Click for larger view. BOEM map of Right Whale density noting offshore wind lease areas. Dominion’s CVOW and Avangrid’s Kitty Hawk Wind are the southernmost mapped.
By David Wojick
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is taking public comments on a massive proposal to harass large numbers of whales and other marine mammals off Virginia by building a huge offshore wind complex. There is supposed to be an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the proposed harassment, but it is not there with the proposal.
We are told it is elsewhere, but after searching we find that it simply does not exist. Like a shell game where the pea has been palmed, there is nothing to be found. (more…)
When I was a younger man and indulged in that lowdown southern whiskey, I would sometimes sum up the next day by saying, “I don’t remember church bells.”
Astute observers will immediately recognize literary allusions to Little Feat’s “Dixie Chicken,” one of the great rock-and-roll story songs.
Now, 41 years sober, I hear the song differently. It’s the story of someone finding out that an experience may have been unique to him, but wasn’t unique.
Which leads me back, to the surprise of no regular reader, to Bluestone Town Center. BTC is an ill-advised development based on empty promises, misguided good intentions, and governmental obtuseness. Those wishing to know the other side of the story are welcome to Google it.
I was struck during the discussions of the project by how often supporters of the project fell back on baseless accusations of racism and privilege or answered objections that hadn’t been raised. I also noticed things in the city’s deeply flawed housing report that had little to do with building or selling housing.
Come to find out, any discussion of housing faces an underlying set of assumptions. And as any student of left-leaning politics knows, many of those assumptions lead to the expectation that anyone opposing any housing issue must prove their motivations and intentions are not racist, classicist, ageist, or ableist. (more…)
Given a choice between an energy future that is dependent on a) generation using sun, wind or falling water; or b) thermal generation sources using fossil fuels or uranium; or c) a combination of both, which do Americans prefer? Should it surprise anybody that the answer is both?
Reliance on both, the need for at least a substantial amount of electricity not depending on weather, is at the heart of the recommendations coming at Virginians from many directions. It came recently from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, including the Virginian on that panel, Mark Christie. It is the premise for both Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s (R) 2022 Energy Plan and Dominion Energy Virginia’s new integrated resource plan. (more…)
A favorite topic of mine is management and administrative overhead in state government institutions of higher learning.
While a major university is a very large business with significant management and administrative needs, the overhead numbers seem higher than necessary.
Overhead has certainly grown over the last few decades at a rate far in excess of the increases in tenured instructional and research faculty and students.
This excessive overhead is expensive in multiple ways including:
very high dollar costs;
the time that line academics consume for meetings with and reports to the leaders, managers and administrators; and
general slowness of decision cycles.
To investigate, I singled out the flagship University of Virginia for an informal audit.
The University, to its credit, has decided to take on the task of streamlining and rationalizing its management and administrative structure.
That castle will prove very difficult to storm. Yet a siege may take literally forever. The defenders are powerful, well-entrenched and well-provisioned.
Looks like newspapers have lost more than just their senior editors and writers. They’ve also lost the ability to craft a good old-fashioned hit piece.
There was an art to that particular form of journalism. It had to be an expertly crafted story written with so much elegance that the subject sometimes didn’t realize he or she’d been skewered until days later.
Those required writers with skill and knowledge and the ability to deliver words like a perfectly placed stiletto.
What we get instead today are clunky, biased blobs of verbiage.
Oh look. Here’s an example:
On the front page of the local newspaper — on a Sunday — which once was the day to showcase the best staff writing — was a “news” story headlined “How Far Right Does Youngkin Lean?” (more…)
State law exempts from registration fees trucks, trailers, and other motor vehicles, used solely for farm purposes either on highways near a farmer’s land or for hauling farm products to market (see here and here). This is one of the most abused Code provisions.
The picture above was taken in my neighborhood. Take my word for it: there are no farms anywhere close.
This picture was taken on one of the main streets in Richmond or Henrico (I forget which). Unless the driver of that truck was taking a sofa that he had grown on his farm to market to sell it, he was violating the law. Violation of the statutes is a traffic infraction and punishable by a fine up to $250.
Until 2022, law enforcement officers were authorized to require drivers of vehicles claiming this exemption to provide the address of the lands owned or leased by the vehicle’s owner and used for agricultural purposes and the address of the vehicle’s owner. I doubt that happened often.
Beginning July 1 of this year, persons wishing to operate farm vehicles without regular license tags must attach an official placard provided by DMV to the vehicle. To obtain the placard, the owner of the vehicle must file an application with DMV identifying the farm and the commodities that will be transported on the exempt vehicle along with a statement that the vehicle will be used only for the exempt purposes set out in law.
