ncb12 is reporting that a body was recovered from the James River this afternoon near Tredegar Ironworks after being spotted by a Dominion Virginia Power security guard.

The RTD is reporting 13 protestors were arrested outside of Dominion Virginia Power’s offices on Tredegar Street at around 7AM this morning. According to the RTD, “four people interlocked their arms and buried their hands in a 55-gallon drum of hardened cement and were sitting on the footbridge from Tredgar to Belle Isle. [...] A fifth person was suspended from a rope attached to that drum of cement, and he was hanging off the bridge.” They were protesting Dominion Virginia Power’s plans to build a new coal-fueled power plant in Wise County.

Club Velvet owner Samuel Moore was sentenced to 60 days for having sex with a minor and filming sex with an adult. He could be released in as soon as 30 days with time off for good behavior. [via]

“I deeply regret my lack of good judgment,” Moore said today before he was sentenced in Richmond Circuit Court. “I apologize to the commonwealth and the two young ladies involved. I hope in the future I’ll have the strength and wisdom to make proper changes in my life.”

The new FEMA Flood Map for the City of Richmond will be the subject of a public meeting Tuesday, July 1, from 7–9 PM in Council Chambers at City Hall. FEMA has redrawn all of the floodplains within the city of Richmond and City officials will be on hand to answer questions and assist citizens in the appeals process. The new designation would affect approximately 2681 properties. More info and maps.

Club Velvet owner Sam Moore pleaded guilty three misdemeanor counts related to having sex with a minor and an 18-year-old woman. Moore will receive a suspended sentence on two of the counts, and on the third count, having sex with someone between 15 and 17, sentencing has been set for June 26. [via]

The Sons of Confederate Veterans is offering to donate a bronze statue of Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the the Confederacy, to be placed at Tredegar Iron Work to mark the bicentennial of his birth. [via]

Archaeologists from the James River Institute for Archaeology of Williamsburg will work through the summer excavating at the site of the Lumpkin’s slave jail, currently a city-owned parking lot behind Main Street Station. [via]

“I’m hoping what we will find will give us insight in how they lived not only as slaves but slave owners, so we can educate the public of how people lived in a hostile environment,” said City Councilwoman Delores L. McQuinn, chairwoman of the Richmond Slave Trail Commission.

A protest/rally will be held on June 2 beginning at noon at the soon-to-be-renovated parking lot @ 15th and Broad Streets. A ground breaking for renovating the parking lot, which “may be the site of the largest slave burial ground in the nation”, is also scheduled for that day. The land which was established as a burial ground for both slaves and free blacks in the 1700’s also doubled as the town gallows for public execution. It is believed that this is where Gabriel Prosser was hanged and buried.

GRTC will be holding a public meeting today at 6PM at the Children’s Museum on West Broad Street on their proposed rapid transit system and the transfer station possibly slated for Main Street Station. [via]

A public hearing on the Richmond Downtown Master Plan in front of the City Planning Commission has been announced for Monday, May 19th @1:30PM. The Commission will consider adoption of the plan and recommendation for approval to City Council; the public is encouraged to attend the meeting. (event flyer)

The future of the James River in today’s RTD is a great overview of the issues that will be part of Monday night’s RTD Public Square on the James River. The discussion of “the single greatest physical asset that we have in the Richmond metropolitan area” will certainly touch on the balance between private and public interests, public access to the river, the preservation of natural areas, the impact of private development, and what role the local government should play.

With over 3 inches of rain in the in the past 24 hours, there has been no flooding in Shockoe Bottom. The drainage upgrades seem to have made a difference. UPDATE: nbc12 has a piece on this and the RTD says that we’ve had 5.43 inches of rain over the past 48 hours or so.

Michael E. Clark, 22, was charged with property destruction last Tuesday after being caught tagging “LAST” onto the I-95 overpass above East Franklin Street early this past Tuesday. The article in the RTD says that “police said they found evidence of two other tags at Clark’s residence and charged him with two additional counts of property destruction”; a short walk down Franklin Street between 18th and 23rd reveals a wealth of his work…

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The fourteen-foot tall bronze Headman statue with its wooden bateau and twenty-three-foot long bronze sweep is being renovated and will be rededicated on Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. on Brown’s Island in downtown Richmond. Mayor L. Douglas Wilder will speak at the event.

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It is estimated that Richmond’s 2007 population was 200,123 people, the first time in over a decade that the number has been over 200,000. The last official tally of the city population was the 2000 census which recorded 197,790 residents. Some estimates of the city population in the intervening years have been as low as 193,000. [via]

“People want walkable neighborhoods, the convenience of living close to work and the authentic architectural character that Richmond has,” [Jack Berry, executive director of Venture Richmond] said. “The city used to be a tough sell. That’s just not the case in the same way that it used to be.”

Sounding a lot like Tobacco Avenue, Style Weekly is reporting that Buck Ward, a Midlothian businessman, will be opening a Segway dealership next month in Shockoe Slip.

Originally due to appear in court today on two misdemeanor charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, 44-year-old Club Velvet owner Sam Moore will instead be charged with a felony for allegedly filming himself having sex with a 17-year-old minor on February 20th. [via]

In response to a settlement between a bar in Virginia Beach and the ACLU, Big Daddy’s has reversed a policy described as “racially discriminatory” that had barred entry to patrons with braids, twists, cornrows, and dreadlocks. [via]

The Dill Building at 21st and Franklin Streets was built in 1854, a decade that saw “the greatest years of factory-expansion prior to the Civil War”. Built as a tobacco factory for a company run by Joseph G. Dill, the upper stories were removed in 1941 after a fire. Emerson Construction has worked to bring the building back and hopes to have apartments for rent this fall.

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Interested neighbors from around the East End are invited to a meeting on traffic, roads, congestion and future thoroughfares in and around our community. The March meeting of the Church Hill Association will feature Tom Flynn (City’s Traffic Manager) and Brooke Harding (Community Planning) as guest speakers. This meeting is open to the public. [via]

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