Category: Courts and law
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They Are Coming For Your Family, Your Strip Malls
By Peter Galuszka State Sen. Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield County, has always played the clown. The conservative politician grabbed attention a year or so back when she addressed a meeting at the General Assembly wearing a revolver in a holster on her hip. She’s also feuded with the county Republican Party and was defrocked. Now Chase…
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Rule by Decree has Found a Co-conspirator – Virginia’s Chief Justice
by James C. Sherlock One of the most clearly illegal court orders in Virginia history was issued on Monday, June 7. At the request of the Governor, the order suspended the rights of some plaintiffs to access the courts. The order also refers to the fact that the Governor is planning to institute a “comprehensive…
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“Systemic Racism?” Damned Right!
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in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Demographics, Health Care, Housing, Immigration, Media, Politics, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Social Services and Entitlements, TransportationBy Peter Galuszka There has been much debate on this blog regarding whether there is “systemic racism” in Virginia and the rest of the country. It’s a crucial question in the aftermath of the death of George Floyd, an unarmed and handcuffed African American who was killed on video by a white Minneapolis police officer…
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Gunning Up Virginia’s Cops
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in Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Defense, National Security, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Federal issues, Government Finance, Gun rights, Mental illness and substance abuse, Poverty & income gap, Property rights, Public safety & health, Race and Race RelationsBy Peter Galuszka In 2014, the Sheriff’s Department of York County and Poquoson got their very own tank-like vehicle, called a “Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP).” Fully armored and tan in color with steep sides, it looks like something out television footage of the war in Iraq where U.S. troops needed to get through mine-infested…
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Our Gutsy Governor
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in Bacon and Pigs, Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Defense, National Security, Economic development, Education (higher ed), Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, Elections, General Assembly, Governance, Government Transparency, Government workers and pensions, Gun rights, Media, Politics, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t OversightBy Peter Galuszka On June 24, 2015, Nikki Haley, a Republican who was South Carolina’s first non-white governor, called for the removal of a Confederate flag that had been flying over the state’s capitol grounds for years. “This flag, while an integral part of our past, does not represent the future of our great state,”…
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Beware Fake Tweets
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in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Defense, National Security, Elections, Electoral process, Federal issues, Government Transparency, Infrastructure, Media, Money in politics, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, TelecommunicationsBy Peter Galuszka Around midnight Monday, reporters in downtown Washington D.C., stood by ready to cover the next round of protests about the slaying of African Americans by police. They started getting tweets marked #dcblackout suggesting that internet service was being interrupted because of a secret program presumably run by the government that would cut…
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The Real Danger with ANTIFA
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in Bacon and Pigs, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Electoral process, Federal issues, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, LGBQT, Libertarians, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t OversightBy Peter Galuszka Get ready. The names of all kinds of leftist organizations are going to be kicked around as the masterminds behind violent, cop-beating looters, especially the so-called ANTIFA movement in Virginia and across the country.. But what is reality? I don’t have clear answers but I have some ideas to share since I…
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Virginia’s Lockdown Violates Natural Law
by Deborah Hommer My favorite Greek tragedy play is Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The protagonist risks her life with civil disobedience by burying the body of her brother Polyneices according to the religious dictates (natural/higher law) of her God in defiance of King Creon’s edict (man-made or positive law). When confronted with the choice of whether to…
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Juicy Supreme Court Arguments on Tap Today
For those of you who might be interested, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today on cases involving access to Trump financial documents. The arguments will be held by telephone and will be available for the public to listen to live. First up will be two cases (consolidated) dealing with whether Congress can…
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U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments
The COVID-19 crisis has upended many traditions. One such upended tradition is the live broadcast of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments. The Court took some time off in March and April, postponing oral arguments. Now, it has resumed them, but the members, most of whom are in the “vulnerable” stage, are conducting the arguments by…
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Notes from the Right Wing Echo Chamber
By Peter Galuszka On Wednesday, I was standing next to the Capitol grounds in Richmond watching brightly decorated cars and pickups drive on 9th Street, their horns blaring. I was attending the drive by protest rally on assignment for Style Weekly and happened to speak to Jason Roberge, a Spotsylvania County resident who is one…
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Upper Big Branch: Ten Years After
By Peter Galuszka This week is the tenth anniversary of one of the worst coal mine disasters in recent U.S. history. The massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch at Montcoal, W.Va. on the afternoon of April 5, 2010 killed 29 miners, the largest number in 40 years. The disaster meant the undoing of Massey…
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Photo Project Spotlights Pipeline Impact
By Peter Galuszka Veteran photographer Karen Kasmauski, who grew up in Norfolk, has a brilliant online project that shows the human and environmental impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. She is a senior fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, a non-profit group that funded her project that centers mostly in rural Nelson and Buckingham…
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Is It the Death Knell For Dominion’s Pipeline?
By Peter Galuszka For more than a decade, hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas and oil has transformed the American energy picture, leading to big revivals in such energy fields such as Marcellus in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and the Bakken field in the Dakotas. It has prompted Dominion Energy and its utility partners to…
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Dare County, N.C., closes its borders
By DJ Rippert From Outer Banks to Outer Mongolia. Dare County, N.C. issued orders last week closing its borders to non-residents. Dare is a coastal county just south of Currituck County, N.C., which borders Virginia. Many Virginians know Dare County from Outer Banks vacations in towns such as Duck or fishing trips launched from Manteo.…