Podcasts about General assembly

Every year on the 29th of November it is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian people.  (The day of release of this episode)This was decided in the United Nations in 1977 when the General Assembly adopted resolution 32/40BIt was not a coincidence that they chose this date. It is the dame date of the United Nations Partition Plan, resolution 181, that was adopted exactly 30 years before in 1947. And most of you will be aware that the partition of Palestine by the UN gave the Zionist movement the push they had been waiting for to establish their Jewish homeland in Palestine. And that happened with a lot of force and violence. Most of the Palestinian villages, towns and cities were partially or completely depopulated and destroyed. And until today families from these towns and cities can be found living in refugee camps in the Westbank, Gaza and neighboring countries with the fourth generation being brought up under very difficult circumstances. In the meantime the State of Israel was created in 1948 and then in 1967 this new country took its chance and military occupied the Gazastrip, the Westbank, Sinai and Golan Heights. It started moving its own population into the territory it occupied, mainly in settlements built on Palestinian agricultural land, but in Jerusalem and Hebron also inside the city. For this podcast episode I asked several Palestinian friends to send me an answer to the question: What do you think that people can do in solidarity with the Palestinian people. I also asked my friend Anwaar, who is from Hebron and lives in Shuhada street, the infamous street that is closed off by military checkpoints, to tell us a bit about life in the old city of Hebron. This is the street where the Israeli settlers are protected by the army and the native population is struggling to stay. Here are some links to websites that can help you to get more involved!Www.grassrootsalquds.netwww.handmadepalestine.comhttps://eappi.orghttps://bdsmovement.net

If you've been following me for a minute, you know that I am OBSESSED with saving time through calendar blocking and time management tools. Being present and focused on the task in front of you is so important! As entrepreneurs we can find ourselves pulled in many different directions. But prioritizing tasks is the key to GSD! Calendar blocking provides you with the balance that is essential to running a successful business.  Today's guest, Leo Tumwattana, Co-founder & CEO of Sorted, an application that combines your tasks, calendar events and notes into a unified timeline so you can hyper-schedule your entire day in one place. He will be sharing with us all his top time saving tips! Main Topics: - How to main an efficient schedule- The definition of hyper-scheduling- Tips to calendar blocking Key Takeaways: - The ROI of task management isn't linear. You need to balance how much you focus on task management and actually doing the task.- We all have 24 hours in a day- Scheduling your day is the path to gaining more focus and reducing stress.  More About Our Guest: Leo is the Cofounder and CEO of Sorted. Before starting Sorted, Leo helped turn around a retail clothing company and took it public, did an MBA, worked as an executive at Louis Vuitton, took a sabbatical, traveled around, worked on a few startup ideas, and taught coding at General Assembly. That's where he met Harry, and together they cofounded Sorted.

It’s been a while since I have posted on the blog or dropped a podcast. Throughout October and early November, I took a step back to focus on denominational responsibilities and lead Redemption Hill Church into a new Sunday morning location. By God’s grace, both responsibilities went well, but now I am back in the saddle! Over the next several weeks, I’ll be posting on why Redemption Hill Church is confessional. The term confessional has lost its luster over the last 100 years, but prior, most churches held to a confession of faith. I want to show in these blog posts the value of confessions and why a local church should be confessional. The next four blogs on confessionalism will be about 1) The Nature of Confessionalism, 2) The Parameters of Confessionalism, 3) A Vision of Confessionalism 4) the Subscription to a Confession. If you are new to confessionalism, or the term is foreign, that’s ok. The purpose of cornfieldtheology.com is to introduce people to new concepts, terms, and theological ideas. These four blogs on confessionalism have been adapted from a paper I submitted to the elders of Trinity Fellowship Churches in preparation for Theology Day before our General Assembly. In this first blog post on the nature of confessionalism, I focus on why confessions are written down, the historical aspect of confessions, and the uniting effect of confessions. Confessions are Written Down It has become fashionable for many non-mainline Protestant churches to be vague about theology and doctrine. And the traditional mainline protestant churches have jettisoned their historic creeds and confessions. If not on paper, then with function. The reasons for the ambiguity are numerous. However, what is trendy is not historical. For most of church history, denominations and churches had robust creeds and confessions. These creeds and confessions provided clarity, which helped guard against heresy and doctrinal confusion. Throughout history, creeds and confessions were polemical and divided denominations from each other, but they also united local churches to one another. Creeds and confessions could guard against heresy and join like-minded churches because creeds and confessions are written down. It is popular to hear a local pastor or church member say they do not need a confession or creed because they have the Bible. “No creed but the Bible!” is declared. However, the declaration falls on deft ears. Carl Trueman affirms, I do want to make the point here that Christians are not divided between those who have creeds and confessions and those who do not; rather, they are divided between those who have public creeds and confessions that are written down and exist as public documents, subject to public scrutiny, evaluation, and critique, and those who have private creeds and confessions that are often improvised, unwritten, and thus not open to public scrutiny, not susceptible to evaluation and, crucially and ironically, not, therefore, subject to testing by Scripture to see whether they are true.– Carl Trueman All Christians live by a Creed. The fundamental difference between confessional and non-confessional churches and Christians can be summed up in one question: How can you know what a pastor and church believe? Answer. Doctrine is written down. The benefits of holding to a Confession of Faith that is written down are outlined in these blog posts. Nevertheless, suffice it to say, part of the nature of being confessional is that a document explicitly states doctrine. Confessions are Rooted in Tradition The second aspect of confessions is their rootedness in tradition. As J.V. Fesko points out, the wor

Let’s begin today with a Patreon-fueled shout-out. Charlottesville 350 is the local chapter of a national organization that seeks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Charlottesville 350 uses online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions to oppose new coal, oil and gas projects, and build 100% clean energy solutions that work for all. To learn more about their most active campaigns, including a petition drive to the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/cville350                                                                                                                  On today’s program:The CDC has approved booster shots for all adult AmericansThe city fills one position while another became vacant The Virginia Supreme Court appoints two Special Masters to complete the redistricting process Members of the Crozet Community Advisory Committee debrief after Supervisors adopt a master planCOVID updateAs the week ended, the percent positivity creeped up slightly to 5.8 percent as reported by the Virginia Department of Health and the seven day average rose to 1,518. Nearly a million Virginians have received a third dose or a booster shot. The seven day average for doses administered a day was 40,389 on Friday. Also on Friday, the Food and Drug Administration authorized the use of the Moderna and Pfizer booster shots for all adults, and the Centers for Disease Control followed suit later in the day. Dr. Costi Sifri is director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System, and he said this means anyone who completed their two-dose cycle of Pfizer and Moderna can now get a booster dose. “We’re at a point right now where that is going to start including a fair number of people,” Dr. Sifri said. “It’s clear that boosters are really beneficial in boosting up the number of antibodies.”Dr. Sifri said there are an increasing number of “breakthrough-cases” in people who were vaccinated over six months ago. Some of these cases have resulted in hospitalizations and Dr. Sifri recommended those at higher risk should schedule their booster. “I really strongly encourage those people to get a booster especially as we head into the holiday season and as we are starting to see increasing rates of COVID in the nation as well as our community,” Dr. Sifri said. Dr. Sifri said others should consider getting the third dose, especially if they want to avoid contracting COVID. “There hasn’t been much of a rush,” Dr. Sifri said. “Right now we understand that about 16 percent of people in our health district who are eligible for a booster vaccine has received one.”Dr. Reid Adams is the Chief Medical Officer at UVA Health. His recommendation is a little more sharp.“I think the time is now,” Dr. Adams said. “We have gotten to a lower rate in Virginia but it’s certainly not low enough. If you look around the country, particularly in the midwest and the upper plains, we’re really seeing a surge so ideally folks would get their booster now before that happens here.” People who want to schedule a booster dose or get vaccinated for the first time can do so at vaccinate.virginia.gov. There are plenty of appointments and shots.“We have not seen long waits for booster doses here at the medical center,” Dr. Sifri said. “Those are available. In addition there is the availability of getting booster vaccines through local pharmacies and the Blue Ridge Health District.”Since November 6, over 4,674 children between the ages of 5 and 11 have been vaccinated, or around 25 percent of the eligible population. Sage Smith disappearanceToday marks nine years since Sage Smith disappeared, having last been seen in the 500 block of West Main Street. The Charlottesville Police Department put out a release this morning stating they are still seeking the whereabouts of Erik McFadden, calling him a critical person of interest in the case. The two had been expected to meet the night of November 20, 2012, but Smith has not been heard from since. McFadden is believed to have left town rather than speak to the police. “Smith was a beloved family member and friend to many in the Charlottesville and LGBTQ+ communities,” the release reads. “Although [nne] years have passed, CPD is hopeful with the help of the media and continued public interest, we can finally solve this case and bring closure to a family and community that continues to experience anguish.” A missing persons report was filed for McFadden in June 2019 but multiple leads have not turned up any further developments. For more information, take a look at the release. Charlottesville personnel updateThe city has hired a Minority Business Development Coordinator. Ajoni Wynn-Floyd will take the position within the city’s Economic Development Department. The Minority Business Program was created in 2018 to assist qualified businesses with one-on-one business consulting, start-up assistance, and help registering to be vendors for state and local government. “The program is focused on increasing the number of minority- and woman-owned businesses that are registered vendors with the City and to encourage more City spending with such businesses,” reads the intake form on the city’s website.Wynn-Floyd has worked with the Latino Student Alliance and the Diversity Awareness Program board. Earlier this month, the city’s Tree Commission learned of the resignation of Mike Ronayne, the city’s urban forester. He served in the position for five years. The position has not yet been advertised on the Charlottesville jobs board as of Friday afternoon.  At that November 2 meeting, Tree Commission chair Brian Menard said the city must demonstrate support for urban forestry.“We need to have more resources, not just financially, but we need more resources in terms of hands that can do this work and support this work,” Menard said. “We recognize that this has not been an ordinary 18 months but even before then it was clear that there’s just a lot that’s put on one person,” Menard said. Map-drawers selectedThe Virginia Supreme Court has appointed two special masters to complete the process of redistricting maps for the General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives. Sean P. Trende and Bernard F. Grofman are the selected candidates. “Though each was nominated by legislative leaders of a particular political party, the Nominees… shall serve as officers of the Court in a quasi-judicial capacity,” reads the appointment order made Friday.The pair will work on a single map and have 30 days to complete their work. According to the order, Trende and Grofman must resolve differences in good-faith and are not permitted to consult with anyone except for designated staff at the Supreme Court and the Virginia Division of Legislative Services. They are directed to take into account the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and the Voting Rights Act. “In short, the Court expects to receive from its Special Masters redistricting maps that have been drafted using factors that are fully compliant with constitutional and statutory law applied in an apolitical and nonpartisan manner,” reads the order. Trende was nominated by Republicans and is a senior elections analyst with Real Clear Politics. Grofman is a political science professor at the University of California at Irvine. Read more at the Virginia Mercury.In today’s second Patreon-fueled shout-out, Code for Charlottesville is seeking volunteers with tech, data, design, and research skills to work on community service projects. Founded in September 2019, Code for Charlottesville has worked on projects with the Legal Aid Justice Center, the Charlottesville Fire Department, and the Charlottesville Office of Human Rights. Visit codeforcville.org to learn about those projects. Crozet updateA month has passed since the Albemarle Board of Supervisors adopted an update of the Crozet Master Plan, with some land use aspects included over the wishes of some members of the Crozet Community Advisory Committee. For a good summary of what happened on October 20, read Allison Wrabel’s story in the October 21 Daily Progress. Or Lisa Martin’s story in the November 5 Crozet Gazette.On November 10, the Crozet CAC had the opportunity to talk about the plan. Chair Allie Pesch didn’t have anything prepared, and neither had Planning Manager Rachel Falkenstein. The Albemarle Planning Commission had recommended removing the Middle Density Residential designation from a portion of downtown Crozet, but there were four votes on the Board of Supervisors to move forward. White Hall District Supervisor Ann Mallek ended up voting with that majority on the eventual 5 to 1 vote in support of the plan’s update.“I should have done it differently,” Mallek said. “I should have made the motion I was going to make that adopted the Planning Commission’s route and if that had been voted down we would have been much more clear to the membership in the community what was going on.”  Meetings in Albemarle are still virtual due to the pandemic and Mallek said the logistics of getting that motion moved forward were difficult to accomplish over Zoom. She acknowledged that many landowners in Crozet are concerned about the increased density. Many CAC members thought their concerns were too easily dismissed.“I found a fair amount of pretty serious community input ignored at points and I feel that ever since the state abolished the ability to negotiate proffers, developers kind of trump most of the decisions,” said Brian Day.Day referred to legislation in 2016 that rendered invalid an Albemarle policy that required a cash payment from developers for every new unit authorized by a rezoning. Proffers are still legal if they are deemed reasonable and contribute to the direct impact of a development. However, the 2016 legislation ushered a cooling off point where localities were hesitant to even discuss the issue. This past week, for instance, representatives of Greystar Development said they would pay a proportional amount toward upgrades on Old Ivy Road. Michael Monaco, a new member of the CAC, said he felt public input had to be broadened in range. He said Crozet needs more housing and more entry-level jobs so young people can stay.“I think any process that is guided mostly by homeowners is going to be guided mostly by the financial interests of homeowners, consciously or not,” Monaco said. “Any attempt to counter that would be wise.” Kostas Alibertis is on his second term on the CAC. “I think the struggle and the challenge that we had here was the vision of the county versus the vision of the community and I think we’ll always have that unless there is some delineation of where those lines are, and I think that’s what led to all of this frustration,” Alibertis said. Shawn Bird said the process was hurt by a lack of in-person community engagement meetings due to the pandemic.“If you remember those meetings we had at the high school, I thought there was really strong turn out, I thought there were people energized by the process, we had a certain momentum behind it,” Bird said. “I saw new people coming out to those things and then COVID hit and we all had to jump on our computers and it just changed the whole dynamic.”During the process, the CAC took votes indicating a majority were not in favor of the middle density residential category. Those votes are not binding and are only symbolic, but Bird defended the practice as well a 2017 survey (as published in the Crozet Gazette),“I think the powers that be need to know was this issue 13 to 2, or 8 to 7, by the CCAC?” Bird said. “I think you need to quantify to some degree where the citizens fall on particular issues. In my mind, that’s what makes a survey much more powerful to some degree than anecdotal one-offs by people who have the time to jump on these cools and may have the loudest voices.”Allie Pesch said the master plan update was revision and not a rewrite. She said an analysis of the update should look at whether existing goals are being met.“We’ve wanted to increase affordable housing for a while and the solution seemed to be just to increase density and not really look at how that has or hasn’t worked in the existing plan,” Pesch said. Marc McKenney is in his first term on the CAC and he said many are concerned that Albemarle has not made the investments to support that density. “There’s been massive growth in Crozet in the past two decades,” McKenney said. “Population went from 2,200 in 2000, to 5,500 in 2010, to 9,500 or 9,200 a decade later. (TRIM) If we cannot show citizens what’s actually been delivered from an infrastructure perspective, I guarantee you there will be a complete loss in faith by citizens to the county that they have their best interest in providing sidewalks, and road repairs, and bridges.”Some of the current projects in the planning process are:$1.5 million in improvement to the Square anticipated to be completed in May 2023 (page 26 here), $21.25 million expansion of Crozet Elementary School expected to be completed in August 2022 (page 28 here)Sidewalk improvements on U.S. 250 West from Cory Farms to Cloverlawn (page 44)A revenue-sharing application was submitted to the Virginia Department of Transportation on October 1 to complete Eastern Avenue across Lickinghole Creek to Cory Farms Road (Albemarle transportation priority #8)Improvements at Crozet Avenue and U.S. 250 West are being considered for Smart Scale recommendations in 2022 (Albemarle transportation priority #21) The adoption of the Crozet Master Plan happened just before the first phase of the county’s Comprehensive Plan review got underway. A public kickoff meeting will take place in January. Supervisor Mallek urged members of the CAC to become engaged in that process to ensure that Crozet’s voice can be heard.“While people may feel discouraged about particular outcomes in our process, we all need to be keeping our eyes on this other prize going forward because from natural resource planning to historic preservation to climate change to all slews of things, that is the core book that the Board and the staff refer to and this is our chance to make sure that our local words are maintained,” Mallek said. One of the items to be discussed during the Comp Plan review will be the county’s growth management policy. Thanks to Ting for their support in helping this program be produced each day. Today the newsletter ends with a limerick from friend of the show Bekah Saxon honoring Ting for their commitment to match your initial payment to a paid Substack subscription!There once was a reporter named SeanWho needed a check to go onWith money from TingHe could make his words singAnd keep Charlottesville moving alongSpecial announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown Mall This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Pablo gives a live report on the ground from the USCCB’s general assembly meeting on the passage of the Eucharistic document “Mystery of the Eucharist” and relays consensus and comradery of the Bishops finally able to have their meeting in person this year. He gives details on the upcoming 3 year Eucharistic revival and some […]

