Category Archives: Uncategorized

In case you’re wondering how all Virginia institutions scored in the 2024 FIRE free speech rankings, here is a summary of the universities included in the survey. For perspective, I’ve included the top and bottom scorers. Liberty University is listed separately, as it is one of six that prioritize other values over free speech. Remember, the rankings reflect an assessment of formal written policies, not actual practice or campus climate. — JAB

I always suspected this might be the case, but now there is hard data to back it up. Non-coastal Virginia is one of the lowest-risk areas in the country for natural disasters. Sure, we get the occasional tornado or flood, but, really, how often? And when was the last time we experienced a deadly wildfire, hail storm or volcanic eruption?

Gutter Gnome, a gutter installation company, drew upon FEMA’s National Risk Index to identify the ten cities in the United States safest from natural disasters. Virginia snagged the top three. The list:

1. Richmond
2. Lynchburg
3. Roanoke
4. Midland, TX
5. Duluth, MN
6. Rochester, MN
7. Pittsburgh, PA
8. Tyler, TX
9. Bloomington, IN
10. Boise, ID

Oddly, Compton, Va., a community in Page County, Va., appeared on the list of riskiest “cities” for natural disasters. No explanation given. Must have had a bad flood or landslide.

Here are the categories of natural disasters, incorporating data from exposure, frequency, and historic loss ratio, that FEMA tracks: avalanche, coastal flooding, cold waves, droughts, earthquakes, hail, heat waves, hurricanes, ice storms, landslides, lightning, riverine flooding, strong wind, tornado, tsunami, volcanic activity, wildfire, and winter weather.

— JAB

By James C. Sherlock

UVa Children’s Hospital courtesy UVa

I saw a comment somewhere that medical facilities are the second most regulated industry in America, just behind nuclear power.

Yet we see that it has not been working in Virginia in the case of nursing homes.  And compliance is considerably harder in the other medical facilities and services in Virginia than it needs to be.

A big part of the reason is that Virginia has laws and regulations that either:

1. Do not implement federal laws or regulations that require the state to do so for facilities accepting Medicare or Medicaid/Children’s Health Improvement Program (CHIP); or
2. Conflict with the Social Security Act and its executing regulations, which take precedence in the case of those federally-funded programs; or
3. Both.

In case of omission or conflict with the federal guidelines, state laws and regulations do not add value, just complexity and confusion.

And to no avail.

Continue reading →

by Joe Fitzgerald

Drunk driving and gerrymandering don’t usually go hand in hand, but there are exceptions. The race-based district-drawing skills of Virginia Democrats half a century ago had areas around majority black Petersburg represented in the state Senate by a rural Democrat from Windsor, 50 miles east. When the state senator got a DUI on his home turf, fickle memory tells me, the hearing was too far away for the local paper to send a reporter.

The charge was probably reduced to improper driving. That’s a standard go-to when the various officers of the court know a guy was drinking but don’t think driving under the influence can be proven. I covered the case in Sussex County in 1984 of a man who had passed out, driven his car into a ditch, and slid over against the passenger door. He admitted to the officer who found him that he had been driving the car when it ran off the road. Continue reading →

by James A. Bacon

In two recent stories about administrative bloat and faculty bloat at the University of Virginia, I published inaccurate information. I stated that annualized full-time-equivalent student enrollment between fiscal 2012 and fiscal 2022 increased 1.1%. The correct figure was 8.8%. The result of the error was to exaggerate the degree to which the increase in salaried staff and teaching faculty outpaced the increase in student enrollment.

However, the larger point of the articles stands: the increase in staff and faculty exceeded that of enrollment by a wide margin. The headcount of salaried staff increased 25.4% over the same period and the headcount of tenure-track faculty, instructors, and lecturers increased 25.7%.