Virginia Tech is implementing a new admissions-application process for the next academic year. Snowed under by a record 57,600 first-year applications last year, Tech will be using AI to help sort through all those essays.
The changes include shifting the university’s early admissions application deadline from Nov. 15 to Nov. 1 and integrating a new approach to evaluating applicant essays that pairs human reviewers with an artificial intelligence (AI)-supported model developed by Virginia Tech researchers.
The new review process replaces a system in which each essay was initially scored by two human reviewers with a model that includes one human reviewer and one AI reviewer.
Said Juan Espinoza, vice provost for enrollment management: “Utilizing AI will enable us to review essays more quickly and consistently, which benefits students by allowing our admissions committee to make admissions decisions earlier.”
Holy smokes. Students are increasingly using AI to write their college essays. Now universities are using AI to evaluate those essays. Where does this end? — JAB
It’s conventional wisdom that voters don’t read the position papers of political candidates. If so, John Reid’s foray into K-12 school reform may not do much to energize his campaign for lieutenant governor. That would be a shame because, love him or hate him, Reid speaks common sense with clarity on a discussion made opaque by buzzwords and mumbo jumbo that substitute for thought.
Sounding the theme that gave Governor Glenn Youngkin his winning edge four years ago, Reid says, “parents aren’t the problem, they’re the foundation. And it’s time we treat them that way.”
Reid will be attacked as radical and transphobic no matter what. But voters should note that he doesn’t call for purging leftist content about sexuality, ideology and gender identity from schools. Rather, he wants to shield children from such controversial material without parents giving their OK. The same goes for mental-health and gender-related services, which should never be provided without parents being notified.
“Families,” says Reid in his Reid Revolution account on Substack, “deserve full visibility” into what their children are being exposed to.
The culture war raging in Virginia public schools is about whether the so-called “progressives” who have captured the K-12 education system in many localities can use their power to drive radical social transformation in defiance of the wishes of many if not most parents. Reid is basically saying, to borrow a line from Pink Floyd, “Hey, teacher, leave our kids alone!”
Virginia Beach voters will decide in November whether to change their system of electing local government officials. The system in place now, dictated by an unelected judge with the advisement of a biased California professor, conflicts with the city charter.
That California professor helping the case, Bernard Grofman, is a favorite choice of Democrats as a consultant in redistricting cases across the nation. District Court Judge Raymond Jackson appointed Grofman as a “Special Master” to completely rewrite the Virginia Beach voting system. In 2021 Grofman trashed Donald Trump and Republicans, calling them liars and conspiracy theorists. Now he’s helping Jackson force the city of Virginia Beach to change the way it elects its city council and school board.
The question on the November 4th ballot is “Should the method of city council elections set forth in the Virginia Beach City Charter be changed from a modified 7-3-1 system to a 10-1 system?”
The 10-1 system put in place by Judge Jackson consists of 10 district seats and 1 at-large seat on the city council and school board. For city council, the at-large position is that of Mayor. In the modified 7-3-1 system, there are 7 districts, 3 at-large, and 1 Mayor for city council. For school board it is 7 districts and 4 at-large positions. Continue reading.
I didn’t know it but, apparently, I’m part of the vast right-wing conspiracy. I’m so clued in to the machinations of the conservative claque seeking to rid higher-ed of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion that I predicted that George Mason University President Gregory Washington might be forced to step down over DEI policy.
As the old saying goes, the perception of having power is in itself a form of power. In a column published Tuesday, contributors to the Chronicle of Higher Education lumped me with the Department of Justice, the Youngkin administration, the Manhattan Institute, the Heritage Foundation, the National Review, and the Washington Free Beacon as part of the shadowy army arrayed against DEI at GMU and the University of Virginia.
That’s good company. It’s nice to be part of the power elite. I only wish my co-conspirators knew it!
I doubt that most of the individuals cited in the Chronicle column have the slightest idea who I am. But as long as campus lefties think I’m part of the conservative media elite, that’s consolation of a sort.
