Author: James A. Bacon
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Big Brother Update
Surveillance of some… Senate Bill 84: “Authorizes state and local law-enforcement agencies to place and operate pedestrian crossing violation and stop sign violation monitoring systems in school crossing zones, highway work zones, and high-risk speed corridors for purposes of recording pedestrian cross and stop sign violations.” But not of others… Senate Bill 83: “Requires the…
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School Districts Skirt State Requirements in Mental Health Outsourcing
by Victoria Manning Restoration News has uncovered school districts across Virginia offering telehealth mental health therapy for children without parental permission. State law permits telehealth in schools, but requires parental consent and the adoption of school board policies on the topic. Federal law also prohibits the disclosure of private student information, but these laws are ignored in…
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Will Spanberger Be a Redistricting Heroine?
by Chap Petersen Saturday was a historic day as Abigail Spanberger was sworn in as the 75th Governor of the Commonwealth, our first female Chief Executive. Within minutes of taking office, the Governor issued a number of Executive Orders which rolled back Republican initiatives and implemented an aggressively Democratic agenda. To the victor go the…
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Data Centers Provide Property Tax Relief for Homeowners
by Hans Bader Data centers cut property taxes on homeowners, by providing lots of additional property to tax. The more property there is to tax, the less tax needs to be imposed on each property. Data centers use very few government services (unlike homeowners, who use things like schools and parks), so data centers don’t…
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Yippee! We Live In Virginiasota Now!
by Kerry Dougherty Last time Democrats controlled Virginia, they tried to turn the commonwealth into California. High taxes, high gas prices, EV mandates, oppressive covid restrictions. This time, it’s worse. They aim to turn Virginia into Minnesota. Gov. Abigail Spanberger apparently looked West, saw an unaffordable state full of environmental laws that make things like…
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Packing the BOVs
Governor Abigail Spanberger has announced 27 appointments to the Boards of Visitors of the University of Virginia, George Mason University, and the Virginia Military Institute. The appointees fill vacancies created by the departure of board members selected by former Governor Glenn Youngkin, either because they were rejected by the state Senate or because Spanberger asked…
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Harrisonburg Can Do Better
by Joe Fitzgerald Someone once described GM’s Vega as a vehicle completely unencumbered by the engineering process. And then there was the country mechanic who once suggested to the driver of a Vega that they fix a particular problem by jacking up the radiator cap and driving a new car in underneath it. We’ll get…
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Death and Taxes
by David Saunders Welcome to 2026! You’ll be getting a W-2 from your employer soon in the mail. It’s an annual reminder of what you made and what the government took in taxes. You might owe the IRS (like me) or you might get a refund (like many), but either way it’s still sobering to…
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Virginia’s New Immigration Enforcement Policies
From Governor Abigail Spanberger’s Executive Order No. 10 taking the state police out of immigration-law enforcement: Ensuring public safety in Virginia requires state and local law enforcement to be focused on their core responsibilities of investigating and deterring criminal activity, staffing jails, and community engagement. Since 2025, Virginians have been deprived of critical public safety…
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Congratulations to Governor Spanberger…
… and a call for collaboration and principled debate. by Derrick Max Today, the Thomas Jefferson Institute congratulates Governor Abigail Spanberger on her historic inauguration as the 75th governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia — and the first woman in the nearly 250-year history of the Commonwealth to hold this office. Her assumption of the…
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But, of Course, Youngkin Was the One Who Politicized Higher-Ed Governance
From the New York Times: “The head of the board overseeing the University of Virginia and two other top board members, including a major donor to the school, resigned on Friday under pressure from the state’s incoming Democratic governor, according to two people briefed on the matter and letters obtained by The New York Times.…