Category: Governance
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Chaos in Congress Isn’t Good for Virginia
by Robin Beres In a recent column for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Rep. Bob Good (R-VA 05), noted that as of this month, “the U.S. House of Representatives will be the only thing standing between Americans and the Democrats’ assault on freedom, the family, the economy and our national security.” The GOP won the House majority…
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Afghan Immigrants and Their Children in Virginia – Part 2 – the Afghan Adjustment Act
by James C. Sherlock When I wrote Part 1 of this series, I promised further investigation into immigration of Afghan allies into Virginia. The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS), a hero in this story, has been entirely forthcoming in answering my inquiries. I will recount in a follow-up post their work so far. But…
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Youngkin’s Budget Amendments: No Radical Changes
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Budget is policy. The budget reflects the policy choices a government makes. Any Virginia governor, upon assuming office, inherits a biennial budget proposal developed by his predecessor. The new governor is limited significantly in the changes that he can affect in that budget in his first General Assembly session. If the new…
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Dead Students, UVa, and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act – Part One – Only One Client
by James C. Sherlock Updated Dec. 18 at 16:30 The deck is stacked against the press, at least in the first step. The University of Virginia, unsurprisingly, considers it not in its interests to release information to the press about the work of its threat assessment team in the case of Christopher Darnell Jones. Mr.…
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Now It’s a Party: Local Elections May Be Decided in June for a While
by Joe Fitzgerald It looks like 12 percent of people voting in Harrisonburg’s Nov. 8 City Council election cast a vote for only one of the four candidates instead of the two they could have voted for. But that number needs more asterisks on it than a home run record. Single-shot votes are difficult to…
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RVA 5X5: A Five-Part Series of Stories
by Jon Baliles STORY #1 — The Pot Overfloweth There have been a lot of stories this week about the $21 million surplus announced by Mayor Levar Stoney and what he is asking City Council to endorse and how to disburse it in a budget amendment vote scheduled for a Monday evening vote. “The growth…
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Back To the Patrick Henry Building
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Glenn Youngkin spent late summer and the fall campaigning around the country for Republican candidates for governor. He was passing out his signature red fleece vests all over the country. His main goal was to help Republican candidates knock off Democratic incumbents, but he did appear with three incumbent Republican governors.…
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Housing in Virginia – Context for Debates
by James C. Sherlock Dick Hall-Sizemore did a nice job earlier today describing the phenomenon in which people are specifically against in a particular iteration public policies that they support in the abstract. The subject was middle income housing in Arlington County. The problem with short articles by anyone (including me) about housing issues is…
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Virginia Mental Health Services in Deep Trouble – A Survey
by James C. Sherlock Nov. 29 updates in blue. Supply cannot begin to keep up with demand. In this case, the consequences involve personal welfare and public safety. And they can be terrible in both cases. Governor Youngkin will propose to the 2023 General Assembly additional funding and policy prescriptions for the state’s mental health…
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Virginia Should Enforce Threat Assessment Laws. Noting Lack of Compliance Not Enough.
by James C. Sherlock I have written about the Threat Assessment Teams (TAT’s) of two state universities, the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech. I assessed Tech to be compliant with state law. I reported that UVa is not. That of course raises the issue of the rest of Virginia’s colleges and universities. The Virginia…
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Afghan Immigrants and Their Children in Virginia – Part 1
by James C. Sherlock The flow of Afghan refugees into Virginia has been at a much higher volume than is generally appreciated. I have data on Virginia resettlements of Afghanis from 2016 through the middle of 2021, when the total was 8,560. The current total is far higher as a result of the Kabul airlift.…
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Richmond Slashes Permit Backlog and Delays
by Dick Hall-Sizemore The city government of Richmond has often taken a beating on these pages, usually deservedly so. Now, there is some good news to report. David Ress of the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that the city has significantly improved its permit processing times. For example, the time to process a building permit application dropped…
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Double-Standard Bonds
by Jon Baliles One of the eternal mysteries of the Commonwealth of Virginia’s governing structure is the separate treatment of counties and cities. We are the only state in the country that has the screwy system of independent cities that are not part of a county government or structure. But that’s not where the screwiness…
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Transparency and Accountability at VMI… and Every Public University
by James A. Bacon Virginia Military Institute Superintendent Cedric T. Wins was awarded a $100,000 bonus after his FY-2022 performance review, and the Spirit of VMI PAC (SOVP) wants to know what criteria the Board of Visitors used in granting him the award. The bonus, which was four times his previous $25,000 award, lifted Wins’…
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That Transparency Will Cost You
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Attorney General Jason Miyares promised “to increase transparency” in regard to elections. In fact, this was one of the motivations behind the creation of the Election Integrity Unit. However, it seems that this transparency comes with a price. As reported by the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the Virginia NAACP filed a Freedom of Information…