Every ten years, following a national census, Congressional seats are re-allocated, and Congressional district boundaries are re-drawn to assure that each member of the House represents roughly the same number of constituents. As the population of the US shifts, certain states will lose seats in the House, while others will gain them. New York, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, West Virginia and California will all lose a seat in the next Congress. Oregon, Colorado, Montana, Texas, Florida and North Carolina will each gain seats. The 2020 Census showed that the state of Maryland grew by more than 400,000 people, although the City of Baltimore has lost 35,000 residents during the last 10 years.And with that population loss comes a loss of clout on Capitol Hill.Maryland will retain the eight-member House Delegation it currently holds, and on Dec. 6th, the General Assembly will meet in a special session to determine what voters those eight districts will include. Last January, Republican Governor Larry Hogan appointed members to a commission called the Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission. That body submitted proposed maps for Congressional and state districts to the Governor a week and a half ago. (see link below) A separate commission, appointed in July by Maryland Senate President Bill Ferguson and House Speaker Adrienne Jones - both Democrats - has released its own set of maps, including four different proposals for Congressional districts. (see link below) Today on Midday: where we are in the redistricting process, how we got here, and what we can expect moving forward. A little later in the program, we're joined by Dave Daley, a senior fellow at the non-partisan group FairVote and the author of two books about gerrymandering and re-districting, the latest called Unrigged: How Americans are Battling Back to Save Democracy.Daley recaps the history of how the current Maryland Congressional map was devised 10 years ago. We also hear from Josh Kurtz, a journalist who covers all things legislative in Maryland as the founding editor of Maryland Matters, one of the state's leading political news journals. But we begin with former Maryland State Senator Jim Brochin. Brochin, a Democrat, has teamed up with former Republican Howard County Executive Allan Kittleman to form Fair Maps Maryland, a group that advocates for the legislature to adopt the recommendations that Gov. Hogan's commission has put forward. Fair Maps Maryland is being advised by Doug Mayer, a former communications strategist for the Governor. Jim Brochin joins us on the phone from Towson, Maryland. Here are links to the two separate redistricting commissions and their respective proposed maps: Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Notes Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin campaigned on a raft of culture war issues. But it still takes the General Assembly to pass new laws, and Virginia's State Senate still has a Democratic majority. So what powers does the Virginia governor really have? What can a governor do even without new legislation? This week, Bold Dominion sits down with a pair of UVA politics professors for a deeper look at these civics questions that are suddenly relevant to Virginia.

Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper doesn't like parts of the state budget, but he says there's enough in there that he likes or the state desperately needs to sign it as soon as the General Assembly passes it this week.

