by James C. Sherlock
Crime, especially violent crime, is a constant topic in private conversations and in public politics, and thus here on Bacon’s Rebellion.
Comments on BR crime-related articles turn quickly to race, often without basis in fact.
I will offer below the actual crime statistics by race from 2021, the latest available year, in an attempt to cure that.
Then I will write about the causes.
I will almost certainly be called a racist. Continue reading
Posted in Budgets, Children and families, Civil Rights, Crime , corrections and law enforcement, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Demographics, Education (K-12), Efficiency in government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Oversight, Health Care, Housing, Land use & development, Law enforcement, Mental illness and substance abuse, Parental Rights, Politics, Public corruption, Public safety & health, Race and race relations
Tagged James Sherlock
Jillian Balow, ex-Superintendent of Public Instruction
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
In comments to the post about the resignation of Jillian Balow as Superintendent of Public Instruction and her severance pay, I asserted that her appointment was subject to the pleasure of the Governor. I was wrong.
The heads of almost all agencies, by law, serve at the pleasure of the Governor. (There is one exception, but more on that later.) However, the position of Superintendent of Public Instruction is established in the Virginia Constitution, which provides that the appointment shall be “for a term coincident with that of the Governor making the appointment.” The constitution does authorize the General Assembly to modify the term of office. However, the Virginia Code section mirrors the language in the constitution. Accordingly, as The Washington Post noted, Balow may have had grounds to sue if she had been fired.
The agency head who is not appointed by the Governor and does not serve at his pleasure is the Director of the Department of Wildlife Resources (formerly Game and Inland Fisheries). That person is appointed by the Board of Wildlife Resources. The story on that goes back into the mists of time (early 1970s). Suffice it to say that hunters and fishermen in Virginia were a strong lobby.
Jillian Balow, ex-Superintendent of Public Instruction
by Dick Hall-Sizemore
So, what almost everyone suspected is now confirmed: Governor Youngkin fired his Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow.
However, to avoid embarrassment over having to fire his own hand-picked state leader of public education, the governor asked her to resign, instead. She agreed to do so in exchange for a payout of almost $300,000, as reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.
So, state government is acting more and more like a business, as many conservatives say it should. Top executives screw up and, instead of being sacked, they are given a golden parachute.
Dean Stephanie Rowley, UVa School of Education and Human Development
by James C. Sherlock
We are left to imagine what Dean of the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development Stephanie Rowley would possibly do without the assistance of LaRon Scott, her Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI).
How in heaven’s name without Mr. Scott could she keep reactionaries like Catherine Bradshaw, Nancy Deutsch, Scott Gest and Stephanie van Hover and the Center on Race, Public Education, and the South and Youth-Nex Center to Promote Youth Development from preaching white supremacist doctrine and organizing torchlit marches on NAACP offices?
I am not singling out UVa for special criticism. I just know a lot more of the details about my alma mater than other schools. Virginia Tech reportedly has a very aggressive program.
Virginia has 41 public colleges and universities, so we are paying for a lot of DEI personnel. UVa alone has 84 DEI staffers. Let’s estimate 1,000 statewide.
The point is that we have to try to figure out why modern American universities in 2021 suddenly needed large and growing DEI bureaucracies. And what they do all day?
And if we need them, how many is enough?
The left had won the war in academia before DEI. It would be unkind to think the DEI apparatchiks are formed as a paramilitary wing to execute enemy survivors.
So, if not that, what do they do? Continue reading
Posted in Culture wars, Education (higher ed), Governance, Race and race relations
Tagged James Sherlock
Rosalyn Dance – courtesy Daily Press
by James C. Sherlock
Governor Youngkin has appointed former state Senator Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, as vice chairman of the state Board of Elections.
As vice-chair, she is the highest ranking Democrat on the board.
She will perform an absolutely vital role.
She will be asked to help interpret the complete overhaul of Virginia’s election laws conducted by Democrats who controlled state government in 2020 and 2021.
While Sen. Dance was not in office for that revolution, interpreting it for the purpose of developing regulations will require experience, a Democratic mindset and a strong stomach.
