Category: Efficiency in Government
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Under Youngkin, Virginia Cut Permitting Times, Attracted $125 Billion in Investment
by Hans Bader “Under Governor Glenn Youngkin, Virginia created a new permitting dashboard, and cut permit processing times by 72%. The state’s attracted $125 billion in capital investment since 2022. Conservative abundance at work,” notes Russ Greene of Stand Together. The National Review adds that under Youngkin, Virginia “occupational license approval times declined from 33…
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Virginians’ Dreadful Nursing Home Dilemmas Part One – Assessing the Information
by James C. Sherlock Disclaimer. The author is a member of the Virginia Nursing Home Oversight and Accountability Advisory Board established under Governor Youngkin’s Executive Order 52. Nothing in this series should be taken to represent the opinions of the Commonwealth or that Board. This series will explore the dreadful and dangerous choices faced by…
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State Spending Grows Faster Than Income. Something Has to Give.
By Steve Haner, There was an important story in the preliminary end-of-year financial report that the Richmond Times-Dispatch misinterpreted as the state “running in the red.” State spending has been on a major growth spurt under Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin, although the Democrats with the majority in the General Assembly have just as much to…
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The Colonial Heights Scandal – the Tip of a Very Large Iceberg
The Boys from Lakewood by James C. Sherlock Most of them are quite young. They have a lot in common. They are friends in many cases. Some grew up together. More are related through blood or marriage. Many have worked together. Some are a second generation of their families in the nursing home industry; To…
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An Alleged Wrongful Death in Colonial Heights Revisited
by James C. Sherlock I published in February 2025 a series of articles on a nursing home wrongful death scandal that was revealed when police swarmed Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (Colonial Heights) in late December of 2024. The government has alleged in court that a woman, helpless with cerebral palsy and diabetes, died…
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Only Some Job Losses Trigger Media and Political Outrage
By Paul Driessen When Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently laid off 1,350 employees as part of a broader restructuring effort, the media response was swift and emotional. Stories of tearful farewells, union outrage, and dramatic claims of “fascism” filled the airwaves. One would think these federal employees had lifetime appointments and that accountability or…
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River, What River?
by Jon Baliles The news of the Dave Matthews Band (DMB) returning to Richmond for the first time since 1997 was big news this week but quickly overshadowed by the left hook out of nowhere that the city will close off parking and vehicular access to the city’s waterfront (including easy access to Belle Isle,…
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Robots Are Coming After Your Jobs, Sidewalk Inspectors!
While we’re on the topic of efficiency in government (see previous post) here’s a shout-out to Arlington County for deploying a fleet of robots to report sidewalk defects. The bots, owned by Kiwibot, a Berkeley, Calif.-based renter of robots used in logistics and maintenance, use laser scanners, mobile mapping, AI and machine learning to look…
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Enlisting AI to Fight Red Tape
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin has issued an executive order establishing the nation’s first AI-powered review of state regulations. The order will build on previous work of the Office of Regulatory Management (ORM) conducted by humans, which Youngkin claims streamlined 26.8% of state regulatory requirements, eliminated 47.9% of the words in guidance documents,…
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One Is Enough
End Virginia’s Front License-Plate Requirement by Gabrielle Brohard The Commonwealth of Virginia currently mandates that most passenger vehicles display two license plates — one on the front and one on the back. While this policy may seem minor or administrative, it has direct financial, environmental, and practical implications. With a growing number of states abandoning…
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Bacon Bits: Can Blue Virginia Get Any Crazier? Yes, It Can!
We’re not San Francisco…. yet. In the Franconia area of Fairfax County a McDonalds restaurant, known for catering to kids, has closed its doors to customers under 21 years old, reports WRC-TV in Washington, D.C. To gain admittance, customers must first ring a doorbell. The restaurant, located down the street from Thomas Edison High School,…
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Desperately Seeking a Culture of Accountability
by Jon Baliles The Richmond water crisis on January 6th immediately and obviously grabbed everyone’s attention because it came on suddenly and left city residents without safe water for six days. People were scrambling for water long before the city even notified the public that afternoon. The city’s Finance Department has had challenges for years,…
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Some Small Victories for Good Government
by James A. Bacon Virginians can argue all day long about the proper size and scope of state and local government. But we should be able to agree upon one thing: that whatever it does, government needs to do its job as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible. So, it’s good news to hear that the…
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Detours and Delays
by Calder Svendsen Scheduling is nine-tenths of the job, as any successful — or unapologetically unsuccessful — parent will tell you. Love, life lessons, and the hard knocks of parenting certainly have their place, but they’re more like the mortar holding together the mileposts of daily life. The real challenge isn’t just shaping a child’s…
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FEI gets DOA
A once vaunted institution joins the choir invisible. by Gordon Morse News of the demise of the Federal Executive Institute in Charlottesville arrived on Monday and unexpectedly. What happened there? What sins were committed?” According to the executive order signed by President Trump, “bureaucratic leadership over the past half-century has led to Federal policies that…