Author: Bob Rayner
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Ignoring FOIA?
by Joe Fitzgerald I’ve wondered since college, if not high school, what happens when a public body decides to just ignore the Freedom of Information Act. I don’t know if that’s what the Rockingham County School Board is doing right now, but if they are, the criticism might be just the cost of doing business.…
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Virginia Is Not California. Or New York.
by Kerry Dougherty By pro-Hamas standards, the protests at the University of Virginia were anemic. Estimates placed the size of the “crowds” that began gathering on Grounds – as they say in Charlottesville – last week ranged from about 12 to perhaps as many as 50. The Hamas fan club was clustered near the chapel…
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RVA Car Tax Elevator: Going Up!
by Jon Baliles A reader alerted us this week that if you have not yet gotten your personal property tax bill (car tax) from the City of Richmond, you soon will — and it will be notably higher than last year unless you bought a newer model or drive a jalopy. The city receives roughly…
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Fairness + Accountability = Thriving City
by Jon Baliles The city of Richmond seems to be trying to plug all of the holes in its boat, also known as the U.S.S. Meals Tax Fiasco, that has been taking on water for months. It seems that the city is finally wiping out the erroneous meals tax payments and interest they had charged…
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Congress Values Names More Than Housing for Service Members
by Donald Smith “Removing the last vestiges of Confederate history from the U.S. military, including renaming nine Army posts, will cost more than $62 million, a congressional commission said Tuesday.” That quote is from Alex Horton’s Washington Post article on the recommendations of the Naming Commission, dated September 13th, 2022. “For the base names,” wrote Horton, “the changes will…
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Unmask the Death-To-America Rioters
by Kerry Dougherty It’s time. Time to burn the last foul-smelling remnant of the Ralph Northam regime. Actually, it’s long past time to once again enforce an important part of the Code of Virginia: 18.2-422. “Prohibition of wearing masks in…any public place. This law was active from 1950 until Northam the Awful – the doctor…
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Beach College Weekend Was a Dud: The Good News & The Bad.
by Kerry Dougherty Talk about spinning until you’re dizzy, get a load of the local coverage of last weekend’s taxpayer-subsidized Audacity Oceanfront Concerts: Describing the anemic “crowds” as “smaller-than-expected” The Virginian-Pilot added “That’s not to say those who attended didn’t have a good time.” Oh please. We, the taxpayers, gave the organizers of this dud…
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Greedy Cities and Speeding Ticket Chicanery
by Kerry Dougherty Hire more traffic cops. At the very least hire Virginia companies to fleece Virginia drivers. That’s the advice I have for Chesapeake and Suffolk, where instead of sending cops with radar guns out to catch speeders, they’ve hired out-of-state vendors with cameras. Worse, according to attorney and former Del. Tim Anderson, who’s…
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Freebees Aren’t Free
by Kerry Dougherty I can’t be the only Virginia Beach taxpayer sick of watching my real estate taxes climb every year while the city council wastes money on pricey gimmicks like “free” Tesla rides for residents and visitors to the city. For two years we’ve picked up the tab for a small fleet of Teslas…
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The Budget Do-Over: A Game of Chicken?
by Jock Yellott Speaking off-the-cuff at a Charlottesville/Albemarle Bar Association lunch on April 18, 2024, Senator Creigh Deeds offered some pointed remarks about Governor Youngkin. The Governor and the General Assembly had just the day before agreed to scrap the budget and the Governor’s proposed amendments and start over from scratch in May, averting a…
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State Legislatures Control Budgets — Virginia’s More Than Most
by David J. Toscano For over a month, Virginia’s legislature and governor have been embroiled in a “two scorpions in a bottle” fight over the new biennial budget, which must be passed by June 30, 2024, to fund the government. Last Wednesday, each of them loosened the cork in the carafe. After Assembly-initiated discussions with…
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Diamonds Aren’t Forever
by Jon Baliles The entire saga of the development of the Diamond District project in Richmond has come full circle in the last 18 months, as Mayor Levar Stoney, desperate for an economic development win after the failure of his Navy Hill boondoggle and two failed casino referendums, has rounded the bases trying to get…
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Fairfax Spends More, Teaches Less
by Arthur Purves (Editor’s note: Arthur Purves, president of the Fairfax County Taxpayers Alliance, addressed the Fairfax County School Board on Feb. 13, 2024. His remarks, with updated numbers, are posted below.) At church I get to ask students and parents around Vienna about our schools. The feedback is positive, and we appreciate your dedicated teachers…
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Are Nonchalant Adults Responsible For School Shootings?
by Kerry Dougherty Finally. For instance, the former assistant principal at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News — Ebony Parker — has been indicted on eight criminal charges in connection with the shooting of first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner in January 2023. This stunning act of senseless violence put Newport News in headlines around the…
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Youngkin Kicks the Can Down the Road on Affirmative Action
by Jock Yellott By partisan votes, the Democrat controlled General Assembly presented Republican Governor Youngkin with HB 1404, mandating affirmative action in Virginia government contracts. Bacon’s Rebellion published a piece that listed the bill as a veto candidate. One of those that would “have the greatest negative economic impact on the Commonwealth.” But instead…