She qualifies. Continue reading
Posted in Culture wars, Elections, Electoral process, General Assembly, Governance, Virginia Law
Tagged James Sherlock
Suparna Dutta – Courtesy Yahoo.com
by James C. Sherlock
Virginia Republicans, not noted for organization, common approaches or dexterity, have been granted a gift by Democrats if they will accept it.
The Democratic majority in the General Assembly rejected the appointment of Suparna Dutta, a mother, engineer and an immigrant from India, to the Board of Education.
This happened because Senate Democrats, stalwarts of the left flank of the culture wars, were badgered and finally whipped into a unanimous vote against Ms. Dutta by a strange but tight-knit political relationship between leftists and Muslim activists centered in Northern Virginia.
Leftists, led by Randi Weingarten’s American Federation of Teachers outpost, Virginia Educators United, considered Ms. Dutta too patriotic. And anti-socialist.
The Muslim cabal, led by the Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations and Gov. Northam’s notorious (too many Asians) Secretary of Education Atif Qarni, considered her, well, too Hindu.
The Virginia Council of Muslim Organizations, vocal in support of freedom of speech for the highly controversial Abrar Omeish, does not offer the same to Ms. Dutta.
Her offense? She had been in a board meeting with Anne Holton, the wife of Sen. Tim Kaine. They were discussing the K-12 History Standards of Learning.
Ms. Holton said that she was “not comfortable” with calling the Constitution and the Declaration remarkable documents without qualifiers. And she defended strong central government planning and socialism as compatible with democracy and freedom.
Ms. Dutta debated her on those points.
That led, as such things do in modern America, to Ms. Dutta being called a “white supremacist” by progressives.
And officially designated as one by the unanimous vote of General Assembly Senate Democrats. Continue reading
by Jon Baliles
Well, it seems Mayor Levar Stoney has finally picked up on a problem on Richmond’s streets that many of us have known about for three-plus years. If you live downtown, or in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Randolph, Scott’s Addition, Byrd Park, Malvern Gardens, parts of Northside, Monroe Ward, or several other neighborhoods, the sound of jet-like roaring from annoying packs of motorcycles has permeated the air at night (usually on weekends) in a way that would wake Rip Van Winkle with ease.
And for three-plus years, nothing has been done. I have talked to those in public safety who have been told for years that these insanely loud gatherings of cyclists, noisemakers, and idiots — whatever you want to call them — are off limits for stopping or arresting, even if they gather by the dozens (even during the day) and violate the city’s un-enforced noise ordinance or dozens of traffic laws in and around Bryan Park, Byrd Park, or on Broad Street.
But this past Thursday afternoon, several noisy riders caught the mayor’s attention in Shockoe Bottom. He not only called the police chief to track them with an airplane, but he also later made sure that all the local media outlets (all three TV stations and the Times-Dispatch) knew about it. The result was three young men from the Tri-Cities area were arrested (ages 19, 18, 17), one stolen gun was recovered, and one teen escaped.
Continue reading
Courtesy of the BBC
by James C. Sherlock
A headline from the home page of Save the Children:
“Climate Change Is a Grave Threat to Children’s Survival.”
Climate change is thus not a “challenge.” Not a threat to children’s happiness. But rather a threat to their “survival.”
That is what children are being taught in many Virginia public school classrooms. Kids, being sponges, have learned that lesson, and are understandably severely depressed about it.
Parents and the Board of Education, take note. That cannot be allowed to continue.
For years, studies have shown the existence of psychological distress about climate change that has dimensions within feelings, emotions, cognition and behavior. That stress has been demonstrated to disproportionately affect young people.
The largest and most international study of climate anxiety in young people was peer-reviewed and posted in The Lancet in December 2021.
Regardless of one’s personal feelings about climate change, no caring adult would want, as revealed in that study, children feeling “very or extremely worried” (46% of children in the United States) or, worse, negatively affected in their ability to function (26% of children in the United States).
