Richmond’s Office of Elections is removing a second referendum on whether or not to approve a casino in the city, after developers and city officials backed down in the face of opposition from the General Assembly.
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The Lee Monument and the other Confederate statues from Richmond’s Monument Avenue will be given to the Black History Museum and Cultural Center of Virginia, which will partner with The Valentine and other Richmond organizations to determine the future of the objects. The Thursday announcement is the latest move from Governor Ralph Northam, who has been working to conclude removal of the controversial Lee Monument and remove state control of the monument and the land.
“Symbols matter and for too long, Virginia’s most prominent symbols celebrated our country’s tragic division and the side that fought to keep alive the institution of slavery by any means possible,” Northam said in a Thursday press release shared by NBC12 reporter Henry Graff.
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After Wednesday’s removal of General Robert E. Lee’s statue in Richmond, the City Council is setting its sights on the last remaining Confederate statue in town.Â
“The Richmond City Council will discuss moving the A.P. Hill monument as well as A.P. Hill’s remains, which are inside the monument,” according to WBBT. “On Sept. 13, the city council will take action to relocate the remains and monument to Fairview Cemetery in Culpeper at the request of A.P. Hill’s descendants.”
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The ONE Casino proposal will go to a Richmond voter referendum in November, after the City Council approved a recommendation from an evaluation panel. On Monday evening, the Council and the public discussed the proposal. Proponents said the casino would provide an economic boost for the Southside Richmond area including tax revenue and more jobs guaranteed to start at $15 per hour. Opponents said the casino’s profits would come at the cost of Richmond’s lower income communities and could struggle to attract outside tourism. “It’s just not a casino. It’s going to be entertainment, live entertainment. It’s going to be a park for the children, a park for the animals to be there. This is something that is really, really big for Southside, not only just the eighth district. This is probably the biggest development I know in the eighth district in over 50-some years,” Eighth District Council Member Reva Trammell said. Second District Council Member Katherine Jordan was the only member to vote against the proposal. Jordan explained, “I don’t support gaming, my constituents overwhelmingly said not only do they not want a casino in Scott’s Addition, but they didn’t want one, period, when they reached out to…
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An evaluation panel has selected its preferred casino operator and site to be approved by the Richmond City Council, before the proposal heads to the November ballot for approval by voters. The city received six potential proposals and selected the ONE Casino + Resort proposal that would be located at Commerce Road and Walmsley in Southside Richmond.
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The Richmond City Council unanimously approved a resolution laying out next steps to deal with its monuments, currently in storage. The City has received 22 applications from people and organizations who want the statues, ranging from requests for just the cannons to all of the objects.
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It’s been over eight months since Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney removed the city’s Confederate monuments to storage. In a Monday City Council meeting, City Council Interim Chief of Staff Joyce Davis announced that the Organizational Development Standing Committee would hear a resolution about the disposition of the statues. A public hearing and city council vote on the resolution is expected May 10.
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Following a summer of racial tension and civil unrest in Virginia’s capital, the City of Richmond is continuing its efforts to remove or change public honors related to the Confederacy.Â
On Monday night, the Richmond City Council voted to adopt an ordinance renaming a portion of the Jefferson Davis Highway, otherwise known as U.S. Route 1, to the Richmond Highway.Â
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Updates this week to the State Department of Elections website show vote totals in Richmond’s second district council race dropping from 14,086 to 13,259 — a difference of 827 votes. While earlier results showed candidate Tavarris Spinks leading Katherine Jordan by 26 votes, the change saw Spinks’ vote totals drop from 7,056 to 5,961. Jordan gained 165 votes, giving her 7,195. Spinks announced Thursday that he has filed a FOIA with the registrar.
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While the nation watched the national elections, voters in Richmond’s second district quietly disrupted local politics. Voters surprised mayoral election watchers by voting for Alexsis Rodgers instead of current district two councilmember Kim Gray. Voters have also locked the race for Gray’s city council replacement into a narrow two-way contest where leader Tavarris Spinks is ahead of Katherine Jordan by just 26 votes out of 14,086, according to unofficial results at the Virginia Public Access Project.
