Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and we’ve got a beautiful day ahead of us and a wonderful start to October. October! Today, you should expect sunshine and highs around 80 °F for the most part with clouds and a chance of rain moving in this evening.

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Richmond Police are reporting that Tequan T. Greenhowe, a man in his 20s, was found shot to death outside of his residence on the 1200 block of Admiral Gravely Boulevard early Sunday evening. From the RPD press release, “Detectives are working to determine whether this incident is connected to the homicide which occurred several hours earlier in the same area.”

Good morning, RVA! It’s 58 °F, and, whoa, today looks lovely. Expect sunshine, highs in the low 70s, and every reason to spend some time on the porch or in a park.

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Richmond Police are reporting that Shaheem King, a man in his 20s, was found shot to death on the 1200 block of Admiral Gravely Boulevard. According to the RPD’s website, this is the fifth murder in 10 days.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and today you should expect heat, humidity, and a chance for rain until this evening. Then, this evening, you should expect a chance for a lot of rain. Things dry and and cool down tomorrow, though.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 449↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 13↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 24↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 15, Henrico: -1 (???), and Richmond: 10). Since this pandemic began, 366 people have died in the Richmond region. Whoa, that is a low number of new reported positive cases! That’s the fewest number of new cases reported in a single day since July 6th. I have no idea if that’s a reporting issue or what, but it does seem like we’re riding a downward trend—at least for this particular metric. Speaking of metrics, the Virginia Department of Health released a new Pandemic Metrics dashboard that may interest some of you. The gist here is that you can look at a single, rolled-up metric for your region, called “transmission extent,” and see the status of the coronavirus at that point in time (calculated weekly). A bunch of numbers and trends get wrapped up in to transmission extent, so I think it’s probably helpful for decision-makers to use while figuring out what to close down or open up. It’s certainly better than everyone just refreshing the percent positivity chart over and over again. If you really want to nerd out, check out the methodology document for how they put together transmission extent (PDF). The “region,” as defined by VDH, though, is super big, so I’m not sure transmission extent will help you decide whether or not you should stockpile toilet paper and barricade your doors. However, there is a CDC School Metrics tab (which lines up with the CDC’s recently-released indicators for school decision-making table) that you can filter down by locality. While focused on helping schools decide how to move forward with their reopening plans, this tab is probably more helpful for those of us obsessed with local data. Unfortunately, as of this moment, none of the tabs load for me! I’m sure VDH will get their IT issues sorted later this morning, though🤞. Kate Masters at the Virginia Mercury has a screenshot to tide you over until then.

