Month: July 2021
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COVID: Is It Time to Start Panicking Again?
by James A. Bacon COVID-19 is moving faster than we can keep up with. The headline news from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on a study of an outbreak in Massachusetts, is that vaccinated people are just as likely to spread the highly contagious Delta variant of virus as unvaccinated people. The…
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No PAC for Disaster Preparedness and Response
by James C. Sherlock Virginia’s responses to COVID were a continuing national embarrassment. Individual Virginia department and agencies had no operational pandemic response plans. They ignored specific and prescient directions to build and exercise such plans in the dormant Virginia Pandemic Emergency Plan. VDEM then attempted a coverup. No PPE stockpiles. Last in testing. Last in…
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Wake Up, People! This Is Me Telling You That the Old Answers Are Not Working!
by James A. Bacon How many children have to be killed, wounded and traumatized before people wake up? Headline from today’s Virginian-Pilot: “Nearly a dozen children have been shot this month in Norfolk. Communities are hurting…” And then it adds this kicker: “and activists want change.” The Virginian-Pilot spoke with elected officials, community organizers, the…
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Dominion Takes $206M From You Off the Top
by Steve Haner As of late 2020, Dominion Energy Virginia had forgiven $206 million in unpaid electric bills for customers financially stressed by last year’s COVID-19 pandemic and recession. Those unpaid bills are not being covered by any of the billions in federal COVID emergency funding, nor are stockholders eating a loss. We, the other…
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Delta Dawn at JMU?
by Joe Fitzgerald More than 1 in 9 James Madison University students was infected with Covid-19 during the school year that ended in May. To date, the university has accepted little responsibility for those illnesses or for any associated spread in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County. President Alger and members of the Senior Leadership Team have…
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“Model Polices” on Transgender Students vs. Laws Guaranteeing Parental Rights
by James C. Sherlock Emilio Jaksetic wrote an excellent article this morning. Mr. Jaksetic, a lawyer, commented on the decision by Judge J. Frederick Watson of the 24th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Virginia Board of Education’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools for…
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What Fun! Spending $4.3 Billion in “Free” Money!
by James A. Bacon Before departing for the private sector, former Secretary of Finance Aubrey Layne outlined his thinking for the disposition of $4.3 billion in federal COVID-helicopter money: The funds are a one-time windfall. Spend them on one-time projects. Do not use the money to fund programmatic expansions that will make an ongoing claim…
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Dueling Claims of Victory in Transgender Lawsuit
by Emilio Jaksetic On July 27, 2021, Judge J. Frederick Watson, with the 24th Judicial Circuit of Virginia, issued a decision on a lawsuit challenging the adoption of the Virginia Board of Education’s Model Policies for the Treatment of Transgender Students in Virginia’s Public Schools, reports The Virginia Star. Because Judge Watson dismissed the lawsuit…
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Vaccine Shaming Will Backfire
by Kerry Dougherty Lemme get the straight. The president wants everyone in the country to get vaccinated against Covid-19 — an admirable goal that would likely reduce the virus to a national head cold. So how is he persuading those who are reluctant to take the vaccine to get a shot? By insulting them. Just…
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Congrats UVa Health and Centra – the Right Kind of Healthcare Affiliation
by James C. Sherlock Now for a kind word for my undergraduate alma mater, the University of Virginia. In a press release yesterday, Lynchburg-based Centra and UVA Health announced a strategic clinical affiliation. From what we know from the announcement, that is exactly the kind of healthcare affiliation Virginians need.
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Stoney Off the Hook for Statue-Removal Contract
by James A. Bacon A special prosecutor has closed his investigation into Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney’s awarding of a $1.8 million statue-removal contract to NAH, LLC, set up by a former campaign contributor. Timothy Martin, Augusta County’s Commonwealth Attorney who was assigned to the case when Richmond’s chief prosecutor recused herself because of a conflict…
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COVID School Closure Learning Losses in K-12 Students – a Generational Catastrophe
by James C. Sherlock I have written here extensively about the pre-COVID state of learning in Virginia’s public schools and my concerns about COVID school closure learning losses exacerbating the issue. Those learning losses have come to pass. McKinsey & Company just published a study of the results from Curriculum Associates testing. That in-school sample consisted…
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Nuking the Schools
by James A. Bacon The COVID-19-related shutdowns of K-12 schools across the country have been educational disaster of historic proportions, according to data published in a new McKinsey & Company report. McKinsey doesn’t use the phrase “disaster of historic proportions,” but how else can one describe a response to the pandemic that left students on…
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SCC Starts Review of Dominion Wind Proposal
by Steve Haner Acting on its own initiative, the State Corporation Commission has established a docket to consider the coming application from Dominion Energy Virginia for its massive offshore wind proposal, the centerpiece of Virginia Democrats’ plan to save us all from catastrophic climate change. Earlier this month, the utility started the federal review process…
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In Virginia, Only Inova, UVa Health and VA Hospitals Mandate Vaccinations for Staff
by James C. Sherlock Among large Virginia health systems, only Inova, UVa Health and VA Medical Centers appear currently to mandate staff vaccinations. Inova is the only one of those that is private. On Monday, a Joint Statement in Support of COVID-19 Vaccine Mandates for All Workers in Health and Long-Term Care was issued by a long…