None would want near half or more than half of children reporting feeling “sad, anxious, angry, powerless, helpless and guilty” and “betrayed” about anything, much less a phenomenon that is measurable as a current event with which we are dealing but arguably is overstated by progressives as a future prospect.
Climate change can, and should, be taught to children. But it must be done without terrorizing them. That cannot be too much to ask.
Scaring children to turn them into political activists is child abuse per se.
It must stop. Continue reading
Garrison Coward oversees Gov. Youngkin’s Partnership for Petersburg initiative – photo contributed to the Progress-Index
by James C. Sherlock
I have written in this space many times about the struggles of Petersburg.
Petersburg is blessed in one way.
The Progress-Index’s Bill Atkinson and Joyce Chu may be the best pair of local news reporters working in Virginia.
Mr. Atkinson, in a series of reports, has detailed the continuing struggles of that city to get a grocery store downtown.
The big grocers surround the center of the city in more prosperous, safer areas but have not entered there.
Food Markets in Petersburg courtesy of Bing Maps
It is no secret why. Poverty and crime do not attract retailers vulnerable to shoplifting and worse. And Petersburg is among the poorest and most crime-ridden in Virginia.
A recent Petersburg solicitation for interest in building a grocery store downtown drew no bidders.
The Governor has a broad Partnership for Petersburg initiative to help Petersburg help itself It is run by Garrison Coward, an external-affairs senior advisor to Gov. Youngkin.
He reports that the Governor is “hell-bent” on seeing a grocery store built there.
I will offer an idea. Continue reading
by Joe Fitzgerald
The Bluestone Town Center (BTC), according to council members who voted 3-2 to approve it, was decided in secret meetings between those council members and the applicants. At Tuesday’s open meeting in which they voted to approve BTC, those council members rather shamelessly admitted to those sessions.
City staff and the city manager effectively sat on their hands during the discussion, which brought questionable numbers and questionable rhetoric from rookie council members Dany Fleming and Monica Robinson, respectively. It was left to Councilman Chris Jones and Mayor Deanna Reed to present the arguments against the development with an assist from City Attorney Chris Brown.
The city manager was mostly silent throughout the conversation.
Also mostly silent was Councilwoman Laura Dent. She made the motion to grant the rezoning BTC sought, and followed the motion with a rambling explanation of what she seemed to say was one of the best things about the project for her, the promise of solar energy panels. Her motion effectively released the developers from their legally binding proffer to provide the panels, but she said she believed they would be installed anyway based on her private discussions with the developers. Continue reading
By James C. Sherlock
The National Incident Management System Preparedness Cycle
We could see it wasn’t right as it unfolded.
Virginia’s flawed response to COVID was slow for all Virginians.
Fatal for some.
But the public just saw the broad stroke external effects.
It is important to make sure that doesn’t happen again, whether in another pandemic or in a cyber attack, hurricane, flood, mass shooting, kinetic terrorist attack, nuclear plant emergency, or something else.
In response to my request, a very cooperative Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) FOIA official has provided a remarkable and profoundly disturbing two-volume series detailing a running history and operations analysis of what happened inside the government.
It is titled “COVID-19 Pandemic History and After Action Report” Vol. 1 (covers 2020) and Vol. 2. (covers 2021) hereafter referred to as the HAAR.
It was compiled and written under contract by CNA, a highly regarded federal contractor, who had people on site in Richmond during the COVID response.
The HAAR describes and assesses a series of widespread and seemingly endless internal and external government breakdowns that compromised the health and lives of Virginia’s citizens.
Management turmoil in the state government during COVID was so extensive as to be almost indescribable by any group with less talent than the CNA team.
The HAAR documents that Virginia’s COVID response was hamstrung by a lack of operations management experience in the leadership.
I understand that with authority comes responsibility.
But the governor, his Secretary of Health and Human Resources, and his Health Commissioner were effectively the chain of decision makers during COVID. All three were physicians.
But that is one reason we have a civil service.
Virginia’s civil service failed to prepare for its roles in emergency response long before Ralph Northam was governor. HAAR documents the complete inability of the bureaucracy to plan, organize and equip, train for, exercise and execute emergency plans.