If this requirement is enforced, there should be fewer “farm use” vehicles seen in urban areas.
She was simply one of the most gracious, generous, skilled and inspiring people I have ever met.
Cheri and her husband Lance in 2006 opened their first Citrus restaurant in Virginia Beach a couple of blocks from where my late wife and I lived.
Jo Ann was limited in her mobility, but it was close enough for us to go together. We came to know Cheri, who was always there, like a neighbor.
Our first visit to that restaurant the week it opened was a revelation – a breakfast and lunch place that served gourmet quality meals at a blue-collar price.
The signature home made chicken salad at the center of a plate of fresh citrus was an inspiration.
A welcoming presence, and an absolute delight, was Cheri Shores.
She was the designer of the restaurant, the source of many of the very special menu items, a co-owner, the manager, the accountant, and a teacher and confidant to her staff
She was the soul of that place.
She and her husband came up with the idea of a breakfast and lunch restaurant, she once told me, so they and their employees could spend time with their kids.
Those employees were devoted to her. And she and Lance to them.
Before her very untimely death from pancreatic cancer, after supporting them all through COVID, she and Lance retired and gave their two, constantly-packed restaurants to their employees.
That is not a surprise if you knew them.
The Virginian-Pilot has written a touching and fitting tribute.
Republicans are hypocrites when it comes to abortion.
They base their opposition to abortion on the belief that a fetus is a human being and killing an innocent human being is wrong. Hence, the term “pro-life.” (This is a position on which I happen to agree with them.)
But are they pushing for an absolute ban on abortion, perhaps with exceptions for rape, incest, and the health of the mother? Nope. It seems they are settling on banning abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy. They are justifying this by calling it “mainstream” and “not extreme”.
Excuse me, but why is a 13-week-old fetus worthy of protection that is not accorded a 12-week-old fetus? Is one “more of a human” than the other?
Then there is our Governor, Glenn Youngkin. He is pushing for banning abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy. As I have pointed out before, that limit is not going to prevent many abortions in Virginia. According to the CDC, only 2.2 percent of abortions in Virginia in 2020 were performed after the 15th week. If Youngkin were truly interested in protecting unborn babies, rather than playing politics, he would push for a near total ban on abortion.
Sorry, Republicans, you can’t have it both ways. A fetus is either a human at conception or it is not. If it is, then what is the basis for deeming fetuses more than 13 weeks old qualitatively different from those 12 weeks or less old? If it is not a human at conception, they why ban abortions at all?
If you believe that abortion is wrong because there is a human life involved, then push for a total ban, with some limited exceptions. Otherwise, you are just being political hypocrites.
I don’t agree with Democrats on this issue, but at least they are being honest about their position.
In order to illustrate the truly insulting nature of the DEI program at the University of Virginia, I offer the following quiz.
See if you can pick out the person pictured who:
directs a range of educational programming focused on educational development for staff, faculty and students.
Nana Last, Professor of ArchitectureIra C. Harris, Professor, McIntyre School of Commerce
Sankaran Venkataraman, Professor, Darden School of BusinessSandhya Dwarkadas, Professor and Chair Department of Computer ScienceTisha Hayes, Professor of Education
Trinh Thuan, Professor Emeritus, Department of AstronomyKelsey Johnson Professor of AstronomyHaibo Dong Professor Aerospace EngineeringSly Mata, Director of Diversity Education, Division for DEINicole Thorne Jenkins, Dean, McIntyre School of CommerceDevin K. Harris, Professor of EngineeringMool C. Gupta, Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer EngineeringTomonari Furukawa, Professor of EngineeringAllan Tsung M.D., Professor and Chair Department of Surgery, Medical SchoolSallie Keller, Professor of Data ScienceHarsha Chelliah, Professor School of Engineering
Bottom line. Good guess.
There is every evidence that Mr. Mata is a fine man. His biography is inspiring.
But the people pictured above who are not Mr. Mata excelled and earned their plaudits and appointments before there was a UVa Division for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). Even before James Ryan was President. (more…)
Virginian Mark Christie is using his position on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a national pulpit to preach a message of energy reliability doom, and he is being heard.
It helps that he is not alone in spreading the alarm. It also helps that he is basing his warning on actual instances of energy shortages, from Texas’s deadly experience two years ago to the problems in the eastern United States just before Christmas 2022, which merely came close to catastrophe. (more…)
Navy helicopter overflies UVa Disharoon Park as team stands at attention for national anthem. Photos By Sanjay Suchak, [email protected]
by James C. Sherlock
Kerry Daugherty’s column this morning was heart-wrenching for anyone who cares at all about kids’ educations. The Norfolk School Board voted 6-1…
to begin teaching gender ideology, masturbation, sexual identity, homosexuality, abortion and lesbianism in middle and high schools.
