General Fund Budget, Department of Justice Services account; and to appropriate the total amount of $75,000 to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Justice Services by $75,000 for the purpose of implementing a continual jail bed use planning process in the city of Richmond. To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $65,000.00 from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management, and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Fire and Emergency Services by $65,000.00 for the purpose of providing materials for community outreach and preparedContinued on next column

Continued from previous column

ness training related to acts of terrorism and other catastrophic events.

(Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2016-010 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept grant funds in the amount of $400,000 from the United States Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and to amend the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Justice Services by $400,000 for the purpose of replacing the current juvenile drug court program with a juvenile behavioral health docket program to provide additional services to juvenile offenders with cooccurring mental health and substance abuse disorders. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2016-011 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept funds in the amount of $39,800 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Police by $39,800 for the purpose of funding various prevention and intervention programs to assist in gang and violent crime reduction efforts. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Ordinance No. 2016-012 To authorize the Chief Administrative Officer to accept funds in the amount of $13,081.00 from the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services and to appropriate the increase to the Fiscal Year 2015-2016 Special Fund Budget by increasing estimated revenues and the amount appropriated to the Department of Justice Services by $13,081.00 for the purpose of funding a two percent salary increase for the City’s fulltime local Pretrial Service Act and Comprehensive Community Corrections Act employees. (Committee: Public Safety, Tuesday, January 26, 2016, 5:00 p.m., Council Chamber) Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so.

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

Jean V. Capel City Clerk City of Richmond, Virginia CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC NOTICE Notice is hereby given that the City of Richmond Planning Commission has scheduled a public hearing, open to all interested citizens, on Monday, February 1, 2016 at 1:30 p.m. in the Fifth Floor Conference Room of City Hall and the Council of the City of Richmond has scheduled a public hearing on Monday, February 8, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. in the Council Chamber on the Second Floor of City Hall, located at 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia, to consider the following ordinances: Ordinance No. 2016-013 To conditionally rezone the property known as 2900 West Broad Street from the B-3 General Business District to the B-5 Central Business District, upon certain proffered conditions. The Richmond Master Plan recommends General Commercial uses for the subject property.

General commercial uses include a broad range of office, retail, general commercial, wholesale and service uses, typically located along major transportation corridors and serving large portions of the City, the region or the traveling public.

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The proposed special use permit would allow a residential density of approximately 26 units per acre.

Ordinance No. 2016-015 To authorize the special use of the property known as 6140 Hull Street Road for the purpose of multifamily dwellings containing an aggregate of up to 88 dwelling units, upon certain terms and conditions. The Land Use Plan of the City of Richmond’s Master Plan designates the subject property for Single Family (Low Density) land use. Primary uses in this category are single-family detached dwellings at densities up to seven units per acre. The proposed development would have a residential density of 5.5 units per acre.

Interested citizens who wish to speak will be given an opportunity to do so.

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

Jean V. Capel City Clerk

Divorce VIRGINIA: IN THE CIRCUIT COURT FOR THE COUNTY OF HANOVER MELODY WILLIS, Plaintiff v.

ROD WILLIS, Defendant.

Case No.: CL15002953-00 ORDER OF PUBLICATION

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

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear here on or before the 26th day of February, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. and protect his interests.

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

HOANG NHU NGO, Defendant.

Case No.: CL15-2809 ORDER PURSUANT TO VIRGINIA CODE SECTION 20-104

The object of this suit is to obtain a divorce from the bond of matrimony from the defendant on the ground of desertion. The defendant did leave the marital residence on July 4, 2014 and has not yet returned.

Plaintiff seeks divorce a vinculo matrimonii based on the charge of desertion, and that the bonds of matrimony entered into between plaintiff and defendant on June 3, 1980 be dissolved. Plaintiff also seeks title to the marital residence.

It is ORDERED that the defendant, whose whereabouts are unknown, appear before this Court on or before the 16th day of February, 2016 to protect his interests herein.