WTJU is hosting Classical Listening Parties, a series of four free, casual events on Tuesdays in November. These four events are led by Chelsea Holt, pianist, teacher, and one of WTJU’s newest and youngest classical announcers. She’ll guide you through all the eras of classical music and tomorrow night at 7 p.m.: Classical. For a list of the others, visit wtju.net to learn more and sign up! On today’s show:The Village of Rivanna CAC gets an update on what middle missing housing is A recap of what’s been dropped off at solid waste centers operated by one of the Rivanna authorities Work takes places this work to help remediate an industrial waste site in CrozetLet’s begin the week with a status report on the pandemic. The Virginia Department of Health reports a seven-day average of 1,305 cases a day with 871 reported this morning. The percent positivity is at 5.4 percent, slightly up from 5.3 on Friday. There are 32 new cases in the Blue Ridge Health District and the percent positivity is at 4.7 percent. There have been five new deaths reported in the District since Friday.Belmont Bridge updateThe first major traffic shift of the Belmont Bridge is underway. All vehicular traffic will be routed to the southbound portion of the bridge, according to a project update sent out by the city of Charlottesville. New temporary traffic signals have been installed to control the new alignment. Construction got underway this year after many years of planning. To learn more, visit the city’s website.General Assembly 2022The two major parties have nominated their leaders for the next session of the House of Delegates. Republicans have nominated Delegate Todd Gilbert (R-15) as Speaker of the House and Delegate Terry Kilgore (R-1) as House Majority Leader. Republicans picked up five seats in the November 2 election to have a 52 to 48 edge when the General Assembly convenes on January 12. (press release)Current Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn (D-41) has been nominated as House Minority Leader. Delegate Charniele Herring (D-46) will serve as Chair of the Democratic Caucus. (press release)Remediating AcmeCrews are working in Crozet this month at the site of the former Acme Visible Records. The company built storage and retrieval equipment for documents from 1954 until approximately 2001. During that time, they directed wastewater into a lagoon that contained multiple pollutants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a permit in September 2020 to the Wilson Jones Company to mitigate the harm based on a 2019 status report from the Virginia Department of Environmental quality. All of the buildings have been removed. (permit) (basis)Representatives of the company performing the mitigation sent an update the Crozet Community Association announcing that groundwater samples will be taken between November 10 and November 19. There are also plans this week to dig two wells to inject new chemicals into hazardous areas. “The wells will be installed to facilitate the completion of a pilot study for the injection of chemical oxidants which will treat the chlorinated solvent impacts in groundwater at the facility,” reads the report from a public relations company working with the Wilson Jones Company. As part of the permit, the land can never be used for residential purposes, schools, playgrounds, or daycare. Solid waste drop-off reportThe Rivanna Solid Waste Authority’s Board of Directors meets for the final time of 2021 tomorrow. The packet contains data about activity at the Ivy Materials Utilization Center and McIntire Recycling Center, both of which process all manner of recycling and solid waste. As of late September, 42 containers of paint cans have been shipped out of the facility. “Each container holds about 4,200 one-gallon paint cans,” reads an operations report. “Therefore, we have shipped about 176,400 paint cans since the program began in August 2016.”Leftover latex paint is re-processed back into commercial paint and oil-based paints are converted into fuel. Both September and October were busy months for the compostable food waste collection at the McIntire center, with over 8 tons being dropped off in each month. Commercial customers pay $178 a ton for disposal and residents are not charged. Over six hundred people participated in a Household Hazardous Waste Day held over two days in late September. Albemarle residents dropped off 22,640 pounds of furniture and mattresses on October 2, and Charlottesville residents disposed of 3,380 pounds. On October 9 the Ivy MUC accepted appliances and Albemarle residents parted with 6,800 pounds and 160 freon units. Charlottesville residents dropped off 1,400 pounds and 30 freon units. On October 16, unwanted tires had their turn and nearly 49 tons were processed for recycling. The RSWA continues to work through a permit modification with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to up the tonnage allowed at the Ivy MUC from 300 tons a day to 450 tons a day. You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement. Interested in learning more about the Ancestral Monacan Homelands in Albemarle and Charlottesville along the Seminole Trail on which our 21st century communities have been built Interested in learning how to document the history, present, and future? Tomorrow the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society will hold a two-part event  in-person at Northside Library beginning at 5 p.m. First, UVA Professor of Anthropology Jeffrey Hantman will discuss his work, which includes which includes archaeology and history of the Monacan people, now with a new emphasis on how the Monacans were targeted by the eugenics movement. That will be followed at 6 p.m. with a workshop on cvillepedia, a collaborative encyclopedia. There will be a tutorial and I’ll be on hand to demonstrate how I use the site to keep the community informed. Professor Hantman’s talk will also be available through Zoom. Visit jmrl.org to learn more and to register for both programs. Missing MiddleFinally today, on Thursday, the 5th and Avon Community Advisory Committee will discuss an 85-unit rezoning that developers say will provide “missing middle housing” in the form of triplexes, duplexes, and multifamily units. But what is missing middle? Tori Kanellopoulos is a senior planner with the county. “Missing middle housing is housing that is between single-family detached housing and larger apartments and is intended to be compatible and scale and form with existing single-family attached,” Kanellopoulos said. Kannellopoulos said these units tend be smaller and are more affordable because the cost of land is spread across multiple units. “This is a concept that has gained a lot of attention recently though many of these housing types have existed for decades or longer and actually used to be permitted through many localities,” Kannellopoulos said. “Now localities are relegalizing these units by updating their zoning ordinances.” In July, Albemarle Supervisors adopted the Housing Albemarle plan, which seeks to encourage the development of more units with the hope that greater inventory will help with affordability. Renters and morgage-holders who pay more than 30 percent of their income on housing costs are considered distressed. That’s in part because Albemarle is an affluent community with a high median income. “Median home values in the county are about $138,000 higher than the U.S. median and about $83,000 higher than the Virginia median,” Kannellopoulos said. “Forty-two percent of renter households and 18 percent of homeowner households in the county are cost-burdened, meaning they are paying more than 30 percent of their gross income toward housing.”The situation is perhaps worse when other factors are taken into consideration such as the cost of transportation, child care, health, and food. To encourage creation of more of these housing types, planners created the Middle Density Residential land use category and debuted this in the Crozet master plan, over the opposition of some on the Crozet Community Advisory Committee. “The category recommends a density of 6-12 units per acre with up to 18 units per acre by meeting middle density housing types or affordability criteria beyond baseline housing requirements,” Kannellopoulos said. Most members of the Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee were opposed to the rezoning of Breezy Hill for 80 units on about 76 acres due to it being technically above one unit per acre. VORCAC Chair Dennis Odinov expressed skepticism that allowing more density would translate to more affordable prices. “These things have good intentions but in reality a lot of times they just over a period of time they just don’t work,” Odinov said. “That’s my concern. I’m no oracle and I may be wrong but that’s my experience and what I’ve seen. I’ve lived a lot of different places.” Odinov wanted to hear more about why many in Crozet were opposed to the concept. Details about how this might be implemented can be seen in the appendix of the Crozet Master Plan. Take a look beginning on page 72 of the .PDFSpecial announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP? The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In today’s first Patreon-fueled shout-out, are you a patron of the James Madison Regional Library system who suffers from a plague of library fines? If so, for the next week you can pay off your balance with a food donation that will go to the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank. To participate in the Food for Fines program, bring a non-perishable item to the front desk and get a dollar off. Do note this does not apply to missing or damaged items. Patrons who are in better standing than me are also welcome to donate an item or many items. For more information, visit jmrl.org. Visit here for a list of the most wanted itemsOn today’s show: A look at several upcoming developments in Albemarle County including the second phase for Southwood and a three-story self storage building in Crozet  More than 83 percent of adult Virginians are fully vaccinatedThe Village of Rivanna Community Advisory Committee debriefs after a rezoning vote did not go the way members wantedGreyhound has a new owner, and Virginia launches bus service from far Southwest Virginia to the nation’s capital On Friday, Governor Ralph Northam announced that 83 percent of the adult population in Virginia is now fully vaccinated. Also on Friday, the Virginia Department of Health reported the percent positivity dropped to 5.3 percent, on a day when the seven-day average for new cases is 1,328. But there are hotspots emerging across the country. Vermont is experiencing its worst surge yet, with a record 595 cases on Thursday and 505 cases on Friday according to the website VTDigger.Dr. Costi Sifri, director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System, said colder parts of the country are beginning to see the increase. “Just as we’re entering the cold and flu season, we’re also entering the season where we may see increased transmission of COVID just because we’re going into the winter months,” Dr. Sifri said. Dr. Sifri said COVID still represents a significant risk and he recommended people continue to wear masks in indoor public spaces. Thanksgiving is less than two weeks and Dr. Sifri emphasized caution.“One thing I’d want to emphasize is the importance of boosters for people who are vulnerable,” Dr. Sifri said. In the Blue Ridge Health District, ten percent of children between 5 and 11 have been vaccinated during the first week a reduced Pfizer dose has been available.The Virginia Supreme Court has rejected three Republican nominees to serve as Special Masters in the next phase of the redistricting process. In October, a 16-member redistricting commission failed to reach consensus on maps for legislative districts for both the General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives. Senate Democratic Leader Richard Saslaw petitioned the Court to disqualify the three Republican nominees, claiming conflicts of interest due to their previous work on creating maps.The Virginia Supreme Court agreed.“The Court intends to appoint Special Masters who are qualified and do not have a conflict of interest,” reads a November 12 letter from Chief Justice Donald Lemons. “Although the Special Master candidates are to be nominated by legislative leaders of a particular party, the nominees… will serve as Officers of the Court in a quasi-judicial capacity.”Justice Lemons said that nominees must not consult with political parties once they have been appointed. One of the Republican nominees, Thomas M. Bryan, had been hired by the Republican Party of Virginia as a consultant on using 2020 U.S. Census data for redistricting. That information had not been disclosed in the nominating materials. Republicans have until Monday at 5 p.m. to submit three new names, and Democrats are being asked to submit one more name due to a potential issue with one of their three nominees. For more information, visit the Supreme Court’s website. The national bus company Greyhound has been purchased by a German firm called FlixMobility. They operate a service called Flixbus which operates in 36 countries in addition to the United States. Greyhound serves 2,400 stops across the country, and has a ridership of 16 million passengers. “Buses as a sustainable and accessible alternative are now more important than ever,” reads an October 21, 2021 press release.  “Fluctuations in the cost of gas, the recent escalation of car prices, and climate change concerns have increased the interest of many consumers in finding alternatives to individual car usage.” For $46 million cash and $32 million in future payments, Flixmobility will now own the Greyhound name and the bus fleet, but not any real estate or stops. Flixbus has been running buses in U.S. since 2018. Meanwhile, on Monday the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation will launch the Highland Rhythms service between Bristol and Washington D.C. This is the fourth Virginia Breeze intrastate route to be funded by the state agency, which will be operated by Megabus. A ceremony was held this morning at the Birthplace of Country Music in Bristol (read more in the Bristol Herald-Courier)Time now to take a look at recent land use applications in Albemarle County.First, a site development plan has been submitted for a new Chipotle restaurant to be located in Hollymead Town Center. Before the pandemic, there would be site plan review meetings for the public to comment, but those have not been held. However, the Albemarle officials are looking to begin to resume the public process. “These projects are ‘by-right’, which means that if the proposed plans meet the minimum requirements of the County’s zoning, site plan, or subdivision ordinances, they must be approved,” reads the notice for this application. (take a look)A TGI Friday’s Restaurant used to operate on the site and the existing building will be replaced and a drive-through window will be installed in the new building. Another site plan has been filed for a three-story self-storage facility at the intersection of Brownsville Road, Route 240, and Rockfish Gap Turnpike (U.S. 250).  The zoning on the site is Highway Commercial and a gas station used to operate on the site. That building and a couple of others will be removed to make way for the structure. (take a look)Southwood Phase 2In October, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville filed the second phase of their rezoning for the redevelopment of the Southwood Mobile Home Park. The rezoning would amend the first phase to add 93.32 acres from R-2 to the Neighborhood Model District. “Phase 2 is planned within the project's existing mobile home park where development will occur in phases so as to limit the impact to the existing residents,” reads the narrative. “The resident planners who designed and wrote the Code of Development for Phase I has provided input in this next phase that the form, density, and uses established with Phase I should continue into Phase 2.”This phase of redevelopment would include up to 1,000 housing units in a mix of single-family houses, duplexes, townhomes, and apartment buildings. There would also be another 60,000 square feet of non-residential space. (read the Code of Development)Several blocks in phase one are under construction. *You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement, and time now for another subscriber-supported public service announcement. Are you using too many chemicals in your yard and garden? Would you like to learn more about alternatives? The Piedmont Master Gardeners will a free online information session on the topic Monday November 15 at 3 p.m.  Participants will learn how to keep their landscapes safe and healthy using Integrated Pest Management. The Center at Belvedere will host the session, which carries the name “Why and How to Reduce Chemical Use in your Yard and Garden.” Learn more and register at thecentercville.org.  Albemarle County staff have begun work on the update of the Comprehensive Plan with a public kick-off expected sometime in January. A major aspect of the current plan is a growth management policy which designates specific areas for density. This plan was last updated in 2015 and since then Supervisors have adopted several other policies, such as the Housing Albemarle plan.“To accommodate this growth, the County will need to add approximately 11,750 new units to our housing stock over the next 20 years,” reads Objective 1 of the plan, which was adopted by Supervisors in July. “The county must support the development of an additional 2,719 units to fully accommodate projected household growth through 2040.” One of the growth areas is the Village of Rivanna and their Community Advisory Committee met on November 8. Most of its members are not happy with the Board of Supervisors 4-2 vote in October for a rezoning from rural area to R-1 for an 80-unit single-family neighborhood called Breezy Hill. (staff report) (Village of Rivanna Master Plan) (watch the meeting)Dennis Odinov is the group’s chair. “We all know how it turned out and we may be disappointed but what are lessons learned?” Odinov said. “Are there any lessons learned from this?” Members of the group thanked Supervisor Donna Price for her against the rezoning. Price was joined by Supervisor Ann Mallek. Southern Development had initially requested 200 units, but scaled back due to community opposition. The Village of Rivanna Master Plan designated the land as Neighborhood Density Residential, and a map describes that as up to three dwelling units per acre. Members of the CAC maintained the plan only allows one dwelling unit per acre. Neal Means said pressure from the group helped get the number to 80 but he does not have a positive view of Southern Development. “It just goes to show you that the developers really don’t care about the master plan at all and the arguments they made much later about it should be one unit per gross acre and not net, is just an argument,” Means said. “They’re going to try to get as much as they can any time they want, no matter what the master plan says.”Gross density is a simple calculation of the number of units divided by the size of the land. Net density subtracts from the size of the land the square footage that would be used for infrastructure or open space. In the case of Breezy Hill, the gross density was 1 unit per acre, but the net density was 1.4 per acres. To Means, that means the system is broken. “I don’t think the county’s master planning process is functioning well,” Means said. “I think it’s dysfunctional and it needs to be revisited.” Ultimately, elected officials make their decisions based on interpretation of master plans. Odinov said the current version of the plan was not clear enough to state the wishes of the community. “We have no language in the master plan that says one unit per acre, net,” Odinov said “We don’t say it in the verbiage.” The master plan also states that no new developments should be approved until specific transportation projects are built on U.S. 250. However such a directive is not permissible under Virginia law. In Virginia, localities cannot specifically ask for infrastructure to be built in exchange for a rezoning, but developers can volunteer to pay for projects in something called a proffer. “I thought it was a slap in the face,” said Paula Pagonakis. “I took it as a slap in the face when the developer said he could not provide any proffers because he would not get enough profit out of the project. I don’t know how much impact that had on the vote by the Supervisors but I felt a bit insulted.”In Charlottesville, Southern Development has agreed to contribute nearly $3 million upfront for the creation of a sidewalk on Stribling Avenue, a 170 units project on about 12 acres. If Council approves the rezoning, Southern Development will be paid back through the incremental revenue generated.Supervisor Donna Price voted against the rezoning but said the community pressure to reduce Breezy Hill’s scope resulted in a more palatable project. “Did we achieve everything?” Price asked. “No. But we came out I think a whole better strategically than if it had been at 160 or 130.”Price said she supported increased density in Crozet and voted for the 332-unit RST Residences near Forest Lakes. “Highly dense, but it is also right on a six-lane highway up there,” Price said. “I’ve tried to maintain a consistency of if you get to the periphery of development areas it should be less developed and as you move more toward the center of development it should be  more highly developed and more dense.” An update of the Village of Master Plan is not currently scheduled, according to county planner Tori Kanellopoulos. “It would need to be on the Community Development work program and we do have the Comprehensive Plan update that just started,” Kanellopoulos said. “That will take up a significant amount of resources.”I’ll have a report from the Crozet Community Advisory Committee in an upcoming edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement. Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP? The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In episode 75, Renee Solorzano shares how to onboard and coach your team to their full potential. Renee Solorzano is the Director of Product Design at Faire and has previously worked at Airbnb, General Assembly, and Squarespace. In this episode, how she balanced friendship and management when building relationships with her team as a new manager. We also talk about coaching direct reports to deliver their full potential and how to guide your team into asking themselves the right questions to get optimal results. Tune in to learn how a fast-growing company like Faire approaches onboarding and how you can implement those processes.

