Good Morning, RVA: Keep it up

The weather continues to perform at a high level, do you?

May 28, 2015; 7:00 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: Introverted Lens

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and today looks a lot like yesterday, which looks a lot like tomorrow. Expect highs near 90 °F, humidity, and a chance for isolated thunderstorms in the afternoon / evening.

Water cooler

Mark Robinson writing for Richmond Magazine (see today’s longread for more from Robinson), has the latest word on the RPS budget. The good news: teachers get a raise and Binford Middle gets funding for its college readiness program. The bad news: the budget is not balanced, falling short $4 million. Gah.

Today at 10:00 AM the Scipps National Spelling Bee hosts their semifinals followed by the finals at 8:00 PM–you can watch both on ESPN2. Local 6th grader, Tejas Muthusamy, will compete for the second time after placing eighth in 2014’s bee. Muthusamy, who is 12, wants to attend Harvard to study either biology or public policy. I will not be watching, as I can’t handle kids going through super stressful sports moments–but, hey, makes for great TV!

An accident on I-95 this morning shut down both northbound and southbound lanes near downtown. As of 6:50 AM the northbound lanes had reopened, but crews were still working to clear a couple of the southbound lanes. If you’re up and at ’em early, either expect delays or take a different route.

This FIFA thing, you guys! The world celebrates with gleeful schadenfreude, as I remain confused due to my embarrassing lack of knowledge about all things soccer. I looked around for a good explainer, and the best I could do is this from Vox. If you’ve got something better on the subject, send it my way! Also, here’s Politico on newly-minted Attorney General Loretta Lynch’s sudden worldwide fame for bringing forward the FIFA charges.

Sports!

• Squirrels annihilated Harrisburg, 12-0, and take sole possession of third place in the Western Division of the Eastern League. They wrap up the series with Harrisburg tonight at 6:35 PM at The Diamond (get your tickets).
• Kickers sunk the Jacksonville Armada, 3-0, in last night’s Open Cup match. They’ll face the Columbus Crew, an MLS team, on June 17th in City Stadium. Meanwhile the regular season continues this Saturday against the New York Red Bulls II.
• Nats beat the Cubs 3-0, giving them nine straight series wins.

What to expect

At least the following four things you can expect:

• All the news about food
• Five more things to do this weekend
• Pictures from the Richmond Ballet’s wild trip to China
• A chance to see a free movie! In a park!

This morning’s longread

Dana Bedden, RPS Superintendent

By unanimous vote, Bedden became the first out-of-towner hired to head Richmond’s school system since Albert Williams in 1997. That Bedden is a transplant instead of an RPS come-up, as the city’s superintendents historically have been, has played to his advantage when making unpopular decisions, observers say, whether it was staggering school start times or replacing seven principals last summer. The board made it clear to Bedden when it hired him that the system’s status quo needed a shake-up, and doing so would likely not endear him to the masses, remembers School Board Vice Chair Kristen Larson. 

“There are change agents that you see who come in and are aggressive in a scary way,” Larson says. “Then there are people who are change agents who come in and are aggressive in a calculated, smart, intentional way. And that’s who Bedden is. And that’s why I think he’s been a good fit for us, because things are so broken.” 

You need to read Mark Robinson’s profile of RPS Superintendent Dana Bedden. Even if you’re a close follower of all things Richmond Public Schools, there’s still lots of new bits to learn.

This morning’s Instagram

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May 28, 2015 7:00 AM 0