At last night’s City Council meeting, which you can watch here, Council passed a lot of the papers I had my eye on—including the resolutions asking the Mayor for more money for both the Affordable Housing Trust Fund (RES. 2020-R053) and public defenders (RES. 2020-R054). These types of resolutions are fine, and clearly lay out Council’s budgetary priorities to the Mayor, but, always remember that resolutions are non-binding. Plus, ultimately, City Council approves the budget! Keep both of these resolutions and their patrons in mind when we get into next year’s budget season. Will these same legislators fight for these priorities with their actual legislative authority? Or will they just ask the Mayor to do the work and move on? I imagine money will be in short supply next year, so are they willing to make cuts and hard decisions to get these priorities funded? We’ll have to wait and see, but, in the mean time, I need to figure out how to keep track of stuff like this (another Trello board??). Also, surprising literally zero people, Council decided to continue the paper rezoning the area around the Science Museum, Allison, and VCU & VUU Pulse stations (ORD. 2020–103). As foretold: “In a letter to the planning department earlier this month, a coalition of seven neighborhood and civic associations representing those areas asked the council to hold off until COVID-19-related meeting restrictions are lifted. The letter says residents feel they have not been able to adequately review the plan and discuss it with city officials.” Chris Suarez at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has more, but you can probably guess at most of it. I think we’re at the point where folks need to email their Councilmember and tell them to support more space for more people to live next to our best public transit infrastructure. Voting against this rezoning is voting against our City’s housing, climate, and transit goals. It’s unacceptable. You can find councilmember contact information here, and don’t forget to copy their liaisons.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 66 °F, and today looks a little warmer than most of last week. Expect highs in the 80s and a decent chance of rain this afternoon. More potential rain tomorrow, but the back half of this week looks lovely.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting two murders from last week. Early Wednesday morning, officers found Rosalind P. Gibson, a woman in her 40s, shot to death on the sidewalk of the 1100 block of N. 25th Street. Then, early Friday morning, police were called to the 1700 block of Clarkson Road where they found Rolando Maldonado-Ortega, a man in his 40s, fatally shot. He would later die at a local hospital.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 62 °F, and today looks like rain. Tomorrow, probably, looks like rain, too. Sunday though! Actually, Sunday, we’ll have to wait and see. You can expect temperatures in the 70s and low 80s throughout the weekend, though.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 902↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 24↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 86↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 19, Henrico: 40, and Richmond: 27). Since this pandemic began, 365 people have died in the Richmond region. A couple of days ago the CDC released their Halloween guidance, and I love its specificity. The general coronarules still apply, and by now, I hope, you can figure out what’s a low risk way to spend your spooky evening: Keep your distance, Scream masks don’t count as coronamasks, and wash your hands after touching whatever sugary loot you come across. Definitely don’t spend the night literally handing people candy and covering them in whatever potential virus you may be shedding. Here are few examples of the (very) specific activities from the CDC guidance in decreasing order of risk level: going to an indoor haunted house where people may be crowded together and screaming (high risk); going to an open-air, one-way, walk-through haunted forest where appropriate mask use is enforced and people can remain more than six feet apart, however, if screaming will likely occur, greater distance is advised (moderate risk); doing a Halloween scavenger hunt where children are given lists of Halloween-themed things to look for while they walk outdoors from house to house admiring Halloween decorations at a distance (lower risk). These are all direct quotes from the CDC, and I find them wonderfully charming…but serious! Colleen Curran at the Richmond Times-Dispatch says Halloween on Hanover has been canceled, so you know it’s serious.

This is awful: GRTC bus operator John Thrower, 49, died from complications caused by COVID-19 earlier this week. These words from GRTC CEO Julie Timm really hit home for me: “But the virus can be anywhere, anytime, unseen, and we are all at risk each time we step out of our homes and every time someone enters our businesses. Still, GRTC exists to serve our community’s essential mobility needs. John was proud to be a GRTC Operator, and he did everything he could to safely serve the public during this crisis while volunteering many hours and days of overtime to support the essential mobility needs of our community…This loss to GRTC hits directly into our hearts and reminds us all how deadly this disease can be, and how all of us are susceptible.” I know I make a lot of jokes in this email (see entire section above about Halloween), but Timm is exactly right. The virus can be anywhere, anytime, and we should all take the role we each have to play in public health seriously. Wear a mask, keep your distance, wash your hands, make smart choices, protect your neighbor.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 57 °F, and highs today will stick around in the mid 80s. We could see a bit of rain and clouds move through this morning, so keep an eye on that.

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The Richmond Police Department is reporting that two people were shot and killed this past Monday. In the morning, officers were called to the 1500 block of N. 21st Street and found Stanley L. Robinson, Jr., a man in his 20s, shot to death nearby. Later that afternoon, police were also called to the 3500 block of E. Richmond Road and found Surita M. Abdul-Majid, a man in his 30s, shot to death inside a residence. According to the RPD’s website, I think these are the 43rd and 44th murders in 2020, which is on pace with last year’s numbers.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 53 °F, and today’s weather looks just as incredible as yesterday’s. Expect a lovely day with highs in this low 80s. Maybe social distance some beers in your best pal’s backyard?

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 872↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 39↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 76↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 32, Henrico: 20, and Richmond: 24). Since this pandemic began, 361 people have died in the Richmond region. VCU’s number of new cases continues to drop, and they’re holding steady at just under 50 total active cases between students and employees. University of Richmond, on the other hand, has zero active cases and hasn’t reported a new case since the week of September 6th. I don’t know what everyone’s doing out there, but, good job and keep doing it—that is unless you’re just not getting tested or not reporting your potential illness. Don’t keep doing that.