In this episode, we take our program to the community: We are on the ground with the American Constitution Society (ACS) for a show with Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod and Nevada Attorney General Aaron Ford. Along with host Michele Goodwin, Herod and Ford discuss being Black in public office: namely, how they deal with the challenges and demands while staying true to themselves. (This program is the final in a four-part series elevating Black lives in the wake of the tragic deaths of Ahmaud Arbery,  Breonna Taylor and George Floyd.)     Joining us are very special guests: Attorney General Aaron D. Ford, Nevada's 34th attorney general, who took office on January 7, 2019, making him the first African American to hold statewide constitutional office in Nevada. A former state senator, Ford previously served as both the majority leader and minority leader in the Nevada Legislature.  He started his career of public service as a public school math teacher, shaping hundreds of lives. Colorado state Representative Leslie Herod was elected in 2016 as the first LGBTQ African American in the General Assembly, while receiving the highest number of votes of any candidate running in a contested election. She serves as the chair of the House Finance Committee, vice chair of the House Judiciary Committee and Chair of the Committee on Legal Services. Herod also chairs the Colorado Black Democratic Legislative Caucus. Rate and review “On the Issues with Michele Goodwin" to let us know what you think of the show! Let's show the power of independent feminist media. Check out this episode's landing page at MsMagazine.com for a full transcript, links to articles referenced in this episode, further reading and ways to take action.Tips, suggestions, pitches? Get in touch with us at ontheissues@msmagazine.com. Support the show (http://msmagazine.com)

One man is dead following a crash and officer shooting in Eastern Henrico; high school football playoff pairings are announced; a sad update to a house fire story from last week; new COVID-19 numbers continue to drop in Henrico; education will be a focal point in the General Assembly.Support the show (http://www.henricocitizen.com/contribute)

In early November, lawmakers at the General Assembly passed the latest version of congressional and state legislative voting maps. But as legislators deliberated over district lines, they used data that included a group who are counted, despite being barred from the ballot box.

Segment 1: NFL Week 8 plus World Series fun as the Braves take down the Astros. Colts – Titans left-handed Wentz mode. Soler drops the MVP hammer. One seriously random Mike White bet. 49ers – Bears, ugly wins, and the upside of getting healthy. Fantasy Team name curses. Separating out the fraudulent NFL teams and setting up the second half push. The 49ers hot seat? The Rams and the Braves go all in. World Series throwdown. A tip of the cap to the Atlanta Braves, overcoming injuries, and celebrating compelling sports stories. Appreciating organizational aggressiveness, calculated moves, and delivering the risk and the reward. Richmond Braves memories. The rise and the fall of the Houston Astros, gamesmanship, and when you go from hero to villain. Brian Snitker dap. Joc Pederson's pearls got to the Hall of Fame. The Henry Ruggs DUI disaster. Radio station memories, van masts, and General Assembly moonshine. Depends, Todd style!     Segment 2 (1.29.00): NFL Week 8. Salud o'clock! Beer phase memories, D-Stat beer goodies, summer game beers, and Logan cranks up the fart gun. Ernie Johnson's son passes away. The OBJ saga in Cleveland, a question of fit, and the Instagram fiasco (OBJ released after we recorded). A Jeremy Shockey throwback. Cowboys – Vikings, Cooper Rush's dad celebrates, and the same old Kirk Cousins. Bengals – Jets, Mike Freaking White, and a garbage helmet to helmet penalty. Packers – Cardinals, AJ Green brain farts, and delivering an absolute meme party. Aaron Rodgers vs COVID, the disingenuous immunized word play, and the opportunity costs for Green Bay. Jordan Love's opportunity and the Rodgers – Favre parallel. The WFT dumpster fire rolls on. Chiefs – Giants. Patriots – Chargers. Bills – Dolphins. Eagles – Lions. Rams – Texans. When it's time to root for your second team. A random Ralph Kiner story. Wrap up. Happy birthday, Todd! MP3 format, 11-04-2021. This is how we Brew it: Join the Brew Crew on Facebook @SportsBrew Twitter: vasportsbrew Find us on Podbean, iTunes, Stitcher Radio, LiveSportscaster.com, Amazon Music, and the Google Play Store - Key words: Sports Brew Cheers and beers flavored by Captain Morgan 100 Proof, Jack Daniel's, Coca-Cola, El Segundo Brewing's Stone Cold Steve Austin's Broken Skull IPA, Hardywood 2021 Gingerbread Stout, Aviator Brewing's Black Mamba Oatmeal Stout, Flying Dog's Pool Hopping Deck Beer, Magic Hat Number 9, and the general deliciousness of beer.

There's a lot of conversation happening about the ethical uses of data and statistics how much weight should we put on numbers at all? How thoroughly should we investigate the methodologies used to create them? And who has access to the data? A special issue of chance focuses on statistics and data science for good and that is the topic of this episode of Stats and Stories with guests Caitlin Augustin and Matt Brems. Caitlin Augustin (@augustincaitlin) is a Senior Director at Datakind and is responsible for delivering DataKind's core offerings, ensuring that high-quality, impactful data science interventions are created in partnership with social sector leaders. Prior to DataKind, Caitlin worked as a research scientist at a digital education company and as an engineering professor at NYU. A lifelong volunteer, she's engaged with Central Florida's nonprofit community and the organizer of the Orlando Lady Developers Meetup.  Matt Brems is Managing Partner + Principal Data Scientist at BetaVector, a data science consultancy. His full-time professional data work spans computer vision, finance, education, consumer-packaged goods, and politics and he earned General Assembly's 2019 "Distinguished Faculty Member of the Year" award. Matt is passionate about mentoring folks in data and tech careers and volunteers for Statistics Without Borders as well as currently serves on their Executive Committee as the Marketing & Communications Director.

