Category: Corruption and Scandals
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Business as Usual in the Virginia Senate – “Dominion Dick” Saslaw Delivers
by James C. Sherlock Associate Press headline Feb. 15: “Virginia Senate Democrats kill electric rate reform bills.” Fish gotta swim, Senator Richard L. “Dominion Dick” Saslaw gotta be Senate Majority Leader and Chairman of the Virginia Senate Commerce and Labor Committee. Saslaw has received nearly a half million dollars in campaign donations from Dominion Energy and…
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All According to Plan – the Biggest Government Scandal in Virginia History
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Mercury published an excellent article on the difficulties being encountered in Virginia in scheduling COVID shots. But who could have anticipated the need? Who indeed. This story is part of the single biggest government scandal in Virginia history and the press is either ignorant of the underlying issue or…
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Holding Richmond Public Schools Accountable — Part I
by James C. Sherlock We have discussed here the failures of the City of Richmond Public Schools (RPS) in educating its economically disadvantaged children, as well as the abysmal performance of Black children in its schools. I intend to help readers understand how it manages to fail repeatedly even with major federal funding as…
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Basic Child Literacy Cannot Be too Much to Ask of Richmond City Public Schools
by James C. Sherlock Half of Black 4th graders in Richmond public schools couldn’t read in 2019. That is not OK. It is way past time to demand both better performance and accountability. Clearly neither the city of Richmond nor the Commonwealth has done that effectively. So I have filed formal complaints with the federal…
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VMI, Investigators Sparring Over Rules of Racism Investigation
by James A. Bacon Barnes & Thornburg LLP, the special investigator selected to probe racism at Virginia Military Institute, released its first progress report today, as required by contract. The law firm has not had enough time to draw any conclusions, but the report does describe the testy relationship between the firm and VMI administrators…
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Virginia’s Legendary Corruption Blocks Antitrust Enforcement
by James C. Sherlock Readers of this blog have indicated an unquenchable appetite for information about and discussion of Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need (COPN) law and its administration. This essay informs on the negative impacts of the COPN law and the Virginia Antitrust Act (the Act) itself on the enforcement of antitrust laws against Virginia’s…
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COPN Scores a Kill
by James C. Sherlock More than eleven months ago I wrote an essay titled, “The Legal Corruption of (Virginia’s Certificate of Public Need) COPN.” That system needs overhaul, not adjustment, and the people of Hampton Roads need help. The Governor needs to lead in both efforts. Today I offer the third in a series (first…
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DePaul Hospital’s Closing Presents a Unique Opportunity for Hampton Roads
by James C. Sherlock Not too long ago, before the decline of the malls and COVID, the healthcare community coined what they called the Nordstrom Rule. The meaning was that if you wished to optimize profits in your healthcare business, build it close to a Nordstrom. The theory was that Nordstrom had already done the…
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We Finally Made It
by James C. Sherlock We finally made it to where we were inevitably headed. From Becker’s Hospital Review four hours ago: “States ranked by percentage of COVID-19 vaccines administered: Jan. 25″ “… As of 6 a.m. EST Jan. 24, a total of 41,411,550 vaccine doses have been distributed in the U.S., and 21,848,655 have been…
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Update: Herring Hands Stoney Contract Investigation to State Police
by James A. Bacon Attorney General Mark Herring has authorized the Virginia State Police to investigate Mayor Levar Stoney’s circumvention of procurement protocols to award a $1.8 million Confederate statue-removal contract to a campaign contributor, reports Virginia Public Media. The investigation, requested by Kim Gray, Richmond City Councilwoman and rival candidate for Richmond mayor, had been…
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Bacon Bits: Why-Virginians-Are-Losing-Faith-in-Government Edition
The state ends at Roanoke. It’s a long way from Clintwood, county seat of Dickenson County on the Kentucky border, to Richmond. Seven other state capitals are closer. As an old saying goes, “The people in Richmond think the state ends at Roanoke.” There has been nothing in recent events to dissuade them from that…
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Bacon Bits: Politicians Behaving Badly
Amanda Chase anti-vaxxer. Republican gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase, R-Chesterfield, has famously refused to wear face masks. Now, if a report from the liberal/left The Daily Beast can be believed, she will refuse to to get vaccinated. She would “absolutely not” get a shot because “many of the vaccines are actually manufactured in China,” she told…
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Liberty’s Curious “Think Tank”
By Peter Galuszka Imagine there is a “think tank” at a private, non-profit university. It produces no academic papers and does no peer-reviewed research. Instead, it holds podcasts, seminars and buys ads on Facebook that obviously promote a political party and president. Would that be a “think tank” or a political action committee? That about…
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Fightin’ Joe Morrissey in Hot Water Again
by Kerry Dougherty When I saw yesterday’s headline in The Washington Post, I was shocked: “Virginia State Sen. Joe Morrissey Faces Criminal Charges For Allegedly Campaigning Inside Polling Place.” I wasn’t surprised that Morrissey’s in trouble. Heck, his entire checkered career has been a gift to Virginia’s newsaper columnists. I wrote about him several times…
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Bacon Bits on a Snowy Day
Another free clinic closes. Harrisonburg’s Free Clinic is going out of business after 30 years of providing medical care to low-income, uninsured adults. The clinic’s board attributed the decision in part to the decline in the number of patients resulting from Virginia’s Medicaid expansion. The clinic had 600 patients before expansion and 90 patients afterward,…