Good Morning, RVA: Nothing but blue skies
It’s a new day, a new week, and a new year! Well, the first two, anyway.
Photo by: jmorgan
Good morning, RVA! It’s 70°F, and there are clear skies ahead with a high of about 90°F. And goodness gracious, I think I never really understood how early Ross gets up in the morning every day to write this for us, the ungrateful public. If anyone needs me later in the day, I’ll be asleep at my desk.
Water cooler
As the Big Bike Race™ approaches, hotel owners are all like “What? There aren’t 450,000 people coming to the race after all!”, reports Louis Llovio for the Times-Dispatch. We attempted to tackle that particular confusing number issue a few months ago, and while I want to sputter “COME ON HOTELIERS, PLEASE KEEP UP,” I also want to say, “We hear you, bro. It’s super confusing.”
Also from the RTD, here’s some state employee salary data from 2014 that might make you feel a little like you’re creepily looking into some Ashley Madison datahacking. It’s all legit, though, and your abundantly clear takeaway will be that we all need to be working for the Virginia Retirement System.
It’s very exciting after reading headlines of cops shooting people and car accidents to know that giant panda Mei Xiang has given birth to two cubs at the National Zoo. Jostle other viewers for a peek at the Panda Cam and maybe we can see some cute sneezes or something.
I really hope somebody said to somebody else, “It’s so crazy, it just might work.” Or even “This is as adorable as two tiny pandas–let’s give guards an old-fashioned thrill, see?”
Speaking of prison, the New York Post continues to keep it classy and inappropriate and sad. A game where we play with his pants, what in the! People!
As you may have heard, last week was the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and the resulting levee breaks that destroyed so much of New Orleans. Vox has some interesting data about the area’s happiness and housing since then.
Sports!
- Nats beat the Brewers two outta three in their series this weekend, with the final deciding game yesterday.
- Squirrels defeated the Trenton Electrogators (that’s the guess I made as to what the Trenton Thunder’s team name was, based on a tiny image of their logo) 3 – 2 yesterday, buuuuuut lost on Friday and Saturday. The Electrogators win this round. Will the Harrisburg Senators do the same? Have funn tonight (and tomorrow night and Wednesday night) at 7:05 PM at the Diamond.
- Kickers swift-kicked St. Louis on Saturday, and they’ll do it again to the Charleston Battery this Saturday, August 29th at City Stadium. Only two home games left this season.
- D.C. United lost to the SJ Earthquakes Saturday, but really, no one wins to an earthquake. They’ll try to clip the wings of the NY Red Bulls on Sunday, August 30th.
What to expect
- How to indulge when you’ve got one of those “Ugh, no thank you, my body refuses to accept anything delicious” diseases
- Some history!
- Some more history!
This morning’s longread
The Myth of the New Orleans School Makeover
Oh man, Desiree and LaDonna would have many choice things to say about this.
But the New Orleans miracle is not all it seems. Louisiana state standards are among the lowest in the nation. The new research also says little about high school performance. And the average composite ACT score for the Recovery School District was just 16.4 in 2014, well below the minimum score required for admission to a four-year public university in Louisiana.
There is also growing evidence that the reforms have come at the expense of the city’s most disadvantaged children, who often disappear from school entirely and, thus, are no longer included in the data.
This morning’s Instagram
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Susan Howson
Susan Howson is managing editor for this very website. She writes THE BEST bios.
Notice: Comments that are not conducive to an interesting and thoughtful conversation may be removed at the editor’s discretion.