Tag Archives: Kerry Dougherty

Mass Shootings: Take A Breath Before Bloviating

Posted on November 25, 2022 by | 71 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

On Wednesday morning I woke up at 4:00 a.m., planning to head to the radio studio for four hours of happy holiday banter with my co-host, Mike Imprevento.

Then I glanced at my phone.

A news blast from The Wall Street Journal: “Six Killed in a Shooting in a Chesapeake, Va. Walmart.”

The killing occurred at approximately 10 p.m. Tuesday. That’s what I get for going to bed early.

I rubbed my eyes and stared at the screen. It seemed unbelievable. SIX DEAD? IN CHESAPEAKE?

We met with our producer, Lee, in the studio at 5 and the three of us knew we would be doing a very different sort of show from what we’d planned. Fewer holiday ha-ha’s. Our neighbors were dead and dying. Tidewater would be in shock when they woke up.

When I checked local news, it was exactly as I expected: reporters contacted the usual suspects — local Democrats — and they denounced “gun violence.”

So predictable. As if a gun acted alone. Continue reading →

71 Comments

Posted in Crime , corrections and law enforcement, Gun rights

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Norfolk: Where Attorneys Flee and Criminals Go Free

Posted on November 22, 2022 by | 68 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Let’s be frank, shall we? Republicans can’t win elections in Norfolk. They don’t even bother recruiting candidates to run in most races.

Why waste the money and effort?

Since 2009 — as far back as I checked- – Norfolk’s Democrat commonwealth attorneys have run unopposed.

While former Norfolk Commonwealth Attorney Gregory Underwood had his problems — a DUI charge that grew out of a sobriety stop and eventually became simply a refusal to submit to a breath test — he was a law and order guy compared to the current occupant of that office, Ramin Fatehi.

We’ve written about Fatehi’s adventures in not doing his job before. Most recently on Nov. 2 when his ineptitude resulted in a man accused of a triple murder walking free.

The case of Antoine M. Legrande Jr. even caught the attention of The Virginian-Pilot, probably because one of its reporters, Sierra Jenkins, was allegedly shot to death by the suspect who is now walking the streets.

A hideous crime and senseless loss of a talented young writer. Jenkins was just 25 when she died in a late-night shooting outside Chicho’s on Granby Street.

Her killer may go unpunished. Continue reading →

68 Comments

Posted in Crime , corrections and law enforcement

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Hosting Your First Thanksgiving? Start Now.

Posted on November 18, 2022 by | 6 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

So, you think you’re all grown up just because you’ve graduated from the children’s table?

Hah.

Truth is, you’re not really an adult until you’ve hosted Thanksgiving dinner. In your own house or apartment, for at least 10 people, with everything made from scratch. Except the rolls, that is. You may buy them.

What’s that? You thought turning 21 was your passport to adulthood? Getting married? Buying a house?

Sorry, until you prepare your first Thanksgiving meal, you’re still a culinary kid.

Nothing – not even childbirth – prepares you for the rising panic that comes with the knowledge that you’ve invited a dozen people, who may not even like one another, for a feast consisting of a perfectly roasted turkey and at least a dozen sides. And pies. Can’t forget the pies.

Expectations are high, and so are the risks.

Burn the green-bean casserole, accidentally slosh Scotch into the mashed potatoes, or undercook the bird, and you’re the butt of family jokes for years.

Thanksgiving: the deceptively difficult holiday. Continue reading →

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Trump, Missiles, COVID, and Youngkin

Posted on November 16, 2022 by | 42 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Yes, I heard. The whole country heard.

Donald Trump announced last night that he was running for president in 2024. The worst-kept secret in American history.

If I were a Democrat I’d be delighted.

While Trump always sucks the air out of the room and dominates the news cycle, other events were more important.

For instance, Poland reported yesterday that a Russian-made missile fell inside its border killing two, bringing the world ever closer to all-out war. Almost immediately #Article5 began trending on Twitter.

Russia denied that it fired one of its missiles into NATO territory, but the incident is a reminder that Europe is a very volatile place.

Oh, and apparently Joe Biden is feeling under the weather. Lucky us to have a feeble 80-year-old leading the Free World.

In an overlooked moment, the U.S. Senate voted 62-36 yesterday to terminate Biden’s COVID National Emergency declaration. Continue reading →

42 Comments

Posted in Media, Politics

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UVa Slayings

Posted on November 15, 2022 by | 12 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Unimaginable.

The fear, the dread that crept across the University of Virginia grounds Sunday night as reports of a fatal shooting spread and students were cautioned to shelter in place.

The gunman was on the loose. He was armed and dangerous.

The manhunt for Christopher Darnell Jones Jr, lasted 12 terrifying hours. He was arrested in Henrico County and charged with three counts of second-degree murder and three counts of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.

