Here’s what John G. Rocovich, former rector of Virginia Tech, wrote to Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger last Thursday:
“Virginia Tech deserves better than to be made a political football. I have given too much of my life to this institution to stand by silently while its independence is threatened — regardless of which party holds the Governor’s office.”
That’s the last line in this missive. A political football. Everything that precedes that last line amounts to a primal scream. The letter is easy to find online and worth reading.
Another line catches your attention: “In the 154-year history of Virginia Tech, dating to its founding in 1872, no Governor of the Commonwealth has ever removed a member of the Board of Visitors for cause.”
He’s effectively urging a public discussion. He’s right on that. It’s overdue.
On Friday morning, at 2:35, a charter bus on I-95 south in Stafford county failed to slowdown for a work zone and plowed into an SUV. That SUV rammed an Acura sedan, carrying a family of four. Four other cars were also hit by the bus, before the larger vehicle flipped over, injuring many of the passengers.
The entire Doncev family was killed in the crash. This family of four were on their way from Massachusetts to a wedding with their Acura trunk full of homemade desserts. Their car burst into flames and the parents, the 13-year-old daughter and 7-year-old son were incinerated.
The driver of the SUV, a 25-year-old woman, was also killed.
Forty four people were injured, including the driver of the bus, who is facing so many criminal charges that if convicted, will likely spend the rest of his life in prison.
About that driver.
We’re told that the man driving the bus from New York City to Charlotte was 48-year-old Jing S. Dong, a Chinese native who is a naturalized American living on Staten Island.
Here’s the “worse” part of the story. According to WJLA, Dong is due in a Maryland courtroom TODAY on speeding charges. He was recently stopped doing 72 in a 50 zone.
There are so many questions about this tragedy.
First, why was Dong allowed to continue driving a commercial vehicle while reckless driving charges were pending? Continue reading.
To be clear, there is no evidence that Virginia’s professional forecasters manipulated the numbers. The Commonwealth has earned a well-deserved reputation for responsible revenue forecasting, and when collections exceed expectations, forecasts should be updated accordingly. In fact, the Jefferson Forum has noted how Virginia’s economy is more resilient to federal changes than it once was, and the forecasts have become overly pessimistic by not taking this fact into account.
But the coincidence on the amount of revenue added in the reforecast should not obscure a more important question: what kind of additional revenue are we talking about?
Just as Governor Spanberger and the General Assembly appeared deadlocked over how to fund competing budget priorities, Virginia’s latest revenue reforecast requested by Governor Spanberger arrived with welcome news: roughly $1.5 billion in additional projected revenue through Fiscal Year 2028.
The timing and the reforecast increase in revenue are both remarkable.
In the high-stakes environment of the Virginia General Assembly, debate is expected to be vigorous. Whatever the topic, we rely on elected officials to weigh arguments based on facts, economics, and fairness. However, when a delegate bypasses the substance of a bill and instead targets the identity of one of its proponents, the integrity of the entire process is called into question.
During discussions this past session about legislation seeking fairness for charities a disturbing moment occurred. The leading opponent of the bill, a member of the house of delegates, when pressed on his continued opposition, reportedly responded to a question by referring to one of the bill’s proponents as the “man in a yarmulke.”
Using a religious garment as shorthand for a person’s identity in a professional setting isn’t just a lapse in decorum; it is a classic antisemitic trope – that a Jewish person’s involvement in policy must be driven by a hidden, insular agenda rather than the public good. At a time when antisemitic acts and violence against Jews are both increasing rapidly in the United States, we must demand more from our elected officials.
A quick walk across Washington and Lee University’s campus — or a skim through recent museum publications — reveals a troubling pattern of factual inaccuracies, weak sourcing, and careless historical interpretation. These problems are not isolated mistakes. They raise legitimate concerns about the reliability of the university’s forthcoming chapel galleries and the broader Institutional History Museum project.
Consider the Museums Department’s newsletter series, “Reinterred and Reinterpreted,” which promises “a closer look” at figures buried in the chapel, such as “Light Horse Harry” Lee and his wife, Anne Carter. These articles, however, contain a remarkable number of factual inaccuracies for a publication issued under the university’s institutional authority.
