🌬️ Good morning, RVA: School board follow up, a wind farm, and celebrating the river

Good morning, RVA! It’s 68 °F, and we’ve got another good summer day ahead of us. Expect highs near 90, sunshine, and maybe a few clouds this evening. We’ve got the weather forecast on repeat for the next little while—enjoy it!
 

Water cooler

WTVR’s Tyler Layne has some follow-up reporting on this past Tuesday’s stressful emergency School Board meeting where nothing happened. If, for some reason, you didn’t spend your evening watching the meeting over takeout and yelling at the screen like my family did, read through this piece for a bunch of the more interesting quotes from Tuesday—plus some new ones post-meeting. Like this one from 4th District Boardmember Jonathan Young about the sudden introduction of a motion to scrap and rebuild the District’s curriculum on an unrealistic timeline: “Young said he was less worried about the process and ‘more concerned about the product…Cry me a river. Cry me a river.’” Don’t love that! Layne also has a bit of insight into the closed session: “Despite rumors, the board did not mention anything related to firing Kamras in closed session Tuesday evening. However, Young said he’s optimistic that ‘restructuring of personnel’ is still on the way.” OK. I guess we wait until the next Board meeting in a couple weeks to see if any other surprise motions pop up? This kind of unpredictable chaos is absolutely exhausting for families and the public. I have had my issues with City Council and their public process in the past, but it’s never been anything like! Not even close!
 

Ben Paviour at VPM reports on another sketchy hiring decision by the Governor’s administration. I continue to think that the specifics of these hires and appointments are mostly trolls designed to make liberals angry, so I try not to get too caught up in the “quiet hiring, breaking news, eventual resignation” cycle. However, I do think, generally, the larger pattern of placing unqualified people into important positions is worth pointing out and remembering.
 

I’ve been loosely following the proposed wind warm off of Virginia Beach for a while but never really looked into any of the details. Did you know—assuming everything gets worked out—Dominion plans on building 176 wind turbines out in the ocean?? I think that’s amazing. I’ll remain cautiously amazed, though, because yesterday the AP reported that Dominion balked at some of the State Corporation Commission’s requirements. I guess I should have read this piece by the Virginia Mercury’s Sarah Vogelsong back in early August.
 

It’s still a bit over the horizon, but James River Week approaches! From September 10th through the 17th you’ve got a bunch of different opportunities to explore and celebrate the James River. Events run the gamut, too—from rain barrel workshops to river cleanup days to drinking beer at Hardywood. Something for everyone, I’m sure. While we’re talking about the river: Remember that if you want to get your hands dirty, you can still volunteer to remove invasive species on Chapel Island throughout the fall!
 

This morning’s longread

What student loan forgiveness means for you

Vox has a very comprehensive explainer about President Biden’s student loan forgiveness program. Read through the whole thing to get a sense of the details and possible ramifications (both positive and negative). This seems like such a game-changer for so many folks!
 

The $10,000 limit also reflects a peculiarity in the relationship between the size of student loans and the likelihood of students paying them back. A study from the New York Fed found that students are most likely to default on the smallest loan balances and least likely to default on the largest. That’s because, if you’re a student, the only way to get a large student loan from the federal government is to go to graduate or professional school…Of the 43 million people with federal loans, 15 million owe less than $10,000. Another 9 million owe between $10,000 and $20,000. By eliminating a minority of outstanding debt, Biden would forgive most or all balances for the majority of student debtors, disproportionately those who are at the highest risk of default.
 

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Picture of the Day

The swamps of Jamestown, obviously a perfect place to build a settlement.