Remind me why, exactly, Virginia permits massive out-of-state campaign contributions to dominate local races.
I canโt hear you.
Because we do, an out-of-state organization is by far the biggest donor to Virginia Commonwealthโs Attorneys races in elections of local prosecutors.
Justice and Public Safety PAC,ย based in Washington D.C., utterly dominatesย supportย to the campaigns of progressive district attorneys in Virginia. ย That PAC receives most of its funding from billionaire George Soros and his Democracy PAC. (more…)
People, get a grip! Emotions over this mask business are running out of control — on both sides of the debate.
On the right: Amelia Ruffner King, a 42-year-old Luray mother, has been charged with a misdemeanor for issuing threats to the Page County School Board. “No mask mandates,” theย Page Valley News reports her as saying. “My children will not come to school on Monday with a mask on, alright. Thatโs not happening. And I will bring every single gun loaded and ready,โ King continued as she was cut off a second time by the chairman for exceeding the three-minute time limit during the citizen comment period. Then as she left the room, she added: โIโll see yaโll on Monday.โ
That kind of rhetoric is unacceptable. In a civilized society people cannot publicly issue threats, even if the violence is only implied. (Not to mention, such rhetoric feeds the leftist narrative that the parents-rights movement is a potential terrorist threat to democracy.)
On the left: Michelle Cades, a Fairfax County mother, says her 8th-grade special-needs daughter will no longer be able to attend class if the mask mandate is lifted. Reports American University Radio: her daughter’s anxiety about COVID is so extreme that she needs extra time to navigate the halls between classes so she can avoid clusters of other students. “If suddenly lots of students were not wearing masks at all, either in the halls or in my kidsโ classes,” Cades says, “I honestly donโt know how my child would tolerate going to school.โ (more…)
In aย storyย “Polarized debate over masking In Northern Virginia schools” written for WAMU 88.5, American University Radio, Margaret Barthel provided an excellent and well-balanced recounting of that debate. ย I recommend it to you.
The picture below that accompanied it was literally worth a thousand words.
Annandale High School first day of school. Cheerleaders and the high school band greeted students on the first day of school in Fairfax County. Tyrone Turner / DCist/WAMU
Money in politics matters for a lot of reasons. Most of them are unsupportive of a republican form of government.
The majority of the Virginia political class is addicted to unlimited campaign donations, a powerful incumbent protection mechanism. They do not blush when they contend that transparency is all that is required when they oppose funding limits.
They avoid the fact that massive donations are transactional.
Dominion Energy’s enormous giving to Virginia candidates over the years has been pretty evenly split between the parties. Letโs call it what it is, a balanced investment portfolio. The ROI has been spectacular.
The Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP), enabled by Virginiaโs Campaign Finance Disclosure Actof 2006, is our primary resource for shedding light into the dark corners of the money flows.
This report singles out donations to candidates for the House of Delegates in the past two years. We can see where the money comes from and assess for ourselves what the donors may expect in return for their largesse. (more…)
I have seen considerable discussion on the internet recently about the relationship between COVID-19 and influenza. One thing that seems to be widely accepted is that influenza receded — indeed it practically disappeared — as COVID-19 surged. Where the disagreement occurs is over why influenza faded and now seems to be making a comeback.
The conventional wisdom is that the masking and social-distancing measures enacted to slow the transmission of COVID-19 also acted to slow the spread of influenza. That makes intuitive sense given that the measures were designed to fight influenza epidemics in the first place and were dusted off out of desperation to “do something” about COVID-19. If the conventional wisdom is correct, we would expect to see the relaxation of masking mandates under the Youngkin administration lead to an increase in reports of Influenza Like Illnesses (ILIs) compared to the normal seasonal pattern.
An alternative theory making the rounds is that the COVID-19 and influenza viruses compete with one another. COVID-19 triggers temporary immunological responses that suppress the flu. As COVID-19 advances, the flu retreats; as COVID recedes, the flu advances. (more…)
Katherine Rowe took the helm of The College of William & Mary July 1, 2018. In three-and-a-half years as president, she has replaced most of the deans and senior administrators carried over from the tenure of her revered predecessor W. Taylor Revely III. The overhaul is summarized in the graphic below, created by a W&M source who asks not to be identified.
