Good Morning, RVA: Burning up!

Today’s weather brings heat, humidity, and bleh.

July 7, 2015; 6:56 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: MSVG

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F, and today looks to be hot. Highs in the mid-90s and a heat index like whoa will make you angry sweat–which no one wants. Stay hydrated and stay cool out there, y’all.

Water cooler

Did you catch Grant Martin’s piece yesterday about the looming gray bell tower on Virginia Union’s campus? From Belgium, to New York, to Richmond! Local history is fascinating!

I’m still digging through the City’s online data portal. It’s clear they want to push the payment register as the big step forward in transparency, but some of the smaller datasets are still interesting. Like this one of pedestrian / motor vehicle accidents. Theoretically, this data gets more interesting as the City adds to it and updates it.

Yesterday, the South Carolina Senate voted 37-3 to remove the Confederate battle flag from the capitol grounds. The House will now need to figure out their scene, which may include some halfway, garbage solutions like flying the Bonnie Blue. Here, by the way, are the three middle-aged white dudes who voted against taking the flag down: Lee Bright, Danny Verdin, and Harvey Peeler.

Sports!

• Squirrels swept Akron with a 5-2 win last night. They begin a shiny new series against Harrisburg tonight at 7:05 PM.
• Nats fell to the Reds, 2-3. The series continues tonight at 7:05 PM.

What to expect

• The 2015-2016 performing arts season will begin anew, fear not
• 1708 Gallery’s 10 x 10 series continues awesomely
• Hayley DeRoche offers some parenting advice after one year on the job
• Susan Howson sat down with one of our new favorite people, Secretary of Education Anne Holton

This morning’s longread

Richmond split over how to remember Confederate history

As part of their Divided Nation series, the Boston Globe has a super long, generally unfavorable, piece about Richmond and our Confederate monuments. It’s a good reminder of how some of this stuff, which seems so normal and everyday to us, looks to the rest of the world.

The city’s tribute to the Confederacy will be highlighted anew in September, when hundreds of millions of people around the world are expected to watch broadcasts of a world cycling championship race that is slated to take 16 laps around the Davis statue — a route that hardly seemed unusual when it was planned months ago but now has drawn the protest of Edwards and others, further exacerbating the debate about what Richmond is and what it wants to be.

This morning’s Instagram

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July 7, 2015 6:56 AM 1