Category: Public safety & health
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Terror at ODU: We Don’t Have to Live Like This.
by Kerry Dougherty One ODU professor is dead and two ROTC students were injured Thursday, shot by an Islamic jihadist while attending class. The shooter? Mohamed Jalloh, a naturalized American citizen from Sierra Leone who traveled to Africa on three separate occasions in 2015 to join ISIS. Instead of being executed for treason, as he…
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A Break in Tradition
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Gov.-elect Spanberger has broken new ground with one of her agency appointments. She recently announced the appointment of Jeffrey Katz to be the Superintendent of State Police. Katz was formerly the chief of police in Chesterfield County. After retiring from that position in 2024, he joined the FBI, where he worked in the…
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Virginia’s Nursing Homes – Central 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 is the second article…
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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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Abolish Red-Light Cameras
Improve safety with longer yellow lights. by J. Kennerly Davis Traffic ticket revenue maximization and safety have been competing motivations for public officials since the dawn of the automobile age. This has certainly been the case with the enforcement of red-light laws. The first electrified traffic signal was activated in Cleveland, Ohio in 1914. For…
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General Assembly Upends Bill to Hold Virginia Nursing Homes Accountable
by James C. Sherlock Fish gotta swim. The General Assembly gotta do the bidding of the nursing home lobby. Patients be damned – literally. Consider the fate of House Bill 2253 in the 2025 General Assembly. As introduced, it would have empowered the Health Commissioner to impose serious sanctions on our worst nursing homes; but…
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Too Many of Virginia’s Skilled Nursing Facilities Present a Public Health Problem
by James C. Sherlock In a recent 12-month period overlapping 2022 and 2023, almost 8,400 Medicare patients alone were admitted to a hospital directly from or within 30 days after discharge from one of Virginia’s 280+ skilled nursing facilities. We simply do not know how many eventually died as a proximate outcome of poor care…
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A Horrible Death in Colonial Heights – Part Two
Nursing Facility Standards Enforcement Updated Jan 27 @ 1700 by James C. Sherlock Part One of this series served as an introduction to the circumstances surrounding one of the worst deaths humanly imaginable. It shows what happens when standards are not enforced. Charges against staff. The government has alleged that the death was the result…
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A Horrible Death in Colonial Heights – Part One
by James C. Sherlock On 29 October of 2024 a woman died under tragic circumstances in Virginia. Her death was preceded by suffering that mercifully we cannot fully imagine. The government alleges that she died as a result of neglect at Innovative Healthcare Management’s (IHM) Colonial Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center (CHRNC) in Chesterfield County.…
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Mandatory Vehicle Inspections Expensive, Burdensome, Unproven
By Joshua Devamithran Virginia’s mandatory vehicle safety inspection program is less than a decade away from its centennial anniversary. Established in 1932, Virginia’s inspection program is the oldest continuous program in the country. In 1975, thirty-one states and the District of Columbia had mandatory safety inspection programs. Today, Virginia is one of just fifteen states…
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Shown the Door, Petersen Calls Out COVID Fascists
By Steve Haner Reading Chap Petersen’s biographical “Rebel,” it is pretty easy to understand why a year ago his fellow Democrats threw him out of office in a primary. In fact, the mystery is that he survived as long as he did. The book tells a history that many would like to ignore or actively…
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Fewer Children Seeking ER Treatment for Cannabis Ingestion
by James A. Bacon The number of pediatric patients visiting hospital emergency rooms in cannabis-related incidents fell 21.5% in the first half of 2023 compared to the same period the year before, a decline that some attribute to bipartisan legislation regulating the production, sale, and potency of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) in marijuana-related products. A Virginia Hospital…
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Yes, MSNBC Morons, Virginia IS a Border State.
by Kerry Dougherty Remember back on the night of Super Tuesday when MSNBC’s far-left host Rachel Maddow and former Biden mouthpiece Jen Psaki convulsed in laughter as they reported that the number one issue for Republican voters was the border? “Well Virginia does have a border with West Virginia,” Maddow cackled, sending the panel of…
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“Blessed“ Is the Second RVA Casino Referendum
by Jon Baliles Early voting has begin in Virginia and the Richmond casino advocates have gone all-in with the mayor and City Council to make sure the referendum got back on the ballot and now are betting the house with an absurd amount of money to make sure the referendum passes this time. Jimmy Cloutier…
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Virginia Deserves a Parole Board that Puts Public Safety First
by Kerry Dougherty When Terry McAuliffe was governor he found a loyal Democrat lawyer to appoint to head Virginia’s parole board. That was Adrianne Bennett, a failed candidate for the House of Delegates in 2011 and undoubtedly the most controversial parole board chair in Virginia history. She was a success if you believe, as McAuliffe…