Category: Federal issues
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Virginia’s Nursing Homes – Eastern Region Update
by James C. Sherlock This article was revised on November 16 to provide a better view of the data. The format the author chose wasn’t getting the job done, so he revised it. Changes in the text are made only to reflect the updated spreadsheet. It should provide more clarity. This will be a sub-series…
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Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Homes – Part 7 – How to Stop A Deadly Scheme
by James C. Sherlock A brutal pattern is observed repeatedly. Some chains offering the worst nursing homes in America have established a singular process for profit maximization. It is seen in a combination of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) data on their operating subsidiaries and city/county property records on their real estate…
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Shutdown Vote: Why Kaine Went Right and Warner Went Left
by Paul Goldman Usually, U.S. Senator Mark Warner revels in being the deal-making, more conservative Virginia Senator, wearing liberal attacks as a badge of honor. Senator Tim Kaine is usually attacked by conservative Republicans for being too liberal and suffering from Trump Derangement Syndrome. Kaine revels in those attacks. But on the congressional shutdown vote,…
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SNAP Recipients Can Do Their Own Eyebrows
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like the Democrats caved. Finally. Or at least 9 of them came to their senses regarding the damaging government shutdown that is in its 40th day. They got nothing. The shutdown was for nothing. Yet it did ensure that a seething bloc of Virginia federal workers headed to the polls last…
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Virginia’s Dreadful Nursing Homes – Part Five – Chain Corporate Structures and the Undoing of the Regulatory Structure
by James C. Sherlock Today, we will examine a big factor in why nursing home regulation fails. It is doomed in part by the organizational structures of chains that mask a deadly lack of corporate ethics. Government regulators not only do not stop it, but are currently helpless to do so for the simplest of…
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Virginians’ Dreadful Nursing Home Dilemmas Part Two – Virginia Beach
by James C. Sherlock This article will explore a single geographic area, Virginia Beach, to focus on what nursing home choices mean in practice to the citizenry of Virginia’s largest city. The quality of the nursing home inventory in Virginia Beach is illustrative of that of all of south Hampton Roads and much of…
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Schumer Shutdown Backfires On Democrats
by Kerry Dougherty I wouldn’t want to be a Democrat right now. What am I saying, I wouldn’t want to be a Dem ever. But right now they’re in a bind. On one hand, Dems want to keep the government shutdown going until after Election Day. They’re counting on angry federal workers to deliver a…
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Jones’ Advice on Inflicting Pain Implemented by Warner, Kaine
“Only when people feel pain personally do they move on policy.” That was former Delegate Jay Jones’ deep political insight, seeking to justify his assertion that the children of the Speaker of the House should die so Democrats could prevail. Is that not exactly what Virginia Senators Tim Kaine and Mark Warner are now putting…
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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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Trump Policies Hurt Virginia Farmers
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The 2025-2026 soybean harvest and market began in September with Virginia soybean farmers having lost their biggest customer as a result of Trump’s tariff policies. In 2023 (the latest year for which figures are available), soybeans were Virginia’s top agricultural export at over $1.4 billion. Exports to China accounted for $784 million (56…
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UVa to Trump: No Thanks
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The University of Virginia has declined to sign the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education,” proposed by the Trump administration. In exchange for agreeing to a long list of terms, institutions signing the contract were offered “allowance for increased overhead payments where feasible, substantial and meaningful federal grants, and other federal…
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Opportunity or Faustian Bargain?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore (Author’s Note: The following article is unusually long, even by my standards. The subject is a federal policy document recently sent to the University of Virginia and eight other institutions of higher education. The document is ten pages long and contains numerous provisions which could have a significant impact on higher education…
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Government Shutdown Threatens to Upend Governor’s Race
By Chris Braunlich For more than a half century, it has been the case that Virginia elects a Governor who is from the opposite party as the President elected the year before. With one exception. In 2013, the year after Barack Obama’s re-election, Virginians sent Democrat Terry McAuliffe to the Governor’s Mansion. The background to…
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Another Virginia Trump Nominee Runs Afoul of Trump
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Poor Donald Trump. His appointments as U.S. Attorney in Virginia are proving to have too much independence and integrity. First there was Todd Gilbert in the Western District. Now, there is Erik Seibert in the Eastern District. Seibert’s office was overseeing the investigation of Letitia James, New York Attorney General, for mortgage fraud regarding…
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Not Sweet
by James C. Sherlock I have written here for years about Virginia’s worst nursing homes and the inevitable abuse that comes from ritual understaffing as a business model. The activities of the nursing home operating companies are funded by Medicare and Medicaid and overseen by federal and state health authorities. To make short a very…