Good morning, RVA! It's 72 °F, cloudy, and there’s a good chance of thunderstorms throughout the day. If we’re being honest, there’s a good chance of thunderstorms for the foreseeable future.
Water cooler
On Monday, a police officer shot and killed an unarmed, naked man, Marcus-David L. Peters, 24, near the I-95 northbound on-ramp from Chamberlayne Avenue. In a press release, Police Chief Durham said, “Our officers do not take the use of deadly force lightly. I think it’s important to remember that being naked does not remove a threat. So far, the eyewitness accounts we’ve heard have been consistent: our officer tried using verbal commands, then used non-lethal force first by deploying his Taser before using his service weapon.”
I was not there and am not in anyway knowledgeable about police procedures, but I’d hope there are at least a few steps between deploying a taser and killing a person.
Police are looking for people who witnessed or photographed the shooting. You can contact Detective R. Wigfall (804.646.6769) or Crime Stoppers (804.780.1000).
The General Assembly is still futzing around with the budget, with a small number of Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee trying to decide whether or not expand Medicaid to hundreds of thousands of Virginians. Jeff Schapiro at the Richmond Times-Dispatch explains some of the political goings on and what’s necessary for Medicaid expansion to pass before June 30th—that’s when the fiscal year ends and the state government shuts down without a budget.
I don’t write a lot about trains in this space which is a shame, because trains are sweet! Starting this Friday and continuing through the fall, Amtrak will allow folks to load their bikes onto trains at Main Street Station. You’ve got to reserve online and pay a $20 fee, but now you can at least get your trusty metal steed out of the City by rail without hitching a ride in a car to Staples Mill.
NBC12’s Sabrina Squire—a Richmond Tradition for sure—will retire on May 23rd, and Brent Baldwin has a parting interview with her in Style Weekly.
FYI, the RVA Education Compact Team will meet tonight from 5:30 PM – 7:00 PM at City Hall. You can find the agenda over on the School’s BoardDocs site (bleh), topics include: “Whole Child Approach,” an update on the City budget, and “youth/workforce development.”
My pal Nate officially opens his eponymous bagel shop today at 7:00 AM! You can find his excellent bagels, bagel sandwiches, Blanchard’s coffee, and all kinds of other goodies at 21 S. Allen Avenue. Stop by this morning and say hello while chewin’ on a bagel.
Over on the other side of town, Andrew Goetzinger at RVA Mag takes a taco tour of the Southside. Despite his experience—and he admittedly doesn’t even like corn tortillas!!—I’ve heard a lot of great things about Tacos Mexico.
There’s a new episode of the Sam and Ross Like Things podcast, and it’s episode 53! I bet you can guess what thing I like.
Tom Wolfe, who was born and raised on Richmond’s Northside died this week at the age of 88. You can read his obituary in the Washington Post, where he worked for a time.
Sports!
- Squirrels stumbled against Altoona, 1-5, and close out that series tonight at 6:00 PM.
- Kickers take on Reading United AC tonight at 7:00 PM.
- Nats got rained out yesterday and will try to pick up that game plus a new one today, beginning at 5:05 PM.
- Caps lost to the Lightning, 2-4.
This morning's longread
Here's What It's Like To Have Time-Space Synaesthesia
Brains are weeeeeeird.
Synaesthesia tends to run in families, and it essentially means someone has unusual relationships between areas of the brain that process different things; in my case, the processing of time and space. I’ve "seen" time for as long as I can remember, and it has always looked the same – each unit, whether lessons, days, weeks, months, or years, is represented by boxes, running right to left. If they existed outside my head, each box would be around 40cm x 40cm or so, much like a hopscotch square, and I am always standing in today. If I’m in a room of people, I can roughly identify who is standing where in time. It’s my bizarre party trick.
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