A Copy, Teste: YVONNE G. SMITH, Clerk I ask for this: Jessica Thompson (VSB #75514) Doris Henderson Causey (VSB #50944) Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, Inc. P.O. Box 122063 Richmond, VA 23241 804-648-1012 x 6037 804-648-1012 x 6041 Counsels for Plaintiff

CUSTODY

Ordinance No. 2016-014 To authorize the special use of the property known as 1400 North Boulevard for the purpose of a mixeduse development, upon certain terms and conditions. The Land Use Plan of the City of Richmond’s Master Plan designates the subject property for General Commercial land use. Primary uses in this category include a broad range of office, retail, general commercial, wholesale and service uses, typically located along major transportation corridors and serving large portions of the City, the region or the traveling public. No residential density is specified for this land use designation.

virgiNia: iN thE CIRCUIT cOurt OF the COunty of Chesterfield KELLY ELIZABETH McMILLAN, Plaintiff v.

ROBERT CAS SATKOWSKI, Defendant Case No.: CL15-3159 OrDEr Of puBLicatiON

The object of this suit is to obtain a name change for the minor child, Cooper Lane Satkowski. It appearing by affidavit that the Defendant’s last known address was 7352 Roosevelt, Avenue, Mechanicsville, Virginia 23111, the Defendant’s present whereabouts are unknown, and diligence has been used by or on behalf of the Plaintiff to ascertain in what county or city the Defendant is without effect, it is ORDERED that the Defendant appear before this Court on or before February 4, 2016 at 8:30 a.m. and protect his interests herein.

An Extract, Teste: Wendy S. Hughes, Clerk I ask for this: Vera Duke, Esquire (VSB#17207) CLIFFORD & DUKE, P.C. 909 North Courthouse Road Richmond, VA 23236 (804) 379-2119 (Telephone) (804) 794-7659 (Fax) dukeclifford@aol.com (Email)

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Counsel for Plaintiff virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re eric brendan short, Juvenile Case No. JJ082673-12-00

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Unknown (Father) of Eric Brendan Short, child, DOB 2/24/2009, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Unknown, (Father) appear at the above-named Court and protect his/her interest on or before June 8, 2016 at 9:00 a.m.

Diane Abato, Esq. 900 E. Broad Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219 virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Kristopher joseph packer, Juvenile Case No. JJ089895-07/ JJ089895-08

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Tyrone Arlington, (Father), and Unknown (Father) of Kristopher Joseph Packer, child, DOB 05/16/2013, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Tyrone Arlington (Father), and Unknown, (Father) appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/ her interest on or before March 17, 2016 at 2:20 p.m., Court Room #3.

Kate O’Leary, Esq. 900 E. Broad Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219 virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs Continued on next column

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District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re Kyashawn M. packer, Juvenile Case No. JJ076508-08/ JJ076508-10

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Malcolm Barnes, (Father), and Unknown (Father) of Kyashawn M. Packer, child, DOB 06/12/2005, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Malcolm Barnes (Father), and Unknown, (Father) appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/ her interest on or before March 17, 2016 at 2:20 p.m., Court Room #3.

Kate O’Leary, Esq. 900 E. Broad Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219

city Of richmOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re IYanna mildred packer, Juvenile Case No. JJ076508-08/ JJ076508-10

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Pierre Jermone Bush, (Father), and Unknown (Father) of Kyashawn M. Packer, child, DOB 06/12/2005, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Malcolm Barnes (Father), and Unknown, (Father) appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/ her interest on or before March 17, 2016 at 2:20 p.m., Court Room #3.

Kate O’Leary, Esq. 900 E. Broad Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219

virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE city Of richmOND Commonwealth of Virginia, in re DIVIne packer, Juvenile Case No. JJ076508-08/ JJ076508-10

The object of this suit is to: Terminate the residual parental rights (“RPR”) of Ivan Antonio Smith, (Father), and Unknown (Father) of Divine Packer, child, DOB 03/05/2010, “RPR” means all rights and responsibilities remaining with parent after transfer of legal custody or guardianship of the person, including but not limited to rights of: visitation; adoption consent; determination of religious affiliation; and responsibility for support.

