Category: Civil Rights, Individual Liberties
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Illinois to Legalize Recreational Pot: Implications for Virginia
Legal tokin’ in the Land of Lincoln. Illinois governor J.B. Pritzker is expected to sign Illinois’ recreational marijuana legalization bill tomorrow. Illinois, America’s sixth most populous state, will become the 11th state to legalize the recreational use of marijuana. The District of Columbia has also legalized the possession of ganja. This has implications for Virginia.…
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Mass Shootings a Multi-Faceted Phenomenon
Tragedy struck Virginia yesterday in the form of a mass shooting at the Virginia Beach municipal complex. The investigation into the shooter’s motive — undoubtedly tied to workplace violence — remains incomplete, but that probably won’t stop pundits and talking heads from indulging their usual tropes for and against guns. I find both sides of…
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Now Everybody Has a Club on Abortion. Wonderful.
Watching the abortion issue being shoved into the coming Virginia elections by ideologues on both sides, it is fair to ask the question: Can the center hold? Are the many people who are fairly comfortable with the state of the law these last few decades going to be sorry with an outcome in either direction?…
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Courts Authorizing “Reverse Location” Warrants in Virginia
Big brother Google is watching you. Back in October, 2018, Forbes reported that a Virginia court had authorized the FBI to use a “reverse location” warrant to try to solve a series of crimes in Henrico County, Va. This warrant, also known as a geofence warrant, allows police to compel Google to provide all cellphone…
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The Marijuana Legalization Debate in Virginia: Lessons from Colorado
Elevated thinking. I recently had the opportunity to do some skiing in Colorado. I hadn’t been to Colorado since the state legalized recreational marijuana use in 2014. I expected to see a Cheech and Chong movie played out on a vast scale high in the Rocky Mountains. That expectation went unmet. Instead, I saw an…
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Virginians Have a Right to Free Speech, Not a Right to a Job
Can an employer in Virginia fire an employee for his loathsome political views? Such a thing is happening in Patrick County, where emergency management technician Alex McNabb is being fired for making derogatory comments and using racial slurs on a neo-Nazi podcast. There is no evidence that McNabb has discriminated against anyone while providing emergency…
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Unraveling the Ralph Northam Infanticide Controversy
Background. The past several weeks have been full of controversy for three of Virginia’s leading Democratic politicians – Ralph Northam, Justin Fairfax and Mark Herring. The local, state and national media have been focused on allegations of racism against Northam and Herring and sexual assault against Fairfax. However, prior to the media onslaught regarding racism and…
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Taking Some Pain Out of Eminent Domain
Four successful bills heading for Governor Ralph Northam’s desk may combine into a measurable shift in Virginia’s condemnation laws in favor of the targeted landowners. They may also spark a race to the courthouse between now and when some go into effect July 1. The biggest financial impact may come from Senator Frank Ruff’s Senate…
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Being a Self-Righteous Pain is Not a Crime
Michelle Renay Sutherland, a New Yorker who traveled to Richmond to demonstrate in support of Virginia’s passage of the Equal Rights Amendment, is an annoying individual. Frankly, I find her sanctimonious posturing to be a pain in the ass. Maybe she violated the law for baring her breast when posing as the goddess Virtue in…
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Hate Crime Hysteria
“Hate is turning deadly with frightening frequency in America,” wrote Virginia Attorney General Mark R. Herring in an anguished Washington Post op-ed last month. In building his case, he cited the 11 Jews slain recently in Pittsburgh; the killing of two African-Americans in Louisville, and Dylann Roof’s murderous rampage at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal…
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Altria rumored to be in talks to buy Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group
High in Henrico. Henrico County based Altria, makers of Marlboro cigarettes among other products, is rumored to be interested in buying Canadian cannabis company Cronos Group. Altria is refusing comment while Cronos said it “confirmed that it is engaged in discussions concerning a potential investment by Altria Group … in Cronos Group.” Cronos went on…
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Incivility… and a Remedy
The Richmond Forum brings high-profile speakers — from George W. Bush to Barack Obama in recent seasons — to Richmond. I’ve been attending the events for 20 years, and the audience is invariably respectful and welcoming to guests of all political stripes. That changed last weekend. As Executive Director Bill Chapman described the event, which…
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The Closing of the American Mind: Mary Baldwin Edition
I have lost all respect for Mary Baldwin University. The Staunton-based liberal arts institution is training its students to be emotionally fragile, intellectually incurious and totally unprepared for dealing with the world outside of their little higher-ed bubble. Three years ago, the university scheduled a project in its Hunt gallery entitled, “Relevant/Scrap.” The art exhibit,…
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Virginia’s 2018 Marijuana Decriminalization Bill: What Happened and What’s Next?
Up in smoke. During the 2018 General Assembly session a bill to decriminalize marijuana was killed in committee. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee voted along party lines on that bill, SB 111. All nine Republican Senators on the Committee voted to keep marijuana possession (in any amount) a criminal act in Virginia while all…
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Snowflake Nation
by Bob Shannon I enjoyed your recent post about identity politics in Richmond’s LGBTQ community. The hysterical and unhinged behavior we’re witnessing, I would argue, is a symptom of a much larger social malady, namely Americans’ inability to deal with everyday stress. We are bombarded with self-promoting messages from the mental health industry, the pharmaceutical…