Tag: Kerry Dougherty
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COVID’s Latest Victims: Those Afraid to Return to the World
Many are experiencing significant anxiety as the world slowly reopens. Join VA COPES for a free virtual event on July 22 and July 29: “Coping with Re-Entry Anxiety.” https://t.co/BVofTkIWX5 pic.twitter.com/wCaLzxi2e1 — Va Dept of Health (@VDHgov) July 8, 2021 by Kerry Dougherty If there’s one thing we can all agree upon it’s that mental health…
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Terry McAuliffe — Call Him Crazy
by Kerry Dougherty Call me crazy, but I think it should be easier to vote than it should be to buy a gun. — Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) July 6, 2021 OK, Terry, you asked for it. We’re going to call you crazy because the notion that it’s easier to buy a gun in Virginia than…
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What’s Next? Vaccine Goon Squads?
by Kerry Dougherty Well, it looks like America went from 15 days to slow the spread to vaccine goon squads fanning out across the country, going door to door to demand that everyone get vaccinated against COVID-19. Who didn’t see this coming? According to a story in The New York Post, President Joe Biden announced…
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Were Virginia Lawmakers Stoned When They Legalized Pot?
by Kerry Dougherty No one ever accused the current members of the Virginia General Assembly of crafting elegant laws. But the new bill that legalized marijuana this week is so confusing that the lawmakers must have been stoned when they wrote it. The measure was supposed to take effect on January 1, 2024, with a…
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The Louise Lucas Recall Attempt
by Kerry Dougherty This may come as a shock, but I don’t like what’s happening to State Sen. Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth. No, this isn’t a coded message to signal that I’m being held somewhere against my will. I honestly believe that attempts to get the courts to remove her from office are misguided. Make that…
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How 15 Days to Slow the Spread Became 475
by Kerry Dougherty At last! Four hundred and seventy five days after Gov. Ralph Northam first declared a coronavirus state of emergency, his latest order is set to expire today. God willing. I can’t be the only one holding my breath, wondering if the hysteria that Team Apocalypse is ginning up over the Delta variant…
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Same Politicians Who Legalized Weed and Casino Gambling Killed Skill Games
by Kerry Dougherty For more than 30 years Virginia’s been breathlessly legalizing vices. It began when voters approved a state-run numbers racket – the lottery – in 1987. Since then, all manner of wagering has been approved for our gambling pleasure. Virginia now has horse racing, off-track betting, sports betting and soon, casinos. But in…
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Loudoun County School Board Unplugs the Public
by Kerry Dougherty Well, THAT wasn’t a good look. Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies broke up a boisterous school board meeting Tuesday night, handcuffing and arresting one parent just as the assembled crowd finished singing “The Star Spangled Banner.” This came after the school superintendent abruptly ended a public meeting and declared it an “unlawful assembly.”…
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Virginia’s Parole Board Squirts WD-40 on That Revolving Door
by Kerry Dougherty Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: A guy commits murder and is sent to prison for decades. Like everyone else in the pen he insists he’s innocent. Finally, a gullible, soft-on-crime parole board buys his sob story and turns him loose on society. Next thing you know the ex-con’s committed…
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I Still Miss Dad After 23 Years
by Kerry Dougherty I wrote this column in June of 1998, just weeks after my father’s sudden death of a heart attack. (He died riding his exercise bike at age 74.) In many ways, this post is dated. Yet I hope it still is meaningful. I loved the guy. To make sense of the piece…
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Who’s Setting Car Fires in Norfolk’s Ghent Neighborhood?
by Kerry Dougherty Who’s setting those car fires in Ghent? Oh, you haven’t heard about the arsons? Buckle up. Last Friday night, as rain drenched Norfolk, Patrick and Tiffany McGee and their two young sons were watching TV in their picturesque Cape Cod with a picket fence on the corner of Redgate and Claremont Avenues…
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Beach School Board’s Meeting Was Legal. But It Wasn’t Right.
by Kerry Dougherty Good news for elected officials who find the public’s presence at their meetings a pesky distraction, who give half-hearted, last-minute notice of meetings and then lock the doors to the building where the meeting is being held. It’s all legal! Yep, apparently Virginia’s Freedom of Information Act law has broad exemptions for…
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At Least Omeish’s Commencement Speech Wasn’t Boring
by Kerry Dougherty Remember your high school commencement address? Of course you don’t. It was delivered by some semi-important person from your community who read a boilerplate speech off 3×5 file cards. An unwritten rule of graduation speeches declared that speakers must expound on three things: “milestones,” “success” and the “future.” So, as he or…
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Pharrell Offers Low-Income Families School Choice
by Kerry Dougherty I don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say Pharrell Williams is much more than a hugely successful rapper, musician and songwriter. He’s something of a visionary. Where others see insurmountable problems, Pharrell finds opportunity. For instance, Virginia Beach struggled for years with the annual College Beach Weekend in April when tens of…
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No Surprises in Democratic Primary
Primary Day Prediction: Va Dems will nominate a ticket today less diverse than the @VA_GOP ticket then spend the next 5 months calling the more diverse ticket racists. — John Whitbeck (@JohnWhitbeck) June 8, 2021 by Kerry Dougherty Well, it looks like at least half of what the former chair of Virginia’s Republican Party predicted…