Good morning, RVA! It's 40 °F, and get ready, because today’s highs are in the 70s! The warmer weather will continue though the week.
Water cooler
Jim Ridolphi in The Mechanicsville Local (via the Richmond Times-Dispatch) has a recap of last week’s Hanover County School Board workshop where they discussed renaming Lee-Davis High School and Stonewall Jackson Middle School. While you can probably guess how the majority of the Board feels at the moment, that they’re not unanimously pro-Confederacy is cause for hope. However, that Board Member Norm Sulser thinks that doing an online survey is “an excellent technique to get input from everyone who wanted to weigh in” is cause for concern. And then, this quote from Board Chair Sue Dibble is just plain awful, so bad that it’s hard to believe someone would say something like this in 2018: “It seems that we are taking [Robert E. Lee] and viewing him in the single lens as if all he ever was in all the days he walked this earth that all he ever did was lead that army in defense of slavery and forget about all the greatness that he did in addition to that. It seems somewhat disrespectful to him that we would name something and then rescind it. That whole concept to me is bothersome.“ We’re being too disrespectful to a man who, in her own dang words, led an army in defense of slavery?! Give me a break. The Hanover County School Board is appointed by the County’s Board of Supervisors. If you live, work, worship, or play in Hanover County and would like to let the Board of Supervisors know how you think their appointees are doing, you can find their contact information right here.
Last week, Henrico Supervisor Courtney Lynch proposed increasing teacher pay at a budget work session without previously running it by her fellow supervisors or County staff. This elicited shock! And gasps! And frowns of disapproval! Supervisor Lynch wrote about the impact her breach of The Henrico Way had over on her Facebook, which you should definitely read. But today, Michael O’Connor reports in the RTD that the Henrico Board of Supervisors and the Henrico School Board “are planning a joint meeting to discuss budget issues, including teacher pay.” Whatever you think about Lynch’s procedural strategy, it certainly has moved the ball forward on teacher pay. If you’re like me and love local political strategy, keep in mind that Henrico County will elect a new Board of Supervisors next year, and since Lynch won in a special election, during a wave of anti-Trump enthusiasm, she does not have a ton of time to establish herself and get down to business. P.S. Henrico County could always do with a bit more transparency.
Style Weekly’s Paul Spencer sat down with Councilmember Agelasto to talk about his proposed cigarette tax. I continue to support this tax for lots of the reasons mentioned in this interview—but mostly because it’s revenue that we’re leaving on the table that other localities feel totally fine collecting. Also, I’m interested in why the unrelated question about school administrator salaries made it into this interview. I need to set up a macro for typing out “The new superintendent’s cabinet is, at worst, cost neutral to the previous administration’s cabinet.”
Also in Style Weekly, Annie Tobey has a list of beer pairings for...arcade games! I love this idea. Do any of our new barcades have the six-player X-Men arcade game? Because I would like to pair several hours of my life with that and, say, some sort of easy-drinking British beer.
Here’s a parks update—Monroe and Abner Clay—from Mike Platania in Richmond BizSense. Which will open first, the Pulse or Monroe Park?
This morning's longread
How an Instagram Post Led to an N.F.L. Cheerleader’s Discrimination Case
Well, this seems like some sexist garbage.
According to the Saints’ handbook for cheerleaders, as well as internal emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with Davis, the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid contact with players, in person or online, even though players are not penalized for pursuing such engagement with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders must block players from following them on social media and cannot post photos of themselves in Saints gear, denying them the chance to market themselves. The players are not required to do any of these things.
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