Elections bring changes, and fundamental changes will likely come to the way Virginia is governed as Republicans appear to narrowly win all three statewide seats and regain the House of Delegates. Closer to home, Democrats continue to hold all of the seats on the City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. What will the landscape be like as 2022 begins? That’s for another day, for this installment of Charlottesville Community Engagement is solely about election returns:In this newsletter:Republicans narrowly win all three statewide seatsAn incumbent is ousted in the Charlottesville City School Board raceGraham Paige fends off a write-in candidateBob Babyok is defeated in Louisa County, while two Nelson incumbents hold onBut first, a Patreon-fueled shout-out. Colder temperatures are creeping in, and now is the perfect time to think about keeping your family warm through the holidays. Make sure you are getting the most out of your home with help from your local energy nonprofit, LEAP. LEAP wants you and yours to keep comfortable all year round, and offers FREE home weatherization to income- and age-qualifying residents. If you’re age 60 or older, or have an annual household income of less than $74,950, you may qualify for a free energy assessment and home energy improvements such as insulation and air sealing. Sign up today to lower your energy bills, increase comfort, and reduce energy waste at home!*As of this writing, the Virginia Department of Elections website has recorded 2,723 of Virginia’s 2,855 precincts have reported and Republican Glenn Youngkin has 50.68 percent of the vote to 48.55 percent for Democrat Terry McAuliffe. The difference is around 57,000 votes. These results are considered incomplete because qualified absentee ballots can be accepted through noon on November 5 and the results will be certified on November 15. These numbers will change but probably not very much. While none of the results here are technically complete, the Associated Press called the race for Youngkin after midnight last night and he took the stage in victory. “Alrighty Virginia, we won this thing,” Youngkin said. McAuliffe also appeared before supporters but did not offer a concession speech but appeared to continue his campaign for a return to the Governor’s mansion. “When Ralph and I were elected eight years ago, we had made our state open and welcoming but the fight continues,” McAuliffe said. McAuliffe then listed several pieces of his platform.“We are going to continue that fight tonight and every day going forward,” McAuliffee said Youngkin takes over a Commonwealth that appears to be in good financial shape. Unemployment has dropped for sixteen months straight to a September figure of 3.8 percent. Virginia had a $2.6 billion surplus at the end of fiscal year 2021. In his comments, Youngkin called his victory a defining moment that will change the trajectory of the state. “Friends, we are going to start that transformation on day one,” Youngkin said More on that transformation later on in the newsletter If the results hold up, Youngkin will be sworn in on January 15. The 2022 General Assembly will convene three days before. The Republicans appear to have retaken the majority of the House of Delegates with 51 to 49 seats, according to information tallied by the Virginia Public Access Project. (VPAP)The Lieutenant Governor presides over the Senate which did not have an election yesterday and will remain under Democratic control with a majority of 21 seats of 40 seats.Republican Winsome Sears will be the next Lieutenant Governor with 50.82 percent of the vote with Democrat Hala Ayala at 49.08 percent. Sears is the first Black woman to be elected to statewide office in Virginia and she said her victory is the embodiment of the American dream.“When my father came to this country, August 11 of 1963, he came at the height of the civil rights movement from Jamaica,” Sears said “He came and I said to him, it was such a bad time for us. Why did you come? And he said because America was where the jobs and the opportunities were.” For Attorney General, Republican Jason Miyares has 50.49 percent of the vote to incumbent Democrat Mark Herring at 49.43 percent. The Republican ticket carried most localities across rural Virginia. Youngkin carried Nelson County with 55.58 percent of the electorate with all but absentee ballots counted. The Governor-elect also carried Fluvanna with 56.86 percent of the vote. Louisa County also went for Youngkin with 66.28 percent of the vote. The Republican’s margin in Greene County was even higher at 71.86 percent The story is different in Albemarle and Charlottesville. McAuliffe carried Albemarle with 61.86 percent of the vote and Charlottesville with 82.87 percent of the vote.Local racesNow let’s look at local races. In Nelson County, Central District incumbent Democrat Ernie Reed fended off a challenge from Republican Pamela Brice with 50.78 percent of the vote. North District Incumbent Tommy Harvey defeated Democratic challenger Mary Cunningham. Harvey was first elected in 1984. (Nelson results) In Louisa County, incumbent Robert Babyok Jr. appears to have been defeated by challenger Rachel Jones. Jones has 53.2 percent as of production time. (Louisa results)In Albemarle, all three Democrats on the ballot for Supervisor won because they had no opposition. Graham Paige retained his seat representing Samuel Miller on the Albemarle School Board with 73.84 percent over a write-in candidate. (Albemarle results)In the Charlottesville City Council race, Democrat Juandiego Wade got the most votes with 11,582 before the absentee ballots are counted. Democrat Brian Pinkston got 10,041 votes. Independent Yas Washington secured 3,407 votes and withdrawn incumbent Nikuyah Walker got 1,916.  (Charlottesville results)In the School Board race, four-term incumbent Leah Puryear came in fourth, meaning she will not serve a fifth. Incumbent Lisa Larson-Torres got the most votes with 7,329, followed by newcomer Emily Dooley with 6,633, and newcomer Dom Morse with 6,500. Christa Bennett placed fifth with 4,488 votes. In Greene County, Abbey E. Heflin has a close lead over Tina A. Deane in the Stanardsville District race at 960 to 917 votes. Bill Martin opted not to run for re-election. (Greene results)There were no contested races for Supervisor in Fluvanna County. (Fluvanna results)Preparing for the Youngkin administration Back to the Governor-elect. Between now and January 15, Youngkin will appoint candidates to the Secretariats ranging alphabetically from Agriculture and Forestry to Transportation. A new governor will shape the entire tone of state and local government. Youngkin’s victory speech called for new spending.“We will invest the largest education budget in the history of the Commonwealth,” Youngkin said. “We’re going to invest in teachers, new facilities, special education. We’re going to introduce choice within our public school system.” For Youngkin, that means more charter schools and giving parents more control over what is taught in public schools. But the call for spending also came with a call to reduce revenue that comes into the state. “Friends, we will reduce our cost of living on day one,” Youngkin said. “On day one, we will declare the largest tax refund in the history of Virginia.” Among taxes Youngkin wants to reduce is an increase in the Virginia gas tax that passed the General Assembly in 2020, as well as increasing deductions. He also called for more spending on salaries for law enforcement. “We’re going to comprehensively fund law enforcement because they stand up for us and we’re going to stand up for them,” Youngkin said. Younkin also said he would replace all members of the Virginia Parole Board. The governor-elect also promised investments in economic development. This past July, CNBC named Virginia as the number one state in the nation to do business. “We’re going to get this economy moving again, growing 400,000 new jobs, fostering 10,000 start-up,” Youngkin said. “Friends, Virginia will be open for business.”Here’s a quick look at the legislative races that touch Albemarle County: Republican incumbent Chris Runion defeated Democratic challenger Jennifer Kitchen in the 25th District with 62.36 percent to 37.51 percent. Democratic incumbent Sally Hudson fended off Republican challenger Philip Hamilton in the 57th District with 78.37 percent to 21.41 percent.Republican incumbent Rob Bell defeated Democrat Sara Ratcliffe in the 58th District with 63.4 percent of the vote.Republican incumbent Matt Farris won against Democratic Ben Moses with 64.64 percent of the vote. Moses raised over $600,000 in the campaign. Pre-filing for the 2022 General Assembly begins on November 15. Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. So, your $5 a month subscription yields $5 for TCP. Your $50 a year subscription yields $50 for TCP? The same goes for a $200 a year subscription! All goes to cover the costs of getting this newsletter out as often as possible. Learn more here! This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Last week I received an email that included hundreds of pages of emails from the National Partnership, a private group within the PCA that has existed since 2013 and that has been a driving force behind many of the decisions of the Presbyterian Church in America's General Assembly. After spending days pouring through these emails, I sat down at the microphone today to talk about what they reveal about the goings on within the PCA. If you're interested in joining me for a lecture I've been invited to give on Discord, you can do so by following this link.★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Let’s begin today with a Patreon-fueled shout-out! Charlottesville 350 is the local chapter of a national organization that seeks to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. Charlottesville 350 uses online campaigns, grassroots organizing, and mass public actions to oppose new coal, oil and gas projects, and build 100% clean energy solutions that work for all. To learn more about their most active campaigns, including a petition drive to the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, visit their Facebook page at facebook.com/cville350Should Amtraks’s Northeast Regional train make a stop in Bedford? The Charlottesville-Albemarle tourism bureau gets an update on hotel happeningsResidents of the Barracks / Rugby neighborhood will go without water on MondayMonday begins a nearly two-week total shut down of Emmet Street at Ivy Road Vaccinations are coming for children between 5 and 11 If you live in the Barracks / Rugby neighborhood in Charlottesville, be ready for a planned water outage on Monday. A contractor will be working on water infrastructure between Barracks Road and Preston Avenue. City crews will place door hangers on properties that will be affected. The shutdown will be between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m.  (learn more)Monday also marks the beginning of a two-week shut down of Emmet Street at Ivy Road for the installation of a massive piece of stormwater infrastructure. Sunday is the second Halloween of the pandemic, but local health officials aren’t concerned that a return to trick-or-treating will see return of another surge.“It’s really important to recognize and understand that the outdoors in always safer than indoors and so those outdoor activities are really fantastic,” said Dr. Costi Sifri, the director of hospital epidemiology at the University of Virginia Health System. Dr. Sifri said people probably don’t have to disinfect any received treats, but recommended frequent hand washing. He also recommended having children avoid large indoor gatherings and wear masks indoors. Yesterday the Food and Drug Administration Approval approved the Pfizer vaccines for people between 5 and 11. More details on that roll-out will be rolled out next week. “Logistics are being worked out but there’s going to be emphasis of trying to make sure the vaccines that are offered are going to be in places that are child-friendly,” Dr. Sifri said. On Friday, the Virginia Department of Health reported a seven-day average of 1,431 new cases a day and a seven-day percent positivity rate of 5.8 percent. On October 1, that last figure was 8.8 percent. Virginia has also recorded 1,101 COVID deaths in October today. The next new metrics won’t be available until Monday morning. Tourism is one of the region’s largest industries, and the pandemic has shown just how important the sector is to the municipal bottom line. Russ Cronberg has been general manager of the Boar’s Head Resort for the past five years.  He gave a presentation on October 25 to the Board of Directors of the Charlottesville Albemarle Convention and Visitors Bureau. The CACVB markets the region as a tourism destination and is funded by a portion of the transient lodging tax. “We have 3,891 hotel rooms roughly give or take a room or two in our market currently,” Cronberg said. “Our annual occupancy is around 65 percent.”Cronberg said most hotels need between 50 percent and 60 percent occupancy in order to break even, so an average of 65 percent is a sign of health.  He said in a given year, over 1.8 million people stay in hotel rooms in the area.“That is not timeshares, that’s not bed and breakfasts, it’s not our AirBnB’s,” Cronberg said. “That’s strictly just our hotel community.” In the year before the pandemic, Cronberg said hotels brought in nearly $14 million in revenue for Albemarle and around $9 million in Charlottesville. The sector is still slowly rebounding after a time when most travel stopped for a while, and the hotel industry lost millions. “Thankfully for many of the grant programs and other government funding that has helped, city funding, we’ve only lost two hotels to permanent closure but actually we have a couple more than are going to reopen,” Cronberg said. The labor shortage is affecting all sectors, including hospitality. Cronberg said the Boar’s Head over 90 job openings in September, forcing the resort to limit the number of guests. He acknowledged that low wages are part of the problem.“One thing that I’m proud of that has come out of this is that it really has opened the eyes of ownership and maybe operators to really speed up the increases in our industry,” Cronberg said. “And I think it’s a really good thing to get back to more equitable wages.”Cronberg said when he began at Boar’s Head in 2016, housekeepers were getting $8.50 an hour. That’s now been increased to $17 an hour. But to keep that going, the economy still has to make it through the pandemic.“The current COVID environment has continued to provide [difficulties] to navigate, but we in the hotel industry have continued to remain flexible with the priority of security and safety of our team as well as our guests,” Cronberg said.Cronberg said the Charlottesville will have to compete with other destinations around Virginia. “In order to do that, I really think and speaking with operators and other GMs and other hotel owners, we really have to look at the CACVB funding model. It’s not just giving the funding and saying thank you, here you go, but measuring those successes and making sure the thing we are doing are driving occupancy to our area, are driving tourism dollars into the arts and into the historical communities.” Later in the meeting, the CACVB discussed the possibility of changing the representation on the Board of Directors to include more representatives from the industry. Such a move would have to be approved by Charlottesville City Council and the Albemarle Board of Supervisors. Read more about that story in Allison Wrabel’s October 25, 2021 article in the Daily Progress. You’re listening to Charlottesville Community Engagement and time for a second Patreon-fueled shout-out! The Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. The leaves have started to fall as autumn set in, and as they do, this is a good time to begin planning for the spring. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you!(Want a shout-out? Check out Patreon to learn more!)*At the same time the CACVB seeks to compete with other areas within driving distance, another community along the Amtrak line between Roanoke and Washington wants in on the action as well. A group in Bedford has been lobbying for a stop on the service. This past week, officials with the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation reviewed a study on whether that’s feasible and what it would cost. Emily Stock is the manager of rail planning at DRPT. “Our focus is the movement of people and goods throughout the Commonwealth and our primary areas of activity are rail, public transportation, and commuter services,” Stock said.The DRPT began funding regional service in Virginia in the late 2000’s, and the Northeast Regional Service between Lynchburg and Washington’s Union Station began in the fall of 2009. In 2014, DRPT reached agreement with Norfolk Southern to extend passenger service to Roanoke. At that time, the Bedford / Franklin Regional Rail Initiative launched. The Town of Bedford hired a consultant to produce a report in 2016, and the DRPT studied whether there would be enough ridership to support a stop. On October 25, Stock presented the latest report. (watch)“Fast forward to now and we’ve had a few years now under our belt of Roanoke service which has been very helpful to us in projecting potential ridership for Bedford also,” Stock said. But before ridership is considered, the station has to be located on a section of a track within certain parameters. “Norfolk Southern, the host freight railroad, does not allow adjacent high level platforms to their main line tracks,” Stock said. A stop in Bedford would likely be a “caretaker” station and located downtown. Two sites have seen the most study, including the site of a former train depot near the Courthouse. Stock said what would be needed. “A platform with a canopy,” Stock said. “A station building. We’d need enough room for that. Also room for parking, for rental cars, for auto and taxi pick-up drop off.” The courthouse site was dropped from consideration because an at-grade vehicular crossing would have to have been closed to address safety concerns. The alternative is located about a mile west outside of downtown Bedford. “Our cost to construct here would be almost $11 million in 2025 construction dollars and that includes a 40 percent contingency which is standard for this level of design,” Stock said. One consideration while looking at potential ridership is how close Roanoke and Lynchburg are to Bedford. One forecast has found the stop would have 25,400 ons and offs per years, but some of that would take away from nearby stations. The net new riders to the system would be 10,500 per year generated by the Bedford station. The good news for proponents of a Bedford station is that the freight hauler that owns the lines do not have technical objectives. “What we found Norfolk Southern was that they did not see any new material delay for Norfolk Southern operations as a result of a stop in Bedford which is very good news,” Stock said. The report is due to the General Assembly by November 15. Next steps will include federal review under the National Environmental Policy Act and working with the Virginia Passenger Rail Authority on a grant application for the federal funding. “Other good news is that we do expect to start an Amtrak Thruwaybus as a first step,” Stock said. “You may recall that for Roanoke there was a Thruway bus that was operating before any rail service went to Roanoke.”That Thruway service is expected to begin next spring, though a location for the stop has not yet been determined. This service will eventually be extended to Christiansburg, where work is underway to design a passenger rail station to serve the New River Valley. Thanks again for reading!Now, what about supporting the program? Town Crier Productions is open seven days a week to keep up to date with all manner of items. This is the 269th installment of this program, not counting the Week Ahead newsletters. Research is underway to bring even more information to you and the rest of the community.To cover the cost, I need funding. Subscribing through Substack is one way to support this newsletter. Another is to donate through Patreon. There are nearly 100 people who contribute through Patreon each month, making up a good portion of the revenue that supports my ability focus solely on this work. Please visit the site to learn more, and please ask me questions. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

Host Jeff Tiberii discusses the week in North Carolina politics with Aisha Dew and Clark Riemer.

In this episode, taped live at the end of the United Nation's General Assembly meeting, three experts face the challenge of making up ground lost to the pandemic. Measures of wealth, health, education and equity have all been set back. “The world has a lot of work to do,” said co-host Edie Lush. “The pandemic has really set back the cause of human progress in terms of all the metrics around health, and inclusion and gender violence etc. etc. around the world,” reports Gillian Tett, co-founder of Moral Money at the Financial Times. “The reality is that grappling with these challenges and trying to uphold the SDGs now is harder than it was say two years ago in terms of where we are starting.” Co-host Claudia Romo Edelman shares data from the Gates Foundation Goal Keepers report that shows the start of recovery on everything from vaccination rates to total numbers of people caught in extreme poverty. Ivan Weissman, journalist and entrepreneur in South America, said that the pandemic crisis was accelerating the empowerment of women and thus economic recovery from the downturn. He cited, for example, the decision by Argentina to credit the domestic work women do at home when setting their pensions. Anthony Kefalas, Vice chair of the Democracy and Culture Foundation, offered a simple summary of the current challenge: “At the bottom of everything it is the question of inequality.” Rising inequality, compounded by the pandemic, is undermining support for democratic government. “The main problem is to reduce inequality. The corollary to this is that if you don't reduce inequality then you will not be able to operate in a system that you could call liberal capitalism. You can easily go into a system you where you have authoritarian capitalism.” Kefalas, author of the new Athens Charter for Business, said that the end goal of all corporate responsibility efforts must be to reduce inequality.

