Good morning, RVA! It's 32 °F, and today you should expect surprising highs right near 60 °F. Eventually we'll get to the winter part of winter, right?
Water cooler
As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 4,598 new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 75 new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 455 new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 153, Henrico: 162, and Richmond: 140). Since this pandemic began, 613 people have died in the Richmond region. That's three days in a row now with case counts less than 5,000; the mini trend holds! Hospitalizations, however, continue to creep back up to their highest point in the pandemic. The statewide seven-day average of deaths, which typically lag behind hospitalizations, is now at an all-time high. Yesterday and the day before were the second and third worst days for new reported deaths—the only more deadly day, according to the data dashboard (which is not reality), involved a data reporting issue. But! Hard work on distributing the vaccine continues! The Richmond, Henrico, Chesterfield, and Chickahominy Health Districts will begin opening up Phase 1b of their vaccination distribution plans this coming Monday, January 18th. While Phase 1a focused on healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities, Phase 1b includes people aged 75 or older, frontline essential workers (defined ultra broadly), and people living in correctional facilities and homeless shelters. Next week, out of that large group of people, the Health Districts will start vaccinating "police, fire, and hazmat; corrections and homeless shelter workers; and childcare/PreK–12 Teachers/Staff." For whatever reason, moving into Phase 1b and including folks outside of healthcare makes me feel like I really can see through to the end of all this. I know a bunch of teachers! They can start getting vaccinated! That's awesome! I imagine there's more news coming about how folks in these Phase 1b categories can actually factually register for their vaccines, but, until then, Phase 1b workers or employers in Richmond and Henrico can fill out this vaccine interest form: vax.rchd.com.
The Governor delivered his State of the Commonwealth Address last night, and you can read through the entire thing as prepared here or watch the hour-long speech over on YouTube. Mel Leonor at the Richmond Times-Dispatch watched the speech so you don't have to. Items of note: Northam promised to follow the new federal guidance to begin vaccinating people aged 65 and older as soon as possible, increase the evictions relief trust fund by $25 million, give teachers a 2% bonus, legalize marijuana, and restore the voting rights of felons. Who knows what on this list he'll get accomplished over the next couple of months, but it's a pretty good list!
Also on the GA tip, the RTD's Mel Leonor and Micheal Martz report that House Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn stripped three republicans from their committee assignments because they seditiously supported overturning the results of a democratic election. I say give them the boot entirely, but that's why I'm not an elected official. Also, read the rest of the aforelinked article which is mostly about how Republicans are unwilling to extend the legislative session past it's ludicrously short 30-day window. The way the General Assembly works is designed to keep you, a Virginian, out of and confused by the process. It's awful, and it's irritating to see the state's Republicans double down on making that process even worse. Mel Leonor, who has been extremely busy over the last couple of days, also has a look at the Governor's proposed marijuana legislation. If all goes according to plan, it sounds like you could buy legal weed in Virginia in 2023! That's legislative lighting speed, all things considered.
Roscoe Burnems is now Richmond's first Poet Laureate. I think that's great, and I deeply agree with this take from Mayor Stoney: the "Poet Laureate should relish showing, kids, teens, and adults the healing, restorative power of the written word." Words! They matter—especially now! Burnems will make his public debut this Saturday at the Poe Musuem's celebration of Poe's 212 birthday. You can tune in for free on their YouTube channel from 12:00–4:00 PM. Also, take a minute and read Burnems _Lycanthropy of a Black Boy_.
The coronanumbers are bad, y'all. If you think you need to, please get tested. The Richmond and Henrico Health Districts will host a free community testing event today from 1:00–3:00 PM at the Broad Rock Community Center (4615 Ferguson Lane). If you can't make this event, though, please seek out another place to get your test.
This morning's longread
[Impeachment.fyi — January 13th, 2021 )
As my wife, Valerie, said: "🍑🍑 ."
The president was impeached today, a week to the day after he incited a mob that laid siege to the Capitol, and a week to the day before he leaves office, having lost the 2020 presidential election. The vote makes him the only president in history to be impeached twice. The final outcome was 232 votes to impeach, 197 against. Every Democrat voted to impeach the president for "Incitement of Insurrection" and were joined by 10 Republicans, making this the most bipartisan impeachment in history (the previous high was when five Democrats voted to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998). Held in chambers that were mostly empty due to coronavirus restrictions and that one week ago were "an actual crime scene," as Massachusetts Rep Jim McGovern reminded those assembled, the debate lasted a little over three hours and was as rancorous as you would imagine. In the end, however, the result was no surprise—Democrats knew they had the votes going in—and so, for just the fourth time in US history, the president has been impeached. Two of those impeachments were Donald Trump.
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