More charges are coming. Two other young men — also football players — were wounded in the shooting. One of those students was in critical condition.

While thousands of UVA parents were relieved when their kids finally called home to say they were safe, three sets of parents received unspeakable news. Their sons, football players, had been shot to death.

Lavel Davis Jr., D’Sean Perry and Devin Chandler were gone.

The father of one of the deceased expressed the depth of his grief to The Washington Post:

“I wish it was me instead of him,” said Thaddeus Lavel Davis, his father. Lavel was his firstborn child. Continue reading →

12 Comments

Posted in Crime , corrections and law enforcement, Education (higher ed)

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Aftermath…The Midterm Elections

Posted on November 11, 2022 by | 33 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

In the aftermath of the midterms there is gnashing of teeth among Republican voters who wanted a red wave.

But, hey, we did our part in southeastern Virginia. We flipped the 2nd District congressional seat and some of the woke Virginia Beach School Board.

Well done, neighbors!

On Tuesday I met Mike Callan in the parking lot of my polling place at Galilee Church. He was running for the District 6 seat on the Virginia Beach School Board.

We chatted about the importance of school board elections and agreed that the city was in desperate need of new board members. Representatives who would be responsive to parents and who would raise the academic bar instead of lowering it.

“I think school board elections are more important than Congress,” I said.

“More important than president, in some ways,” Callan said.

After all, he added, school board decisions directly impact our precious children. Continue reading →

33 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), Elections, Politics

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Del. Tim Anderson Wants Virginia Republicans To Divorce Trump

Posted on November 10, 2022 by | 113 comments

Virginia Beach Delegate Tim Anderson

by Kerry Dougherty

Let’s be honest. The Trump years were exhausting.

Those who voted for Donald Trump, supported his policies and didn’t regret their votes — the alternatives were Hillary and Biden — were weary by the end of it.

Trump could be charming and funny. He could also be vicious and petty. He treated his loyal allies cruelly. I’m thinking especially of poor Jeff Sessions, one of the first members of the Senate to support Trump yet who quickly became the butt of Trump’s fury while he served the president as attorney general.

Trump’s policies were Reaganesque, but he wasn’t.

Fact: it is possible to have voted for Trump, to have supported virtually all of Trump’s policies and his Supreme Court appointments and still prefer Ron DeSantis or Glenn Youngkin for president. What DeSantis did in Florida, keeping the state free at a time when unconstitutional COVID restrictions swept the nation, was a model for courageous, principled leadership.

The results of the mid-terms, which were disappointing to those who consider inflation and crime far more important than abortion and wokeness, are being blamed at least in part on Trump.

First Virginia elected official to point at the former president: Delegate Tim Anderson of Virginia Beach. Continue reading →

113 Comments

Posted in Politics

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Norfolk Man Accused of Triple Murder About To Be Freed

Posted on November 2, 2022 by | 17 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Good news for the soft-on-crime crowd: a suspected triple murderer is being freed in Norfolk because two witnesses didn’t show up for yesterday’s preliminary hearing.

And because it appears that prosecutors aren’t exactly breaking a sweat trying to get this case moving.

Antoine M. Legrande Jr.’s hearing was originally scheduled for September 6th – four months after he was arrested and charged with killing Virginian-Pilot reporter Sierra Jenkins as well as Marquel Andrews and Devon Harris. Two others were shot and injured. The victims were leaving Chicho’s Backstage on Granby Street in Norfolk on March 19th when they were gunned down outside.

Legrande was charged with three counts of second-degree murder, five counts of use of a firearm and two counts of malicious wounding.

Legrande’s September preliminary hearing was postponed after prosecutors whined that they needed more time to subpoena a witness and to review evidence including cell phone records, shell casings and bullets retrieved from the victims. Continue reading →

17 Comments

Posted in Courts and law, Crime , corrections and law enforcement

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Forgive and Forget The COVID Kooks? Nope.

Posted on November 1, 2022 by | 140 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

This is rich. The COVID extremists who closed schools, mandated masks and vaccines, laid down nutty curfews, dictated the number of guests we could have in our own homes for Thanksgiving, ordered the elderly to die alone and shuttered churches, now want amnesty.

Forgive and forget, they say, nervously. Let’s move on.

Two words: heck no.

Those of us who were right about almost everything concerning COVID want a reckoning. We want political leaders who supported these unconstitutional COVID measures booted from office and we want our former friends and neighbors who called us grandma killers when we refused to tie soggy bandanas on our faces to apologize.

Grovel, even. Continue reading →

140 Comments

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Drug Dealers Are Murderers

Posted on October 28, 2022 by | 13 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

If you thought Virginia lawmakers wouldn’t be able to reverse some of the damage done by the past two administrations, next winter’s session may ease your mind.