This is Stephen Schmidt from the Gazette digital news desk and I'm here with your update for Friday, October 29. The 24-hours of rain will finally come to an end early Friday morning. According to the National Weather Service the rain will mostly cease by 7 a.m. After that it will be cloudy, with a high near 53 degrees. It will also be windy, with a north wind of 15 mph gusting as high as 35 mph. Friday night it will be partly cloudy, with a low around 40 degrees. The wind will slow down just a tad, at 10 to 15 mph. Turns out that the second time was the charm for Iowa's Redistricting efforts. After months of political and pandemic-related delays, and the rejection of the first plan for establishing new congressional and legislative election boundaries, the Iowa Legislature approved a redistricting plan Thursday for the next decade. On a 48-1 vote, the Senate approved https://www.legis.iowa.gov/legislation/BillBook?ga=89&ba=SF621 (Senate File 621 )to create new congressional and legislative districts. The House followed suit 93-2, with five legislators absent. Although the consensus is that the plan is GOP-friendly, Senate Democrats said they backed it because it meets the requirements of Iowa law and the state's constitution. Also completed Thursday were some minor protections for workers who lose their jobs after resisting mandatory vaccinations.  These Iowans would still be able to collect unemployment benefits under legislation passed by the General Assembly and headed to Gov. Kim Reynolds for her expected signature. Iowa Republicans said Thursday that ideally they would like to do more to allow people to resist mandatory COVID-19 vaccination, but this appeared to be the most they could do without risking a legal challenge. Hunter Companies has withdrawn its preliminary subdivision plat for the former Transamerica site, saying it wants to gather more neighborhood input. Plans for the 51-acre site on Edgewood Road NE had been scheduled to come before the City Planning Commission on Thursday afternoon Hunter Companies is buying the land from Transamerica and pursuing a mixed-use development there. Neighbors concerned about the project created an active Facebook groupto make their concerns known. It had 129 members as of Thursday afternoon. Organizer Dave Watson said he thinks Hunter is a great option to develop the property but he wants the developer to work with the neighborhood. The list of concerns include saving trees, retaining retention ponds, providing more green space as part of the development; and worries about increased traffic. When it comes to drinking water, several Iowa communities have high-quality H2O, says a panel of celebrity judges. But none better, apparently, than the defending champions, Keokuk. The Iowa chapter of the American Water Works Association held a blind taste test Wednesday at the Double Tree convention complex to determine which Iowa community offers the best-tasting drinking water. Cedar Rapids was this year's host city. Keokuk's water emerged at the top of a sample of seven Iowa cities' drinking water. The entries were judged on appearance, odor, taste and aftertaste by a panel of local media personalities, special guests and a host city representative. This event was part of the association's annual conference. Are you a fan of trying in new restaurants? Get the latest restaurant openings & closings and more chewy tips from The Gazette's Chew On this newsletter. Sign up at http://thegazette.com/ (thegazette.com) slash chew  Be sure to subscribe to The Gazette Daily news podcast, or just tell your Amazon Alexa enabled device to “enable The Gazette Daily News skill" so you can get your daily briefing by simply saying “Alexa, what's the news? If you prefer podcasts, you can also find us on iTunes or wherever else you find your Podcasts. Support this podcast

State Rep. Kam Buckner (D-Chicago) joins Anna to talk about the “Springfield Surprise” that greeted him this morning and what other bills have passed through the General Assembly during the fall veto session. Rep Buckner also talks about why he believes the Bears should continue to play football in Chicago.

Now, a conversation about a dispute over the Harford County Health Department's handling of the COVID 19 pandemic. Dr. David Bishai is a public health expert on the adjunct faculty of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He was abruptly removed as the County's Health Officer last Friday. We will hear from Dr. Bishai later in the program, but first, we're joined by Maryland's 7th District Delegate Lauren Arikan, the Republican Deputy Minority Whip in the General Assembly, who represents Harford and Baltimore Counties. Last May, Del. Arikan began calling for Dr. Bishai's removal. She joins us on Zoom to explain why. Then we're joined by Dr. David Bishai,who discusses his year-long service to Harford County's public health and anti-COVID efforts, and his sudden and unexplained termination by the county council last week.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

SPC is excited to host a lecture series that will continue our anti-racist faith formation. An Anti-Racist Faith seeks to inform and undergird the work to which we are called, opposing racism endemic to our society, while promoting racial tolerance that strengthens the fabric of our common life. From a policy statement adopted in 1999 by the General Assembly of the PC(USA), entitled Facing Racism, “We believe antiracist efforts are an essential aspect of Christian discipleship, without which we fail to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. We believe our work is inherently intersectional in dismantling all systems of oppression, and so, we desire to come together in ways that can transform lives and perpetuate values that will change both church and society.” To this end, we've invited speakers with expertise in biblical studies, Presbyterian church history, liturgy and theology, to bring this anti-racist work into conversation with Scripture, church and denominational history, and our practice of worship.   William Yoo is Associate Professor of American Religious and Cultural History and Director of the Master of Divinity Program at Columbia Theological Seminary. He is the author of American Missionaries, Korean Protestants, and the Changing Shape of World Christianity and editor of The Presbyterian Experience in the United States: A Sourcebook. He is currently writing a book on the history of slavery and anti-Black racism in Presbyterianism in the United States.

The new Colorado House and Senate maps could shift legislative battlegrounds to some new parts of the state. The fiercest fights for control of the General Assembly used to be mostly in the Denver area, but that could change if the legislative maps are upheld by the state Supreme Court. Today, Colorado Sun reporter Olivia Prentzel talks with politics reporter Jesse Paul about the four most competitive House districts and four most competitive Senate districts. Learn more at Coloradosun.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Our guest today is Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, Mercedes is focused on education and consumer early stage investing. Previously she was working in VR and a General Manager at General Assembly.In this episode, we explore how EdTech is shifting and giving more power to parents and students. We look at social learning and gaming, which together offer a lot of promise for the future of education.Here are some resources mentioned in our discussion: (links)Mercedes' post about the Lightspeed EdTech Portfolio - https://mercedesbent.co/2021/02/24/lightspeeds-edtech-portfolio/Mercedes post about 3 trends that are here to stay - https://mercedesbent.co/2021/08/03/edtech-post-pandemic-3-trends-here-to-stay/Fiveable and StudyStream are some social learning startups mentioned by Mercedes - https://fiveable.me, https://www.studystream.liveMercedes on the Ventures Stories podcast - https://soundcloud.com/venturestories/the-state-and-future-of-edtechWhere to learn more about Mercedes:Twitter - https://twitter.com/mercebentPersonal Website - https://mercedesbent.co/Lightspeed Ventures - https://lsvp.comWhere to learn more about Enrollhand: Website - www.enrollhand.comWebinar - https://webinar-replay.enrollhand.comOur free Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/schoolgrowth/

In today’s first subscriber supported Public Service Announcement, one person wants you to know about another community litter cleanup event in Albemarle, this time on October 30 in the southern part of the county. The latest Love Albemarle event will take place between 8:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. at sites in Esmont, Keene, Scottsville, and North Garden. Around fifty people showed up for a similar event in Esmont this past spring, and organizers want to double that amount. Organizer Ed Brooks is seeking to get children involved, so if you’re a parent or guardian and want to spend the morning cleaning up road-side litter, register today! On this edition of the program:A host of development updates in Albemarle County, including a mixed-use development in the Broadway BlueprintThe Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association releases its annual awardsEmmet Street at Ivy Road to be closed for nearly two weeks for stormwater projectChris Greene Lake reopens to dogs after a month’s closureA suspicious item is found at Charlottesville’s federal courtFire crews and police officers responded last night to reports of a suspicious item at the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in downtown Charlottesville, but the item was determined by the Virginia State Police to be of no threat. The area was closed from 6:45 p.m. to around 8:30 p.m. according to a release from the city’s communications office.The incident comes just three days before a trial gets underway in the federal cases against multiple organizers involved in the August 12 Unite the Right rally. The lawsuit was filed four years ago and seeks damages based on an 1871 civil rights law as well as a prevention of future rallies. Defendants include Jason Kessler, Richard Spencer, and Christopher Cantwell, among others. The trial begins Monday morning. (read more in the University of Michigan’s Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse)The water at Chris Greene Lake Park has been reopened to dogs and people. Albemarle issued an advisory in late September after tests reported elevated levels of harmful algae. There have been two consecutive tests which have indicated water quality has returned to normal levels. A release announcing the reopening went out Friday afternoon. Emmet Street will be fully closed between Ivy Road and Rothery Road for nearly two weeks between November 1 and November 12. Traffic will be detoured along Massie Road and Copeley Road. According to a release, the roadway will be shut to allow for installation of a large stormwater utility structure across Emmet Street. Pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and transit-riders are warned of potential delays. “Please expect traffic backups along the detour route and if possible, utilize Rt 250 or other city streets to bypass the area,” reads the release. “Pedestrians will be detoured through the UVA site along the parking garage service road.” The school superintendent in Nelson County has announced she will step down next June 30. The Lynchburg News Advance reports that Martha Eagle has plans to retire after a 32-year career in the Nelson school system. Nelson County has 1,520 students and more than 300 employees. (read the article)The Virginia Chapter of the American Planning Association has released its awards for 2021 at a hybrid conference in Roanoke. Senator Lynwood Lewis (D-6) received the Cardinal Award for his role as a legislator, singling out key pieces of legislation that were signed into law in the from the past year.SB1350: Requires the Commonwealth Transportation Board to incorporate resiliency into project selection processSB1374: Establishes a carbon sequestration task force which must report before 2022 General Assembly  SB1389: Requires landowners whose properties are prone to flooding to report that risk to potential buyersSB1404: Adjustments to the Stormwater Local Assistance Fund to clarify intent to reduce nitrogen and phosphorous reduction Fairfax County won the Commonwealth Plan of the year for its Zoning Ordinance Modernization Project, which cut the length of those regulations in half.“The new streamlined ordinance is half the size of the previous Ordinance from 1978, which was accomplished through elimination of repetition and use of easy-to-understand language, graphics, and figures,” reads the award’s write-up.The city of Norfolk won three awards for three projects. OpenNorfolk is an initiative that helped businesses connect with customers during the pandemic. Norfolk also created a Missing Middle Pattern Book to explain how additional density could be achieved in single-family neighborhoods. The Norfolk Thrive plan presents a vision for how to extend urban development in the coastal city from the Harbor Park ballpark to Norfolk State University. The latter won the APA’s Resilient Virginia Community of the Year. Other awards include:Williamsburg Planning Director Carolyn Murphy won the Outstanding Service AwardThe Edge District between York County, James City County, and the City of Williamsburg won the Holzheimer Economic Development Award Frederick County won the Commonwealth Connectors Award and planner John Bishop won the Outstanding Service Award for the Crossover Boulevard project, which is a new four-lane roadway in WinchesterIn today’s Patreon-fueled shout-out is for the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Campaign, an initiative that wants you to grow native plants in yards, farms, public spaces and gardens in the northern Piedmont. The leaves have started to fall as autumn set in, and as they do, this is a good time to begin planning for the spring. Native plants provide habitat, food sources for wildlife, ecosystem resiliency in the face of climate change, and clean water.  Start at the Plant Northern Piedmont Natives Facebook page and tell them Lonnie Murray sent you!Time now for a round up of various developments in Albemarle County. Developer Alan Cadgene has filed plans with Albemarle County for a mixed-use development to be built on a 1.36 acre property just to the northwest of the redeveloped Woolen Mills factory. The proposal is for a 2,500 square foot manufacturing buildings with 13 dwelling units. The project is being submitted by-right. “[That] means that if the proposed plans meet the minimum requirements of the county’s zoning, site plan, or subdivision ordinances, they must be approved,” reads the public notification for the project.The county’s Comprehensive Plan designates the land as Neighborhood Density Residential which calls for between three and six units per acre. According to the project application, the residential density on the site be 9.55 units per acre. An existing structure on the property would remain. This is within the scope of the county’s Broadway Blueprint planning area. That’s being run by the county’s Economic Development Office. Elsewhere in the county, plans have been filed for 250 units along Rio Road near Four Seasons. Andy Reitelbach is a senior planner with the county. “So the application is called the Heritage on Rio,” Retelbach said.The property is within the jurisdiction of the Places29-Hydraulic Community Advisory Committee, which had a community meeting on a rezoning application for the project on October 18. “Sometimes the current zoning and the future land use designation do not always line up so that is one reason why a property owner may choose to request a rezoning of their property,” Reitelbach said. In this case, the request is to go from R-6 zoning to a customized zone known as a Planned Residential Development. That would allow up to 35 units per acre as well as some commercial uses. The buildings have not been designed, according to attorney Valerie Long with the firm Williams Mullen. The Architectural Review Board will also weigh in on the project as Rio Road is an entrance corridor. “The project is proposing that 15 percent of the rezoned units will be affordable to those making up to 80 percent of the area median income,” Long said. By-right there could be 50 units on the property, so that translates to 15 percent of 200, or 30 units. The Places29-North Community Advisory Committee met on October 14 and one topic was an update on the Brookhill development south of Forest Lakes and north of Polo Grounds Road. Cameron Langille is another planner in Albemarle. (watch the meeting)“Brookhill was rezoned by the Board of Supervisors in 2016,” Langille said. “Brookhill totals 277.5 acres so it is a pretty large project. It’s going to be developed in multiple phases and the rezoning referred to each of those phases as blocks.”Brookhill is a mixed-use development that must have at least 552 residential units and a maximum of 1,550 units. These include apartments, townhomes, and single-family homes. Langille said the developer could have constructed many more under the Comprehensive Plan but opted to go at a lower density. Final approval so far has been granted for 535 total dwelling unitsBlock 1 is the center of the development. “There’s going to be also a public park and a plaza gathering area, and that is going to be the primary focal point for non-residential uses in this project,” Langille said. Some blocks have been approved and constructed, while others are working their way through the review process. Block 8A consists of a 179-bed assisted living facility which is nearing opening. Block 1A and Block 8B consist of multifamily units that look like townhomes but contain more units. A site plan had been submitted for a hockey rink in the town center. “That plan got to the final site plan stage which is basically the last thing they have to do application wise before they get final approval,” Langille said. “We were reviewing that back in 2018 and from what the developer has told me it’s not going to be build in that block any longer. They are still working with the folks who are looking to do that ice rink and they are potentially going to relocate it a little further north on the north side of the town center area.”Allison Wrabel of the Daily Progress reported in February 2020 that the park had been delayed. A group called Friends of the Charlottesville Ice Park had been fundraising for the project. The website for the group has expired. Special announcement of a continuing promo with Ting! Are you interested in fast internet? Visit this site and enter your address to see if you can get service through Ting. If you decide to proceed to make the switch, you’ll get:Free installationSecond month of Ting service for freeA $75 gift card to the Downtown MallAdditionally, Ting will match your Substack subscription to support Town Crier Productions, the company that produces this newsletter and other community offerings. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at communityengagement.substack.com/subscribe