Most egregious of the errors is the claim that, “During his presidency of Washington College (known today as Washington and Lee University), Robert E. Lee visited his father’s grave in 1862.”
Lee did in fact journey to Cumberland Island, Georgia — the original burial site of his father — in January 1862. At that time, Robert E. Lee was a General overseeing coastal fortifications in service of the Confederate States of America. His visit to Cumberland Island was gratifying, he told his wife, Mary — a scenic respite from “the enemy’s gunboats,” which were “pushing up the creek to cut off communication between [Savannah] and Fort Pulaski.” He would not become president of Washington College until October 1865.
A 32-30 vote to remain “neutral” where Republican State Central Committee members couldn’t even put their names to their votes? Unacceptable.
by Shaun Kenney
Now I will grant this. Never has a unit committee or state committee endorsement swung an election, at least not in recent memory.
This is how inconsequential votes from the Republican Party apparatus have become.
Yet a 32-30 voice vote where the members of the Republican Party of Virginia’s State Central Committee refused to put their names to a vote of neutrality on a trio of really bad Virginia state amendments? Amendments from the same political party that botched the gerrymandering amendment?
That’s wrong.
Look — I have no problem advising a unit committee to hold back on these amendments knowing that they are so terrible as to command unanimous opposition. That’s a perfectly acceptable answer and a politically smart one as well.
Yet neutrality on these questions? As if we have no opinion whatsoever on these things? Or worse, we have no opinion on these things because the Democrats might call us bad names?
What are you guys thinking??
Of course the Democrats are going to call you names. Of course they are going to tell us we are racists and bigots for insisting that someone who served a 20-year sentence for pedophilia shouldn’t be able to stand for election to school board. Of course they are going to say words don’t mean things. Of course they are going to upend parental notification and parental consent in the name of freedom and equality.
Rocovich versus Spanberger. Image credit: Chapt GPT
by Kerry Dougherty
Last week, after it was announced that Gov. Abigail Spanberger was meddling in Virginia Tech governance by summarily firing the beloved rector of Virginia Tech, former Rep. Scott Taylor posed a question on X:
Is there any group that the new governor of Virginia hasn’t pissed off?
“Furries,” I replied.
“The NOVA Wine Mom Club,” another chimed in.
“Criminal illegal aliens,” added another.
It appears that the latest group of Virginians Spanberger has infuriated is a big one: the 167,799 Virginia Tech alums living in Virginia.
Without warning, and many are saying without cause, the governor announced that Tech’s rector, John G. Rocovich, was sacked for violating that board of visitor’s code of ethics.
“Your conduct has violated the Code of Conduct for Commonwealth Appointees to Boards, Authorities, & Commissions, the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors’ Code of Ethics, and the governing statues requiring board members to act in accordance with the best interests of Virginia Tech,” Spanberger wrote in a brief letter – three sentences long – that did not elaborate.
Madam, you’ll have to do better than that. Rocovich is not going down without a fight. On Friday, he announced that he was not resigning and would stay in his position, although his name has been removed from the Tech Board of Visitor’s website. Continue reading.
Aaron Spence shows how public-school bureaucrats dismiss parental rights and push indoctrination.
by Victoria Manning
Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) Superintendent Aaron Spence has been summoned to speak before the Congressional Committee on Education and Workforce on June 10. The topic is “Superintendents Breaking Trust in America’s Schools.”
I know first-hand that Congress picked the perfect person to question on the topic.
As an elected member of the Virginia Beach School Board for eight years—more than six of them during Aaron Spence’s tenure as our district’s superintendent—I witnessed his leadership up close. I sat in the minority on the board the entire time, which meant I had little sway over decisions. I was outvoted but refused to be silenced. I spoke up to expose what was really happening inside the district.
Spence was the reason I ran for office in 2016 after he implemented regulations I found harmful for my children. After he refused to meet with me as a parent to hear my concerns, it solidified my determination to run for school board and make a positive impact. I detailed my experiences with Spence during my two terms on the school board in my book Behind the Wall of Government Schools. He left for LCPS during my second term in office where he continues to be embroiled in controversy.
EIA tally of Virginia’s electricity generation and imports, 1990-2024. Compiled by David Tucker.