Business School Dean Larry Pulley announced his resignation earlier this month. No replacement has been announced.
It is common for university presidents to replace senior officials with newcomers who reflect their priorities. In this case, achieving “diversity” appears to be a top consideration. Of the six major appointments, only one is a White male. That would be totally fine if the new appointees are the best-qualified people for their jobs. Are they? (more…)
You might want to update the Virginia Department of Education website. You’ve been Superintendent for Public Instruction for almost a week now, but here’s what the VDOE website shows on its “About” page as of Jan. 21, 10:33 a.m.
You’ve got a tough job ahead, and I suspect that you’re busier than a one-armed paper hanger right now. But you might want to remind people who’s boss.
As a handful of localities push to give government unions a monopoly over public employee contracts, lawmakers in Richmond are looking to protect public employees around the state.
Delegate Nick Freitas, R-Culpeper, has introduced a suite of bills to help protect the rights of public employees, promote union democracy and protect taxpayers.
The three bills would 1) ensure that public employees are informed of their rights to choose not to join and pay a union and allow them to leave the union at any time, 2) allow public employees the opportunity to vote to keep or remove the union at their workplace, and 3) prevent taxpayers from having to pay for union work.
The legislation is in response to troubling provisions that have emerged in some county and school district ordinances that are harmful to public employees and taxpayers. Last May, a new law went into effect that allowed localities to pass ordinances giving government unions a monopoly on contracts for public employees.
Here are more specifics on the three bills: (more…)
Excellent news for students in two Hampton Roads school districts.
On Thursday, the ever-sensible Chesapeake School Board voted 7-1 to abolish its mask mandate. Beginning Monday, students in Chesapeake can breathe free again!
The board is complying with an executive order signed by Gov. Glenn Youngkin on Saturday, removing the former governorโs mask mandate for all Virginia students in grades K-12.
In a more stunning move, the left-leaning Virginia Beach School Board also decided more or less to comply with Youngkinโs order by a vote of 9-2.
In a weird sleight-of-hand, the board voted to allow parents to opt their children out of its mask mandate beginning on Monday. The compromise was crafted by Superintendent Aaron Spence. It allows the Beach to keep its mandate in place, while letting parents decide if their kids should wear masks for seven hours a day. (more…)
Efforts to repeal or amend the Virginia Clean Economy Act are not the only bills pending at this 2022 General Assembly to mount a bit of defense against The War on Fossil Fuels.
If the City of Richmond decides in the future to close its municipal natural gas utility, a step its governing body endorsed in concept last year, it would first need to seek a buyer for the operation under legislation just filed.
Call it the Right to Natural Gas Bill, or โWe Are Not San Franciscoโ legislation, in honor of the California city and region where the movement to prohibit natural gas use in buildings and even restaurant kitchens is growing.
Proposed House Bill 1257, introduced by Delegate Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City, calls for three years’ notice to customers of any such effort at a shut down, and a fire-sale auction of the assets to private owners if a negotiated transfer is not worked out. It would also prohibit local ordinances that restrict the use of natural gas in new or existing businesses and prevent existing municipal gas suppliers from denying new connections they could otherwise support.
Non-utility gas providers, usually of propane or similar products not provided by a formal utility, would enjoy similar protections if this bill passes and is signed. (more…)
Pat Herrity of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors yesterday released on his Twitter account this picture of a teaching aid used in a Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) classroom.
There is no indication yet of the grades in which โprivilege Bingoโ is being offered, or of the rules of the โgame.” We know for sure which kids are the losers. All of them.
The kids who check the most boxes are singled out as privileged, thus not responsible for their success. ย Perhaps they are oppressors. ย Weโll need to find out exactly what was said.
The kids who check the fewest boxes are humiliated in front of their peers. ย Whatever may be the words coming out of the teacherโs mouth, those kids are learning false lessons:
that the world wonโt work for them;
that they have little chance to succeed no matter how hard they try;
that personal agency is a myth; and
that school is a waste of time.