It is ORDERED that the defendant Ivan Antonio Smith (Father), and Unknown, (Father) appear at the abovenamed Court and protect his/ her interest on or before March 17, 2016 at 2:20 p.m., Court Room #3.

Kate O’Leary, Esq. 900 E. Broad Street, 4th Floor Richmond, Virginia 23219 virgiNia: iN thE JuvENiLE aND DOmEstic rELatiONs District cOurt Of thE

BID COUNTY OF HENRICO, VIRGINIA CONSTRUCTION ITB # 15-1108-12CE – Toilet Room Improvements – Byrd Middle School, Carver Elementary School, Crestview Elementary School and Pemberton Elementary School - This project consists of repairs and alterations of existing toilet room spaces.

Due 3:00 pm, February 11, 2016. Additional information available at: http://henrico.us/ purchasing/.

RETAIL LICENSE The Luncheonette LLC Trading as: The Luncheonette 104 N 18th Street Richmond, Virginia 23223 The above establishment is applying to the Virginia D epartment of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) for a Wine and Beer On Premises license to sell or manufacture alcoholic beverages.

Brad Barzoloski, Owner, 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.

Richmond Ambulance Authority Notice of Request for Proposal EMS Uniforms Solicitation Number: 16-01 The Richmond Ambulance Authority seeks proposals of for Benefits Brokerage and Consulting Services. The successful bidder will provide a proposal for the aforementioned service to the Authority no later than 3pm, EST on February 18, 2014. Interested parties may obtain a copy of the Request for Proposals (RFP) for Benefits Brokerage and Consulting Services 16-01 by contacting: Tiffany Ford Compliance Director Richmond Ambulance Authority 804-254-1185 tford@raaems.org

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College is the third largest community college in Virginia and offers a variety of programs and services to the residents of the City of Richmond and surrounding counties.

Annually, our three campuses serve over 20,000+ credit students and provide training for an additional 15,000 students through the Community College Workforce Alliance. Over the years, we have educated more than 300,000 people in the Richmond area.

The College is seeking applicants who share in its commitment to students and teamwork. The College supports a culture of life-long learning, celebrating its diversity, and recruiting and retaining star quality employees.

The College is excited to announce part-time teaching opportunities for Spring 2016 and Summer 2016.

For specific teaching disciplines and information on how to apply, please visit the college's website: www.reynolds.edu.

AA/EOE/ADA/Veterans/AmeriCorps/Peace Corps/Other National Service Alumni are encouraged to apply.

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The City of Richmond announces the following project(s) available for services relating to: IFB M160012197-Westhampton Pumping Station Improvements Receipt Date: February 11, 2016 at 2:30 P.M. Opening Date: February 12, 2016 at 2:30 P.M. Pre-bid Date/Time/Location: January 22, 2016 at 2:30 P.M. located at City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, 11th floor, Room 1104, Richmond, VA 23219 Information or copies of the above solicitation is available by contacting Procurement Services, at the City of Richmond website (www.

RichmondGov.com), or at 11th Floor of City Hall, 900 E. Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia 23219. Phone (804) 646-5716 or faxed (804) 6465989. The City of Richmond encourages all contractors to participate in the procurement process.

For reference purposes, documents may be examined at the above location.

