Category: Uncategorized
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Uh, Governor? This is How It Works
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Someone needs to tell Governor Youngkin or his Secretary of Finance how things work in the state’s financial structure. According to a recent report in the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Governor said that he has directed Randy McCabe, the Comptroller, or director of the Department of Accounts, to “to set aside $397 million…
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More Money for Schools, More Parent Protections. Where Are the Higher Expectations?
by James A. Bacon The Youngkin administration has been relatively quiet on the subject of K-12 education since May when it released a blistering report on the perilous condition of Virginia’s public schools. Then Friday, a week before the scheduled release of the latest Standards of Learning test scores, Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera provided…
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The Post Office’s Explanation for This Makes No Sense
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The United States Postal Service has shut down its Montpelier Station office because a display depicting racial segregation in Virginia was “unacceptable to the Postal Service.” A brief history of the site is included in an article about the closure in the Culpeper Star-Exponent that is reprinted in today’s Richmond Times Dispatch.…
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The Circle of Government Fecklessness and Homelessness – Newport News Edition
by James C. Sherlock Newport News ought to work. It starts with Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS). I’ll let them describe it. Newport News Shipbuilding is the sole designer, builder and refueler of U.S. Navy aircraft carriers and one of two providers of U.S. Navy submarines. With approximately $4 billion in revenues and more than 25,000…
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Sorry, Can You Please Explain Again How Systemic Racism in Healthcare Works?
by James A. Bacon The U.S. healthcare system, we hear with increasing frequency, is systemically racist. Here in Virginia, for instance, we hear that Black women suffer a higher rate of complications in childbirth than White women. But any theory of systemic racism in healthcare needs to explain certain inconvenient facts that I stumbled across…
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Chincoteague, Virginia: Annual Pony Swim
by Kerry Dougherty When we began this website in December of 2017 we promised that there would be no days off. That didn’t mean we’d never leave town. It meant that when we did we’d take you with us. So, get out your bug spray and boots and join us for the annual Chincoteague Pony…
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Blacks Don’t Always Think the Way White Cultural Elites Think They Do
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin’s popularity in Virginia was the top-line story from a new Virginia Commonwealth University poll. The survey, published yesterday, found that 49% of Virginians polled approve of his job as governor compared to 38% who disapprove. It’s not surprising to see his popularity holding up so well. Virginians tend…
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Patrick Michaels RIP
by Bill Tracy Nationally known climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels has died, and there is certainly a huge Virginia connection. Michaels considered himself to be a “lukewarmer,” denoting a belief that there is indeed a man-made (CO2) component to climate change. But, he said “What I’m skeptical about is the glib notion that it means the end…
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VEA Wants Better Student Discipline – Dismisses Progressive “Reforms” as Unhelpful
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes unions work for members. They always back higher pay and benefits. I back that position of the Virginia Education Association (VEA). On the other hand, I have opposed some things the VEA has backed in Virginia public schools — the list starts with excessively long denial of in-school education during…
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Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury
by Kerry Dougherty I don’t know why more people don’t visit cemeteries when they’re on vacation. You can learn a lot by strolling among the old graves. When my son went to school in Buffalo, New York I found my way to Forest Lawn Cemetery, a graveyard so beautiful that weddings are held there. President…