Good Morning, RVA: Even more mayors, schools, executions, and black holes.
Break out the dang hats and scarves today.
Good morning, RVA! It’s 37 °F with highs right around 50 °F, because, sure. Wind and sun abound, and you’ll want to layer up as this week can’t figure out what it wants to be when it grows up. Also, there’s a freeze warning until 9:00 AM Wednesday, so if you’ve got the beginings of a garden sprouting up, you may want to throw an old sheet or blanket over those little guys.
The forecast for this weekend’s Monument 10k has improved slightly–it’s no longer calling for snow!
Water cooler
And then there were…I don’t know, honestly, I’ve lost count. Councilman Jon Baliles officially declared he’s running for mayor, as did Brad Froman.
Yesterday, the Richmond Public School Board met and began the tough conversation about how to keep the schools system afloat if they’re forced to cut $18 million out of their budget. Assistant Superintendent Thomas Kranz brought forth six schools to sacrifice at the altar of cost savings–even closing all six would only net RPS $3 million. Also, the mayor’s new Multi-Year School Capital Investment Funding Plan Project Evaluation Team met for the first time, and you can read a bit about their progress at the bottom of the previous link. The dollar amount associated with school facility needs has been around for a while, and for the group trying to figure out how to pay for those needs to meet for the first time way after the mayor released his version of this year’s budget seems kind of backward.
If you’re like, “Augh! I feel helpless about all this school stuff and wish I knew how to get involved or at least stay informed,” then allow me to direct your internet web browser to this piece by Valerie Catrow about Richmond Forward. Garet Prior, who runs the grassroots organization, will do an excellent job of keeping you in the loop.
Remember when it was spring for a second?
Whoa, this longread in Richmond Magazine by Dale Brumfield about Virginia’s executioner-turned-anti-death-penalty-advocate is intense and you must read it. Beware: It made me feel a lot of things I was not prepared to feel at 7:00 AM.
Scientists are working on a way to take a picture of a black hole, and this Vox video about black holes is perfectly interesting.
Wisconsin will hold their primaries today! New York, which contains a ton of delegates, will vote on April 19th. And, just an FYI, Trump is down to 53% on PredictWise and Paul Ryan has climbed up to 7%.
Sports!
- Villanova hit a buzzer beater against North Carolina to become the 2016 National Champions. Now we wait until November for basketball to return.
- Nats won their first game of the season, beating the Braves 4-3.
This morning’s longread
When Whites Just Don’t Get It, Part 6
That’s why it’s so important for whites to engage in these uncomfortable discussions of race, because we are (unintentionally) so much a part of the problem. It’s not that we’re evil, but that we’re human. The challenge is to recognize that unconscious bias afflicts us all — but that we just may be able to overcome it if we face it.
Linked in this piece are some online unconscious bias tests that are pretty interesting.
This morning’s Instagram
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Ross Catrow
Founder and publisher of RVANews.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.