Category: Regulations, Gov’t Oversight
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Camping’s COVID Killjoys
by Kerry Dougherty Someone call a lawyer. I have whiplash. Happens every time I try to make sense make of America’s top health “experts” and their contradictory opinions, which have a peculiar way of becoming policy. Especially in blue states with governors eager to please the president. Ahem. Just this past weekend, for instance, Dr.…
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Biggest U.S. Orthopedic Facility Projects Exclude Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Beckers just published a list of the 14 largest orthopedic projects in America in 2021. None of them are located in Virginia. Virginia’s COPN law and its administration make such projects highly unlikely here. Every Virginia hospital that did not propose such a project would oppose it. And in the monopolized metro…
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TCI Model Rule Ready for Study, Comment
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. (Happy birthday, Mr. President.) Read the governing document for the Transportation and Climate Initiative and it becomes clear there is more going on than just an effort to reduce motor fuel use with a combination of taxes and shrinking caps. That…
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Sentara CEO Kern Among 10 Highest Paid Nonprofit Executives in America
by James C. Sherlock Sentara CEO Howard Kern is well paid. We will compare his compensation to those of the highest paid non-profit CEOs in the nation and to the CEO of the largest for-profit healthcare system in the country. Turns out he is extremely well paid. We should all have his agent. …
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Selling Virginia Pot? Expect A Union Label
by Steve Haner When Virginians begin to buy marijuana from state-licensed providers, if Governor Ralph Northam has his way, along with his smiling visage on every baggie of grass you may also find a union label. I’m kidding about getting high with the governor’s image on the package but using the legalization bill to promote…
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May Day Brings Virginia’s Labor Revolution
by Steve Haner Four major changes in Virginia’s labor laws delayed at the beginning of the COVID-19 recession will all take effect May 1. All were approved by the 2020 General Assembly once Democrats controlled both legislative chambers and then delayed at the 2020 Veto Session. May Day 2021 is almost here. Minimum Wage. The…
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Relaxing Restrictions on Pharmacists
by James A. Bacon Under a bill signed by Governor Ralph Northam today, pharmacists will be able to provide a wider array of services to adults such as writing prescriptions for the flu, administering COVID vaccines, and prescribing controlled substances for HIV. A separate bill signed into law will expand the scope of practice for…
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Virginia to Teach Critical Race Theory to Newborns
by James C. Sherlock George Orwell, call your office. A copy of “Virginia’s (New) Birth-to-Five Early Learning and Development Standards” is on your desk. For our readers, go here and click the March 19 VDOE press release to download. The Commonwealth has published “Virginia’s Foundation Blocks for Early Learning” since at least 2013. They were…
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The Business and Politics of Senior Care in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock We write here often about senior care, the companies that provide it and the politics around that business. It is useful to understand the continuum of care to make sure we also understand the different financial situations which companies in different parts of that industry find themselves and the way they…
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The Real Nursing Home Scandal in Virginia
by James C. Sherlock Mike Martz has written three excellent columns that have appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch starting March 19. Headline of one: “Virginia tries to move ahead of national ‘reform agenda’ for nursing homes.” The gist of it was that a couple of national nursing home industry organizations have taken advantage of the…
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Flag Fight
by Deborah Hommer On March 3, 2021, the Fairfax County Planning Commission recommended against adopting proposed regulations governing the number, size and setbacks of flags and flagpoles. “This was a solution, looking for a problem,” said Planning Commission Vice Chairman John Ulfelder. “I suspect, based on a lot of comments we’ve received, a lot of…
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Congress to Kill Right To Work, Since GA Didn’t?
by Steve Haner First published this morning by the Thomas Jefferson Institute for Public Policy. One key goal for many of Virginia’s new progressive Democrats has been repeal of Virginia’s venerable Right To Work Law, and in 2020 they crossed one milestone by passing repeal in a key committee. But the Democratic leadership, perhaps wary of…
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More Unintended Consequences: Shutdowns, Alcohol, and Domestic Violence
by James A. Bacon As the number of COVID-19 vaccinations administered in Virginia passes the two million mark, new COVID-19 cases in Virginia are falling off rapidly. We can look forward to the day when fear of the virus will be a distant memory. But the damage wrought by the virus — or, to be…
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Mark Herring: Friend of the Poor, Scourge of Lenders
by James A. Bacon Attorney General Mark Herring is at it again — acting to protect the poor by government fiat without regard to unintended consequences. In a press release release today, Herring claims credit for backing a law backed by Del. Hala Ayala, D-Woodbridge, that will ensure that federal COVID-relief payments don’t “get swept…
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Northam Gets an Earful on Marijuana Legalization Bill
by D.J. Rippert Slow burn. The General Assembly passed marijuana legislation and sent it to the governor to sign. However, almost nobody seems satisfied with the bill as it is written. Now Governor Ralph Northam must decide whether to sign the bill, veto the bill, or ask for the bill to be amended. As he…