The common threads in this โgameโ for all children, that privilege at birth is destiny and that personal responsibility and effort play only minor roles in success, are as devastatingly false and hurtful as anything one can tell a kid.
Virginians demand a fair investigation. If a violation of a state-granted license or licenses is found, we will demand accountability.
I note that division superintendents are licensed by the Board of Education https://www.baconsrebellion… should that prove the source of the problem in this case.ย (more…)
So, what does a COVID-19 containment strategy look like without the activist governor’s usual go-to tools of mask and vaccination mandates? Governor Glenn Youngkin has provided the answer with the COVID Action Plan he unveiled this morning.
The key elements are: (1) encourage (but don’t compel) people to get vaccinated, (2) help healthcare providers cope with the surge of hospitalizations caused by the Omicron variant, and (3) re-prioritize testing to identify the virus in K-12 students, healthcare professionals, and medically vulnerable individuals.
โTodayโs announcements are designed to give Virginians the tools and resources needed to make the best decisions for their families, strengthen our hospital systems, and ensure a strong recovery as we encounter new challenges associated with the pandemic that has become part of our everyday life,โ Youngkin said in a press release announcing the plan.
The initiatives follow a Day One executive order prohibiting vaccination mandates. Most of Virginia’s public universities, which had made mandates the centerpiece of their COVID-19 strategies, have announced that they will comply with the order. Battles with local school boards are still being fought over requirements to wear masks in public K-12 schools. (more…)
School children wearing masks outside at recess. Courtesy of Albemarle County Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock
Virtually all parents pay close attention to their children’s report cards.
That is, however, a fruitless exercise if the grades do not reflect actual learning.
I spoke the other day to a senior school official who related to me his own story. One of his children, a second grader, brought home straight Aโs in math.
Yet this parent, with a Ph.D. in Education, and his wife, herself a second grade teacher, knew for a fact that the child did not yet understand math at her second grade level.
Another friend with credentials similar to those parents reminded me today that teachers test what they teach. In her experience, the teacher likely did not mislead on purpose. An alternate explanation is that the teacher was not testing to the state standard, but rather to her own.
Those two parents had the education and professional experience to recognize and address the issue with their child. Many parents do not.
It is time to find out how extensive this problem is in Virginia. (more…)
Darkness descends upon the academical village. Photo credit: Washington Post
by Joel Gardner
One of my earliest memories is sitting with my mother as a pre-kindergartener watching the McCarthy hearings in the spring of 1954. Television was a new medium for most American households and the bombastic anti-communist antics of the junior senator from Wisconsin held the population enthralled for months. But, while television gave Joe McCarthy the exposure and notoriety he craved, it also spelled his doom, as more and more citizens came to realize that his agenda of intolerance and intimidation did not represent the American way. In fact, so many Americans were disenchanted and disgusted with the senatorโs methodology that the term โMcCarthyismโ became a widespread derogatory term โ which would become synonymous with authoritarian behavior characterized by thought indoctrination, loyalty oaths, and intolerance and punishment for dissenting views.
For over ๏ฌve decades, most American institutions eschewed tactics and agendasย that reeked of McCarthyism. Which is why it is so disheartening and frightening to witness so many current institutions embracing the attributes of
McCarthyism โ especially the one institution where it should be absolute anathema, but where it is most pronounced โ our college campuses.
Unfortunately, this includes my alma mater, the University of Virginia, whose founders, Thomas Je๏ฌerson and James Madison, were the individuals most responsible for our Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights, the two pillars of American individual rights and freedoms. And just as the illuminating screen of television revealed the evils of McCarthyism, for those concerned with a free exchange of ideas and a level playing ๏ฌeld of learning in higher education, it is important to shine the light of truth on the inappropriate and dangerous indoctrination ๏ฌourishing at UVA. (more…)
What is it with school divisions?ย I am not talking about masks or anything about COVID, but about their panic at the mere mention of snow.ย This has been a longtime complaint of mine.
The Wednesday afternoon weather forecast for the Richmond area on Thursday called for temperatures in the high 30s to the low 40s, with rain in the morning gradually turning into snow in the afternoon with an accumulation of perhaps an inch.
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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