Good Morning, RVA: Buckle up!
So much reading to do this morning. Hope you’ve got a minute.
Good morning, RVA! It’s 60 °F, and today’s forecast looks a lot like yesterday’s but with the addition of a bunch of clouds. Rain is on deck for later this week, so soak up the sun while you’ve got the chance!
Photo by: pirate johnny
Water cooler
Richmond police are reporting the city’s 32 murder. Around 9:30 PM police were called to the 300 block of Red Ash Road on the city’s Southside where they found three people suffering from gunshot wounds–two adult males and a girl under 10 years of age. The juvenile and one of the adults were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.
Yesterday, the Planning Commission unanimously approved the GRTC Pulse! Hooray for transit! Next steps for Bus Rapid Transit in Richmond: the release of the long-awaited companion study that will show how the existing bus service interacts with the BRT and Council will vote on an operating agreement between the City and Henrico. If you forced me to guess why there were only three letters of opposition (PDF) to the Pulse at yesterday’s meeting (as opposed to 44 in support (PDF)), I would say that folks are focusing their efforts on Council and the operating agreement with Henrico. Expect some hullabaloos whenever that hits Council’s agenda.
Katy Burnell Evans at the RTD has two school-related pieces this morning. The first, about a task force that concluded year-round school is not feasible at MLK Middle–mostly due to money and the fact that they just got a new principal and forced all of the teachers to reapply. That makes a lot of sense to me, but it’s unfortunate that the year-round school experiment is on hold for external reasons. The second piece is about what the City will ask of their state legislators come General Assembly season, which includes more money for schools.
Oh btw, check out the bulleted list at the bottom of the previously linked piece and you’ll find a super interesting item about asking the General Assembly to commit to extending high speed rail to Main Street Train Station. We’re currently in the middle of figuring out how high speed rail from DC to Richmond would work, part of which is asking where would you step off of the train in Richmond? At the Staples Mill Station which is exactly one million miles away from anything other than Staples Mill station? Or downtown within walking (or BRT!) distance to tons of businesses? Or maybe a new location altogether? Based on this, I’d say the City thinks Main Street Train Station is the way to go.
Oh double btw, the final bullet in that piece gives me pause: “An appeal to allow law enforcement agencies to maintain information collected from license plate readers and body-worn cameras for an extended period of time whether or not the data relate to an ongoing investigation.” This is pretty much in direct opposition to the giant report the ACLU of Virginia released a couple weeks back and further highlights the need for a state-level set of guidelines about police body cams. Katy Burnell Evans! You have dominated my morning!
Oxford Dictionaries announced their word of the year: the LOL emoji, aka “face with tears of joy.” You may notice that this is, in fact, not a word.
Sports!
- Rams looked good on the way to a 92-74 win over Radford–a team that just beat Georgetown in double overtime on Friday.
- Wahoos (roundball) lost on the road to the A-10’s George Washington, 68-73.
This morning’s longread
Lost at sea: the man who vanished for 14 months
How long would you last lost at sea?
After weeks at sea, Alvarenga and Córdoba became astute scavengers and learned to distinguish the varieties of plastic that bob across the ocean. They grabbed and stored every empty water bottle they found. When a stuffed green rubbish bag drifted within reach, the men snared it, hauled it aboard and ripped open the plastic. Inside one bag, they found a wad of chewed gum and divided the almond-sized lump, each man feasting on the wealth of sensorial pleasures. Underneath a layer of sodden kitchen oil, they found riches: half a head of cabbage, some carrots and a quart of milk – half-rancid, but still they drank it. It was the first fresh food the two men had seen for a long time. They treated the soggy carrots with reverence.
This morning’s Instagram
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
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