Category: Uncategorized
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Don’t Let Virginia Fall Behind in the AI Race
by James A. Bacon A House bill aiming to prevent “algorithmic discrimination” would cripple Virginia’s ability to compete in the rapidly evolving Artificial Intelligence sector by creating excessive compliance burdens, legal ambiguities and astronomical costs, warned Caleb Taylor, director of police at the Virginia Institute of Public Policy in an email distributed yesterday. HB2094, sponsored…
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Fairfax DEI Tab: $6.4 Million and Counting
Fairfax County Public Schools pay $6.4 million in salaries to support 52 employees in the “Chief Equity Office,” reports the Fairfax County Times. Chief Equity Officer Nardos King earns $258,641 annually. Data obtained through the Freedom of Information Act sometimes conflict, but the findings “paint the picture of a sprawling bureaucracy,” writes Asra Q. Nomani.…
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Organized Labor? We’re Not Organized, We’re Academics!
by James A. Bacon It’s a shame that the United Campus Workers of Virginia (UCW-VA) are such insufferable leftists. I could almost sympathize with their aims. Universities in the United States treat their graduate students and adjunct faculty abominably. Thousands of these employees lead an insecure, ill-paid existence and probably could benefit from a union…
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The Nationalization of Virginia Politics Is Now Complete
by James A. Bacon On Friday the Senate Privileges and Elections Committee discussed Governor Glenn Youngkin’s slate of appointees to state boards and commissions listed in multiple bills. Senate Democrats had amended the bills to strike the names of nine nominees, including four to George Mason University, two to the Virginia Military Institute, and three…
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A Vindictive Bill that Invites Retaliation
by James A. Bacon I can’t decide which is more appalling. The fact that Delegate Alex Askew, D-Virginia Beach, would introduce a bill to revoke tax-exempt status for several Confederate heritage groups, or the fact that the measure won the support of 12 Democratic legislators to pass through the House Finance Committee. Both chambers of…
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Oh, Don’t Worry About the Law
by Dick Hall-Sizemore It seems our incoming President is willing to disrupt millions of lives and families by rounding them up and deporting them because they violated a law when entering this country, but is willing to disregard a law, overwhelmingly passed by Congress and unanimously upheld by the Supreme Court, judged to be essential…
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Surovell is Wrong About School Vouchers
by Dick Hall-Sizemore As much as I generally respect Sen. Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax), Senate majority leader, he is mistaken in some recent comments about Governor Youngkin’s proposed Opportunity Grant program. As reported in the Virginia Political Newsletter, Surovell declared, “Private school vouchers are expressly prohibited by the constitution of Virginia. The language was inserted when…
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What Does Louise Lucas Have Against Poor Black Kids?
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin wants to provide an educational escape hatch for lower-income Virginians. He has proposed a private school voucher program that would give $5,000 grants to 10,000 students whose families earn less than 200% of the federal poverty limit ($62,400 for a family of four). Virginia Senate Finance Chair Louise…
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Boil-Water Advisory
There’s an irony in the fact that the City of Richmond has extended its boil-water advisory until Saturday, even as city officials, generically speaking, find themselves in increasingly… hot water. That’s no comment on Mayor Danny Avula who just arrived on the job, but I’m betting that some city administrators and councilpersons are feeling the…
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Use AI to Smite AI-Induced Energy Demand
by Felix Garcia The Virginia General Assembly convenes tomorrow for its 2025 session among the usual laments that bipartisan solutions to the Commonwealth’s biggest challenges are not possible nowadays. But there should be one big issue upon which members of both parties in both houses can agree: Virginia uses more electricity than it creates. With more…