Tag: COVID-19
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Pass the Coppertone
by Kerry Dougherty Virginia Beach is back. Well, sort of. At his press conference yesterday Gov. Ralph Northam bent to pressure from irate local politicians, desperate resort businesses and an increasingly disgruntled public by announcing that city beaches could reopen in time for Memorial Day. “This is the tonic people need right now,” an ebullient…
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Reopening: Know and Avoid the Risks
By DJ Rippert The Bromage Broadcast. Erin Bromage is a professor of biology and a blogger. She will tell you that she’s not an expert epidemiologist but she recently wrote a blog entry that proves she is an eloquent writer when it comes to explaining the physics of Coronavirus to the layman. As Virginia reopens…
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Nursing Home Data Raises New Questions about COVID-19 Policy
by James A. Bacon The Virginia Hospital and Healthcare Association has just published a data dashboard focusing on Virginia nursing homes. And the picture it presents is very different from that of the state’s acute care hospitals. While acute care hospitals have solved their shortages of personal protective equipment, the nursing homes have not. According…
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Could the Low Testing Numbers Be Telling Us that COVID-19 Is Receding?
by James A. Bacon Just a couple of weeks ago — under surreal COVID time, who knows how long ago it really was — Governor Ralph Northam told Virginians that he wanted to see 10,000 or more tests per day before relaxing his Vulcan Death Grip on the state economy. With the exception of a…
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Pictures Don’t Lie. Or Do They?
by Kerry Dougherty Virginia Beach is dancing a weird waltz with the governor. Privately, city officials and local businessmen express fury over Ralph Northam’s capricious decision to ban sunbathing on the beaches. Publicly they’re groveling, as they beg him to reopen the sand before the tourist industry is a smoking ruin. No one will want…
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Tuition “Freezes” Really Aren’t Freezes in a Deflationary Economy
by James A. Bacon Wow, the James Madison University board of visitors voted Friday to keep tuition charges flat for in-state and out-of state students. The action follows decisions by the College of William & Mary, Virginia Commonwealth University and Christopher Newport University to freeze tuition and fees next academic year. “The action taken today…
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Flight from New York
“New York is a great place to live, but I wouldn’t want to ride out a deadly viral epidemic there.” That pretty much sums up the attitude of tens of thousands of Gothamites — mostly of the wealthier sort — who have fled the city during the onset of the COVID-19 tribulations. In March, the…
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A Sad Serenade
I met Alex in the Kroger parking lot this morning when I was making my weekly grocery-store run. It was a beautiful sunny day. Joggers, walkers and cyclists were out everywhere, and Alex was serenading passers by with his accordion. A home-made sign said he was out of work and needed money for rent. His…
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Northam’s Indefensible Philosophical Premise
by James A. Bacon Virginia tax revenue fell $700 million in April compared to the same month a year ago, a 26.2% drop. That decline, of course, reflects the nose dive in the economy that generates tax revenues. In response to this news, according to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Governor Ralph Northam made a telling comment…
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Woohoo! Most of Virginia Moving to Phase 1 Lockdown Relief!
by James A. Bacon At long last Governor Ralph Northam is relaxing, ever so slightly, his strangle grip on Virginia’s economy and personal liberties by allowing the state (well, most of it) to enter Phase 1 reopening. Most restrictions will remain in place. Entertainment and recreational businesses will remain closed. Restaurants still cannot provide indoor service.…
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Virginia’s Sloppy Prisoner Release Plan
by Kerry Dougherty Are you concerned that Virginia has opened its prisons and hustled inmates out over fears of COVID-19? Brace yourself. The news just got worse. Not only are criminals being rushed out of prison, they’re being released without re-entry preparations. The cell doors open and the convicts are suddenly on their own. What…
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Who Has Ralph Northam’s Ear?
by Kerry Dougherty Why appoint a task force if you’re going to ignore its recommendations? That’s what many Virginia business leaders wondered last week when they saw Gov. Ralph Northam’s arbitrary rules for reopening the commonwealth. On April 24, the governor merrily announced the formation of a “diverse” 24-member “Covid-19 Business Task Force” to advise…
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COVID-19 in Black and White
by James A. Bacon For many social justice activists — please note, I refrain from using the potentially inflammatory term social justice “warriors” — racial disparities in the United States are a fixation. They have made an issue of the fact that African-Americans are more likely than whites to contract the COVID-19 virus than whites,…
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Another Murderer Freed in Virginia
by Kerry Dougherty Let’s see, who’s next on the Virginia Parole Board’s Get-Out-of-Jail-Free conveyor belt? Oh look, it’s Irvian Cotton. Another murderer serving a life sentence. They’re getting out of prison so fast, I’ve lost count of how many violent criminals have been sent home in recent weeks. If you were in these parts back…