Good morning, RVA! It's 62 °F, and the rain has moved out of the region but the clouds may persist. In addition to a possible lack of sunshine, you can expect a chillier day with highs right around 60 °F.
Water cooler
Garet Prior at Richmond Forward has a great explainer for advocates of Councilmember Agelasto’s proposed cigarette tax to help fund school facilities. What an excellent resource! It lists out the basic benefits of the tax ($5 million per year towards desperately needed school maintenance needs), gives you practical ways to get involved, and dives into the weeds on specific details—even going so far as to give folks a couple of counter arguments to common concerns. Dang, I wish a thing like this existed for every issue I want to advocate for. Anyway, if you support fixing leaky roofs, installing locks, and upgrading electrical systems in Richmond’s public schools read the article to get informed, and then contact your City Council person before their meeting on April 23rd.
Should you think the lack of funding for Richmond Public Schools stems just from our local government, The Commonwealth Institute is here to remind you that the state government continues to underfund Virginia’s school systems—especially those with the highest concentration of poverty. Theoretically, when the General Assembly returns to pass this year’s budget, the lack of education funding is something that they could fix.
Ohhhh you’re going to want to read this profile in the Washington Post of Christy Coleman, CEO of the American Civil War Museum. Coleman is an an absolute all-star and her contributions to Richmond are massive. Read this piece and then immediately schedule your trip to the American Civil War Museum (which, by the way, she somehow lead through a peaceful merger with the old Museum of the Confederacy—astounding!).
Kind of related, Superintended Kamras walked the Slave Trail this past weekend and decided that the experience will be a part of the new teacher introduction for all RPS educators and something all of the District’s high school students will take part in.
City Council will meet today to for their sixth budget work session—this one will focus exclusively on amendments. Theoretically, we’ll now get to hear how councilfolk plan to cut the budget in support of their proposed additions. I will, of course, get this session posted to The Boring Show podcast as soon as possible.
Tim Pearrell at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has this great piece on Taylor Jones, a local athlete with visual impairments (and all around charming guy). Jones and a bunch of other athletes with physical and visual disabilities ran the Monument 10k this past weekend with the support of Sportable, an organization that you should totally learn some more about.
Over at The Dogtown Dish, Michael Hild, one of the folks behind the relaunch of Climax soda, has a history of Pin Money Pickles—which he’s also planning to relaunch. I love anything pickled, so this sounds great and delicious to me.
Sports!
- Squirrels swept Reading in their first series at home and will now host Bowie tonight at 6:35 PM.
- Kickers lost in Louisville, 1-2.
- Nats dropped a couple of games to Colorado over the weekend and now head to New York to take on the Mets tonight at 7:10 PM.
This morning's longread
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Washing the Pillow Cases Every Day
Words matter. Please don’t describe yourself or others as “OCD” in jest.
On the back of one cabinet door is where my mom tapes lists: emergency numbers, e-mail passwords, our history of cat ownership. Among these is a tirelessly edited list of restaurants, a jumble of typed and handwritten names. The list is a family archive of safe restaurants, that is, ones that don’t use tablecloths. My brother enjoys going out to eat, despite the potential disasters that might occur. When we sit as a family, he lingers, standing over his chair, examining the seat cushion and table. One of his many mental, geometric calculations plays out in his head as he determines the quickest and safest way to seat himself without touching anything. To see him attempt to negotiate a tablecloth is heart breaking. As he eases into the chair, sweat forming on his upper lip, he uses only his index fingers to scoot the chair forward. He keeps a few inches between his knees and the tablecloth. The rest of us feign interest in the menu, unable to watch that small slice of his daily suffering. I’ve never in my life seen a worse prison.
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