The Christopher Newport University basketball team is the national Division III champion!
It was an exciting finish.ย With the game tied and 4.3 seconds left, Trey Barber of CNU drove about 60 feet into the lane and put up a shot.ย The game-ending buzzer sounded just after the ball left his hand on its way to banking into the net.ย The winning shot can be seen here.
Not to be outdone, the CNU womenโs basketball team won its semi-final game and will be in the championship game to be held April 1.
Virginia Republicans, not noted for organization, common approaches or dexterity, have been granted a gift by Democrats if they will accept it.
The Democratic majority in the General Assembly rejected the appointment ofย Suparna Dutta, a mother, engineer and an immigrant from India, to the Board of Education.
This happened because Senate Democrats, stalwarts of the left flank of the culture wars, were badgered and finally whipped into a unanimous vote against Ms. Dutta by a strange but tight-knit political relationship between leftists and Muslim activists centered in Northern Virginia.
Leftists, led by Randi Weingartenโs American Federation of Teachers outpost, Virginia Educators United, considered Ms. Dutta too patriotic. And anti-socialist.
The Muslim cabal, led by the Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations and Gov. Northamโs notorious (too many Asians) Secretary of Education Atif Qarni, considered her, well, too Hindu.
The Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations,vocal in support of freedom of speech for the highly controversialย Abrar Omeish, does not offer the same to Ms. Dutta.
Her offense? She had been in a board meeting with Anne Holton, the wife of Sen. Tim Kaine. They were discussing the K-12 History Standards of Learning.
Ms.ย Holton said that she was “not comfortable” with calling the Constitution and the Declaration remarkable documents without qualifiers. And she defended strong central government planning and socialism as compatible with democracy and freedom.
Ms. Dutta debated her on those points.
That led, as such things do in modern America, to Ms. Dutta being called a “white supremacistโ by progressives.
And officially designated as one by theย unanimous vote of General Assembly Senate Democrats. (more…)
Well, it seems Mayor Levar Stoney has finally picked up on a problem on Richmondโs streets that many of us have known about for three-plus years. If you live downtown, or in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Randolph, Scottโs Addition, Byrd Park, Malvern Gardens, parts of Northside, Monroe Ward, or several other neighborhoods, the sound of jet-like roaring from annoying packs of motorcycles has permeated the air at night (usually on weekends) in a way that would wake Rip Van Winkle with ease.
And for three-plus years, nothing has been done. I have talked to those in public safety who have been told for years that these insanely loud gatherings of cyclists, noisemakers, and idiots โ whatever you want to call them โ are off limits for stopping or arresting, even if they gather by the dozens (even during the day) and violate the cityโs un-enforced noise ordinance or dozens of traffic laws in and around Bryan Park, Byrd Park, or on Broad Street.
But this past Thursday afternoon, several noisy riders caught the mayorโs attention in Shockoe Bottom. He not only called the police chief to track them with an airplane, but he also later made sure that all the local media outlets (all three TV stations and the Times-Dispatch) knew about it. The result was three young men from the Tri-Cities area were arrested (ages 19, 18, 17), one stolen gun was recovered, and one teen escaped. (more…)
A headline from the home pageof Save the Children:
“Climate Change Is a Grave Threat to Childrenโs Survival.โย
Climate change is thus not a โchallenge.” Not a threat to children’s happiness. But rather a threat to their โsurvival.โ
That is what children are being taught in many Virginia public school classrooms. Kids, being sponges, have learned that lesson, and are understandably severely depressed about it.
Parents and the Board of Education, take note. That cannot be allowed to continue.
For years, studies have shown the existence of psychological distress about climate change that has dimensions within feelings, emotions, cognition and behavior. That stress has been demonstrated to disproportionately affect young people.
The largest and most international study of climate anxiety in young people was peer-reviewed and posted in The Lancet in December 2021.
Regardless of one’s personal feelings about climate change, no caring adult would want, as revealed in that study, children feeling โvery or extremely worried” (46% of children in the United States) or, worse, negatively affected in their ability to function (26% of children in the United States).
None would want near half or more than half of children reporting feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless and guilty” and “betrayedโ about anything, much less a phenomenon that is measurable as a current event with which we are dealing but arguably is overstated by progressives as a future prospect.