Yesterday, the Mayor proposed a new dedicated funding stream for the City’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund, and I’m not sure I’m smart enough to have a great opinion on it. Lemme quote from the release: “Under the proposal, the future tax revenues from properties leaving the real property partial tax exemption rehabilitation program will go directly to an AHTF special fund to build new affordable units. In short, as properties are phased out of tax-exempt status, the Finance Department would direct that new revenue to the AHTF.” So the City has an existing program that gives folks who rehabilitate old buildings a tax exemption for a while—it’s a complex program of which I don’t fully understand the details. The Mayor’s proposal would take any tax revenues from those buildings, once the exemptions expire, and put them into a special bucket designated solely for the Affordable Housing Trust Fund. According to the Mayor’s office: “The administration anticipates that this will result in $2 million in revenues in FY22, growing by approximately $2 million each year for the next five years. Therefore, in FY2026, the revenue to the AHTF will be an unprecedented $10 million.” I have lots of questions, but will wait patiently for some of the Housing Big Brains to tell me what I should think about the Mayor’s plan. Because I can’t help myself: I don’t think I love permanent special funds and do wonder, though, if a proposal like this would prevent future reforms/changes to the existing rehabilitation exemption program. Anyway, like I said, I will make space for the Big Brains. P.S. At the bottom of that press release, the City teases the release of their Equitable Affordable Housing Plan, which will drop on September 28th. I’m sure we’ll all excitedly be keeping an eye out for that PDF.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 46 °F, and today looks like a stunner. Expect highs in the mid 70s and lots of sunshine. If you listen closely, you may hear the sound of me zooming by on my bicycle with a huge smile on my face.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 627↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 86↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 39, Henrico: 26 and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 356 people have died in the Richmond region. Remember how the CDC changed their guidance about aerosols and airborne coronavirus transmission? Well, as of yesterday, they’ve reverted that guidance saying, “A draft version of proposed changes to these recommendations was posted in error to the agency’s official website. CDC is currently updating its recommendations regarding airborne transmission of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19). Once this process has been completed, the update language will be posted.” It’s a bad look for the CDC to have the highly publicized political involvement of Health and Human Services futzing around with the testing guidelines followed immediately by this screw up. Reading the aforelinked story on CNN, though, and this really does seem like an honest mistake. Running websites is hard, and sometimes people mess up. I bet we’ll see some sort of real update to this guidance fairly soon, but in the regular way in which CDC goes about updating their guidance—not stealthily on a Friday.

Public school during a pandemic continues to be complicated—even down to the level of the day-to-day schedule. Last night, Richmond’s School Board met to talk through some proposed changes to the current school day after board members and administrators have heard from some parents that the length of the online day is too long—especially for younger, K–3 students. To address those concerns, Superintendent Kamras proposed some draft adjusted schedules that shorten the day for most students (PDF, p. 10) by making portions of instruction asynchronous. I’ll tell you what, I do not envy School Board in trying to figure out next steps. By shortening the day, they reduce the burden on younger students who, by all accounts, are having the hardest time with virtual learning. But they also increase the childcare burdens on families—some of which will not have the capacity to help a young student with asynchronous learning for a couple of hours each afternoon. Also, it’s only been two weeks on the current schedule, so who knows how folks will feel after a month or two. Moving forward, I’m really, really interested in who’s having which problems and how RPS can address the needs of Richmond’s most vulnerable families. Reading this report from Kenya Hunter in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, I get a quote from a Mary Mumford Elementary parent “demanding shorter school days” and a quote from a parent who’s already pulled their child from RPS as a result of the schedule. The only quote supportive of keeping the schedule as-is comes from a teacher at Overby-Sheppard Elementary who says, “We must consider choosing a path and putting all we have into it because we will be successful if given the time and chance to pursue success.” I don’t know the race of the speakers, but, for some context, Mumford is 75% white, while Overby-Sheppard is 4% white (btw, you build your own interesting schools demographic tables here). So, like I said, complicated. The Board will attempt to survey families and teachers this week and make a decision soon.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 47 °F, and I am wearing a hoodie at this very moment. Today, you can expect highs in the mid 60s and sunshine. I will probably have to take this hoodie off later this morning, but it feels pretty cozy right now!

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Richmond Police are reporting that last Wednesday night Marquis B. Bushnell, a man in his 30s, was fatally shot on the 1900 bock of Redd Street. The RPD are asking anyone with information about this shooting to call Crime Stoppers (804.780.1000).