Let me launch the critique of this latest nonsense with the paragraph in the Chronicle that’s all about me (!!) as a way to approach the column’s larger thesis.
The Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA) mandates that Dominion Energy Virginia, the state’s major electric utility, rapidly shift its power generation to wind and solar. Dominion’s latest Integrated Resources Plan (IRP) provides dramatic evidence that this shift does not work, making blackouts inevitable. Making it work would be fantastically expensive with the average customer paying over $40,000 for batteries by 2030.
First let’s look at how it does not work. There is a nifty little graphic showing this on page 62 of the IRP which is here.
The graphic summarizes Dominion’s VCEA compliance plan. It is a vertical bar showing the installed mix of generating capacity in 2030. The vertical scale is megawatts (MW) and the height of the bar is the projected maximum summer power demand for that year, which is about 33,000 MW.
The bar is divided into different colored segments for each generator type such as solar, wind, gas, nuclear, etc. The height of each segment is the amount of installed capacity at that time in MW.
Dominion actually flags solar pointing out that it makes up 23% of the available capacity. They also point out that solar, wind and batteries together make up 34% of capacity. Note that the battery segment is very small and batteries are not generators. The bar also includes a little bit of imported power making installed capacity less than peak demand.
The problem is obvious. Peak summer demand typically occurs after 4 p.m. when there is no solar generation. Moreover, it is often caused by a stagnant high-pressure system called a Bermuda high with very low winds so there is no wind power either. Plus, these highs are regional in scale so the neighbors may have no extra electricity to sell.
Abigail Spanberger, the Democratic candidate for governor, has released her “Growing Virginia Plan” for economic development. I’ll save you the trouble of reading it and boil it down for you: Do more of what Virginia is already doing.
The only new thought reflected in this compendium of business-as-usual practices is to denounce the “chaos in Washington” unleashed by the Trump administration’s tariffs and DOGE initiative. Translation: Whatever ails Virginia is Trump’s fault.
Otherwise, the “plan” does little more than restate the aims of existing state programs in workforce development, international trade and marketing. There is no analysis of Virginia’s economic challenges (other than taking note of Trump-generated chaos), no data, no goals, no vision, and nothing remotely original or fresh. As governor, it appears, Spanberger would consign economic development to the existing bureaucratic apparatus without changing a thing.
Unfortunately, the Republican challenger Winsome Earle-Sears, who has yet to issue her own plan, boggled the response. Her campaign issued a statement referred to Spanberger as “Spendberger” and likened her program to an “arsonist’s plan on fire safety.” While rhetorically colorful, the response ignored the “Growing Virginia Plan” in favor of attacking her track record as a congresswoman who supported inflationary Biden initiatives. Translation: Whatever ails Virginia is Spanberger’s and Biden’s fault.
Child sex predators, rapists, repeat offenders, and fugitives from justice are among those released to the streets despite ICE detainers.
by Victoria Manning
A FOIA request by Restoration News reveals that the sanctuary jurisdiction Fairfax County has released 205 illegal alien criminals onto the streets since February 2025. Only 7 arrested criminals were turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Among those released to the streets — rather than taken into ICE custody — were violent criminals including an accused child rapist, child sexual predators, fugitives from justice, and over a dozen charged with malicious wounding or strangulation.
Democrats’ sanctuary policies protect violent illegal aliens at the expense of the safety of Americans—including children.
Here is a portion of the charges against the illegal aliens released to the streets in Fairfax since February:
Vehicular manslaughter with a DUI
10 charges related to child sex crimes, including:
Rape of a victim under 13
Aggravated sexual battery of a child under 13
Forcible intercourse with victim under 13 and aggravated sexual battery with 2 victims under 13
July 2025 PJM capacity auction for contracts beginning July 2026
by Steve Haner
The regional electricity marketplace that serves Virginia, PJM Interconnection, was shocked (pardon the pun) by last year’s high price auction to secure future excess generation capacity, needed for days of tight supply. In response, several changes were made to the process to lower the price faced by the member utilities and their customers.
