Category: Courts and law
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The Real Danger with ANTIFA
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in Bacon and Pigs, Business and Economy, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Courts and law, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Demographics, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Electoral process, Federal issues, Government Transparency, Gun rights, Immigration, Labor and Workforce, LGBQT, Libertarians, Media, Money in politics, Politics, Poverty & income gap, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t OversightBy Peter Galuszka Get ready. The names of all kinds of leftist organizations are going to be kicked around as the masterminds behind violent, cop-beating looters, especially the so-called ANTIFA movement in Virginia and across the country.. But what is reality? I don’t have clear answers but I have some ideas to share since I…
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Virginia’s Lockdown Violates Natural Law
by Deborah Hommer My favorite Greek tragedy play is Sophocles’ “Antigone.” The protagonist risks her life with civil disobedience by burying the body of her brother Polyneices according to the religious dictates (natural/higher law) of her God in defiance of King Creon’s edict (man-made or positive law). When confronted with the choice of whether to…
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Juicy Supreme Court Arguments on Tap Today
For those of you who might be interested, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today on cases involving access to Trump financial documents. The arguments will be held by telephone and will be available for the public to listen to live. First up will be two cases (consolidated) dealing with whether Congress can…
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U.S. Supreme Court Oral Arguments
The COVID-19 crisis has upended many traditions. One such upended tradition is the live broadcast of U.S. Supreme Court oral arguments. The Court took some time off in March and April, postponing oral arguments. Now, it has resumed them, but the members, most of whom are in the “vulnerable” stage, are conducting the arguments by…
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Notes from the Right Wing Echo Chamber
By Peter Galuszka On Wednesday, I was standing next to the Capitol grounds in Richmond watching brightly decorated cars and pickups drive on 9th Street, their horns blaring. I was attending the drive by protest rally on assignment for Style Weekly and happened to speak to Jason Roberge, a Spotsylvania County resident who is one…
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Upper Big Branch: Ten Years After
By Peter Galuszka This week is the tenth anniversary of one of the worst coal mine disasters in recent U.S. history. The massive explosion at the Upper Big Branch at Montcoal, W.Va. on the afternoon of April 5, 2010 killed 29 miners, the largest number in 40 years. The disaster meant the undoing of Massey…
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Photo Project Spotlights Pipeline Impact
By Peter Galuszka Veteran photographer Karen Kasmauski, who grew up in Norfolk, has a brilliant online project that shows the human and environmental impacts of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. She is a senior fellow with the International League of Conservation Photographers, a non-profit group that funded her project that centers mostly in rural Nelson and Buckingham…
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Is It the Death Knell For Dominion’s Pipeline?
By Peter Galuszka For more than a decade, hydraulic fracturing drilling for natural gas and oil has transformed the American energy picture, leading to big revivals in such energy fields such as Marcellus in West Virginia and Pennsylvania and the Bakken field in the Dakotas. It has prompted Dominion Energy and its utility partners to…
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Dare County, N.C., closes its borders
By DJ Rippert From Outer Banks to Outer Mongolia. Dare County, N.C. issued orders last week closing its borders to non-residents. Dare is a coastal county just south of Currituck County, N.C., which borders Virginia. Many Virginians know Dare County from Outer Banks vacations in towns such as Duck or fishing trips launched from Manteo.…
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Virginia’s Vengeful Politicians
by Kerry Dougherty Terry McAuliffe is a terrific politician. If you’ve met the former Virginia governor you know what I mean. He’s smooth. He oozes charm. Like many skilled politicians, underneath that affable exterior lurks a ruthless operator with an elephantine memory. Just ask LaBravia Jenkins, the well-respected commonwealth’s attorney for the City of Fredericksburg.…
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Yanking Drivers’ License Over Unpaid Court Costs Is Inhumane
by Kerry Daugherty Many years ago, OK, 11 to be exact, I foolishly zipped along Rt. 58 through Emporia. Yep, the speeding capital of the Old Dominion. I saw the flashing lights in my rearview, heard the screaming sirens and prayed that the cop was chasing one of the cars ahead of me. He wasn’t.…
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How Virginia Would Fare Under President Biden, Part 1
By DJ Rippert And then there were two. Today, Elizabeth Warren announced that she will withdraw from the presidential race. That leaves Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard (yes, she’s still running) as the remaining candidates for the Democratic nomination. Given that Tulsi Gabbard has exactly one delegate (from American Samoa where she was…
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Virginia’s Top Employment Cop Adds Enforcers
By Steve Haner The final state budget is still in negotiation, but it could add as many as five new enforcement staff to the Office of the Attorney General to seek out and prosecute discrimination in Virginia’s workplaces, using old and new definitions of what is prohibited. The price tag looks to be about $600,000…
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Would Legal Medical Marijuana in Virginia Reduce Opioid Addiction?
By DJ Rippert The lesser of two evils. The ongoing 2020 Virginia General Assembly session has generated a lot of debate over gun control. Proponents of stricter firearms regulation cite reduced gun violence as a goal. While gun-related deaths (including murder) are a real problem, those deaths are less frequent than fatal opioid overdoses. In…
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Racial Preferences in Energy Bill Are Unconstitutional
by Hans Bader Virginia’s new Democratic legislature is passing an energy law that contains racial preferences. But to try to get around constitutional restrictions on racial discrimination, it is primarily targeting such preferences to “predominantly-minority areas,” rather than to minority individuals. This doesn’t immunize this legislation against a constitutional challenge, but it does complicate things…