Good morning, RVA: Fatal shooting, a budget intro, and a fun project

Good Morning, RVA!

Good morning, RVA! It's 51 °F, and today looks cloudy but amazing. Expect highs in the mid 70s, no reason at all to wear socks, and a near perfect opportunity late in the afternoon to sit on the stoop and watch the day end. Tomorrow, rain returns and cooler weather follows immediately.

Water cooler

Richmond Police are reporting that an officer shot and killed an individual on the 1900 block of Cedar Street earlier this week. Here’s some information describing the incident, quoted directly from the RPD press release: “Yesterday at approximately 4:58 a.m., officers were called to the 1900 block of Cedar Street for the report of a disturbance with an armed person. Officers arrived on the scene within minutes and located the male suspect, [Kenneth] Sharp. After a brief encounter during which Sharp produced a firearm, Sharp was shot. He was transported to a local hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries.“ Police Chief Rick Edwards has said in the past that, following fatal shootings by police officers, his department would produce and release a “Critical Incident Briefing video” featuring audio and video from the investigation—from sources like body cameras and 911 calls. RPD hopes to release the briefing video for this incident within the next two weeks.

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A week late, I finally got around to listening to Mayor Stoney’s budget presentation while in the shower yesterday. The Mayor does a good job with his remarks, and I think it might be the easiest way to get yourself oriented towards the budget’s big-picture items. Related: The City hasn’t posted the video from yesterday’s second City Council Budget Work Session, but, when they do, I’ll make sure to get it up on The Boring Show as quick as I can.

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The Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Luca Powell reports that the USPS’s Office of Inspector General has released the promised audit of Richmond’s mail processing facility out in Sandston, and...it’s not great news. You can download and read the surprisingly concise PDF (weighing in at only 35 pages!) for yourself here. The audit makes 10 recommendations (look for the red headers), and they range from fairly mail-specific like “record omitted trips in the data system” to general good biz advice like “train all management personnel in the Richmond region to understand and perform their roles and responsibilities.” I guess USPS will now attempt to implement these recommendations, and, with Sen. Kaine still on the case, I hope they take them seriously!

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Megan Marconyak, also at the RTD, embarks upon an ambitious project: Each week she’ll share the best thing she ate in a column appropriately titled “Best thing I ate this week in Richmond.” I feel like she’ll have to eat a stunning number of new things each week to sustain this column, and I wish her the best! For me, this project would just be a lot of posts about this Cheesy Baked Pasta With Sausage and Ricotta from the NYT that I make constantly. Or maybe, like, lemon Oreos and Kroger-brand Pink Grapefruit Seltzer?

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Over on Mastodon, all-purpose internet wizard Waldo Jaquith has put together a really fun bot that posts actual personalized license plates that the Department of Motor Vehicles has rejected for being too inappropriate. Beware that some of the plates are actually inappropriate or offensive, but most are just silly: BOOTY, MESSYB, and TRSTS8N (Val rightly wondered if TRSTGD would have made it through the filters?). I love this sort of project, which takes publicly available data and makes it easier for the public to access—especially if it does so with a little personality.

Also, this reminds me to remind you that if you’re still wandering through the post-Twitter social media wilderness, looking for a home for your microblog-type content, you can sign up for a Mastodon account over on rva.fyi. There are a million and one different places to create a Mastodon account—mastodon.social being the biggest—so no pressure!

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Via Richard Hayes at RVA Hub, this incredible picture of someone flying(?) into the raging James River to rescue folks trapped slightly off frame. You can see a few more pics over @sandys_dad’s instagram. Whoa, what a dramatic day down by the River!

This morning's longread

A Family Tree: Hippolyte Hodeau’s Trench Art (ca. 1917)

You’re definitely going to want to tap through and check out the exquisitely precise art “carved” onto leaves by WWI soldiers stuck in a trench for endless days. Beautiful and incredible!

Like many soldiers, Hodeau spent hours huddled in these muddy channels. In order to kill time, perhaps, or lift his spirits, he gathered leaves from an oak tree — elongated, striated, forest green — and used a form of relief carving to inscribe the names of his daughters, Andrée and Eléonore, as well as the word “souvenir” and what looks like “Argonne”...As unique as his objects may seem, Hodeau was not alone in carving leaves. The art form flourished during World War I as a way to enhance letters home with a unique lightweight enclosure. Soldiers used a needle or knife to whittle between the oak and chestnut veins, leaving only words or, sometimes, an image.

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Picture of the Day

Urban views.