Good Morning, RVA: That dang indecisive weather

Warm, cold, wam, cold, warm—it’s enough to make your thermometer spin.

January 14, 2016; 7:09 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: miguel77

Good morning, RVA! It’s 30 °F, and we’re in for another sunny pleasant-ish day as the temperature Yo-Yos back into the mid-50s. Highs over the last few days: 65, 42, 51, 36.

Water cooler

It’s State of the XYZ time in America. Earlier this week it was the Union. Last night it was Virginia. Two weeks from now it’ll be the city. If you missed last night’s State of the Commonwealth address, you can read the full text right here.

Style Weekly’s Leah Small recaps the public meeting about the planned Maggie Walker statue and Richmond’s Most Famous Yet Historically Insignificant Tree. I was worried the artist would break up with us over all of our red-hot tree feelings, but he seems pretty chill and willing to work with whatever plaza we end up with–tree or no tree.

It’s General Assembly season! And one of the first actions the state’s Senate took was…to ban reporters from its floor? That seems not super great. In response, Virginia Senate Majority Leader Tommy Norment says, “You’ll get used to this refrain during the session. I have no comment.” Oh. Cool.

Remember a while back when Richmond’s electoral board was chastised for voting irregularities and a lack of transparency? The mayor’s office (who doesn’t have a whole lot to do with the board) said the public should get involved and voice their displeasure while his office would start to publicize the upcoming meetings. Well disgruntled public, the next meeting of the Richmond Electoral Board is Tuesday, January 19th at 1:00 PM in room 105 of City Hall (900 E. Broad Street).

Vox runs through the many policies mentioned in Obama’s State of the Union address and tries to nail down exactly what they mean.

The 2016 Pantone Color of the Year is not one color but two: Rose Quartz and Serenity, aka pink and blue. Such a departure from the jewel tones of the past couple of years–I dig it!

There’s another (but smaller with only seven candidates) Republican debate tonight at 9:00 PM. You can stream it on foxbusiness.com.

Oscar noms drop today at 8:30 AM! Expect much scoffing and many exclamation points from my Twitter account as I read through them.

Sports!

• Rams dismantled Fordham, 88-54. That’s their seventh win in a row.
• Spiders took it to La Salle, 83-61.
• Hokies held on to beat Wake Forest, 93-91, winning their third ACC game of the season. They notched just two conference wins in each of the previous two years.

This morning’s longread

It’s Nice to See You

My epiphany was this: Oprah is arguably the most accomplished, admired, able person in the world. She creates magic for other people and herself on the regular. So, if Oprah can’t do permanent lifelong weight loss, maybe it can’t be done. Oprah is also crazy rich. If Oprah can’t buy permanent lifelong weight loss, maybe it can’t be bought. And that sucks. But it is also incredibly freeing if you, like me, have thought about your weight so many times throughout every day of your life that it becomes as maddening and distracting as if you’d stowed a beating tell-tale heart beneath your floorboards.

This morning’s Instagram

Bridge over the river James

A photo posted by Philip H Queen (@philiphqueen) on Jan 13, 2016 at 9:53pm PST

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January 14, 2016 7:09 AM 0