Category: General Assembly
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Incarceration Should Not Mean Humiliation
by Kerry Dougherty Hang onto your wallets, Portsmouth. A lawsuit filed Friday in Circuit Court is seeking $1 million in damages due to alleged misconduct by a sheriff’s deputy. Oh, and another $350,000 in punitive damages. The conduct – if it happened – was atrocious. According to court papers filed by a former inmate, Danaesha…
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Changes to the Virginia Law Requiring Schools to Report Incidents to the Police Makes them Far More Dangerous
I wrote originally about the 2020 changes to the school incidents reporting law. I have removed the content of this column in order to reconcile issues with the current reporting law, including 2022 changes, with the Department of Education. I will repost it when those issues are resolved.
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The More Things Remain the Same
by Joe Fitzgerald Stop me if you’ve heard this one. The Hopewell chemical plant where Kepone was born and raised has been cited 66 times over the past eight years for releasing toxic chemicals into the air and into the James River. The Richmond Times-Dispatch tells the story better than I do. What makes this…
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Herbert Marcuse, “Repressive Tolerance,” and the Suppression of Debate
by James C. Sherlock There have been countless articles here on the tyranny of the left on Virginia college campuses. And nationwide. I need not summarize them here. But I think it useful on a weekend to consider the origins of that movement to better understand it. It did not spring up randomly, and it…
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All Rise for the Judge
By Dick Hall-Sizemore The Commonwealth is unique in the nation in how it selects its judges. States use a wide variety of methods to select judges. Furthermore, many states use different methods to select judges at different levels. The National Center for State Courts, located in Williamsburg, by the way, has created a nice report…
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Dionysian Rites at a Spotsylvania County School Board Meeting
by James C. Sherlock The FY 2023 budget for Spotsylvania County was $341,355,792. In increasing the 2022 budget, the Supervisors transferred an additional $5.8 million to schools to “Address the Commitment to Educational Opportunities.” That brought the total transfer to schools to $138,081,416 including that $5.8 million (4.4%) increase. It was pointed out offhandedly in…
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Buta Biberaj and the Political Weaponization of the Loudoun Commonwealth’s Attorney Office – Against Other Democrats and the Press
by James C. Sherlock Loudoun County Commonwealth’s Attorney Buta Biberaj (D) has used the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), the tool that opens up government to citizens, in an attempt to destroy political opponents and intimidate the press. Ms. Biberaj has admitted to investigating her political rivals using FOIA requests to view correspondences between county…
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Public Corruption Transacted in Public
by James C. Sherlock Want that country club membership but don’t want to write the check for the initial membership fee? How about the down payment on a vacation home? Run for office in Virginia. Pay for it with campaign money. You don’t even have to win as long as you spend it during the…
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Richmond Gas Works Back on Energy Death Row?
by Steve Haner The Richmond City Council member seeking to kill Richmond Gas Works is finally asking her colleagues to put some money behind her dream, seeking a budget amendment to pay for a study on a path to ending the government-owned utility. Thus reports Patrick Larsen of Virginia Public Media, who wrote (and presumably…
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Virginia Hospital Profits Soared Far Above National Averages – Again – in 2021
by James C. Sherlock The predictions for hospital finances in 2021 forecast Armageddon. Then the actual financial data from 5,600 U.S. hospitals in 2021 were assessed. Based on those data the median operating margin for U.S. hospitals in 2021 was actually a loss of 1.5%. Meanwhile, the average operating margin for hospitals was a loss of…
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Youngkin Seeks Bids on Future Offshore Wind
By Steve Haner Governor Glenn Youngkin (R) has proposed a stronger requirement in state law that any second wave of offshore wind serving Virginia be subjected to a competitive procurement process, rather than simply allowing Dominion Energy Virginia to build it with all the costs and risks imposed on its customers. The planned 176-turbine Coastal…
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Crime in Virginia — the Statistics of Race and their Causes
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in Children and Families, Civil Rights, Individual Liberties, Corruption and Scandals, Crime, Corrections, Law Enforcement, Culture wars, Democracy and Western Civilization, Demographics, Education (K-12), Efficiency in Government, General Assembly, Governance, Government Finance, Health Care, Housing, Land use & Development, Mental illness and substance abuse, Politics, Public safety & health, Race and Race Relations, Regulations, Gov’t Oversightby James C. Sherlock Crime, especially violent crime, is a constant topic in private conversations and in public politics, and thus here on Bacon’s Rebellion. Comments on BR crime-related articles turn quickly to race, often without basis in fact. I will offer below the actual crime statistics by race from 2021, the latest available year,…
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Why Shouldn’t Virginia’s Felons Have To Ask Their Voting Rights Restored?
by Kerry Dougherty Lemme make sure I understand this: Virginia’s ACLU, that left-wing organization that sat on its derriere during Gov. Ralph Northam’s unconstitutional closure of churches and businesses, is suddenly active again. Its lawyers want Virginia’s convicted felons to automatically get their voting rights back, even if they haven’t made restitution to their victims…
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APCO VCEA Plan Keeps Coal Until 2040 (In WVA)
by Steve Haner Appalachian Power Company (APCO), serving Western Virginia, has now filed its annual update on Virginia Clean Economy Act compliance, including long term bill impact estimates. As the State Corporation Commission begins its review process, here are some highlights: The projected increases in electric bills are little changed and perhaps a bit lower…
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The Registered Nurse Shortage
by James C. Sherlock I have reported often about the severe and increasing shortages of nurses both in Virginia and nationally. At some point in nearly everyone’s life, we literally will not be able to live without the help of a nurse, whether for injury or illness or just declining overall health. We need both…