Author: sherlockj
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Corruption, Ignorance Turn Deadly in the General Assembly
by James C. Sherlock Virginia Department of Health inspectors, on page 11 of 66 of a statement of deficiencies dated June 21, 2021, wrote of a gut-wrenching discovery. They found an incontinent patient at Autumn Care of Suffolk, a stroke victim unable to talk, tied to her bed by a staffer. She was terrified and…
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Nurse Staffing Laws Bringing Big Changes are On the Horizon
by James C. Sherlock In my lengthy series on Virginia’s nursing homes, I pointed out that many of them are understaffed with nurses, RNs in particular. I also pointed to a nationwide nurse shortage, due in part to burnout, that the training pipelines are not poised to fill. New York, Pennsylvania and Oregon are poised…
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Loudoun County Public Schools – Part 2 – Sterling
by James C. Sherlock We are told by the left that more money is the answer to better schools. That is what Virginia Democrats are running on as education policy. I am comparing two high schools in America’s richest county, Loudoun, to control for per pupil expenditures. In Part 1 we looked at Freedom High…
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Loudoun County Public Schools – Part 1 – Chantilly
by James C. Sherlock Part 1 of a series. Sometimes, even at my age and experience, I am legitimately surprised. After writing about the growth of leadership, support and administrative staffs in both institutions of higher learning and the public schools, I thought I had the picture. I did not. Then I looked at Freedom…
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Where Do Dems Stand on Civil Immunity for Law Enforcement Officers?
by James C. Sherlock Being a law enforcement officer is tough under the best of circumstances. Do you think that exposure to losing your house and car in a civil suit for something you did in a split second to protect the public and yourself and did not have reason to know was against the…
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Democrats Tiptoe Towards an Education Platform
By James C. Sherlock Northern Virginia’s morning newspaper, The Washington Post, arrived on lawns and driveways on Monday with cautious suggestions for Democratic education platforms for the 2023 and 2024 elections. Virginia Democrats, having lost the Governorship to education issues, are running in 2023 and have the first shot nationally at trying to find a…
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Equal Protection, Affirmative Action and Effecting Generational Change
by James C. Sherlock America is the most successful nation in the history of the world because of the freedoms and rights guaranteed by our Constitution. More than a hundred other nations have emulated the American Constitution. Without constitutionally guaranteed freedoms and rights, we would be chained to the whims of the state. Most immediately…
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Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part Two – State Action Required
by James C. Sherlock Patterns of understaffing, medical harm and abuse in nursing homes are traceable: in some cases to a business model of understaffing to increase profits. Federal fines are built into the business models of the bad actors. Some of the worst post double-digit annual operating margins; in some to other systemic chain-wide…
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Nursing Shortages Require Better Oversight of Virginia Nursing Homes – Part One – The Problem
By James C Sherlock We have some great nursing facilities in Virginia. We also have far more than our share of bad ones. Virginia has a decision to make about the latter. The federal government sets standards for those that are paid with federal funds. It both levies fines and denies payments as it feels…
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Supreme Court Decision on Racial Preferences in College Recruiting Should Doom Much of DEI in State Institutions of Higher Learning
by James C. Sherlock It is the day to celebrate America’s freedoms. It is also a good day to enforce them. United States Constitution, Amendment XIV, Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they…
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Culture Wars about College Admissions Tend to Ignore Guaranteed Entry from Virginia Community Colleges
by James C. Sherlock Much angst has accompanied the Supreme Court’s decision banning overt racial preferences in admissions to colleges as violations of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution. The conversations in the comments to Jim Bacon’s article on admissions were as split philosophically/politically as is anything else these days.…
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A Simple Statement of Fact about the Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock I know. Schools. Again. But Virginia’s schools have been shown to be getting worse faster than those of other states. Perhaps we should do something. Read the National Assessment Board’s press release from June 21st. One paragraph drew my attention: The LTT assessments in reading and math measure fundamental skills among nationally…
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Population Changes in the Commonwealth Since the 2020 Census
by James C. Sherlock The Bureau of the Census has issued its estimates of the population changes in Virginia and its 133 jurisdictions since the 2020 census. They are always of interest, but perhaps more so since 2020-2022 spanned the COVID years. The categories of change calculated by the Census Bureau are total change, natural…
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Profound Registered Nurse Shortages in a Virginia Beach Nursing Home
By James C. Sherlock Registered nurses (RNs) both supervise medical treatment and are the primary medical care providers in nursing homes. Physicians are on call but generally are not present. One Virginia nursing home is currently advertising: RN’s Now hiring All Shifts! Pick your shift. Perhaps not good news for those patients. Some of the…
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Predatory Virginia Nursing Home Owners
by James C. Sherlock Merriam Webster: Pred*a*tor: (noun) one who injures or exploits others for personal gain or profit. The most medically vulnerable of us reside in skilled nursing facilities (SNF). Nobody plans to be there, but that is where about thirty thousand Virginians find themselves at any one time. People who are moved from hospitals…