Category: Uncategorized
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How the WaPo’s Epic Fail on Schools Helped Elect Youngkin
by James A. Bacon The national news media are full of commentary today analyzing the implications of the Republican sweep of statewide offices in Virginia. Almost all focus on Glenn Youngkin’s deft exploitation of the culture wars playing out in the state’s public schools, especially in Northern Virginia. Youngkin does indeed deserve credit for harnessing…
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Virginia Voters Chose Hope Over Fear
by Kerry Dougherty Was it the months of ugly race-baiting? The profound, unrelenting negativity of the Terry McAuliffe campaign? The lies that fell so easily from the Democrat’s lips? Stacey Abrams? Randi Weingarten? Kamala Harris’ illegal church video? The out-of-state money flowing into Virginia campaigns? The tedious references to Trump? The ghoulish enthusiasm for abortion?…
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Shearing the Sheep
This is the fourth in a series of posts about Terry McAuliffe and GreenTech Automotive. by James A. Bacon and Carol J. Bova The Chinese citizens who lost $500,000 each from investing in GreenTech Automotive were not happy with their setback. While they had ponied up their money as part of a scheme to get…
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Youngkin Takes the Lead
by James C. Sherlock The Real Clear Politics poll average has Glenn Youngkin in the lead for the first time. Nice job, Glenn. Terry, thank you for being perhaps the worst retail politician Virginia has seen since Ken Cuccinelli.
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Friday News Roundup
by Kerry Dougherty There’s too much news today to limit ourselves to just one topic. Former Gov. Linwood Holton died yesterday at the age of 98. He was elected in 1969 and became the first Republican governor of Virginia since 1869. He ran against the racist Democrat Byrd Machine and is remembered as a leader…
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Kids Last
by Kerry Dougherty Let’s review: Thanks to Gov. Ralph Northam, Virginia was the first state to close schools through the end of the 2020 school year, leaving children and parents scrambling to figure out how “remote learning” would work. It didn’t. Instead of throwing open school doors in the fall, Northam set rules so onerous…
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Where Did $140 Million in GreenTech Money Go?
This is the first in a series of articles about Terry McAuliffe and GreenTech Automotive. by James A. Bacon and Carol J. Bova In September 2016, the Office of the State Auditor (OSA) of the state of Mississippi began undertaking a review of the contracts signed by the state’s economic development authority. The goal was…
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Sidney, We’ll Miss You
by James A. Bacon Sidney Gunst, who died last week, was best known as the pioneering developer of the Innsbrook office park in Henrico County — the biggest employment center in the Richmond metropolitan area outside of downtown Richmond. The Richmond Times Dispatch’s Greg Gilligan did a fine job on short notice of capturing Sidney’s…
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Finally, Virginia’s Political Class Starts Thinking about Grid Reliability
by James A. Bacon At last — a serious discussion has occurred about the reliability of Virginia’s electric grid as the state moves toward zero-carbon electricity generation by 2050 (and 2045 in the Dominion Energy service territory). Reliability was a prime topic of conversation at the third Virginia Clean Energy Summit Tuesday. A panel discussion…
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The Anti-Racist History of Vouchers in Virginia
by James A. Bacon The school choice movement — and vouchers in particular — are portrayed by proponents of public school monopolies as elitist and racist in origin. According to historian Nancy MacLean, the idea for vouchers came out of Virginia’s Massive Resistance to school integration as a way to transfer white children from integrated…
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The Alumni Rebellion Gains Momentum
First, Stuart Taylor and Ed Yingling (with Princetonians for Free Speech) got a column published Monday in the Wall Street Journal about the formation of the Alumni Free Speech Alliance. Fox News followed with a story yesterday (seen above). Since then, Inside Higher Ed, the leading higher-ed trade publication, has run a news story of its…
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This Is It! Act Now to Save the UVa Honor Code, or It Dies!
Letter from Bert Ellis, president of The Jefferson Council to All Friends of the University of Virginia. I am writing this letter as Bert Ellis, a passionate Double Hoo (College ‘75, Darden ‘79) and as a Founder and President of The Jefferson Council. Our University is under attack from multiple sources and at multiple levels.…