Climate change can, and should, be taught to children. But it must be done without terrorizing them. That cannot be too much to ask.
Scaring children to turn them into political activists is child abuse per se.
During this time of year, the sports world is fixated on the NCAA Division I basketball tournament. Richmond fans give the VCU Rams a big sendoff.ย Hokie fans cheer their top-seeded women’s team. UVa. alumni die a little bit inside when the Cavaliers lose to Furman in the last seconds. Despite being assured in 2019 by the administration that, upon the firing of long-time basketball coach Tony Shaver, it was time for a “new chapter” inย Tribe basketball to include participation in the NCAA tournament; William and Mary alumni and fans are still waiting.
However, there is another basketball venue in which two Virginia schools are powerhouses: Division III. Last year, Randolph-Macon College in Ashland won the national championship. Before its defeat in the Sweet Sixteen earlier this month, it had compiled a record 64-home-game winning streak. Talk about giving the fan base some excitement!
The other Virginia college in top of the Division III tournament is Christopher Newport University in Newport News. Both the men’s and women’s basketball teams made the Final Four. This was the fourth time in the programs’ history that the men’s and women’s team have made the Final Four (although not in the same year until now). The men’s team made it to the Elite Eight last year. The women’s team was undefeated this year. Yesterday, the men’s team won its semi-final game to make it to the championship game for the first time. (more…)
Whether Dominion is building the solar farm or just buying its output makes a huge difference in cost.
by Steve Haner
In preparing for the latest round of new additions to its solar generation assets, Dominion Energy Virginia rejected eight privately- developed projects which were substantially cheaper than the projects it wanted to build on its own with ratepayer money. Just how much more expensive the company-owned projects will be is not clear, but the higher costs will be locked in for decades.
It is the 2020 Virginia Clean Economy Act which is driving the massive solar buildout, and one part of the statute is being read one way by the utility and another way by most of the other stakeholders. Dominion believes the law requires it to provide a fixed 35% of the new renewable electricity from third-party providers under long-term power purchase agreements (PPAs). It claims the law dictates that it must own 65% of the generation assets directly.
Just about every other party to the most recent application for new solar believes that 35% is a floor, a โno less thanโ target, and a higher percentage could be from PPAs. Entities taking that position include the Office of the Attorney General,ย environmental activists, and even large electricity users such as Walmart. The issue dominates final arguments on the application filed this week at the State Corporation Commission.
What is the solar price differential? As with far too many of these disputes, most of the key financial information is confidential, available only to case participants who have filed a promise to maintain secrecy. But in its final brief, the staff for Attorney General Jason Miyares (R) provides some dramatic comparisons. (more…)
Glenn Loury is one of the foremost African-American intellectuals in the country. No, actually, thatโs selling him short. Heโs one of the foremost intellectuals โ period — in America. As an economics professor at Brown University, an author, a columnist, a podcaster, and a self-described โliberal who has been mugged by reality,โ he has emerged as a leading conservative voice in the debate over Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
I saw Loury in action at an American Council of Trustees and Alumni event last year, and I can tell you, he is phenomenal. DEI in higher education, he charges, makes African-American students think of themselves as victims, deprives them of agency, and induces passivity and fragility. He also makes the case for Black patriotism. Black people, he says, are blessed to be Americans.
Thatโs not to say America is perfect. Persistent racial inequality is real, he says. But the higher-ed panaceas of โanti-racismโ and DEI are grievously flawed.
As the keynote speaker of The Jefferson Council’s April 4 annual meeting, Loury will explain whatโs wrong with DEI, suggest what can be done about it, and stand up for the founding fathers, the American Constitution, and the American democratic system that has created unparalleled opportunity for Blacks in the 21st century. (more…)
Exclusive: In 2019, Abrar Omeish canvassed for support at a fundraiser for the anti-Semitic group American Muslims for Palestine and said she wanted to change the โnarrativeโ on Palestinians. She was elected to office and launched a tirade against the state of Israel, which she smeared as an โapartheidโ nation, repeating the talking points of an anti-Semitic brigade in the Woke Army. Here is the full transcript.