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Richmond’s eighth district is getting all the love. Just like in the mayor’s race, the eighth district city council race is one of the most high-profile of Richmond’s nine city council races in 2020, according to fourth district Councilmember Kristen Larson. Larson and eighth district Councilmember Michael Jones are running unopposed in their races for re-election, so The Virginia Star asked them which other district races they were watching.
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Richmond City Council’s Land Use, Housing and Transportation Committee voted on Tuesday to advance an ordinance that would rename Confederate Avenue, located in the city’s northside, to Laburnum Park Boulevard.
The ordinance was co-sponsored by councilwoman and committee vice chair Kim Gray, 2nd district, and councilman Chris Hilbert, 3rd district.
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Welcome to the Tuesday edition of our daily Virginia Trump campaign update! We will provide our readers with daily updates on the Trump Virginia campaign from today to November 3 (and after…if need be!).
It’s officially 14 days until the election on November 3 – and 11 days until early voting in Virginia closes. President Trump meets Joe Biden in the final presidential debate THIS THURSDAY. The deadline to request a mail-in ballot in Virginia is Friday, October 23.
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The Richmond City Council voted 7-2Â Monday against a ban on police non-lethal weapons including rubber bullets, tear gas, and flashbangs. Council members Stephanie Lynch and Michael Jones proposed the ban in June after protests where Lynch and Jones had to run from teargas, according to reporting by ABC8 News.
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In recent months seven localities throughout Virginia have now passed gun ordinances restricting where citizens can carry, openly possess and transport firearms or any components of a gun.
So far, Arlington and Fairfax counties and the cities of Alexandria, Falls Church, Charlottesville, Newport News and Richmond have passed gun ordinances.
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Monday morning on The John Fredericks Show, host John Fredricks welcomed candidate Mike Dickinson running for Richmond City Council to describe his campaign to push back and his accomplishments along the way.
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Richmond Police Department (RPD) officers were seen at the Robert E. Lee monument on Saturday morning posting signs on the recently-passed Richmond city gun ordinance.Â
The new ordinance, passed unanimously by the Richmond city council early this month, does not outright ban firearms in public spaces, but it does call for restrictions when a permitted event is taking place.
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Venture Richmond has canceled plans to paint a “Black Lives Matter” mural on Grace Street in Richmond. The change in plans came two weeks after local businessman Mike Dickinson submitted a permit request to paint a “Baby Lives Matter” mural on Hamilton Street in front of a Planned Parenthood office.
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Augusta County Prosecutor Timothy Martin will investigate a contract used by Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney earlier this summer to remove parts of eight of Richmond’s Confederate monuments.
In August, Richmond City Councilmember and candidate for Stoney’s seat Kim Gray called for investigation into the contract. The contract paid $1.8 million to NAH LLC, which has ties to Devon Henry who, in 2016, donated $4,000 to Stoney’s campaign for mayor.
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In a virtual town hall, candidate Kim Gray said her experience as a council member and commitment to connected, honest government make her the best choice to be Richmond’s next mayor. The Youtube livestream had been watched by around 175 people by Sunday evening.
“I’ve spent the last 12 years of my life as a public servant, as an elected official, and the past four years have been very challenging. I want to overcome the corruption and cronyism and lack of common sense approaches,” Gray said.
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The Richmond City Council chose to delay a vote on an amendment to its firearms ordinance. The council heard over an hour of public comments and discussion in the virtual meeting on Thursday afternoon. Eventually, the council members concluded they needed more time to clarify questions about vague wording in the amendment.
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Gun-rights activist group the Virginia Citizens Defense League is lobbying 193 local jurisdictions to declare they will not ban guns. The proposed Second Amendment sanctuary resolutions vary, but contain language stating that a jurisdiction “shall not exercise any authority granted to it … to regulate or prohibit the otherwise legal purchase, possession, or transfer of firearms or ammunition.”
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