Good morning, RVA! It's 36 °F, cold, and rainy. Heck, it might even be cold enough that you'll see some sleet this morning—depending on your location. Today, you can expect true winter highs around 40 °F and a decent chance of rain for most of the afternoon. Warmer weather returns this weekend.
Water cooler
Epidemiologist Katelyn Jetelina is back with another Omicron update, and it's an early, mixed bag. Key takeaways for me: Omicron is very transmissible, our current tests work, immunity from a previous COVID-19 infection probably won't keep you as safe, our current vaccines work (although how well is not clear), and we don't yet know if this new variant causes more severe disease. That's a lot of unknowns heading into the winter, but we learn more every day, and I think yesterday's Cautious Wait and See posture is still appropriate. Here's Jetelina's closing thoughts and advice for the short term, which I wholly endorse: "There’s a good chance Omicron will outcompete Delta in the United States. This coupled with the high unvaccinated rate and lab data showing partial vaccine immunity will result in a substantial Winter wave. The rate of breakthrough cases will be higher, but I’m hopeful that boosters will largely keep people out of the hospital...Wear a good mask. Ventilate spaces. Test, test, test. And, for the love of all things, go get your vaccine and/or booster."
VPM's Meg Schiffres has more details about RPS School Board's vote on Monday to approve collective bargaining rights for teachers and staff. The Board voted 8-1 in favor, with 4th District's Jonathan Young the only member to vote against. Schiffres has the fascinating next steps, too: "school employees must present a statement certifying that at least 30% of employees want to be represented by a bargaining unit, or union. Once that’s done, employees will hold a secret ballot election to determine who will represent them in negotiations with administrators...Once a representative is chosen, negotiations will begin within 60 days." Sounds like all of that will happen right around when the Superintendent needs to submit his budget to the City—which, as you know, is the official 2022 budget season kickoff! The most wonderful time of the year is just around the corner!
Whitney Evans, also from VPM, reports that Governor Northam has included raises for state police and other public safety employees in his outgoing budget. Unlike the proposed raise for teachers I wrote about the other day, I don't see any required local contribution mentioned in this reporting. Also like the teacher pay increases, incoming Governor-elect Youngkin can decide whether or not to keep these raises in his budget. I imagine this decision will be a lot simpler for Youngkin and, eventually, the General Assembly because 1) cops, but 2) the projected cost for the public safety raises is just $223 million, while the teacher raises are part of a two-year $2.4 billion increase in public education spending.
Pulitzer Prize Winner Michael Paul Williams weighs in on the Robert E. Lee plinth. You should read the whole thing, but this part in particular: "Elected officials followed your lead in removing these monuments to oppression. Now, they’re getting out in front of the people in making decisions about their fate. I can’t condone the undemocratic aspects of this move. But I do understand it...The Republican resurgence during the November election, the steady erosion of voter protections and the precarious state of abortion rights dramatizes how nothing surrounding any decision — political or judicial — is etched in stone. Never make the mistake of assuming that everyone shares our delight that those pedestals are empty." In this same piece, Governor Northam's press secretary says that the State and the City are working to protect and preserve the plinth—"working actively right now to gift parts of the pedestal, if not the whole thing, to a cultural institution so they can display and preserve it appropriately." Personally, I think the VMFA is the only place with the scale and capacity to function as an appropriate home for this huge piece of protest art, but more to come in the next couple of weeks, I guess!
This morning's longread
How This All Happened
I think, generally, we should be skeptical about shortish pieces claiming to stick together a single narrative across seven decades. That said, I enjoyed reading this story of America since the end of World War II.
This is a short story about what happened to the U.S. economy since the end of World War II. That’s a lot to unpack in 5,000 words, but the short story of what happened over the last 73 years is simple: Things were very uncertain, then they were very good, then pretty bad, then really good, then really bad, and now here we are. And there is, I think, a narrative that links all those events together. Not a detailed account. But a story of how the details fit together
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