Good morning, RVA: Kansas votes no, a sketchy donation, and more thoughts on the gas utility

We probably shouldn't be expanding our natural gas infrastructure, right?

Good morning, RVA! It's 71 °F, and, while today looks hot and humid just like the rest of the days, NBC12’s Andrew Freiden says it’s the “least bad” day of the week. I'll take it! You can expect highs in the 90s and (probably) dry skies throughout the afternoon. Drink some water, eat a popsicle, and do what you gotta do to stay cool out there.

Water cooler

Last night, the people of Kansas "rejected an amendment to the state constitution that would have specified 'Kansas does not require government funding of abortion and does not create or secure a right to abortion'" by a huge margin—59% voting no, and just 41% voting yes. Kansas is, of course, a very red state, with 56% of people voting for Donald Trump in 2020. Here's the interesting part to me: The state also ran a gubernatorial primary last night for both parties and while about 451,000 folks voted in the Republican primary, only about 375,000 folks voted to restrict abortion. To me, that says there are lots and lots of Republicans out there who are unwilling to ban abortions and Republican politicians should be real careful running on an anti-abortion platform or advancing legislation restriction abortions. That's just my take, though, and we'll get to see how it plays out here in Virginia in a couple of months when abortion will almost certainly be the topic of the next General Assembly session.

Here's something wild from Ned Oliver at Axios Richmond: "One of City Councilwoman Reva Trammell's biggest campaign donations in 2020 came from a shell company founded by a now-convicted drug trafficker...It was the third-largest donation to her campaign. In June, authorities revealed the man behind the company was Nikike Tyler, a Henrico resident who pleaded guilty that same month to wholesaling millions of dollars worth of heroin, cocaine and fentanyl throughout the region."

Mayor Stoney released some more information about the City’s gun buyback program. Folks who bring guns by the event, which takes place on August 20th, will get gift cards to Amazon, Foot Locker, Walmart, or Kroger—$250 for an assault weapon, $200 for a handgun, $150 for a rifle, and $25 for inoperable guns. Say what you will about the effectiveness of gun buybacks, I'm sympathetic to how little Virginia's localities can do to limit gun violence with legislation and appreciate the Mayor trying to use what resource he has available.

Turns out I'm not the only one thinking about the long term sustainability of Richmond's municipally-owned gas utility! Kevin Cianfarini and Erik Shilts have a really interesting column in the Virginia Mercury about how City Council should get involved and halt any future natural gas infrastructure expansion. There's a lot to unpack here (like how little oversight there is into how the Department of Public Utilities spends its money), but here's the gist: "When customers choose to adopt electric appliances and disconnect from the gas network, preexisting bond debt necessitates utilities imposing price hikes on a shrinking customer base. As service costs rise, more people choose to go electric. This feedback loop is commonly referred to as a utility death spiral. As technology advances and heat pump adoption accelerates, Richmond Gas Works’ death spiral will be swift and severe, stranding bond debt that it cannot pay." My gas furnace is the final remaining gas appliance in our house, and when it goes belly up, I'll definitely replace it with a heat pump and disconnect from the gas network. I can't be the only one moving in this direction, and it makes a ton of sense to me for to be extremely skeptical of any expense paid to expand our publicly-owned natural gas infrastructure.

Oh now this is interesting: WRVA reports that Lost Cause truther Ann McLean is now "off the State Historic Resources Board following controversial comments made on WRVA about secession and the Civil War." This follows the news of another one of Youngkin's appointments resigning, this one from the state’s LGTBQ board, due to his history of making horrible and offensive public comments. These sorts of unprofessional and inappropriate people are almost certainly appointed to troll liberals, but they each, ultimately, do have some sort of role in the functioning of our government so it's not all just for funnsies. I wonder if a series of major, public missteps like this will have any sort of actual impact on how the Governor governs or if the act of appointing them in the first place was the entire point.

Today, the Science Museum of Virginia will (virtually) host Dr. Alexa Halford for the museum's Lunch Break Science series. Dr. Halford is a Space Weather Physicist (!) at Goddard Space Flight Center and will give a lecture on how space weather impacts our planned return-to-the-moon missions (aka the Artemis Missions). I am really, really excited about people walking around on the moon in my lifetime, and it seems like Artemis is finally going to make it happen. In fact, NASA plans to launch an (uncrewed) Orion spacecraft around the moon and back this fall! So cool! Lunch Break Science is free, no reservations requires, and, just a note, this event is a hybrid event (you attend in-person, Dr. Halford attends via Zoom on the big screen).

This morning's longread
BeReal is a social media app for anyone who hates social media

First, I'm not on BeReal because I'm nervous about giving pictures of my face to a social media company with no discernible business model. Second, BeReal is fascinating. It's basically a social media network created because social media networks are horrible and bad—seems like a strange way to solve that problem.

Meanwhile, young people are turning to another breed of apps that promise more intimate online interactions—treating social media as an extension of private group chats. One of them is BeReal, a French app that’s taken American college campuses by storm and is currently the most popular free app in Apple’s US App Store. Its 20 million downloads suggest its approach–getting people to share the more mundane moments of daily life, like going for a walk in the park or lounging on the couch watching Netflix on a Monday night—is resonating with users. But can an app really facilitate authenticity and help users bypass the envy economy? After all, the imperative to make money has historically pushed both social-media companies and their most popular creators to pair up with brands that turn every post into a commercial. I recently joined BeReal and recruited a few friends to see if the app could deliver on its promise to help us be more genuine online.

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