Author: Bob Rayner
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The Value of an Old School Roanoke County Education
by Scott Dreyer These remarks were shared with the Roanoke County School Board by email on August 17, 2023. I share these thoughts with the Roanoke County School board as someone who grew up in the County from ages 1 to 18 and attended County Public Schools from grades 1-12 until graduating from Northside. I…
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Virginia’s New “The Stupid Party”
by Chris Braunlich From the ‘50s to the mid-‘70s, the Republican Party was known as “the stupid party” – locked in the past, making foolish decisions, promoting unwise and counterproductive policies. Today, in Virginia, “the stupid party” has returned. But it is no longer Republican. The current battle over Virginia’s budget and the prospects for…
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Loudoun Supervisors Defend Exorbitant Junkets
by Ram Venkatachalam Until recently, members of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors haven’t tried to sell themselves as international diplomats and business development experts. They aren’t. Nor do we have a long history of waste, fraud, and abuse when it comes to how members of local government spend our tax dollars, especially for money…
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Fear and Loathing in Loudoun
by Ian Prior For several years, parents in Loudoun County, Virginia have been clamoring for accountability, transparency, higher standards, and safety in their schools. They haven’t been getting it, and that’s why new leadership is needed. The brunt of the parents’ grievances has been largely directed toward the Loudoun County School Board, which has been…
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Washington Post Gotcha’s Another GOP Candidate
by Victoria Snitsar Churchill Despite The Washington Post‘s attempts to paint him as an anti-woman radical, Republican nominee for the House of Delegates 21st District John Stirrup of Prince William County makes a compelling case for his District to elect him to the open seat this November. According to The Washington Post, “Stirrup told a…
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Who Are Those Rich Men North of Richmond? And What Is Youngkin Up To?
by Shaun Kenney First things are first. I’m almost certain you have heard “Try That In a Small Town” by Jason Aldean. Good for a week, right? If you want to hear true protest music? Allow me to introduce you to the bluegrass of Oliver Anthony: Give these lyrics a try: These rich men north…
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Raw Working-Class Anthem By Farmville’s Oliver Anthony Goes Viral
by Kerry Dougherty Move over, Jason Aldean, there’s a new country singer on the move. Meet Oliver Anthony of Farmville, Va., a former factory worker whose plaintive, working-class anthem, “Rich Men North Of Richmond,” went viral in just two days, catapulting this unknown country Virginia singer from obscurity into a viral sensation. It went to…
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Check Out the Partisan Lean of Every Virginia District
by Jeanine Martin VPAP.org has given us maps of the political leanings of all the districts, how far each district leans Republican or Democratic. Methodology To make any of these maps interactive with more details on each district click here. House of Delegates:
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Details of Newport News School Shooting Make Horrific Case Even Worse
by Kerry Dougherty Just when we thought we knew all of the horrific details of the shooting of Abby Zwerner we get more revelations. Chilling ones. You remember Miss Zwerner. She’s the 25-year-old Newport News first-grade teacher who was almost killed by one of her students in January. She’s suing school officials for $40 million…
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The Sorry State of the ACLU of Virginia
by Hans Bader The communist activist Angela Davis advocated abolishing prisons in the U.S., while supporting the incarceration of political prisoners in totalitarian communist regimes overseas. The ACLU of Virginia has touted Angela Davis’s stances in the past, such as in an April 4, 2022 tweet quoting Davis. Now, the ACLU of Virginia has returned…
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Oceanfront Unisex Bathrooms? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
by Kerry Dougherty Of all the cockamamie ideas cooked up at City Hall in Virginia Beach, this may win an award. A fat, legal award. But that’ll come later. Right now the city is bursting with pride over its new, $650,000 5-stall unisex restroom at 20th Street. Because let’s be honest, there’s nothing women like…
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Virginia Beach’s Bad Habit: Reckless Spending on Wasteful Projects
by Kerry Dougherty Feckless leadership, wasteful spending and escalating taxes have plagued Virginia Beach for decades. Despite new faces on city council, the game of spending tax dollars on insane projects that “will pay for themselves” continues. But let’s back up. Here’s one prescient story from The Virginian-Pilot in 2007. The headline: “Virginia Beach Sportsplex…
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How Did VCU Miss the Red Flags?
by Jon Baliles The unravelling saga of a failed development proposal downtown a block from City Hall that was supposed to rise out of the ashes of the failed Navy Hill project is still smoldering. The failed deal has come with a price tag of about $80 million so far (and growing) for VCU Health.…
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You’ve Been to Paris but You’ve Never Been to the Luray Caverns?
by Kerry Dougherty Today we’re taking a break from politics, woke culture and indictments. It’s Explore Beautiful Virginia time. A midsummer palate cleanser! But first a question: Why does every tourist destination sell fudge? More precisely, is there some sort of law that mandates every vacation spot feature a “fudgery”? Is there something about salt…
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Big Donors Leave DeSantis and Turn to Youngkin
by Jeanine Martin Florida’s Governor Ron DeSantis’ campaign has failed to catch the attention of Republican voters. His support now hovers in the upper teens. DeSantis has recently fired one-third of his campaign staff. He is now losing major donors and many of them are turning to Governor Glenn Youngkin whose job approval is at…