Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and highs today are projected to hit the mid 90s. There's lots of rain in this week's forecast, but none today, so do with that information what you will.
Water cooler
Richmond police have identified the two victims in this past Wednesday's double homicide: Christian K. Singleton, 15 and Ketron R. Wells, 16. This is the second time in 2017 that two children have been murdered together.
On Satuday, a 74-year-old man jogging near the intersection of Main Street and Vine Street was struck and killed by a driver. This is at least the fifth pedestrian/cyclist fatality in the City this year. At what point does Richmond take street safety seriously and work to actually implement a Vision Zero policy? I know there's a lot going on in town, but this issue is something that needs a champion. Who at the City will be that champion—whether it be on Council, in the Mayor's administration, or even City staff? I think that person would have a lot of loud, public support.
Tomorrow is Primary Day and you should vote! The Virginia Department of Elections website will show you exactly what'll be on your ballot, but for most folks it'll be Lieutenant Governor and Regular Governor. If you're voting in the Democratic primary in the City (you can vote in either but only one), you'll also see Treasurer and Sheriff. Republicans in the Brookland District of Henrico County will pick a Board of Supervisors candidate. I encourage you to use the Department of Elections's tool and learn some stuff about all these folks!
City Council meets tonight at 6:00 PM, and here is their agenda. A couple of things to note: Imam Amman Amonette of the Islamic Center of Virginia will give the invocation, Council will consider a requirement that vending machines on City-controlled property be stocked with healthy food, and they'll tinker with allowing boards and commissions to submit an annual written report to Council instead of giving a presentation. As of now there's nothing on the regular agenda, but that could easily change!
The Washington Post has a good piece about the magnitude of Governor McAuliffe's work to restore rights to former felons. While the press coverage has died down since Virginia Republicans failed to figure out how to stop him, the Governor has quietly kept on restoring rights to people. By the end of this term he'll have given the right to vote back to at least 160,000 Virginians. That is awesome and a good reminder that the vast majority of states do not infinitely disenfranchise its citizens after they commit a felony. It's a double reminder that Virginia's felony larceny threshold, at $200, is an embarrassment to the commonwealth.
I kind of always keep an eye on what's happening with George Wythe High School football. The Bulldogs have won just four games over the last 13 seasons and have run through a couple coaches—which makes me feel like there's a Friday Night Lights kind of story just waiting to happen. They just hired Coach Jeter James a former player from the class of 2000. Looking at the sidebar in this Richmond Free Press article, and I'm kind of shocked at the state of Richmond City football—combined the five high schools won eight total games last year. I guess that's not super surprising, though, given the lack of funding for even ultra-critical things like roofs and boilers.
This piece on Vox serves as both an explainer to what happened in the British election and how the heck the British government works. Good reading if, like me, you were secretly confused.
Sports!
- Squirrels took three of four from Altoona over the weekend and have today off.
- Kickers fell to Charleston Battery, 0-1.
- Nats were swept by the Texans and begin a new series with Atlanta tonight at 7:05 PM.
This morning's longread
El Capitan, My El Capitan
This dude climbed El Capitan with no ropes!?
Like an outdoorsy performance artist, Honnold rehearses big free-solos on rope first. He commutes up and down cliffs with gear in order to work for entire days on small tricky sections. He memorizes long sequences of complex movement like a clever middle-schooler memorizing Pi to a hundred decimal places. Honnold is also a student of Yosemite climbing history who has methodically bested the marquee climbs of every Yosemite free-soloist before him, and he has spent years quietly preparing himself for the free-solo to end all free-solos. In the final weeks, Honnold told me, he climbed a particularly smooth stretch about 500 feet up, on rope, five times in a row with only his feet, no hands. “It still felt really insecure and I still always felt like the feet might slip,” he said, “but at the same time you’re like, ‘Well, it’s worked every time.’ ”