Category: Governance
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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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Correction on Departure of Balow
by Dick Hall-Sizemore In comments to the post about the resignation of Jillian Balow as Superintendent of Public Instruction and her severance pay, I asserted that her appointment was subject to the pleasure of the Governor. I was wrong. The heads of almost all agencies, by law, serve at the pleasure of the Governor. (There…
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You’re Fired!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore So, what almost everyone suspected is now confirmed: Governor Youngkin fired his Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jillian Balow. However, to avoid embarrassment over having to fire his own hand-picked state leader of public education, the governor asked her to resign, instead. She agreed to do so in exchange for a payout of…
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The Left’s New DEI Bureaucracies at Virginia’s Colleges and Universities – What Do They Do All Day?
by James C. Sherlock We are left to imagine what Dean of the University of Virginia School of Education and Human Development Stephanie Rowley would possibly do without the assistance of LaRon Scott, her Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI). How in heaven’s name without Mr. Scott could she keep reactionaries like Catherine…
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Rosalyn Dance Can Help Interpret Democratic Election Laws
by James C. Sherlock Governor Youngkin has appointed former state Senator Rosalyn Dance, D-Petersburg, as vice chairman of the state Board of Elections. As vice-chair, she is the highest ranking Democrat on the board. She will perform an absolutely vital role. She will be asked to help interpret the complete overhaul of Virginia’s election laws conducted…
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Virginia Republicans Should Run in the Fall on the Virginia Senate Silencing of Suparna Dutta
by James C. Sherlock Virginia Republicans, not noted for organization, common approaches or dexterity, have been granted a gift by Democrats if they will accept it. The Democratic majority in the General Assembly rejected the appointment of Suparna Dutta, a mother, engineer and an immigrant from India, to the Board of Education. This happened because Senate…
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RVA 5×5: Heard the Noise, Seen The Light
by Jon Baliles Well, it seems Mayor Levar Stoney has finally picked up on a problem on Richmond’s streets that many of us have known about for three-plus years. If you live downtown, or in the Fan, Oregon Hill, Jackson Ward, the Museum District, Randolph, Scott’s Addition, Byrd Park, Malvern Gardens, parts of Northside, Monroe…
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Public School Climate Lessons Terrorize Virginia’s Children
by James C. Sherlock A headline from the home page of Save the Children: “Climate Change Is a Grave Threat to Children’s Survival.” Climate change is thus not a “challenge.” Not a threat to children’s happiness. But rather a threat to their “survival.” That is what children are being taught in many Virginia public school…
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Feeding Petersburg
by James C. Sherlock I have written in this space many times about the struggles of Petersburg. Petersburg is blessed in one way. The Progress-Index’s Bill Atkinson and Joyce Chu may be the best pair of local news reporters working in Virginia. Mr. Atkinson, in a series of reports, has detailed the continuing struggles of…
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Public Hearing, Private Decision
by Joe Fitzgerald The Bluestone Town Center (BTC), according to council members who voted 3-2 to approve it, was decided in secret meetings between those council members and the applicants. At Tuesday’s open meeting in which they voted to approve BTC, those council members rather shamelessly admitted to those sessions. City staff and the city…
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Virginia Emergency Management During COVID – A Well-Documented Scandal
By James C. Sherlock We could see it wasn’t right as it unfolded. Virginia’s flawed response to COVID was slow for all Virginians. Fatal for some. But the public just saw the broad stroke external effects. We saw executive orders that seemed sudden, sweeping, and disconnected from the information we had. It turns out that…
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Richmond’s Skinny Budget: Low Stakes Poker, High Stakes Rhetoric
by Shaun Kenney Virginia’s General Assembly managed to pass the Richmond equivalent of a continuing resolution to fund the government until Senate Democrats and House Republicans can hammer out a compromise on corporate tax breaks. One will have to pardon me for not getting terribly wound up about tax breaks for corporations while small businesses…
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Virginia Law Enables School Violence – School Board Policies Can Correct It
by James C. Sherlock In 2019, the National Education Association (NEA) published Threatened and Attacked By Students: When Work Hurts, urging lawmakers to address the crisis of unsafe behaviors in schools. Read about Chesterfield schools in that article. Unfazed, progressives in 2020 in full control of the General Assembly, led by now-Congresswoman-elect Jennifer McClellan, looked…
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Unconstitutional Viewpoint Discrimination in Virginia K-12 Teacher Evaluation Standards
by James C. Sherlock Progressives, in the fullness of their dogma, oppose the entire Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights is specifically structured to limit the powers of government, which progressives find not only unsuitable, but unimaginable. In the Golden Age of Progressivism in Virginia, 2020 and 2021, they controlled the governor’s mansion, the…
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For Your Consideration: An Intellectual Freedom Protection Act
by James C. Sherlock I offer for your consideration the text of a draft Intellectual Freedom Protection Act proposed this morning by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). FIRE is the leading American voice supporting academic freedom, free speech and due process. In doing so they defend democracy itself. They are what the ACLU…