Author: sherlockj
-
Jamestown Settlement – A Flawless Weaving of American History
by James C. Sherlock Sunday, on a brilliant fall day in Hampton Roads, my wife and I went on an outing. Despite having lived in Virginia for many decades, neither of us had ever been to Jamestown. We all know the outlines of the story. Jamestown was founded in 1607 as a commercial venture by…
-
Crime, Cops, Steve Descano and the “Needs and Values” of Fairfax County
by James C. Sherlock Deterrence of crime, measured as a combination of fear of getting caught and fear of punishment, has been visibly collapsing in Fairfax County since January 2020. In that month, Steve Descano took over as Commonwealth’s Attorney and has by policy greatly reduced risk of punishment for crimes in that county. He…
-
Ungrateful Citizens of Fairfax County
by James C. Sherlock Jeff McKay, Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, can’t catch a break. Violent crime is up. The Fairfax County Police Chief has declared a police emergency for staffing. There has been a fairly brutal back and forth up there about who is responsible and who is or is not…
-
Things that Work — Virginia Department of Elections and the Virginia Beach Registrar’s Office
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes, government offices are better than you can imagine. My wife and I cast early ballots on Thursday. We went to the Virginia Beach Director of Elections office at the Municipal Center. Everything about the experience was great, and better than it needed to be. Now, an interruption in a communication…
-
The Widely Varying and Inflated Costs of State Colleges and Universities in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock A College Board report, “Trends in College Pricing and Student Aid” estimated the total costs of attending college in 2021. The figures above represent total annual budget costs. This is a drill that many parents have been through. But I offer for the broader audience the differences in costs for one…
-
Physicians, Hospitals and Gender Dysphoria in Minors- Fundamental Disputes
By James C. Sherlock What about the doctors in this controversy? What about hospital and state oversight? What do laws and regulations require and on what are they silent? We’ll look. The dispute among physicians on the treatment of gender dysphoria in minors is primarily an ethical one. They agree on the diagnosis and some…
-
UVa Children’s Takes Step Forward in Support to Gender Dysphoric Minors
by James C. Sherlock I congratulate UVa Children’s Hospital for taking a step forward in the treatment of gender dysphoric minors. One of the criticisms of that service was its singular focus on endocrinology. Moving from mental health support to hormone therapy is, as Mayo Clinic warns, a big step. Starting this week, comprehensive services…
-
Solar Farms Trump Environmental Justice in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Virginia is a solar energy boom state. The Commonwealth ranked 4th in total generating capacity of new solar installations in 2020. The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) in 2021 ranked Virginia 6th nationally for projected growth in solar capacity over the next 5 years. The left is consumed by concern for…
-
Progressive Initiatives in Virginia to be Blocked by Environmental Laws?
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes we are too clever for our own good. American environmentalists have been hugely successful and have done a great deal of good. We have them to thank for cleaner water and air. But traditional environmentalists, supported by legal interests, incorporated two features in America’s environmental laws that may prove as…
-
The Greens, Their Quiet Partners, and Trains
by James C. Sherlock I love trains. Always have. Took my first train ride at a very young age with my mother and brother from D.C. to Birmingham to visit mom’s family. After the Navy, my private sector work was based in McLean. I had regular business in New York I took Amtrak whenever feasible.…
-
Scandal in Virginia Not-for-Profit Hospital Reported by the NY Times – Regional Perspectives
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes my subscription to The New York Times pays off. This is one of those times. The subtitle on the Times story is: Bon Secours Mercy Health, a major nonprofit health system, used the poverty of Richmond Community Hospital’s patients to tap into a lucrative federal drug program. It is a blockbuster…
-
Local Elections Dominated by School Issues – Chesapeake Edition
by James C. Sherlock Check out closely the citizens who are running for city councils, boards of supervisors and the school boards this time of year. The concerns of Virginians are still focused tightly on schools. That is the definition of the stakes in school board elections, which used to be sleepy, low-turnout affairs. But…
-
Fixes are Available for Nurse Shortages – Virginia Needs to Take Action in the Upcoming GA Session
by James C. Sherlock A future without enough nurses is unacceptable. There is some good news. Clinical nurses make a lot more money now than they used to. COVID fixed that. The travel nurse bubble is burst, but the pay raises for staff nurses appear to be sticking. The raises for nurses across the field…
-
Small and Medium Businesses in Virginia Cited Among Best Healthcare Workplaces Nationally
by James C. Sherlock There are a lot of problems in Virginia healthcare starting with staff shortages, especially nurses, and our COPN incumbent protection system. So, it is not an easy thing to compete and grow in the healthcare space. But two Virginia companies are doing so and succeeding in ways such businesses must, by…
-
Use of Cross-Gender Hormones for Gender Transitions in Minors
by James C. Sherlock In the sometimes murky world of diagnosis and treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents, the following steps generally but not always occur in order, with each potentially serving as an off-ramp: Diagnosis; Mental heath support; Social transition; Puberty blockers; Cross-gender hormones; and, Surgery; often but not always waiting for…