It didn’t make much difference. For the PJM region, the bid price for future firm generation capacity has settled at $329.17. Last year, the price was set at $269.92 for most of the PJM territory. The new price is an improvement for the Dominion Energy Zone, which reached $444.26 in the 2024 auction, and for the Baltimore Gas and Electric Zone, which hit $466.35. For that price, the generator promises to make available one megawatt of generation for the entire day.
The prices from the summer 2024 auction are now being paid by the PJM load serving entities, including Virginians. The auction looks forward by a year, and the new $329.17 price will apply for contracts starting in July 2026. Just two years ago, that price was less than $30 per megawatt day. Compared to last year, the pressure on Dominion’s part of Virginia dropped but utilities in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and other parts of PJM are looking at even higher costs, including those in Western Virginia outside Dominion Zone.
July 24 PJM capacity auction results, setting prices beginning July 2025.
One of the reforms imposed after the 2024 auction was to set an artificial cap on the price. The auction that started last week went right up to that pre-agreed maximum price of $329.17. Without the cap, it likely would have been higher. Does that indicate the rules interfered with finding the correct price?
The underlying supply and demand mismatch that is driving this should concern all energy customers in the PJM region. This is yet another sign that PJM is losing too much of its dispatchable coal and gas generation, although another of the reforms applied was to keep open several plants that were otherwise going to close. Even with that extra supply, prices stayed high. Like the price cap, there is an economics message in that, too.
Northern Virginia’s business community rises from its slumber to address challenges of the AI revolution.
by James A. Bacon
Like the legendary Rip Van Winkle who fell asleep for 20 years and woke up to a whole new world, Northern Virginia’s business community has emerged from its lengthy snooze to realize that it needs to reinvent its regional economy. The result is a new “NOVA Roadmap” that seeks to free the region from its dependence upon federal employment and contracting.
The Fairfax Chamber of Commerce plan seeks to hitch Northern Virginia’s economy to emerging, fast-growth technology sectors by building data centers and other digital infrastructure and creating a new curriculum for developing critical skills needed in the emerging economy.
“’Wait and see’ is not an option,” said Fairfax Chamber CEO Julie Coons when introducing the plan Monday. “Urgent and coordinated action is essential. Recent federal workforce losses could cost Virginia billions in GDP and tax revenue if we fail to act.” (See the Richmond Times-Dispatch account here.)
Northern Virginia was the dynamo that drove economic growth in Virginia for nearly a half century. But the growth machine, dependent upon surging federal spending, has been sputtering for years now. Population and job growth in the Northern Virginia MSA (Metropolitan Statistical Area) have slowed to the point where they have been overtaken by metropolitan Richmond metro, which no one would call a boom town.
A Henrico judge partially reversed the state’s ban on ‘conversion therapy’ for minors in a win for free speech and religious liberty.
by Samantha Flom
Virginia became the first southern state to outlaw so-called “conversion therapy” focused on helping children embrace their God-given gender and sexual orientation in 2020.
At a time when kids’ mental health is sinking to new lows, the law has limited their options for help by barring licensed counselors from performing “any practice or treatment” aimed at changing a minor’s sexual orientation or “gender identity.”
Now, the state is walking back that harmful policy.
A Henrico County Circuit Court judge ordered on June 24 that licensed counselors may legally provide talk-based therapy to minors to help them overcome unwanted feelings of gender dysphoria or same-sex attraction.
When Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently laid off 1,350 employees as part of a broader restructuring effort, the media response was swift and emotional. Stories of tearful farewells, union outrage, and dramatic claims of “fascism” filled the airwaves. One would think these federal employees had lifetime appointments and that accountability or right-sizing government were foreign concepts.
But this moment deserves a broader lens. Government job losses, while painful, are not unique. Nor are they the most damaging.
The State Department’s workforce had grown from 57,340 in 2007 to over 80,000 by 2024. The recent layoffs represent just a fraction, less than 2%, of the total. They were part of a legitimate effort by the Trump-Rubio administration to streamline bureaucracy, eliminate redundant offices, and align the Department with core national priorities, cutting positions tied to DEI, climate alarmism, and fringe ideological programs.