Is Virginia really the number one importer of electricity, the state most dependent upon others to keep the lights on and the servers humming? Yes and no.
The go-to source of data on the electricity industry (and other energy industries) is the federal Energy Information Agency, or EIA. EIA data shows Virginia had the dubious distinction in 2024 of being the state with the widest disparity between the amount of electricity produced within its borders and the amount electricity used by its consumers, a shortage of 35 million megawatt hours (MWh).
As noted in yesterday’s post on the gas plant lawsuit, as a percentage of total electricity sales, five other states and the District of Columbia had even larger electricity deficits. Virginia being number 7 out of 51 on a percentage basis is hardly good news, either.
The quick assumption (and I made it, too) is that those data indicate that Virginia imported 35 million MWh in 2024, but the EIA data shows our full import total in 2024 was 45 million MWh. When you look at the EIA full tally of imports, California is the state with the largest volume of electricity brought in from other locations (including Mexico in California’s case).
But the political narrative that we are the largest importer is deeply embedded now, without any nuance. Perhaps the nuance doesn’t matter. Virginia was the most dependent on imports to serve Virginia residents, but not the largest importer.
As you will read below, that deep deficit is more than three decades old. Virginia remains electricity poor and the gap is probably wider now than in 2024.
Virginia’s homicide rate is down, thankfully, but do you, as an ordinary citizen feel any safer?
🚨 JUST NOW: Trump Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy CONFIRMS that a bus crash in Virginia resulting in 5 deaths, including little children, was caused by a CHINESE NATIONAL WHO DOESN'T SPEAK ENGLISH
Transparency and Accountability Where Local Systems Fell Short
by Todd Truitt
My guest commentary this week in the Richmond Times-Dispatch expresses thankfulness for Virginia’s Standards of Learning (SOL) tests. Before statewide testing, local assessments often masked poor performance and hid achievement gaps from parents and policymakers. The SOLs brought essential transparency and continue to keep struggling kids visible and schools accountable.
Districts cannot serve as their own judges of success — statewide standardized testing is essential to provide honest, comparable information to the general public.
Standardized tests provide a clear, external check that more subjective alternatives cannot reliably match.
True educational equity requires honest measurement of achievement gaps to better target resources.
Virginia is currently updating its SOLs with more rigorous content standards (adopted in recent years), new aligned assessments, and higher cut scores for proficiency — demonstrating a continued commitment to raising expectations and using objective measures to drive improvement.
This perspective aligns with recent developments in higher education. Just this week, more than 1,000 University of California STEM faculty (as of the publishing of this article) signed an open letter urging reinstatement of SAT/ACT math scores for STEM admissions, citing severe preparation gaps and the need for reliable readiness measures amid grade inflation. Yale similarly reinstated standardized testing requirements this week, recognizing their predictive value for student success.
Last week, I conducted a short field survey in Virginia Beach of four businesses registered with the federal government to bill Medicaid as providers of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) (i.e., autism) services.
Each is headquartered in Lakewood, NJ.
Lakewood is, of course, the location of the Medical Facilities of America DBA LifeWorks Rehab, Virginia’s infamous and largest nursing home chain. So, I looked there for ABA chains with Virginia locations and visited four located in Virginia Beach.
Many ABA chains offer physical centers. Thelargest are owned by private equity.
Not these. These four offices are virtual.
There was nobody from those Lakewood companies at either of the two addresses where the four companies listed their Virginia Beach offices.
The four have similar characteristics:
There are no “centers.” One of the Virginia Beach locations is a mail drop. The other three are at a single location, serving as clients of an international company that advertises “compliance” services.
There is no Virginia Beach phone number.
The phone numbers they provided in the NPI registration are answering services.
There is no company representation at the local addresses.
Most are not registered with the Virginia State Corporation Commission.
Websites are where they do business. Again, no phone numbers are listed. They have automated chat systems.
There are perhaps hundreds of similarly situated ABA service providers statewide.
The year: 2075. The American colonies on the Moon are getting restless under Washington’s tyrannical rule….
This second edition of “Dust Mites” has a snazzy new cover, includes helpful lunar maps, and is 5,000 words tighter than the original. The sequel, “Trogs,” is scheduled for publication this summer.
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