Richmond Free Press January 14-16, 2021 edition

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Living the Dream B2

Richmond Free Press

VOL. 30 NO. 3

© 2021 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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Meet this week’s Personality B1

JANUARY 14-16, 2021

Day of reckoning The U.S. House of Representatives votes to impeach President Trump for a second time, charging him with “incitement of insurrection” over the deadly mob takeover of the U.S. Capitol By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Leah Millis/Reuters/TPX Images of the Day

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shows the article of impeachment against President Trump after signing it in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday. It marks the first time in U.S. history that a president has been impeached twice.

Growing their own

The reckoning has begun. Even as his followers were being arrested and he prepares to leave office in a few days, President Trump was labeled a “clear and present danger” to the nation’s security in becoming the first chief executive in U.S. history to be impeached twice – this time for the failed Jan. 6 insurrection in which he incited followers to carry out the biggest attack on the U.S. Capitol since 1814 when British troops burned it. On Wednesday, 222 Democrats and 10 Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives passed the impeachment resolution in hopes of banning President Trump from ever again holding public office. Their action came a week after the attempted insurrection by a riotous mob of Trump supporters to prevent Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden as his successor and Kamala Harris as the next vice president. While Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio led 191 other Republicans in decrying the impeached vote, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was adamant about the need to act. “We know that the president of the United States incited this insurrection, this armed rebellion against our common country. He must go,” Speaker Pelosi said, calling President Trump “a clear and present danger to the nation we all love.” President Trump “must be impeached,” she continued, “and I believe the president must be convicted by the Senate, a constitutional remedy that will ensure that the republic will be safe from this man, who

South Richmond medical marijuana facility grows more than 70 strains of plants used to help patients with various conditions

By Lyndon German

Mr. Burnems

Richmond names new poet laureate Free Press staff report

Richmond has its first poet laureate. Douglas Powell — better known by his stage name Roscoe Burnems — was announced Wednesday. The Richmond-born writer already has achieved acclaim as a National Poetry Slam champion, author, spoken-word artist, comedian and teacher. “The Richmond Poet Laureate should relish showing kids, teens and adults the healing, restorative power of the written word,” Mayor Levar M. Stoney stated in announcing Mr. Burnems’ selection. “Roscoe has exhibited time and again his interest in bringing poetry to the people, and his list of ideas for engagement projects tells me he’s the Richmonder for the job,” the mayor noted. The list of projects Mr. Please turn to A4

If recreational marijuana use were legalized in Virginia tomorrow, Green Leaf Medical — a medicinal marijuana dispensary in South Richmond — would be able to distribute products immediately, according to the company’s operations manager, Samer Abilmona. Green Leaf’s Richmond operation opened last April in an old but renovated tobacco warehouse on Decatur Street. Here, in a three-story, 82,000-square-foot facility filled with various growing rooms and labs, the company produces more than 500 pounds of medicinal marijuana per week and cares for approximately 6,000 plants, Mr. Abilmona said. A recent tour of the facility showed the different areas set up for each stage of the marijuana plant’s life cycle. In some areas, small sprouts group into bushes a bit larger than indoor rubber plants. In other areas, adult plants grow more than 3 feet tall. More than 70 different varieties of marijuana are grown to treat the myriad of medical conditions of the patients who come through the door with prescriptions from their doctor. Each variety requires different amounts of nutrients controlled by the indoor irrigation system, company officials explained. The labs also house a number of LED light rigs enabling the plants to grow indoors. Growers and technicians monitor the health of the plants as they flower and produce trichomes, the part of the plant Please turn to A4

Free COVID-19 testing Free community testing for COVID-19 continues. The Richmond and Henrico County health districts are offering testing at the following locations: • Thursday, Jan. 14, 1 to 3 p.m., Broad Rock Community Center, 4615 Ferguson Lane, South Side. • Friday, Jan. 15, 1 to 3 p.m., Eastern Henrico Health Department, 1400 N. Laburnum Ave., in Eastern Henrico. Drivethru testing. • Tuesday, Jan. 19, 10 a.m.

