Briefs

Local & VCU

Comedy show rescheduled to Sept. 23

The Back-to-School Comedy Show, starring Ralphie May, Aries Spears and Kelly MacFarland has been rescheduled for Friday, Sept. 23.

VCU’s Student Organization Office said tickets for the cancelled Aug. 27 show will be honored.

The original show was cancelled due to inclement weather from Hurricane Irene and VCU’s Activities Programming Board was able to reschedule the performers for the late back-to-school event.

Brief by Jessica Dalhberg

Journalism professor’s resignation “was not easy”

Bonnie Davis, an associate professor of journalism in the School of Mass Communications, resigned two weeks ago with little public explanation.

Davis, who taught at VCU for seven years said that she is not at liberty to discuss her resignation, but she said “the decision was not easy. I very much enjoyed the seven years that I served as an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications, largely because of the hundreds of students I was fortunate to coach, mentor, teach and train for careers in journalism and media-related fields. I wish nothing but the best for the students in the School of Mass Communications, and I will continue to monitor their success.”

VCU director of public relations Anne Buckley said Davis’ resignation was a personnel matter and VCU cannot comment on personnel matters.

Brief by Mechelle Hankerson

Jury sides with estate of inmate

A Richmond jury returned a $2.4 million verdict Tuesday against the sheriff and the jail’s former chief physician in a wrongful-death case involving a prisoner at the City Jail, according to an attorney in the case.

The attorney, Mark J. Krudys, said the Circuit Court jury awarded the damages to the estate of James D. Robinson, ruling against Sheriff C.T. Woody Jr. and Dr. Stanley Furman.

Robinson, 46, died March 9, 2008, at VCU Medical Center after he collapsed at the jail. Furman and medical staff at the jail failed to diagnose or properly treat Robinson’s pneumonia, despite requests by Robinson and others that he receive medical care, said Krudys, an attorney representing Robinson’s estate.

Robinson was taken to VCU Medical Center after he collapsed March 9, started shaking and was found to have no pulse, the complaint says. A medical employee had tried to revive Robinson using a defibrillator machine that was not working, Krudys said.

Tuesday’s verdict came less than two months after the Sheriff’s Office announced it had entered into a $4 million, three-year contract with Nashville, Tenn.-based Correct Care Solutions to provide medical services at the City Jail and Jail Annex.

Brief by the Richmond Times-Dispatch

Recovery Fest free for VCU students

The McShin Foundation’s seventh-annual Recovery Fest is scheduled to feature Gil Kerlikowske, the United States Drug Czár. The event is at 11220 Nuckols Rd. in Glen Allen. VCU students can gain free admission with a valid VCU I.D.

Brief by Mechelle Hankerson

National & International

Nearly 1 in 6 Americans in poverty, Census says

The ranks of the nation’s poor have swelled to a record 46.2 million – nearly 1 in 6 Americans – as the prolonged pain of the recession leaves millions still struggling and out of work. And the number without health insurance has reached 49.9 million, the most in over two decades.

The figures are in a Census Bureau report, released Tuesday, that offers a somber snapshot of the economic well-being of U.S. households for last year when joblessness hovered above 9 percent for a second year. The rate is still 9.1 percent at the start of an election year that’s sure to focus on the economy and President Barack Obama’s stewardship of it.

The overall poverty rate climbed to 15.1 percent, from 14.3 percent the previous year, and the rate from 2007-2010 rose faster than for any similar period since the early 1980s when a crippling energy crisis amid government cutbacks contributed to inflation, spiraling interest rates and unemployment. For last year, the official poverty level was an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four.

Measured by total numbers, the 46 million now living in poverty are the most on record dating back to when the census began to track in 1959. The 15.1 percent tied the level of 1993 and was the highest since 1983.

Brief by the Associated Press

Taliban attack U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan

Teams of insurgents firing rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons struck at the U.S. Embassy, NATO headquarters and other buildings in the heart of the Afghan capital on Tuesday, raising fresh doubts about the Afghans’ ability to secure their nation as U.S. and other foreign troops begin to withdraw.

Seven Afghans were killed and 15 wounded in the coordinated daylight attack, which sent foreigners dashing for cover and terrified the city from midday well into the night as helicopters buzzed overhead. No embassy or NATO staff members were hurt.

Blast walls ring the embassy compound, and there was little damage to the reinforced concrete buildings, many of which are surrounded by sandbags.

Brief by the Associated Press

Freed of Gadhafi, Libyans expect post-war boom

Airlines are readying their return to Libya, ports largely shuttered during the fighting are receiving cargos and foreign oil companies that had fled the country’s civil war are making tentative steps back.

And waiting eagerly on the doorstep are businessmen looking to get in on what they believe could be a bonanza for investment – an oil-rich nation with large tourism and construction potential that went largely untapped under an eccentric and often closed 42-year-long regime. Slowly, Libya is reopening its doors after seven months of fighting, even as former rebels still hunt for ousted dictator Moammar Gadhafi.

Traffic is resuming at Tripoli’s port, where under the wartime embargo only shipments of food, medicine and humanitarian supplies were allowed.

A few of the gold traders in Tripoli’s historic market have opened their shop doors. But they are keeping their wares locked up and the display cases empty, leery of weapons that flooded the streets since the uprising began.

With expectations that Gadhafi-era nepotism is over, some Libyan business leaders are calling for review of contracts signed under the old regime.

Brief by the Associated Press