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and, while it may get a tiny bit warmer later this afternoon, this is pretty much what we’ve got for the rest of the day. Expect rain to roll in, set up shop, and stick around until some point tomorrow.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 845↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 45↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 97↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 35, Henrico: 41, and Richmond: 21). Since this pandemic began, 349 people have died in the Richmond region. Yesterday’s caveat about the new death numbers still applies, and this note still appears at the top of VDH’s data dashboard: “Regarding the death data for Wednesday, September 16, 2020, there is an existing data backlog. VDH is working diligently to identify COVID-19 related deaths using vital record death certificate information.” I haven’t written about testing in a while, but the number of daily testing encounters has steadily declined over the last month and a half. I wonder if that’s a result of testing availability, testing fatigue among Virginians, or something else entirely. I haven’t heard much about folks having a hard time finding a test—in fact, here’s a big list of places you can go get tested. However, I can easily see, as the pandemic wears on, folks less willing to go get brainswabbed if they’re experiencing some COVID-19 symptoms.

Mark Robinson at the Richmond Times-Dispatch digs into the most recent fundraising numbers for the mayoral race. If you want, you can check out the VPAP profiles for Mayor Stoney, Councilmember Gray, and Candidate Rodgers yourself. Unsurprisingly, Stoney significantly outraised and outspent his competition. The 2016 race was about a million dollar race, something that still blows my mind, and, with just a handful of weeks left to go, Stoney has raised more than half that for his reelection campaign. Robinson also pulled each candidate’s major donors—and all three candidates have major, major donors. Just this reporting period, the Mayor collected $10,000 each from a homebuilder and an Altria-related group, Gray landed a $30,000 donation from a local realtor, and Rodgers saw a Charlottesville couple give her campaign $25,000. Rodgers is way out in front on donations of $100 or less this period with 505—nearly triple her competitors. Lots of small donations is good, but you probably can’t win without a few large donations floating the majority of your boat. For example, just two donations (0.3%) accounted for 41% of all the money raised this period by Candidate Rodgers. Again, Richmond’s mayoral race is a million dollar race, and you can get there in a lot of different ways—but 10,000 $100 donations sounds like of work. And that’s why (among other reasons) I’ll never run for office!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and don’t tease me, weather. Are we standing on the precipice of fall, or what? Should I ready my hoodies?? Today you can expect highs in the upper 70s, so maybe keep the hoodie on hold for now, but temperatures continue to drop bit by bit over the next couple of days.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 943↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 96↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 73↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 35, Henrico: 11, and Richmond: 27). Since this pandemic began, 345 people have died in the Richmond region. Before you spit out your coffee at the number of new deaths, read this notice VDH has put up on their data dashboard: “Regarding the death data for Tuesday, September 15, 2020, there is an existing data backlog. VDH is working diligently to identify COVID-19 related deaths using vital record death certificate information.” So while this is still a lot of new deaths, it’s not like these folks all died yesterday. Still terrible, but maybe not as shocking. I don’t know. In other data news, I’m still seriously impressed by the lack of virus outbreaks at VCU. These graphs of “active” cases and new reported cases by day are pretty close to a dream scenario for VCU’s administrators. I’ve asked a couple of folks associated with the University why they think, so far (🤞), that VCU has avoided outbreaks and an abrupt abandoning of in-person learning like UNC or JMU. The answers have mostly all come down to “LETS GO VCU!” which blows my mind!

