Author: sherlockj
-
Virginia Emergency Management During COVID – A Well-Documented Scandal
By James C. Sherlock We could see it wasn’t right as it unfolded. Virginia’s flawed response to COVID was slow for all Virginians. Fatal for some. But the public just saw the broad stroke external effects. We saw executive orders that seemed sudden, sweeping, and disconnected from the information we had. It turns out that…
-
What Do We Owe To and Expect from a Special Ed Teacher?
by James C. Sherlock On February 16, USA Today published a story by Jeanine Santucci. That is the latest in an excellent series of reports on the shooting of Newport News first grade teacher Abigail Zwerner. Her article, “Virginia 6-year-old who shot his teacher exposes flaws in how schools treat students with disabilities.” raises questions that Virginians…
-
Virginia Law Enables School Violence – School Board Policies Can Correct It
by James C. Sherlock In 2019, the National Education Association (NEA) published Threatened and Attacked By Students: When Work Hurts, urging lawmakers to address the crisis of unsafe behaviors in schools. Read about Chesterfield schools in that article. Unfazed, progressives in 2020 in full control of the General Assembly, led by now-Congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan, looked…
-
Unconstitutional Viewpoint Discrimination in Virginia K-12 Teacher Evaluation Standards
by James C. Sherlock Progressives, in the fullness of their dogma, oppose the entire Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is specifically structured to limit the powers of government, which progressives find not only unsuitable, but unimaginable. In the Golden Age of Progressivism in Virginia, 2020 and 2021, they controlled the governor’s mansion, the…
-
Viewpoint Discrimination in Hiring at UVa – “Presumptively Unconstitutional”
by James C. Sherlock The University of Virginia engages today in in-your-face viewpoint discrimination in hiring. The counterfactually named University of Virginia Office for Equal Opportunity and Civil Rights (EOCR) declares itself responsible for: Recruitment and Hiring: facilitating and monitoring faculty and staff recruitment and hiring and training faculty and staff regarding applicable laws and best…
-
The Washington Post Reviews Progressive In-Fighting at the New York Times – A Cultural Cliff?
by James C. Sherlock Eric Wemple, the media critic of Northern Virginia’s morning newspaper, The Washington Post, has just published an article “The New York Times newsroom is splintering over a trans coverage debate.” I subscribe to both papers. The review is unintentionally hilarious. The comments more so. It provides context from the left for…
-
Virginia Rail Safety Inspections
by James C. Sherlock After the Ohio disaster, it is timely to review rail safety in Virginia. The Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) of the U.S. Department of Transportation is the federal rail safety regulator in cooperation with state authorities. FRA’s Office of Railroad Safety employs 400 railway inspectors. Federal safety management teams are organized by…
-
For Your Consideration: An Intellectual Freedom Protection Act
by James C. Sherlock I offer for your consideration the text of a draft Intellectual Freedom Protection Act proposed this morning by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). FIRE is the leading American voice supporting academic freedom, free speech and due process. In doing so they defend democracy itself. They are what the ACLU…
-
Richmond’s Crime-Infested Neighborhoods, Terrible Public Schools and Equity
by James C. Sherlock It’s Black History Month. Even in Richmond. As a contribution, I am going to review the facts on the ground in Richmond — in its most crime-ridden neighborhoods and its worst public schools. Which are overwhelmingly Black. And co-located. In a city with a Black mayor and a Black school board.…
-
New York Previews the Virginia Politics of Charter Schools
by James C. Sherlock I am no stranger to writing about charter schools in Virginia. The half-dozen or so we have in the state have no effect, and expansion is blocked by the fact that charters in Virginia have to be approved by division school boards. Which are elected by teachers, not students. The result,…
-
Coal in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock When we talk of coal today, which is seldom, it is usually not treated well. It is easy to forget (if some even know) that coal powered the industrial revolution, made America the richest nation in the world and fueled American war production that supported allied victories in both world wars…
-
The Players and the Dispute in the High Level Cage Match at UVa – Can a Racism Charge be Far Behind?
By James C. Sherlock I read yesterday morning on BR “Tragedies in Charlottesville” by UVa professor Loren Lomasky, who wrote: It is reasonable to judge that in either the longer or shorter version of the history of the university, no single individual has done it as grievous a harm as the man who now serves as…
-
Government Actors Try to Deflect, Deny and “Move On” from Failures During COVID
by James C. Sherlock The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is in full self-defense mode. CDC and the left backed, indeed insisted, upon social isolation during the pandemic. Now they deflect and deny agency in the consequences. They continue to try to insulate themselves from the catastrophic educational and mental health effects on…
-
Bias and Risk in Behavioral Polls and Studies – A Cautionary Tale for Public Policy
by James C. Sherlock Here at BR, both the authors and commenters spend a great deal of time discussing the outcomes of behavioral polls and studies. Taxes, mandates, and bans are behaviorally informed. As are most public policies. But behavioral science adds levels of risk and bias much more prevalent than in the hard sciences.…
-
Petersburg Seeks State Funding for Projects Linked to Public Health and the Appomattox River
by James C. Sherlock While all of the attention in the state press has been on Petersburg’s proposed casino, the estimable Bill Atkinson of the Petersburg Progress-Index provided insight into other Petersburg requests to the General Assembly for budget amendments. Badly needed infrastructure projects and a tourism initiative are each tied to the health of…