The City of Richmond is seeking to fill the following position: Accountant III General Ledger & Financial Reporting 25M00000083 Department of Finance Apply 01/31/2016 Controller 25M00000121 Department of Finance Apply by 01/31/2016 Customer Service Representative II 25M00000032 Department of Finance Apply by 01/31/2016 Human Resources Consultant 12M00000025 Department of Human Resources Apply by 1/31/2016 Library Associate I 03M00000032 Department of Finance Apply by 01/31/2016

Public Meeting on Amending the City of Richmond, VA 2006-2007 CONSOLIDATED ANNUAL ACTION PLAN February 11, 2016 @ 5:30 PM 3rd Floor Conference Room 1500 East Main Street The Richmond Department of Economic and Community Development is proposing to amend its Section 108 authorization in order to expand the eligible activities of the Economic Development Revolving Loan Fund I. An amended application would be submitted to the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for the purpose of creating a business loan pool (Tranche 1) in the amount of $9,875,000 to facilitate large real estate economic development projects, the creation of affordable housing, and other special use projects that primarily benefit low and moderate income persons, prevents or eliminates slums or blight, creates and/or retains jobs and provide area benefits in the City of Richmond’s targeted commercial corridors and residential neighborhoods.

The Department invites members of the public to provide comments, oral or written, on this proposed amendment. Copies of the proposal are available at the Department of Economic and Community Development office located at 1500 E. Main Street, Suite 400 and may be also viewed on the City’s web site, www.richmondgov.com. A public meeting to receive comments will be held, February 11, 2016 at 5:30 p.m. at Main Street Station, 1500 E. Main Street, 3rd Floor conference room. Public comments, oral or written, will be received on this proposal from January 22, 2016 until February 22, 2016. A separate public hearing will be held by Richmond City Council at a later date. For more information, you may contact Mr. Ron N. Johnson, Chief Credit & Financial Strategies Officer who can be reached at (804) 646-7489, Ron.Johnson@richmondgov.com.

Management Analyst II 35M00000262 Public Utilities Apply by 1/31/16 Materials Technician 35M00000119 Public Utilities Apply by 1/31/16 Operations Manager – Water Quality Laboratory 35M00000118 Public Utilities Apply by 2/14/16 Pipeline Technician II 35M00000452 Public Utilities Apply by 1/31/16 Program Manager 14M00000015 Human Services Apply by 1/24/16 Tax Representative-Motor Vehicle Tax 25M00000005 Department of Finance Apply by 01/31/2016 ****************** For an exciting career with the City of Richmond, visit our website for additional information and apply today! www.richmondgov.com EOE M/F/D/V

The City of Richmond does not discriminate on the basis of disability status in the admission, access to, or treatment in its federally assisted programs or activities. Virginia Relay Center – TDD Users –1-800-828-1120. Main Street Station is handicap accessible.

TRUCK DRIVERS-OTR/CLASS A CDL Ashley Distribution Services in Richmond seeks: •TRUCKLOAD DRIVERS (No Touch) Earning potential avg. $66,000 year •LTL TRUCK DRIVERS (Multiple stop loads to retail stores!) Earning potential avg. $85,000 year •Home Weekly •Paid Vacation •Full Benefit Package• Paid Holidays Class A CDL & at least 2 years current OTR exp. Clean MVR/PSP Reports.

Call 1-800-837-2241 email: jobs@ashleydistributionservices.com or www.ashleydistributionservices.com to apply under jobs.

To advertise in the

Richmond Free Press call 644-0496

Richmond Free Press

B6 January 21-23, 2016

Sports Plus

High spirit at Freedom Classic When it comes to the long-standing rivalry between Virginia Union University and Virginia State University, the fans of both teams always have fun. Sunday was no exception during the Freedom Classic Festival, where the teams met on the basketball court at the Richmond Coliseum after fan activities including a drumline competition, college fair and gospel showcase. At left, VUU players huddle to continue the rally in the final minutes of the game, while, below left, VUU’s Danny McElroy goes high to block a shot by VSU’s Elijah Moore. Fans for both teams enthusiastically cheered the action. Trojans fan Charles Garnett gives his 4-year-old great-grandson Jeremiah Marte a lift as the VSU mascot rallies the fans. The Panthers ultimately beat the VSU Trojans 70-68. Please see additional photos on A1 and A8.