Up next in my cavalcade of coronacorrections, which may just need its own section moving forward: Yesterday I incorrectly said that Hanover County’s Kersey Creek Elementary School shut down after a teacher tested positive for COVID-19. The actually reality, which was clearly stated in both the headline and the lede of the Richmond Times-Dispatch article is that just that single classroom will move to remote instruction. Lemme quote in full: “A class of students at Kersey Creek Elementary School in Hanover County will move to remote instruction after its teacher tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email Monday from school Principal Allison Mullens.” This makes a ton more sense! Also, and importantly, I still think that this move by Hanover Schools has the potential to influence how other counties who’ve yet to reopen to in-person instruction will handle positive cases. It’s just not practical to reopen and reclose entire schools with each and every positive case. I bet lots of regional school administrators have their eyes on Kersey Creek Elementary School this week.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 55 °F, and don’t tease me, weather. Are we standing on the precipice of fall, or what? Should I ready my hoodies?? Today you can expect highs in the upper 70s, so maybe keep the hoodie on hold for now, but temperatures continue to drop bit by bit over the next couple of days.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 943↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 96↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 73↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 35, Henrico: 11, and Richmond: 27). Since this pandemic began, 345 people have died in the Richmond region. Before you spit out your coffee at the number of new deaths, read this notice VDH has put up on their data dashboard: “Regarding the death data for Tuesday, September 15, 2020, there is an existing data backlog. VDH is working diligently to identify COVID-19 related deaths using vital record death certificate information.” So while this is still a lot of new deaths, it’s not like these folks all died yesterday. Still terrible, but maybe not as shocking. I don’t know. In other data news, I’m still seriously impressed by the lack of virus outbreaks at VCU. These graphs of “active” cases and new reported cases by day are pretty close to a dream scenario for VCU’s administrators. I’ve asked a couple of folks associated with the University why they think, so far (🤞), that VCU has avoided outbreaks and an abrupt abandoning of in-person learning like UNC or JMU. The answers have mostly all come down to “LETS GO VCU!” which blows my mind!

Up next in my cavalcade of coronacorrections, which may just need its own section moving forward: Yesterday I incorrectly said that Hanover County’s Kersey Creek Elementary School shut down after a teacher tested positive for COVID-19. The actually reality, which was clearly stated in both the headline and the lede of the Richmond Times-Dispatch article is that just that single classroom will move to remote instruction. Lemme quote in full: “A class of students at Kersey Creek Elementary School in Hanover County will move to remote instruction after its teacher tested positive for COVID-19, according to an email Monday from school Principal Allison Mullens.” This makes a ton more sense! Also, and importantly, I still think that this move by Hanover Schools has the potential to influence how other counties who’ve yet to reopen to in-person instruction will handle positive cases. It’s just not practical to reopen and reclose entire schools with each and every positive case. I bet lots of regional school administrators have their eyes on Kersey Creek Elementary School this week.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 59 °F, and today you should expect highs in the mid 70s. That’s shockingly fall-like, and I hope you take the time to enjoy it.

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The Richmond Police Department reports that Jeremiah Darden, Jr., a man in his 20s, was shot and killed this past Friday on the 00 block of E. Blake Lane near the intersection of Hull Street and E. Broad Rock Road. Police are asking anyone traveling in the area around 12:00 AM to contact detectives (804.780.1000).

Good morning, RVA! It’s 71 °F, and I think cooler temperatures are here to stay. Today you can expect highs in the 80s, and it might be the warmest day of the week. It’s not time to bust out your flannels, but we’re getting there.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 874↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 2↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 153↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 40, Henrico: 87, and Richmond: 26). Since this pandemic began, 330 people have died in the Richmond region. The seven-day average of new reported cases across the Commonwealth continues to hover right around 1,000, which, honestly, is where we’ve been since the middle of July. I think that’s fascinating considering everything that’s happened over the past couple of months. Also, one quick sports update, Virginia Tech had to postpone this coming Saturday’s football game with UVA because, due to positive COVID-19 cases plus required quarantines and isolations, they didn’t have enough players at certain positions to safely play the game. This is the third time the Hokies have had the start of their season pushed back, and, like, at what point do you just throw in the towel? For lots of different reasons, colleges keep trying to do college football with varying degrees of success, and it stresses me out.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Mark Robinson has the 3rd District City Council questionnaire responses up, which means, at some point, I missed the 2nd District questionnaires. Sometimes I feel like 3rd District Candidate Hilliard is speaking directly to me with responses like this one about his priorities for the district: “On the City Council, I will advocate for reforms to our zoning code and transportation system, which have downstream effects on housing affordability.” Yes! Also, so far, Hilliard is the only candidate to answer the question about raising the City’s real estate tax to fund schools (a question that should be phrase more broadly) with something other than “No” or “No, I will, from my part-time City Council job in a medium-sized City continually disrespected by the State government, convince state legislators, who have no legal requirement to listen to me, to give RPS more money.” This must be a yes-and situation. Richmond will desperately need more money to provide basic services this coming budget season and to just count on the state to provide it is wishful thinking at best or magical thinking at worst.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and today you can expect a bunch of rain. That bums me out as I wanted to ride my bicycle around, but I’m sure my garden does not feel the same way. Enjoy, garden!

