Author: James A. Bacon
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FCPS Legal Spending Soars
Fairfax County Schools’ legal bills: $12 million and counting by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora On March 23, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Michelle Reid announced that she is enlisting the services of yet another law firm, McGuireWoods, to “investigate” the district’s latest scandal — allegations that an 18-year-old illegal immigrant fondled the genitals of several female students in Fairfax High…
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Dem Bill Would Discriminate Against White Men in Government Contracts
Will Governor Spanberger sign it? by Drew DiMeglio Democrat Abigail Spanberger won Virginia’s gubernatorial election last November by a large margin by campaigning as a moderate dealmaker. Five months later, she faces an impasse: A bill on her desk allowing state agencies to discriminate against businesses owned by white men when dishing out certain government…
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Bargaining Bill Would Trample Public Employee Rights
by Chris Braunlich Tuesday’s column discussed some of the reasons Governor Spanberger should amend or veto the public employee collective bargaining bill headed to her desk: the local and state taxpayer costs, the creation of new bureaucracies, the opposition of local Democrats and a majority of local government and school board leaders and, perhaps most persuasively, the…
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Cloudy Forecast for Richmond City Transparency
by Jon Baliles “A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” — Dalai Lama Less than three weeks ago, we wrote about transparency’s obituary in RVA, but few would have ever guessed that City Hall was apparently not only serving as funeral director but also continued to keep throwing dirt on top…
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WaPo Calls Spanberger a Spineless Hypocrite
by Kerry Dougherty It’s worse than we thought. Abigail Spanberger is in deep trouble. She’s not only squandered almost all of the goodwill that came with her election but there’s more. Sitting down? She’s lost The Washington Post. In a Tuesday editorial that attempted to explain the new governor’s plummeting poll numbers, The Post accused…
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Confederate Monuments’ Uncertain Future
Some have been banished or destroyed, and others are threatened, while one is slated for reinstallation. by Catesby Leigh For a vocal minority, the memory of 2020’s “Summer of Love,” with its orgy of “Black Lives Matter” sloganeering, occupied zones, and statuary vandalism, shines brightly. It’s not hard to see why. The expulsion of Confederate…
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When People Vote with their Feet…
more move to red states, and red counties in blue states. From Issues & Insights: The past five years have seen a massive migration of Americans out of heavily Democratic counties and into ones where Donald Trump won majorities in each of the past three elections. … Most analyses of internal migration patterns look only…
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When Schools Overreach
by Stephanie Lundquist-Arora As Virginia’s public schools fail at their core mission—educating children—state legislators are expanding their role in ways that encroach on parental rights. Debra Gardner, a former social worker who was first elected to Virginia’s House of Delegates in 2023, introduced HB 355 in January. Beginning in the 2028–2029 school year, the bill would require Virginia’s public…
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Why Democrats Should Bail out Spanberger on April 21
by Paul Goldman If the current polls showing a close contest are correct, history says the redistricting referendum will be defeated. As a general rule, support for a controversial referendum diminishes as election day approaches. This is due to the unique dynamics of issue referendum politics: if the polls showing the pro-side lead barely higher than the statistical…
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Fairfax County Coddles Illegal Alien Criminals.
by Kerry Dougherty More than 1 million people live in Fairfax County, Va. They aren’t like the rest of us. For reasons no one can explain, voters in this wealthy suburb repeatedly vote for a chief prosecutor who coddles criminals and has an absolutely bizarre philosophy about crime and punishment. Elected first in 2019 and…
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A Troubling Gap in School Transparency
by Stephanie Lundquist-AroraRepublished with permission from IWFeatures Last week, Fairfax County police confirmed that a public school student reported she was physically attacked at Centreville High School on March 4. Inside sources have told IW Features that the incident occurred during instructional hours and that the alleged assailant is a black male student. One source described…
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Youngkin Blasts Spanberger for “Blatant Lie” On Gerrymander
by Scott Dreyer Former Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R), usually known for his mild-mannered demeanor, broke with decorum and accused current Democrat Gov. Abigail Spanberger of lying in her support for a “yes” vote in the current election to redraw Congressional lines. On March 25, Spanberger appeared in this commercial, calling on Virginians to vote “yes” in the election currently…
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Lawsuit Accuses Virginia Schools, VHSL of Religious Discrimination
Founding Freedoms Law Center files lawsuit against Roanoke County Schools and Virginia High School League on behalf of a homeschooled student. by Victoria Manning More than 30 states permit homeschooled students to participate in public school sports funded by taxpayers—but not Virginia. The Virginia High School League (VHSL) controls eligibility rules for the state’s public high school…
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Democrats: Trust the Machines
In a blow to election integrity, HB968 will ban hand counting ballots in almost all cases. by Jacob Grandstaff With Democrats controlling the legislature and the Governor’s mansion under Abigail Spanberger, Virginia is on the verge of enacting an election bill that requires machine-counting and restricts hand-counting to cases when a machine scanner is broken…
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No Kings: Geriatrics Rise Up. Very Slowly.
by Kerry Dougherty We get it, geezers. You didn’t vote for Donald Trump. You hate him. We saw you shaking your canes at the president during your silly “No Kings” protests on Saturday. Who wants to tell them that we don’t HAVE a king? We have a president. Then again, you can’t expect people who…