Category: Uncategorized
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What the School-Discipline Meltdown Looked like in Newport News
by James A. Bacon A special grand jury investigating a six-year-old’s shooting of a teacher at Richneck Elementary School in Newport News has released its report, and the findings are almost as horrifying as the shooting itself. The grand jury indicted Richneck’s assistant principal Ebony Parker on eight counts of child abuse. It is the…
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A Flood of Budget Amendments
by Dick Hall-Sizemore Well, Gov. Youngkin has not carried through on his veiled threat to veto the entire budget–yet. Instead, he has proposed more than 230 amendments that would get rid of the expansion of the sales tax to digital services that the General Assembly passed, along with an extra $1 billion in expenditures that…
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Prison Population Down, Crime Up in 2022. Coincidence?
The population of Virginia’s state and federal prisons posted a 10.5% decline between 2021 and 2022 — the largest drop of any state, according to new Department of Justice data. Oregon saw the second largest decline at 5.2%. Many states saw increases in their prison populations, as reported by WRIC news. The total prison population…
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Another City Hall Fiasco in RVA
by Jon Baliles City Hall suffered another self-inflicted artillery wound last week when within a span of four days they were sued for allegedly violating state Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) laws, pledged a stout defense against the claims, and then announced they would be changing the way City Hall handles FOIA requests. Translated, the…
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New Admissions Policy for Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology Will Stand
The U.S. Supreme Court today declined to hear the appeal of the Coalition for Thomas Jefferson challenging the decision of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the changes in the admissions policy for the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology. The result is that the changes in the school’s admission policy…
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Democrats Lose Concerns About Taxing the Poor
By Steve Haner A piece of Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin’s tax package has survived after all, but only the part that increases the sales tax base to collect about $1 billion or so more per year from citizens. Democrats who recently complained that sales tax increases were unfair to the poor are suddenly embracing them. …
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Moving the Goalposts (for Banning Books)
by Joe Fitzgerald Everybody probably already knew what moving the goalposts meant, but with Taylor bringing in a new set of football fans, the sports-related metaphors can probably be used more widely. Moving the goalposts is of course a reference to changing the standards in the middle of a process. Latest example: the Rockingham County…