Category: Public safety & health
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Racial Preferences for Minorities in COVID Vaccinations?
By Hans Bader Virginia is apparently giving preference to certain clusters of minority residents in access to the COVID-19 vaccine, as Judicial Watch notes: In the next few weeks, the state will give preference to black and Latino residents 65 and over while much older white seniors, many in their 80s, cannot secure an appointment…
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UVa’s COVID Commissars
by James A. Bacon COVID-19 infections may have been trending down in Virginia for almost two months now, but they spiked at the University of Virginia several days ago, and the Ryan administration imposed tough new rules to curtail the spread. Not surprisingly, many students have violated the restrictions. In so doing, they have sparked…
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Wait Til the Midnight Hour
by Kerry Dougherty Sitting down, Virginia? Big news! Especially for night owls. Beginning Monday, we will be allowed to stay out past midnight, thanks to the benevolence of our beloved Governor, Ralph Northam. His Excellency announced yesterday that he has decided to lift our 12 to 5 a.m. curfew, the one based on the Northam…
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Virginia Pandemic Emergency Plan Was Never Exercised
by James C. Sherlock As we suspected, Virginia did not exercise its Pandemic Emergency Plan from the time it was published in 2012 until COVID-19 struck. I received the following response today to a FOIA request I sent to the Commonwealth of Virginia Department of Emergency Management: The Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) received your…
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What Texas’s Crisis Means for Virginia
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in Blogs and Blog Administration, Business and Economy, Consumer Protection, Corruption and Scandals, Culture wars, Disasters and Disaster Preparedness, Economic development, Energy, Environment, Government Finance, Insurance, Labor and Workforce, Land use & Development, Money in politics, Political Influence, Politics, Property rights, Public safety & health, Regulations, Gov’t Oversight, Science & Technologyby Peter Galuszka The Texas freeze and ensuing energy disaster has clear lessons for Virginia as it sorts out its energy future. Yet much of the media coverage in Virginia and certainly on Bacon’s Rebellion conveniently leaves out pertinent observations. The statewide freeze in Texas completely fouled up the entire energy infrastructure as natural gas…
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Dude, What Happened?
Check out this graph from the Virginia Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard. Look how dramatically the seven-day moving average of COVID-related deaths in Virginia plunged in early January. Peaking at 51 on Dec. 31, the average daily deaths dropped to 18 by Jan. 7. In Central Virginia, one of five regions, the rolling average dropped…
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Mandate Teacher Vaccinations in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock I wrote this morning about Virginia SENATE BILL NO. 1303 (Amendment in the Nature of a Substitute) Local school divisions; availability of virtual and in-person learning to all students. The lengthy Democratic substitute to a one-sentence Republican bill was written over the weekend to provide political cover to the Democrats. Unfortunately, it…
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The Systemic Racism of Government Incompetence
by James A. Bacon Just as the COVID-19 virus was creeping into Virginia last March, the state shut down the Sussex County Health Department — and didn’t bother to inform local government officials for two weeks. To this day, reports WRIC, the health department remains closed, and a sign on its door reads, “All public…
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Nursing Home Carnage Continues in Virginia
by Kerry Dougherty With nursing home deaths in the news, perhaps you’re wondering how well the Rajah of Richmond — Ralph Northam — protected the commonwealth’s most vulnerable citizens. The answer: Not well. As of February 16, there have been 908 outbreaks in Virginia’s long-term care facilities and 3,147 COVID deaths. That represents a whopping…
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The Latest Lunacy: Face Masks for Fishermen
by Kerry Dougherty Ever wonder what would happen if feminists, man buns and smoked salmon socialists crafted federal policy? You’d get moronic rules like this one from the Biden administration: One of Joe’s latest executive orders requires all commercial fishermen to wear face masks – including while asleep in their cramped berths – and the…
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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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More Vaccination Confusion
By Dick Hall-Sizemore I do not know who is to blame–CVS or the state–but the vaccination situation is unacceptable. The Commonwealth seemed to be getting on the right track by enabling individuals to register with their local health departments and the local agencies then using those registration to schedule appointments. Then the federal government changed…
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How the CARES Funding is Being Allocated
By Dick Hall-Sizemore Upon Jim Bacon’s suggestion, Jim Sherlock and I have taken on the task of looking closer at the federal COVID money that is coming the Commonwealth’s way and trying to discern how it is being spent. Unfortunately, this is not an analysis one finds in the general news media. We have taken…
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Follow the Voodoo
by Kerry Dougherty Can we all agree that the halftime show at this year’s Super Bowl was a real stinker? Unless dancing men in sequined jackets with underwear on their heads is your thing, that is. (Yes, I know those were supposed to be bandages, but they looked like tighty whities headgear.) As my radio…
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How Fair Is Virginia’s System for Distributing Vaccines?
by James A. Bacon Virginia has done a much better job in recent days in administering the COVID-19 vaccine. Out the nearly 1.4 million vaccine doses received from the federal government, according to the Becker Hospital Review, 68.7% have been given as shots. But the criteria for distributing the vaccine within the state has not…