Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Let The Children Play
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In an op-ed piece in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch, a graduate student at the William and Mary School of Education advocates a change in the school schedule that I have long favored: more recess! Not physical education class, but pure, unstructured play time. Legislation enacted in 2018 requires a minimum of 680 hours…
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What About That Price of Gas?!!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There was much wailing — on this blog, in Virginia, and in the nation — as gas prices approached and then exceeded $5 per gallon recently. Governor Youngkin and President Biden used those price levels to call for suspension of gas taxes. And what was the reaction of the general populace to…
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Those Progressive Prosecutors: The Sky Hasn’t Fallen
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been much concern expressed on this blog that the policies of newly elected “progressive” prosecutors in the Commonwealth would lead to increases in crime in those jurisdictions and, perhaps, a dissolution of society. See here, here, here, and here. Based on data in the recently released Crime in Virginia 2021,…
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The Abortion Hypocrisy of Glenn Youngkin
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin recently told a forum organized by The Family Foundation that life begins at conception. I agree with that statement. He went on to say that he wanted to “protect life.” However, he said that he would be willing to settle for a bill that prohibits abortions after 20 weeks of…
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A Mean-Spirited Amendment
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The 2021 General Assembly passed legislation that made students who fall into the “DACA” category (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals), sometimes called the “Dreamers,” eligible for in-state tuition at Virginia institutions of higher education. To be eligible for in-state tuition regardless of citizenship or immigration status, an applying student must have: Attended…
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Continuity in the State Finance Agencies
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The lead story in Tuesday’s Richmond Times-Dispatch was a curious one. Its headline promised great drama, which was not delivered, and it missed the real story. The headline, “Retirements Transform State Finance Agencies,” promises great drama. The primary agencies in the Finance Secretariat are the Department of Accounts (DOA), Department of the…
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The Rest of the Story: Other TJ Amicus Briefs
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Asra Q. Nomani recently posted an article listing several organizations that had filed amicus curiae briefs in the case before the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in which the Fairfax County School Board is appealing a district court’s ruling that the new admissions process for the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and…
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Lab Schools: An Experiment Worth Making
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governments fund the activities upon which they place priority. Budget is policy. A budget bill is chock full of choices and priorities. Analyzing an entire budget bill would be a long and tedious process, but proposed amendments to a budget provide an opportunity to focus on specific policy choices. With that in…
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A Senseless Fight
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Sometimes I shake my head in dismay at the Democrats in the General Assembly. They sometimes seem so eager to score points against Governor Youngkin that they end up shooting themselves in the foot. Current case in point is Budget Amendment No. 9 sent down by the Governor. Rather than summarize it,…
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Let’s Get Out of Here
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that four prisoners escaped from the federal prison complex near Petersburg early Saturday morning. No details were released on how they escaped. Undoubtedly, it is important for federal officials to discover how the prisoners escaped and take steps to tighten security. However, there is another question that is…
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Picking the Wrong Fight
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the new Commonwealth’s attorneys in Northern Virginia has gotten into serious trouble. Circuit Court Judge James Plowman, in a highly unusual move, has removed the office of Loudoun County Commonwealth’s attorney Buta Biberaj from the prosecution of a case. In his order, Judge Plowman said that the prosecutor’s office had…
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How Many Pieces Did You Say It Will Take To Build This Plant?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There is more good news for the Commonwealth. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Youngkin announced on Wednesday that the Lego Group will invest at least $1 billion to build a new manufacturing facility in Chesterfield County. It would be Lego’s only manufacturing facility in the United States. The company projected…
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More Legislating Through the Budget
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Since Governor Youngkin was successful in getting into the budget bill a provision establishing a criminal penalty for possession of more than four ounces of marijuana, he apparently has decided to go even further in using the budget bill as a means to amend the criminal code without having to go through…
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The Continuing Transformation of Virginia Politics
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Toscano, David. Bellwether: Virginia’s Political Transformation, 2006-2020. Lanham: Hamilton Books, 2022 In this book, David Toscano, whose prior work was Fighting Political Gridlock: How States Shape Our Nation and Our Lives (2021), turns his focus on Virginia. The author is a former Democratic member of the Virginia House of Delegates (2006-2020) from…
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A History Lesson for the Governor
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In announcing the latest revenue collections (they are high), Governor Youngkin renewed his pitch for tax cuts, commenting, “This report confirms that the time is now to deliver meaningful tax cuts to Virginia families who are getting crushed by five-dollar gas and record-high inflation.” That statement gave me pause. “Record-high inflation”? I…