Governor Glenn Youngkin announced this week that he wants the law to change so that prosecutors can charge drug dealers with murder when their wares kill people. This should be easy!

In 2019 the General Assembly overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill to do just that. In fact, every single Senator voted for it. The measure passed the General Assembly on February 23, 2019. On May 2nd then-Governor Ralph Northam vetoed it.

Governor Ralph Northam has vetoed a bill that Virginia lawmakers passed with bipartisan support to let prosecutors charge drug dealers with homicide for fatal overdoses.

House Bill 2528 amended Virginia’s laws to let anyone who distributes controlled substances to someone who later dies from use of those substances be charged with causing that person’s death.

Continue reading →

13 Comments

Posted in Crime , corrections and law enforcement

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Virginia’s Test Scores at The Bottom of the Nation’s Steaming Heap

Posted on October 25, 2022 by | 39 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Geez. Who could have predicted this:

Only one thing wrong with The New York Times reporting on yesterday’s horrifying report that showed the sharpest drop in national test scores in three decades.

It’s this: the devastating failure of American education isn’t due to the pandemic. Continue reading →

39 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12)

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Virginia Beach: Notoriously Hard to Poll

Posted on October 24, 2022 by | 5 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Polling is an inexact “science.” In fact, it shouldn’t be called a science at all. I say this as someone who graduated with a BA in political science and who always found the “s” word amusing when applied to my area of undergraduate studies.

We’ve seen polls that once the votes were tallied proved to be surprisingly accurate. And many more polls that were wildly wrong.

Here’s an example: in October of 2016 a poll conducted by the polling organization at Christopher Newport University purported to show an “even split” between supporters and opponents of extending light rail into Virginia Beach.

That proposed rail project was a boondoggle, pushed almost entirely by developers and their political cronies. It would have cost taxpayers an estimated $100 million a mile and studies showed the extended line would not alleviate traffic congestion in Hampton Roads. At all.

The poll was commissioned by 13 News, The Virginian-Pilot and Christopher Newport University. Results showed that 48% of likely voters supported light rail and 48% opposed.

Luckily, Election Day told a different story. The referendum to extend the rail project into Virginia Beach lost in a landslide: 57.09% to 42.91. Continue reading →

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Posted in Elections

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Don’t California Our Virginia

Posted on October 17, 2022 by | 15 comments

Delegate Elizabeth Guzman

by Kerry Dougherty

Whatever you do at the ballot box in Virginia, do not return Democrats to power in Richmond.

Or anywhere else.

You’ve been warned.

Leftist Northern Virginia Delegate Elizabeth Guzman (D-Dale City), announced Thursday that she’s re-introducing legislation this year that would protect LGBTQ children from their parents.

Chew on that for a moment.

This is a push-back against Governor Glenn Youngkin’s department of education regulation that requires kids who identify with a gender other than the one they were born with to have parental permission to change their appearance and pronouns.

This sort of common-sense rule has made Democrats apoplectic.

Guzman’s bill, she said, would expand the definition of child abuse and neglect to include those who “do not affirm” their kid’s sexual orientation or gender identity. Continue reading →

15 Comments

Posted in Education (K-12), LGBQT

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One Candidate Was Snippy. It Wasn’t Jen Kiggans.

Posted on October 13, 2022 by | 44 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Elaine Luria is snotty.

That’s my takeaway from Wednesday’s 2nd District debate sponsored by the Hampton Roads Chamber of Commerce at the Oceanfront Marriott.

Yes, the Democrat had the built-in advantage of incumbency and a command of lots of numbers, which she spouted with abandon during the debate with Republican challenger State Sen. Jen Kiggans, but it was Luria’s asides, the condescending way she treated a fellow Naval officer that revealed much about this close political ally of Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden.

Want proof? Here, go to 1:18:51 in this link. Debate moderator Chris Saxman tells the candidates that there are just “two more questions.”

In a barely audible voice, Luria mutters “Thank God.”

Yeeesh.

Is Luria completely unfamiliar with history? Is she unaware that many analysts say the moment President George H. W. Bush looked at his watch during a 1992 town hall-style debate with Bill Clinton and Ross Perot was the moment he lost the election. Continue reading →

44 Comments

Posted in Politics

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How Did You Celebrate Columbus/Yorktown Victory/Indigenous Peoples’ Day?

Posted on October 11, 2022 by | 11 comments

by Kerry Dougherty

Well, yesterday was Columbus, er, Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Did you roast a turkey? Exchange gifts? Hang a flag? Cook out?

Probably, like me, you worked. If you’re a state or federal employee chances are you didn’t do anything special to recognize whatever holiday it is that gave you a day off.

I’m confused. Which is it: Christopher Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day?

According to U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine:

Continue reading →

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Posted in Culture wars

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