June 18 20, 2015 issue

Page 1

Father’s Day

Mo’ne Davis to play in Henrico

fondest memories

Richmond Free Press © 2015 Paradigm Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

VOL. 24 NO. 25

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA

www.richmondfreepress.com

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JUNE 18-20, 2015

Survivor

U.Va. honor student talks arrest, future Mr. Johnson was charged with public intoxication and obstruction Martese Johnson still has two of justice — both misdemeanors scars on his forehead and one under — after his violent takedown on his left eye. March 17. Prosecutors announced The rising fourth-year University on June 12 that they were dropping of Virginia honors student also bears the charges. deep emotional wounds, for which Charlottesville Commonwealth’s he has undergone counseling. Attorney Dave Chapman said The scars are reminders to Mr. Wednesday that he dropped the Johnson of what can happen to charges after determining Mr. African-American males when they are Johnson “had done nothing wrong” confronted by white law enforcement before ABC agents confronted him officers in what would seem to be even to determine if he was using a fake the most routine of circumstances. I.D. or was intoxicated. Three months after he was He said he could have charged Bryan Beaubrun/Associated Press slammed face first onto the pavement Mr. Johnson with resisting detention, during a questionable arrest by three Bloodied University of Virginia student Martese Johnson but decided that trying to slap the white Virginia Alcoholic Beverage is held down by an ABC agent after being slammed to young man with a criminal record Control officers outside a Charlot- the ground March 17 outside a Charlottesville pub. would “not be right.” tesville pub, memories of that night still haunt him. Mr. Johnson, who turned 21 Wednesday, spoke from Wash“I don’t think I’ll ever fully get past it,” Mr. Johnson told the ington, where he is completing an internship this summer with Free Press on Tuesday. “I think it will last the rest of my life. the Center for American Progress, a progressive think tank. He “Regardless of what I do, someone will always know me for this incident, personally or professionally,” he added. Please turn to A4 By Joey Matthews

Mr. Johnson

Protests erupt over teacher cuts, reassignments

4th time the charm?

New city finance chief #4 under mayor’s tenure By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Ms. Reid

Rachel Dolezal has become the talk of the nation. The once obscure NAACP leader in Spokane, Wash., jumped into the spotlight in recent days when her estranged family publicly called into question her claim to be a black woman in newspaper and TV interviews. The tale of a white woman who insists on being regarded as a black woman touched a nerve and quickly went viral on social media — sparking widespread discussions about racial identity.

officer for finance and administration, or chief financial officer. Mr. Butts brought an impressive resumé to Richmond after a long tenure as the Town of Leesburg’s finance director. But when he resigned last week, the city’s annual financial audit still was incomplete for the 2014 fiscal year that ended June 30, 2014. He also left uncertainty as to whether the city is prepared to begin the audit for fiscal year 2015 that ends in less than two weeks on June 30. Richmond now ranks with Hopewell and three other local governments as localities that “do not have the internal or systems to support the timely preparation of both their (annual) financial statement and the comparative report information,” Martha S. Mavredes, state auditor of public accounts, reported to the General Assembly. On Mr. Butts’ watch, Richmond failed to meet the Nov. 30 deadline to submit financial information for inclusion in the state report that Ms. Mavredes produces that compares local spending. Despite his failure, Mr. Butts is set to receive three months’ severance pay as provided in the contract he signed with the city when he was hired in May 2014. His starting pay was $165,000 annually. Ms. Reid’s starting pay will be $160,000 a year, or $5,000 less. Still, Ms. Reid will be making more

Please turn to A4

Please turn to A4

As the former Suffolk city manager, Selena Cuffee-Glenn went through five people before she found the right person to serve as chief financial officer. But it only took Ms. Cuffee-Glenn a few weeks as Richmond’s new chief administrative officer to get the person she wanted. Her choice: Lenora Reid, who served as Ms. Cuffee-Glenn’s financial right arm for

three years in Suffolk and who will have the same position in Richmond. A certified public accountant, Ms. Reid is to start July 1. Ms. Reid is at least the fourth person to hold the city’s top financial post since Mayor Dwight C. Jones began his first term in 2009. Mayor Jones made room for Ms. Reid by getting rid of Norman D. Butts Jr., who resigned with a record of failure after just one year as deputy chief administrative

Black or white?

Dolezal case stirs up public dialogue on race Free Press staff, wire reports

By Joey Matthews

Teachers, students, parents and supporters mobilized via social media when they learned Richmond Public Schools officials began instituting cost-cutting changes affecting the jobs of some of their most beloved teachers. “Please help!” read one urgent Facebook post. They said they were incensed that RPS officials notified about 24 teachers last Friday — the last day of school — that they would have to either accept reassignments to other schools or teach part time at two schools instead of full time at one. The community effort galvanized, with people protesting the changes that Superintendent Dana T. Bedden calls “leveling.” The changes would eliminate many elective courses, such as choir, band, foreign languages, music and the arts, according to Please turn to A4

Special election July 21 for 74th House District By Jeremy M. Lazarus

Voters in the 74th House of Delegates District will be going to the polls twice. First, there will be a special election to fill the district’s vacant House of Delegates seat Tuesday, July 21. And then there will be a general election Tuesday, Nov. 3, in the majority-black district that includes big hunks of Central and Eastern Henrico County, a small slice of Richmond and all of Charles City County. The same candidates are expected to face off in both elections — Lamont Bagby, a Henrico County School Board member who is running under the Democratic banner, and David Lambert, an optometry business owner who is running as an independent. The election was spawned when former Delegate Joseph D. “Joe” Morrissey, who represented the district, moved into Richmond in the spring to challenge Democratic Sen. Rosalyn R. Dance in the 16th Senate District. His new home is located outside the 74th House District. He is now running as Mr. Bagby

an independent to challenge Sen. Dance in November. Last Friday, Gov. Terry McAuliffe called Mr. Lambert the special election in an apparent effort to ensure the seat in the largely Democratic district is filled in case a special General Assembly session is called to carry out a federal court order to redraw Virginia’s congressional district boundaries. The special election, in effect, could install Mr. Bagby in the General Assembly months sooner than he might have anticipated. No Republican candidate has filed to run in the district’s special election or the November general election. The governor’s action setting the special election took place just days after Mr. Bagby won 80 percent of the vote in the June 9 primary election to claim the Democratic nomination in the 74th. He blew away two other candidates, including former Please turn to A4

Sandra Sellars/Richmond Free Press

Uplifting last day A smiling Aniyah Rajab, 11, attracts attention as she jumps to wave goodbye to office staff at Linwood Holton Elementary School last Friday — the final day of public school classes in Richmond. All dressed up and ready to go, the fifth-grader, who will head to middle school this fall, was among the more than 23,000 city students who streamed out school doors into summer vacation.


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June 18 20, 2015 issue by Richmond Free Press - Issuu