Category: Uncategorized
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After Arctic Blast, Do We Still Want to Californicate Our Grid?
by Scott Dreyer An old saying goes, “You don’t miss the water till the well runs dry.” In modern days that might be, “You don’t miss the electricity till you lose the lights. And heat. And hot water. And wifi. And TV. And microwave. And phone charger. And electric blanket, and The Roanoke Star….” Around…
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Poverty and Performance in Virginia Schools
by John Butcher A recent study out of Stanford looked at 11 years of district-level National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data by race and economic disadvantage from all public school districts and concluded that racial segregation is strongly associated with the magnitude of achievement gaps in third grade and the rate at which gaps…
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When the Pursuit of “Equity” Cheats High Achievers
by Kerry Dougherty Imagine for a moment that you’re a top student in a highly competitive science and technology high school. In your junior year you take the PSATs and enter the prestigious National Merit Scholarship Program competing against the elite students in high schools from coast to coast. Imagine that in mid-October of your…
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Why Does Princeton Have All the Luck?
by James C. Sherlock Cavalier Daily, where are you? There is an article in The Daily Princetonian that is, end-to-end, utterly beyond satire. It’s title: “3 Princeton DEI staff members resign, alleging lack of support.” Where to begin? The “Prince” offers in a single posting Homeric tales of the peripatetic journeys of three school officials…
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Empty Pews in America
by Kerry Dougherty Of all the disheartening news this week, the piece that hit me hardest was this story in The Hill: “Churchgoing and Belief in God Stand at Historic Lows, Despite a Megachurch Surge.” The Hill cited studies that showed a dramatic drop in church attendance and – more alarmingly – a loss of…
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RVA 5×5 – Holiday Briefing
by Jon Baliles It’s Friday! Which means this newsletter would normally be filled with stories and analysis about what is happening in the RVA region (not all of it good), with an honest and insightful take (so far as that is possible). For instance, this week we could have stories about: A non-profit that presented…
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Democrats Allege Democratic Party Suppressed Democratic Voters in Democratic Primary
by James C. Sherlock It must be Republicans’ fault. Bill Atkinson of the Progress Index reported yesterday that Tavorise Marks, a candidate, Hopewell businessman and local civil-rights advocate, claimed to have witnessed voter suppression in Wednesday’s Democratic primary for the open House of Representatives seat in Virginia 04. That he, Marks, a Democrat, had seen…
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Reparations for the Violators
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Governor Youngkin has proposed reparations for people who violated legal orders. Included in his budget proposal is a directive to reimburse all fines, fees, and interest imposed on individuals “due to violations of COVID-19 related practices, guidelines, rules or operating procedures” and to waive all such fines imposed. The budget language earmarks…
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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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Bad Times at Richmond Jail
by Jon Baliles If anyone knows what the hell is going on at the Richmond City Jail, please raise your hand. Stand up. Write it down. Grab the mic. Something. Anything. In a bizarre series of stories in recent days, people are dying, guards are getting beaten, and strange and awful things are happening at…
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Tumblin’ Dice
by Jon Baliles The casino project proposal in Petersburg was unveiled this week and it is a big one. In poker terminology, it could be considered an “all-in” proposal. The Progress–Index reports that The Cordish Companies propose a $1.4 billion “‘city within a city’ of entertainment, retail, office and residential property. Its centerpiece would be…
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Crossing the County Line
by Joe Fitzgerald They’re the exaggeratists. Maybe the Exaggerati. They take the smallest thing and blow it up to a crisis. Their eye is not on the sparrow, but on its feathers. And heaven help the sparrow whose feathers don’t decently cover her. In the city this year the Exaggerati went door to door speaking…
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Dominion’s Wind Gamble Could Cost Customers
by William O’Keefe A study by the Kleiman Center for Energy Policy at the University of Pennsylvania concluded that reaching long-term offshore wind power targets presents serious challenges with “the most pressing being the need to build out the electric grid to reliably and economically deliver vast quantities of offshore wind power.” And that also…