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Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

A marijuana plant at the Green Leaf Medical facility in South Side has reached the flowering stage, producing tiny crystals called trichomes that are harvested for medicinal oils THC and CBD.

Dr. Fauci promotes COVID-19 vaccines on local Zoom call By George Copeland Jr.

the end of this year. “I believe strongly that we can do “We want you all to get vacciit,” he said. nated for your own protection, for Dr. Fauci, director of the National that of your family and for your Institutes of Allergy and Infectious community,” Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, Diseases, fielded questions from Virwho leads the nation’s health efforts ginia faith leaders and others on the to combat COVID-19, told a Zoom call as the featured guest on “Facts and audience of about 10,000 people on Faith Fridays,” hosted by Dr. Robert Dr. Fauci a call with Richmond and Virginia Winn, head of Virginia Commonwealth health officials Jan. 8. University’s Massey Cancer Center. He speculated that the United States could Please turn to A4 potentially end the COVID-19 outbreak toward

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Interested in a COVID-19 vaccine? Area health officials plan to expand vaccinations beginning Monday, Jan. 18, to front line essential workers, including police, firefighters and hazmat workers, pre-kindergarten through high school teachers and staff, child care workers and those who work in correctional facilities and homeless shelters. Currently, only front line health care workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities have priority to receive the vaccines. Officials said three largescale regional vaccination clinics will begin offering vaccines to the expanded group next week, but no details were available on the locations. Those who live or work in Richmond or Henrico County and who think they are in the expanded group are asked to fill out a COVID-19 vaccine interest form at vax.rchd.com, or call (804) 205-3501. Residents of Chesterfield, Hanover, Goochland, New Kent and Charles City counties are asked to complete an eligibility tool at https://vdh.jebbit. com/amkwk6m1?L=Owned+ Web&JC=Vaccine or to call the state COVID-19 hotline at (877) 275-8343.

VLBC outlines legislative priorities for new General Assembly session By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Buoyed by two legislative sessions last year that ushered in huge reforms in voting and criminal justice, the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus is vowing to keep pressing for more change. The 23-member group unveiled an ambitious package of legislation as the new session of the General Assembly opened Wednesday. The session will be limited to just 30 days at the insistence of the Republican minority. With only a short time to get bills passed, the caucus will be “laser focused” on pushing legislation that “will impact individual lives in

every corner of the Commonwealth,” said Henrico Delegate Lamont Bagby, chair of the VLBC, as he joined members in talking up the bills they will be supporting. A sampling of the array of bills that caucus members will be seeking to get passed before the scheduled Thursday, Feb. 11, adjournment: Delegate • Legalize recreational use of marijuana, with tax dollars generated by sales going to benefit Black and brown communities hardest hit by enforcement and to beef up and expand public pre-school programs; • Provide paid leave for workers on furlough

due to the pandemic; • Abolish the death penalty and the habitual offender statute; • Provide automatic expungement of criminal records for those who have had no additional convictions in eight years; and • Install stronger protections against eviction, increase funding for rental and Bagby mortgage relief, expand state financial support for development of much-needed apartments and homes that carry lower rental and sale price tags and authorize a tax credit for those creating such affordable housing. With Democrats in control of both the House

of Delegates and the state Senate, passage of Gov. Ralph S. Northam’s bill to legalize small amounts of marijuana for personal use is regarded as likely to pass. Two veteran Caucus members, Sen. L. Louise Lucas of Portsmouth and House Majority Leader Charniele Herring of Alexandria, are carrying the legislation in their respective houses with the aim of ensuring benefits for the Black and brown communities most harmed by zealous enforcement of marijuana possession laws. Their bills would allow people to buy and possess 1 ounce of marijuana – enough for 50 Please turn to A4


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