Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
-
Freedom From Union Dues Hangs on Warner
By Vincent Vernuccio First published by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. A bill under active consideration in Congress would allow unions to get Virginia workers fired for not paying union fees. The Protecting the Right to Organize Act, among many other things would end right-to-work laws in Virginia and in 26 other states.…
-
Same Politicians Who Legalized Weed and Casino Gambling Killed Skill Games
by Kerry Dougherty For more than 30 years Virginia’s been breathlessly legalizing vices. It began when voters approved a state-run numbers racket – the lottery – in 1987. Since then, all manner of wagering has been approved for our gambling pleasure. Virginia now has horse racing, off-track betting, sports betting and soon, casinos. But in…
-
Stay-In-Place COVID Policies Lead to More Excess Deaths
by James A. Bacon A new study comparing “excess deaths” across 44 countries and the 50 U.S. states finds that Stay In Place (SIP) policies enacted to control the COVID-19 epidemic were counterproductive. Overall, the added number of lives lost to non-COVID more than offset the number of lives saved from slowing the spread of…
-
With Defeat in Connecticut, Will Virginia Drop TCI?
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Why do Virginia’s leaders run away from the Transportation and Climate Initiative? Could it be because the first state legislature to consider it, in reliably Democratic Connecticut, just adjourned without even taking a vote on the proposed carbon tax compact, despite…
-
VA Employers Stuck in COVID Time Warp
By Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. Despite the stunning and rapid success of the vaccines in arresting the spread of COVID-19, if you enter a Virginia workplace you go back in time to the pre-vaccine era of doubt and fear. Virginia acted in haste in adopting…
-
Clean Virginia Dissed Again, Dem Takes Dom Cash
by Steve Haner Prince William Democrat Hala Ayala, who had pledged not to accept campaign contributions from Dominion Energy Virginia and took money instead from its opponents, has now accepted $100,000 from the regulated monopoly. Heads are exploding. The anti-Dominion activist group Clean Virginia had given her $25,000 in her bid for the Democratic nomination…
-
Getting Electricity from Government
By Dick Hall-Sizemore More than 300,000 Virginia residents and numerous commercial enterprises are not subject to the monopolistic electric rates of Dominion, APCO, or the electric cooperatives. They get their electric service from their local governments. There are 16 municipalities in which electric service is provided by a governmental entity. Primarily, they are small towns…
-
Vertically Integrated Health Providers/Insurers – Weak State Oversight But New Federal Authority
by James C. Sherlock In the contest between Virginia’s disorganized attempts to oversee vertically integrated health care and health insurance businesses, Sentara being the most prominent example, and Virginia’s regional monopolies’ defenses against effective regulation and legislation, the monopolies have won. This piece discusses Virginia’s failed legislative and regulatory oversight structures. I will recommend structural…
-
Tech Prof Corrected WHO, CDC on COVID Spread
by Steve Haner Wired has chronicled a one-year struggle by a Virginia Tech teacher and researcher, working mainly with other non-physicians, to convince the Centers for Disease Control and World Health Organization they were dead wrong on COVID. The kind of dead wrong that made more people dead. The battle was quietly won when on…
-
This One Easy Trick Makes Gas Lines Grow Expontentially
by James A. Bacon As panic buying sends Virginians to the gas pumps to top off their tanks, Attorney General Mark Herring is encouraging citizens to report instances of price gouging. “This ransomewear (sic) attack on the Colonial Pipeline could create disruptions in the gasoline supply across the Commonwealth, and unfortunately, bad actors could take…
-
Virginia Needs a Constitutional Amendment to Elect the Board of Education
by James C. Sherlock The Virginia Board of Education (VBOE) is by far the most powerful and consequential public board in Virginia. It is the only one whose Powers and Duties are defined in the Virginia Constitution. It was a mistake not to make the members of the Board with such vast and unconstrained powers…
-
The Ballad Merger III: Reshuffling, Reconstruction and Repurposing
by Carol J. Bova When Mountain States Health Alliance and Wellmont Health System merged to create Ballad Health in 2018, the healthcare companies justified the consolidation with the argument that the ability to cut costs and rationalize delivery of health services would yield tangible benefits to patients in Southwest Virginia and Northeastern Tennessee. The previous…
-
The Ballad Merger — A Leap of Faith by Two States
by Carol J. Bova In April, 2015, two Tennessee-based not-for-profit hospital organizations with a 75% market share in Southwest Virginia said a merger would allow them “to address the serious health issues affecting the region and to be among the best in the nation in terms of quality, affordability and patient satisfaction.” The merger would…
-
End the Emergency Orders. Now. Every One.
by Steve Haner There is no more COVID emergency. Every single emergency order issued by Virginia’s Governor Ralph Northam should be lifted immediately. Not relaxed or revised, ended. For the millions of Virginians now vaccinated, this is all just virtue signaling, “pandemic theater.” For the millions of Virginians who have made conscious decisions not to…
-
Word Salads from Wankers
by Kerry Dougherty It’s official. The CDC is run by wankers. (Yes, I am binge-watching Apple TV’s “Ted Lasso.” Why do you ask?) These fools constantly move the goalposts – remember 15 days to slow the spread? Remember just wear a mask for 100 days? – and issue rules that no one with a lick…