Good morning, RVA! It's 31 °F out there, so bundle up. But then, after today, throw your bundle, away because I think warmer spring weather is here for good. Highs today may hit 50 °F if we're lucky, but tomorrow will luxuriate in the upper 60s.
Water cooler
F.T. Rea, writing for Style Weekly has Six Things to Know about New VCU Men's Basketball Coach Mike Rhoades. Voice of the Rams Robby Robinson has the audio from yesterday's introductory press conference, incase you missed it.
Y'all! I know it sounds like the most boring of the City Council committees, but the Governmental Operations Standing Committee has some really interesting stuff on its agenda for today (PDF). They'll look at: new requirements for members of the press to get access to the coveted press area in Council chambers, requesting earlier access to resolutions under expedited consideration, and tweaking the severance policies for city employees (aka preventing outgoing mayors from severancing away all of the city's money).
Big Sandwhich News yesterday: Brandon Fox reports that Garnett's announced they're opening a second location deep in downtown. I wish I could replace all the regular news in my life with Big Sandwich News—I think I'd be happier.
I enjoy the mission of Laban K. Rutto, an associate professor at VSU. He's studying hops, and hopes to get all of the local craft breweries to offer at least one beer made 100% from local ingredients. Stephanie Breijo at Richmond Magazine has more on the work behind that mission.
Today, there's yet another Ned Oliver story in the paper about the Finance Director vs. City Auditor. I enjoy the mayor's office quote at the bottom of the article reminding everyone to keep their eyes on the revenue-collecting prize.
There's a lot of weird/scary, national news brewing at the moment. We've got an expected vote on a version of AHCA that was reworked in the middle of the night, so who even knows what's in there. Then CNN reports that "Trump associates may have coordinated with Russians" to "release information damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign." Plus, the wiretapping thing continues to make no sense and spiral off into bizarro land. As a great man once said, "Hold on to your butts"—the next couple weeks could be wild.
Sports!
- The Virginia Union women's basketball team defeated Cal Baptist, 86-81, and will face top-seeded Ashland in the NCAA Division II championship game! Tipoff is set for 7:30 PM on Friday.
This morning's longread
A Few Words About That Ten-Million-Dollar Serial Comma
Just always use a serial comma, OK?
While advocates of the serial comma are happy for the truck drivers’ victory, it was actually the lack of said comma that won the day. Here are the facts of the case, for those who may have been pinned under a semicolon. According to Maine state law, workers are not entitled to overtime pay for the following activities: “The canning, processing, preserving, freezing, drying, marketing, storing, packing for shipment or distribution of: (1) Agricultural produce; (2) Meat and fish products; and (3) Perishable foods.”