Category: Uncategorized
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Don’t Politicize Cell Phone-Free Education
By Chris Braunlich Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Executive Order for developing policies restricting or eliminating cell phones in schools – a concept garnering widespread support among parents, with 61 percent favoring requiring students to leave their phones in secured locations during the day – responds to a clear and rising mental health, academic and behavioral problem.…
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Money Burning a Hole in their Pockets
by Dick Hall-Sizemore If anyone needs concrete evidence that the 2024 General Assembly had more money for the 2024-2026 biennial budget that it could responsibly spend, he need only to examine one little-known item in the budget: capital maintenance reserve (MR). In an earlier article, I examined this budget item and identified five agencies that…
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Virginia Supremes Limit Sovereign Immunity in Portsmouth Case
by James A. Bacon H. Cliff Page, an artist, sculptor, Vietnam vet, merchant mariner, civic activist and former candidate for Mayor of Portsmouth, won a victory for individual property rights when the Virginia Supreme Court ruled unanimously in his favor July 3 in a dispute with the Portsmouth Redevelopment and Housing Authority (PRHA). “This is…
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DEI at UVA Astronomy: The Stars Are Not Aligned
by James A. Bacon Back in 2020, the University of Virginia Astronomy Department jumped on the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) bandwagon. Ashamed of its history of attracting so few Blacks and Hispanics, the Department formed a DEI committee to advance the goal of making the department more demographically diverse. The committee quickly resolved to…
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Restoring Columbus
by James A. Bacon Richmond’s statue of Christopher Columbus is heading to upstate New York. It’s a sad, sad tale. At the height of the George Floyd “mostly peaceful” protests, leftist militants tore down the statue in Byrd Park, spray-painted it, set it on fire and threw it into nearby Fountain Lake. They claimed to…
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No Way Trump Wins Virginia
by Paul Goldman The latest poll from Virginia Commonwealth University has Donald Trump up 3% — 39% to 36% — over Joe Biden after being behind by six in the school’s previous survey of public opinion. Top Trump advisor Chris LaCivita has been telling people publicly and privately Trump will win Virginia as part of…
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Upward Academic Mobility Among Virginia Immigrants
by James A. Bacon Americans are rightly concerned about the impact of the flood of foreigners entering the country illegally through a broken border — not just the fiscal burden of increased outlays for healthcare, schools, and social services but the longer-term risk of creating an unassimilable mass in the body politic. Such fears gain…
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To End Carbon Energy We Need More Carbon Energy!
By Steve Haner Three recent announcements from Dominion Energy Virginia in rapid succession point a path forward for the utility that complies in part and utterly rejects in part the carbon-free energy pipe dream of the Virginia Clean Economy Act (VCEA). All three of the announcements will result in major cost increases to the company’s…
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Bacon Bits: More Bad Behavior
Are public officials in Virginia engaging in more petty crimes and misdemeanors these days? Maybe it’s just coincidence that so much misbehavior is being reported on the same day. Warren County embezzlement. From the Northern Virginia Daily: former Warren County supervisor Ronald L. Llewellyn and his wife Corinne have been arrested and charged with multiple…
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Staring into the Abyss
We’ve reached a dead end. Everybody, please draw a deep breath and take a step back.
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No. 1 CNBC Ranking? Eh. Beats a Poke in the Eye With a Sharp Stick
by James A. Bacon by James A. Bacon Virginia ranks No. 1 in CNBC’s just-released Top States for Business 2024 ranking — a marketing coup for the Old Dominion and Governor Glenn Youngkin. After ranking No. 2 last year, Virginia squeaked past 2023’s leader, North Carolina, by a narrow margin. The favorable publicity should put…
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How Do Immigrant Children Fare in Virginia Schools?
by James A. Bacon Based on an analysis of 2019 data, the Migration Policy Institute estimates that 250,000 “unauthorized” immigrants reside in Virginia. Two out of five (39%) of these unauthorized residents have children. These children attend Virginia schools. It’s often difficult to measure the impact of illegal immigration on American society, but the Virginia…
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“Founders March”
Today is the 4th of July, and I’m too lazy this holiday morning to expend the mental energy to compose a tribute to our nation’s independence. So, I’m letting AI do it for me. At my prompting, Suno has composed a patriotic song in praise of Virginia founding fathers George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and James…
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COVID’s Baaaaack! (Not Really)
by James A. Bacon July is the hottest month of the year in Virginia, and Virginia public health officials are warning that a tendency for people to seek cooler temperatures indoors will boost their exposure to the COVID-19 virus. “We went through a period where we really saw great decline,” Heather Harmon-Sloan, chief of the…