In 2015, Virginia's General Assembly passed a law that barred state regulators from looking at the financial records kept by the state's largest utility – Dominion.  This year the books were open, and customers will be paying a little less for power as Sandy Hausman reports.

Welcome back to the Brutal South podcast, Episode 27.I guess this was inevitable: We're going to talk about critical race theory, both as an actual framework for understanding the world and as a mostly unrelated buzzword that conservatives have been screeching about nonstop since this summer.It's been more than 3 months since I put out an episode, and customarily this is where I as a podcast host would apologize or make some retroactive announcement that this is actually season 2 or whatever. Honestly I was just busy and tired. But I'm glad to be back at it, and this was a banger of a topic to jump back in on. I wrapped up recording with my guests the other night and I remembered what a joy this was — learning, talking to people, expanding my horizons.My guests today are AJ Davis (@Anjene1976) and Dr. Davíd G. Martínez (@FromFireToTable). AJ is an educator and community education advocate here in Charleston County, and Davíd is an assistant professor in the College of Education at my alma mater, the University of South Carolina, where he studies education funding and policy. I brought them on because they each had a unique perspective on this latest right-wing freakout from their vantage points in K-12 and higher education, respectively. I also knew them a little bit from my previous work as an education reporter in South Carolina, and they're the kind of people I would interview and think, "Man, I wish everybody could hear this entire conversation."One piece of reporting I did during my podcast hiatus was an August 25 piece in the newsletter called “Blueprint for a race panic." Basically, I was trying to figure out why and how South Carolina's superintendent of education, Molly Spearman, put out a blanket condemnation of "critical race theory" earlier this year, so I put in a Freedom of Information request for her emails on the subject, fought back against some petty price gouging for public records, raised the money to pay for the records, and put them all out there for anyone to read. Here's one of the truly unhinged constituent emails she received on May 22:Critical race theory is already in our schools. It is absurd that it even exist … It’s time to stand and do what we are paying you to do. LETS DO IT TOGETHER AND RALLY PARENTS UP TO BACK US ON IT!!!!!! FIRE ALL PRINCIPALS AND TEACHERS THAT BELIEVE IN ALL THIS CRAP!! FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE THEM ALL FIRE THEM ALL NOW MAKE THEM WORK IN A BLUE STATE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE FIRE THEM ALL!!!!!  NOW!!!!!!So, these are the kind of philosopher kings we're dealing with right now, and that's the tenor of the public debate we are trying to intervene in today.One bill I'll be keeping an eye on come January 2022 is South Carolina House Bill 4325, which states that public schools may not "direct or otherwise compel students to personally affirm, adopt, or adhere to the tenets of critical race theory." This slapdash reactionary bill was introduced this May and is sitting in the Education and Public Works Committee right now waiting for the General Assembly to come back. Its sponsors include Rep. Rita Allison, the chairwoman of the Education and Public Works Committee.Folks, I don't love it, and I'd love it if you joined me in raising holy hell about this obvious attempted censorship.***The episode art is “Three Woman Figures” (1930) by Kazimir Malevich. The theme music for the podcast is “Crooked Cross” from the album Words Are Fragile Vessels by my band, The Camellias, which you can stream or purchase at camellias.bandcamp.com.Brutal South is an independent podcast and newsletter recorded, written, and produced by me, Paul Bowers, at home in lovely North Charleston, South Carolina. If you would like to support this work and get access to some exclusive content as well as some cool vinyl stickers that I'll send you in the mail, subscriptions are $5 a month at brutalsouth.substack.com/subscribe. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at brutalsouth.substack.com/subscribe

In this edition of the podcast, Zack Groff discusses the 48th Stated Meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America -PCA- with Dr. Robert Cathcart of Friendship Presbyterian Church -Hickory Tavern, SC-.

The difference in votes between Del. Roxann Robinson (R-HD27) and her Democratic opponent for the last two elections combined is 317 votes. But after losing by 189 votes in 2019, Democrats are hoping that their efforts this year will help them defeat Robinson, the Chesterfield district's representative in the House since 2010. Chesterfield has been trending left in recent years with a blue wave in 2017 and 2019 that resulted in 21 House seats flipping from Republican to Democrat. But while momentum was on their side with Donald Trump in office, Democrats were still unable to win in this district. Debra Gardner is the candidate looking to get them over the hump this year, even as strategists fear lower Democratic turnout across the commonwealth. Gardner began her career as a social worker and eventually worked at state agencies serving as a liaison to the General Assembly. “I have spent my 30-year career working to help marginalized communities, advocating for fair and equal rights for everybody and just trying to make the quality of life better for the people in my community,” Gardner said in an interview with Virginia Scope Tuesday. Her plan for making up the small margin of votes that Democrats have repeatedly lost by is to increase the number of voters participating in the next election. “I started out by trying to bring more voters into the fold because, in all honesty, this is a 50/50 district,” Gardner said. “So what we needed to do in my opinion was expand our voter base.”  She says her campaign has been assisted by the grassroots activists in Liberal Women of Chesterfield County (LWCC), a group that grew to prominence under the leadership of Kim Drew Wright when she began meetings after Trump's election. LWCC's membership expanded quickly and mobilized to help both the Democrats in 2017 and Abigail Spanberger in 2018 as she won a historically Republican congressional district. The group is still functioning today, knocking doors and writing postcards for Democrats across the area. “We have mobilized that contingency of LWCC and got them out knocking doors,” Gardner said. “We have one of the most extensive postcard writing organizations that is out here.”She also noted that the Texas abortion ban that went into effect last month really helped motivate Democrats and galvanize the grassroots. “Choice is a major issue in this area,” Gardner said of tracking polls from the district.Republicans are optimistic heading into the November statewide elections after losing the previous two governor races. Additionally, the Democrats have won every Senate race during the same time period, leaving Republicans in a statewide victory drought since 2009. But with two years of complete Democratic control in the state government and a Democratic White House, Republicans hope the enthusiasm on their side can help them make up for the 10 points that Biden defeated Trump by last year. The GOP ticket has narrowed its focus on education issues in the suburbs. “​​If this election is about the battle for the suburbs, Chesterfield county is Ground Zero,” said Richard Meagher, associate professor of political science at Randolph Macon College. “This race is really about the broader political environment. If the Republicans have any hope of winning in this state in the future, then this is exactly the kind of race they need to win.” 

In this edition of the podcast, Zack Groff discusses the 48th Stated Meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) with Dr. Robert Cathcart of Friendship Presbyterian Church (Hickory Tavern, SC).

Joe and the audience get into it over yet another thing the character assassination of Trump and the abandonment of GOP offices in Virginia that it caused has allowed to come to pass...  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

First, the supply lines are getting crunched and that's leading to shortages of everything from Lunchables to auto parts. Next, Attorney General Herring is prosecuting two companies for stealing wages owed to workers building the new General Assembly. Unions want "general contractor liability" so there's greater incentive for employers to ensure their subcontractors deal honestly with their workers on construction projects. Finally, Gonzi Aida is with the VA Independent Auto Dealers. He discusses the economic realities for mom & pop auto dealers and the reasons for rise of catalytic converter thefts.Subscribe for more.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/transitionva
Transcript: www.transitionva.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TransitionVA/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/transitionvapodcast/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/transitionva
Email: transitionvapodcast@gmail.com

Today I'm pleased to introduce you to Nikki Nash, a Hay House author, an international speaker, and marketing mentor for women entrepreneurs. In this interview: The truth about being a start-up entrepreneur and how your corporate background can be a great head start. What is the Genius Profit Lab and how Nikki helps women build profitable business from their experiences and expertise. What does a soul-aligned marketing plan mean to Nikki. Positioning yourself as an expert in the industry with Nikki's C.A.R.R. method Shiny object syndrome and how to overcome it. Her book Market Your Genius and what you can learn from it. Her book Market Your Genius provides entrepreneurs with the strategies and skills they need to get more dream clients in their business. As host of the Market Your Genius podcast and founder of the Genius Profit Lab, Nikki helps women build a profitable business from their experiences and expertise. Known for empowering people to quit making excuses and start going after their dreams, Nikki uses her extensive business and personal development background to help women create a business and a life they are MADLY in love with. Prior to entrepreneurship, Nikki served as a lead marketing instructor for General Assembly, Head of Marketing at tech startup Rest Devices, Senior Marketing Manager at Intel Corporation where she won the Marketing Excellence Award, Brand Management MBA Intern at The CocaCola Company, and Media Planner and Buyer at advertising agency Publicis Worldwide on the Kraft Foods Account. She has also worked for brands such as InStyle, Travel + Leisure, and Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. “If you are a solo-preneur or an entrepreneur with a small- to medium-sized team, your marketing plan should be aligned with what brings you joy.” —Nikki Nash Let's meet Nikki Nash Nikki Nash Show Notes

