Good Morning, RVA: Prepare to sweat

A hot and humid start to the week.

May 18, 2015; 6:50 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: Steve Nardo

Good morning, RVA! It’s 72 °F now, and temperatures are on their way up, up, up to 90-something. The humidity exists in a certainly unpleasant way, and all of your plants are probably sad and droopy. For the former there is no hope, for the latter there’s a small chance of isolated thunderstorms later this afternoon.

Water cooler

This anonymous editorial in the RTD casts the lack of progress in the development of both Shockoe Bottom and the Boulevard as “good news” for opponents of a downtown ball park. For fans of the city and region, however, this is bad news. This is also a false dichotomy! Plenty of folks want to see Richmond moved forward and don’t have any interest in a new ball park. How in the world did we come to this place where minor league baseball is the only means through which progress in Richmond can continue?

The very last episode of Mad Men aired last night. I…have never watched this show, but I imagine folks will be talking about it this morning. Just mention something about the lack of progress for women in the workplace and you should be fine.

The NYT has a neat set of infographics about where all the presidential campaign staffers come from. Lost of folks make running presidential campaigns their full-time jobs, which is not a job I would want but probably a super interesting one nonetheless.

The BBC will catch you up on the worsening situation in Iraq.

Richmond Police reported the city’s 9th homicide on Saturday, this one in Hillside Court on Richmond’s South Side.

Sports!

• Hawks bounced the Wizards from the NBA playoffs on Friday.
• Nats had a successful weekend against the Padres, going a combined 24-6 over three games (all victories). They’ll face the Yankees tomorrow.
• Kickers and the Pittsburgh Riverhounds battled to a 1-1 tie.
• Squirrels took the series from Bowie, winning three of four. They’ll face last-place Erie tonight at 6:35 PM.

What to expect

Today, consider:

• The VMFA brings you a rad scavenger hunt
• Are you saving for your kid’s college?
• RVANews Live returns!

This morning’s longread

I was an undercover Uber driver

Driving for Uber certainly doesn’t pay a ton after you factor in reality.

One way Uber has fewer costs than the taxi companies is that its drivers use their personal insurance policies as their primary coverage. Uber assures drivers that their personal insurance policies are sufficient, but many big insurance companies have been very clear that they disagree.

“Private passenger auto policy isn’t intended to cover livery services,” Nicole Mahrt Ganley, a spokeswoman for the Property Casualty Insurers Association of Amer­ica, told the San Francisco Chronicle in November. “There is little question that engaging in livery services is a material change in the nature of the risk being insured, and most states would allow companies to cancel coverage.”

Uber reassures drivers that they’ve got them covered, but their vaunted $1 million policy is secondary for collision — that is, drivers must try to get their own insurance companies to pay the claims first. If the claim is rejected because the insurer figures out it’s Uber-related, then Uber’s policy kicks in — but the driver’s almost certainly going to have his personal insurance policy cancelled, and in some cases be investigated for fraud.

This morning’s Instagram

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May 18, 2015 6:50 AM 0