Charlie Stukes, one of seven 2016 inductees into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame, talks with state Sen. A. Donald McEachin of Henrico County, left, and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam on Tuesday at the General Assembly, where the inductees were recognized.

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Charles Oakley, Charlie Stukes among 2016 inductees into Va. Sports Hall of Fame

By Fred Jeter

For the second year in a row, a former Virginia Union University basketball center has been named to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame.

Charles Oakley, the NCAA Division II Player of the Year for VUU in 1985, will be inducted April 30 at the Renaissance-Portsmouth Norfolk Waterfront Hotel in Portsmouth.

A year ago, former Panther Ben Wallace, who played with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons, was named to the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame that has its museum and headquarters in Portsmouth.

Recruited to VUU out of Cleveland by former Coach Dave Robbins, Oakley averaged 24.3 points and 17.3 rebounds his senior season, helping the Panthers to a 30-1 record.

The ninth player taken overall in the 1985 NBA draft by the Cleveland Cavaliers, the 6-foot-9 Oakley accumulated 12,417 points, 12,205 rebounds and 3,217 assists in a 19-

year career.

On five occasions, “Oak Tree” ranked among the NBA’s top 10 rebounders.

Also named to the Class of 2016 Virginia Sports Hall of Fame are former football stars James “Potsy” Farrior and Charlie Stukes.

Farrior starred at Matoaca High School and the University of Virginia before graduating to NFL fame with the New York Jets and Pittsburgh Steelers.

The bruising linebacker helped the Steelers to two Super Bowl titles and was twice an All-Pro pick in 15 NFL seasons.

Stukes, from segregated Crestwood High School in Chesapeake, was an All-CIAA performer at Maryland State (now University of Maryland-Eastern Shore) before entering the NFL with the Baltimore Colts in 1967.

The cornerback had 32 career interceptions and was a starter for Baltimore in its victory over Dallas in Super Bowl V. For Hall of Fame induction ceremony tickets, call (757) 393-8031 or www.vshfm.com.

Photos by James Haskins/ Richmond Free Press

Employment Opportunities St. Peter Baptist Church Dr. Kirkland R. Walton, Pastor 2040 Mountain Rd • Glen Allen, VA 23060 Office 804-262-0230 • Fax 804-262-4651 www.stpeterbaptist.net

SILVER STRINGS ENSEMBLE

seeks additional youth members who have 2 or more years of experience playing either the violin, viola, cello or double (upright) bass.

Rehearsals are held 2nd & 4th Thursdays: 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m.

If interested, reply: spbcmusic@verizon.net

PHOTOJOURNALIST WWBT/NBC12, Richmond, VA seeks motivated Photojournalist with a minimum of 3 years news videography experience to join our team. Successful candidate will have proven initiative in newsgathering for all platforms, ENG cameras and video editing (Edius). Responsible for maintaining assigned gear, operating ENG trucks and live devices. Candidate will also be required to contribute content to digital platforms. Must be willing and able to work a variety of shifts including but not limited to mornings, afternoons, evenings, late nights, holidays and weekends. Must have a valid driver’s license, proof of insurance, and a good driving record. Qualified candidates ONLY apply online at https://careers-raycommedia.icims.com.

Also include links to your work. Drug Screen and MVR check required. EOE M/F/D/V.

Director of Finance

The Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Social Work is currently seeking a Director of Finance. This full-time twelve-month, professional (non-tenure earning) faculty appointment reports directly to the dean. The Director of Finance supports the mission and strategic initiatives of the school by providing budgetary and financial oversight and management to ensure the school operates effectively, efficiently and sustainably. Responsible for analytic leadership, budget development and implementation, procurement, financial reporting and scholarship funds administration.

For additional information and to apply for this position please visit https://www.vcujobs.com/postings/48880.

Virginia Commonwealth University is an equal opportunity, affirmative action university providing access to education and employment without regard to age, race, color, national origin, gender, religion, sexual orientation, veteran’s status, political affiliation or disability.

