Good morning, RVA! It's 74 °F, and rainy, and it’s likely to stay rainy for a good part of the day. You should expect temperatures to stay right where they are, though, as a result.
Water cooler
As part of their response to the police-involved killing of Marcus-David Peters, the Richmond Police Department has released several documents related to its Crisis Intervention Team training and Use of Force training. Other than a General Order on the use of force (PDF), the documents appear to be high-level presentations summarizing the training officers receive. This is a step towards transparency, but I’m going to hazard a guess that folks will want to see even more detailed documents related to these trainings.
Update: Richmond Public Schools has, as of this minute, sold 3,265 Barack Obama Elementary T-shirts, which surpasses their goal. I guess since folks are still out there buying up shirts, they’ve extended the deadline another 13 or so days. If you’ve procrastinated until now, congratulations, you’ve been rewarded!
Alexandra Cline at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has some details on the low-income senior housing planned for Jackson Ward. This development—which includes low-income housing, mixed-income housing, and some retail—is the second phase of a plan to move folks out of the RRHA-owned Fay Towers in Gilpin Court and into to new, updated digs. Affordable housing is complex, buuuuut this seems pretty good? I welcome emails and tweets to the contrary, though!
Art 180 is great and so is founder Marlene Paul. Todd Kliman at Richmond Magazine has a look back at the organization’s first 20 years. 20 years! That’s an infinitely long amount of time!
Hey, did you see this rad-sounding, bike-related event this past weekend? I missed it and am bummed, because spending the day pedaling around town on bike share learning about “the legacy, history, and culture of communities and spaces, specifically historically black communities and spaces” sound awesome. I hope Bikes & Brunch Tours, originally from Baltimore, becomes a regular thing down here in Richmond.
City meeting updates! The Education Compact Team—you know, the one time when all of our elected officials, from all three branches of government, can get together and interact like regular humans—meets today at 6:00 PM at the Main Library. You can find the brief agenda here (PDF). Additionally, the Planning Commission will meet today at 11:00 AM and discuss adding trailers (a “modular building”) to Fox Elementary (PDF).
I’m interested in this news from Richmond BizSense’s Mike Platania that Hardywood has launched a sub-brand called Suncrush. However, beers with fruit and tea and whatever are definitely not my scene, and y’all can surely guess what my favorite beach beer is...
Sports!
- Squirrels took three of four from Reading and have today off.
- Kickers fell to Charleston Battery, 0-3.
- Nats split the series against the Marlins.
This morning's patron longread
How an Ex-Cop Rigged McDonald’s Monopoly Game and Stole Millions
From Patron Alex, comes this wildly fascinating true crime story...about the McDonald’s Monopoly game!
Inside Hoover’s home, Amy Murray, a loyal McDonald’s spokesperson, encouraged him to tell the camera about the luckiest moment of his life. Nervously clutching his massive check, Hoover said he’d fallen asleep on the beach. When he bent over to wash off the sand, his People magazine fell into the sea. He bought another copy from a grocery store, he said, and inside was an advertising insert with the “Instant Win” game piece. The camera crew listened patiently to his rambling story, silently recognizing the inconsequential details found in stories told by liars. They suspected that Hoover was not a lucky winner, but part of a major criminal conspiracy to defraud the fast food chain of millions of dollars. The two men behind the camera were not from McDonald’s. They were undercover agents from the FBI. This was a McSting.
If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.