Author: Dick Hall-Sizemore
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Checking up on Steve Descano
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Contributors and many readers of this blog have been highly critical of Steve Descano, the Commonwealth’s Attorney for Fairfax County. They belittle him as being a Soros-backed, “woke” prosecutor, soft on crime. They seem to have missed Descano’s involvement in a recent high-profile case. As described by The Washington Post, the defendant…
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But It’s Just a Little Bit of Money
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Ben Cline, the Commonwealth’s Republican member of the U.S House of Representatives from the 6th District, is very upset about the level of federal spending and the state of the federal deficit. Cline is chairman of the Republican Study Committee’s Budget and Spending Task Force. In a press release last year, he…
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Didn’t We Settle This Divisive Concept Long Ago?
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Glenn Youngkin has signed on to a constitutional position that Virginia and other Southern states used to justify secession from the United States over 170 years ago. Here, in a nutshell, are the events that led to this situation: Greg Abbott ordered razor wire placed in the Rio Grande River to…
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Competition for Schools
by Dick Hall-Sizemore One of the good bills introduced in the General Assembly this year would bring a measure of competition in public schools. Put in by Sen. Mark Peake (R-Lynchburg), SB 552 would require school districts to allow students to attend any school in the district. Currently, districts are allowed to adopt such open…
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Richmond Shoots Itself in the Foot–Again
by Dick Hall-Sizemore It never ceases to amaze me how the City of Richmond seems unable to accomplish even the most basic functions of government right. The latest snafu occurred in the office of the General Registrar. A fourth of the voters requesting absentee ballots for the upcoming Democratic presidential primary election received outdated instructions.…
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The Monster at the End of the Book
by Dick Hall-Sizemore We have created a monster. The genie is out of the bottle. Whatever metaphor you want to use, there is no going back and the way forward poses great dangers. The monster or genie is AI. The media are full of the promising possibilities of AI improving our lives—great leaps in medicine,…
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A Doggone Tale
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent special election in Southside Virginia is a stark illustration of how a small special interest group can exercise out-sized power. In mid-December, long-time state Sen. Frank Ruff (R-Mecklenburg), announced he was resigning from the Senate, shortly after having been re-elected to a seventh term. He had received a diagnosis of…
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It’s a Different House Courts
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Long-time observers can attest to the significant changes that have occurred in the legislature over the decades. Perhaps nowhere are these changes more evident than with the House Courts of Justice Committee and its Subcommittee on Criminal Law. This committee and its criminal law subcommittee had a reputation as being tough, and…
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Still Acting Like a Rookie
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Glenn Youngkin does not seem to be a fast learner. He seems to think he is still at the Carlyle Group where the top brass announced deals and the rest of the organization fell in line. That’s not how it works with a bicameral legislature, especially when your party is in…
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A Nice Story Turns Out Not to be Such a Nice Story After All
by Dick Hall-Sizemore A recent podcast produced by VPM, Richmond’s public radio station, is both fascinating and disheartening. Admissible: Shreds of Evidence deals with the early days of the use of DNA as forensic evidence. In particular, it is the story of Mary Jane Burton, a long-time serologist for what is now called the Department…
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A Modest Suggestion
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Gov. Glenn Youngkin has taken a tough stance toward the Chinese. He has prohibited state agencies from using the TikTok platform. He wants to ban the use of TikTok by Virginia residents under 18. He championed legislation prohibiting the sale of Virginia farmland to Chinese buyers. Finally, he scuttled the location of…
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There’s Gold in Them Thar Hills!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore As staff members of the General Assembly start looking to “find” money in Gov. Youngkin’s proposed budget bill that can be used to fund priorities of their committee members (and they will be looking—that is a major part of their jobs during the Session), a good place to look would be capital…
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The Fighting Editor
Alexander, Ann Field. Race Man: The Rise and Fall of the “Fighting Editor” John Mitchell Jr., University of Virginia Press, 2002 Review by Dick Hall-Sizemore John Mitchell, Jr. was a major figure in Richmond and Virginia public affairs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Over the course of this career, he was a…
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Showdown in Hill City
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The members of the Lynchburg City Council have been embroiled in fighting among themselves for the past year. At the close of the year, the council took the unprecedented step of censuring one of its members. Because of the dearth of the coverage of local government by today’s media, not much news…
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An Obstructionist Rises to the Top
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Amid all the other topics being discussed and debated on Bacon’s Rebellion, we have neglected to note that the Commonwealth has recently picked up a dubious distinction. It is now the home of the chair of the House Freedom Caucus — Rep. Bob Good (R–5th District). His selection was not cheered by…