Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
-
Talking Out of Both Sides of Their Mouths
by Dick Hall-Sizemore While perusing today’s edition of the Roanoke Times, I ran across an article that astounded me. It concerned a meeting recently in Southwest Virginia about the Coalfields Expressway. I remembered hearing about this proposed highway many, many years ago and thought that it had been dismissed as a pipe dream. It turns…
-
De Facto Secretary?
On April 15, Governor Youngkin issued a press release announcing “additional key administration appointments”. Several of those appointments were duly noted by various newspapers and other media outlets. Others were not, although they are interesting in their own right, raising some issues and shedding light on the administration. Because different issues are raised with different…
-
Some Basic Transparency Education Needed
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of Governor Youngkin’s “Day One” actions was the establishment of the Commonwealth Chief Transformation Officer as a member of his cabinet, along with the Office of Transformation within the Office of the Governor. Executive Order Number Five lays out the functions of that official and his office: “The primary responsibilities of…
-
Help Wanted–Contact Glenn Youngkin
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Glenn Youngkin is having trouble keeping filled the top posts of a couple of his top priority agencies. Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) A little background information is in order. Nelson Moe had been the Chief Information Officer (CIO), or director, of VITA since 2015. During that time, he faced two…
-
1619–A Portentous Year. A Book Review and Summary
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Horn, James. 1619: Jamestown and the Forging of American Democracy. New York: Basic Books, 2018. Notwithstanding the title, this book is not part of the controversial 1619 Project. The author is currently the most prominent and knowledgeable scholar of early colonial Virginia. He is the president and chief officer of the Jamestown…
-
Virginia Partisanship in Congress
Virginia Congressmen have scored at the extremes on a national measure of bipartisanship in Congress. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-7th, has been ranked as the fifth most bipartisan member of the House of Representatives and Rep. Bob Good, R-5th, the fifth least bipartisan member. The Lugar Center, founded by the…
-
Does This Highway Need to be Widened to Six Lanes?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There is a campaign underway to expand a stretch of I-64 from Richmond to James City County. Currently, the Interstate highway is a four-lane divided highway. The proposal is to add an additional lane in each direction. The Department of Transportation estimates the cost of the project at $750 million. The first…
-
Deja Vu, All Over Again
by Dick Hall-Sizemore As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Youngkin “wants state employees back in their offices under a new telework policy that will take effect July 5 to guide executive branch agencies out of workplace restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic.” To that effect, he has announced a policy that will let state…
-
“Let the Sunshine In”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Dwight Yancey, editor of Cardinal News, has a fascinating piece today dealing with solar energy in Southwest Virginia and Southside Virginia. In a piece replete with information and rumination, he sets out 13 takeaways from the recently-released Virginia Solar Survey “and other solar energy news, as viewed through the lens of the…
-
Another Perspective on Youngkin Education Policy
by Dick Hall-Sizemore After thinking about this a little more and doing some poking around on the Internet, I want to take issue with some of what Virginia Secretary of Education Aimee Rogstad Guidera said at an AEI forum, as reported on Bacon’s Rebellion yesterday. The goals are sound, but I am not so sure…
-
A Lot of Unanswered Questions
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Painting racial slurs on the face of an unconscious Black teenage boy is wrong. That being said, a recent incident in the Richmond area leads to a lot of questions, including concerning the quality of reporting done by the Richmond Times-Dispatch. According to an RTD on-line story Friday by reporter Mark Bowes,…
-
The Trumpification of Bacon’s Rebellion
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Rather than engage an opponent in reasoned debate, Donald Trump has a habit of conjuring up a derogatory nickname for that person and attacking in that way. One aspect that attracted me to Bacon’s Rebellion a little more three years ago was the civility of the discourse and the willingness to engage…
-
The Book Burners Next Door
by Dick Hall-Sizemore James Sherlock alerted us yesterday to a “bigger threat to our nation than Russia and China” by the left. While the Biden administration’s establishment of an effort to combat online disinformation is somewhat disquieting, its dimensions are somewhat vague. It could be no more than a federal government “fact checker.” On the…
-
A Different Tone
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There have been some complaints lately about how the Richmond newspaper should be called the Richmond Times-Dominion, due to its biased coverage in favor of the utility. While I agree with a lot of the criticism about taking a Dominion news release, rewriting it and then publishing it as news, a sentence…
-
Supreme Court Refuses to Require T.J. to Resume Prior Admissions Process
by Dick Hall-Sizemore As reported today by The New York Times, the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday refused to require the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology to resume using its prior admissions process, pending an appeal of a judge’s decision overturning a new process adopted by the school board. This issue has been…