It is clear to me that without capable civil service support, no administration would have fared well. I hope, by exposing this deadly failure, to prevent the same thing from happening again tomorrow.
I will make strategic recommendations here in this first part of what will be a series on this issue.
by Shaun Kenney
Virginia’s General Assembly managed to pass the Richmond equivalent of a continuing resolution to fund the government until Senate Democrats and House Republicans can hammer out a compromise on corporate tax breaks.
One will have to pardon me for not getting terribly wound up about tax breaks for corporations while small businesses and working families are struggling with back-to-back years of 9 percent inflation from Washington.
Meanwhile, much of the damage done by the Northam administration with regard to Critical Race Theory, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) requirements, gender ideology, and the long litany of progressive efforts to remake Virginia were left both untouched and unchallenged.
Even school choice — the marquee legislation championed by Lt. Governor Winsome Sears — was left to die in committee.
Meanwhile, Senate Democrats are promising a “brick wall” against House Republicans until they get what they want — in other words, reneging on the pledge from conferees to honor a $950 million tax cut. The stopgap fixes the $200 million shortfall snafu created by the Virginia Department of Education’s spreadsheet, puts another $25 million into the Virginia Retirement System, and another $100 million towards cost overruns for existing building infrastructure. What mystifies most is that the Senate Democrats haven’t been precisely clear on what they want beyond platitudes for higher salaries for bureaucrats, public education, higher education, etc. Continue reading
Courtesy NBC 6 6’7” 270 pound student assaults teaching aide
by James C. Sherlock
In 2019, the National Education Association (NEA) published Threatened and Attacked By Students: When Work Hurts, urging lawmakers to address the crisis of unsafe behaviors in schools.
Read about Chesterfield schools in that article.
Unfazed, progressives in 2020 in full control of the General Assembly, led by now-Congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan, looked to break what they considered a “school-to-prison pipeline.”
They changed Virginia law to eliminate the requirement for principals to report misdemeanor assault and battery in Virginia schools, on school buses or at school-sponsored events to law enforcement.
Even battery on school staff.
It would seem to me, if I worked in a school, useful to require such violence to be reported to law enforcement.
But maybe that’s just me. Continue reading
Daniel Gecker Esq., President of the Virginia Board of Education. Appointed to the Board of Education by Governor Terry McAuliffe and reappointed to a four year term by Governor Ralph Northam. Date of expiration of appointment – June 30, 2023
by James C. Sherlock
Progressives, in the fullness of their dogma, oppose the entire Bill of Rights.
The Bill of Rights is specifically structured to limit the powers of government, which progressives find not only unsuitable, but unimaginable.
In the Golden Age of Progressivism in Virginia, 2020 and 2021, they controlled the governor’s mansion, the General Assembly, the Attorney General’s Office and all of the state agencies.
With total control, they took flight.
They have always known what seldom occurs to conservatives not prone to offend the Bill of Rights.
With total control of state government, progressives can enact and have enacted laws, regulations and policies that violate both the federal and state constitutions.
They know it will take a decade or more for courts to push back. Meanwhile they can call opponents “haters.”
After which the worst that can happen is that nobody is held accountable. Except the taxpayers.
I just exposed unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination in the University of Virginia’s hiring process. that was implemented starting in 2020.
The same fertile progressive imagination is also present in the Board of Education’s new (in 2021) Standard 6. “Culturally Responsive Teaching and Equitable Practices performance indicators” (starting on page xv) in “Guidelines for Uniform Performance Standards and Evaluation Criteria for Teachers“(Guidelines). Continue reading
by James C. Sherlock
I offer for your consideration the text of a draft Intellectual Freedom Protection Act proposed this morning by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
FIRE is the leading American voice supporting academic freedom, free speech and due process. In doing so they defend democracy itself.
They are what the ACLU was before that organization abandoned the field as an impartial supporter of civil liberties to pick a side.
FIRE defends left and right equally.
I have below eliminated the preamble of the draft law for brevity. Lawyers can find the legal precedents referenced in the preamble here. Continue reading