Last month, at Luther Jackson Middle School, parents gasped as a Fairfax County Public Schools board member, Abrar Omeish, stumbled through a clumsy speech and called the historic battle of Iwo Jima โevil,โ even though the decisive victory by U.S. Marines led to eventual victory by Allied forces against Japan and Nazi Germany and its leader Adolph Hitler, ending the brutal genocide of Jews in the Holocaust.
In the days after, the remarks sparked a national outcry, even spilling over globally, with Virginia Lieutenant Governor Winsome Sears, a former U.S. Marine, assailing the remarks and a pair of comedians asking indelicately: โHow did this clown get elected to a school board?โ
Editorโs note: For Asraโs twitter conversation on the event see here.
I know the answer because I witnessed it happen, and the answer reveals an unholy alliance that I expose in my new book, Woke Army, between the Democratic Party and rigid anti-Israel, anti-Semitic establishment Muslim leaders in the United States. These establishment Muslims include activists, politicians, and academics โ from Womenโs March co-founder Linda Sarsour to Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI), University of California at Berkeley academic Hatem Bazian. and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).
What is particularly disturbing is that this Woke Army set its sights on K-12 schools and their children. School board member Abrar Omeish is Exhibit A in this dangerous alliance in K-12.
I saw it first-hand one Saturday night on Sept. 7, 2019, documenting the evening in video shared herefor the first time. (more…)
I have written for years about Virginia hospitals and their state oversight, including Virginiaโs monopolistic Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law and its administration by the Department of Health.
Virginia hospitals, and indeed those across the nation, are now under more stress than in generations.
Hospitals nationally are under financial pressures while public views of hospital finances are opaque and out of date.
Increasing shortages of qualified medical personnel are both driving up costs and challenging services in all of Virginiaโs hospitals. ย The worst shortages are where you think they are. ย In hospitals serving poorer populations.
…projects that if US workforce trends continue, more than 6.5 million healthcare professionals will permanently leave their positions by 2026, while only 1.9 million will step in to replace them, leaving a national industry shortage of more than 4 million workers.
That Oracle article is worth a read.
We will see increasing cutbacks of hospital services in Virginia. ย Some may find themselves unable to maintain some or all of their inpatient services.
A few may close.
I interviewed Virginiaโs Secretary of Health and Human Resources on this front-burner situation.
Every so often you might read some uplifting story in the news — a woman is rescued from a burning car, a charity raises money to buy Christmas toys for homeless tots — that makes you feel better about the world. Don’t be gulled. We live in the wealthiest society with the highest level of education and the most advanced technology the world has ever seen. Yet things are getting worse! Signs of the times pulled from today’s headlines:
Virginia sees highest number of babies born with syphilis in several decades.ย Reports WAVY-TV: The number of syphilis cases in Virginia has rebounded to the highest level in years.ย The rate among women has surged 159% between 2013 and 2021, which drives up the rate of syphilis in newborns.ย The Virginia Department of Health reported 20 cases of congenital syphilis last year, the highest number in three decades. Up to 40% are born stillborn or die from the infection. Survivors can have deformed bones, an enlarged liver, blindness or deafness.
Meanwhile, the death rate of American kids is skyrocketing. Deaths of American kids spiked 205% between 2019 and 2020, the result of increased car wrecks, shootings and drug overdoses, reports the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to Virginia Commonwealth University researcher Steven Woolf , even poisonings are up. Woolf said he has not seen an increase like this in his career. โThis is a red flashing light. We need to understand the causes and address them immediately to protect our children.โ Motor vehicle fatalities remain the highest cause of childhood death, but homicides and suicides are catching up.(more…)
For all those Northern Virginia critics of Richmond on this blog, e.g. Don Rippert, the Richmond Times-Dispatch reported yesterday that the Richmond metro area has grown faster than Northern Virginia for two years in a row.ย In fact, the growth rate of the Richmond metropolitan area is at least triple that of each of the rest of Virginia’s five largest metro areas.
Furthermore, a lot of that growth is coming from Northern Virginians moving to Richmond, drawn by the lower cost of living and aided by the growth of remote working.
Personally, I would not mind the area not growing so much, but it is nice to know that not all Virginians view the Richmond area as a provincial outpost.
