Good morning, RVA! It's 77 °F, and today you should expect sunny and hot—again. Temperatures will hover around 90 °F, but it’ll feel way hotter.
Water cooler
Justin Mattingly at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says the Richmond Public School Board passed a five-year strategic plan last night. You can/should download the final, approved version of the strategic plan and read through the 40 action items (PDF). The plan itself says that “baseline numbers, as well as five-year and annual targets, will be developed for each goal” over the course of the 2018-19 school year, and Superintendent Kamras says he’ll begin costing out the plan over the next couple of weeks. I look forward to updating my PDF library with both of those things!
While we’re talking about schools, tonight, The Great Big Everything will host a schools-related happy hour at Gallery5 from 5:00–7:00 PM. Head on over for a few drinks and a panel discussion with Councilmember Kim Gray, School Board Rep Liz Doerr and RPS teacher Juliane Codd Toce.
Mark Robinson at the RTD checked in on the status of Monroe Park, which was supposed to reopen to the public last week 💸. That didn’t happen, but it has rained, like, every single dang day recently. I am not a construction person and barely know how to use a screwdriver, but forever rains seems like a believable reason to delay? Anyway, Robinson says we should expect a new opening date later this month. There’s also a whole section of this article about an electrical box, a WWII memorial, and peeing behind bushes, but, before relieving myself of my thoughts, I need to go look at the park with my own eyes.
Do you know someone who’s makin’ history? Especially in the oddly specific categories of Creating Quality Educational Opportunities, Demonstrating Innovative Economic Solutions, Improving Regional Transportation, Championing Social Justice, Promoting Healthy Communities, or Advancing Our Quality of Life? If so, you should nominate them as a 2019 History Maker! The Valentine—now in partnership with the Capital Region Collaborative (that’s where all those categories come from)—has put together this event/award for awhile now, and it’s always nice to see folks recognized who spend their time toiling away to make Richmond a better place.
Hello! It is Wednesday and there is another Walter Williams editorial in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. This one says Colonialism was pretty OK for Africa and, additionally, repeats the white supremacist talking points that you may have seen recently on the President’s Twitter feed. Here’s a New York Times article that you should read to get some better context on what Williams is talking about and how white supremacists are using this very issue to advance racism and bigotry in the U.S. The RTD Editorial Board isn’t forced to run columns like this. They could just not.
There’s a lot going on in this story about GWAR heading up to D.C. to destroy a Rick and Morty-themed bar. But, sure!
This morning's longread
I’m teaching email security to Democratic campaigns. It’s as bad as 2016.
You’re most likely not running a political campaign, but this security advice is good and should make you think about upgrading your situation (if you haven’t already)!
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, deeply anxious about campaign security, distributes a nonpartisan tech playbook developed in conjunction with the Harvard Belfer Center. The playbook is meant to be a basic guide that any campaign can follow, and from a technical point of view, it is unimpeachable. But it focuses almost entirely on protecting campaign data, such as financial reports or opposition research. When it comes to safeguarding staffers’ personal accounts, the handbook only suggests that they “enlist professional input from credentialed IT and cybersecurity professionals as needed.” This is as useful as telling a potential cholera victim to hire a microbiologist. With no IT staff and with no budget for hiring consultants, most campaigns need specific and positive advice about locking down personal accounts, the digital security equivalent of “wash your hands, boil your water.”
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