A Letter of Support For Magruder For Delegate

From email:

Dear voters,

Just under a week till Election Day! In this moment of historic crisis and unprecedented resistance, I urge you to join me in supporting a powerhouse candidate in Virginia: Montigue Magruder for Virginia House of Delegates. Montigue’s campaign can make a major breakthrough for revolutionary Green politics.

As U.S. empire teeters at the brink and the neoliberal order unravels, people are rising up to demand an America and a world that works for all of us – defying disaster capitalism in climate-change ravaged Puerto Rico and beyond, giving sanctuary to our undocumented neighbors, standing against police brutality and white supremacy, demanding a war-time mobilization for renewable energy and regenerative agriculture, calling for health care, education and jobs as human rights, opposing catastrophic wars from Yemen to Korea, and so much more.

As Republicans continue their unabashed assault, the Democratic establishment is fighting its own progressives as much as it’s fighting Trump – blocking single payer healthcare in California, supporting a Congressional military budget even larger than Trump’s, refusing to ban corporate money from the DNC and just last week purging Sanders supporters from party leadership.

A new poll shows a record 61% of Americans want a new major party to represent them. Inspirational Green candidates have stepped forward to meet the urgent need. Among them, Montigue Magruderis a strong contender for whom your support could make the critical difference.

Montigue Magruder is running for Virginia House of Delegates District 69. A working-class Virginia native who has lived in Richmond since he was 10, Montigue has experienced poverty, homelessness, incarceration, and domestic violence through his life. He was inspired to political activism in 2010 when he joined a movement opposing fare increases on Richmond’s public transit system. His struggles and his work with people-powered organizations cultivated his philosophy of providing everyone a life of dignity and love from birth until death.

In an area long dominated by the Democratic Party, Montigue is gaining ground with his commitment to clean-money grassroots politics and his bold progressive agenda including living wages, ending felon disenfranchisement, stopping pipeline construction, making Virginia a sanctuary state for immigrants and much more. He has ignited a broad coalition of progressives, earning endorsements from Clean Money Squad, Democratic Socialists of America Richmond, Virginia River Healers and Activate Virginia. He is exactly the kind of person we need in state government to stand up for radical progressive change whose time has come.

As the neoliberal establishment continues to serve the 1%, who keep getting richer while half of Americans struggle in or near poverty – it’s more critical than ever to help revolutionary Green candidates power up to victory.

Please join me in supporting Montigue Magruder’s extraordinary campaign as he fights for the greater good like our lives depend on it – because they do! Together, we can create an America and a world that works for all of us.

With your help, it’s in our hands!
Jill Stein

PS. To learn about other awesome people-powered candidates, take a look at Virginia’s 2017 Green campaigns and support a candidate near you!

W. Cary Street Mugging Last Night; Suspect Arrested

WTVR is reporting on muggings and arrest last night

“The first incident took place on the 600 block of West Cary street. A student was approached by a suspect armed with a firearm who demanded property. The suspect fled with the property,” a VCU Police spokesperson said. “The second incident took place at Shafer and Franklin streets. Two students were approached by a suspect with a firearm who demanded property. One student was struck with the weapon and sustained minor injuries.”

The third incident was reported on the 900 block of Park Avenue.

“Two students were again approached by a suspect armed with a firearm who demanded property. Both students were assaulted and sustained minor injuries,” police said.

Richmond Police located the suspect along the 400 block of North Harrison Street and arrested him at about 4:22 a.m.

“The property taken by the suspect was recovered when the suspect was arrested,” police said. “VCU Police, working in concert with Richmond Police, are committed to the safety of our students, faculty and staff.”

Save Downtown Train Service!

(ed. note- I don’t usually like running two editorials in a week, but there is a deadline involved here.)

I am strongly in favor of keeping two passenger rail stations for Richmond area, one being downtown’s Main Street Station, the other being Staples Mill. I reiterate that I am strongly in favor of keeping Main Street Station as a passenger rail station, for resiliency, convenience, and other reasons. I don’t want to lose service to downtown. I have felt this way for a long, long time.

Former VCU President Trani is promoting a plan to stop using Main Street Station and consolidate everything at one brand new station at Boulevard.
Trani’s allies are doing this fait accompli thing, where they are basically suggesting that citizens’ opinions like mine are pointless because decisions have already been made in favor of Trani’s plan. I doubt that and resent this politrick.
Those of us who have dealt wth VCU’s Trani in the past know this tactic all too well.

Anyway, I strongly urge all of you to make your opinion known (even if you don’t agree with mine). It’s not too late. Please go to www.vhsr.com/DC2RVA and spend a few seconds submitting your own comments to let Virginia state officials know your opinion. Virginia and the Federal Railroad Administration are requesting comments from the public before November 7th.

One neighbor submitted this comment:

Dear DRPT and FRA:

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the federal DC2RVA high speed rail study.

I would like to devote my comment in support of keeping the Main Street Station as a key rail station in Richmond. After all, the planned Pulse route goes right by Main Street Station, and multi-modal transit was part of the consideration for the Pulse route.

Millions of tax dollars are being spent on the Pulse bus route, and it would be absurd to now change the location of the Richmond rail station so that it is not served by the new Pulse route.

Millions of tax dollars are also being spent to renovate the train shed behind Main Street Station. The original pitch for renovating the train shed was that it would help Main Street Station. Now that millions of dollars have been spent on the train shed it would be absurd to change the location of the Richmond rail station to exclude Main Street Station.

Richmond needs an iconic entry point by rail, and the Main Street Station is just such a landmark building. It is in a convenient location and within walking distance for a vast number of residents. It is also at a prominent destination point near the Va. State Capitol, VCU, Shockoe Bottom, etc.

Thank you for considering my comment devoted towards keeping Main Street Station as an important Richmond rail station.

Sincerely,

Dinamo’s Hurricane Maria Benefit

From The Apple Cart:

Hate hurricanes, love pizza? On Sunday, October 29th from 5:00 to 9:00 pm, Dinamo will host a benefit for Hurricane Irma relief. Live music, pizza, doggza*, wine (provided by the good folks at Free Run) and beer! The standing-room-only benefit will offer pizza and doggza by the slice (or dog, as the case may be), and 100% of profits will go directly to Sister Islands in St. Croix.

*What is Doggza, you ask? I ASKED THE SAME THING! According to Dinamo FOH manager Abi Huntington, “Think personal pan pig in a blanket. A Sabrett hotdog baked in pizza dough with provolone served with mustard.”