Author: James A. Bacon
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Blue on Blue: Richmond Progressive Attacks White Feminist Privilege
by James A. Bacon There’s big money in telling White people how racist they are. Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo have made millions of dollars doing it. Now Saira Rao, an Indian-American Richmond resident, has figured out how to cash in on the action. Rao has written a book with Colorado co-author Regina Jackson,…
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You Dirty Rat!
From Orkin’s 2022 list of “rattiest” cities in the United States: 4. Washington, D.C. 25. Norfolk 33. Richmond In the list of cities with the most rodents, Chicago took the top spot, followed by Los Angeles and New York. By counting total rat populations, Orkin’s methodology skews to big cities. I’d like to see a…
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Teachers Are Critical to Student Success
by Matt Hurt Twenty five years ago, the demand for teaching positions was not sufficient to supply the employment needs of newly-minted teachers. It was common in many divisions for teachers to serve for at least a year or two in an hourly instructional aide position before finally earning the coveted teaching contract. For whatever…
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Green’s Law
by Joe Fitzgerald Green’s Law was in effect this week. Green’s Law was named, by me, for longtime mayor and councilman Walter F. Green III, and originated at a council meeting when he did an even worse job than usual of hiding his disdain for opponents of the golf course. I don’t remember what was…
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Now It’s Time to Get It Right
by Jon Baliles We can all take some comfort in the fact that Police Chief Gerald Smith has resigned, not because there is comfort in someone else’s downfall, but rather it gives the city a chance to start over with new leadership in public safety and repair the damage that has been done. Smith did…
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Three Strikes and You’re Out, Mr. Ryan
by James A. Bacon If University of Virginia President Jim Ryan wants to recruit more African-American students, faculty and staff to the university, here’s some advice: stop reinforcing racial paranoia. Stop lending legitimacy to the idea that Blacks at the University of Virginia are under threat. So far this semester, there have been three racial…
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Infographic of the Day: Where Virginia’s Immigrants Come From
One out of eight inhabitants of Virginia was born outside the United States, according to a post about Virginia’s foreign-born population published by the Virginia Public Access Project. The percentage is even higher in two congressional districts (CDs) with highly competitive races this year — 23.1% in CD 10, where Republican Hung Cao, the son…
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Virginia Drops from A+ to C in Worker Freedom — Largest Decrease in the Country
by F. Vincent Vernuccio Virginia’s ranking fell more than any other state in the Commonwealth Foundation’s 50 State Labor Report “The Battle for Worker Freedom in the States: Grading State Labor Laws.” Virginia plunged from an “A+” ranking in 2019 to a dismal “C” this year. This was due to what the report called “[t]he…
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Drug Dealers Are Murderers
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…
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Youngkin Champions Licensing Reforms, Loosens Regulatory Barriers
by Eric Burk The Virginia Board of Social Work has changed licensing regulations, making it easier for social workers licensed in other states to get licensed in Virginia. “There is a critical shortage in Virginia of mental health professionals, and this is a significant step by the Board of Social Work to help address this…
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Dem Talking Points Emerge for Virginia’s Educational Meltdown
by James A. Bacon Democrats and the mainstream media were blindsided by the release of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data last week showing that 4th graders in Virginia experienced the greatest decline in learning between 2017 and 2022 of any state in the union. I conjectured that the evidence was so conclusive that…
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The Youngkin Plan for Reversing Learning Loss
by James A. Bacon Now that the National Assessment for Educational Progress has provided irrefutable proof of the collapse in learning in Virginia schools over the past four years, the Youngkin administration can move on from the task of persuading Virginians that they have a problem to actually working the problem. The initiatives that caught…
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Opioid Epidemic Costs Virginians $3.5 Billion a Year
Over and above the lives it has destroyed, the opioid epidemic cost Virginia’s economy about $3.5 billion in 2020, according to data published by the Virginia Department of Health. The major costs calculated include lost labor, health care and crime. Mapping the costs by locality, the database shows per-capita costs ranging from $132 in Falls…