Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Off the Interstate: “God’s Thumbprint”
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I first encountered Burke’s Garden many years ago the first time I drove to Southwest Virginia. I was enchanted with it and visit it every time I go to Southwest Virginia. The latest visit was late last month when I was on the way back to Richmond from visiting my grandson in…
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Greasing the Skids for the Budget
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Virginia General Assembly can be efficient when it puts its mind to it. Consider the 2024 Special Session that convened on Monday. The House convened at noon and adjourned at 3:15. The Senate stayed around a little bit longer. It convened at noon and adjourned at 3:51. (Technically, both houses actually…
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No Need to Call the Budget Bluff
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin and General Assembly leaders have reached a deal on the budget for the next biennium. Based on press reports, it is difficult to say who won this battle. That’s the hallmark of a compromise. The process started off in December with the governor saying the state had more than enough…
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Ban Cellphones in Schools? It Can be Done!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Schools around the country, including in Virginia, are beginning to effectively ban students’ use of cellphones in schools. According to available data, about 75 percent of schools in the country ban the non-academic use of cellphones during school hours. However, in most cases, the ban is enforced sporadically. Teachers are put on…
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A Question for Some Supreme Court Justices
I have a question for the originalists on the U.S. Supreme Court (Thomas and Alito) and textualists (Gorsuch): where in the Constitution does it say that the president is immune from prosecution (partial or full immunity)?–RWH
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Give Me this Kind of Accountability
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Frequently, some commenters on this blog complain about politicians not being accountable and hold up the private sector as a model for accountability. (For purposes of this discussion, we will ignore the fact that politicians have to go before the voters periodically and get reelected.) Here is a recent example of accountability…
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Souped Up on the Mountain
En route from visiting my grandson in college in Kentucky, I stopped at Breaks Interstate Park. I will save a discussion of the park for another post, but, in the meantime, this vehicle was parked at one of the overlooks. I immediately thought that WayneS, one of the active BR participants, would appreciate it.
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A Rejoinder on the TJ “Fall”
Before folks got carried away with sarcasm and “I told you so,” it would have been best to examine a few facts regarding the ranking by U.S. News and World Report of the Thomas Jefferson School for Science and Technology (TJ): The ranking fell to fifth last year. The data for that ranking pre-dated the…
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Some Rural Localities Hit With Big Jump in Local Composite Index
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all those readers who complain that Northern Virginia gets screwed by state funding formulas, Dwight Yancey of Cardinal News has provided an eye-opening rejoinder. Many rural counties have been hit disproportionately hard by the new calculations for the local composite index used to determine the local share of the costs of…
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Jason Miyares–Judicial Activist?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Jason Miyares has struck out again. Miyares, Virginia’s Attorney General, keeps asking the Virginia Supreme Court to interpret a statute, based not on how it is actually written, but based on what the General Assembly “intended.” The court’s response is that its function is to ask “not what the legislature intended to…
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The Incredibly Shrinking Newspaper
A story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch sums up the state of media coverage in the state’s capital city. The city of Richmond is considering entering into an agreement to move the city’s Department of Social Services into the Richmond Times-Dispatch building. The agency will occupy three floors of the four-story building. The newspaper staff will…
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Governor Leaves Consistency and Principle Behind
by Dick Hall-Sizemore With his proposed amendments to legislation regulating “games of skill,” Gov. Youngkin has demonstrated deep inconsistencies, if not outright hypocrisy. Before getting into the specifics, a little background is needed. “Games of skill” are machines on which people can play and win money. The proponents of the machines claim that some element…
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A Flood of Budget Amendments
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Well, Gov. Youngkin has not carried through on his veiled threat to veto the entire budget–yet. Instead, he has proposed more than 230 amendments that would get rid of the expansion of the sales tax to digital services that the General Assembly passed, along with an extra $1 billion in expenditures that…
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Can the Governor Veto RGGI?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s top priorities has been to extricate the Commonwealth from participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). One of the top priorities of the Democrat-controlled General Assembly has been ensuring that the Commonwealth participates in RGGI. For those readers unfamiliar with the purposes of RGGI and how…
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Governor’s Budget Transformed
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In my almost 50 years of working around, and following, the General Assembly, I do not think I have ever seen the legislature take apart a governor’s budget bill to the extent that this General Assembly just demolished Gov. Youngkin’s budget. The change that had the most impact was the jettisoning of…