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 882↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 11↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 139↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 40, Henrico: 77, and Richmond: 22). Since this pandemic began, 329 people have died in the Richmond region. I haven’t linked to it a ton, but the University of Richmond has their own data dashboard with a few graphs in addition to the daily case number updates. Since July, UR has seen 13 total cases, with four of those reported in the last week or so. UR and VCU’s campuses are so very different—demographics aside, even their size, geometry, and biome (or whatever you want to call the surrounding natural environment) are different. I wonder if the spread of the virus will be impacted more by the two campuses' similarities or their differences.

This is awful: A driver hit and killed a 68-year-old man in a wheelchair who was crossing Broad Street out near Glenside. I’ve talked about it a thousand times before, but the parts of Broad Street west of 195 grow increasingly hostile to humans. As we build more homes and run more transit to reconnect the western parts of our region, we (and by we I mean Henrico) will have to do some serious work to reevaluate the safety and focus of our infrastructure. Right now it’s dangerous, we know it’s dangerous, we know how to fix it, and we just need to start (and fund) the work to do so.

Good morning, RVA! It’s 74 °F, and you should expect a good chance of rain until…later. Maybe later this week? Maybe later next week? There’s a lot of dang rain in the seven-day forecast.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 836↘️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 2↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 153↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 43, Henrico: 87, and Richmond: 23). Since this pandemic began, 326 people have died in the Richmond region. VCU’s total number of active cases has dropped to 53 and now only 36 people are in isolation or quarantine. I will admit, I didn’t think we’d see the coronanumbers at VCU headed down after three weeks of in-person instruction. What makes VCU so different from other campuses across the state and country? I have no idea, but it’s fascinating.

The first day back to school around the region was not without its issues. Chesterfield County Public Schools in particular hit a technology snag that prevented students from logging in to their remote learning platform for a couple hours. That’s frustrating, but, as Richmond Public Schools Superintendent Jason Kamras has said for the past forever, we all need to treat each other with an extra helping of grace over the next couple of weeks. It’s a big, new challenge to move entire school districts to remote learning, and we should expect some issues—even with a couple months to prepare. That said, my personal experience as a parent of a fully-remote RPS middle schooler—which is not representative of anything other than that—was pretty OK! The team at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has put together a collection of stories about first days around the region, how staff are handling studentless facilities, and some details on the technology issues that impacted Chesterfield. Now, on to day two!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 63 °F, and was that not the best long weekend of weather in recent memory?? Expect similar weather today with highs in the mid 80s and lots of sunshine. Rain moves in to the region soon, so prepare yourself.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 645↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 6↘️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 83↘️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 5, Henrico: 60, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 326 people have died in the Richmond region. Make sure you take this morning’s numbers with a grain of long-weekend salt. Remember a couple weeks ago when the CDC updated their guidance on if you should get tested if you had close contact with someone with COVID-19? Right now that CDC guidance (still) says “You do not necessarily need a test unless you are a vulnerable individual or your health care provider or State or local public health officials recommend you take one.” I think at the time I said that was stressful guidance—and it still is! I am, however, glad to see this list of “Who should get tested for COVID-19” from the Virginia Department of Health: People who have symptoms of COVID-19, people who have had close contact with someone with COVID-19, and people who have been asked or referred to get testing by their healthcare provider or the health department. That’s less stressful than the federal guidance, for sure!

It’s the first day of school for Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield public school students! This is normally when I’d remind those of you driving around to be extra cautious as students make their way through our neighborhoods to schools or bus stops, perhaps a bit distracted by first-day jitters. Don’t have to worry about that today, though! So instead, good luck to families as we all try to figure out what it looks like when you combine working, schooling, and living into the same physical space (and on the same available internet bandwidth). May your Zooms be lag-free and your inbox be zeroed!

Good morning, RVA! It’s 75 °F, and today you should expect super hot highs in the 90s—we’ve even got a heat advisory in effect until 8:00 PM. The heat index could reach as high as 109 °F, and that means you probably should stay inside if at all possible.

