Tag: Guest contributors
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A Little Hope Goes a Long Way
by Carol J. Bova The University of Virginia Biocomplexity Institute’s COVID-19 Model Weekly Update for August 28 shows the R-naught reproduction rate was below 1.0 as of August 15 in every health region but the Northern one, and that number was barely over 1 at 1.018. A rate below 1.0 suggests that the viral spread…
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Don’t Mess with Mama Bears
by Chris Braunlich As a local School Board member many years ago, I learned the truism, “Never stand between a Mama Bear and her cub.” Education systems across the country are now learning it in real time. With most Virginia schools shut down for in-school learning, parents are trying desperately to find resources to supplement…
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Nursing Home PPE Shortages and Deaths Still Rising
by Carol J. Bova After a review of over 15,000 nursing home reports submitted to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS), Brian E. McGarry, David C. Grabowski, and Michael L. Barnett published a paper in Health Affairs on August 20th. In “Severe Staffing and Personal Protective Equipment Shortages Faced by Nursing Homes During the…
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Democrats Govern in the Dark
by Shaun Kenney Del. Glenn Davis, R-Virginia Beach, was greeted with this notification as he attempted to log in for virtual voting: Whoops. Garren Shipley with the House Republican Caucus was more direct: Right now a member could be muted, attempting to get the Speaker's attention, and be ignored. The press and public would have…
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Records? We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Records!
by Dave Webster On July 30, 2020, I served a Virginia Freedom of Information Act request on House of Delegates Speaker Eileen Filler-Corn regarding her removal of the Lee statue and other artifacts from the State Capitol, specifically inquiring as to who she hired, how much they were paid, and where she stored the artifacts…
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Bill Would Release Inmates Guilty of Involuntary Manslaughter
by Hans Bader Virginia’s legislature has a good chance of releasing many prison inmates guilty of involuntary manslaughter. In its special session this August, legislators plan to pass Senate Bill 5034, which would shorten many inmates’ sentences by increasing the number of credits they receive for good behavior while in prison. The bill would not…
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Big Prison Releases Likely as Legislators Exploit Pandemic
by Hans Bader With the public distracted by the pandemic, Virginia’s liberal legislature is likely to pass laws that would release many prisoners. A special legislative session begins on August 18, to address criminal-justice and COVID-19 issues. The Democratic Caucus has agreed to expand good-time credits for prisoners, effectively shortening their sentences. Parole would be…
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Woke War on America’s No. 1 High School
by Asra Q. Nomani Last month, Suparna Dutta spent countless hours researching how her son could safely return to school this fall as a rising sophomore at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a sprawling campus of classrooms, laboratories and open spaces with names like “Gandhi Commons” and “Einstein Commons,” outside the nation’s…
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Governor Northam, Crack Down on Nursing Homes, Not Restaurants
By Carol J. Bova Last week Julie Henderson, director of the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) Office of Environmental Health Services, said her agency was going to request $6 million for 92 positions to educate the public and businesses about executive orders and how to enforce them. If there is $6 million available for enforcement…
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Law School Deans Ask for Mandated Anti-Racism Training
by Hans Bader As lawyers like Barack Obama have noted, law school is already a year too long, with lots of nonessential classes. As a result, law students often graduate with over $150,000 in student-loan debt. Yet law students may soon be required to take more unnecessary classes. One hundred and fifty law school deans…
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Everyone Has the Capacity to Be Great
The following post republishes an excerpt from B.K. Fulton’s new book, “The Tale of the Tee: Be Kind and Just Believe.” Fulton, an African-American Christian, entrepreneur and philanthropist, co-wrote the book with Jonathan Blank, who is Jewish, a lawyer and an activist. The two men did not know each other prior to June 14, 2020.…
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No Equal Justice for Landlords
The Virginia State Supreme Court extended yesterday the judicial moratorium on eviction proceedings for another 28 days. The split decision prompted a blistering rebuke from D. Arthur Kelsey, which L. Steven Emmert summarized yesterday in the post below, republished here from his blog, Virginia Appellate News & Analysis. — JAB Today the court responds to…
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Why Have Nursing Home Outbreaks Continued?
by Carol J. Bova In a July 29 tele-press conference, Dr. Norman Oliver, Virginia’s Commissioner of Health, said, “We’ve made a concerted effort at testing in nursing homes and other congregate settings. … We’ve done 456 such point prevalence surveys [PPS] covering all of our skilled nursing facilities and correctional facilities.” As of June 5th,…
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BE HEARD Act Could Cripple Virginia Small Businesses
by Hans Bader Small businesses in Virginia could face a very different business climate next year due to Joe Biden’s support for laws like the BE HEARD Act. It could easily become law if Democrats take control of Congress and the presidency (as most pollsters expect). Under the BE HEARD Act, even the tiniest employers…
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Revisionist History Is a Fool’s Errand
by Bill O’Keefe One of the actions growing from the Black Life Matters movement is an effort to eradicate the memory of anyone associated with the Confederacy. Here in Richmond, Virginia Commonwealth University has a process in place that could lead to removing commemoration even of individuals who served as a doctor or nurse. The…