Good Morning, RVA: The fifth of May!

Celebrate Mexico! Celebrate the weather! Celebrate something!

May 5, 2015; 7:04 AM • by Ross Catrow

Photo by: zedworks

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and today’s got highs in the mid-80s which means we’ve got to spend some time outside. If you’ve ever thought about riding your bike to work, today is definitely the day to give it a try.

Water cooler

It’s Cinco De Mayo, which is the celebration of a Mexican military victory over the French in 1862. Because we’re Americans, we celebrate this holiday in our preferred and time-honored way: Americanized versions of another country’s food and alcohol! Take advantage of today’s great weather to drink a margarita on a patio somewhere and think about your favorite centuries-old military victory.

Elkhardt the Moldy Middle School, which sounds like a children’s cautionary tale (and totally is if you think about it), will combine with Thompson Middle School beginning in September, Zachary Reid reports. A side effect of the merger is that this combined school is a “new school” and therefore doesn’t count toward or against the district’s academics stats. That’s some serious The Wire-level numbers gaming!

As the pieces of VCU’s 2015-2016 basketball program remain in a constant state of flux, we can at least be certain that HAVOC! lives in Richmond, not Austin. The RTD’s Tim Pearrell has the news that the University of Texas has dropped their attempts to trademark the exceedingly lame “Horns Havoc” and other less-than-cool havoc-related terms.

The lower third in this WTVR screenshot wins today: “Fecal matter in beards.”

Vox has some complex sentences about the shooting in Garland, Texas at an event organized by an anti-Muslim hate group.

Sports!

• The Squirrels finally broke their 15-game losing streak with a 5-1 win over Altoona. Richmond is now 4-17 on the season,
• Nats topped the Marlins, 6-4, continue today at 7:05 PM.
• Wizards resume their series with the Hawks tonight at 8:00 PM.
• Caps are now 2-1 against the Rangers in the Stanley Cup, after a 1-0 victory last night.

What to expect

The many splendored things you can expect on RVANews today:

• The dire state of fruits and veggies
• Our second Raising Richmond columnist hangs up her hat
• Trevor drinks tequila!
• Some folks are making history
• A list of the restaurants that opened in April

This morning’s longread

The making of Dr. Oz: How an award-winning doctor turned away from science and embraced fame

I spoke to dozens of Oz’s colleagues, mentors, and other health professionals who have been touched by the surgeon or his work, some who’ve known the man since his early days fresh out of the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard. I read his early books. I talked to his fans — including my own mother. I found out that the roots of Oz’s experimentation with alternative techniques go all the way back to his childhood, and that his departures from evidence-based medicine have gotten more extreme as he’s become more famous. I also learned that the making of Dr. Oz says more about America’s approach to health than it does about its most famous doctor.

I feel like there are a handful of health-related things that I believe are true just because Dr. Oz wanted to push some product.

This morning’s Instagram

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May 5, 2015 7:04 AM 2