Good morning, RVA! It's 66 °F, and we've got hurricane remnants moving through the region today. Expect temperatures to stay right about where they are, rain, and some real-deal wind this afternoon. Stay safe!
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 1,345↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 16↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 136↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 53, Henrico: 48, and Richmond: 35). Since this pandemic began, 422 people have died in the Richmond region. The COVID Tracking Project has an interesting post up about the widening gap between hospitalizations and deaths in America as a result of COVID-19. Many, many people are still dying each day (1,025 yesterday), but, compared to the dark, New York-driven spring, fewer people who are hospitalized do end up dying. From the post: "This pattern in the data we compile is borne out by a recent finding that in one large New York healthcare system, patients hospitalized with COVID-19 had a greater than 25 percent chance of dying at the beginning of the pandemic. By August, COVID-19 patients admitted to the same hospital system had a less than eight percent chance of dying." That same study credits new treatments and less burden on hospitals for keeping folks alive...and the fact that hospitalizations are up among younger people who are just more likely to survive. Positives and negatives.
Make sure you take time to read this great piece by Kate Master in the Virginia Mercury about school reopening. Masters lays out how confusing and stressful these decisions are for local school boards who, ultimately, have full authority to make whatever reopening decisions they want. Part of that stress comes from a lack of data (which we're slowly starting to piece together), part of it from a lack of statewide mandates from the Governor, and part of it from a federal government that's often up to no good. A lot of things I write about are complicated, but school reopening is complicated.
Related: In a press briefing yesterday, Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras said: "With increasing infection rates and the direction things seem to be heading, not just locally, but nationally, I am not optimistic, at this point, that we would be able to come back in person...We will continue to track the data, seek input from our families, and from our teachers. But, the number one priority is the health and safety of our students, our staff, and our families. So we'll be watching this very, very closely." Kamras goes on to say "Richmond is not Henrico and it is not Chesterfield...We are very different places." which I think just perfectly illustrates everything Kate Masters wrote in her piece linked above.
Yesterday, the Governor signed into law a dozen or so bills focused on police reform. You can read his press release—which amazingly contains direct links to LIS (that's the State's bill tracking website) for each and every bill that he signed. Gotta love that! As per always, I'm bad at state government, so I don't know which of these bills should have gone further and which are solid, progressive reforms. I will point out, though, HB 5055 and SB 5035 which "permit civilian review boards the authority to issue subpoenas and make binding disciplinary decisions." Hopefully these new laws will clear up any of the legal gray area we had locally about the power of the Civilian Review Board Richmond (and maybe Henrico!) is trying to stand up. Speaking of, I wonder what's up with our Civilian Review Board Task Force...
Quick follow up: RPD did end up arresting and charging four people at this week's march in solidarity with folks in Philly. Police charged one person with "obstructing free passage," another with "obstruction of justice, carrying a concealed weapon and pedestrian in the roadway," a third with "inciting a riot and throwing a missile at an occupied vehicle," and the fourth with "assault on a law enforcement officer." I wish it were easier to track these charges and see if anything comes of them. I get names and mugshots emailed to me instantly, but I never hear if these charges are dropped, people are convicted, or what. Related, and more seriously, I'd like this information for murder suspects, too.
One final police-related bit of follow up, the Richmond Times-Dispatch has an editorial calling for the RPD's newly-formed External Advisory Committee to release the names of its members and open its meetings up to the media. I wrote similar things earlier this week, but, after hearing from a member of the committee, I think I may have been too flip. While I do think that the Richmond Police Department have burnt up too much public trust over the past few months to allow this committee to remain unnamed, I deeply appreciate how much work a volunteer committee like this is for regular folks. It's possible to appreciate and value the people who want to get involved and make Richmond a better, safer place, while simultaneously recognizing that, in this particular situation, those people should probably be willing to be part of a truly public-facing group.
Today at 2:00 PM, ChamberRVA will host a Shared Values Summit featuring Bill Martin from the Valentine, Christy Coleman previously from the American Civil War Museum and now the ED of the Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation, prolific Richmond artist Hamilton Glass, and the president and vice president of the Tulsa Regional Chamber of Commerce (who will talk about their work in reparations for the Tulsa massacre). This is a solid group of folks and might could be a good way to spend your rainy afternoon. Tickets are $25.
Heads up: If you'd planned on heading over to the Richmond and Henrico Health District's community testing event today, it is canceled on account of hurricane remnants. However! If you need a COVID-19 test you should get one, and you can check out this big list of places offering them—to folks with or without insurance.
Via /r/rva: "In honor of the upcoming election, my fiancé made (Abigail) Spamburgers and (Nick) Fritos. Don't forget to vote!"
This morning's longread
The Vast Bay Leaf Conspiracy
This definitely seems like something I'd have already shared as a longread before, but a quick Google suggests that I have not! Even if I have, I'm happy to share it again because what even are bay leaves??
What does a bay leaf taste like? Nothing. What does a bay leaf smell like? Nothing. What does a bay leaf look like? A leaf. How does a bay leaf behave? It behaves as a leaf would, if you took a leaf from the tree outside of your apartment building and put it into your soup. People say, “Boil a bay leaf in some water and then taste the water if you want to know what a bay leaf tastes like.” No.
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