Author: sherlockj
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Personnel Shortages that Plague Virginia’s Health Facilities Inspection Staff in the Hands of Budget Negotiators
by James C. Sherlock One of the most important responsibilities of Virginia state government is to inspect medical facilities and home care providers to ensure we are safe when we enter their care. It continues to fail in that responsibility thanks to years of Virginia budgets that have consciously ignored the need for increased inspector…
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Progressive Takeover of Educational Institutions – Virginia PTA Edition
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Times Dispatch published an article on Sunday about a Virginia PTA (VAPTA) conference at Atlee High School in Mechanicsville. Secretary of Education Aimee Guidera spoke to the attendees about the administration’s recent education report. That report assessed that Black and Hispanic students from impoverished families had entered COVID with major…
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Progressive Dogma Untethered to Results – Voter Laws Edition
by James C. Sherlock The armies of the progressive left are what the great political scientist George Edwards called “Prisoners of Their Premises.” Many persons and institutions are captives, to a greater or lesser degree. Lesser is better in this case. Mistakes flow from the best of intentions. You can learn from them or repeat…
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Two News Organizations Report on the Youngkin Administration Initiative to Improve K-12 Outcomes
by James C. Sherlock I submit for your review two articles about the report of the Virginia Superintendent of Public Instruction, “Our Commitment to Virginians”. The first is by Sarah Rankin of the Associated Press. The other is by Hannah Natanson of The Washington Post. Both review the same report. Both are presented as news…
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Virginia Supreme Court Gives Hope to Competitors of Regional Healthcare Monopolies
Is the Virginia Antitrust Act now in play? by James C. Sherlock There is good news this morning for those of us hoping for more competition to regional healthcare monopolies in Virginia. The Virginia Supreme Court (the Court) overturned the decision of the State Health Commissioner to deny the application of the Chesapeake Regional Medical Center…
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Richmond Public Schools, VSU, VUU Teacher Residency Initiative is Promising
by James C. Sherlock The Richmond Public Schools RVA Men Teach program has partnered with Virginia State and Virginia Union Universities to create a HBCU (Historically Black College/University) Teacher Residency program for male minority teachers. As a long time observer and sometime critic of RPS, I congratulate it and the two universities for this initiative.…
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A Seat at the Table — State and Local Advisory Boards in Virginia Need Ideological Balance
by James C. Sherlock One of the opportunities offered by investigative journalism that is denied to the average citizen is to observe appointed government advisory boards in action. It has been enlightening, but almost always disappointing. The way the members of appointed boards are generally selected in Virginia is an artifact of a political spoils…
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Relentless Promotion of Transsexuality in Children – Fairfax County School Board Edition
by James C. Sherlock Family Life Education – Board of Education Guidelines and Standards of Learning for Virginia Public Schools, updated in 2020 by a famously progressive Virginia Board of Education, requires: A plan for teaching sensitive content in gender-separated classes shall be announced publicly. Current Fairfax County School Board Regulation 3204.9 Effective 09/15/2020 requires both elementary…
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Why Not Virginia for Semiconductor Manufacturing Expansion?
by James C. Sherlock Among the things that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made clear is the vulnerability of Taiwan and with it, the access of the U.S. economy to the 90% of advanced computer chips manufactured there. The national security requirement for domestic chip manufacturing brings opportunity. It is the nation’s most urgent…
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Charter School Lessons for the Youngkin Administration from the New York Times
by James C. Sherlock Probably surprising to many of my readers, one of the newspapers to which I subscribe is The New York Times. Another is The Washington Post. Of the two, the Times demonstrates far more balance in its reporting. Not opinion – reporting. Times education writers, direct witnesses to the astonishing achievements of…
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Fairfax County Declines Assistance in Protecting Supreme Court Justices as Unconstitutional
By James C. Sherlock The Chairman of the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, a career progressive politician unburdened by a law degree, has declared Fairfax County’s support of federal authorities in execution of federal law to be unconstitutional. Not unaffordable; not wrong; but unconstitutional. He offered that opinion to justify his decision that the Fairfax…
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The Fall of the Regional Press in Virginia – Virginian-Pilot Edition
By James C. Sherlock One of my morning newspapers is The Virginian-Pilot. It used to be an outstanding regional newspaper. Shrunken to a sliver of its former self, it is no longer. Small size need not compromise integrity, but it has in this case. The Pilot unapologetically accepts, apparently without review, wire service reports…
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Richmond Punts Again on Unionization Ordinance
By James C. Sherlock The Richmond City Council still has not decided whether to accept Mayor Stoney’s plan for unionization. He has submitted an ordinance that would let Richmond walk before it runs and maintain the sensible management controls he has laid out in a draft ordinance. Basically, he is OK with negotiating pay and…
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Improving Petersburg Public Health is a State Issue as Well as a Local and Personal Responsibility
By James C. Sherlock The RTD today published an article “Petersburg is Virginia’s least healthy locality, and money is a big reason why” about one of my favorite subjects – the stubborn health problems in Petersburg and other poor urban areas of Virginia. The story references the latest annual study from the University of Wisconsin…
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Planning for Telecommuting’s Effects on Virginia
By James C. Sherlock I think that we don’t yet realize the full impact of the revolution being wrought by the telecommuting that accelerated during COVID. I am sure I don’t. But Virginians, and our state and local governments, must try to figure it out. We are moving towards a world in which white collar…