Good morning, RVA! It's 52 °F, and the rain should have moved out of the City by the time you read this. Highs today are back around 60 °F accompanied by plenty of sunshine. Enjoy!
Water cooler
Richmond police are now treating a death investigation from last week as a homicide. On Friday at 1:10 AM, officers arrived to the 2000 block of S. Kinsley Avenue and found Robert L. Walker Jr., 20, shot to death.
Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has a frustrating update on the status of the RVA Bike Share system. The initial phase of our bike share was supposed to include 20 stations—only 16 of those have been installed. We're missing 20% of a system that's usefulness depends on creating a network of tightly-spaced stations. 20%! Frankly, this is unacceptable for a project that was originally planned to roll out before the Big Bike Race™, and now here we are, years later, still waiting. Robinson puts the responsibility of the delay on the City Attorney who, instead of drafting up the legal agreements necessary to get the last four stations installed, had...other stuff to do? I guess? I know absolutely zero about the internal politics of City Hall, but reading this article and seeing the lack of progress on bike infrastructure over the last year or so makes me wonder if the folks executing these projects have the support they need from the Big Heavies. Who can lean on the City Attorney, or DPU, or whomever to make these types of things a priority?
The bananas election in Fredericksburg now heads to lawsuits. Not only was that election ultra close, but folks were given the wrong ballot! Graham Moomaw at the RTD has the details on what sounds like will be a multi-week process to sort things out. I don't think we'll know who controls the House of Delegates for a good, long while.
Brent Baldwin in Style Weekly has an interview with John Waters about Christmas? This is at least the second interview Baldwin has done with Waters, so now, in my mind, they are the best of friends.
Also in Style Weekly, Amanda Dalla Villa Adams write a bunch of words about GardenFest of Lights at Lewis Ginter. You shouldn't need to read a bunch of words to convince you to go to GardenFest of Lights, which opens on Friday, but they're there if you need them.
I love this idea of scrapping that weird parking lot in front of Zzaam in Carytown and making it a place for people. J. Elias O'Neal at BizSense has more on the future of this teeny food court—including the possibility of a place to roast marshmallows!
The Washington Post has a "complete list" of women who have accused Trump of sexual misconduct. I put it in quotes because they only include situations where he "physically touched [women] inappropriately in some way"—so, for example, his first person account of intentionally walking in on beauty contestants while they were changing is not included.
Logistical note: I'm taking Thursday and Friday off to spend time with my family / eat an enormous amount of food and watch sports. On Monday, we'll get back to it. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Sports!
- Rams beat the Cal Bears, 83-69, and will face Michigan tonight at 5:00 PM.
- Spiders couldn't keep up with Cincinnati, 48-75.
- Hokies handled Houston Baptist, 99-73.
This morning's longread
In an era of USC-UCLA pranks, one stood out. Sixty years later, its mystery is solved
SPORTS!
Sixty years ago, the professor, Dayle Barnes, belonged to an organization at USC called the Trojan Squires, which pulled off one of the most memorable in a long line of pranks in USC’s rivalry with UCLA. For the game at the Coliseum in 1957, UCLA’s student section had planned a series of card stunts. The UCLA students were to hold up placards that would combine to form Bruins-friendly words and pictures. Except when the students actually did hold up their cards, they had been altered by a band of USC saboteurs. In each stunt, the unwitting UCLA students revealed a different pro-USC message. It caused such a stir that Sports Illustrated wrote about the prank — without interviewing its creators.