Yet while federal layoffs dominate headlines, there is deafening silence when government policies destroy jobs in the private sector.
Where was the national outrage when President Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One, killing as many as 11,000 blue-collar jobs overnight? Where were the candlelight vigils for the 80,000 coal workers displaced during the Obama years, victims of regulatory assaults and a politicized “war on coal”? Instead of assistance, they were told to “learn to code.”
David Ambrosio Herrera walked out of the Albemarle County Circuit Court Friday. Photo credit: The Daily Progress
by James A. Bacon
Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials have discovered that an easy way to crack down on illegal-alien criminals is to pick them up in local courthouses where they are processed for alleged crimes and misdemeanors. It strikes me that ICE is entirely within its rights, but the strategy does have unintended consequences. Scared that they’ll be nabbed and deported, some undocumented immigrants have skipped their hearings.
Such appears to be the case in Chesterfield County where ICE detained fifteen people over a four-day period in June, mostly for traffic violations. This week, ICE returned to the Chesterfield courthouse looking for three more people. One appeared and was detained but the other two were no-shows. Commonwealth’s Attorney Erin Barr says some aliens “see our courthouse as a place to fear.” (Interestingly, WTVC-News refers to them as “victims.”)
People can have a reasonable debate over whether it is a good or bad idea for ICE to detain illegal aliens at Virginia courthouses. But I’m not much impressed by critics who have taken to demonstrating against the practice in places like Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Word went out Friday that ICE was planning to deport 36-year-old David Ambrosio Herrera, who was charged with exposing himself to a girl at an Albemarle County bus stop. A “larger-than-normal crowd” had gathered inside the circuit court gallery. Daily Progress reporter Hawes Spencer noted that there were “some tense moments” as lawyers braced themselves for an ICE raid.
In this case, according to the Daily Progress, the victim — the real one — was an 11-year-old girl. Prosecuting attorney Armin Zijerdi said Ambrosio Herrera lives near the girl and frequents the same bus stop.
Probably not. And Winsome Sears, who has failed to capitalize on her position as lieutenant governor, is no exception.
Paul Goldman
Virginia’s political reporters and pundits need to be honest. Here in 2025, being a Black woman is a very serious political disadvantage for GOP gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears. No useful public interest is served by doing some Epstein-style discombobulating. The truth is what it is.
Fact 1: No Black woman has ever been elected Governor of any state. Do you honestly believe there haven’t been many qualified Black women over the years to serve in these positions?
Fact 2: In 1989, Doug Wilder became the first Black person elected Governor of any state in the country, not only in Dixie. Since then, several dozen Black candidates have tried to be elected Governor in the southern states. They have all been defeated. Even when starting out as the polling favorite. Just coincidence?
Fact 3: Several highly qualified Black women ran for the Virginia Democratic Party gubernatorial nomination in 2021. They received a combined 31.6% of the vote. Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax, a Black man, got 3.6%. Meaning the three Black candidates got 35.4% combined. Based on Dr. Larry Sabato’s research over the years, it would seem about 35% of the primary votes were from Black Virginians.
Meaning: The two black women candidates – both incumbent legislators and considered to be exceptionally qualified — likely got less than 5% combined of the white vote outside of the their legislative districts. Five percent! I thought young Democrats say they’re woke? They couldn’t find even one Black person qualified for the job?
The issue goes back to 2020, when the General Assembly passed the “Clean Economy Act,” which set ambitious goals for renewable technologies in Virginia, mandating that they comprise 100% of Virginia’s energy load by 2045. (Right now, it’s less than 10%).
Of course, nobody at that time understood how the “AI” revolution would transform the grid: creating a massive need for new data centers and related electrical infrastructure. The resulting demand will double Virginia’s expected need for electricity.
Of course, the most common form of renewable energy comes from solar panels. As a State Senator, I authored the “Solar Freedom Act” of 2012 which allowed widespread use in suburban HOA communities.
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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