IT AudITor

Audit & Risk Division

StAff AuDitoR Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) is Virginia’s self-supporting state housing finance authority. Our mission is to help Virginians obtain quality, affordable housing. The Audit & Risk team is seeking a detail-oriented audit professional to conduct audits, reviews and our quality assurance programs.

The successful candidate will perform audit tests and procedures, including documenting client processes and procedures, developing audit criteria and tests, reviewing and analyzing evidence and identifying and defining issues.

This role will also perform reviews, internal consulting engagements, risk assessments and will evaluate the adequacy of VHDA’s internal control environment and compliance with policies, procedures and applicable laws and regulations. This position will be responsible for conducting operational, financial, IT and compliance audits in accordance with applicable regulations, policies and procedures. Candidate must possess accounting aptitude, research and analytical skills, and demonstrate excellent written and presentation abilities.

Preferred candidate will have experience in the mortgage industry with a minimum of 2 years audit experience. A bachelor’s degree in a business-related field required, and coursework in principles of accounting and intermediate accounting preferred. A professional/technical certification (CIA, CPA, CISA) and advanced computer skills a plus. Experience using MS Office applications required. No travel required.

VHDA offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits package. Interested persons must submit a resume and cover letter, stating salary requirements, online only: http://www.vhda.com/about/careers An EOE

Virginia Housing Development Authority (VHDA) is Virginia’s self-supporting state housing finance authority. Our mission is to help Virginians obtain quality, affordable housing. The Audit and Risk team is seeking an IT Auditing professional to join us. This team member will support our Audit activities via the design and execution of IT audits utilizing a risk-based audit approach.

The successful candidate will have a proven track record in: 1) performing ongoing system risk assessments, 2) performing examinations of systems to assess data integrity & governance, access and application controls, and compliance with policies and procedures resulting in recommendations that strengthen system controls, and 3) actively evaluating data security and global IT practices, procedures and controls. Candidate will have knowledge and understanding of scripts to pull operating system and database configurations in addition to performing new systems development audits. A proven understanding of IT risks, processes, and controls, including application controls is required as well as the ability to develop a risk-based audit plan and test approach. Must possess strong analytical skills and the ability to develop themes and identify the root cause of issues. Strong interpersonal and communication skills and the ability to develop solid working relationships with others is a must. Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite including Word, Excel, Power Point and Outlook is required.

Bachelor’s degree/equivalent in AIS, MIS, or Computer Science preferred. A CISA Certification is preferred along with 2-3 years of IT audit experience. Experience in Active Directory environments, ASPs, and/or Black Knight a plus.

VHDA offers a competitive salary and excellent benefits package. Interested persons must submit a resume and cover letter, stating salary requirements, online only at: http://www.vhda.com/about/careers An EOE

Hiring Range: $51,686 – 67,192

Hiring Range - $59,439 – 77,271

Background and credit checks will be performed as a condition of employment.

Background and credit checks will be performed as a condition of employment.

J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College is the third largest community college in Virginia and offers a variety of programs and services to the residents of the City of Richmond and surrounding counties. Annually, our three campuses serve over 20,000+ credit students and provide training for an additional 15,000 students through the Community College Workforce Alliance. Over the years, we have educated more than 300,000 people in the Richmond area.

The College is seeking applicants who share in its commitment to students and teamwork. The College supports a culture of life-long learning, celebrating its diversity, and recruiting and retaining star quality employees.

The College is excited to announce the following full-time teaching opportunities in Nursing: Positions #FO073 and #FO303 Nursing Instructors • Medical Surgical (2 positions) Position #FO265 Nursing Instructor • Mental Health

Also, several part-time teaching opportunities in Nursing are available for Spring and Summer 2016.

To apply for the full-time positions and/or the part-time teaching positions, please visit the college's website: www.reynolds.edu.

AA/EOE/ADA/Veterans/AmeriCorps/Peace Corps/Other National Service Alumni are encouraged to apply!