🎸 Good morning, RVA: Low COVID levels, the Folk Festival, and marijuana pardons

Good morning, RVA! It’s 52 °F, and yesterday’s wonderful weather returns today. Expect highs around 80 °F with lots of sunshine throughout the entire day. This weekend looks rad, too, with slightly cooler temperatures and pleasant conditions as far as the eye/extended forecast can see. I hope you make the most of it!
 

Water cooler

As of last night, the CDC’s COVID-19 Community Levels for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield are low across the board! The 7-day average case rate per 100,000 people in each locality is 155, 46, and 88, respectively, and the 7-day average of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people is 8.1. I’m not really sure what to make of the 3x disparity in case rate between Richmond and Henrico—it’s large enough that it almost seems like a data issue? Regardless, levels are low, get your COVID-19 booster to keep them that way, etc, etc. However, Katelyn Jetelina says not to get too excited about the current low levels, and points to a growing wave in Europe, which we typically see mirrored in the United States. From her State of Affairs post this past Wednesday: “Interestingly, no new subvariant is driving this wave, as the majority of cases are still the ‘old’ BA.5 subvariant. This means changing weather, waning immunity, and/or changing behaviors are the culprit. This theory is only solidified when we see patterns are not changing in neighboring country Israel, for example, whose weather hasn’t started changing yet.” So maybe seriously consider making an appointment for a COVID-19 booster before the weather changes on this side of the ocean?
 

Speaking of fun things to do while the COVID-19 levels are low: The Richmond Folk Festival kicks off tonight at 6:30 PM, runs through Sunday evening, and you can find the full, exhausting, overwhelming schedule here. I mean, it’s an embarrassment of riches, where do you even start? Personally, I’m fascinated by Sacred Steel and you have a couple opportunities to check out Fran Grace—so maybe start there! As for getting down to Brown’s Island, the City will close a couple of streets over the weekend, and I’m sure parking will be dumb, so consider riding a bike or taking the bus (#2, #3, #5, or #14 will all get you reasonably close). The Folk Festival is one of Richmond’s biggest, coolest things, so get out there and fill up your ears!
 

The New York Times has an article about how Richmond Public Schools are leading the way as districts across the country return to “phonics and other evidence-based literacy methods" to help young kids learn how to read. RPS has invested $122 million of federal COVID-19 money into their literacy plan and “has been able to accelerate its investments in evidence-based curriculum; reading interventionists and coaches in every school; extended learning opportunities; data systems; and perhaps most importantly, training for all educators.” Given the stuff I typically write about schools almost each and every morning, it’s really wonderful to see positive, national coverage on some of the great things happening at RPS.
 

Earlier this week, I wondered what Virginia’s Secretary of Public Safety would say if asked about the RPD’s Alleged Fourth of July Plot. Tyler Lane at WTVR just up and asked him, and you can read the Secretary’s jumbly non-answer here. Lane also put together this piece, reporting on the Chief’s crime stats update, and got this interesting tidbit: “Smith confirmed his department is working with [Secretary of Public Safety] Bob Mosier. ‘Right now, it’s a financial partnership…I believe in the next coming weeks, there will be more of an announcement of what they’re doing, but I don’t want to steal their thunder. We’ve been in talks with Mosier for quite a while, and Secretary Mosier is a big supporter of us.’” Fascinating.
 

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Charlotte Rene Woods reports on some local reactions to President Biden’s mass federal marijuana possession pardon. From the WaPo: “Biden’s actions, however, do not directly affect the vast majority of marijuana-related convictions, which are pursued under state law. Biden administration officials said the president would use his action to encourage state governors to offer mass pardons under their own authority.” You can probably imagine how that’ll go over with Virginia’s governor—his spokesperson said “The governor’s administration is reviewing President Biden’s executive action.”
 

Logistical note! Monday is, obviously, Yorktown Victory Day, a clearly well known and widely celebrated state holiday in Virginia. That means I’ll be taking the day off to…sail a wooden ship or fife a drum or something…and will return to your inboxes on Tuesday. Have a great weekend, and I hope you find time to celebrate this and other important victories over the British.
 

This morning’s longread

AOC on the Fight for Abortion Rights and Whether She’ll Ever Be President

I really enjoyed this GQ profile of AOC. It’s long, hopeful, depressing, and interesting all at the same time. Set some time aside this weekend to give it a read.
 

“Sometimes little girls will say, ‘Oh, I want you to be president,’ or things like that,” she told me when I asked about whether she believed that she or someone like her could ever lead our country. “It’s very difficult for me to talk about because it provokes a lot of inner conflict in that I never want to tell a little girl what she can’t do. And I don’t want to tell young people what is not possible. I’ve never been in the business of doing that. But at the same time…I hold two contradictory things [in mind] at the same time. One is just the relentless belief that anything is possible,” she said. “But at the same time, my experience here has given me a front-row seat to how deeply and unconsciously, as well as consciously, so many people in this country hate women. And they hate women of color. People ask me questions about the future. And realistically, I can’t even tell you if I’m going to be alive in September. And that weighs very heavily on me. And it’s not just the right wing. Misogyny transcends political ideology: left, right, center. This grip of patriarchy affects all of us, not just women; men, as I mentioned before, but also, ideologically, there’s an extraordinary lack of self-awareness in so many places.”
 

If you’d like your longread to show up here, go chip in a couple bucks on the ol’ Patreon.
 

Picture of the Day

Poisonous? Delicious? Only one way to find out…