Category: Corruption and Scandals
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Surf’s Up! And So’s Exposure to Virginia Beach Taxpayers
The biggest wave generated by the city’s Atlantic Park project is debt. The promised tax revenues aren’t sufficient yet to support it. by James C. Sherlock From an article by Stacy Parker in The Virginian-Pilot this morning: To build two parking garages and improve streets in Atlantic Park, a public entity borrowed $53 million and…
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Sometimes You Have to Create the Racism in Order to Defeat It
More details have emerged about the Southern Poverty Law Center’s funding the right-wing extremism it purported to fight. Here’s the updated account, contained in a superseding indictment filed by the Department of Justice, of SPLC Employee-3 who helped organize the 2017 Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville. — JAB The SPLC Secretly Paid F-37 More…
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From FOIA Fight to Felony Embezzlement Charges
Restoration News holds Essex County (VA) School Board member accountable as grand jury indicts board member, superintendent, and finance director. by Victoria Manning An investigation by Restoration News has led to direct accountability for elected officials. When Essex School Board member Garlyn Bundy failed to produce documents requested by Restoration News under the Freedom of…
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An Untimely Endorsement for Louise Lucas
This author has just noted that Louise Lucas’s cannabis stores in Portsmouth and Norfolk, both raided by the FBI last week, are not registered with the Virginia Cannabis Control Authority. Perhaps they do not have to register. The Portsmouth store advertises Vape cartridges and tincture oil, not medical marijuana. But one of the featured…
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Potential Investigations of Louise Lucas, Lisa Lucas-Burke, Lucas Lodge and The Cannabis Outlet
by James C. Sherlock In an interview Sunday in the Virginian-Pilot, Sen. Louise Lucas, president pro tempore of the Virginia state senate, says she still doesn’t know why the feds raided her businesses. We will look at the possibilities. Senator Lucas has a right to due process and a presumption of innocence. But there are…
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A second federal line of inquiry confirmed in the Lucas Lodge case
by James C. Sherlock As noted in this author’s article “Clown Show” this morning, Louise Lucas’ daughter, in an interview with the Virginian-Pilot published yesterday, revealed for the first time that the FBI seized Lucas Lodge resident medical records in its recent simultaneous raids on that facility and Louise Lucas’ The Cannabis Outlet. Though no…
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The Bravest Democrat in the 2026 General Assembly took on Louise Lucas
by James C. Sherlock You know how sometimes you try to do the right thing for the right reason, and it blows up in your face? One of the newest members of the General Assembly is freshman Delegate Garrett McGuire, D-Fairfax. He is either the bravest of the Democrats or one who committed a…
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FBI Targets State Sen. Louise Lucas
by Kerry Dougherty Democrat Louise Lucas has been the queen of machine politics in Portsmouth for decades. Graceless in victory, venomous in defeat, relentlessly partisan, full of braggadocio and vulgarities, Lucas has prospered while the city she represents has become increasingly dysfunctional. Casino gambling and weed were what she offered the people. Not only are…
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In the Business of Health Care Fraud, Virginia is Minnesota
by James C. Sherlock Health care fraudsters are often treated by Virginia elected officials in the same way moonshiners were in this state, as local heroes pursued only by the feds. Many prefer not to interrupt the product flow. They simply want a taste from the jar. Dick Hall-Sizemore, a dedicated contributor to BR and a good…
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Evidence of Intent
by James C. Sherlock Evidence of intentional wrongdoing by specific nursing home chains operating in Virginia is hiding in plain sight. The huge gaps and consistent trends in each exhibit below cannot be attributed to happenstance. It reflects business models rigorously applied. The numbered exhibits draw entirely on a single Center for Medicare & Medicaid…
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The General Assembly is Looking for Experts
by James C. Sherlock This is yet another story of state-sanctioned corruption by elected politicians serving the interests of the nursing home industry. New players, same play. That industry, led this time by out-of-state chains, has once again found it cheaper to buy the votes and influence of senior members of the General Assembly with…
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The Institutionalization of Corruption in the Virginia General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock A late friend, who was on the local bar association’s ethics committee, offered wise overarching advice to attorneys. If it doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. Fairness is often defined as impartial and just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination. In this case, we are not talking about political favoritism,…
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The Virginia Senate’s Louise Lucas Dilemma
by James C. Sherlock Scandals can have real victims. This one certainly does. The victims are poor people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, people who citizens think and hope are cared for by our Medicaid dollars under the Americans with Disabilities Act. A politically powerful member of the Virginia Senate has failed them in her…
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Betrayal 5 – Lucas Lodge LLC
Photo: Lucas Lodge Residential 4-Person Group Home by James C. Sherlock This is a real-life horror story. One hundred and two serious incidents with injuries reported since 2019 by a single provider of community-based residential services whose tiny houses host a maximum of 24 intellectually and developmentally disabled adults at a time. Not counting…