Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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A Proposal to Mitigate Gun Violence
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In an interesting development, one of the so-called “progressive” Virginia prosecutors has identified a direct link between someone committing misdemeanor offenses and later committing violent felony offenses. The misdemeanor offenses that are predictors are gun offenses. After tracking violent case histories, Ramin Fatehi, the commonwealth’s attorney for Norfolk, as reported by WAVY…
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How Governor Youngkin Can Become the Most Popular Governor in History
Memo To: Governor Glenn Youngkin From: Dick Hall-Sizemore Here is a sure fire way to become the most popular Governor of Virginia in history. It is two-pronged: Order all state agencies to eliminate the use of automated phone trees. The citizens of Virginia deserve to be able to talk to a real person when they…
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Commonwealth Set for Major Broadband Expansion
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the issues underlined by the pandemic was the need for all areas of the state to have access to broadband internet. Without access to broadband, kids (and adults) in rural areas cannot take advantage of courses offered online. To the extent that more people will be working remotely, rural areas…
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The Inner Circle Shrinks
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In recent years, 13 or 14 Virginia delegates and senators have held extraordinary power and have been the envy of their colleagues. (The total number and the size of the delegation from each house varied over the years.) They were the conferees on the budget bill and they had the power to…
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“Frequent Flyers” Are Not Harbingers of Anarchy
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In a recent article on this blog, Jim Bacon cited the case of Ronald Thomas as a possible harbinger of a “descent into anarchy.” One commenter cited 13 prior charges, many of which were “nol prossed”. Just looking at a list of charges and their results can be misleading. It is necessary…
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Details on Real Estate Assessments and the Property Tax
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I am following up on James Sherlock’s article on local property taxes. In Article X, sections 1 and 2, the state constitution requires that all property be taxed at fair market value. There are exceptions, but those are not relevant to this discussion. So, there you have it. Unless the constitution is…
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Who Needs the General Assembly? Let the Budget Conferees Do It.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Although legislating through the budget, a practice that used to be frowned upon, is not new, this year’s budget conferees are taking the practice to a new dimension. The amendments released by the budget conferees include the following new provisions in the “General Provisions” section. In most cases, the Code of Virginia…
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Hanover Schools to Get “Biblical Lens” Turned on Them
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Some contributors and commenters on Bacon’s Rebellion who have recently expressed distress over schools and society in general should be able to take solace in the views of Johnny Redd, who is the newly appointed member of the Hanover County School Board. (Hanover County is one of the few jurisdictions in Virginia…
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The “Divisive Concept” Wars Have Begun
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Williamsburg-James City County School Board was due to adopt new texts this spring for its AP U.S. Government and Politics course, as well as other social studies classes, for use next fall. As reported by The Virginian-Pilot and Virginia Gazette, these deliberations may be an indication of how the Youngkin administration’s…
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A Budget Deal Emerges
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports there is an agreement on the state budget. There have been hints in the news about it all week, with the General Assembly announcing that it would come back to Richmond June 1 to take up various measures. All the details will not be available until late Sunday…
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A Rebuttal Regarding Changes in Election Laws and Changes in Turnout
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Putting aside the comparison with Georgia, I want to take issue with James Sherlock’s comparison of turnout in earlier Virginia gubernatorial elections with the turnout after significant recent changes in the Commonwealth’s elections laws. First of all, comparing the 66.5% turnout in the 1989 election, in which Doug Wilder became the first…
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Inflation and the Budget
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In addition to conventional budget requests, the Youngkin administration is likely to receive requests from agencies in the fall budget development exercise for additional funding to enable them to cover additional costs resulting from higher inflation. (Yes, I realize that the 2022-2024 biennial budget has not even been agreed upon yet, but,…
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What’s the Governor Waiting For?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore At the reconvened session on April 27, Governor Youngkin returned 116 bills to the General Assembly with recommended amendments. Legislators accepted the Governor’s recommendations on 91 of those bills. The remaining 25 bills were returned to him as originally passed. The Governor has three options for each of these remaining bills: sign…
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Diverse Opinions in Higher Ed
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Those commenters on this blog who are always decrying the dominance of liberal ideas and the quashing of conservative viewpoints in Virginia’s higher ed institutions need to broaden their horizon beyond the University of Virginia. As reported by The Washington Post, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke yesterday to a crowd…