Tag: Kerry Dougherty
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Throwing Kids into the Volcano to Appease the COVID Gods
by Kerry Dougherty Am I the only one who noticed that once Joe Biden became president news outlets lost interest in the COVID scorecards they featured prominently during the pandemic? Remember those screaming headlines about cases and deaths that ginned up the hysteria daily? Just a memory now. But guess what? I’ve been quietly keeping…
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Beach School Board’s Clown Show
by Kerry Dougherty It’s tempting to call the latest shenanigans by the Virginia Beach School Board a clown show. I probably shouldn’t, though, since that insults the proud tradition of clowning and implies that there is something humorous about the board’s ham-handed attempts to circumvent open meeting laws and its quiet determination to infect the…
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COVID-19 Killed the American Work Ethic
by Kerry Dougherty Sometimes nothing will lift a kid’s mood like a McDonald’s Happy Meal. On Tuesday I was running a raft of errands with a 5-year-old strapped into the back seat. As it crept past lunchtime and she was clearly starving, I saw the blessed Golden Arches. While we idled in a long ribbon…
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Vicky Manning: Tuesday’s School Board Meeting Was Illegal
by Kerry Dougherty There was an empty chair at Tuesday’s Virginia Beach School Board meeting. Not that the public could see. It appears the meeting wasn’t televised. That seat should have been occupied by Vicky Manning, one of a handful of good government types on that alarmingly woke body. Manning refused to attend because she…
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David Allen Simpkins: Parole Board Poster Boy
by Kerry Dougherty I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering why I’m writing about Virginia’s rogue Parole Board AGAIN. After all, we ran a series of stories last spring about the eight murderers they turned loose. We’ve reported on the more than 100 parolees they took off of supervised probation. We’ve covered the way they…
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Drive-By Shooter Needs a Long Spell in a Cell
by Kerry Dougherty Call me an idealist if you will, but I believe a mother and her daughter ought to be able to go to Lynnhaven Mall on a Monday afternoon in September and drive away without taking a bullet to the neck. And if someone is convicted of the September 14th shooing of a…
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John Warner, Virginian
by Kerry Dougherty John Warner, who died Tuesday at the age of 94, was an accidental senator. Had it not been for the plane crash that killed Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate Richard Obenshain in August of 1978, Warner would have simply been a former Secretary of the Navy who came in second in…
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Virginia Democrats Are Stuck with the Parole Board Scandal
by Kerry Dougherty Looks like someone’s trying to defuse what’s going to be a red hot campaign issue this fall: Public safety. Gov. Ralph Northam yesterday boasted that Virginia had one of the lowest recidivism rates in the country. He claimed that only 24% of the commonwealth’s convicts reoffend within four years of release. That is good…
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Good News for Corruptocrats
by Kerry Dougherty Listen closely. Hear that? That’s the sound of champagne corks popping as local corruptocrats and sleazy businessmen celebrate the continued demise of local newspapers. I’m talking, of course, about The Virginian-Pilot. Or what’s left of it. And The Daily Press. Perhaps you heard. On Friday, shareholders of The Tribune Company, which owns…
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Parole Scandal Judge on “Extended Leave”
by Kerry Dougherty Well, this is odd. According to The Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Virginia Beach judge who was a key player in the Virginia Parole Board scandal, is missing. So to speak, anyway. There is no Amber Alert. And no indication that Adrianne Bennett is ill. Instead, according to a front-page story in Thursday’s Times-Dispatch, she’s…
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That’s Our Money. Give It Back.
by Kerry Dougherty We’re rich! Really rich. Rolling in dough kind of rich. Perhaps you heard: Against all odds, Virginia is ending the fiscal year $500 million in the black. On top of that, state officials are drooling over another $4.3 billion in federal loot that is expected to drop momentarily. Wait. There’s more. Any…
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Masks on Kids: State-Sponsored Child Abuse
by Kerry Dougherty If you came here expecting to find fountains of gratitude to Virginia’s governor for restoring liberties he should not have removed in the first place, you’ll be disappointed. Ralph Northam was prepared to keep the commonwealth’s face mask mandate in place for months, until he was blindsided by the CDC on Thursday…
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Will Northam Cling to Mask Mandates?
by Kerry Dougherty Well, the ball’s now in Ralph Northam’s court. The CDC announced yesterday that it’s recommending vaccinated people lose the masks. Indoors and out. Imagine that! And, no, the science didn’t magically change yesterday. Many of us knew all along that a piece of cloth couldn’t stop a virus. What changed is that…
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Gas Lines and Headlines
by Kerry Dougherty It’s tempting to mock the folks lined up at gas stations these past few days as “panic buyers.” You know, fearful, gas-addicted, greed balls. Smug members of the media have been quick to blame them for the shortages. The Washington Post: Panic buying strikes Southeastern United States as shuttered pipeline resumes operations New…
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Gas Shortages: Deja Vu All Over Again
by Kerry Dougherty It’s like old times. 1979 to be exact. Just 3 1/2 months into the Biden administration and we’ve gone from energy independence to gas lines. What’s next, 18% percent mortgages? Or will Joe borrow Jimmy Carter’s old cardigan and urge us all to turn down the thermostats? Yep, everywhere I went yesterday…