Category: Uncategorized
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Mysterious Laptop May Hold Clues To Virginia Beach Mass Shooting
by Kerry Dougherty Most of the country is focused on the chaos taking place in Congress. That’s nothing compared to the slice of crazy unfolding in Virginia Beach. As best we can stitch together from Facebook and stories in The Virginian-Pilot, a member of the House of Delegates has been sitting on what could be…
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Trust, but Verify
by Jim McCarthy Thirty-five years ago this past December, President Ronald Reagan asserted U.S. policy with respect to international nuclear arms controls was to be guided by “Trust, but Verify” (TBV). Mikhail Gorbachev who led Russia from 1985-1991 through dissolution of the Soviet Union had led the promotion of glasnost, a policy of openness and…
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Chaos in Congress Isn’t Good for Virginia
by Robin Beres In a recent column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA 05), noted that as of this month, “the U.S. House of Representatives will be the only thing standing between Americans and the Democrats’ assault on freedom, the family, the economy and our national security.” The GOP won the House majority…
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Dealing with Trolls
by Carol J. Bova In March 2022, The Atlantic published an article, “Trolls Aren’t Like the Rest of Us,” by Arthur Brooks, a contributing writer at The Atlantic and the host of The Atlantic podcast “How to Build a Happy Life.” Brooks wrote: If you use the internet, the odds are about even that you’ll be mistreated there. A…
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Just-in-Time Remediation for Kids Who Fall Behind
by Matt Hurt There have always been students who have evidenced a year or more delay in their independent working ability. Unfortunately, our educational response to the pandemic of closing schools and offering virtual instruction has made this problem significantly worse (more on that here). Today there are significantly more students who are a year…
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Who Kept Your Grocery Taxes High This Holiday Season?
by Scott Dreyer Turkey, ham, chuck roast, pork loin, cornish hens, cranberries, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, rolls, corn, cheese, flour, sugar, egg nog, hot chocolate mix. Quick! What do these items have in common? For one thing, they are popular food items, most not only year-long, but especially at the holiday season. Plus, if…
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The Big Christmas Chill Was a Wakeup Call
by Bill O’Keefe As temperatures dropped dramatically over the Christmas weekend, Dominion Energy’s advice to its customers — those who still had power — was to turn down their thermostats. Virginia was not alone. PJM, the regional grid management organization covering 13 states and the District of Columbia, made the same request because its gas…
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RVA 5×5 – New Year’s Nuggets
by Jon Baliles Left In The Cold The Richmond Free Press Editorial Page ends the year batting 1.000 and goes two for two this week. The main editorial covers the disgraceful lack of attention, urgency and concern by the mayor and the administration for those in need of shelter during last week’s arctic blast. It…
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After Arctic Blast, Do We Still Want to Californicate Our Grid?
by Scott Dreyer An old saying goes, “You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry.” In modern days that might be, “You don’t miss the electricity till you lose the lights. And heat. And hot water. And wifi. And TV. And microwave. And phone charger. And electric blanket, and The Roanoke Star….” Around…
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Poverty and Performance in Virginia Schools
by John Butcher A recent study out of Stanford looked at 11 years of district-level National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data by race and economic disadvantage from all public school districts and concluded that racial segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in third grade and the rate at which gaps…
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When the Pursuit of “Equity” Cheats High Achievers
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that you’re a top student in a highly competitive science and technology high school. In your junior year you take the PSATs and enter the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program competing against the elite students in high schools from coast to coast. Imagine that in mid-October of your…
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Why Does Princeton Have All the Luck?
by James C. Sherlock Cavalier Daily, where are you? There is an article in The Daily Princetonian that is, end-to-end, utterly beyond satire. It’s title: “3 Princeton DEI staff members resign, alleging lack of support.” Where to begin? The “Prince” offers in a single posting Homeric tales of the peripatetic journeys of three school officials…