Category: Uncategorized
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Blacks Don’t Always Think the Way White Cultural Elites Think They Do
by James A. Bacon Governor Glenn Youngkin’s popularity in Virginia was the top-line story from a new Virginia Commonwealth University poll. The survey, published yesterday, found that 49% of Virginians polled approve of his job as governor compared to 38% who disapprove. It’s not surprising to see his popularity holding up so well. Virginians tend…
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Patrick Michaels RIP
by Bill Tracy Nationally known climatologist Dr. Patrick Michaels has died, and there is certainly a huge Virginia connection. Michaels considered himself to be a “lukewarmer,” denoting a belief that there is indeed a man-made (CO2) component to climate change. But, he said “What I’m skeptical about is the glib notion that it means the end…
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VEA Wants Better Student Discipline – Dismisses Progressive “Reforms” as Unhelpful
by James C. Sherlock Sometimes unions work for members. They always back higher pay and benefits. I back that position of the Virginia Education Association (VEA). On the other hand, I have opposed some things the VEA has backed in Virginia public schools — the list starts with excessively long denial of in-school education during…
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Air Conditioning Is Not a Luxury
by Kerry Dougherty I don’t know why more people don’t visit cemeteries when they’re on vacation. You can learn a lot by strolling among the old graves. When my son went to school in Buffalo, New York I found my way to Forest Lawn Cemetery, a graveyard so beautiful that weddings are held there. President…
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Where Does Virginia Most Need Charter Schools?
by James C. Sherlock Discussing failing schools in Virginia, people tend to speak in generalities. When an example is needed, the City of Richmond Public Schools is chosen — an uncontested layup. But failed schools are not a problem just in Richmond. And bad public schools in Richmond are not limited to RPS. They are…
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K-12 Debacle Update: Richmond Teacher Shortage
by James A. Bacon The Richmond Public School System is facing a teacher shortage after 25% of the system’s teaching staff resigned at the end of the 2021-22 school year. RPS is trying to fill 176 positions before the school year starts in August, reports WRIC television. RPS has formed a teacher retention task force…
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Seven Years for Shooting a Guy Eight Times. Sounds Like a Pretty Good Deal.
by Dick Hall-Sizemore For all those folks on this blog who are concerned about “woke” prosecutors, leniency toward murderers, and enforcement of gun laws, here is a case to consider. A 17-year-old Black kid goes to a house to purchase four ounces of marijuana for $400. While meeting with the 19-year-old seller, the kid pulls…
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About Those 30 Police Shootings in Virginia Last Year…
by James A. Bacon Police shootings generate an inordinate amount of attention in the media, but the number of incidents is remarkably rare. Of the millions of interactions in 2021 between police and citizens here in Virginia, including 187,000 arrests, there were 30 police shootings resulting in injury or death, according to the Crime in…
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Richmond Cops Say a Mass Shooting Was Foiled By a Concerned Citizen
by Kerry Dougherty In the wake of the horrific mass shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, it’s clear that the massacre might have been avoided if the suspect’s parents had done their part to keep weapons out of the hands of their clearly deranged son. The suspect, Robert Crimo III, has reportedly confessed to the atrocities…
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What About That Price of Gas?!!
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There was much wailing — on this blog, in Virginia, and in the nation — as gas prices approached and then exceeded $5 per gallon recently. Governor Youngkin and President Biden used those price levels to call for suspension of gas taxes. And what was the reaction of the general populace to…
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Those Progressive Prosecutors: The Sky Hasn’t Fallen
by Dick Hall-Sizemore There has been much concern expressed on this blog that the policies of newly elected “progressive” prosecutors in the Commonwealth would lead to increases in crime in those jurisdictions and, perhaps, a dissolution of society. See here, here, here, and here. Based on data in the recently released Crime in Virginia 2021,…
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Virginia Headline in the Associated Press
by James C. Sherlock The Associated Press published an article by the always-reliable Sarah Rankin yesterday. It was headlined: Virginia law stops early inmate releases, angering families Let’s conduct a contest. Take a minute and guess to whose families the headline refers, victims or convicted criminals. Time’s up. It seems we have a unanimous set…