To kids who cannot read or perform mathematics at grade level.
Now we get a look at what awaits any kid who escapes Norfolk public schools with sufficient skills and diversity credits to get accepted into the University of Virginia (UVa).
They will be welcomed by a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy so large, powerful and widely distributed that a DEI factotum will:
review and grade their application in the recruitment process;
exercise authority over the curriculum and faculty;
monitor their progress; and
interview each candidate for graduate school and meet with each annually to assess political views.
If I just told you how this works as above, you would think I was making it up.
You might think that a mediocre school system where barely half of all schools are fully accredited would put all of its energy and money into academics.
Oh, Bambi, you have no idea how public schools work, do you?
Oh, and there will be a fun condom demonstration for all of the kiddies, too!
Sigh.
The curriculum is called “Get Real: Comprehensive Sex Education That Works” and will be directed at kids in grades 6 through 10. It’s published by Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts so you know it won’t contain a whiff of Judeo-Christian values.
According to WTKR, most of the speakers at last night’s meeting were opposed to the expanded sex ed program:
The vast majority of speakers were critical of the curriculum for Norfolk middle and high school students, and believe the focus should be on other areas in schools.
“Get on the academics! Get off the sex,” one resident said before school board members.
Like so many who have pushed back against having an LGBTQ+ agenda foisted on their children by the government, concerned Norfolk parents were ignored by the wokes on the board. (more…)
Chincoteague Island would probably be just another quiet little town on a quiet little barrier island overlooked by beachgoers and tourists if weren’t for a 1946 visit from children’s author Marguerite Henry. The writer arrived intending to pen a book about the wild ponies on nearby Assateague Island and the annual Chincoteague pony penning and auction.
During her stay, Henry met a rancher by the name of Clarence Beebe who invited her to visit his ranch. There she met his grandchildren, Maureen and Paul Beebe. She also met a young filly named Misty who stole her heart. The pony was the daughter of Phantom, one of Assateague’s wild ponies that the Beebe children had worked hard to purchase during a previous auction.
When Henry learned the story of Phantom and Misty, she wrote the book, Misty of Chincoteague. It instantly became a best seller and was recognized by the American Library Association as Newbery Honor Book. In 1961, the book was made into a movie, Misty. (more…)
If one gets off the interstates and four-lane highways, there are interesting things to see along the roads of Virginia. This fellow watches over traffic on Rt. 45 between Farmville and Cumberland Courthouse.
There is clear work to do at UVa for its Title IX staff.
We’ll sample the problems.
Arts and Sciences. A look at the leadership team of the College and Graduate School of Arts and Sciences must especially be troubling to the Title IX staff, if indeed they examine it.
Dean Christa Acampora, her senior special assistant, her chief of staff, and Senior Associate Dean for Administration and Planning are all women.
All six of the Associate Deans are females:
Associate Dean for Social Sciences (Professor)
Associate Dean for Arts & Humanities (Professor)
Associate Dean for the Sciences and Research (Professor)
Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Academic Programs (Professor)
Associate Dean for Graduate Education (Associate Professor)
Correct. In Arts and Sciences, a female Associate Professor is Dean for Graduate Education, not a professor.
Since A&S does its own hiring and promotions, it should be pretty easy for the Title IX office to find the people to interview about discrimination on the basis of sex in that department.
School of Education and Human Development. The Dean and four of the six members of her leadership team at the ed school are women.
One of the two males among those seven people in leadership positions in that school is the Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Which is almost amusing if you think about it.
School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. Compared to those two schools, the engineering school leadership is relatively balanced. It includes:
a female Dean;
a female Senior Executive Assistant;
women hold four of the eight department chairs;
women are two of the seven Associate Deans;
a female Assistant Dean for Graduate Affairs;
a female Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Affairs;
a female Director of Operations, Engineering Systems and Environment;
a female Director, Center for Applied Mathematics.
Bottom line. I believe in enforcement of all laws.
And I am not even a male professor trying to get promoted in UVa’s School of A&S or of Education.
Nor am I Rachel Spraker, Senior Director for Equity and Inclusive Excellence, who leads UVa’s employment equity team.
It will be interesting to see what role the Provost, the immediate past Dean of A&S, plays in this.
Title IX is there to be enforced. Perhaps the Title IX office at the federal Department of Education will be interested in enforcing it.
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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