Author: James A. Bacon
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Blue Lives Don’t Matter
by James A. Bacon Last week Virginia Senate Democrats unveiled a 27-bill package of criminal justice “reforms” they will advance in the special session that Governor Ralph Northam has said he expects to call this August. Some have potential merit, such as a slew of proposals to hold law-enforcement officers accountable for unjustified use of…
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Who Cares about the Kids? Not the Teachers’ Unions.
by Kerry Dougherty They hate it when we call them teachers’ unions. But when organizations act like trade unions, throw tantrums like unions, put their own needs before the people they serve, you’re looking at a union. Make that unions. Plural. In Fairfax County there are three: the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers, the Fairfax…
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Uh, Oh, COVID-19 Metrics No Longer Improving
The bad news from recent COVID-19 statistics is that the numbers aren’t getting better. Virginia has hit a plateau in the number of confirmed cases, as seen in the chart above, which shows the seven-day moving average in the number of confirmed cases. To some degree, the tick upwards in COVID-19 cases may reflect increased…
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The Big Lie of Unequal Funding
by James A. Bacon The Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) has unanimously adopted a statement regarding its commitment to provide equal access to a high-quality public education. “Systemic racism and discrimination still exist in public education, and too often, a student’s skin color or socioeconomic status predicts the quality of their educational opportunities,” says the…
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School Shutdowns Will Aggravate Racial Disparities
A new report by the McKinsey & Company management-consulting firm contends that delaying in-class schooling to Jan. 2021 would result in a catastrophic loss of learning for students — a loss that would be even more pronounced among blacks and Hispanics than whites (and, presumably, Asians, who are not mentioned despite comprising 5.6% of the U.S.…
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“Equity” and the Performance of Virginia’s Black and White Students
by John Butcher The estimable Jim Bacon suggests that the Northam administration’s emphasis on “equity” and “restorative-justice” is keeping disorderly students in the classroom to the detriment of the other students. As well, he posits that behavior problems are more common among black students so the effect should be larger in divisions with larger black…
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COVID-19: Milder than We Thought
The latest numbers from the state and hospital-association COVID-19 dashboards suggest that the coronavirus in Virginia still is retreating. The seven-day moving average of test-positive cases for COVID-19 tests continues to fall, hitting a new low of 5.8%. Meanwhile, two measures of intensive hospital utilization have hit new lows. The number of COVID-19 patients in…
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Richmond’s “Numbnuts” Cripple Busch Gardens
by Kerry Dougherty Five more days until Virginia finally enters Phase 3 of the slo-mo reopening of the commonwealth. But if you were planning to take the kids to Busch Gardens or Kings Dominion to celebrate, forget it. Thanks to ridiculously small crowd limits, both sprawling theme parks said they can’t comply with Virginia’s rules.…
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Beyond COVID-19: New Opportunities in Land Use
by James A. Bacon The stay-at-home orders prompted by the COVID-19 epidemic accelerated a trend that was already reshaping the American economy: the shift of commerce from bricks-and-mortar retail to online delivery. Traditional retailers are retrenching; malls and shopping centers are hollowing out. If current trends continue, we’ll be seeing a lot more UPS and…
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How Greeniacs Destroy the Environment
by Paul Driessen The US Supreme Court recently ruled 7-2 to reverse a lower court ruling invalidating a permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which will bring West Virginia natural gas to Virginia and North Carolina, for home heating, factory power, electricity generation and manufacturing petrochemical feedstocks. Environmentalists had claimed the U.S. Forest Service had no…
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Up Next: School Bus Crisis
by Kerry Dougherty Last week we marveled at Gov. Ralph Northam’s unworkable guidelines to reopen Virginia schools this fall. Richmond’s bizarre restrictions on social distancing and class size make it impossible for kids to be in their classrooms five days a week. Instead, most school districts seem to cooking up schemes to divide student bodies in half…
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Another Use and Abuse of Statistics…
by James A. Bacon The Fairfax County Police Department publishes a statistical report every year on the police use of force in the county. There were 594 use-of-force incidents reported in 2019, up from 510 the previous year. The publication provides data with minimal commentary. This is the headline from the Reston Now article summarizing…
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Stop the Problem Before It Starts
by Chris Braunlich With the General Assembly taking up policing reform in this summer’s special session, there should be at least one bill stopping a problem before it begins. Most big problems are created by a small number of people. The same is true of police officer transgressions. Most police officers are good police officers,…
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Northam Gets a Couple of Things Right
by James A. Bacon I do have my issues with Wise King Ralph, but I have to give credit where credit is due. He has done two things right in the past few days. He has given the OK to move to Phase 3 of the COVID-19 lockdown on July 1, and he has refused…
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It’s About Time: Phase 3
by Kerry Dougherty Finally. After weeks of plummeting death rates, dwindling hospitalizations and a sharp drop in positive test results for COVID-19, slow-walking Gov. Ralph Northam announced that the commonwealth can enter Phase Three. But not until next week, on July 1. Northam made the announcement at yesterday’s press conference. For months, Northam’s pressers have…