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As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 927↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 29↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 138↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 40, Henrico: 68, and Richmond: 30). Since this pandemic began, 326 people have died in the Richmond region. Just yesterday, the seven-day average of new cases in Virginia hit 1,012—the first time it’s been over 1,000 since August 13th. Percent positivity has also started to trend upward in the Commonwealth, and, at 7.7%, is now at its highest level since around June 8th. Statewide numbers are whatever, and it’s maybe more helpful to look at percent positive in the Central Region—which is bigger than just Richmond, Henrico, and Chesterfield, but still smaller than the entire state. Turns out percent positivity for the Central Region is…7.8% and that’s the highest it’s been since August 9th. What does this all mean? Keep working from home if possible, keep your mask on, and keep your distance from other people—that’s for sure.

Ali Rockett at the Richmond Times-Dispatch has more on Tuesday’s shameful display of violence by the Richmond Police Department. Here, again, is the hard-to-watch video of a police officer tackling a person off of their bike, smashing their head onto a sidewalk. And here is how the RPD’s Deputy Chief Sydney Collier describes the incident: “Force is met with force…He’s eluding. He’s trying to avoid capture. As long as he’s trying to elude, the officer used the only option he had to stop him while he was on the bicycle.” Force is met with force?? What kind of force, exactly, does an unarmed kid standing in front of a tow truck with a bicycle need to be met with? Watch that video again and tell me that was the only option available to over a dozen police officers to “capture” this one person on a bike. The police continue to gaslight us by responding to actual, literal video of their horrible behavior as if it doesn’t exist at all. I honesty feel like I’m losing my grip on reality when I read quotes like this. Who are these people? Why do they behave this way? Why will none of our elected leaders do anything about it??

Good morning, RVA! It’s 70 °F, and yesterday’s cooler temperatures continue right on in through today. That chance of rain also continues, so keep an eye to the sky for most of the day. Tomorrow, the 90-degree heat returns.

Water cooler

As of this morning, the Virginia Department of Health reports 847↗️ new positive cases of the coronavirus in the Commonwealth and 11↗️ new deaths as a result of the virus. VDH reports 113↗️ new cases in and around Richmond (Chesterfield: 19, Henrico: 76, and Richmond: 18). Since this pandemic began, 321 people have died in the Richmond region. VCU did, after taking a couple of days off, update its data dashboard last night, and I had a heckuva time figuring out just what was going on. The University’s primary piece of data—or at least the first one on their dashboard—seems to be active cases. This, I think, is different from new cases or total cases, and can presumably go down over time as people recover from COVID-19. I don’t think we have anything like that at the state or locality level, so keep that in mind. At the moment, VCU reports 17 new positive coronavirus cases, 104 active cases, 159 total cases, and 137 people in isolation or quarantine. That’s a lot of numbers without much context! To help with that, I’ll get you a graph or two later this week once I feel like VCU has settled a bit more on which data they report and when.

Sort of corona-related, I stumbled across this neat map of Virginia’s Return to School Instructional Schedules for Fall 2020 on the Virginia Department of Education’s website. Out of 132 school divisions across the Commonwealth, 68 will head into the first day of school fully remote, just 10 (including Hanover) will meet in person, and the rest will use some sort of hybrid approach. Two things that stand out to me from this map: 1) There is definitely some geographical unity going on here with almost the entire Shenandoah Valley opting for partial in-person while almost all of the localities east of I-95 choosing to go fully remote, and 2) Some of the independent cities embedded within those western localities have picked a closer-to-remote option than their surrounding county. It’s not strictly an urban vs. rural situation, but some of that is certainly going on. Now, the bigger question is how will these different reopening decisions impact the spread of the virus in these different localities?

Good morning, RVA! It’s 67 °F, and, big news, today’s highs are in the low 80s! Later this week looks hotter but not blazin' hot, and I wonder, perhaps naively, if we’re done with that part of the summer? Keep an eye out for some rain throughout the day and late this evening.

Water cooler

Richmond police are reporting the murder of an as-yet-unidentified man early Saturday morning on the 00 block of W. Clopton Street. Additionally, and I can’t remember the last time the police did this, but they’re reporting four shootings that took place across the city on Friday night. Two victims were taken to the hospital with life-threatening injuries.

Murders are easier to follow in Richmond as each one results in a press release from the police. It’s much harder, at least for me, to get an idea of the proliferation of gun violence in the city.