Redistricting and the death of U.S. Representative Donald McEachin have voters in the Richmond area feeling as if they are in a combination of musical chairs and โWhoโs on first?โ We need a program to keep track of who is running for what.
For those readers of Baconโs Rebellion who donโt read the Richmond Times-Dispatch regularly or who have not bothered to keep up, but who enjoy political shenanigans and maneuvering, what follows is a summary of the events so far.
There is one factor that simplifies this narrative somewhat. The election districts involved are heavily Democratic; therefore, whatever the Republicans do does not matter much. Consequently, I will restrict the narration to the Democrats.
McEachinโs unexpected death a few weeks after the November general election in which he had been elected to his fourth term in Congress led to a cascade of special elections. Quickly declaring themselves candidates for the Democratic nomination for the Congressional seat were Sen. Jennifer McClellan (Richmond) and Del. Lamont Bagby (Henrico). Both were strong candidates. McClellan had represented the area, first in the House and then in the Senate, for many years, had been a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor, and was well respected. Bagby had been in the General Assembly for several terms and had a large public profile as chairman of the Legislative Black Caucus. (more…)
One of my ’64 classmates, and a good friend throughout our four years at Washington and Lee University, grew up in a Chicago suburb and graduated from a top high school there. Once during an idle moment while we were studying for a Charlie Turner exam in European history, I asked him why he, a big-city Illinois boy, chose to attend a small southern college like W&L. He answered, “Because my dad thought it was a good conservative school.”
Indeed, W&L was “a good conservative school” back then โ and one in the best and most authentic sense, despite some faults it has long since shed. Long gone are such perishable appendages to W&L’s conservatism as “conventional dress” (the requirement to wear a coat and tie to class and in public), the all-male student body, and the racial segregation that still lingered at the school in those days and was associated with the conservative element of society.
But for a long time thereafter, the more fundamental, rightly imperishable portion of W&L’s conservatism remained intact: the rigorous Honor System, the code of personal honor and gentlemanly conduct, the correspondingly pervasive ambience of civility and respect of persons, along with instructional and curricular adherence to the enduring truths bequeathed to us by Western Thought and Tradition.
Those imperishables were deeply rooted in W&L’s long history, ingrained in its traditions, and illumined by the inspiring examples of the lives and characters of our venerated namesakes, George Washington and Robert E. Lee. I think no one during my W&L years could have imagined that these W&L values and traditions, so fundamental to civilization itself, would ever come under full assault by educated people. (more…)
There has been a lot of chatter this week about Monopoly doing a Richmond version featuring notable places and landmarks to replace the well-known properties like St. Jamesโ Place, Reading Railroad, and Boardwalk.
According to Em Holter at the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the creators of Monopoly want to hear from YOU about what to include in the 22 spaces that make up a Richmond Monopoly board.
โโฆHasbro licensee Top Trumps USA, which is tasked with creating the board, will need to hear from Richmonders just what those signature sites are. The company is asking residents to land on chance, draw a card and submit their ideas at [email protected] as to what they would like to see featured on the Richmond Monopoly game before March 20.”
How many jokes can you make using โStop. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200,โ in reference to Richmond?
Ohhh, the possibilities are endless. I can imagine the snarky replies already submitted and soon to be, and it will probably have the Hasbro people wondering just what they have done.
According to Hasbro executive John Marano, โThis is a board game built by Richmond, for Richmond. I want them to be proud and I want them to be involved, because at the end of the day, thatโs what makes it successful for us.โ
The company has done city-specific boards in other cities like Pittsburgh, Kansas City, San Diego, Philadelphia, Boise, Portland, and Sacramento. J.C. Poma, vice president of community relations for Richmond Region Tourism said, โWeโre so excited to see what you come up with for this great board game.โ
The selections for that board will be interesting for sure when the game is released this fall, but few maps or boards will ever be as funny as the 2015 Judgmental Map of Richmond โ when you could still laugh at stuff like that. Maybe Monopoly will top that (but I doubt it from a humor perspective), so get busy and submit your suggestions to Hasbro before March 20!
Jon Baliles is a former Richmond City Councilman. This is an excerpt from the original article posted on his blog, RVA 5ร5. It is posted here with permission.
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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by Dick Hall-Sizemore
by Kenneth G. Everett
