Singled out for street sign A2
Richmond Free Press
VOL. 27 NO. 19
© 2018 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA
Room to grow
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VUU standout goes international B8
MAY 10-12, 2018
Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School seeks to expand with help from city By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Council delayed a vote for a month to give the City Attorney’s Office time to amend the specific A private Episcopal school in the East End sales ordinances to incorporate purchase agreethat currently offers a tuition-free education to ments between the city and the school that would l08 children mostly from low-income families include an assurance the gym would serve both living in public housing is working the school and the community. None with the city to buy an acre of land of the council members opposed the for its first big expansion. property sale. Under a proposal before Richmond The purchase is to include five City Council, the Anna Julia Cooper parcels mainly in the 2100 block of Episcopal School — named for a North 29th Street near the Creighton renowned African-American educator, Court and Church Hill North developscholar and women’s rights activist ments and three properties on two side — would buy eight tax-delinquent streets, 2820 and 2822 Purcell St. and Mr. Maruca properties that sit next door to the 2807 Newbourne St. school’s current home at 2124 N. 29th St. The eight parcels, along with one the school The proposal calls for the school to buy from already owns at 2108 N. 29th St., would prothe city the eight parcels for about $145,000, vide nearly 1.3 acres for development adjacent which includes the city’s legal costs for taking to the school building, a former day care center the property, and then invest $5 million to $6 for the Richmond Redevelopment and Housing million to build new classrooms and a gymnasium Authority. that also could be used by the community for The school has leased the space from RRHA meetings, events and recreation programs. Please turn to A4 During a committee session Monday, City
James Haskins/Richmond Free Press
King of the dance Austen Anthony, 4, gives a tip of his hat as he performs with a member of the La Palma dance group of Panama on Saturday at the 17th Annual ¿Qué Pasa? Festival along the Canal Walk. Please see more photos, B2.
Graduating while black
Graduation celebration goes awry at University of Florida Free Press wire reports
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
An expansion would allow Anna Julia Cooper Episcopal School to double the number of students it serves and expand its curriculum, which now includes fourth through eighth grade. Student numbers would increase from 108 to 220, while adding kindergarten through third grade classes.
GAINSEVILLE, Fla. It was supposed to be celebration time. But a graduation ceremony last Saturday at the University of Florida became tainted with a depressing display of racism instead. It happened when graduating students, many of them African-American, began dancing and enjoying their moment on stage in cap and gown and then found themselves forcibly pushed off the stage by a white faculty member who apparently found their open show of happiness too Please turn to A4
Virginia Premier to offer health plans on ACA exchange this fall Free Press staff report
Virginia Premier, the insurance arm of VCU Health, will start selling individual plans beginning this fall to Richmond area residents who buy coverage through the health insurance exchanges of the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, it was announced Monday. The move to pick up people who have struggled to find coverage after major companies like Cigna and Aetna pulled out stems from a partnership between Virginia Premier, VCU Health and Bon Secours Health System, according to the announcement. While its insurance plans still must pass muster with state and federal regulators, Virginia
Premier expects to get the green light to offer one bronze, two silver and one gold plan that meet ACA guidelines when the 2019 enrollment opens on Nov. 1. The decision, which will raise the profile of Virginia Premier, comes as the debate over expanding coverage to uninsured working adults goes on at Capitol Square. The state Senate, or at least its Finance Committee, is to return Monday, May 14, to begin a review of the House of Delegates’ proposed budget that is based on using Medicaid to expand health care coverage and the infusion of federal funds — about $1.7 billion a year — Medicaid Please turn to A4
Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press
A replica of a Terracotta Warrior, taken in this photo on Jan. 10, stands at 7th and Broad streets advertising the exhibit at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
Need protection?
Zachariah Chou
University of Florida student Oliver Telusma is manhandled by a college usher after dancing with joy in his walk across the stage to receive his degree. University President Kent Fuchs, seated at Mr. Telusma’s right, issued apologies a day later.
A new bus stop that will serve 60 to 70 buses a day near the Boulevard is creating an uproar even before it goes into operation in late June as part of GRTC’s overhaul of its transit network. Nearly 1,100 people have signed petitions appealing for removal of the new stop at 800 N. Davis St., beside the William Byrd Senior Apartments. They say the bus stop will create a threat to the health of the 107 elderly and disabled residents at the apartment building, disruption to a longtime busi-
ness and a traffic menace. transit along Broad Street. Concerned, Richmond City Council At a press conference Monday, Ms. member Kim B. Gray, 2nd District, said Gray and the building manager, Kim Alshe plans to introduce legislalen, said the new stop would tion to force a relocation of pose health and safety risks to the stop that is to serve as William Byrd residents. the final stop for three bus Along with the noise, the routes, 50, 76 and 77. residents would be subjected In response, GRTC offito the fumes from the five cials are promising to study to seven buses that would alternatives, but plan to actistop each hour beside the vate the bus stop Sunday, June building for several minutes, Ms. Gray 24, when the transit company aggravating asthma and lung launches its revamped bus routes and problems and preventing them from starts service of the Pulse bus rapid opening their windows.
By Ronald E. Carrington
Ms. Gray also noted the buses would be routed onto a historic block of West Grace Street between Davis and Robinson streets to begin their route. “An 11-foot-wide bus cannot fit on the narrow nine-foot lane of West Grace, with that nine-foot lane further reduced when car doors are opened,” Ms. Gray said. GRTC spokeswoman Carrie Rose Pace said the company received only positive feedback and requests for the stop in 2017 during a public comment
They were life-size terracotta depictions of soldiers protecting Qin Shihuang, the first emperor of China, and buried with him in Xi’an in 210 BCE to protect him in the afterlife. Now, after 10 of the actual 8,000 Terracotta Warriors discovered in 1974 by farmers in China were on view earlier this year at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, replicas of the historic figures are up for auction on a government surplus website. For a minimum starting bid of $500, people can own one of the 6-foot-5, 500-pound replicas that popped up in various loca-
Please turn to A4
Please turn to A4
Bus stop creates problems before it starts By Jeremy M. Lazarus
Replicas of Terracotta Warriors up for auction