Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Layne Going to the Dark Side
I do not know if this is good news or bad news for Jim Sherlock’s campaign, but Aubrey Layne, currently the Secretary of Finance, will be joining Sentara on July 1. (This is about the time during an administration that Cabinet members start jumping ship.)
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Change Coming to Virginia Beach Politics
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent federal court decision could fundamentally change the politics of Virginia Beach, the Commonwealth’s largest city. Some background is needed first. Virginia Beach has an unusual method of electing its council. All 11 members of the council are elected by all the voters in the city. However, seven of the council…
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An Old Use of Solar Power
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Greenhouses have been used since the time of the Roman Empire. A couple of Virginia Beach entrepreneurs are planning to use this old technology to harness the sun’s energy in a big way. Their company, Sunny Farms, plans to invest $60 million to build hydroponic greenhouses on more than 30 acres, about…
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CRT and Virginia History
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Over the past few months, there has been considerable commentary on Bacon’s Rebellion regarding Critical Race Theory (CRT). Many on this blog seem to genuinely fear that this theory, or frame of reference, presents an existential threat to society, with our schools becoming centers of “Marxist indoctrination.” Before discussing the legitimacy of…
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Send in the Clowns
By Dick Hall-Sizemore So, the party that is so concerned about election “integrity” leaves its primary ballots overnight in a hotel ballroom, which a housekeeper is able to enter undetected until later. So much for the credibility of this group.
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More Nonsense from AG Candidates
By Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch has compelled me to once again mount my soapbox about one of my favorite peeves — the misleading claims, and understanding, of the role of the Virginia Attorney General. I will say upfront that I realize that mine is a lost cause and, furthermore, what…
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Brood X is Coming!
By Dick Hall-Sizemore It was spring, 2004, several months after our first grandchild had been born. My wife and I were visiting our daughter and family in Fairfax County. There was a loud, incessant buzzing, almost roar, in the air. Big bugs were everywhere; you could not walk without crunching on them. They were dropping…
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More Positive Notes on General Assembly Members
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I appreciate Jim Sherlock providing a positive view of two members of the General Assembly. He is right that we often dwell on the negative aspects or members of the legislature and neglect the good ones. In that vein, I am offering a supplementary list of legislators who are conscientious and smart…
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Some College Graduates Will Get Paid to Live in Southwest or Southside Virginia
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The Tobacco Commission (Virginia Tobacco Region and Revitalization Commission) has come up with a program that does not involve pork-barrel grants. Two of the problems afflicting the area served by the Commission, Southside and Southwest, are a shortage of people to fill certain jobs and a shortage of young adults putting down…
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Mentally Ill in Jails, Part 3: Costs, Legislative Initiatives, and a Modest Proposal
By Dick Hall-Sizemore (Note: This is the third, and final, post in a series examining the issue of mentally ill people being held in jails. Earlier posts can be found here and here.) Costs. In comments to the previous installments, several readers brought up the issue of the cost of providing services for the mentally ill…
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Oh, To Work for the Legislature
by Dick Hall-Sizemore I learned a long time ago that one can come across some juicy nuggets by perusing the amendments to the budget bill. One such nugget I ran across today confirmed something else I have known for a long time: It is nice to work for the General Assembly; legislators take care of…
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Mentally Ill in Jail, Part 2 — State and Local Efforts to Address the Issue
by Dick Hall-Sizemore (Note: This is the second installment of a discussion on mentally ill people in Virginia’s jails. Part 1 of this series set out the scope of the problem.) Although senior policymakers are aware of the large number of mentally ill people in jails and acknowledge the seriousness of the problem, the state…
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Mentally Ill in Jails, Part 1–The Scope of the Problem
By Dick Hall-Sizemore (Note: This was not intended to be a long post, but, during its development, it grew like Topsy. Being painfully aware of my tendency to be wordy and the limitations of a blog regarding long essays, I have broken the post into three parts or installments. The first examines the extent of…
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Driving While Black
By Dick Hall-Sizemore If anyone ever doubted there was a need for society to address the problem of police officers stopping Black drivers, a recent event in the town of Windsor should dispel those doubts. The incident is reported in today’s on-line Virginian-Pilot. Like incidents at Virginia institutions of higher education that have been recently…
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The New Normal
by Dick Hall-Sizemore We are used to hearing and seeing weather temperatures reported as being some number of degrees above or below normal. The definition of “normal” has changed this year. The National Weather Service defines “normal” climate conditions as a 30-year average. New Climate Normals are calculated every 10 years. Before this year, the…