VCFamilia member Rebecca Danta is the Managing Director of Miami Angels, the largest angel network in Florida, which funds pre-seed and seed software companies with early traction across various sectors. Miami Angels has deployed $18M into 33 companies since 2014, and Rebecca built a sustainable, independent business model for the organization. Prior to joining Miami Angels, Rebecca managed global campus operations for General Assembly in New York City, the first accelerated learning provider, and the "Top Most Innovative Company in Education" per Fast Company. General Assembly had a successful exit in 2018. Prior to that, Rebecca worked at Macy's in their Executive Development Program. Rebecca is a Miami native and passionate about investing into markets and teams that are often overlooked in traditional venture capital. She serves on the board of the Florida Venture Forum and is a Class XI member of Miami Fellows. https://www.miamiangels.vc/team

In this episode, Vincent and Amanda talk about what it means to be a design leader. Vincent shares what he's noticed in helping hundreds of designers successfully break into the UX industry. Vincent Brathwaite is a Caribbean American multi-disciplinary design leader, educator, speaker, and husband to Magalie Lachoua. He's a visionary with a keen ability for assessing an idea's potential and bringing its possibilities to life. His passion is to build bridges between cultures and unite people by their common thread. For the past two decades, he has worked to transform communities through disruptive design methodologies. A process he learned by studying Industrial Design at Rhode Island School of Design, Product Design at Strate School of Design (Paris), Product Development at MIT, and Project Management and Data Analytics at General Assembly. He successfully executed projects for Red Bull, IBM, Caruso Affiliated, Tides Foundation, Diaspora Vibe Cultural Arts Incubator, Morehouse College, the US Dept. of Energy Georgia, and various companies in the social impact space. He's taught over 250 individuals UX Design as an adjunct professor at Rhode Island School of Design and lead instructor at General Assembly combined. He's written articles of advanced UX topics for the Adobe XD blog “XD Ideas”. As a speaker, Vincent has inspired thousands of designers and entrepreneurs at virtual and in person conferences. Some of them include the UX India Conference, UX Strat Online Conference, DesignOps Summit, Dribble: Hangtime Conference, National Urban League Conference, and TEDx Crenshaw. In all that he does, Vincent is led by the following core principles; integrity, empathy, kindness, courage, and resilience. Links: Visit Vincent's website: https://vincentjbrathwaite.com Say hello to Vincent on social media: @vjbrathwaite Ready to Marie Kondo your UX Portfolio? UX Portfolio PowerPlay™ is now on pre-sale until October 15th at midnight!: Sign up here: https://uxhustle.org/uxppp --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/uxhustle/support

 This is an interview from Henrico County Democratic Committee Chairman Marques Jones with Del. Lamont Bagby (D-HD74) and Brandon Jarvis covering redistricting and the November elections. Bagby is the chairman of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus and opposed the Redistricting Commission that was ultimately approved by the General Assembly and Virginia's voters. The Commission recently reached an impasse and was unable to agree on any set of General Assembly legislative maps. The task will now be up to the Virginia Supreme Court to draw state Senate and House of Delegates maps.

Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Rich Anderson says that he believes the energy on the ground for his party is greater than it was in 2009, the last time Virginia Republicans won a statewide race. Joe Biden won by 10-points in Virginia last year. “I do believe that we are going to have a clean sweep,” Anderson said in an interview Monday. “It feels very similar to 2009 and it was in 2009 that I was elected to the House of Delegates along with a substantially large freshman class. That was year one of the Obama presidency — Republicans were fired up and turned out.” The comparison is noteworthy due to Virginia's historical nature of electing a governor that is from the party that is opposite of the one in control of the White House. Terry McAuliffe broke that trend when he narrowly defeated Ken Cuccinelli in 2013 to earn his first term as governor. McAuliffe is now seeking to do the same thing eight years later. His Republican opponent, Glenn Youngkin, is trying to unite his party as one against McAuliffe and Democratic control in the General Assembly. Polling is showing a tight race this year and Republicans say they are seeing a swell of enthusiasm on the ground. “I am seeing this tremendous enthusiasm,” Anderson said noting that he has watched since the early summer as the crowd size, enthusiasm, energy, and engagement have grown to be “literally off the charts.”But a ten-point deficit from one year ago is quite the hill to climb for Republicans to win this November. “I am a state party chairman so I am not going to say it doesn't worry me - it is something to be considered and factored,” Anderson said about the climb. “What we can do is focus on the future. I am not too fixated on last year.” 

Now, a look at the problem of gerrymandering, or partisan redistricting, the widespread practice in the United States by which the political party in control of a state legislature redraws election-district boundaries to favor the election or re-election of that party's candidates. The Maryland General Assembly is scheduled to convene a special session in early December to consider a new congressional district map. Maryland law says that General Assembly districts must be re-drawn during the regular session, which begins in January. Many states have formed commissions intended to take partisanship out of the redistricting process. Here in Maryland, politics are far from out of the process. We have not one, but two commissions, one formed by Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, and the other put together by the Democratic controlled legislature. The Hogan-appointed Maryland Citizens Redistricting Commission is holding virtual public meetings every Wednesday night this month to gather input about a draft of how a Congressional district map might look. They have published a draft of a possible map, and have invited comment. The Legislative Redistricting Advisory Commission, convened by Democratic leaders in the General Assembly is holding a series of a dozen meetings for community input through the middle of November. They have opted not to publish any drafts of maps they are considering. For a big picture look, we turn now to the journalist and author David Daley. He's a former editor-in-chief of Salon, and the author of two books about gerrymandering, the latest of which is called Unrigged: How Americans Are Battling Back to Save Democracy. He's also a Senior Fellow at FairVote, a non-profit that advocates for election reform. Daley published an essay in the NY Times on September 29th that cautioned that partisan politics has not been erased from the redistricting process, even in states that have independent commissions formed to keep partisanship out of it. And he suggests some alternatives that could ensure more fair and democratic elections Dave Daley joins us on Zoom from Western Massachusetts. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hospitals across the country, and in Virginia, are facing an influx of COVID-positive patients, the majority of whom are unvaccinated; Hundreds of Virginia healthcare workers have been suspended or fired for not following hospital COVID-19 vaccination mandates; Virginia's new redistricting commission is hearing feedback this week on new political maps for the General Assembly; and other local news stories.

So you're thinking about starting a podcast.Maybe you want to expand your audience, or maybe you want to build an audience and create authority to support your online business. Both are great reasons to get into podcasting.So what's holding you back?In today's episode, Melissa Guller of Wit & Wire joins me to talk about strategies for starting and marketing a podcast, from the planning you need to do to marketing strategies. And we'll break down misconceptions about the charts, market saturation and why you don't need a ton of equipment or technical know-how to hit record.Melissa Guller is a course creator, podcast producer, and the CEO of Wit & Wire, where she helps online business owners build their authority and reach a wider audience through podcasting. Bigger picture, Melissa loves to teach entrepreneurs. She's a top-rated instructor on Skillshare and in person at General Assembly, and she previously worked full-time for Ramit Sethi and Teachable. She's helped over 2,000 podcasting students through her Wit & Wire online courses, and she's on a mission to help more diverse business owners earn money online doing work they love.Listen to the full episode to hear:Three reasons to start a podcast even if you don't have a large followingHow to use seasons as part of your marketing, to test content, or to give yourself a breakWhy you need to be strategic about choosing your category and what charting means for your podcastThe difference between owned media and earned media and which one you should focus on for growthHow to pitch yourself as a guest on someone else's podcast and invite guests to your ownLearn more about Melissa:Wit & WireInstagram: @WitAndWireWit & Wire on Pinterest Wit & Wire PodcastLearn more about Gillian:Startup SocietyGet on the waitlist for VALIDATEProfit Planning ChallengeGet in touch!Resources:The Best Podcast Microphones for Any BudgetFREE How to Launch a Podcast in 60 Days Without Feeling Overwhelmed

To support this ministry financially, visit: https://www.oneplace.com/donate/1479/29 This week we'll discuss the newest technology which very well may aide the work of the final antichrist. We'll also talk about many of the things that came from the U.N. General Assembly and much more.

First up: Thousands of Haitian migrants are gathering at the U.S.-Mexico border. We'll break down why they're there and why the U.S. government's response is stirring up controversy. Then: We've got the latest on Pfizer's vaccine for kids under 12, new rules for travelers entering the U.S.., Canada's elections, and the first legal challenges to the new abortion law in Texas. ICYMI: This week, we listened in on world leaders having a real life reunion at the U.N. General Assembly. We've got the details on their discussions. Plus: We've heard a lot of warnings lately about the U.S. hitting its “debt ceiling.” We'll break down what the debt ceiling is, why it exists, and how Congress is responding. Next: The U.S. is facing a childcare shortage. And a nursing shortage. We'll take a deep dive into both industries and explore why solving these staffing shortages won't be easy.  Finally: The 2021 Emmys kicked off this year's awards season. We'll discuss the highs, lows, and expectations for other awards shows.   To share your story from the front lines of the childcare and nursing industries, leave us a voicemail at (646) 461-6370. On this episode, you'll hear from:  Lindsey Harris, president, Alabama State Nurses Association Heather Long, economics correspondent, The Washington Post Bridget Armstrong, senior audio producer, theSkimm, host of “Pop Cultured with theSkimm” Want more Skimm?  Sign up for our free daily newsletter Email us your questions about what's going on in the news right now  Subscribe and leave us a review wherever you get your podcasts Skimm'd by Alex Carr, Luke Vargas, and Ciara Long, with help from Sagine Corrielus. Engineered by Andrew Callaway. TheSkimm's head of audio is Graelyn Brashear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Addressing the U.N. General Assembly, Biden pledges "relentless diplomacy" and support for human rights, but the Taliban aren't listening. Plus, a deal to build nuclear submarines for Australia upsets the French. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Agnes Kalibata, UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy to the 2021 Food Systems Summit, talks about the aim of the Food Systems Summit, taking place during this year's General Assembly.

We've hit once again another grim milestone in the pandemic. Next, we unpack some terrifying photos of United States ICE agents using whips to control Haitian migrants at the southern border, before covering the General Assembly gathering in NYC this week, and an update on the case of Gabby Petito. Lastly, we wrap with what you should know about the Johnson and Johnson's booster shots. Resources/Articles mentioned in this episode: NPR: “COVID-19 Has Now Killed About As Many Americans As The 1918-19 Flu” NPR: “U.S. Border Agents Chased Migrants On Horseback. A Photographer Explains What He Saw” NY Times: “U.N. Live Updates: Biden Pledges to Work Toward ‘Peaceful, Prosperous Future For All'” CNN: “Autopsy confirms remains found in Wyoming are Gabby Petito's, FBI says” Washington Post: “Second dose of Johnson & Johnson vaccine increases protection against covid-19, maker says”

“You don't have to be big to make a difference.” While sprinting between leaders on Day 2 at the UN General Assembly, Ryan Heath sits down 1-on-1 with Hungary's foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, and Estonia's president, Kersti Kaljulaid. Also: if you have the time, we're trying to learn more about our listeners. We'd appreciate it if you're able to take our short survey.  Ryan Heath is the host of the "Global Insider" podcast and newsletter.  Péter Szijjártó is the foreign minister of Hungary.  Kersti Kaljulaid is the president of Estonia.  Olivia Reingold produces “Global Insider.”  Irene Noguchi edits “Global Insider” and is the executive producer of POLITICO Audio.  You can subscribe to Ryan's “Global Insider” newsletter here. And check out POLITICO's other newsletters:  China Watcher West Wing Playbook Playbook Nightly Corridors EU's Brussels Playbook Morning Tech Morning Energy Weekly Shift

What are the most urgent issues world leaders will tackle at the U.N. General Assembly this year? And why did a Senate parliamentarian, the referee of Senate rules, knock immigration out of a budget bill? Plus, revelations from a new book about former President Donald Trump.